Andersonville Prison

During the American civil war, numerous camps were established to hold prisoners of war from both sides. One of these and the most notorious was Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville prison. Andersonville, as with all the prisons in the civil war, were some of the first dedicated prisoner of war facilities in history. And in the case of Andersonville, it was one of the worst. Learn more about Andersonville prison and what made it so bad on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Before the US civil war, holding prisoners of war in camps was limited, ad hoc, and usually temporary. Because wars were smaller, armies were seasonal, and long term mass captivity was rarely necessary. In ancient and medieval warfare, captured soldiers were often killed, enslaved, ransom, or incorporated into the victor's forces rather than held in dedicated camps. Detention existed, but it usually meant confinement in cities, castles, or makeshift stockades rather than in purpose built prison systems. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the American Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, formal parole and exchange systems were the norm. Purpose built prison camps were rare. Prisoners were scattered amongst existing facilities or billeted in towns under supervision. The capture of opposing troops was a common occurrence during the American Civil War. From 1861 to 1863, a parole exchange system was used, which often led to prisoners of war returning to combat relatively quickly after being exchanged for prisoners from the other side. The Confederacy reversed its unofficial rule regarding prisoners of war in 1863, refusing to treat black and white prisoners equally. Their argument was that black soldiers were ex slaves who belong to their masters, and therefore the Confederacy saw no reason to return them to the Union Army. The Confederacy, suffering from a severe manpower shortage, needed prisoner exchanges far more than the Union did at this stage. Compounding this, a significantly larger proportion of Confederate soldiers compared to union soldiers were currently imprisoned. So the union generals decided to stop conducting wholesale prisoner exchanges, knowing that the prisoner gap gave the North a manpower advantage. This meant that the North and the South needed long term prison facilities in order to hold their prisoners of war. The most notorious of these prisons was Andersonville. Opened by the Confederates in 1864, it was officially named Camp Sumter due to its location in Sumter County, Georgia, And it was almost universally known as Andersonville Prison or simply Andersonville. Andersonville, located near Andersonville, Georgia, initially occupied 16 and a half acres. It was enclosed by a 15 foot or 4.6 meter high stockade. To cope with severe overcrowding, the prison was eventually expanded to 26 and a half acres in June 1864. The stockade surrounding the prison was built of tall logs placed vertically side by side. The tops of the logs were sharpened to serve as a deterrence. And inside the stockade wall was a deadline. The deadline was the line located 19 feet from the …