In the center of the whole was a swamp, occupying about three or four acres of the narrowed limits, and a part of this marshy place had been used by the prisoners as a sink, and excrement covered the ground, the scent arising from which was suffocating.

The ground allotted to our ninety was near the edge of this plague-spot, and how we were to live through the warm summer weather in the midst of such fearful surroundings, was more than we cared to think of just then.

[9] Father Peter Whelan arrived on June 16, 1864, to muster the resources of the Catholic church and help provide relief to the prisoners.

It demarcated a no-man's land that kept prisoners away from the wall, which was made of rough-hewn logs about 16 ft (4.9 m) high and stakes driven into the ground.

[10] Anyone crossing or even touching this "dead line" was shot without warning by sentries in the guard platforms (called "pigeon roosts") on the stockade.

Unlike the captives, the guards did not become severely emaciated or suffer from scurvy as a consequence of vitamin C deficiency due to a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables in their diet.

The poor diets and resulting scurvy was likely a major cause of the camp's high mortality rate, as well as dysentery and typhoid fever.

John McElroy, a prisoner at Andersonville, recalled "Before one was fairly cold his clothes would be appropriated and divided, and I have seen many sharp fights between contesting claimants".

This, along with the lack of utensils, made it almost impossible for the prisoners to cook the meager food rations they received, which consisted of poorly milled cornflour.

Within seven months, about a third had died from dysentery and scurvy; they were buried in mass graves, the standard practice for Confederate prison authorities at Andersonville.

In 1864, the Confederate Surgeon General asked Joseph Jones, an expert on infectious disease, to investigate the high mortality rate at the camp.

In 2010, the historian Rosemary Drisdelle said that hookworm disease, a condition not recognized or known during the Civil War, was the major cause of many of the fatalities among the prisoners.

It was not until 1863 that President Lincoln demanded a code of conduct be instituted to guarantee prisoners of war an entitlement to food and medical treatment and to protect them from enslavement, torture and murder.

"[16] A group of prisoners, calling themselves the Andersonville Raiders, attacked their fellow inmates to steal food, jewellery, money and clothing.

This jury, upon finding the Raiders guilty, set punishment that included running the gauntlet, being sent to the stocks, ball and chain and, in six cases, hanging.

A young Union prisoner, Dorence Atwater, was chosen to record the names and numbers of the dead at Andersonville, for use by the Confederacy and the federal government after the war ended.

It was published by the New York Tribune when Horace Greeley, the paper's owner, learned the federal government had refused the list and given Atwater much grief.

A member of the 154th New York Volunteer Infantry, Logan was captured on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg; he was first imprisoned at Belle Isle in Richmond, Virginia and then Andersonville.

[31] In the latter part of the summer of 1864, the Confederacy offered to conditionally release prisoners if the Union would send ships to retrieve them (Andersonville is inland, with access possible only via rail and road).

After General William Tecumseh Sherman began his march to the sea and destroyed Millen, the remaining prisoners were returned to Andersonville.

James Duncan, who had worked in the quartermaster's office at Camp Sumter, was convicted of manslaughter for allegedly withholding food from some of the prisoners.

[37] In 1890, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), Department of Georgia, bought the site of Andersonville Prison through membership and subscriptions.

[39][40] When the WRC was in annual session in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1896, representatives of the Georgia GAR came before them, and offering the old prison, asked them to accept the gift and keep it from desecration.

The women accepted it as a sacred trust, and immediately appointed Lizabeth A. Turner , as chairman of a board to beautify the grounds and make a park of them.

A house for a caretaker was needed, and as the women did not want to build it within the old stockade, more land was purchased making the acreage within the enclosure about 87 acres (35 ha).

Exhibits use art, photographs, displays, and video presentations to depict the capture, living conditions, hardships, and experiences of American prisoners of war in all periods.