Hometown Tales - The Horror of Andersonville

[Rachulie]

man, seems ever field trip i ever took in school was to andersonville, it's 40 minutes away from me. that place is HUGE! the museum of POWs is kinda irky, vexed me alot.

i actually went a few weeks ago.

[nanna99]

what we humans do to each other; will we ever learn?////

[lilbmore1]

U know the commander of andersonville camp wasnt even a american but a swedish named Henry Wirz.I think sence the southren government.Ran out of men they had to get people from europe to replace the dead.

[mandlel]

There are concentration camps in every state right now, set up to detain American dissenters when Martial law is declared due to "terrorism" WAKE UP AMERICA! Will you choose freedom or fascism?

[ichykawa]

Thank Lincoln, mandlel. He set the stage whereby our government can ignore Habeas Corpus and "government by the consent of the governed" is a fading memory. We all are merely "subjects" of our tyrannical and omnipotent system now. The founding fathers and the South saw this coming and tried to prevent it. There may be no stopping it.

[MSG378]

mandelel, where are these camps? It must not be a well kept secret if you know they exist in every state and what their purpose will be.

[omkri]

ichykawa,

i can't imagine it being healthy for anyone's pysche to constantly be reminded of the ugliness of our past.

i'm a 'northerner' i have grandparents from italy, england, and a grandmother who was an american indian.

england, italy,etc...all have horrific histories of slavery, abuse, etc..i am not responsible for what was in my families past nor would i think you to be for yours.

we are neighbors my friend.

[ichykawa]

What if your children were taught in public school to regard their ancestors as immoral traitors? Your peace of mind comes from having little or no ancestrial involvement in this country's darkest hour. ALL of mine were Confederates... and none of them owned a single slave. Nor did they fight for it. Four of them died at Perryville. Many others died elsewhere. I MUST defend their honor against those who teach my children that their own blood is tainted with dishonor. No hard feelings intended.

[omkri]

hauntedingeorgia,

you're kidding, right? put a few thousand starving, sick, malnourished people together in a deplorable camp, you don't think violence may occur? not to mention what they went through before they even got there? they suffered mental and physical cruelty, the blame is on who held them captive.

[ichykawa]

The prisoners at Andersonville were not ABUSED. They were NEGLECTED and STARVED. The same as the entire region after Yankees blockaded, looted, burned, robbed, and killed everything. The South couldn't feed Her starving and naked women and children, much less feed and clothe Yankees. That's not ATROCITY. It was just another symptom of Lincoln's "Total War" policy. Camp Douglas - now THAT was atrocious. Yankees had everything and still neglected prisoners just for "sport" and "payback".

[omkri]

ichykawa,

i by no means am trying to defend either side.

neglect and starvation is abuse, ask any child welfare worker. why the separation still between the north and south? is it still as ugly as so many on this make it sound?

get over it. we live now. lets not do what was done and teach our children well.

[ichykawa]

Hello, omkri. I appreciate your neutrality. As a Confederate descendant, I am constantly reminded of 2 things - slavery and Andersonville. Those who criminally neglect children make a choice to do so. The government is capable of feeding them. Not so at Andersonville. There was nothing to give and nowhere to get it... because of Northern war crimes. Let's teach our children the WHOLE truth even if it hurts and isn't politically correct. I stand by my earlier statement.

[billglo]

If the north thought this was so bad, why did not Sherman go there on his march to the Sea, he was within 50 miles of there.

[john4knecht]

I would like to point out that you did find much greater inhumanity, in a little space about equal to that of andersonville in down town Chicago. It was called Camp Douglas, and the confederate soldiers went with out rations yes.. but the main differance is, that they were GIVEN rations to provide the confederates with, and deaths were found to equal those in the confederate POW camps.

[GettysburgGhost1863]

My buddy's great-great-great grandpappy died in Andersonville. The poor guy...

[wormsoup]

hauntedinggeorqia how do you know so much about what really happen? was you there? face it, you only know about it like the rest of us, from hear say. and face it, he was found guilty because of what witness said who where really there (and you wasn't), and then he was hung. and thats the way it was. the end.

[OldIronbutt]

I have checked on "Hellmira","Camp Douglas","Rock Island",and "Point Lookout" on Youtube. Nothing is there concerning these prisons (or other yankee hellholes).Isn't it so typical that we hear all about Andersonville but nothing about the other side. Of course the yankees wrote the "history" to suit themselves. The truth is coming out. Look up these prisons on Wikipedia and/or other sources.

[lostdog91]

yee haw!!!!!!!!

[OldIronbutt]

This is beyond "getting old". Type in "Helmira","Camp Douglas","Camp Delaware",and "Rock Island" to learn what happened to the Confederate prisoners in a land of plenty. I would be ashamed for anyone to learn that I had a yankee ancestor that was a part their army!

[john4knecht]

actually I"m very prowd to admit that my great great grnadfather was a member of the Sixty Seventh Illinois company C. a unit that was drafted and rostered spacificly for servace as gaurds at camp douglas. It had to have been very hard for him to see other americans suffering like that.. Expecially one of his own cousins, yet he did not desert, he served his three months in hell. The gaurds at Camp Douglas were allmost as bad off as the rebs they watched over.

[pdcr777]

my great great great great grandfather joseph p redd is burried there

[hauntedingeorgia]

mine shot him:).

[pdcr777]

its joeseph p redden

[hauntedingeorgia]

Both Grant and Lee hanged deserters or prisoners of war who attempted to escape. why would a prison of war commander be any different. Besides many more troops on both sides died while in the ranks from sickness, and malnuition than wounds. This was a common loss of life in the military all the way up to WW1 where millions died in the trenches form the same sicknesses that killed soldiers in andersonville.

[hauntedingeorgia]

I live about 60 miles or so from this camp and I know the gfacts are that most cruility was from within the union prisoners against themselves. the commander was a recent immigrant whoi was drafted and served his adopted country well. The UNITED STATES GOVT OWES HIM AN APOLOGY

[BGVAC31]

The U.S. does noot owe that commodore a apology, he served with the Army drafted or not. He still commanded the prison so he is still guilty what he did.

[hauntedingeorgia]

He did nothing other than his duty. he was a commander who was drafted, and served well. the man is an american hero and should be treated as such. It's hard to feed prisoners of war when your own citizens and troops were starving. If you make an effort to learn something other than relying on media biased movies you would discover that most troops who died there did so at the hands of their own conrades.

[wormsoup]

I left you a message Mr. Know -it-all-want-a-be.

[hauntedingeorgia]

Union civil war prisoners were treated no worse than was Confederate prisoners of war under Union control.

[AshleyRheiner]

I only have one small point to make. While I am not saying there wasn't cruelty, there would have been much starving and sickness when the confederate troops didn't have enough food or medication due to union blockades. I don't want to start a fight or anything,because there was very much cruelty in and arround that prison.

[muddyvnvmc]

This is an outstanding video ... thanks! I live about 45 minutes from the prison site and highly recommend a visit to the stockade and National POW museum for anybody that's traveling I-75. It's not really that far out of the way. Whether you believe in ghosts or not (like the people in this movie), the experience and the history will weigh heavily on you.

[theaztecshaman]

Very good video, and very interesting.

[CivilWar1863]

My ancestor's buried there. His name was Samuel Layton, grave number 6053. Died of "scurvy" in August of 1864.

[Snarkymom]

Good history. Interesting and little known by most people.  Great job.