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Ohioans at Andersonville Civil War Prison

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RugbyBuck

RugbyBuck

Our church has no bells.
ohio.jpg


This is the monument to 1,055 Buckeyes who died while held as POWs under beyond appalling conditions at Andersonville, GA between April 1864 and May 1865. The other side of the monument reads "Death Before Dishonor". I, a Georgia native and Buckeye, visited the prison site yesterday, ironically enough, after doing some work for an Ohio company for another BP member.

I was the only person there and it was one of the more powerful historical sites I've visited. Up to 45,000 people were confined to 23 acres without shelter or sanitation (other than whatever they could make on their own) and scant rations. Approximately 13,000 died and they were the lucky ones in some respects.

I lack the words to convey the significance and silent presence of the site, but I wanted to share the monument to their sacrifice with you.
 
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RugbyBuck;1164533; said:
ohio.jpg


This is the monument to 1,055 Buckeyes who died while held as POWs under beyond appalling conditions at Andersonville, GA between April 1864 and May 1865. The other side of the monument reads "Death Before Dishonor". I, a Georgia native and Buckeye, visited the prison site yesterday, ironically enough, after doing some work for an Ohio company for another BP member.

I was the only person there and it was one of the more powerful historical sites I've visited. Up to 45,000 people were confined to 23 acres without shelter or sanitation (other than whatever they could make on their own) and scant rations. Approximately 13,000 died and they were the lucky ones in some respects.

I lack the words to convey the significance and silent presence of the site, but I wanted to share the monument to their sacrifice with you.
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I also have visited Andersonville. I literally have the chills right now thinking about that day.

My dad has a bunch of pics we took, I'll have to get them and post some.

That place must have been pure hell. The river of shit flowing through the middle. The huge holes beside the trees where the prisoners had dug for water...
 
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The Natl. Park Svc. has done a nice job of not Disney-fying Andersonville. They have the mandatory visitor's center/gift shop (I didn't go), but it's set away from the prison site. The 23 acres is empty except for the Union monuments, a monument at the one freshwater spring, and a few examples of what the walls and stockade looked like. The site is ringed with small white parallel markers that show where the outer walls and "deathline" (about ten yards inside of the walls; you'd be shot if you crossed it) were.

I'd say that it's worth a stop if you're headed to Florida down I-75. It's about 35 miles off of the interstate.
 
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RugbyBuck;1167152; said:
The Natl. Park Svc. has done a nice job of not Disney-fying Andersonville. They have the mandatory visitor's center/gift shop (I didn't go), but it's set away from the prison site. The 23 acres is empty except for the Union monuments, a monument at the one freshwater spring, and a few examples of what the walls and stockade looked like. The site is ringed with small white parallel markers that show where the outer walls and "deathline" (about ten yards inside of the walls; you'd be shot if you crossed it) were.

I'd say that it's worth a stop if you're headed to Florida down I-75. It's about 35 miles off of the interstate.
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The "visitors center", I believe is actually the P.O.W. museum. Took my breath away. I believe every war is represented there. They also run little films on certain aspects of P.O.W.'s conditions in different wars. There were tools of escape on display, plans for escape, and letters home that in some cases, were never sent. Absolutely astounding, emotional place to visit. The "gift shop" aspect of it was little more than a bookstore that contained books on every war.
 
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the history channel i think has a good (or disturbing i guess) show on andersonville. a big civil war buff i know (this one not named hitchcock) said that the north had some similar set ups but, since they won the war they seem to have been forgotten.
 
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jimotis4heisman;1167283; said:
the history channel i think has a good (or disturbing i guess) show on andersonville. a big civil war buff i know (this one not named hitchcock) said that the north had some similar set ups but, since they won the war they seem to have been forgotten.
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Yeah, but because of geography/climate, the North's wasn't 100 degrees with 90% humidity all summer.
 
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I have heard of a Union prison in, I believe, Palmyra, NY. Apparently, it was known as Hell-myra. My guess is that it was roughly equivalent. Not as hot as Andersonville, but definitely colder. I know that the CO of Andersonville was a bastard, but I also doubt that at the end of the War of Northern Aggression the CSA had the resources to run a "decent" prison camp. That is, the conditions were abysmal, but not necessarily by design. At least, as a Georgian with ancestors who fought on this side of the line, and I know this is probably pollyannish, I'd hope that it wasn't purposefully hellish.

The thing I took away from my visit was a new appreciation of Lincoln and those that tried to put the country back together post-war.
 
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RugbyBuck;1167349; said:
I have heard of a Union prison in, I believe, Palmyra, NY. Apparently, it was known as Hell-myra. My guess is that it was roughly equivalent. Not as hot as Andersonville, but definitely colder. I know that the CO of Andersonville was a bastard, but I also doubt that at the end of the War of Northern Aggression the CSA had the resources to run a "decent" prison camp. That is, the conditions were abysmal, but not necessarily by design. At least, as a Georgian with ancestors who fought on this side of the line, and I know this is probably pollyannish, I'd hope that it wasn't purposefully hellish.

The thing I took away from my visit was a new appreciation of Lincoln and those that tried to put the country back together post-war.
Click to expand...

The thing I took away from my visit was a new appreciation of General Sherman and his soldiers that burned the fucking path to the Atlantic.

No offense Rugby. :wink:
 
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No cause to break out the flintlocks on this one. There was clearly hellish conduct by both sides. I have always had a hard time getting too worked up over the March to the Sea. Not the most appreciated sentiment in 1970's Atlanta (read: before the Yankee immigrant explosion beginning in the late-1980's).
 
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