"This? This...this is Andersonville."
- Andersonville
Severe overcrowding was to blame. Andersonville was big, but it wasn't built for the load it had to carry. Wirz, commandant of the camp, was tried as a war prisoner for the harsh conditions of Andersonville, but U. S. Grant- the last general of the Army of the Potomac and future US President- is probably more to blame. He was the man who decided to put an end to prisoner exchanges. Prisoner exchanged worked like this: Union camps agreed to release so many Confederate troops on parole if the Confederates agreed to release so many Union troops. Ideally, these troops weren't supposed to pick up the musket again. The exchange was in place to prevent unecessary prisoner deaths. But Grant decided to do away with them. Confederate troops released on parole didn't honor their agreements; they usually resumed fighting. It's easy to follow Grant's reasoning. Why continue helping the Confederates by exchanging prisoners? So he didn't. As a result, prisoners flowed into Andersonville and didn't leave...unless they died. Conditions became terrible. Food was short. The nice little stream was downstream from the Confederate barracks, so Union prisoners wanting to get water from it would get the waste from the Confederate soldiers as well as their dogs and horses. A swamp built up; disease became rampant.
There are in every society people who are seemingly unfit to live. These people live on the misery of others and cause plenty of their own. This has not changed. Scummy people have existed in every era of history, and the 19th century was no different. The ranks of both armies had people called "bounty jumpers" in them. The armies offered money to people who would join; immediate "signing bonuses". A common practice was to join under an assumed name, collect the money, and desert at the first available opportunity- and then repeat the process. Some of these bounty jumpers were caught as prisoners before they could leave- and some were deported to Andersonville
As individuals, these people probably caused plenty of misery all of their own. But when they got together to form a band of raiders, they were worse. They began to beat and murder fellow soldiers for food, clothing, and anything else they felt like carrying. They lived like kings; kings held prisoner, but kings nontheless. They had a nice working relationship with the Confederate guards, who supplied them with anything they couldn't steal. The were soon emboldened by their success and began to attack newcomers out in the open. Finally the prisoners had enough. Wirz worked with the prisoners to round up the chieftans of this band of raiders. He allowed for a trial, in which the six ringleaders were executed. Their graves at Andersonville are set apart from the graves of the other soldiers.
I was first exposed to the Raiders through a movie called Andersonville. Wirz is depicted as a man who Hitler would be proud of, but it's a good picture. Very violent, and lots of graphic images with the prisoners slowly starving to death.