This Saturday, September 6, is our next “First Saturday” program, marking the 150th Anniversary of Andersonville Prison. Following the dramatic overcrowding and deaths of August 1864, September brought dramatic change swiftly to prisoners held at Andersonville. Following the occupation of Atlanta by U.S. forces under General Sherman on September 2, five days later the Confederacy began evacuating prisoners from Andersonville. Replacement prisons at Florence, South Carolina and at Millen, Georgia were still under construction and not yet ready to receive prisoners. Fueled by the fear of an advance on the prison, in only seven days, Confederate authorities moved 17,000 prisoners of war. Told that they were being moved for an exchange, healthy prisoners were crammed into dozens of boxcars, leaving behind the sick and the dying. Private Samuel Melvin, 1st Massachusetts Heavy Artillery, recounted, …a great many detachments went out today, yet they are taking them just as fast as they can find cars. There is no admission fee and all programs are open to the public. 10:00 a.m. — Special Program—The Road To Andersonville: Departure Join a park ranger on a guided walk following in the footsteps of the 45,000 United States soldiers held at Andersonville prison from 1864-1865. The tour begins at the National Prisoner of War Museum at Andersonville National Historic Site and lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes. The tour starts promptly at 10:00 a.m. Reservations are required for this program and may be obtained online at go.nps.gov/roadtoandersonville 11:00 a.m. — Prison Site Walk 1:00 p.m. - Special Program: Father Peter Whelan 2:00 p.m. — Special program: Recent Archaeological Investigations at Camp Lawton. In the museum theater, join Lance Green for a discussion of recent archeology field work at the Camp Lawton site. Field schools held by Georgia Southern University this spring and summer focused on identifying the location of the stockade wall and investigating subsurface features within the prison pen, including a prisoners hut and the remains of a brick oven. Lance Greene is an assistant professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Georgia Southern University. He has worked as an archaeologist in the Southeast for over 20 years, on prehistoric and historic sites. 3:00 p.m. — The Burying Ground: A Walk through the Andersonville National Cemetery Join a park ranger to walk through the Andersonville National Cemetery and learn more about the process of burying the dead at the Andersonville Prison. Meet at the Georgia Monument.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 17:00:01 +0000
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