Andersonville Prison Painting Analysis

Soldiers in the Army of the Potomac would live and sleep in camps. In the camps they would build small two man tents, they are easily pitched, and log huts that could fit several men. They would use blankets to keep warm at night. Canteens were for them to drink fresh water. Haversacks were what they used to keep their belongings in. They had inadequate food and shelter,

When they were taken to Rohwer, one of two the two relocation camps in Arkansas, they had to adjust to the residential blocks. These blocks consisted of 12 barracks, a recreation building, a mess hall, bathroom, and a laundry building (“Rohwer”, “Rohwer Relocation Center”). Their living quarters were very crowded, so diseases spread easily and quickly through the camp. Several people even died from these illnesses (“Rohwer”). Several people

The command area surrounded the prisoner camp. Nine guard towers, ditches, tall concrete walls, and electrified barbed wire encircled the whole camp. A maintenance building and living quarters for 200 SS trainees and 200 camp guards were positioned near to the camps

Historian Watson interviewed a survivor of the Walnut Street Jail some years after the War's end. The veteran, Jacob Ritter, recalled that prisoners were fed nothing for days on end and were regularly targets of beatings by the British guards. The prison was freezing as broken window panes allowed snow and cold to be the only blankets available to the captives. Ice, lice, and mice shared the cells. Desperate prisoners dined on grass roots, scraps of leather, and "pieces of a rotten pump." Rats were a delicacy. Upward of a dozen prisoners died daily. They were hauled across the street and slung in unmarked trenches like carcasses from an abattoir.

The first shipment of prisoners to reach Andersonville came from Libby Prison in Virginia on February 24, 1864 (Hackmann 1). From that day on, 400 men showed up each day. At the end of June, 26,000 men were held captive, and by August, the total had risen to 33,000, making that the largest population of men held at one time. Originally meant to detain only 10,000 men, a solution needed to be found. (2 “Andersonville” 1) The Confederates made the decision to expand the stockade to twenty-six acres, but that did not help the declining conditions (Hackmann 1). Henry Devillez remembers arriving on June 18, 1864, and states, “. . . we [Naviaux, Devillez, and both Rogier brothers] beheld misery on all sides. Sickness and death by hundreds was the program every day.” Over time the creek banks gave way and resulted in the whole compound becoming a swamp infested with maggots and lice. The pests would

Although the prison was enlarged, the number of prisoners continued to swell. By August 1864, more than 32,000 prisoners were confined at Andersonville. Also, the lack of shelter from the searing heat and the bitter cold. Historical documents, however, attest to the fact that prison officials attempted to acquire supplies for the prisoners but were severely hampered by the need to use supplies for the military and war effort.

The quality of life on the Relief camps were horrible .Majority of the men working on these camps were broke and tired farm boys. These men were treated like salves. They would receive 20 cents a day for manual labor. A few of their tasks would include: widening a trail, putting in a culvert, or cutting and stacking wood. These jobs were very physically demanding and stressful on the body. The camps were run by the Department of National Defence, so the workers were under “army law”. So, the people in charge could say or do whatever they wanted. An 18 year-old who experienced a relief camp said “{We} were treated like dirt”. The only semi-positive thing about these relief camps were that they kept the workers well

In the painting “Jamestown Lifescape,” Keith Rocco uses vivid details to establish the theme that cooperation is essential to the survival of a successful community. For example, oxen are transporting building materials, such as bricks and roof tiles, to the work sites where the townspeople are building new houses and other structures. The townspeople are willing to share their time and resources to expand and better their community. They can trade their goods for what they both need. For example, the townspeople are trading goods for money to buy extra building supplies. The townsfolk can gather other supplies or more animals to assist and transport the supplies to expand their community faster. They can work together to create a larger

Conditions inside the prison were no better. For starters, many of the prisoners were those who had committed menial crimes. Worse so, many were war heroes, back from Vietnam who couldn’t find a job and thus had to go about other illegal means to stay alive, and thus were thrown in prison. Attica prison in particular was famous at the time among prisoners for having the most horrific treatment of their inmates. Guards did whatever they could both legally and illegally to keep their prisoners in perpetual fear and discomfort. The prisoners were not just treated like children, but as animals. The one thing prisoners treasure the most is their contact with the outside world. It keeps them sane and allows them to remain in some type of contact both with their families as well as with what is going on outside the prison walls. But, guards did whatever

In the most suitable cases, the soldiers had cabins, which were crude, small, and very unsturdy. In most instances, however, they got tents made out of canvas, which frequently ripped and did not help keep out cold in the dead winter. Because of this, many men got illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and dysentery. In fact, so many got sick that the hospitals were overflowing, even though each section had a hospital for itself. Some soldiers’ wives agreed to be nurses to help, but there were not enough medical supplies, so many died. Out of 12,000 men, 3,000 died and 2,000 left because they were sick.

One of the most famous concentration camps, Auschwitz, had some of the poorest living conditions. In Auschwitz, the prisoners lived crammed tightly in small, brick barracks. Since the prisoners simply couldn’t all fit inside these barracks, they were also forced into basements and lofts, along with hundreds of others. The tight living quarters were a main factor in the spreading of diseases and epidemics. In another concentration camp named “Birkenau”, the barracks had two styles which included both brick and wood. The brick barracks were hastily built, and were very dangerous and unsafe. Even though these brick barracks weren’t fit to hold people inside them, more than 700 prisoners were assigned to each barrack. The barracks did not have any way to heat or cool the rooms, and also lacked any sanitary facilities. The second style of barrack at the Birkenau concentration camp was another wooden barrack, except these were made to fit approximately fifty-two horses, not hundreds of prisoners. These barracks had many rodents and vermin, and had no way to prevent the damp roofs from leaking on the prisoners. Also, the foul smell and prisoner’s diarrhea made the already difficult living conditions much

Each hut was 16’ by 14’ and a door on one end. It may seem like a lot of room for one but you had to share with 12 other people. Even though there was a fire inside the ventilation between the logs was not the best, so the air was really sick and made it hard to breathe. With the conditions of weather getting colder outside they would have to keep the fire and in the diary of Dr. Albigence Waldo he states himself that, “Hartley wish myself at home, my Skin and eyes are almost spoil’d with continual smoke. A general thro’ the Camp this Evening among the Soldiers.” (Document C). Between the cold and have to share a space so small and compact wouldn’t be something I would enjoy.

The island had over one hundred buildings on it. Everything within the prison walls was called the Bull Pen. In the center were two rolls of six buildings with one building on the end. Twelve of these were the barracks. They were two stories high with the first floor divided into multiple rooms and two kitchens. Later the kitchens and mess rooms were removed to another building. Men would be assigned two to a bunk and bunks would be three tiered. These buildings were not sealed but weather-boarded. It did not give much protection against cold or snow. Due to poor ventilation, the men would cut small holes in the walls, normally by their heads, to get some air.One stove was provided to heat the room but was inadequate. Very little wood was given to the prisoners a day. Many times the stove would not be burned during the night due to not enough wood. Every available chair or box and even parts of the bunks were burn. Prisoners would even form a circle around the stove and

The camp was built by slave labor on 16 acres, later expanded to 26 acres, and was formally called “Camp Sumter” by the Confederacy. Andersonville was designed to imprison up to 10,000 “overflow” prisoners from elsewhere, but its inmate population climbed to 3 times that amount leave to about 33,000 prisoners by the end of the summer of 1864. Furthermore, its physical design was fatally flawed to begin with. In addition to the absence of any system for waste disposal within the camp, a creek flowing through the camp delivered upstream waste from the military camp where Andersonville guards were stationed. By the end of the war, 13,000 Andersonville prisoners (30 percent of the camp’s population) had died from a variety of diseases such as

Once Auschwitz was fully completed it held twenty eight, two-story blocks. Each block was made to house 700 prisoners, but when put to use, each block held around 1,200 prisoners. When the camp was first put to use, the rooms had no furniture; this meant that prisoners had to sleep on straw-stuffed mattresses. Eventually the rooms were stocked with wooden bunks, tables, stools, wardrobes, and a