Andersonville Prison It is conceivably considered to be one of the prisoner of war encampments that best illustrates the unpleasant and inhuman environments endured through the American Civil War. Of all of these constructed prisons during this time period, the most notorious was indubitably Andersonville. Andersonville was also known as Fort Sumter (Andersonville-American Civil War). Found in Sumter County, Georgia, Andersonville prison was primarily intended to house around 10,000 men. The prison was built in early 1864, once Confederate officials chose to transport the huge amount of its federal captives in and nearby Richmond to a location of greater safekeeping and an additional supply of nutrition. The prison was quickly built by…show more content… Lee (1807-1870) admitted defeat to Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia, which in effect concluded the Civil War (Andersonville-American Civil War). Andersonville prison ceased to exist once the war was done. Some past prisoners continued their Federal service, however most resumed their civilian jobs they had previously. During July and August 1865, Clara Barton, along with a group of workers and soldiers, and ex prisoner Dorence Atwater, went to the Andersonville cemetery to classify and show the graves of the late Union soldiers. As a captive at Andersonville, Atwater had been given the job of documenting the names of the soldiers that had succumbed to their deaths from the inhumane environment for Confederate prison administrators. Fearing that he could misplace the records at the conclusion of the war, Atwater prepared himself a duplicate in hopes of informing the casualties’ families. Thanks to Atwater’s catalog and the Confederate death records taken at the close of the war, only 460 of the graves at Andersonville were shown as “Unknown U.S. Soldier”. Currently the Andersonville location contains the remnants of the historic prison as well as a prisoner of war gallery and a natural cemetery of the Union soldiers that had died are buried (Andersonville-American Civil
