Sumter County GaArchives Military Records.....Reasons There Were No Barracks At Andersonville March 1876
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Harris Hill http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00011.html#0002514 July 14, 2005, 4:25 pm

Reasons There Were No Barracks At Andersonville


REASONS WHY THERE WERE NO BARRACKS.
 
The Confederate Government has always been harshly assailed for its want of 
humanity in not having barracks to house the prisoners from the sun and rains. 
A more senseless hue and cry was never heard. How was it possible to saw 
timber into planks without saw-mills? There were two water-power mills distant 
three and six miles respectfully, but such rude primitive affairs undeserving 
the name. The nearest steam saw-mill was twenty-three miles distant (near 
Smithville), the next at Reynolds, about fifty miles distant; but the great 
bulk of the lumber used, fully two-thirds, was brought from Gordon, a distance 
of eighty miles. Even if these mills had had the capacity to supply the 
necessary amount of lumber, it would still have been impossible to have 
provided barracks for the prisoners, as all the available engines of all the 
railroads in the Confederacy were taxed to their utmost capacity in 
transporting supplies for the army in the field and to the prisons. But few 
even of the officers of the guard had shanties, and these few were built of 
slabs and sheeting, which every one knows his the refuse of the mills. And 
even though there were no lack of lumber, when we remember that there was but 
one solitary manufactory of cut nails in the limits of the Confederacy, 
certainly no blame could be attached to the authorities for not furnishing 
more comfortable quarters for them. Nearly every building in the encampment 
was built of rough logs and covered with clap-boards split from the tree and 
held to their places by poles. The force of these statements is readily 
appreciated by every intelligent, unprejudiced mind. Besides, is it customary 
for any nation in time of war to treat their prisoners in a more humane manner 
than their own soldiers in the field? The inquiry becomes pertinent when we 
reflect that during the last two years of the war there was not a tent of any 
description to be found in any of the armies of the Confederacy, save such as 
were captured from the Federals.
 


Additional Comments:
Southern Historical Society Papers.
Page 164  March Issue 1876

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