(7-01) Andersonville National Cemetery. Section J (Andersonville Union POW graves) in background, the six raider's graves in the foreground. Tour Guide: Andersonville National Cemetery, established on July 26, 1865, continues to provide a permanent resting place of honor for deceased veterans. The initial interments were of those who had died in the nearby prison camp and are contained in sections E, F, H, J, and K. By 1868 more than 800 additional interments in sections B and C--Union soldiers who had died in hospitals, other prisoner of war camps, and on the battlefields of central and southwest Georgia--brought the total burials to 13,700. Of these, more than 500 are unknowns. Today the cemetery contains more than 18,000 interments












  

(7-01) The Raider's Graves. Site Marker: These six graves were deliberately set apart; these six prisoners were buried with dishonor.
     
The names on these headstones may not be accurate. Several of the Raiders were deserters who re-enlisted under aliases
   
Only enlisted soldiers were imprisoned at Andersonville. With no Union officers to maintain order, life in the pen became anarchy. A gang known as the Raiders roamed the prison yard, bullying, robbing, and even murdering other prisoners. Eventually, with the blessing of commandant Wirz, the prisoners formed a police squad called the Regulators, arrested the Raiders, and tried and hanged the six ringleaders
     
Before their execution, the six Raider leaders were court-martialed by their peers. Confederates provided lumber for the gallows, which was erected near the prison's South Gate. The remaining Raiders were forced to run a gauntlet formed by their fellow prisoners
    
"Raiders took $170.00 from Dowd, he was badly cut up, but finally got away and reached the gate, and reported to Capt. Wirz, who came up with him and demanded that the robbers should be given up under penalty of no rations for one week."

(7-01) The Georgia Monument in Andersonville National Cemetery, honors all American prisoners of war. Section K (Andersonville Union POW graves) in background

(7-01) Andersonville, Georgia. Site Marker Side One: The city of Andersonville was incorporated in 1853 as the village center of a small farming community. It came to national attention when Camp Sumter Prison opened here in 1864 and especially when its commandant, Capt. Henry Wirz, was tried for alleged crimes against humanity in 1865. Today, the community proclaims itself a "Civil War Village" and honors both the memory of Union soldiers who suffered here and Confederate soldiers who did their duty while experiencing illness and death in numbers comparable to their unfortunate prisoners. Side Two: Father Peter Whelan (1802-1871). Father Whelan was an Irish priest serving the Diocese of Savannah at the outbreak of the War Between the States. He volunteered to serve as chaplain to CSA troops at Ft. Pulaski and was taken as a POW when the fort fell to Union forces. After being held over a year at Governor's Island and Ft. Delaware, he returned to Savannah where he answered the plea to minister to the prisoners held at Camp Sumter. Whelan came to Andersonville on 16 June 1864 and he remained here four four months daily tending to the needs of prisoners in the stockade. After the war, Whelan publicly defended Capt. Wirz as an innocent scapegoat. His life was cut short by a lung disease he contracted here and died on 6 February 1871. He was remembered by Confederate and Union soldiers alike as truly a "Good Samaritan"