northeast corner and the north
entry gate, the outer stockade has been reconstructed and, in the northeast corner, the
deadline and some of the handmade shelters are represented.
The Stockade Branch, which
served as both a water supply and the sewage system (and, therefore, was responsible for
much disease) still flows.
Within the camp, Providence Spring is a spring that started flowing in the summer of 1864 and gave some relief to the polluted water supply is still there. The speculation is that this spring had existed before, but was blocked off by the building of the stockade. Eventually, then, it started flowing again. One problem was that it flowed in the dead zone – that area between the deadline and the stockade in which the guards had orders to shoot anyone. When the spring started flowing, the prisoners would attach cups onto poles to dip water. Finally, the Confederate forces allowed the prisoners to channel the flow into the camp itself.
In addition to the POW camp itself, there is a museum that is dedicated to American POWs from all wars. I didn’t really think that I would find it all that interesting or meaningful, but it was both. That is a museum that is well worth visiting.
After visiting Andersonville we drove through Americus and to Plains. At Plains we visited the museum that is located in the school that both Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter attended for 12 years. We got into town on the day that the funeral for Rosalyn Carter’s mother was held, but we got in late enough so that there wasn’t anything going on. We were kind of hoping that we would see some of the family, but we did not see any of them.
When we left Andersonville we headed toward Americus and Plains. We were listening to a PBS radio station that indicated that they covered Warm Springs. We hadn’t even thought about going there, but if it was close, maybe we would. We found out that it was only an hour and a half or two hour drive, so we went up there on Monday evening. As expected, we got there after everything had closed for the day, but we decided that we would see the “Little White House” Tuesday morning. We talked about camping that night, but we had been traveling through areas where there were severe weather warnings and tornado warnings, so we decided we had best stay in a motel. We wound up staying in an old hotel/bed and breakfast in downtown Warm Springs, and got off to an early start on Tuesday morning.
The exhibits and displays at the
Centennial Park,
around the State Capitol, and through the
Atlanta Underground, among other places. Centennial Park is the central square of the ’98
Olympics, and has been reworked to provide a very enjoyable catalyst for the revitalization
of the downtown area. The Atlanta Underground is the original street level of Atlanta
around the train station. In order to facilitate movement within the city, the streets were
moved up onto viaducts. With the streets moved up a level, the storefronts also moved up,
and the original street level was abandoned until recently. Now this level is being used for
boutiques and restaurants, as well as plaques describing the historical uses of the area.
When we left the downtown area, we went to see the
