Bill's Aviation Log

The museum had lots of artifacts and uniforms.

Leaving the museum, we headed into the park. The prison area is pretty much the same as it was in 1865, minus the rectangular stockade wall. The whole thing is as it was then, just an open area in the middle of a surrounding pine forest.

The stockade wall has been outlined with double rows of white posts. You can see them in this picture. The outer stakes on the right mark the stockade wall; the inner stakes on the left mark "the dead line".

By 1864, civilians in the Confederacy and soldiers of the Confederate Army were all struggling to obtain sufficient quantities of food. The shortage of fare was suffered by prisoners and Confederate personnel alike within the fort, but the prisoners received less than the guards. Unlike the captives, the guards did not become severely emaciated or suffer from scurvy as a consequence of vitamin C deficiency due to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet. The poor diets and resulting scurvy was likely a major cause of the camp's high mortality rate, as well as dysentery and typhoid fever. These resulted from filthy living conditions and poor sanitation. The only source of drinking water was a creek that also served as the camp's latrine. It was filled at all times with fecal matter from thousands of sick and dying men. Even when sufficient quantities of supplies were available, they were of poor quality and inadequately prepared.

There were no new outfits given to prisoners, whose own clothing was often falling to pieces. In some cases, garments were taken from the dead. Although the prison was surrounded by forest, very little wood was allowed to the prisoners for warmth or cooking. This, along with the lack of utensils, made it almost impossible for the prisoners to cook the meager food rations they received, which consisted of poorly milled cornflour. During the summer of 1864, Union prisoners suffered greatly from hunger, exposure and disease.

Robert H. Kellogg, sergeant major in the 16th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, described his entry as a prisoner into the prison camp, May 2, 1864: "As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. "Can this be hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then."

The outer door.

Life was no picnic for Confederate Army prisoners either. Here is a shot of Fort Delaware, in the middle of the Delaware River, which I have flown over in my plane a few times.

On the way back to Americus, we passed by Jimmy Carter Regional Airport. So of course I had to stop in. I was surprised to learn that this airport was where Charles Linbergh soloed in May 1923.

Lindbergh had 20 hours of flight time when he soloed -- not much different and maybe even more than what student pilots receive these days. Lindbergh left here for Montgomery, Alabama to start his barnstorming career. Four years later he would fly the Atlantic.

February 24, 2022 - Andersonville Prison
Andersonville Prison has long been on my bucket list. Well, I finally made it. Andersonville was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the American Civil War. It is northeast of Americus. Our BnB host Susan recommended starting out by visiting the Drummer Boy Civil War Museum so we did that. It's a small but very interesting museum featuring a diorama of the prison. At the time, Andersonville was little more than a train stop, pictured at right. The prisoners would disembark the train and walk to the rectangular prison camp, surrounded by a stockade wall made of rough-hewn logs about 17 ft high. A light fence known as "the dead line" was erected approximately 19 ft inside the stockade wall. It demarcated a no-man's land. Anyone crossing or even touching this "dead line" was shot without warning by sentries in the guard platforms (called "pigeon roosts") on the stockade.

The museum had lots of artifacts and uniforms.

A closer look at the camp. A stream ran through the camp, which was the prisoner's only water source. And also their toilet, so disease was rampant. No shelter was provided to the prisoners. They made makeshift tents from what they brought with them to protect them from the hot Georgia sun.

Leaving the museum, we headed into the park. The prison area is pretty much the same as it was in 1865, minus the rectangular stockade wall. The whole thing is as it was then, just an open area in the middle of a surrounding pine forest. The stockade wall has been outlined with double rows of white posts. You can see them in this picture. The outer stakes on the right mark the stockade wall; the inner stakes on the left mark "the dead line".

The prison was created in February 1864 and served until April 1865. The site was commanded by Captain Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes. The prison was overcrowded to four times its capacity, and had an inadequate water supply, inadequate food, and unsanitary conditions. Of the approximately 45,000 Union prisoners held at Camp Sumter during the war, nearly 13,000 died. The chief causes of death were scurvy, diarrhea and dysentery. This monument was erected by the state of Wisconsin in grateful remembrance to her sons who suffered and died in Andersonville Prison from March 1864 to April 1865.

The prison had some defences against outside attack.

You can clearly see the stream area in the middle of the camp.



There were two entrances on the west side of the stockade, known as "north entrance" and "south entrance". A replica has been made of the North Entrance, at the left. It has an outer gate and an inner gate.

By 1864, civilians in the Confederacy and soldiers of the Confederate Army were all struggling to obtain sufficient quantities of food. The shortage of fare was suffered by prisoners and Confederate personnel alike within the fort, but the prisoners received less than the guards. Unlike the captives, the guards did not become severely emaciated or suffer from scurvy as a consequence of vitamin C deficiency due to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet. The poor diets and resulting scurvy was likely a major cause of the camp's high mortality rate, as well as dysentery and typhoid fever. These resulted from filthy living conditions and poor sanitation. The only source of drinking water was a creek that also served as the camp's latrine. It was filled at all times with fecal matter from thousands of sick and dying men. Even when sufficient quantities of supplies were available, they were of poor quality and inadequately prepared. There were no new outfits given to prisoners, whose own clothing was often falling to pieces. In some cases, garments were taken from the dead. Although the prison was surrounded by forest, very little wood was allowed to the prisoners for warmth or cooking. This, along with the lack of utensils, made it almost impossible for the prisoners to cook the meager food rations they received, which consisted of poorly milled cornflour. During the summer of 1864, Union prisoners suffered greatly from hunger, exposure and disease.

In the hot weather, the prisoners were desperate for fresh water. The sudden appearance of the spring at the western wall of the stockade in the summer of 1864 was a treasured memory of many Union survivors of the prison. This is the location of Providence Spring.

You can see how tall the stockade walls were -- 17 feet above the ground -- nobody was climbing over those. Notice how closely they fit together; there was no visibility outside the stockade.

A good shot of "the dead line" wall, on the inside of the main stockade wall. The only way in or out of the camp was through that door.

Robert H. Kellogg, sergeant major in the 16th Regiment Connecticut Volunteers, described his entry as a prisoner into the prison camp, May 2, 1864: "As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. "Can this be hell?" "God protect us!" and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating. The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then." The outer door.



Life was no picnic for Confederate Army prisoners either. Here is a shot of Fort Delaware, in the middle of the Delaware River, which I have flown over in my plane a few times.

The visitors center has a short film about Andersonville which is worth seeing, and also contains the National Prisoner War Museum. All I can say is that you don't want to be a prisoner of war. Here is a replica of a bamboo cage used to hold American prisoners during the Vietnam war.

Nearby was the Andersonville National Cemetery. tIt is the final resting place for the Union prisoners who died while being held at Camp Sumter/Andersonville as POWs. It contains 13,714 graves, of which 921 are marked "unknown".

Only enlisted soldiers were imprisoned at Andersonville. With no Union officers to maintain order, life in the pen became anarchy. A group of prisoners, calling themselves the Andersonville Raiders, attacked their fellow inmates to steal food, jewellery, money and clothing. Eventually, with the blessing of Commandant Wirz, the prisoners formed a police squad called the Regulators, arrested the Raiders and tried and hanged the six ringleaders. These are their graves. They were deliberately set apart; these six prisoners were buried with dishonor.

On the way back to Americus, we passed by Jimmy Carter Regional Airport. So of course I had to stop in. I was surprised to learn that this airport was where Charles Linbergh soloed in May 1923. Lindbergh had 20 hours of flight time when he soloed -- not much different and maybe even more than what student pilots receive these days. Lindbergh left here for Montgomery, Alabama to start his barnstorming career. Four years later he would fly the Atlantic.

The airport was originally known as Souther Field.


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February 24, 2022 - Andersonville Prison