Morbid Fact Du Jour For April 28, 2011
Today’s Muddy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Between February, 1864 and April, 1865 it is estimated that 45,000 Union prisoners were confined in the Confederate stockade, Camp Sumter, near Anderson Station, Georgia, forever to be remembered as Andersonville. Of that number, approximately 25,000 men survived their prison experience and returned home to tell their tale of suffering. It is unknown how many survivors, with their health and lives shattered, died as a direct result of their captivity after returning to civilian life. Close to 13,000 Union soldiers did “give up the ghost” at Andersonville, and it was the ghost of Andersonville that haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives.
The following is an excerpt from the account of Private George Weiser, who arrived in Andersonville on May 25, 1864:
Through the center of the prison was a ditch of water about one foot deep and three feet wide… On both sides of the ditch the ground was low and muddy; the mud in some places was knee deep. The men could not stay on this low land. All who tried to live there would soon get sick and die… This low muddy ground was used by the sick men who could not reach or get to the sink or ditch. In fact, many of the men were so sick that they could not walk down to the low land, and they had to dig little holes in the ground, and after using them they would cover them over, and these holes, thousands of them, would get full and by the effect of the hot sun and rain they would boil over and run down the hill. This was the cause of creating millions of maggots, and when we would lay down to sleep hundreds of these maggots would crawl over us. Some of them would crawl in our ears and in our mouths.”
Culled from: Andersonville: Giving Up The Ghost
Incidentally, I visited Andersonville back in 2003 and wrote a travelogue on my experience: Anderson Vile!
