Monday, March 11, 2013

Andersonville

        Andersonville was a Confederate prison that held many captured Union soldiers during the Civil War. It was designed to hold 10,000 people but due to all of the captured soldiers, held 30,000. A captured soldier would be better off dead than held in Andersonville. The conditions inside of the prison were so terrible that by the end of the war, 13,000 out of 45,000 prisoners had died. This was the highest mortality rate of any civil war prison. They died of malnutrition, starvation, diarrhea, and other harmful diseases. In August of 1864 prisoners were shipped to other camps because Sherman and his troops were getting close to the prison. A prisoner held in Andersonville was very unlikely to escape. 

        One reason for the awful conditions was because of the warden, Henry Wirz. Wirz was hated by the guards of Andersonville and usually would not do what he says. By disobeying orders, the guards would not give the prisoners basic needs. Most of the time they could not give them basic needs anyways. After the Civil War, Henry Wirz was charged for war crimes and sentenced to death. This prison highly resembled what the concentration camps were like in the 2nd World War. 
 

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