Andersonville. The city of Andersonville was incorporated in 1853 as the village center of a small farming community. It came to national attention when Camp Sumter Prison opened here in 1864 and especially when its commandant, Capt. Henry Wirz, was tried for alleged crimes against humanity in 1865. Today, the community proclaims itself a "Civil War Village" and honors both the memory of Union soldiers who suffered here and Confederate soldiers who did their duty while experiencing illness and death in numbers comparable to their unfortunate prisoners.(Continued on other side)THIS MARKER IS ERECTED BY THE ANDERSONVILLE GUILD WHICH IS DEDICATED TO THE RESOTRATION OF THIS CITY 1994 [REVERSE] Father Peter Whelan (1802 - 1871)(Continued from other side). Father Whelan was an Irish priest serving the Diocese of Savannah at the outbreak of the War Between the States. He volunteered to serve as chaplain to CSA troops at Ft. Pulaski and was taken as a POW when the fort fell to Union forces. After being held over a year at Governor's Island and Ft. Delaware, he returned to Savannah where he answered the plea to minister to the prisoners held at Camp Sumter. Whelan came to Andersonville on 16 June 1864 and he remained here for four months daily tending to the needs of prisoners in the stockade. After the war, Whelan publicly defended Capt. Wirz as an innocent scapegoat. His life was cut short by a lung disease he contracted here and died on 6 February 1871. He was remembered by Confederate and Union soldiers alike as truly a "Good Samaritan." [ANDERSONVILLE GUILD 1994]
E Church St, Andersonville, GA, United States
Camp Sumter Confederate Prison Site. This was the site of the Confederacy's largest prison camp. During the 14 months it existed in 1864-65, over 45,000 Union prisoners were confined here. Of thse 12,912 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, and exposure. Declining economic conditions, an inadequate transportation system, and the need to concentrate all available resources on its army, kept the Confederate government from providing adequate food, housing, clothing, or medical care for their prisoners. These conditions and the breakdown of the prisoner exchange system created much suffering and a high mortality rate. 129-3 GEORGIA HISTORIC MARKER 1988
Ga. 49 at Ga. 228, Andersonville, GA, United States
Captain Henry Wirz 1823-1865. Captain Henry Wirz, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General John H. Winder, C.S.A., absent on sick leave, August 1864, commanded the inner prison at Camp Sumter, April 12, 1864 to May 7, 1865. To the best of his ability he tried to obtain food and medicine for Federal prisoners and permitted some to go to Washington in a futile attempt to get prisoners exchanged. He was tried for failure to provide food and medicines for Federals imprisoned here - though his guards ate the same food - and mortality was as high among Confederate guards as among prisoners. Of him, Eliza Frances Andrews, Georgia writer, said, "Had he been an angel from heaven, he could not have changed the pitiful tale of privation and hunger unless he had possessed the power to repeat the miracle of the loaves and fishes." Refusing to implicate others he gave his life for the South, November 10, 1865. 129-2 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956
Ga. 271, Andersonville, GA, United States
Blue Star Memorial Highway A tribute to the Armed Forces that have defended the United States of America sponsored by The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc. in cooperation with Magnolia District of Garden Clubs of Georgia The State Department of Transportation of Georgia and The Americus and Sumter County Federation of Garden Clubs
Ga. 49 near the main entrance to Andersonville National Historic Site, Andersonville, GA, United States