More on Andersonville

This was the main entrance into the prison. There are two large doors. The guards would take the prisoners through the first set of doors and then lock them before opening the next set of doors into the prison.

The feelings that overcame me as I walked through those doors were overwhelming. To imagine walking into the camp that was filled past capacity. I imagined the stench and the dirtyness, the sick and the dying. I just couldn't imagine the horror that the prisoners faced when they first walked through the gate.

Prisoners had to make their own shelter with whatever supplies they could find laying around.

These are replicas of the shelters the prisoners erected.

There was a little spring running through the camp that provided water for the prisoners. But as the camp became more crowded the spring ran dry. One night during a thunderstorm, lighting hit the ground and opened up a new spring.

This little building was built where the spring Sprung!

Andersonville, GA

This flag was painted by a POW in Tokyo. In violation of camp authority the POW's stood at attention before the flag and recited the Pledge of Allegiance on New Year's Day 1945. Some time later the Japanese found the flag, confiscated it and threw it in the office trash. One of the prisoners emptying the trash found it and returned it to the prisoner who made it.

I have so many more pictures just from the POW museum. But that would make for a very long post and I haven't EVEN gotten to the ground of Andersonville.

I will be posting again tomorrow.

Okay, this was by far one of the best parts of my trip to Georgia. Let me start by telling you how much I LOVE learning about the Civil War. It all started with A series of historical fiction books that I read called "Faith of our Fathers". I got them at the LDS book store. Ever since then I have loved reading about the Civil War.

In order for you to understand what an amazing trip to Andersonville I had you need to know what it is.

In 1864 Andersonville Prison Camp opened. It was built by the Confederates to house Union prisoners. It ended up being the worst prison camps ever. It was overpopulated and they ran out of food and water. During the 15 months that the prison was in operation 45,000 prisoners were recieved at Andersonville and almost 13,000 died.

When I found out I was going to Georgia I immediately looked up how close I would be to Andersonville. Turns out we were pretty close so I was very excited to go.

It was incredible, I don't even know how to describe the feelings while there.

The National Prisoner of War museum is located at Andersonville so we went there first. They show two videos every hour. One is on POW's from every war and the other is about Andersonville. Even though I knew alot about the Prison Camp we still watched the video because mom and dad didn't know too much about it. They were amazing videos.

Then we walked through the museum.

This room was filled with letters to and from the prisoners. They enlarged them and made them the wall paper of the room.

Georgia Part 2

The second part of the trip we went to Columbus for Clay's graduation. It was so nice. I am not going to put a whole lot about that cuz you can see pics and hear the details on my mom's blog www.easysite.com/clufffamily Go to the blog page and you can find it there.

I will say that boiled peanuts are gross and fried green tomatoes are AMAZING!!!

Man I wish I could eat some right now! mmmmmmmm

Pictures from the Georgia Aquarium