To the Vermonters who Perished at Andersonville -- Andersonville NHS, Andersonville GA
N 32° 11.842 W 084° 07.622
16S E 770832 N 3565931
A plaque at the courtyard POW memorial at the National POW Museum, Andersonville NHS, Andersonville GA honors the men of Vermont who perished at Andersonville during the Civil War
Waymark Code: WMWHZV
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2017
Views: 2
The National POW museum is a fascinating place to visit, to learn about the nuances of who is and isn't a POW, the development of the moral imperatives of caring for prisoners which eventually found expression in the Geneva Convention. There are also many rooms of exhibits chronicling the places and experiences of people who served their country as prisoners of war.
As you leave the museum, you enter a courtyard with an arresting statue of a staggering starving POW, on an island creted by a small fountain that winds through he memorial like the Providence Spring did at Andersonville.
Along the walls are separate plaques dedicated to specific units with significant number of prisoners of war. This plaque is located on the western wall of the memorial, and reads as follows:
"TO THE VERMONTERS WHO PERISHED AT ANDERSONVILLE
You are the sires of generations which are which never will be
Oh beloved of widows and spinsters
Oh, unbearable loss of mothers and sisters
And brothers and fathers and orphans
Yours as the vacant chair, the lonely bed
The rusted tool, the shallow grave
Your laughter fallen silent
Your footfalls mere echoes of memories
Your eyes once bright
Dimmed, sunken, closed
You in the fullness of manhood
Enfeebled, broken, dust
This unholy ground you hallowed
With your prayers, your tears, your blood
Your Earthly remains cradled in the sanguineious soil
Testify to the fulfillment of your duty
Your spirits which long ago mingled with those of the Celestial Hosts
Are felt among us here in the quiet of this sacred place
And though the Earth enfolds your bodies in the Heavens your spirits
Your honored memories shall reside within the hearts of your heirs forever
Erected in the year 1998 by
the Champlain rifles and
VFW Post 6471
Manchester Vermont
Date Installed or Dedicated: 01/01/1998
Name of Government Entity or Private Organization that built the monument: Champlain rifles and VFW Post 6471 Manchester Vermont
Union, Confederate or Other Monument: Union
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