Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/393

 Andersonville Prison, 385

made by the writers of these articles the figures relate to Anderson- ville, which was acknowledged the most unhealthy of any of our prisons, and yet the mortality rate will compare favorably with that of Alton, 111., which was 509,4 annually per thousand/*

CAMP AT ANDERSONVILLE.

The camp at Andersonville was established on a naturally healthy site in the highlands of Sumpter county, Georgia. The officers sent to locate this prison were instructed to prepare a camp for the recep- tion of ten thousand prisoners. For this purpose twenty-seven acres, consisting of the northern and southern exposures of two rising grounds, between which ran a stream from west to east, was selected. In August, 1864, nearly thirty-three thousand prisoners were crowded together in this area, in consequence of the refusal of the United States Government to exchange prisoners, we having no other prison to which to send them at that time.

CAUSE OF DISEASE.

The sudden aggregation of these men at a camp unprepared for their reception, originally designed for only ten thousand men, de- veloped many unsanitary conditions, which combined with pre-exist- ing causes, evolving sickness and stamping it with a greater virulence. The most prominent of these were : The men came from a higher latitude and unaccustomed to a Southern climate in the most unheal- thy season of the year, August. The temporary detective police of the camp, and the insufficient protection in quarters, and the bread ration, consisting of corn -meal used largely in the South, to which they were unaccustomed, contributed to the spread of diarrhoea and dysentery, which was the cause of eighty-six per cent, of the entire number of deaths. But the evil influences exercised by the camp conditions and diet would not have been followed by the same mor- tality had the same ground and shelters been crowded to the same extent with well-disciplined troops waiting for the opening of a cam- paign.

BROKEN DOWN PHYSICALLY.

These men on their arrival were broken down physically by pre- vious hardships, hurried marches, want of sleep, deficient rations, and exposures in all kinds of weather, by night and by day that precede and attend the hostile meeting of armies. The prisoners seldom