Andersonville Prison was a military stockade run by the Confederate Army during the American Civil War between the years of 1861-1865 to hold Union soldiers.

Andersonville Prison was near Andersonville, Georgia, the prison was used to confine captured Union soldiers.

In 1864 and 1865 Andersonville held almost 50,000 prisoners. There was not enough food, unclean water, unsanitary conditions, exposure to all kinds of weather. There was dysentery and scurvy epidemics.

Almost 14,000 prisoners died at Andersonville. The Prison Superintendent, Major Henry Wirz, was convicted of murder by a U.S. Military Court and hanged.

November 1864 - Confederate Captain W. Sidney Winder sent to Andersonville, Georgia, to assess the of building a prison to hold Union soldiers prisoners.

December 1863 - Captain Richard B. Winder sent to construct the prison. The prison was spread over 16 acres. Rectangular in shape, a small creek flowing through the compound. The prison was given the name Camp Sumpter, it was built to hold 10,000 prisoners.

January 1864 - Local Slaves cut trees and dug ditches. The stockade enclosure approx. 1010 feet long and 780 feet wide. The walls made of pine logs. A light fence was built approx. 19-25 ft inside the stockade wall - anyone crossing this line was shot by sentries.

February 1864 - Prisoners began to arrive.

June 1864 - 20,000 prisoners at the Camp. Mid June the prison was enlarged to the north, an additional 10 acres, it was now about 26.5 acres.

July 1, 1864 - the additional prison area was opened. The prisoners tore down the original stockade wall and used the wood for building and for fuel.

August 1864 - over 33,000 prisoners held in the 26.5 acre prison.

September 1864 - Union troops closing in prisoners were moved out.

November 1864 - all but about 1500 prisoners shipped out of Andersonville

December 1864 - Prison population 5000. Numbers remain low until the end of the war in April 1865.

Andersonville - 15 months - almost 13,000 Prisoners died of disease, malnutrition, and exposure.

The ground near the prison where nearly 13,000 prisoners were buried was declared by the U. S. Gov. as a National Cemetery.