The story of Providence Spring got its name is one of the only bright moments at Andersonville.
A sign erected nearby by the National Park Service reads as follows:
"During a heavy rainstorm on August 14, 1864, a spring suddenly gushed from this hillside. The prisoners were desperate for fresh water, and over time the event became legendary. Several men claimed to have seen lightning strike this spot just before the spring burst forth.
This damp slope, with its many natural seeps, would appear to be a likely site for a spring. Workmen may have inadvertently buried the spring´s outlet while digging the stockade trench. Whether an act of nature or divine providence, the effect of the stream was an answer to thousands of prayers.
"A spring of purest crystal water shot up into the air in a column and, falling in a fanlike spray, went babbling down the grade into the noxious brook. Looking across the dead-line, we beheld with wondering eyes and grateful hearts the fountain spring."
John L. Maile, 8th Michigan Infantry August 15, 1864."
In 1901 the Woman's Relief Corps built a handsome stone spring house at the site of the spring, as part of their efforts to preserve and protect the Andersonville prison site.
From Roadside America: (
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"Providence Spring
Andersonville, Georgia
In the summer of 1864, tens of thousands of Union POWs were dying of thirst at the military prison in Andersonville, Georgia. Suddenly, a spring erupted from the ground within the stockade. The POWs credited its appearance to divine intervention, and "Providence Spring" became part of the established lore of the Civil War.
The spring was enclosed within a large stone shelter by Union veteran groups in 1901. Fancy marble slabs flanking the spring have grown stained and encrusted by impurities in the water over the years. "The prisoner's cry of thirst rang up to heaven," reads one of several inscriptions. "God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth, and poured His sweetest waters gushing here."
How many prisoners were actually saved by Providence Spring is open to question, since a modern sign outside the shelter warns: "Water Unfit for Human Consumption: PLEASE DO NOT DRINK."