Andersonville Prison : A Place Of Horror | Civil War Prison | Project Past | History Unscripted 

Who wins the war writes the history books.

That’s true in most cases. The civil war is the exception. The south was allowed to rewrite the narrative and the “Lost Cause” is still something we deal with today.

I really appreciate the feedback. I love history and I learn new things in every video. Got lots more on the way! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for sharing your family’s past. Glad to hear you enjoyed the video

What state was he from? My relative was 76th New York

Thanks for sharing your family’s story. The prison camps during this war were just awful. Thanks for watching.

@@ProjectPast1565 youre most welcome

Let's be fair. There were horrific prisons on both sides.

@virginiaturner1260 I never said there weren't bad prisons on both sides Both the Union and the Confederacy were completely unprepared for the war and this also included the welfare of prisoners and how they would be taken care of

@@travisbayles870 Which is more proof that northern prison camps were just as horrible, if not worse, than Confederate prisons.

Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad you enjoyed the video! Your support is greatly appreciated.

I had an amazing visit there. Learned so much. It was slightly eerie as well. Thanks for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed the video.

Wow. That means a lot and thank you for the kind words. Im so happy you enjoyed it and I appreciate you watching. I learned a ton from this visit.

My husband and I visited the site yesterday, and I found your report tonight. We are really impressed by your work. Thank you very much.

Thanks for watching and I’m glad you got to see the site for yourself. It’s a powerful place.

I appreciate you watching! History is our greatest teacher.

Thanks! Appreciate you watching!

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks for watching and thanks for the kind words.

Another classic moment of me looking at something and saying a completely different word 😂. It’s a very powerful place.

I do it ALL the time lol. Can’t wait to go here. Hard to imagine what this ground looked like just over 150 years ago. Amazing that today it is silent….

@@HistorySavior1941 it was eerily peaceful. You definitely feel a little weird walking around there. The prison system in the civil war was just awful for both sides.

I’m sure that played into the decision as well. The spring was a really neat story.

Thanks for watching and for sharing your family’s story. I’ll add it to the list.

Thanks for sharing and for watching!

I appreciate the kind words. It’s a powerful place and I learned a ton. You hit the nail in the head. When you keep your personal biases out of a subject you tend to get more clarity and learn more. Both sides failed and committed terrible acts against their fellow man.

Thanks for watching!

I have every intention of doing so. Feel free to help cover my travel expenses and I’ll do both next week. My PayPal is linked below. Just because I covered Andersonville doesn’t mean I have a motive or some sort of agenda. It’s history. I can only cover one site at a time. www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=DB3FJELHC5HME

Yes! I would love to get more information. My email is projectpast1565@gmail.com

Plan on it. Thank for watching!

Indeed

Couldn’t imagine being a POW during that time. War is such a terrible thing.

Unfortunately, prisoners on both sides were mistreated and lived in terrible conditions

@@ProjectPast1565 yeah i know even in our good times pov have hard days, and i know, winners make history, but why do hard find any information about this? Maybe in us is easier get some info, but in eu its jave no sense. Pov= anderssonville, allways.

Plenty of resources online about the mistreatment of confederate POWs. Elmira and camp Douglas were the most infamous on the Union side.

@@ProjectPast1565 thx now i have some names to lookig for. Ty one more time and have a good day, week, and life.

Take care! Thanks for watching

It’s an easy aspect of the war to forget about unfortunately. Prison camps on both sides were absolutely awful and full of suffering.

My g'g'g' grandfather was captured at Gettysburg and sent to point lookout. The difference in the camps was that the north had the ability to do better by their prisoners and chose not to. The south did not have that ability. guards and prisoners alike ate the same rancid food and died from the same diseases because they had no choice. Please include this in your next video.

I stated in the beginning that prison camps on both sides were known for awful conditions. The south had the ability to provide shelter and they didn’t. Andersonville is literally surrounded by woods. The Union’s ability to provide was also overwhelmed by the sheer number of prisoners. In conclusion, it was awful on both sides. War is a terrible thing.

@@ProjectPast1565 Andersonville was overwhelmed by sick and injured prisoners. Though it was surrounded by trees, there were not enough Confederates to cut the trees, build a fence, cook, take care of the wounded and guard the prisoners. The prisoners were too sick to do much if any work. All of them-prisoner and guard-lived under the same conditions. The north had the resources and people. The war was not fought much in their area of the country The north had the ability to do better by the prisoners but chose not to. I know hating the South is quite fashionable these days but northerners are swarming down here everyday. Not many Southerners head north. We are happy where we are. The love of the land we were born on is in our DNA. Please tell the whole truth about the suffering in Civil War prison camps on both sides.

I live in the south and certainly don’t hate it. This was my visit to Andersonville. I tell history as it is. Andersonville was awful just like prison camps on both sides. Feel free to donate to my mission to keep history live. I do this on my own dime and time. Northern camps are a 3 hour flight as opposed to a 3hr drive to Andersonville. I’ll gladly go to Elmira Prison. Stop assuming I’m only telling one side just because I haven’t made it to another site yet.

I saw it a while ago but definitely worth a rewatch! Thanks for watching.

An agreement for resuming prisoner exchanges was reached in the winter of 1864 I believe but not the full resumption of the Dix-Hill Cartel.

Grant vetoed the idea as the South needed men where the North didnt

@@Snowboarder16 Makes sense.

Well for starters, why do you automatically assume that I’m not going to tell the other side of the story? This is a video about Andersonville nothing more and nothing less. Andersonville is a quick 3 Hour drive from my house and I don’t know about you but I can only be in one spot at once. Much of the Northern prisons are in the Northeast, which is a several hour flight for me. When I’m in that area of the country, I will tell the story and the atrocities committed by the union in those prison camps. That’s not something that I’m trying to hide and I even mention it in the beginning of this video. Not everyone has an agenda, or some sort of one-sided view on history just because they covered a certain topic. It’s very ignorant to say one side was more guilty than the other, when you’re not the one suffering. Both sides committed atrocities towards their fellow man, and both sides suffered because of it. Here is some information to dispel some of the myths associated with the union purposefully starving confederate soldiers. www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/debateoverprisonsupplies.htm

@@ProjectPast1565 My ancestor died at the Union Elmira POW camp, but the Anderson Pow camp was much worse. That being said the Elmira tragedy was preventable and the Anderson tragedy was may not have been. Gen. Lee was having to post guards on his troops horse feed to keep his starving soldiers from eating it. While the agricultural South could grow plenty of food, the ability to move it where it was needed became impossible as the rail system collapsed from equipment wearing out and being unable to replace it because of the blockage and the incessant Union raids and occupations of large parts of the logistical net. I hope you can make a trip up north and tell this story as well. You did an excellent telling of Andersonville.

I would love to visit Elmira. It’s on the list. If and when I’m in that area I will definitely tell that story. Thanks for the feedback.

Thank you for some truth but it will not sink in to the creator of this site. He just takes the low hanging fruit, repeats yankee propaganda and seems to do little research of his own.

@@savinghistory642we need to write the American battlefield trust, national park service and the Smithsonian and let them know they are wrong and Savinghistory642 is the most enlightened individual of our time. How about you share your information if it’s so correct instead of trying to go on a crusade because I made a video about Andersonville. Oh and while we are at it what in my video was wrong?

Tell us about how Lincoln wrote that blacks would never be equal to whites or fit to hold office. Look it up. Google it.

It is not. My name is James. He sounds like a great guy though

I had a Confederate ancestor named Private D S McCracken of the 62nd North Carolina who was captured at Cumberland Gap in October 1863 and later sent as a POW to Camp Douglas where he remained until his death in July 1863

Actually, One of the reasons Andersonville was selected as a prison site was because of its proximity to agricultural production. The food shortages in Richmond and in the army in Virginia would be avoided by placing the prison in the middle of the breadbasket of the Confederacy. In theory, this would protect the prison from being cut off from the rest of the country if rail lines were destroyed. However, this failed in practice because the Confederate military relied on local farmers and companies that were less than willing to do business with the Confederacy. Simply put, area farmers did not want to sell their crops to the military at fixed government prices in Confederate currency. Further complicating this was that many of the large planters in Georgia refused to produce foodstuffs and insisted on continuing to grow cotton, which only drove prices for food higher. In an effort to alleviate this and to feed the prison, a "tithe" was placed on all food production, and area farmers were required to give 10% of their food crop to the Confederate military. There was enough food and lumber in the area around Andersonville to greatly improve conditions, but because none of it was nationalized, the Confederate government could not get access to it. Accounts from some civilians and soldiers in the area describe warehouses of food that the owners wouldn't sell for anything except gold or greenbacks, leaving prisoners hungry, and forcing guards to purchase necessary supplies on their own. Both sides were wrong in arguing that they provided the best care that they could while criticizing the other for inadequate treatment. Both sides could have improved on their management techniques but didn’t. Both sides were wrong. That’s the real history. www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/debateoverprisonsupplies.htm

Yeah that story is absolutely devastating. I don’t know a whole lot about it but I couldn’t imagine making it through the war as a prisoner and then tragically dying on the way home.

First off, welcome to the chat Captain Edgy. Second, at no point in this video, or any of my videos for that matter did I say I was a historian. I also don’t classify myself as one. So, I’m not really sure where you got that info from. I’m also not really sure where you got the info for the rest of your comment. But, I’ll include a few links as to where I got mine. Even though it’s just “Yankee propaganda”. I’ll start by saying this issue isn’t as simple as both sides portray it to be. It’s complex, uncomfortable and flat out sad. Saying one side refused to exchange prisoners all while ignoring the fact that one side refused to accept certain terms is ignorant. Both sides are equally as guilty. The Dix-Hill Cartel was signed on July 22, 1862. This was the first official system for exchanging prisoners. The system began to break down when the Confederates classified African-American prisoners of war as fugitive slaves, who should to be returned to their owners instead of being exchanged. On July 30, 1863, President Lincoln issued General Order 252, which effectively suspended the Dix-Hill Cartel until the Confederate forces agreed to treat black prisoners the same as white prisoners. At this time, Grant was in command of the armies out west and would have little say or to do with the prisoner exchange breakdown. Grant didn’t become “General in Chief” until March of 1864. In April, he ordered a continuation of the established policy on the basis of the Confederates mistreatment of African American soldiers. Now, the Manpower argument can also play into this decision as well. That’s an obvious fact. But not as much as you’d like it to be. The famous Grant quote I know you’ve read about "It is hard on our men held in Southern prisons not to exchange them, but it is humanity to those left in the ranks to fight our battles. Every man we hold, when released on parole or otherwise, becomes an active soldier against us at once either directly or indirectly. If we commence a system of exchange which liberates all prisoners taken, we will have to fight on until the whole South is exterminated….. And so on. This quote was made in August of 1864. A full year after the prisoner exchanges already broke down. At this time Andersonville had almost 30,000 prisoners already. Grant made it clear that he would support equal prisoner-for-prisoner exchange but not the full resumption of the Dix-Hill Cartel. Even if exchanges were resumed in late August 1864, Andersonville would still be the deadliest prison of the war with some 8,000 dead by that time. On April 17th, 4 months before Grants quote, Grant would write to General Benjamin Butler - who was negotiating a resumption of prisoner exchanges - that “the status of colored prisoners” was the priority. He ordered that Butler should communicate the non-negotiable demand that “no distinction whatever will be made in the exchange between white and colored prisoners,”. Here is another link for you to discredit. www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/grant-and-the-prisoner-exchange.htm Both sides tend to simplify what was happening in the Civil War prisons, and the causes of suffering were far more complicated than just simple vengeance or short supplies. Take Elmira for example, Most deaths at Elmira occurred as a result of pneumonia, smallpox, typhoid, and dysentery. Not starvation. Here is a link that dispels the myth of prisoners being starved on “purpose” as you put it. Now, I will say humans are imperfect and The Union was not the pillar of morality. I’m sure these instances happened in pockets on BOTH sides. Saying one side is more guilty than the other simply is just ignorant. Both were wrong, both could have done better and both simply did not. www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/debateoverprisonsupplies.htm Records indicate the capture of 211,411 Union soldiers, with 16,668 paroled and 30,218 died in captivity; of Confederate soldiers, 462,684 were captured, 247,769 paroled and 25,976 died in captivity. 194,743 union prisoners would not be paroled. 30,218 would die in captivity. That’s a death rate of 15% 214,915 CSA prisoners would not be paroled. 25,976 would die. That’s a death rate of 12%. Not sure where you got your numbers from. Again, both of these figures is sickening and BOTH had prisons that were downright awful.

Why did you not mention that Grant held slaves even as he was fighting the South and that he and other Northerners were allowed to keep their slaves AFTER the War? Doesn't fit your narrative? The EP only freed slaves in the rebellious states. The North is more guilty of war crimes against POWs as they had the ability to do better and did not out of spite and hatred for the Confederacy.@@ProjectPast1565

@@ProjectPast1565 Wherever the truth is with regard to Andersonville...one thing is true enough "CAPTAIN EDGY" seems to be a SPOT ON characterization, lol.

You are exactly right it was Grant who refused to exchange

Yup, stated that in the video. I have every intention going to Elmira.

Maybe you should have gone there on your own dime instead of trying to get money from trashing the South. If Andersonville is so close why not go to Roswell Mills?@@ProjectPast1565

Care to elaborate why?

Because Southerners have lived with the stories of the War. You seem to watch some PBS show then post whatever you heard. Nothing original here. 1565 was when St. Augustine was founded. How does it figure in the civil war? Please do not go to St. Augustine. It is a Catholic city and the Spaniards defended it with lethal force against Protestants, Indians and yankees. Florida never surrendered it's flag to the North. There I just gave you your next armchair post.. I cannot imagine how you will trash that. @@ProjectPast1565

The st Augustine Blues we’re part of the 3rd Florida. I visited their location on Shy’s Hill in Nashville. Learned a ton. A handful are buried in St Augustine. That’s how it factors in the Civil War. I wasn’t aware that the location in which you lived factored into learning about the civil war. But hey what do I know. One day I’ll reach your level of enlightenment.

Never said St. Augustine had no part in the War. Just wondering why you chose the year it was founded as part of your name. St. Augustine is sacred to me and I do not want it besmirched with untruths for money.@@ProjectPast1565

@@savinghistory642 I live there and you literally asked how St Augustine figured into the Civil War in your last weird comment. I’m going to watch some PBS to make more posts you don’t agree with.

That’s the very thing you’re doing in your last comment. Both sides had awful camps and both sides were equally as guilty of neglect.

Having it and not giving it is neglect. That is what the North did to Confederates. Not having enough but still sharing it is what the South did with Northern POWs. There is a difference.@@ProjectPast1565

Of course they did. They do talk about the Union prisons. A simple google search will bring up tons of information about prisons on both sides. That’s not something that’s hidden. I even mention in this video how camps on both sides were awful.

The Union didn’t have any camps with conditions and mortality rate as strikingly high as Andersonville, BUT I am firmly in the camp (no pun intended) of opinion that Andersonville was absolutely NOT as hellish as it was out of malice. Instead, it was a combination of factors such as lack of industrialization and resources, lack of funding, poor location (albeit because of the squeeze and constant subtraction of CSA-controlled territory), and the simple fact that the Union vastly outnumbered the CSA with men.

Lookin union sites .Pea Patch Islad / Fort Delaware .

​@@bcreech17 Yes they did. Camp Douglas. Andersonville was so bad the guards were also starving.

⁠@@ptccombatfitness6726the south was starving. I read an account of a dude from Tennessee fighting with Johnston/Hood in 1864 that was living on an onion a day for a few weeks