Chief, in "The Photographic History of the Civil War", first published in 1911, is a series of pictures taken while Andersonville was in full swing. There was a rectangular stockade. A small creek led through the center of the camp. There was hardly any clear space. Little dugouts and tents , called "shebangs", covered almost every square foot of ground, except the dead line. This was marked by a low staked cloth fence. The downstream end of the creek contained rudely constructed latrines, called "sinks." The pictures show men actually using these sinks. Most men are in rags, and look emaciated by hunger. Food was brought into the camp in wagons, and the distribution was by the strongst get the most. Once on the downhill slide, disease and death were close by.

If my memory serves, the "Raiders" were mentioned, or I read about it in high school. These men preyed on their weaker comrads, stealing their food, clothing, and anything else they had. It got so bad there was an internal court martial, and some raiders were put to death by the prisoners. And most of us have seen the pictures of skeletonized former prisoners, with haunted eyes. Peggy, it would truly be depressing to read of this horror. The guards were youths in their teens and older men over forty five years of age. That part of Georgia is mostly piney woods, good for turpentine, but poor farm land. Andersonville is below the Piedmint, and the soil is very sandy. (Now, it grows peanuts.) Food was scarece, both for the prisoners and the guards. The Camp Commandant, Captain Henry Wirz, was tried and hanged. Given that he was faced with handling 45,000 prisoners in a camp meant for no more than 10,000, he perhaps got a bad deal. At least he should not have been the only one tried. Stan