Andersonville Prison

Camp Sumter, the Confederacy's largest and most notorious prisoner-of-war camp, operated here from February 1864 to May 1865. Built for 6,000 men but eventually crowded past 33,000, the 26.5-acre open stockade held more than 45,000 Union soldiers over its 14 months; nearly 13,000 died of malnutrition, exposure, and disease. Now Andersonville National Historic Site — encompassing the prison site, the national cemetery, and the National Prisoner of War Museum, the only park in the National Park System dedicated to American POWs of every war — the grounds draw regular reports from visitors and Civil War reenactors: fog rolling in without explanation, shadowy figures, and an unusual, welcoming presence felt near Providence Spring and Stockade Creek.