The Andersonville NHS is haunting look into America’s great and bloody past. Located in Georgia, Andersonville was the site of one of the largest and most notorious prison camps of the American Civil War. At one point, it housed over 45,000 Union soldiers, of whom, over 13,000 of died.
Most of the deaths were due to common problems associated with overcrowding. There was a lack a food, a lack of clean drinking water, and as more soldiers that were brought in, the worse became the conditions.
My family decided to take a little side trip on our drive home to Louisiana from Hilton Head in the summer of 2020. While Andersonville is not a National Park, it does full under the umbrella of the park services. We visited during the COVID summer, so the Visitor’s Center was closed, but the site was still well worth our time.
Unique to this site is that you can download two different guided driving tours that take visitors through the main portions of the park. The first is the location of the old prison. Nothing original remains, but there are several areas that have been recreated, and there is even a spring coming out of the side of hill that the soldiers used. Evidently, when this was discovered, the prisoners felt like they had unearthed a miracle, but unfortunately, it quickly fell victim to contamination.
This part of the tour relates some really interesting and sad historic facts, and there are several signs and markers along the route where you can get out and explore. It takes about twenty minutes and is absolutely fascinating.
The second tour takes you through the graveyard itself. This is an eerie experience; there are rows upon rows of small, white headstones marking the graves of those who lost their lives. Each one of the Northern states also has a memorial marker dedicated to all of their fallen. Many of the gravestones have the name of the fallen soldier, but almost as many are marked ‘Unknown’. Interestingly enough, Andersonville is still an active memorial site, where American service men and women still get buried today.
This is not one of the more exciting or kid friendly stops on the National Park Services tour, but it is something children from every generation should see. My kids were old enough to understand the significance; I think they found it as moving as we did.
The only disappointment was that Visitor’s Center was closed, but my kids did the Junior Ranger packets, and the Rangers mailed them the badge and stamp. When the Center is open, you can look up your family names and find related tombstones. We actually ran across one that said White (my wife’s maiden) name from Kentucky, which is where they were at the time. It is a likely that there is no relation, but it was still fun for the kids.
If you get the chance, this is a worthwhile and easy site to visit. It took us less than hour, but I think it instilled in my kids that while America is certain beautiful, there are also dark stains in our past which we cannot forget.