Andersonville Prison
            
             Andersonville prison opened on Feb.
             24, 1864. It was the ideal prison.
             It's located in Sumpter County,
             Georgia. The prison was originally
             called Camp Sumpter. At first it was
             16.5 acres then expanded to 26
             acres. It was 1010' long and 780'
             wide, constructed of pine logs with
             thickness of a foot. A small creek
             ran through the middle, it was the
             only source of water.
            
             The prison caused many things like:
             misery, suffering, and death. It was
             only open for 14 months; from Feb.
             1864 till May 1865. During that
             time,13,700 died in confinement.
             They died of various reasons like:
             tainted food, starvation, dirty
             water, filth, and diseases such as
             scurvy, gangrene.
            
             The prison was designed to hold only
             10,000 union soldiers. In June,
             1864, it held 20,000 men and in Aug.
             '64 it held a whopping 33,000! A
             total of 49,485 men were detained.
            
             In 1822 Henry Wirz was born. He
             earned a medical degree. He was a
             captain. He worked at other prisons
             before taking command of
             Andersonville in April, 1865. He
             became a major at the end of the
             war. He was took into custody by the
             Union in Nov. . On Nov. 10 1865 he
             was hanged in the Old Prison in
             Wash. DC for various war crimes,
             such as: murders of Union soldiers.
            
             It is now a national cemetery and it
             became a national historic site in
             1970....