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| Andersonville National Historic Site |
One of the most notorious prisoner of war camps in history
was Camp Sumter, which was located in Andersonville, Ga. during the Civil War.
Most folks are familiar with this infamous location because of the 1996 movie,
“Andersonville,” which dramatized the horrific conditions suffered by the Union
prisoners who were held there during the closing days of the war. Others in the
audience may have read MacKinlay Kantor’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,
“Andersonville, which was published in 1955 and kept the prison’s memory alive
and in the public eye.
The “Andersonville” movie originally aired on TNT, and my
young son watched some of it a while back. We got to talking about it, and I
told him that Andersonville really isn’t that far from where we live. We even
pulled out the road atlas and found it on the Georgia highway map.
When he was out for spring break, we got up early one
morning and took a little road trip to Andersonville, which is now the home of
the Andersonville National Historic Site. From the Evergreen area, it’s only
about 220 miles, and if you take your time, you can get there in about four
hours.
Over the years, I’ve been to a number of Civil War parks and
museums, and I was actually pleasantly surprised by the amount of things to see
and do at the Andersonville National Historic Site. Not only is it the home of
National Prisoner of War Museum, but you’ll also find partial replicas of the
old prison walls, earthworks and old cannons, and a large National Cemetery.
For anyone who has seen the “Andersonville” movie or read the book, actually
visiting the location will give you a whole new perspective on the events that
unfolded there during the Civil War.
The park offers visitors a free driving tour in which you
pop a compact disc into your CD player and drive a specified route around the
park while listening to a pre-recorded description of numbered sites along the
route. You’re encouraged to get out of your vehicle at each site for a closer
look around, and this tour provided details that added a lot to the experience
of actually standing where it all took place. The park is also well-maintained,
but you are encouraged to keep your eyes open for poisonous snakes.
The driving tour also takes you through the National
Cemetery and describes the monuments and many notable graves contained within
its boundaries. This cemetery contains nearly 14,000 graves, including 921 that
are marked “unknown.” I have to admit that I was initially somewhat shocked by
the rows of tightly-packed tombstones there, a testament to all who died during
the camp’s 14 months of operation.
On our way home, we also took the time to visit the town of
Andersonville, which lies a short distance outside the gates of the National
Historic Site. Andersonville is a small town, about the size of Repton or
Castleberry, and Civil War tourism is the lifeblood of this small Georgia town.
One oddity that you’ll find in downtown Andersonville is a large stone monument
to Capt. Heinrich Wirz, who served as commander of the prison for most of the
time it was in operation. After the war, he was convicted of murder and hanged
in November 1865.
In the end, if you have an interest in Civil War history, I
highly recommend that you visit Andersonville. It’s really not that far away,
and actually seeing it in person will bring it to life for you in a way that’s
hard to get from a movie or book.
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