- Collection:
- New Georgia Encyclopedia
- Title:
- Andersonville Prison
- Creator:
- Davis, Robert Scott, Jr.
- Date of Original:
- 2003-01-22
- Subject:
- Andersonville Prison
Prisons--Georgia--Andersonville
Confederate States of America. Army Prisons
Prisoners of war--Georgia--Andersonville
Military prisons--Georgia--Andersonville
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Prisoners and prisons - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Sumter County, Andersonville, 32.19599, -84.13991
- Medium:
- articles
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- text/html
- Description:
- Encyclopedia article about Andersonville Prison. In February 1864, during the Civil War (1861-65), a Confederate prison was established in Macon County, in southwest Georgia, to provide relief for the large number of Union prisoners concentrated in and around Richmond, Virginia. The new camp, officially named Camp Sumter, quickly became known as Andersonville, after the railroad station in neighboring Sumter County beside which the camp was located. By the summer of 1864, the camp held the largest prison population of its time, with numbers that would have made it the fifth-largest city in the Confederacy. By the time it closed in early May 1865, those numbers, along with the sanitation, health, and mortality problems stemming from its overcrowding, had earned Andersonville a reputation as the most notorious of Confederate atrocities inflicted on Union troops.
GSE identifier: SS8H5 - Metadata URL:
- https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/andersonville-prison/
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- If you wish to use content from the NGE site for commercial use, publication, or any purpose other than fair use as defined by law, you must request and receive written permission from the NGE. Such requests may be directed to: Permissions/NGE, University of Georgia Press, 330 Research Drive, Athens, GA 30602.
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: "Andersonville Prison," New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved [date]: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
- Original Collection:
- Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.
- Holding Institution:
- New Georgia Encyclopedia (Project)
- Rights:
-
