Andersonville
Andersonville, Sumter County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Andersonville. The city of Andersonville was incorporated in 1853 as the village center of a small farming community. It came to national attention when Camp Sumter Prison opened here in 1864 and especially when its commandant, Capt. Henry Wirz, was tried for alleged crimes against humanity in 1865. Today, the community proclaims itself a "Civil War Village" and honors both the memory of Union soldiers who suffered here and Confederate soldiers who did their duty while experiencing illness and death in numbers comparable to their unfortunate prisoners.(Continued on other side)THIS MARKER IS ERECTED BY THE ANDERSONVILLE GUILD WHICH IS DEDICATED TO THE RESOTRATION OF THIS CITY 1994 [REVERSE] Father Peter Whelan (1802 - 1871)(Continued from other side). Father Whelan was an Irish priest serving the Diocese of Savannah at the outbreak of the War Between the States. He volunteered to serve as chaplain to CSA troops at Ft. Pulaski and was taken as a POW when the fort fell to Union forces. After being held over a year at Governor's Island and Ft. Delaware, he returned to Savannah where he answered the plea to minister to the prisoners held at Camp Sumter. Whelan came to Andersonville on 16 June 1864 and he remained here for four months daily tending to the needs of prisoners in the stockade. After the war, Whelan publicly defended Capt. Wirz as an innocent scapegoat. His life was cut short by a lung disease he contracted here and died on 6 February 1871. He was remembered by Confederate and Union soldiers alike as truly a "Good Samaritan." [ANDERSONVILLE GUILD 1994]
Erected by Andersonville Guild
The Story
Incorporated in 1853 as a small farming village, Andersonville was thrust into history when Camp Sumter prison opened here in 1864 and its commandant, Capt. Henry Wirz, was tried and executed for the suffering of Union prisoners. Amid that misery, the Irish priest Father Peter Whelan — himself a former prisoner of war — came in June 1864 and tended the stockade's prisoners daily for four months, remembered by Union and Confederate men alike as a 'Good Samaritan.' The town today calls itself a 'Civil War Village,' honoring the dead of both sides.
Why it matters
Andersonville became the most notorious prison of the Civil War and a lasting symbol of the war's human cost and the questions of wartime accountability it raised.
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Related people
- · Capt. Henry Wirz
- · Father Peter Whelan
Related events
- · Opening of Camp Sumter prison, 1864
- · Trial of Henry Wirz, 1865
Themes & tags
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