During the American Civil War there was intense and ferocious fighting in many battles that
resulted in the deaths of many. The war between the Union and the Confederacy saw it’s believed
between 625,000 to 750,000 soldiers dead and there were many other civilian casualties.
It was the deadliest conflict fought on American soil. But during this conflict there were
a number of prisoner of war camps established by the Confederacy and one of these was Camp
Sumter which was also know as Andersonville Prison. It was a site of pure horror, and
was where thousands of union prisoners were held, and nearly 13,000 of them would never
get out as they succumbed to the diseases of the camp, and also the fact they had inadequate
water and food supplies. Camp Sumter was described as hell, but what is the story of it? Join
us today as we look at the brutal torture of the American civil war’s most awful prisoner
of war camp, and remember as always to support our channel, please make sure to subscribe.
Camp Sumter opened in February 1864, and to begin with it covered around 16 acres of land
and was enclosed by a 15 foot high wooden palisade fence. But within a few months it
had almost doubled in size, and there were two entrances to the site. The amount of prisoners
held inside meant that each prisoner had roughly a space of around 5 feet by 6 feet. As time
went on and the camp expanded this meant that more prisoners were sent there. The conditions
there were truly terrible and many of the inmates suffered with health problems. The
confederacy began to struggle to obtain sufficient food for themselves let alone prisoners of
war, and those who were held inside of Camp Sumter received much less food than the guards.
The poor diets resulted in scurvy problems at the camp, and there was a high mortality
rate, and dysentry and typhoid fever also swept through the site. The living conditions
were also filthy due to poor sanitation, and the only source of drinking water was from
a creek that also doubled up as the camp’s toilet. It was filled at all times with human
waste from thousands of ill people. There were no new clothes given to prisoners also
and their clothing was often rags and clothes were taken from the dead. It was said by one
prisoner, ‘"Before one was fairly cold his clothes would be appropriated and divided,
and I have seen many sharp fights between contesting claimants.”
There was also a lack of wood despite the camp being surrounded by forests for inmates
to use for fires to keep warm or to cook. The food rations they received often were
not cooked because of a lack of utensils, and the prisoners were suffering heavily.
Around a third died within 7 months of the camp opening. One former inmate of the camp
said, ‘As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with
horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active
and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth
and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with
earnestness. "Can this be hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that he alone could bring
them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying
about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had
been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising
from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot,
and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings,
was more than we cared to think of just then.’
Another former prisoner stated, ‘The newcomers, on reaching this, would exclaim: "Is this
hell?" yet they soon would become callous, and enter unmoved the horrible rottenness.
The rebel authorities never removed any filth. There was seldom any visitation by the officers
in charge.’ The clothing of the men was miserable in the extreme. Very few had shoes
of any kind, not two thousand had coats and pants, and those were latecomers. More than
one-half were indecently exposed, and many were naked. The proportion of deaths from starvation,
not including those consequent on the diseases originating in the character and limited quantity
of food, such as diarrhea, dysentery, and scurvy, I cannot state; but, to the best of
my knowledge, information, and belief, there were scores every month. We could, at any
time, point out many for whom such a fate was inevitable, as they lay or feebly walked,
mere skeletons.’
There was a part of the camp which was also known as the dead line. This was marked by
a small fence, and was said to have been a non mans land, that kept prisoners away from
the wall. It was made from roughly cut logs and stakes were driven into the ground to
keep inmates away from there. Anyone who was found touching or enroaching on the dead line
was shot dead immediately by the guards and sentries who patrolled it. It’s likely that
some prisoners walked in there to end their suffering. At this time the concept of a prisoner
of war camp was new, and there were little laws relating to the treatment of prisoners
of war also. Survival inside Camp Sumter depended on the social network the person had, and
whether they could rely upon others to help them out. These networks did exist at the
camp, and prisoners would trade food and clothes with each other, and also offer protection
against other inmates. It was found that having a strong social network in the camp had a
higher chance that the inmate would survive, and to the prisoners it also offered them
a sense of companionship.
But others were not there to make friends. There was one group of inmates called the
Anderson Raiders who attacked and stole food clothes and money from other inmates. They
were armed with clubs and the killed to get their own way. One group was established to
try and prevent this, and they caught most of the Raiders, and they were subject to severe
punishment. They were forced to run the gauntlet where they were beaten by other inmates, or
were thrown in the stocks and six people were even hanged for their crimes. It was seen
as a disgrace that prisoners were doing this, and stealing from others leaving them often
to dead. But in July 1864, Captain Henry Wirz even freed five Union soldiers to deliver
a petition signed by the prisoners of the camp to reinstate prisoner exchanges to allow
some inmates to be released due to the overcrowding.
But during the American civil war, 45,000 prisoners were sent to Andersonville and around
13,000 of them died. Most of the deaths were caused by the confederate policies towards
union prisoners, and the fact that they did not care for the union prisoners. Many died
from disease and starvation because of this, but at the time there was a food shortage
across the confederate states. Also the prison guards and officials were rather poor, and
their running of the site was not good enough. Some inmates tried to plan escapes, and some
formed groups that planned to burrow out of the camp using a network of tunnels, which
they hoped would come out in the nearby forest. But as people became sicker and the conditions
got worse, escape was made very difficult due to the prisoners health. Around 100 a
day were dying, and some prisoners would even pretend to be dead so they would be carried
out to the row of dead bodies outside the wall. When night came they would get up and
run, and once the commandant Henry Wirz learned of this he said all bodies should be examined
by a doctor before they were removed.
The camp was liberated in May 1865, and the prisoners were described as being ‘human
skeletons amid hellish scenes of desolation.’ But Henry Wirz the commandant of Camp Sumter
was brought to a war crimes trial. He was forced to hear of the conditions at the camp,
and many said he was guilty of some acts of cruelty and killing with his bare hands. But
other witnesses said he was not even present at the camp much, or that he had tried to
make things better. He presented evidence that he tried to get more food, but this was
not good enough and because of this Henry Wirz was sentenced to death and was hanged.
Camp Sumter or Andersonville Prison was a horrific confederate prisoner of war camp
which saw around 13,000 people die within the fences. It was a site where there was
mass starvation and disease would spread quickly around. It was a true hell on earth, and was
a site where the guards did not care for the inmates.
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