The following was taken from: 
An Andersonville Site

Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, was one of the largest 
of many established prison camps during the American Civil War. It was built 
early in 1864 after Confederate officials decided to move the large number of 
Federal prisoners kept in and around Richmond, Virginia, to a place of greater 
security and a more abundant food supply. During the 14 months the prison existed,
more than 45,000 Union Solders were confined here. Of these, almost 13,000 died 
from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure to the 
elements. 

THE STOCKADE 


The pen initially covered about 16 1/2 acres of land enclosed by a 15 foot high 
stockade of hewn pine logs. It was enlarged to 26 1/2 acres in June of 1864. 
The stockade was in the shape of a parallelogram 1,620 feet long and 779 feet 
wide. Sentry boxes, or "pigeon roost" as the prisoners called them, stood at 
30 yard intervals along the top of the stockade. Inside, about 19 feet from the 
wall, was the " DEADLINE ," which the prisoners were forbidden to cross upon 
threat of death. Flowing through the prison yard was a stream called Stockade 
Branch, which supplied water to most of the prison. Two entrances, the North 
Gate and the South Gate, were on the West side of the stockade. Eight small 
earthen forts located around the exterior of the prison were equipped with 
artillery to quell disturbances within the compound and to defend against feared 
Union cavalry attacks. The first prisoners were brought to Andersonville in 
February, 1864. During the next few months approximately 400 more arrived each 
day until, by the end of June, some 26,000 men were confined in a prison area 
originally intended to hold 13,000. The largest number held at any one time was 
more than 32,000- about the population of present-day Sumter County- in August, 
1864. Handicapped by deteriorating economic conditions, an inadequate 
transportation system, and the need to concentrate all available resources 
on the army, the Confederate government was unable to provide adequate housing, 
food, clothing, and medical care to their Federal captives. These conditions, 
along with a breakdown of the prisoner exchange system, resulted in much suffering
 and a high mortality rate. On July 9, 1864, Sgt. David Kennedy of the 9th Ohio 
Cavalry wrote in his diary: ' Wuld that I was an artist & had the material to 
paint this camp & all its horors or the tounge of some eloquent Statesman and 
had the privleage of expressing my mind to our hon. rulers in Washington, I 
should gloery to describe this hell on earth where it takes 7 of its ocupiants 
to make a shadow.' 


TURN YOU THE STRONGHOLD YE PRISONERS OF HOPE....... Zechariah 9:12 


Andersonville Prison ceased to exist in May, 1865. Some former prisoners remained 
in Federal service, but most returned to the civilian occupations they had before
 the war. During July and August, 1865, Clara Barton, a detachment of laborers 
and soldiers, and a former prisoner named Dorence Atwater, came to Andersonville 
cemetery to identify and mark the graves of the Union dead. As a prisoner, Atwater
 was assigned to record the names of deceased Union soldiers for the Confederates.
 Fearing loss of of the death record at war's end, Atwater made his own copy in 
hopes of notifying the relatives of some 12,000 dead interred at Andersonville. 
Thanks to his list and the Confederate records confiscated at the end of the war, 
only 460 of the Andersonville graves had to be marked " Unknown U.S. Soldier."