Andersonville was a prison in the middle of Georgia, southeast of Macon. The prison's purpose was to hold Union war prisoners captive. The reason why the death trap was located in such a remote area was that it was inland and was a safe distance from any possible fighting that may be taking place in the south. Now Andersonville was not a place you wanted to be. The fresh water swamp that was supposed to be used for drinking was now invested with insects, disease, and poop. Anyone who drank this water could be killed. Conditions in the prison were about as bad as it gets. Gangs started to form, and there most of the time food was not even cooked. The food was placed on the same cart that carried out the dead bodies in the morning. Of course, the cart was not cleaned at all. The guards did not make it much better. The firewood that was supposed to keep the prisoners warm was taken away because it was used as a weapon. Although, some prisoners looked out for each other by doing some crazy things. Shebangs, which were basically shacks made out of anything you could find were shared amongst the man. Sometimes though, women were found when dead bodies were taken out to the stock house. One man named John Ransom decided to make the best of this awful nightmare. Eventhough there was no soap, Ransom made a barber shop and even a laundry mat; he did have to use sand for soap. Prisoners also scraped together anything they could find and traded or sold them. Andersonville became almost a market place. As Sherman's army drew closer and closer, prisoners were shipped elsewhere, so there was a great decline in the prisons population in 1864. Andersonville was a terrible place; it took 13,000 people's lives out of the 45,000 that entered. Freedman's Bureau
After the war America was in a mess. Abraham Lincoln was still president, and the south was back to being a part of the United States of America. Most of Virginia and its bordering states had been tarnished with war, and Georgia had been hit hard as well. But most importantly, a whole new race was now really a part of the country. Blacks were free, but racists still flocked around, ruining the black peoples chance at an equal life. The African Americans needed help; they had no idea how to live on their own. In March 1865, the Freedman's Bureau was passed. It was an agency, the first of its kind, whose sole responsibility was to make sure blacks got equal chances. Major General Oliver O. Howard, from Sherman's March, led the agency into furnishing rations to those who were displaced in the war, established schools and hospitals, and supervised the development of a contract labor system. On May 20, 1865, Howard appointed General Rufus Saxton as the commander of the Bureau in Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. Saxton was a big supporter of free labor and contracts, which would help in the years to come, but the states were just in so much of a mess, he could not handle it. So in September of 1865, he was relieved of his duty in Georgia and General Davis Tillson took control. By September of the next year Tillson had served over 800,000 rations statewide. Tillson also though farming was important. He supported free labor and thought that white men should get paid for the work they did just as the blacks did. Tillson's greatest contribution was in the land category. As the war was coming to an end, Sherman issued special field order 15, granting all the land along the coast to free slaves. Andrew Johnson overturned this order and Tillson worked to get the land back to its original owners. When Tillson retired in 1867, Caleb S. Sibley took command. He divided Georgia up into sub districts, which gave Georgia some organization but the plan caused severe money issues and Sibley retired soon after. Education was now of the upmost importance to Georgians. The Freedmen's Bureau got it done. Sixty schools were established and over 30,000 freed people learned how to read. The Freedman's Bureau was filled with ups and downs, but it gave Georgia the lift and starting point it needed to get the "new" country off on the right foot. Sources
Information:
Andersonville: Notes
Freedmen's Bureau: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3257
Pictures:
Andersonville http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1d/Andersonville_Prison.jpg/400px-Andersonville_Prison.jpg
Freedmen's Bureau http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/Freedman's_bureau.jpg/250px-Freedman's_bureau.jpg
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