5/10 Andersonville Civil War Prison, Georgia

I had been wanting to come to this historical place for quite a few years, so I finally added a day to my drive north so I would have time to see it.  I stayed at a Love's truck stop RV park in Cordele, GA, believe it or not.  Love's has attached RV parks at some of its bigger truck stops.  The RV park is next door and separated by a wooden fence, but I have to admit that there was some noise, although a lot less at night.  For the second night, I asked to be moved to the side farthest from the truck stop, and it was much better.  

Andersonville was about an hour drive from Cordele, and for some weird reason, my GPS took my through a lot of farm country with lots of turns.  On the way back, I chose my own route, which was a bit longer but a lot better driving.  TIP:  Watch out for turtles on your drive.  I nearly hit four of them who were crossing the highway.  I would have pulled over and helped them move, but there were no shoulders that would fit my wide vehicle!! 

Andersonville, by the way, is a national historical monument, but there is no fee.  It was built for 10,000 prisoners, but at the height of the war, it contained 40,000 prisoners, which was one of the causes of the starvation and deprivation of this famous place.  Over 12,000 prisoners died and were buried here by the time the war was over

 

 

Notice that the sign above says that this is a museum of prisoners of war in general, so it contains exhibits of all American prisoners of war.  

I took only a few photos inside the museum, so here are just a sampling.

Directly behind the museum is walking access to the area where the prison camp was located.  You can also drive around this area, but I just walked part of it. 

 

 

This is a reconstruction of part of the old prison stockade. 

One area contained monuments from specific states in the north whose soldiers were prisoners here.

The cemetery was a short drive away.  It holds the bodies of Andersonville prisoners, but it is also a current national cemetery, so modern veterans are also buried here.  You can tell the older burials by the type of stone and the design of the monuments.

Notice that each monument has a number on it.  These were not mass burials, and a small numbered stake was put on each burial.  These were kept in log books, along with the name of the soldier, his rank, and the state he came from.  These log books were later used to replace the wooden stakes with real memorials.

You can tell that these were recent burials and had similar monuments used in all national cemeteries.