The Andersonville Tragedy: A Humanitarian Crisis Made in Washington

The truth about the tragedy of Andersonville is much different from the propaganda version that prevailed after the Civil War and still flourishes in politically correct media.   

Near the tiny village of Andersonville, Georgia, are 13,714 graves, a testament to one of the greatest tragedies of the Civil War and of American history. In fourteen months of 1864 and 1865, nearly 13,000 Union prisoners of war died there of malnutrition, disease, and despair. Union propagandists then and still today have branded it an atrocity. But what is the truth?

Late in the war, the Confederate government decided it needed to move its Union POWs to locations far removed from the most active areas of combat and vulnerability to attack. New locations also needed to be near railroad transportation and plentiful agricultural supplies to feed the prisoners and Confederate infantry units assigned to guard them. They found what they thought was an excellent location in southwest Georgia at Station Number 8 on the Georgia Southwestern Railroad line. A small community of six buildings, called Andersonville, had grown up around that station.