Saturday, July 30, 2011

Andersonvile Prison Camp Synonymous With Horror

What would you have done? Just suppose you were the Commander of the notorious Andersonville Prison Camp. Your name is Henry Wirz and you have just  succeeded John Henry Winder, who has died of exhaustion. It is February, 1865.

 Your camp was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners , but when "you" took over, it contained 30,000, with about 400 being added each day. Food, clothing and medical supplies were almost non-existent. Health care was an unknown quantity, as waste was dumped into the small stream that flowed through the prison yard, the only water supply. Downstream it was used as a latrine for all prisoners.

By the end of the war approximately 13,000 prisoners have died and YOU become the only Confederate officer to be tried and convicted and executed for war crimes. In your defense, you (Wirz) stated that you simply didn't have food or supplies to give the prisoners and that your own staff suffered equally as the Confederacy began to crumble.

No comments:

Post a Comment