Veterans Day at Andersonville

 

Our first stop of the day was to Andersonville National Military Prison and Cemetery.  The Visitor's Center includes the Prisoner of War Museum.  It is very appropriate that this museum would be at the location of a Civil War prisoner of war camp.  These were displays, pictures, and verbal stories from prisoners of war from other wars.  It was very moving to hear from the men and families of others who have been prisoners of war.

Visitor's Center and Prisoner of War Museum.

Nothing is left of Camp Sumter (Andersonville) but the land and the small stream that ran through the camp,  This is a reproduction of the entry gate to the camp.  Nearly 33,000 men entered through this gate and nearly 13,000 of those died in the camp.  Most of those 13,000 die from dysentery, small pox, and starvation not from battle. 

This building covers a small spring that appeared after a terrible thunderstorm.  Those in the camp had been praying for drinking and when this spring appeared, they called it "Providence Spring."

This is the small stream that provided water for the camp .  Unfortunately, poor planning for the building of the camp, caused the stream to be the carrier of human waste, making the stream nearly unusable for drinking water.

Original location of the walls of the camp.

The camp had two walls with about 10 feet between the walls.  Once inside, there was another fence line between the wall and the camp.  This line was called "deadline."  If you crossed that line, you would be shot, no questions asked.

The open field is the camp that held 33,000 men.  Men were almost shoulder-to-shoulder with each other.  There were no permanent structures only a sea of shanties built with sticks and blankets.

When the park service began to prepare the camp for public visitation, several holes were found in the area of the camp.  These holes had been dug by prisoners with spoons or anything they could find, in the search of water.

There were several monuments erected by states to commemorate the loss of men from their state.

 Andersonville was a prisoner of war camp from March 1864 to April 1865.  In those thirteen months nearly 13,000 men died and were buried in mass graves.  In July after the war was over, Clara Barton and a former Union prisoner came to the camp to supervise the reburying with markers of those in the mass graves.  The former Union prisoner had worked in the hospitals of the camp.  He secretly kept lists of the dead and their state. Because of these lists all but 450 prisoner were identified.

This cemetery is still open for burials today.

These six markers are of prisoners who were called "raiders."  They preyed on the other prisoners, stealing whatever they may have had of value.  Eventually, the Confederates caught them, brought them to trial and hanged them.  They are buried separately from the rest of the prisoners.

 

In the afternoon we drove to Plains, Georgia to visit the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site.  This is the high school he and Rosalyn attended.  

Another part of the site is his  home.  He lived on this farm from age 4 until 17 when he went to college.

Isn't this a pretty cat?  There are two cats that make their home on the property.  This one is called Scaried Cat and the other is Fraidy cat.  These cats have it made.  No one will bother them and they are cared for by the rangers an volunteers at the farm.

This is the home.  His  replaced the normally red dirt that would form a yard with white sand.  The while sand kept the house cooler.  It was Jimmie's job to rake the sand every day to remove insects and other things.

Jimmie had an uncle who was  in the Navy.  This was given to Jimmie by that uncle.  This uncle inspired Jimmie to attend Naval Academy.

For several years, the house did not have indoor plumbing.  When plumbing was added this was their shower.  The water pipes brought the water to the bucket.  The bucket had holes in the bottom and this was their shower.
Jimmie loved to read and both parents encouraged reading.  It would not be uncommon for the kids and parents to read books and newspapers while eating a meal.  I guess this was a prelude to kids/parents using their phones and tablets while eating at the dinner table!

The Carter Family ran a "commissary" for the other families who worked on their farm.  This commissary stocked general items that could be brought at a store in town.  Jimmie said it was not unusual for their to sit down to a meal and a knock at the door would interrupt the meal.  It would be someone wanting something from the commissary.  He said he rarely ate a meal uninterrupted.

Carol became a "cotton-picker."

The Carters still live in Plains.  This is the Secret Service Guard station at the gate of the enclosure to their home.

Downtown Plains.

The trail depot in Plains that became his campaign headquarters when he ran for president.

We got back to camp around 5:00 p.m. This bountiful full moon was in the sky as dusk arrived.  It has been a busy day.  The temperature got up to 73 degrees and it was sunny and nearly cloud free.  It is hard to believe that tomorrow that will all change.  Forecasters are calling for rain and only a high in the 40's and the low in the 20's.  We are planning to do what we can to protect the water lines in the RV.  We plan to empty all holding tanks and pour antifreeze into them.  We will not connect a water hose to the camper, run the furnace and keep the water in the water heater hot.  Hopefully, this will be enough to protect things until we get back to Decatur.

Tomorrow will be our longest driving day...440 miles.  Thankfully, we cross back into CST which will give us an extra hour of driving time.  We have five days left of this trip.  Three days of driving and two days of sightseeing.