AN'DERSONVILLE. A village in Sumter Co., Ga., 62 miles south of Macon, notable as the site of a Confederate military prison during the Civil War. When established in November, 1863, the prison was an unsheltered inclosure occupying about twenty-two acres, and crossed by a small stream about five feet wide and one foot deep. Subsequently the area was increased to about twenty-seven acres, though a part of this was rendered unavailable by the establishment of a "dead line." the crossing of which by a pris oner meant immediate death. Into this area some times as many as 33,000 Federal soldiers were crowded. forced for the most part to live without shelter, fully exposed to the heat of summer, the frosts of winter, and the frequent storms, while they suffered terribly from the effects of insuffi cient and improper food. Amid surroundings of indescribable filth, they died by thousands, of diarrhea, scurvy, dysentery, and fevers. The first prisoners arrived on February 15, 1S64, and the last in April, 1865, the total amounting to 49,4S5, of whom more than 12,S00 or 26 per cent, (lied in confinement. In the autumn of 1S64 many of the prisoners were removed to Millen, Ga., and Florence, S. C.. where the conditions were much less severe. A Confederate medical commission, composed of Dr. G. S. Hopkins and Surgeon II. E. Watkins, reported in 1864 that the abnormal death rate was due (1) to "the large number of prisoners crowded together," (2) to "the entire absence of all vegetables as diet, so necessary as a preventive to scurvy," (3) to "the want of barracks to shelter the prisoners from sun and rain," (4) to "the inadequate sup ply of wood and good water," (5) to "badly cooked food," (6) to "the filthy condition of the prisoners and prison generally," and (7) to "the morbific emanations from the branch, or ravine passing through the prison, the condition of which cannot be better explained than by naming it a morass of human excrement and mud." The post was in command of General
W. S. Winder, while Henry Wirz, a Swiss, was the prison superintendent. The latter was con victed by a special military court, in session from August to October, 1865, of "maliciously, wil fully, and traitorously conspiring to injure the health and destroy the lives" of Union soldiers at Andersonville, and of `'murder in violation of the laws of war," and on November 10 was hanged. Subsequently, the tract of land where the bodies had been hastily buried was turned into a national cemetery. Of the graves, 12.780 have been identified and marked with tablets, while 925 remain unknown. Consult: Chip man, 7'he Horrors of Andcrsonville Rebel Prison (San Francisco, 1801) ; Spencer, A Narratire of Andersonrille (New York, 1866) ; and Steven son, The Southern Side, or Anderson ville Prison (Baltimore, 1876).