Andersonville - cemetery

I took the following panorama standing near the New York monument. It moves towards the left and curves around enough that you can see about half the cemetery. Gives you some appreciation of the size of the cemetery.

The next two pictures offer a small panorama near the Minnesota monument. Once again though it does give some idea of the size of the cemetery. None of these graves are visible from the earlier panorama, moving left to right.

And one final shot that shows graves we've seen in the two other panoramas but also does a good job of showing the sea of white headstones.

Andersonville - monuments in the cemetery

Part two in our look at the monuments of Andersonville.

This is the monument you first encounter when entering the cemetery. Its not a favorite of mine but I had to include it since I'll have every other monument represented.

New York





I didn't realize I was getting this sun burst at the time but like how it turned out.

Illinois. Here youngsters are being taught about the sacrifice that the men went through in the prison camp.

Maine

Pennsylvania

Inside the archway was this relief, which shows the men using cups on sticks to get at Providence Spring.

Minnesota

Indiana

I especially liked the inscription on the monument so I'm including it all.

Iowa

New Jersey

Connecticut

Andersonville - monuments in the park

Quite a few states erected monuments at Andersonville. Many did so in the prison camp and others did so in the cemetery. Since there are so many I will handle them in separate posts. Most of the state monuments in the camp are near the northwest corner of the stockade. This was the area that many of the escape tunnels were dug in. There are also many other monuments in this vicinity.

Vermont's is actually on the walls outside of the visitor's center as you make your way to the camp.
This monument is for Clara Barton, who was part of the efforts after the war to ensure proper burial for all the dead and also that as many as possible were identified. Luckily the prisoner tasked to keep the records had kept a second secret copy for himself that he turned over to the party Barton was a part of. So we probably owe more to Dorence Atwater on this score but Barton receives much of the press, plus founding the Red Cross likely contributes to why she has a monument here.


A second woman memorialized at the park is Lizabeth Turner. She was president of the Women's Relief Corps, an auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic. She also served as life chairman on the Andersonville Prison board and died here.

The Women's Relief Corps erected this monument for the states that did not erect their own monument at Andersonville. Since then Vermont has erected the plaque shown earlier in the post.

This simple monument has the text of Logan's Memorial Day order on the right and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on the left.

And this sundial is in recognition of the work done by the Women's Relief Corps in creating Andersonville as a park. It was the work of the Women's Relief Corps that got this park started, until it eventually became a national park.

Ohio

Tennessee

Michigan

Wisconsin

Rhode Island

Massachusetts

Andersonville - the park

Andersonville is a sad episode in our history. The Confederate supply system had a hard time feeding all of its soldiers in the field much less the various prison camps. In the North and South the conditions in the prison camps were truly horrific. Andersonville though is the one we hear the most about.


It is a beautiful place to visit, a place more for reflection than study. Considering the horrors this place saw it seems odd that it is so peaceful now. The visitor's center does not just tell the story of Andersonville or prison camps in the Civil War, it is used to tell the whole story of prisoners of war up to the modern day.





But why I went there was to see the prison camp and cemetery.


This is the reconstruction of the north gate, looking into the compound.

Inside the gate.

Here you can see the posts for the deadline and the stockade. The park has placed two rows of posts all around the camp where the stockade wall and deadline were. The markers are now about 75-100 feet apart.

Here is a view from the other side of the camp from the gates showing as much of the ground as I could get in a shot. The camp extended to nearly the tree line, but not quite.

In one corner of the camp they have reconstructed the stockade walls and the deadline with some shelters that would have been used by the Union prisoners.

On August 9, 1864 a heavy rainstorm revealed a spring within the compound, providing fresh water as the small stream running through the camp had long been polluted by men who used it to wash and as a toilet. The men named it Providence Spring as they thought God had provided them with the spring. In 1901 this monument/building was built to commemorate the event. The spring still flows today.

There were several forts around the camp to keep the prisoners at bay and also to ward off a feared cavalry attack. The site provides a good spot for a panorama of the camp. In the first picture some monuments can be seen above the north gate. These are located in one corner of the camp. On the right side of the first picture you can see some white splotches, that is the reconstructed camp and is the other corner of the camp.

The closer corners are hard to make out but they nearly come up to the park road. If you open up these pictures you can see the white posts but they are hard to see otherwise.