GUARDS WHO DIED AT ANDERSONVILLE

At times, the number of guards at Andersonville was 1,000 or more, mostly from the Georgia Reserves. Most of them were young boys, old men or wounded veterans who were not well enough for combat. There was much sickness among the guards with 226 dying before the closing of the prison. 117 were buried behind the present maintenance building. To our knowledge the others were taken home for burial since many of them came from a radius of 5 or 10 miles from the prison.

In 1878 when the wall was built around the cemetery, these bodies were left outside the cemetery. The ladies of Americus, Georgia were raising money for a monument for their city, but in place of buying a monument they had the bodies dis-interred and buried in Americus at Oak Grove Cemetery or a family plot. Of these buried in this honored place where the Stars and Bars fly over these gravesites, there are 43 marked as " Unknown" graves.

--------------------------------------------CONFEDERATE CEMETERY--------------------------------------------- Here rest 129 Confederate soldiers - 45 of them " UNKNOWN " - All of whom died in Confederate hospitals in Americus. These men served in the Army of Tennessee. Some were with Gen. Jubal Early in the Washington D.C. raid in July, 1864. Others were sent here from Andersonville, suffering and dying from the same desease that beset Federal prisoners there. Mortality among the prison guards was as high as among the prisoners. Gallent women in the vicinity aided in the care of these men - all of whom gave their lives for the Confederacy.

THE ANDERSONVILLE GUARDS DEATH LIST

OAKGROVE CONFEDERATE CEMETERY