‘ [84] the prisoners, their systems became so disordered that the smallest abrasion of the skin from the rubbing of a shoe, or from the effects of the hot sun, or from the prick of a splinter, or from scratching a mosquito bite, in some cases took on rapid and frightful ulceration and gangrene.’
From this description of prison and hospital, one cannot wonder that nearly one-third of the total number of prisoners confined died within the space of eleven months. The crowding, the poor food, the lack of medicine, the hospital infected with gangrene, the lack of the simplest hygienic appliances, homesickness, and last, but not least, the hot Southern sun altogether took fearful toll of those confined within the stockade. With the approach of Sherman's army all prisoners, except about five thousand sick, were transferred to Savannah and Charleston during the months of September and October. Colonel G. C. Gibbs, who now commanded at the post, took energetic proceedings to renovate the command. It was possible to secure sufficient vegetable food for a few thousand men, and the death-rate fell considerably during December. Hospital sheds were built, and though a small number of prisoners was returned after General Sherman had passed, conditions were never so horrible.
Camp Lawton, at Millen, Georgia, had been planned by General Winder early in the summer of 1864, after he had seen that the number of prisoners sent to Andersonville would exceed the capacity of that prison. The prison was larger than Andersonville; the stream of water was stronger, and better hospital accommodation was planned.
It was a stockade resembling that at Andersonville, but was square, and contained about forty-two acres. The interior was laid off by streets into thirty-two divisions, each of which in turn was subdivided into ten parts. The branches of the trees used in making the stockade were left on the ground, and the prisoners were able to make huts of them. The question of shelter was never serious here.
