2020 Georgia - part 12: Magnolia Springs' Camp Lawton Civil War prison camp and the best small museum ever - Travel With Us

We’re always amazed at the history we can find in what we think are out of the way places, but in 1864, this location became important because of the combination of the natural springs and the railroad line that was close by. Let’s see what happened that year through the displays in the history center.

This history center gets my vote for *best small museum ever* because it concentrates on one slice of history (the South’s POW camps during the Civil War). This concentration means we can look in depth at a topic instead of having it be just one piece of the big story. Also, this center was well laid out and logical to follow. We were the only ones in it so we took our time!

The history center featured a movie covering highlights of the entire Civil War that we found so fascinating and informative that we watched it 3 times. One new fact that we heard in the movie was about the rise in numbers of prisoners of war when President Lincoln stopped the prisoner exchanges between the North and South. So our question was, why did he do this and when?

So I googled this question and got an answer from www.ThoughtCo.com“

“The U.S. suspended the Dix-Hill Cartel, which set up the requirements for prisoner exchanges, on July 30, 1863 when President Lincoln issued an order providing that until such time as the Confederates treated black soldiers the same as white soldiers there would no longer be any prisoner exchanges between the U.S. and the Confederacy. This effectively ended prisoner exchanges and unfortunately resulted in captured soldiers from both sides being subjected to horrific and inhumane conditions in prisons such as Andersonville in the South and Rock Island in the North.” If you’re interested in this topic, you may want to go to that website.

Andersonville prison in Georgia

Probably the best know of the Southern prisons for Union soldiers was at Camp Sumter, known to us as Andersonville from the name of the nearby town, because of the book and later movie with that name. I remember my mom reading it and saying that it was the hardest book she had ever read because of the conditions there. We toured Andersonville a number of years ago using a CD self-driving tour. About all that is left now is the outline of the stockade and a rebuilt wall and gate (for us) where prisoners walked in after their train ride south. Like my mom, hearing about the conditions the men faces was one of the unsettling sites we’ve ever experienced. I still think about these prisoners without any protection from the elements during hot summer days and cold winter nights.

Considered to be the deadliest landscape of the Civil War, of the 45,000 Union soldiers imprisoned here, nearly 13,000 died. At its most crowded, it held more than 32,000 men, where forced overcrowding compounded problems of supply and distribution of everything.

In late 1863, when Virginia was in danger of being overrun, plans started being made to move large numbers of prisoners to south central Georgia. Andersonville, known as Camp Sumter, became the largest stockade to that point.

By the summer of 1864, after only 6 months of operation, it was way overcrowded. Over 32,000 prisoners were confined to a space designed to hold 10,000 prisoners. Rations were scarce, shelter wasn’t available, and poor sanitary conditions meant death was inevitable.

To reduce overcrowding, General Winder, responsible for all Confederate prisons, got permission to build another prison. In August 11846, he started building Camp Sumter with help (not always voluntary) from the Georgia and Florida plantation owners.

The site chosen was just north of Millen, about 5 miles north of the train station, and further east of Camp Sumter (Andersonville). The layout (a large rectangular) was similar to Camp Sumter, but the stream running through it was much larger and it came from the deep springs so the water was always fresh and clear.

Interesting note about Millen: Residents originally called the town “Seven-Nine” or “Old 79” because it was exactly 79 miles by rail from Savannah (on the East Coast) to Millen and another 79 miles from Millen to Macon (in the middle of the state). Since moving cotton from the plantations to the ships was so important, Millen became an integral trade post.

When prisoners in Charleston started contracting yellow fever, the decision was made to move all of the Savannah and Charleston prisoners to the camp at Millen. However, progress was slow in building Camp Lawton.

an illustration of Camp Lawton done by one of the prisoners (we’ll see more of him later)

Camp Lawton opened in October 1864. After the election in November 1864 when President Lincoln was re-elected, the push was on to win the war and stop the fighting. Just 6 weeks after it opened, Camp Lawton had to be evacuated because of Sherman’s army advancing through Georgia. At the time with an area of 42 acres and holding over 10,000 of a planned 40,000 men, it was said to be the largest prison in the world. (thank you Wikipedia for these last numbers)

These Civil War era field desks were common for officers on both sides of the conflict.

The “office in a box” could be easily moved with an officer as he moved from battle to battle while still providing him with storage space and a writing surface. General Winder probably had a desk like this one.

Much of what we know about this camp and Andersonville came from men who secretly kept diaries while here or wrote down their memories soon after they returned home. Many of these accounts were published after the war. They often concealed their notes in the linings of their clothing or in the soles of their shoes. When prisoner exchanges were still happening, notes could be sent to family members for safekeeping.

One of the best known of these writers was Private Sneden who in 2000 posthumously provided us with insights and illustrations of what happened at this camp.

shelters

Prisoners usually came here directly from Andersonville in rail cars, but some went to Savannah first. They noted that the layout was similar to what they knew at Andersonville (but larger), stockade logs were still covered in bark (at Andersonville the logs had been roughly shaped), and the water was so much better.

The stockade enclosed 44 acres of ground, and large pine trees were still available on the ground when the first men arrived so they could construct huts of logs and branches for themselves.

some of the shelters built as illustrated by Private Sneden

more of the shelters the men were able to make

The Confederacy had 2 types of prisons: repurposed buildings (like a tobacco warehouse) and an open air stockade like what we’re seeing.

When weather turned cold in early November and it actually snowed, the desperate inmates moved into the unused brick ovens that had originally been built for cooking.

example of a shelter that at least kept the rain off

staying alive

The Confederates were always trying to recruit prisoners to help them out, offering them such perks as money. These “paroled Yanks” were often paid for skills like carpentry or blacksmithing. Many “parolees” worked along the guards on burial detail. Prisoners would accept parole to get relief from the boredom of camp life, access to better food, opportunities to collect information, and the chance to escape.

Parolees were given metal stars that they could show to the guards as they approached the the gates.

Our Private Sneden signed such a written parole after refusing to do so the day before. He was assigned to the camp’s surgeon, Isaiah White, to maintain the death register. Sneden got to leave the stockade forever and move into a tent near Dr. White’s home.

Other parolees had to come back each night and live with the tension between them and the prisoners who saw them as traitors and believed them to be helping the enemy.

rations

After shelter, the prisoners’ next priority was finding food. The were grouped into “messes.” Each group relied upon each for their daily survival and would share shelter and cooking utensils, as well as food rations.

Food supply was good at the beginning of their stay here but started running out as time went by. Having the good source of water helped, and it also provided plants and animals to supplement their daily rations.

As the amount of food diminished, the prisoners even ate snake, gopher , or small alligator whenever they could catch or trap one.

While the guards got the same quality of food, they did get a larger amount than the prisoners.

These rations only provided about 530 to 680 calories per day, or less than 25% of what the prisoners needed to maintain their body weight.

health

While conditions were better here than at Andersonville, prisoners continued to die from lack of food, lack of medicine, and exposure to the elements. The constant cycle of hope and despair, made worse by false rumors of prisoner exchanges, led many to helplessness, mental depression, and even insanity.

With the coming of winter, conditions got so much harder for them since their own flesh, blood and clothing were thinner as they lay on the bare ground; often they were soaked to the skin and didn’t have any fuel for a fire for warmth.

A hospital for the sick was established in the northwest corner of the area, but no shelter, blankets, or medicine was issued there. Their hope was that at least the camp surgeon could find them here. Those unfit to stay at this makeshift hospital could be transferred to a hospital outside of the pen until they could be forwarded to the locations where prisoner exchanges happened.

Many prisoners arriving here had been wounded, and the wounds were probably already infected. These infections could become gangrenous, leading to amputation or death. Camp conditions exposed prisoners to biting insects, usually mosquitoes, that spread malaria and yellow fever.

pictures of the prisoners as they were being treated by prison doctors

election

The Republican Party, which had been formed just 10 years previously, ran on refusing to negotiate a treaty with the Confederate government. They wanted a clear win to settle the issues they were fighting about. Refusing such a treaty would guarantee that the war would continue, regardless of the costs, but slaves could be freed once and for all.

The Union prisoners knew they if the Democratic Party won, they’d be going home soon. But they were willing to “chill and starve; to endure the horrors or prison pens; to die, or worse, to become lunatics and idiots if need be, rather than see the war closed with dishonor to the American flag. It said to those rebels, Do your worst, we’ll never ask you for peace.”

The presidential election was the most notable event of the prisoners stay here. The guards provided them with papers with extractions from Northern papers calling the war a failure and other false information for the prisoners. Lincoln won by a landslide.

trade

In every economy, people find a way to get what they need to live. One prisoner at Andersonville compiled a list of commodities that were for sale in the prison. Private Sneden typed a copy of the list that he included in his scrapbooks.

I know it’s hard to read; it was hard to read in the museum! But at least we can see the long list of items.

escape

At Camp Sumter, just like at Andersonville, healthy prisoners teamed up to dig tunnels under the stockade.

This map of the camp in October 1864 soon after it opened showing the location of such tunnels.

A close-up of the drawing shows the tunnels in broken lines.

To clear out the tunnels, dirt would be taken out handful by handful, man to man during the night. They’d spread it out inside the camp and cover it with pieces of old blankets or anything else they could find so guards wouldn’t see it. When possible, the dirt would be put in any little depression and covered with top soil.

After completing much of the tunnels, someone betrayed them and they had to destroy the entrance that had been inside a log shanty.

beginning of the end of the war

As an aside at this point, as we were going through the museum, I started understanding why General Sherman burned down Atlanta and destroyed almost everything in front of him as he march toward Savannah. To win the war and the horrible cost of life on both sides, the South had to see the futility of continuing the fight.

Atlanta’s first name was Terminus because it’s where all the railroads that were being built were going to end. One set of lines went north through the Ohio Valley and the other set of lines went up the East Coast. Because the Appalachian Mountains were between the 2 lines, the first time they could meet was at Terminus, or Atlanta.

And the railroads were all important since that’s how the South moved men and supplies. When the Union soldiers destroyed railroad lines, they destroyed the means of transportation, crippling the South.

General Sherman left burned down Atlanta on his famous March to the Sea on November 15, just after the election. This path of destruction was coming toward Camp Lawton. Rumors about Sherman’s activities circulated among the prisoners and the guards. On November 17, General Winder ordered the removal of the prisoners, destination unknown. By November 18, Private Sneden was able to read the Charleston Courier that Dr. White had.

By November 19, General Winder quickly moved the prisoners from Andersonville and Camp Lawton. On November 22, the last group of prisoners and prison staff boarded a train to Savannah.

Less than 2 weeks later on December 3, Union troops reached Millen where they destroyed the train station and the railroad. By December 13, Sherman reaches “the sea” at Fort McAllister, south of Savannah. After capturing the fort, he begins his assault on Savannah. We stayed at Fort McAllister State Park a couple of years ago and really enjoyed that area.

After the fall of Savannah (Sherman’s famous Christmas gift to President Lincoln), some of the Millen prisoners were exchanged that month. Others stayed behind in military hospitals. While large numbers suffered lifelong ailments from their confinement, many picked up the threads of their former lives.

As memories faded over the generations, details about the prison were lost. The earthworks used to guard Camp Lawton were a visible reminder of the past, but it wasn’t until 2012 that a corner of the stockade was uncovered and a new chapter began here.

The total number of prisoners held at Camp Lawton will probably never be known.

Those who died here were initially buried in 2 trenches near the railroad. later they were moved to Lawton National Cemetery along with Union soldiers who had died and were buried elsewhere in the area.

I love the efforts the North made to unify the nation by burying together the dead of the South and the North. Even though men fought each other, they were still brothers and part of one nation.

In 1868, just 3 years after the war ended, all of the dead were relocated to Beaufort National Cemetery in South Carolina, where they remain today.

Private Sneden proposed the idea of keeping a record of deaths at Camp Lawton.

descendants

A German immigrant, Glamser enlisted in 1861. He fought in West Virginia, Mississippi, and fought in the Battle of Vicksburg where he was hit by a bullet in the head but he kept on serving the regiment. After the fall of Vicksburg, his regiment moved on to the battles at Chattanooga and then to Atlanta. Glamser was captured on July 22, 1864, during the Battle of Atlanta. He was taken to Andersonville and then to Camp Lawton.

Glamser suffered the rest of his life from the effects of his wounds and the hardships he endured. After the war, he returned home to Ohio before moving onto Kansas and the Missouri. When he developed acute asthma and bronchitis, he was no longer able to work. He died in 1911 at the age of 76.