Andersonville National Cemetery: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Andersonville National Historic Site, National Park Service

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates; John Milner Associates Inc.

The Andersonville National Cemetery was established on July 26, 1865, for the burial of Union soldiers who perished at Camp Sumter (Andersonville Prison) and continues to provide a permanent resting place of honor for deceased veterans. The cemetery is a 27.15 acre site located in the north central area of the Andersonville national Historic Site, approximately 300 yards northwest of the prison site. The cemetery has a public entrance from a two‑way road leading from the prison site. Within the cemetery, two axial roads bisect the landscape into four quadrants, which together contain eighteen sections of burials or open space for future burials. The cemetery landscape displays a formal geometry with two orthogonal axes terminating in structures, entrance gates, and circular paved loops. Andersonville National Historic Site is significant as the site of Camp Sumter (Andersonville Prison), where 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned and nearly 13,000 died of disease and starvation between February 1864 and May 1865. The prison site represents events of this period of the war and the lives of those who lived and died there, as illustrated by the remains of earthworks constructed to guard and defend the prison and sites of prisoner‑excavated wells and escape tunnels within the prison boundaries. The site is also significant as it represents the commemoration of the suffering and deaths of the Union prisoners held at Andersonville, beginning with Clara Barton’s efforts in 1865 to mark all the graves in the cemetery, followed by the establishment and development of the national cemetery, as well as the erection of monuments and memorials. Andersonville National Historic Site was created to provide an understanding of the overall Prisoner of War story in the Civil War, to interpret the role of Prisoner of War camps in history and commemorate the sacrifice of Americans who lost their lives in such camps. Andersonville is the only prisoner of war camp from the Civil War period that has been preserved as an historic area. Next to the assassination of President Lincoln, Andersonville Prison was used again to justify a harsh reconstruction of the Confederate states. Some of the public’s anger was directed on the commander of the prison, Capt. Henry Wirz. After being described as a “beast and monster,” he was tried for the murder of thousands and was hung on November 10, 1865. The National Cemetery, located 300 yards north of the prison site established in 1865, is an integral part of the significance of Andersonville Prison Site. Most of the 12,920 men who died at the prison camp are buried in the cemetery. The first burial took place on February 27, 1864, when Pvt. Adam Swarner was interred. Graves for both the Union prisoners and the Confederate guards were in trenches 3 feet wide. In July 1865, Clara Barton and a party from Washington arrived to identify and mark the graves of Union soldiers by using the Confederate death rolls. A monument was erected to Clara Barton because of her work in identifying those who were listed as missing in action, but who were instead buried at Andersonville. Andersonville Prison Site and Cemetery constitutes a valuable historical resource of the Civil War period. It represents a grim but significant aspect of the war. To the National Park System and to the country it has become a place to memorialize all prisoners of war throughout our country’s history.

Andersonville National Cemetery: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Andersonville National Historic Site, National Park Service

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