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(January 2011)
CSA Quarters, c. 1860
Steven Hippensteel photo |
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(January 2011)
Gen. Winders Home, c. 1850
Steven Hippensteel photo |
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(July 2001)
Andersonville Depot Museum.
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"
Webmaster photo |
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(2006)
Enlarge
Andersonville Depot Museum. Dr. and Mrs. William Dykes and his bag and
carriage used while serving as a doctor to the Andersonville Prison
Lee Hohenstein photo |