{"id":1173,"slug":"andersonville-prison-andersonville-georgia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["The numbers first, because at Andersonville the numbers are the story. Camp Sumter operated fourteen months, February 1864 to May 1865, on a stockade of twenty-six and a half acres in rural Georgia. Roughly forty-five thousand Union prisoners passed through it; at its August 1864 peak more than thirty-two thousand men were held inside at once. Nearly thirteen thousand died — of dysentery, scurvy, exposure, and crowding — at a rate, in the worst months, approaching a hundred a day.","The stockade's most famous boundary was a low fence nineteen feet inside the walls: the dead line. Prisoners who crossed it were shot by the guards, and the archive's record includes the men who stepped over deliberately. The commandant, a Swiss-born captain named Henry Wirz, was arrested in May 1865, tried before a military commission presided over by Lew Wallace, and hanged in Washington on November 10, 1865 — the only man executed for the war's conduct."]},{"heading":"The documented record","paragraphs":["The camp's internal justice is documented too: in July 1864, prisoners tried and hanged six of their own — the 'Raiders,' a gang that had been preying on the weak inside the stockade — with the guards' cooperation. The dead were buried in trenches by fellow prisoners working details, shoulder to shoulder, a hundred graves to a plot.","The rescue of the record is its own story. A prisoner clerk named Dorence Atwater had kept a parallel copy of the death register, fearing the Confederate rolls would be lost; in August 1865 he returned with Clara Barton and a federal expedition to mark the graves. Because of Atwater's list, only 460 of the cemetery's roughly thirteen thousand markers had to read 'Unknown U.S. Soldier.'"]},{"heading":"What witnesses file","paragraphs":["The legend layer here is thin, and the file treats that as data rather than absence. Visitors report the standard inventory — dread on the stockade ground, voices, smells, figures at the deadline posts — but no signature apparition, no named ghost, no canonical tale. Andersonville never needed to invent one.","The one luminous entry belongs to the prisoners themselves: on a night in August 1864, during a storm, a spring broke through the ground inside the stockade. The prisoners called it Providence Spring, and attributed it — in their own testimony — to prayer. The water still flows at the site, sheltered under a small house built later by prisoners' descendants. It is the archive's reminder that the men in the stockade were filing their own reports, and some of them were about mercy."]},{"heading":"What remains","paragraphs":["The stockade site is an open field with reconstructed wall sections and deadline posts; the cemetery Barton's expedition organized still receives the dead of later wars; the National Prisoner of War Museum stands at the site of the worst of them. In the town of Andersonville, a monument to Henry Wirz — erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy — keeps the argument open, as the file does. Thirteen thousand dead men did not require a ghost story to make this place haunted. They required a clerk, a list, and a field kept honest."]}],"name":"Andersonville Prison","aliases":["Camp Sumter"],"type":"PRISON","type_label":"Prison","cats":["DARK_HISTORY","WAR_HISTORY","PARANORMAL_INVESTIGATION_SITE","HAUNTED_PLACE"],"groups":["dark-history","hauntings","institutions"],"desc":"Site documented in a Ghost Research Society investigation report.","full_desc":"A prison in Andersonville, Georgia, Andersonville Prison is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Site documented in a Ghost Research Society investigation report. The archive files it under investigation sites, dark history and war history. The dossier holds 2 reported claims and 3 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Andersonville","county":null,"state":"Georgia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":32.5481,"lon":-84.3536,"coord_kind":"EXACT","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":"https://home.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"This source proves the report exists, not a supernatural cause. Historic backstories, old visitor details and inferred technology validity are not accepted without independent evidence. Historical investigation date is not a present permission to enter.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"HIGH","score":80,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0.85,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":452,"type":"NEGATIVE_INVESTIGATION_RESULT","description":"The authors report no personal paranormal experience and no collected evidence. The account has been recorded since 2025-09-09. Andersonville Prison in Andersonville, Georgia spent its working years housing the desperate; the reports suggest some of that desperation stayed. Investigators logged it; whether instruments or interpretation produced it is the open question. Sources including 'Ghost Research Society: Andersonville Prison investigation' keep the claim in circulation. Investigators logged it; the interpretation remains the investigator's own.","evidence":"PARANORMAL_INVESTIGATION_CLAIM","evidence_label":"Investigation claim","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":"2025-09-09","confidence":0.85,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Ghost Research Society: Andersonville Prison investigation","url":"https://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/andersonville.html","publisher":"Ghost Research Society / Dale Kaczmarek","type":"PARANORMAL_ORGANIZATION","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":1114,"type":"REPORTED_ANOMALIES","description":"Visitors and staff report apparitions, cries and cannon-fire sounds across the stockade site. Institutions that held suffering rarely shed their reputations, and Andersonville Prison in Andersonville, Georgia held its share. It's anecdotal evidence in the strictest sense — stories, repeated, unresolved. 'Andersonville National Historic Site' carries the account. The anomalies are minor and stubborn — which is exactly why they're still in the record.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Andersonville National Historic Site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"NPS identifies this Civil War prisoner-of-war site and estimates nearly 13,000 prisoner deaths. An institution with this much documented suffering needs no embellishment; the record speaks. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison' carry the record. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://home.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Camp Sumter operated February 1864–May 1865; of ~45,000 prisoners held, about 13,000 died. The institution's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison' documents the entry. The record keeps it — history, not lore.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1864","date_end":"1865","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"Commandant Henry Wirz was convicted of war crimes and hanged in November 1865. Andersonville Prison's operational history is on record — the entry belongs to the verified layer beneath the asylum lore. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. Sources including 'Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison' carry the record. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":"1865-11-10","confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[{"name":"Camp Sumter opens","type":"INCARCERATION","date_start":"1864-02","date_end":null,"description":"The first Union prisoners arrived at Camp Sumter in February 1864 — a stockade built for 10,000 that held 33,000 by August. No shelter, a polluted creek for water, and rations that starved men to skeletons: nearly 13,000 died in fourteen months. Andersonville became the synonym for the war's prison horror and is now the site of the National POW Museum.","evidence":"INCARCERATION","source":{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"name":"Wirz executed","type":"EXECUTION","date_start":"1865-11-10","date_end":null,"description":"Captain Henry Wirz, Andersonville's commandant, was hanged at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington on November 10, 1865 — one of the very few men executed for Civil War crimes, convicted by a military tribunal after a two-month trial. His guilt and the trial's fairness are still argued over, and a monument to him in the town square remains deeply controversial.","evidence":"EXECUTION","source":{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"investigations":[{"org":"Ghost Research Society","date":"2025-09-09","methods":"Digital recorder, camera and Ovilus session at Providence Spring.","findings":"The authors report no personal paranormal experience and no collected evidence.","evidence":"PARANORMAL_INVESTIGATION_CLAIM","source":{"name":"Ghost Research Society: Andersonville Prison investigation","url":"https://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/andersonville.html","publisher":"Ghost Research Society / Dale Kaczmarek","type":"PARANORMAL_ORGANIZATION","authority":4}}],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic prison site; access is typically by guided tour—check the managing agency.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Ghost Research Society: Andersonville Prison investigation","url":"https://www.ghostresearch.org/Investigations/andersonville.html","publisher":"Ghost Research Society / Dale Kaczmarek","type":"PARANORMAL_ORGANIZATION","authority":4},{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://home.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Andersonville National Historic Site","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},{"name":"Camp Sumter / Andersonville Prison","url":"https://www.nps.gov/ande/learn/historyculture/camp_sumter.htm","publisher":"National Park Service","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"place_type","existing_value":"PRISON","incoming_value":"INCARCERATION_SITE","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"Site documented in a Ghost Research Society investigation report.","incoming_value":"Camp Sumter, where 13,000 Union prisoners died in fourteen months.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"This source proves the report exists, not a supernatural cause. Historic backstories, old visitor details and inferred technology validity are not accepted without independent evidence. Historical investigation date is not a present permission to enter.","incoming_value":"Historical enrichment pass from encyclopedia/official records; paranormal claims remain source-attributed reports, not verified events.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Andersonville Prison","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_Prison","desc":"Confederate prisoner-of-war camp in Georgia","extract":"Andersonville Prison, located near Andersonville, Georgia, was a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the final fourteen months of the American Civil War. Most of the site lies in southwestern Macon County, adjacent to the east side of the town of Andersonville. The prison was created in February 1864 and served until April 1865. Today, the area is preserved as the Andersonville National Historic Site. The site also contains the Andersonville National Cemetery and the National Prisoner of War Museum.","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/AndersonvilleWall.jpg/330px-AndersonvilleWall.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":110,"lat":32.19472222,"lon":-84.12888889},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":3,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":4}}