In Andersonville provision would have had to have been made. To live the little food that was given out would have needed to be rationed and guarded, otherwise it would have been stolen. Water would have been gathered from rain, and I would not have drunk from the swamp.
If I had been an inmate in Andersonville I would have tried to escape. It might have gotten me killed, but I think it would have been better to chance death in escape than to have died by the hand of Raiders, starved, or died from the water I drank from the swamp.
I would have tried to escape at night, but only after weeks of planning and stocking on food to give us the energy needed to escape. I would start the revolt by rallying the whole camp and starting a revolt against the Rebel soldiers who would have been greatly outnumbered.
Andersonville Prison. Drawing by Robert Knox Snede...
English: Monuments at Andersonville National Histo...
English: reconstructed wall at AndersonvilleI would have tried to get everyone to grab a weapon. The weapons would have only been small things like sticks, spoons, and things of that sort. But it would have been better than nothing. After we all had weapons and the cover of darkness had fallen, I would have led the prisoners to the gates and pushed down a wall and taken over the rebels.
I would go to these extreme measures because, the living conditions at Andersonville Prison Camp would make me wish I were dead. I would have had to live on very little food per-day/week. Stay in constant fear of the Raiders, lay in a muck filled, swampy mud-hole each day, and just hope that it will rain so that I could get fresh water that wouldn't kill me if I drank it.
To me that would be a situation in which I would not want to live, but would rather die. It is things like this that proves to me that man is not as evolved and sophisticated as we think. There is no creature on the face of the earth that is as cruel as man and Andersonville is a great example of this.
Bird's eye view of the Andersonville POW camp.
Andersonville prisoners and tents, southwest view ...
This a picture of one of the survivors of Anderson...