Andersonville National Historic Site will commemorate the lives of Union and Confederate Soldiers who died at Andersonville prison by displaying over 13,000 luminaries on the evening of Saturday, March 8. The luminaries will be displayed at the historic prison site and visitors are invited to drive the loop road around the prison site in order to view the lights.

The park’s entrance gates will open at 7 p.m. and remain open until 10 p.m. Andersonville prison, officially named Camp Sumter, was in operation for 14 months during the last years of the Civil War. During that time, nearly 13,000 Union prisoners perished. Over 200 Confederate staff also died while on duty at the prison, most of who are interred in Oak Grove Cemetery.

“It is difficult to envision the loss of such a large number of people,” stated Fred Boyles, superintendent of the Historic Site, “The luminaries are a dramatic depiction of the sacrifice made by so many who gave their lives for our freedom.” Volunteer opportunities are available to assist park staff with this project. Those interested in being a part of this tribute, please call the park at (229)924-0343 ext. 203 to register.

Boyles said the people in this area of the state should be proud to have two national parks. Andersonville, historians say, became so overcrowded with prisoners during the Civil War, because the Union and Confederacy eventually stopped exchanging POWs, but the historians remind people that Andersonville wasn’t the only prison camp where prisoners experienced horrors.

Andersonville officials say Camp Sumter was built because a large Confederate prison camp in Richmond had become overcrowded during the Civil War. Plus, too many battles were being fought near the prison camp in Richmond.

The open stockade, where prisoners were held in Andersonville, was 26 acres in size. The original stockade was made of wood and much of it doesn’t exist today. The stockade deteriorated in the years after the war, because it wasn’t maintained.