Day 26 Andersonville, GA: One of our primary destinations of this trip was Andersonville, Georgia. During the Civil War our great, great grandfather was a Union soldier in the 6th Kentucky Cavalry. He was captured at the battle of Richmond, KY (more later), paroled, captured again at the battle of Chickamauga (more later), then was sent to the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, GA named Fort Sumter. He is still there in grave #2117 and we went to visit him.
Andersonville (which is actually a small town nearby) is a National Park at the site of the Andersonville Prison Camp which includes the site of the original prison camp, the camp cemetery, and they have constructed the National Prisoner of War Museum in honor of all America prisoners of war from every conflict the United States has been involved in.
The museum is very interesting to tour through. The prison camp includes a recreation of a small section of the 15 foot tall walls that enclosed the stockade. The prison was originally built as a 16-1/2 acre open compound to house 6,000 enlisted prisoners and opened in mid-February, 1864. By June the number of prisoners had risen to 25,000. The prison eventually was expanded to 26 acres and held 45,000 men. In the 14 months of operation, 12,914 prisoners died there. While this was the worst prison during the war, conditions in other prisons both north and south were nearly as bad.
They have recreated a section of the stockade walls to depict what they looked like, then they have placed posts to show the original layout of the stockade and parallel posts marking the location of the deadline, the no-man's land between the fence and the stockade walls. There are also several monuments in honor to the prisoners and the sites of other areas associated with the prison. The cemetery is an active National Cemetery in addition to the camp cemetery. There have been several books written about Andersonville including a popular novel and a four-hour TV special was on a couple of years ago.
It was incomprehensible to stand there and try to imagine what my great, great grandfather endured at that location 150 years ago.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Our 2014 Trip - #3
Day 38: June 23rd - I have been really, really remiss in making any posts on this here blog. We were pretty busy with the kids and it has been almost nonstop since we connected with my brother and his wife. So I will try to catch up, but plan on doing it on the installment plan rather than all at once. Right now I am sitting at my brother's house in Michigan.
We had a good time while we were in Mississippi. It was great to visit with the kids, especially the grandkids (sorry Rob and Beth) (sort of). Nick loves the outdoors and catching any kind of bug, spider, flying critter, snake, lizard, etc., anything that is creepy and/or crawly. Andrew is just about 18 months now and is an absolute riot. He is waaaay to smart for his age. Mississippi is a beautiful, lush, green state, a tad on the humid side at times, and WOW does it know how to rain. One time Rob told me that they got about 4 inches of rain one day. I had a hard time comprehending getting that much rain in one day. Now I understand. The only other place that I may have seen it rain that hard was probably in the Philippines during the monsoon season. They also have a lot of churches there. We saw several churches in the southern states while traveling, but Mississippi has a lot of churches anywhere from a double-wide mobile home with a steeple to really large multiple buildings. And it is the first place I have ever seen the large, yellow, diamond-shaped caution signs along the roads notifying you that there is a church ahead.
We visited, worked around the house some, and took a couple of day trips. One day Rob, Nick, and I went to Camp Moore in Louisiana just over the border (McComb is just 15 miles north of the border). Camp Moore was a Confederate boot camp during the Civil War. They have a small museum there with some pretty interesting displays and a small cemetery. Everyone but Rob also visited a small railroad museum they had there in McComb. McComb was a primary railroad stop between Chattanooga, TN and New Orleans, LA. We also took a day trip to the Kids Museum in Jackson. Nick really had a good time that day with the rest of us. We also tried to buy out the Walmart store a couple of times while we were there (really glad there wasn't a Costco). We had a good time there, but too soon it was time to go.
It was really tough, but we left on June 2nd heading east. We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama that night (Forest wasn't there) then on to Unadilla, Georgia where we met up with my brother the next day.
(To be continued.)
We had a good time while we were in Mississippi. It was great to visit with the kids, especially the grandkids (sorry Rob and Beth) (sort of). Nick loves the outdoors and catching any kind of bug, spider, flying critter, snake, lizard, etc., anything that is creepy and/or crawly. Andrew is just about 18 months now and is an absolute riot. He is waaaay to smart for his age. Mississippi is a beautiful, lush, green state, a tad on the humid side at times, and WOW does it know how to rain. One time Rob told me that they got about 4 inches of rain one day. I had a hard time comprehending getting that much rain in one day. Now I understand. The only other place that I may have seen it rain that hard was probably in the Philippines during the monsoon season. They also have a lot of churches there. We saw several churches in the southern states while traveling, but Mississippi has a lot of churches anywhere from a double-wide mobile home with a steeple to really large multiple buildings. And it is the first place I have ever seen the large, yellow, diamond-shaped caution signs along the roads notifying you that there is a church ahead.
We visited, worked around the house some, and took a couple of day trips. One day Rob, Nick, and I went to Camp Moore in Louisiana just over the border (McComb is just 15 miles north of the border). Camp Moore was a Confederate boot camp during the Civil War. They have a small museum there with some pretty interesting displays and a small cemetery. Everyone but Rob also visited a small railroad museum they had there in McComb. McComb was a primary railroad stop between Chattanooga, TN and New Orleans, LA. We also took a day trip to the Kids Museum in Jackson. Nick really had a good time that day with the rest of us. We also tried to buy out the Walmart store a couple of times while we were there (really glad there wasn't a Costco). We had a good time there, but too soon it was time to go.
It was really tough, but we left on June 2nd heading east. We stopped in Montgomery, Alabama that night (Forest wasn't there) then on to Unadilla, Georgia where we met up with my brother the next day.
(To be continued.)
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