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Andersonville Prison Essay

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Andersonville was a Confederate prison built in 1864 at Andersonville, Georgia. It was designed to hold Union prisoners of war during the Civil War. It was official named was Camp Sumter, however it’s better known as Andersonville. It was built from the ground up by local slave labor. At the time it was 10 ½ acres long and designed to hold about 10,000 men. The camp was enclosed out of 15 to 17 inch hewed pine logs. Along the walls were guard towers (referred to as pigeon roosts by the inmates) placed every 90 feet around the stockade walls. In February, 1864 the first union soldiers arrived in Andersonville/Camp Sumter. Within the first 5 months the entire population doubled. This lead to the increased in size of the camp to 26 ½ Acres. About …show more content…

The prisoners saw him as a tyrant, while the south saw him as a hero. He was arrested for conspiring with high Confederate officials to “impair and injure the health and destroy the lives of Federal prisoners” and “murder in violation of the laws of war” Due to the poor economic condition in the South, the government could not afford to provide adequate necessities for the prisoners. Partly a victim of circumstance. He was only given a small amount of resources to work with. During the trail it was discovered that he to tried to save the prisoners on two accounts. In requesting for the Union command to reestablish the prisoner exchange program, he sent 5 pardoned prisoners with a petition signed by all their fellow inmates, however, General Grant refused. On another occasion he load up a train with 25,000 prisoners and sent them to Union held Jacksonville, Florida. However the Union command refused to accept them as well. His trail wasn’t fair and some evidence against him was fabricated entirely, he was a scapegoat. He was declared guilty and sentenced to be executed on November 10, 1865 in Washington, D.C. The night before the execution he was told by officials if he would implicate Jefferson Davis his life would be spared. He refused and said, “It wouldn’t be true.” Such a conspiracy between the Confederacy and Andersonville was never found to exist. At the execution the officer in charge said to him, “You

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