Hello Joe, "All of the history I have read up to now leads me to believe there were a lack of resources and the guards at Andersonville were not any better than Confederate soldiers in the field." As far as being fed and supplied by the C.S.A. I agree with your statement.

It probably should not surprise us to learn of Confederate civilians who had only read or heard stories of Yankees to be curious of Andersonville. One would also have a tendency to think that the guards perhaps would welcome such a visit from their Confederate population especially if it involved young ladies and food. From my research some of the younger guards had come from Terrell and Randolph counties not too far distant from Sumter County, Georgia.

Looking at the 1860 United States census I do show a Mary A. Harden living in Terrell County, Georgia and she was born about 1839 and I surmise this is who she may have been. Dawson was and still is the county seat of Terrell County. Terrell County, however was formed in 1858 from other nearby counties. As far as what she said in the letter written to her mother it is what it is.

I spoke to Mr. Marvel the author "Andersonville: The Last Depot" years ago and he told me he had been unaware of the letter at Duke University by Anna Harden. However he did mention the sham battles at Andersonville in his book which were nothing more than mock battles. The purpose at times seems to have been for the entertainment of guests.

The civilian visitors from neighboring counties seems to have worn off after a few weeks. It does appear they visited Andersonville on the weekends and brought food items with them.

The town of Dawson itself had set aside a few acres for a refugee camp for the fleeing citizens of Atlanta during the Atlanta Campaign. And Randolph County, had opened its doors to three Confederate hospitals in the fall of 1864 due to the Atlanta Campaign. Although southwest Georgia had escaped the northern invasion it found itself trying to help others who now needed help.

In closing Joe I am not suggesting these picnic baskets of food were an everyday occurrence for the guards but rather happened only a few times during Camp Sumter's existence. However I am suggesting from what I can gather, the citizens of south west Georgia had not saw the face of war that so many others had and did not suffer from a food shortage.

Ironically while research the 3rd Maryland Cavalry I also ran across a man who had been arrested in a row boat in Mobile Bay about this same time period. While it may not have been the same man his destination was also Fort Jefferson, Florida. I wish I had paid more attention in hind-sight as it may have been one of David ancestors?