ipl-logo

Hellhole Of Andersonville

1011 Words5 Pages

The Hellhole of Andersonville Andersonville, or Camp Sumter, stands out as the worst of the prisoner-of-war camps on either side in the American Civil War. The pressures on the South during the American Civil War created an environment in Andersonville that resulted in a large number of deaths. Prisoners were decimated by disease, dehydration, starvation, overpopulation, and execution during the fourteen months of Andersonville’s existence. It was one of the largest camps during the Civil War holding 45,000 or more prisoners. Built in 1864, Confederate officials decided to transfer federal prisoners to Richmond (Andersonville). The first prisoners arrived on February 25, 1864. Approximately four hundred people arrived each day (Council …show more content…

Some look at Captain Henri as a scapegoat from a failed Confederacy, while others see him as a murderer to inmates in Andersonville (Andersonville). Captain Henri’s cruelty was quickly visible. Captain Henri made sure the food handed out to the prisoners was decreased each day. Wirz had a reputation for his cruelty to prisoners and was also known as a murderer. One soldier testified that Wirz ordered a prisoner into the stocks during a rainstorm. The soldier observed the prisoner who was drowning and placed an umbrella over him and questioned Wirz, who replied, “Let the damned Yankee drown” (National Park Service Omnipresent and Omniscient). These actions toward the prisoners doomed Wirz ultimately. Captain Henri was arrested in May 7, 1865 at the prison. (Military Prison Career of Captain Henri Wirz). He was charged with conspiracy to kill or injure prisoners in violation of the laws of war and multiple counts of murder. Nearly 150 former prisoners, guards, Confederate officials, civilians, and medical staff testified against Wirz (Military Prison Career of Captain Henri Wirz). In Washington D.C. in 1865, before Captain Wirz hanging he told the officer in charge “I know what orders are Major. I’m being hanged for obeying them.” Though he was indifferent toward inmates, he was indeed a scapegoat and some evidence against him was …show more content…

These deaths occurred because of diseases and afflictions resulting from the crowded conditions, lack of adequate shelter, poor water supply, and nutritional needs not being met. Deaths also resulted from violence within Andersonville. This violence came in the form of gunshots from guards killing prisoners crossing the deadline and from violent encounters within the prison community itself, including six executions carried out against individuals convicted by the prisoners themselves. The hell that was Andersonville finally ended with the South’s surrender April

Show More
Related

Summary Of Rebels At Rock Island By Benton Mcadams

1286 Words | 6 Pages

This goes to show that there was hunger on both sides of the war, not only in the prisons. According to Exploring American Histories, Value Edition, union soldiers were basically fighting two battles, the Civil War and Hunger. “Rations, too, ran short.” The prisoners of war were sent to war prisons like the Rock Island where rations were also short. The Civil War also provided a somewhat a boom for companies and markets.

Read More

Captain Wirz Was Responsible For The Death Of Andersonville

1179 Words | 5 Pages

Almost 12,000 people suffered and died at Andersonville prison in a span of around a year. Andersonville was a war prison that was created in April 1864 and was used to hold Union war prisoners during the Civil War. The living situation was horrible, and thousands of people died there. The person responsible for the thousands of deaths that occurred at Andersonville prison was Captain Wirz because many Union soldiers died due to the lack of food and water he provided to the prisoners, the spread of disease with no vaccinations, which was partly caused by contaminated water, and raiders in the prison that he did not stop from killing many people. To begin, Captain Wirz was responsible for the deaths at Andersonville due to the lack of food

Read More

Wilbert Rideau Peculiar Case

611 Words | 3 Pages

The Peculiar Case of Wilbert Rideau The Farm has destroyed many that have entered its camps. First, it was slaves from Africa, then Union army troops during the Civil War, and finally hundreds of thousand of men of every race and background. For those inmates on death row, Angola can be particularly cruel and inhumane. Prisoners in the row spend most of their time, and in many cases, their life, deprived of human interaction. However, through all the hardships of life in Angola, a select few are able to overcome.

Read More

The Hell Of Andersonville Prison Questions And Answers

549 Words | 3 Pages

Name of Document: The Hell of Andersonville Prison (1864) A. List four things the author said that you think are important: (This should be written in your own words. No direct quotes from the document, quoted or otherwise) 1.The prison was expanded to accommodate for the large population. 2.The wall of death lead some men to question their desire to live.

Read More

Summary Of Slave Resistance In Natchez, Mississippi By James Boler

898 Words | 4 Pages

So, in the absence of speedy official governmental justice, there was the spontaneous generation of what was called a “Vigilance Committee” or “Examination Committee.” Committees formed to be the judge and jury to mete out the punishment to both black and white citizens that worked to incite, plan, or support any form of insurrection within the counties. Responding to the fears, a planter-dominated vigilance committee rounded up slaves in the Second Creek neighborhood, where talk of a conspiracy first surfaced. Committee members believed that the slaves schemed not just to “kill their masters,” but to “ravish,” “ride” and “take the ladies for wives.” Ten slaves were hanged on Jacob Surget’s Cherry Grove plantation on September 24, 1861.

Read More

Pros And Cons Of Medical Advancements During The Civil War

1660 Words | 7 Pages

As soon as the Civil War started, injuries increased and diseases spread at a rapid pace. Sickness spread to millions. In fact, disease caused 65% of deaths, while war injuries caused up to 100% (“Disease”). Abundant amounts of medical issues caused medical procedures to evolve at a rapid speed. The medical advancements during the Civil War led to future medical technologies and procedures.

Read More

Robert Butler Background

1131 Words | 5 Pages

The evidence identifies the Butler of the Iowa soldiers’ account as Robert J. Butler whose plantation sat upon the aptly named Butler’s Hill. This land is now the City of North Augusta in Aiken County, South Carolina. In 1865, it would have sat within the southwestern corner Edgefield District, a region known for its fine homes and political power players. In the northwest section of the district lived another Butler family, of distant if any relation, which had become one of the state’s wealthiest families and bonified political dynasty producing two Congressman, a Senator, and a Governor of the South Carolina in the first sixty years of the republic. They were members of ruling planter class in the least democratic state in the nation.

Read More

Confinement In Night

663 Words | 3 Pages

People on death row even wished for freedom from this tragic, cruel world. “Long live liberty! My curse! My-The executioner had completed his work.” (62) Smells and mental illnesses filled Germany at the time; the smell of death and confinement and the mental illness at losing your own self due to lost of

Read More

Union Soldier Life

887 Words | 4 Pages

Life for the Union Soldier was not only brutal on the battlefield, but the camp life for a Union soldier was just as cruel. With the lack of personal hygiene, unsavory and repugnant food, and the shortage of clothing made living, a very difficult thing to do. Growth in the number of people with diseases was also a contributing factor to the massive amounts of death within the camp and as well as the post-battle wounds that often left either a man with one less limb or put in a mental institution. A Union Soldier’s life during the Civil War was cruel and horrific during their stay at the camps.

Read More

Essay On The Attica State Prison Riot

1358 Words | 6 Pages

The Attica Prison riot of 1971 was caused by a variety of problems, but is unanimously attributed to the death of the African-American activist and author George Jackson. While incarcerated at San Quinton, Jackson’s work reached readers on an international level and inspired prisoners throughout the country. Inmates at the Attica state prison faced harsh conditions and without any other escape, used George Jackson’s, and other activist’s writing as a way to tolerate their environment. Temperatures reached well over one hundred degrees during the summer, prisoners were allowed less than one shower per week, and basic necessities such as toilet paper and medical treatment were withheld from inmates. These harsh conditions created a platform for

Read More

Hitler's Execution Essay: The Nuremberg Trials During World War II

664 Words | 3 Pages

Gustav Krupp, a factory owner who employed thousand of slaves in his factories, was deemed unfit for trial because of his physical and mental condition. Martin Borman, Hitler’s second in command, was ordered to flee Germany in order to avoid capture. He was tried in absentia and found guilty on counts one, three and

Read More

Creative Writing: A German Prisoner Of War

314 Words | 2 Pages

The Americans had 200 such Prisoner of War camps scattered across Germany. You are marched to a compound surrounded with barbed wire fences as far as the eye can see. Thousands upon thousands of your fellow German soldiers are already in this make-shift corral. You see no evidence of a latrine and after three hours of marching through the mud of the spring rain, the comfort of a latrine is upper-most in your mind. You are driven through the heavily guarded gate and find yourself free to move about, and you begin the futile search for the latrine.

Read More

Examples Of Conscientious Objectors

515 Words | 3 Pages

Sixteen young men, including Methodists, socialists, a Quaker, International Bible Students (Later known as Jehovahs Witnesses), a Lay reader and a Congregationalist, were illegally taken from Richmond Castle and transported to the French front in iron bonds. (ENGLISH HERITAGE. 2000.) Once they reached the front they were told that they were considered to be on active service which meant that they would face a firing squad if they refused to obey orders. Due to their refusal to obey orders they were severely punished including being fixed to a cross with barbed wire, ams stretched on either side, and left in this position for two hours at a time. Later on, the ‘Richmond Sixteen’ were court-martialled and sentenced to death.

Read More

Argumentative Essay: The Impact Of The Civil War

466 Words | 2 Pages

The Civil War The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history with over 600000 American deaths reported. This war was fought to keep the Confederate States from leaving the Union. The Union won because they had a telegraph system and had more resources. The effect of the Union victory has had a large impact on society.

Read More

English Civil War Analysis

1151 Words | 5 Pages

This probably would have shocked some people because the Levellers (a political movement during the war) believed that the only crime you could be executed for was

Read More

More about Hellhole Of Andersonville

Related Topics

Open Document