This historic marker preserves the history of Stockade Branch, which was viewed by the Confederates as a good water supply for the prisoners, but which was in reality was contaminated and deadly, at Andersonville National Historic Site at Andersonville GA.
The marker reads as follows:
"STOCKADE BRANCH
This stream, a branch of Sweetwater Creek, was the prison's water supply. Today’s neatly dredged channel is misleading. When the prison was built, the stockade posts slowed the current, turning the streambanks into acres of stagnant swamp.
The prisoner’s latrines stood downstream. Overcrowding soon fouled water, and the sluggish current failed to wash sewage out of the prison. The streams' bacteria quickly became lethal.
The painting is from the opposite side of the camp looking upstream toward the sources of Stockade Branch.
To Confederate officials, this source of freshwater made Andersonville an ideal site for a prison. Just upstream, however, the bakehouse and guards's camp polluted the creek before it even entered the stockade.
“This little creek was our only water supply, and when we would go after water we would often sink to our hips in the mire, and men would often have to be dragged out by their comrades.” -- Charles C Fosdick, 5th Iowa infantry February 26, 1864”
From the National Park Service: (
visit link)
National Prisoner of War Museum
Hours of operation
The National Prisoner of War Museum, which also serves as the park's visitor center, opens at 9:30 a.m. and closes at 4:30 p.m. It is open every day of the week year-round, except on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.
Park Grounds
The park grounds are open daily from 8:00 am until 5:00 p.m., allowing access to the National Prisoner of War Museum, the historic prison site and the Andersonville National Cemetery. The park grounds including the National Prisoner of War Museum and the historic prison site are closed only three days per year: New Years Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
Andersonville National Cemetery
The National Cemetery is open every day of the year from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. On New Years Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day access to the National Cemetery is provided through the Cemetery Entrance Gate.”