Some Civil War History

Once again I started my day at a closed Museum. Don't people in the south know that when the sign on the door says you open at 10am someone needs to be there to open the door at 10am. So I drove an hour down the road to the site of the Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp. Although the picture looks like an empty Field, on this site was the largest Civil War Prisoner of War Camp. Andersonville was only operated for about 15 months, but during that time it held 45,000 prisoners. Due to the overcrowding and the lack of sanitation and food, during those 15 months 12,920 prisoners died. Those that did survive were not in very good shape. One of the survivors, Sgt. David Kennedy of the 9th Ohio Cavalry wrote that "... it takes 7 of it's ocupiants to make a shadow". (his spelling not mine)

Andersonville National Cemetery

Of course with a 29% mortality rate, they needed a cemetery next to the prison. This cemetery is not only the resting place of the nearly 13,000 prisoners from Andersonville. There are also over 800 other civil war veterans interred here.

CSS Ram Jackson

After Andersonville I drove to Columbus, GA. To the Civil War Maritime Museum. The centerpiece of this Museum is the recovered Hull of the CSS Ironclad Ram Jackson. Confederate soldiers scuttled this 223’ Ironclad ship in 1865 to keep the Union from getting a hold of it. The remains of the ship were discovered and recovered in 1963 and are now on display in the museum.

Some Civil War History

Loudon, United States