The Prison Hospital

This empty field was the site of Andersonville's third and last hospital, following two previous hospitals within nine months. Prisoners quickly realized that few patients returned, and because medicines were in short supply, even the sickest men resisted going there, preferring to die among friends and regimental comrades. John L. Ransom of the 9th Michigan Cavalry wrote on April 15, 1864, "The hospital is a tough place to be in....In some cases before a man is fairly dead, he is stripped of everything, coat, pants, shirt, finger rings (if he has any). These nurses trade to the guards." The third hospital was a cluster of open, barracks-like sheds surrounded by a stockade. Prison conditions were so unsanitary that the slightest scratch could admit deadly microbes, and doctors experimented with local herbs and folk remedies in a desperate attempt to combat rampant infections.

Andersonville, Georgia · United States