Civil War Prison Camp - GHM 136-5 - Thomas Co
Posted by: 
Coinseekers
N 30° 50.239 W 083° 59.839
17R E 213310 N 3415419
Location Wolf Street, Thomasville
Waymark Code: WM72KD
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 08/24/2009
Views: 20
Confederate authorities fearing a raid on Andersonville by Shermans marching army chose Thomasville as a safe, territory prison camp. Five thousand Federal prisoners were brought here on the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad Line via Blackshear in the second week of December 1864. Colonel Henry Forno commanded the 2nd and 4th Georgia Reserves and the prison camp. The camp was a five acre square bounded by a ditch six to eight feet deep, ten to twelve feet wide. Several hundred prisoners died of smallpox, typhoid fever, diarrhea and a few from trees felled for firewood and shelter. Some sick prisoners were cared for at the Methodist Church and at Fletcher Institute. The dead were buried in the Methodist Cemetery. Local citizens helped the sick and provided prisoners with food. With Sherman settled to Savannah the emergency camp at Thomasville closed. The prisoners were marched sixty miles to Albany and entrained for Andersonville where they arrived on December 24, 1864.
Type of Marker: Highway
Marker #: 136-5
Date: 1979
Sponsor: Georgia Historical Comission City of Thomasville
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