Andersonville Prison Camp

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           by Sherry Shindelar   

Andersonville Prison as Sketched by Former Prisoner John Ransom

                                                                                                                                                             Andersonville Prison was the worst of the Civil War prisons. During the fourteen months that it was in operation, forty-five thousand prisoners passed through its gates to live within its twenty-six acres of hell. At the time, it was the fourth largest city in the Confederacy in regards to population, but each prisoner only had about four yards to live on.

Men entered its gates with hopes that the prisoner exchanges would soon start up again, and that their time of depravation would be short, but those hopes faded as the weeks and months wore on.

There weren’t any formal barracks. Instead, the men had to dig shallow holes in the ground and cover the openings with canvas or anything they could in order to keep the rain, sun, and cold out. They called these less than luxurious accommodations shabangs.

The prison officials usually gave the prisoners a daily ration of cornmeal (supposedly around a pound or a little more a day), but it was often raw and uncooked, made from green corn that wreaked havoc on the prisoners’ digestive systems. In addition, occasionally, the prisoners received small allotments of fatty pork belly that was often rancid. Out of desperation, some soldiers even stooped to supplementing their rations by catching and eating rats.

Andersonville Prison Hospital

In order to survive, the men traded anything they could for food. The more possessions that they’d been able to keep on their person during their capture and transportation to the prison, the better. They traded their watches, rings, paper, hats, boots, coats, blankets, even their trousers for sustenance. Sometimes they were able to make deals with the guards for small green potatoes or peppers grown in the surrounding area.

Stockade Branch of the Sweetwater Creek was the only source of water for all the thousands of men. Unfortunately, not only was it downstream from the guards’ camp, it functioned as the only source for drinking water, despite the fact that it was used for bathing and a latrine. That is until August 1864 when during a terrible thunderstorm lightning struck the ground, and a new, unknown spring erupted, gushing forth fresh water. The men named it Providence Spring because many believed it was a miracle from God in answer to their prayers.

The spring gave the men hope, a much needed ingredient in the battle for survival, almost as essential as water.

Sketch of Andersonville by Former Prisoner Thomas O'Dea

Some of the various ways that the men coped with their desperate situation and the endless days of imprisonment included:

-Sleeping

-Staying away from the raiders (well-organized thugs who thought nothing of killing to get what they wanted and who ruled for months)

-Joining the regulators (an unofficial internal police force organized by some of the prisoners to deal with the regulators)

-Praying

-Holding and attending church services

-Bartering with trinkets

-Singing or making music

-Writing diaries, journals, letters

-Working (For example, a prisoner could set up a barbershop if he could get ahold of a pair of scissors, or a laundry, if he could fashion a washboard, etc. Finding a skill that they could use for bartering could make the difference between life and death.)

-Collecting and using rain water

-Volunteering for wood detail (It offered a few hours of reprieve from the prison.)

-Working to keep themselves clean as they could

--Opening a business on “Market Street” (selling handcrafted items, rats, and whatever else they could get their hands on)

-Exercising

-Playing games (such as racing gray-backs, lice)

-Digging tunnels

-Throwing rocks at birds to kill them and eat them

-Making alliances and close friends who’d defend and watched out for each other

Friendship, hope, faith, determination, and perseverance played vital rolls in helping men survive, but disease took its toll even amongst the best of men. Thirteen thousand men died at Andersonville, almost a third of the prisoners, but thirty-two thousand survived and lived to walk out of the gates into freedom and a new beginning. However, they would never be the same.

The lightning strike creating Providence Spring was a symbol of hope to many of the men beyond their years at the prison. Maybe that same hope of the Lord answering their prayers carried some of them through the challenges of returning to the lives they knew before the war.

Providence Spring Memroial Photo by BakedintheHole - Own work,  Wikipedia

In 1901, the Women’s Relief Corps arranged to have a granite springhouse built over the spring as a memorial.

In my book Texas Reclaimed, the hero works to overcome the impact of the trauma from his year at Andersonville.

Sherry Shindelar Author

Originally from Tennessee, Sherry loves to take her readers into the past. A romantic at heart, she is an avid student of the Civil War and the Old West. Sherry is a multi-award-winning writer. She currently resides in Minnesota with her husband of forty-one years.
Connect with Sherry: website, newsletter, Amazon, FB, Goodreads

Texas Reclaimed

Can love blossom between a woman haunted by her family’s past and a man with a war-scarred heart?

Cora Scott is determined to hold onto her family's Texas ranch and provide a stable home for her young half brother, Charlie, despite the mounting challenges of post-Civil War frontier life. But when a scheming creditor threatens to seize their land, she must accept help from Ben McKenzie, a former Yankee soldier sent by her late brother. Though Ben's generosity and strength draw her, the man's private struggle she stumbles upon—too reminiscent of her father's alcoholism—makes her question whether she can trust her heart to him.

Ben McKenzie arrives in Texas intent on fulfilling his promise to his dying friend to protect Cora and Charlie. While using his inheritance to save their ranch, he battles not only the loss of their cattle but also his dependency on laudanum—a medicine that turned into a curse after his imprisonment at Andersonville. As his feelings for Cora deepen, he must choose between his promise to his father to take over their Philadelphia newspaper and his growing dream of a life with Cora in Texas.