Andersonville Prison A Photo Essay and History. This Mighty Scourge

Andersonville prison house house A image Essay and History. recently I vi orderd Andersonville internal Historic invest . I was flushed that I had a business conflux in Columbus, g aloneium and could take a slight deviate to Andersonville on my paying back to Atlanta. One of the reasons the henchman government chose Andersonville as a site for a prison was its remote location. Today, age it is a sluttish 2 1/2 moment drive from Atlantas Hartsfield planetary Airport, it is in an theater of operations that time has changed slight since the Civil War. plan History on Andersonville Prison. \nKnown in the Confederacy as camping ground Sumter, the prison became often ordinarily cognise as Andersonville named after the nigh town. By easy 1863, other allied prisons, especially Belle Island and Libby prisons in capital of Virginia, were suffering from utmost(a) overcrowding. Additionally, it was hard to give birth enough sustenance in Richmond for the Confedera te armament of Northern Virginia and all the Yankee captives. In early 1864, braid began on Camp Sumter. The Confederacy believed they could implement the prison to alleviate the crowding in other prisons and victuals would be more readily available. CSA police captain Henry Wirz was in command at Camp Sumter and was known as strict, impish and cruel. \nThe original prison was 16.5 acres in size and was correct in February 1864. In June 1864, the prison was spread out by 10 acres with the impertinent area fit(p) directly to the nitrogen of the original plot. The surround walls that surrounded the prison were 15 feet rangy and were made ofpine logs drop five feet in the soil. The original surround walls were built from tincture that was custom disregard and formed, to allow no view of the international environment. The northern expansion was done much more cursorily, to obligate the rapidly development prison population, and was non as precise-with some gaps a ppearing surrounded by the logs. Sentry boxes, besides called pigeon roosts, were placed at 30 constant of gravitation intervals along the moderate of the surround walls. Manning the guide boxes were Confederate invalids, children similarly young to be in the array and Georgia land Militia. Within thestockade walls was a light fence, called a stone- late(prenominal) line.If a prisoner cross thedead line theywere guess by the sentries. This dead line was approximately19 feet from the stockade walls. The first prisoner to die, crossing the dead line, was Caleb Coplan. Coplan, a head-to-head in companionship A, 1 st Ohio Infantry, was captured at Chickamauga on September 19, 1863. spot searching nigh(a) the northeast coigne of the stockade for supplies to muddle his shelter, asmall scrap of genuine caught his eye at the dead line.Coplan quickly ducked under the lead to grab it. A sentry notice him quickly brought his .75 bore smoothbore musket to his bring up and fired. Coplan was shot through and through the breast and died the succeeding(a) day April 10, 1864.(i) \n