Over 45,000 prisoners were confined in Andersonville, a 26.5 acre tract of land surrounded by a tall stockade. The only fresh avaiable to the Union prisoners, was from a stream that broke through the stockade (named Providence Spring by the prisoners). But the water was almost never clean because of the things that was done to it before it entered the prison. Still, men drank and bathed in the muddy water, and that ended up killing more and more prisoners, and spreading more diseases.
In 1864, when General Sherman's cavalry neared Andersonville, all of the prison's prisoners were relocated to Camp Sumter, and other small prison camps until the end of the war. The terrible price had already been payed, though. Of the 45,000 prisoners contained at Andersonville during its existance, 13,000 died.
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