Andersonville – The Story of Providence Spring.
Andersonville. The name sends a shiver down the spine of students of the Civil War. Andersonville prison, in Macon County, Georgia, is the site of one of the most notorious events of the American Civil War. Andersonville was a Prisoner-of-War camp which housed, over its 14-month lifespan, over 45,000 Union prisoners-of-war – over four times the number for which it was designed.
The prison itself was a mostly open-air prison, encompassing 16.5 acres – and later enlarged to 26 acres. It is an easy walk to go completely around the prison. A light fence was erected about 20 feet inside the stockade wall, indicating a no-mans-land keeping prisoners away from the wall. Confederate sentries had orders to shoot without warning any prisoner entering the “dead zone.”
A small stream ran through the prison. At the point of entrance the water was used for drinking. The stream formed a small swamp in the interior of the prison, where prisoners did their best to keep clean. Bodily functions were taken care of at the point where the stream ran out of the camp.
The prison had inadequate water, inadequate food, and was incredibly unsanitary. Towns as far as 10 miles away complained because of the stench. Death was common – in the short history of the prison, nearly 13,000 prisoners (up to 100 per day, at times) died in captivity – mostly from scurvy, dysentery, and diarrhea. Bodies were stacked like cordwood in a small building on the site. Weekly, a detail of able-bodies prisoners dug a trench outside the prison and laid the bodies shoulder-to-shoulder in the mass grave. The cemetery that exists there today shows the gravestones literally side-by-side.
In the summer of 1864, with all the health problems rampant in the prison, the waters of the stream unexpectedly dried up. Thousands of parched prisoners, most too weak to move, became desperate. In their desperation, on August 3rd, 1864, many began to organize community prayer for water. They committed to not stop praying until God sent water. They took turns, praying hours per day, around the clock.
On August 8th, light showers began, and weakened prisoners lay out in the open with parched mouths open. Over the next five days, the rains grew more constant and grew in intensity. Gradually, the rain turned into a torrent and the filth was washed away. Most of the western wall was washed away in the storm. None of the prisoners had the strength to attempt escape.
At the end of five days of refreshing rain, the entire camp noticed a large cloud, a cloud they described as being very distinctive – like a giant mountain in the sky – that drifted over the camp. One prisoner, in his journal of the event later, called it a "monster of a cloud." Suddenly, there was a deafening roar, a sound like a cannon. The lightning struck inside the dead zone, literally knocking down some of the men near the strike. Immediately after, they heard a second sound, like another explosion, and a fountain of water immediately gushed from the blasted ground. The water poured out, and coursed its way into the stream. The water was cool and clean – and its flow was permanent, even to this day. The prisoners named the spring “Providence Spring.”
After the war, a small stone building was built around the spring, where it continues to flow. Inscriptions inside the building read “The prisoner’s cry of thirst rang up to heaven” and “God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth, and poured his sweetest waters gushing here.”
Sources:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/28460
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/fresh-spring-water-at-andersonville-prison.74329/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site
Andersonville. The name sends a shiver down the spine of students of the Civil War. Andersonville prison, in Macon County, Georgia, is the site of one of the most notorious events of the American Civil War. Andersonville was a Prisoner-of-War camp which housed, over its 14-month lifespan, over 45,000 Union prisoners-of-war – over four times the number for which it was designed.
The prison itself was a mostly open-air prison, encompassing 16.5 acres – and later enlarged to 26 acres. It is an easy walk to go completely around the prison. A light fence was erected about 20 feet inside the stockade wall, indicating a no-mans-land keeping prisoners away from the wall. Confederate sentries had orders to shoot without warning any prisoner entering the “dead zone.”
A small stream ran through the prison. At the point of entrance the water was used for drinking. The stream formed a small swamp in the interior of the prison, where prisoners did their best to keep clean. Bodily functions were taken care of at the point where the stream ran out of the camp.
The prison had inadequate water, inadequate food, and was incredibly unsanitary. Towns as far as 10 miles away complained because of the stench. Death was common – in the short history of the prison, nearly 13,000 prisoners (up to 100 per day, at times) died in captivity – mostly from scurvy, dysentery, and diarrhea. Bodies were stacked like cordwood in a small building on the site. Weekly, a detail of able-bodies prisoners dug a trench outside the prison and laid the bodies shoulder-to-shoulder in the mass grave. The cemetery that exists there today shows the gravestones literally side-by-side.
In the summer of 1864, with all the health problems rampant in the prison, the waters of the stream unexpectedly dried up. Thousands of parched prisoners, most too weak to move, became desperate. In their desperation, on August 3rd, 1864, many began to organize community prayer for water. They committed to not stop praying until God sent water. They took turns, praying hours per day, around the clock.
On August 8th, light showers began, and weakened prisoners lay out in the open with parched mouths open. Over the next five days, the rains grew more constant and grew in intensity. Gradually, the rain turned into a torrent and the filth was washed away. Most of the western wall was washed away in the storm. None of the prisoners had the strength to attempt escape.
At the end of five days of refreshing rain, the entire camp noticed a large cloud, a cloud they described as being very distinctive – like a giant mountain in the sky – that drifted over the camp. One prisoner, in his journal of the event later, called it a "monster of a cloud." Suddenly, there was a deafening roar, a sound like a cannon. The lightning struck inside the dead zone, literally knocking down some of the men near the strike. Immediately after, they heard a second sound, like another explosion, and a fountain of water immediately gushed from the blasted ground. The water poured out, and coursed its way into the stream. The water was cool and clean – and its flow was permanent, even to this day. The prisoners named the spring “Providence Spring.”
After the war, a small stone building was built around the spring, where it continues to flow. Inscriptions inside the building read “The prisoner’s cry of thirst rang up to heaven” and “God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth, and poured his sweetest waters gushing here.”
Sources:
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/28460
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/fresh-spring-water-at-andersonville-prison.74329/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site
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