The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 7: Prisons and Hospitals.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

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[74] of July, 1862, lessened the pressure somewhat, but subsequent captures made further provision necessary. In 1863, it was determined to build a large prison further south, in territory which was not tributary to Virginia as far as food was concerned. After much investigation, Anderson, then a railroad station twelve miles north of Americus, Georgia, was chosen. Here was constructed in 1863-64 the structure which acquired notoriety equal to that of the Bastile or Newgate. The locality was selected by Captain W. S. Winder, a son of General John H. Winder, then commanding the Department of Henrico. The plan of the post allowed both for offense and defense, and showed engineering ability of no mean order.

The prison was a stockade, within which it was intended to build barracks for from eight to ten thousand men. This stockade was constructed of squared trunks of trees, about twenty feet long, set five feet into the ground, enclosing an area, first of about seventeen acres, afterward enlarged to about twentyseven acres, though several acres were swamp. An outer stockade surrounded the prison, and a third was begun but never completed. The ground sloped down on both sides to a small stream, a branch of Sweet Water Creek, which ran from west to east through the stockade. This stream was about fifty feet below the highest point within the enclosure and the stream itself was about three hundred feet above the sea level. The hills were covered with pine trees which were cut down to furnish material for the stockade, and no trees of any considerable size were left, though the stumps, the branches, and the underbrush covered the ground when the first prisoners entered. The soil was sandy with small admixture of vegetable mold or of clay. Water sank readily into the soil or was drained off. The stream flowing through the stockade was clear, the water naturally pure, and the locality seems not to have been unsuitable for a prison for the number of inmates for which it was originally designed.

Though orders had been given to construct the prison in