Andersonville Prison

Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter) is the Confederate-era prisoner-of-war camp near Andersonville, Georgia, now preserved as a national historic site and cemetery. The camp operated during the final year of the American Civil War and is a central site for Civil War remembrance.

The preserved site includes the marked outline of the stockade, interpretive exhibits and the Andersonville National Cemetery where thousands who died at the camp are buried. The onsite National Prisoner of War Museum broadens interpretation by placing Andersonville within the longer history of captivity and wartime detention.

Interpretive walks and markers explain the camp’s layout, living conditions, and prisoner experience; the cemetery and monuments are focal points for commemoration.

Camp Sumter opened in February 1864 and was used until May 1865 to hold Union prisoners; overcrowding, shortages of food and disease led to very high mortality. The camp’s commandant, Henry Wirz, was tried and executed after the war for war crimes related to conditions at Andersonville. The site was later designated and developed as a national historic site and cemetery to preserve memory and interpretation.

The site lies adjacent to the small town of Andersonville in rural Sumter County, Georgia, and is located in south-central Georgia, roughly a two-hour drive from the Atlanta metropolitan area.

• Dates and scale: Camp Sumter was active from February 1864 to May 1865 and held tens of thousands of Union prisoners under extremely crowded conditions.
• Cemetery: Approximately 13,000 prisoners who died there are interred in the national cemetery on site, making the cemetery a principal focus for visitors.

What to See#

• Stockade (Camp Sumter): The stockade area of Camp Sumter - the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp - was roughly 26 acres at its largest and is the primary archaeological footprint commemorated at the site.
• National Cemetery: Andersonville National Cemetery contains the burial plots for those who died at the prison; headstones and memorials are laid out across the cemetery grounds.
• National Prisoner of War Museum: The site includes the National Prisoner of War Museum, which interprets prisoner of war experiences from multiple U.S. conflicts and sits adjacent to the historic grounds.

• Begin at the visitor center and National Prisoner of War Museum to view the orientation materials and film before walking the prison site and cemetery - that sequence gives clearer historical context.
• Allow time to walk the stockade perimeter and the national cemetery in quiet reflection; ranger talks and interpretive panels near the visitor center clarify the site's layout and meaning.
• Visit on a weekday if possible to avoid weekend crowds and school groups; the setting is solemn, so quieter times are best for contemplation and reading the exhibits.