Andersonville

So I'm going to finally get around to posting stuff from the little vacay I took with the BF, the BFF, and their family. (Backstory: the BFF is the BF's older sister. We went to school together and were college roomies for a while.)

First stop: Andersonville National Historic Site

Seeing we're both History majors and we're both enrolled in the same classes (small college ftw), the BF and I have been tasked with giving a lecture on POWs in the Vietnam in one of our courses. Seeing as a trip to D.C. to see the Vietnam War Memorial is out of the budget, we decided to pay a visit to the National POW Museum instead, as it so happened to be on the way to Florida, where our real vacation awaited (more on that later).

Some background in case you didn't know: "The Camp Sumter military prison at Andersonville was one of the largest Confederate military prisons during the Civil War. During the 14 months the prison existed, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined here. Of these, almost 13,000 died here. Today, Andersonville National Historic Site is a memorial to all American prisoners of war throughout the nation's history." (thanks, Andersonville website!)


After you walk through the museum, you can head out to look at the area where the POWs were kept. This is what greets you when you walk out the doors.

The BF taking a stroll.

Some cannons.

A recreation of the wall of the POW camp.

This is recreation of the living conditions the POWs found themselves in.

This is the statue that marks the entrance to the national cemetery for the POWs. The inscription on the bottom reads "'Turn you to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope.' Zechariah 9:12"




There were literally graves everywhere.



The museum itself is really interesting. They have a lot of artifacts from all the wars - Civil War, World Wars I & II, Vietnam, etc. - even some stuff from Iraq, I think. It's very informative, really well done, and just definitely something worth seeing if you're in the area. It's absolutely free, too, which is a bonus. So if you're ever down in South Georgia, I definitely recommend taking the trip out to Andersonville. Especially if you're a war buff or just a history nerd like me!