| The prison for Union enlisted men at
Anderson, Georgia is well known for its ghastly living conditions
and high mortality rate. Its commander was the only person
executed after the war for what we would call war crimes -- though
the trial was more a show trial than a judicial exercise. |
| I've just finished reading William
Marvel's Andersonville -- the Last Depot. As the
subtitle suggests, there is a lot of information about Confederate
railroads, and their use, in the book. Below, I have indicated how
much strain the Andersonville prison camp put on the railroad
system, using information from the book. |
| About 45,000 men entered the prison as
prisoners during its life (from February, 1864 to April, 1865).
The great majority were brought by railroad, usually from
Virginia. Their departure was designed to relieve the need to
transport food to Richmond to feed prisoners and to get this
dangerous group of men out of the nation's capital before there
was an uprising or breakout there. |
| Prisoners were usually sent in groups
of about 600 -- 50 men to a box car -- so 12 prisoner cars per
train. Guards probably required another one or two cars. This
required a total of about 900 cars for prisoners and 75 to 150 for
guards in a total of about 75 trains. Another 700 cars for
prisoners and 60 to 100 cars for guards were required for the 60
or so trains required to remove the prisoners away from Sherman's
threat in late 1864. |
| Each train was required for several
days (the requirement remained, though prisoners were moved from
train to train as they move from one railroad company to another).
The route from Richmond consumed 5 to 6 days and was initially as
follows: |
| Segment |
Railroad Company |
| Richmond to Petersburg |
Richmond & Petersburg |
| Petersburg to Weldon |
Petersburg |
| Weldon to Raleigh |
Raleigh & Gaston |
| Raleigh to Charlotte |
North Carolina |
| Charlotte to Columbia |
Charlotte & South Carolina |
| Columbia to Augusta |
South Carolina |
| Augusta to Millen |
Augusta & Savannah |
| Millen to Macon |
Central (of Georgia) |
| Macon to Andersonville |
South Western |
|
| Once the Piedmont Railroad was
completed, the route was from Richmond to Danville on the Richmond
& Danville Railroad, then Danville to Greensboro on the
Piedmont Railroad, then to Charlotte on the North Carolina
Railroad and the rest of the way as before. |
| The later trips to Millen, Savannah,
Florence and elsewhere lasted 2 to 4 days. |
| Fortunately for the railroad system,
the route from Richmond to Andersonville was almost exactly the
reverse of the route of the food from southwestern Georgia to
Richmond, so the empty food trains could be used to haul the
prisoners. |
| The other big demand caused by
Andersonville was the requirement to ship in food. My estimate is
that at least one train of 13 cars was required every week to
bring in the food. (As Marvel shows, the high death rate was not
from starvation, but from dysentery and scurvy -- there was enough
bulk, but not the right variety of food.) |