Summary:
Many soldiers living in the Andersonville Prison were subjected to inhumane living conditions.
Most of the information was made available through letters and diaries, most famously of Corporal Samuel J. Gibson, who was a union soldiers, captured an imprisoned.
While his messages mostly talked about stable health of prisoners and 'tolerable conditions' subsequent writings described a prison system that was hastily built with poor planning.
Overcrowding was rampant and of over 45,000 prisoners who lived on the 16 acres site, approx. 13,000 died.
There was never enough food to go around for the young men and sanitary conditions quickly disintegrated leading to widespread diseases.
It was rightly described by man as 'hell on earth'