Prisoners In The Film Andersonville

Andersonville
“Andersonville”, is a movie portraying the living conditions and economic hardships for Union prisoners in the Andersonville prison camp during the the American Civil War. The camp was located in a remote part of Georgia for several reasons being that it was easily guarded with fewer men, and if anyone found a way to escape they would not make it far because there was no civilization around it. When the prison camp was first opened in February of 1864 it was about 16.5 acres of land with 15 foot high stockades enclosing the prisoners to prevent any sort of escape. The prison was later expanded to 26.5 acres to hold the increasing amounts of war prisoners being brought in. The prisoners created their own economy while they were
They had scarcity in food, water, shelter, clothing, and anything else necessary for survival. They had next to nothing for their necessities. Prisoners in Andersonville had to make trade-offs on a daily basis. They would have to decide between their wants and their needs. In Andersonville there was no such thing as the paradox of value. The most precious items to them were food, water, and shelter. There was also a scarcity of medical care within the camp. About a third of everyone in Andersonville died due to this. Some of the prisoners tried to be entrepreneurs in a way by opening up little shops or markets to provide service to the consumers (prisoners) and it was a way for them to pass the time because there was so little to
They were living in their own filth. They had only one spot to shower or bathe, go to the bathroom, or get drinking water, and it was from the stream that ran through the prison. This stream pretty quickly was contaminated due to the filth that the prisoners put in the water. People still went in and drank the water though because there was nowhere else they could go to do that. This caused thousands of prisoners to become sick with several different diseases such as dysentery and scurvy which would end up being one of the major causes of the high mortality rate in Andersonville. The standard of living in this prison was, quite obviously, extremely low. The commander of the Andersonville prison camp, Henry Wirz, claimed that he had put out several requests to the government to get more food and better living conditions at the camp but this request never ended up being fulfilled. Even outside of the stream everything was filthy and overcrowded. The prisoners had no other choice but to act like animals and so they