Last month I traveled to Andersonville, Georgia, site of the infamous Civil War prison camp. This was especially moving visit for me because my grandfather Allen McConnell (yes, you read that right, my grandfather, not great or great-great) was imprisoned there for three months. He was one of the lucky ones.
In the fourteen months that the prison existed, over 13,000 men died mostly from disease and starvation due to the horrific crowded conditions. Today the serenity of the grounds (now a designated National Historic Site) belies the suffering of the Union soldiers who were confined with the wooden stockade. Intended to hold 10,000 men, the 16-1/2 acre pen had a 15-foot high stockade wall and two gates. Nineteen feet inside the stockade was the "deadline," marked by a simple post and rail fence. Guards stationed in sentry boxes shot anyone who crossed this line. The stockade was expanded to 26-1/2 acres in June of 1864, but POWs continued to arrive, and by August over 32,000 men struggled to survive in what the men called "hell on earth."
According to military records, Allen McConnell was nineteen years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company A, Iowa 3rd Cavalry Regiment on 29 February 1864. He mustered out on 09 August 1865 at Atlanta, Georgia. Family oral history has him lying about his age and enlisting when he was only fourteen, but the dates don't add up. He was born on December 02, 1846, which would make him eighteen on his enlistment date. We don't know too much about his time as a POW at Andersonville since he died when my mother was only four years old. She was told that he survived on meager rations of cornmeal, which affected his digestive system for the rest of his life and contributed to his death in 1907.
Given my grandfather's experience at Andersonville, I have mixed feelings about the recent controversy over the dismantling of Confederate monuments. On the one hand, I understand the feelings of those who say that the monuments of Confederate generals glorify traitors and denigrate Blacks who were enslaved and mistreated. But I also understand that the monuments reflect a part of our history as a nation. The Civil War was devastating to this country and strong emotions about it exist to this day. I take no side regarding the issue of monuments. In fact, there are several monuments on the cemetery grounds at Andersonville which were erected by different states to honor their citizens who were incarcerated there. The Iowa Monument is one of four adorned with a female figure, bathed in shadows of grief. And unbearable grief the Civil War was--for Union and Confederate soldiers and their families.
In the fourteen months that the prison existed, over 13,000 men died mostly from disease and starvation due to the horrific crowded conditions. Today the serenity of the grounds (now a designated National Historic Site) belies the suffering of the Union soldiers who were confined with the wooden stockade. Intended to hold 10,000 men, the 16-1/2 acre pen had a 15-foot high stockade wall and two gates. Nineteen feet inside the stockade was the "deadline," marked by a simple post and rail fence. Guards stationed in sentry boxes shot anyone who crossed this line. The stockade was expanded to 26-1/2 acres in June of 1864, but POWs continued to arrive, and by August over 32,000 men struggled to survive in what the men called "hell on earth."
According to military records, Allen McConnell was nineteen years old when he enlisted as a Private in Company A, Iowa 3rd Cavalry Regiment on 29 February 1864. He mustered out on 09 August 1865 at Atlanta, Georgia. Family oral history has him lying about his age and enlisting when he was only fourteen, but the dates don't add up. He was born on December 02, 1846, which would make him eighteen on his enlistment date. We don't know too much about his time as a POW at Andersonville since he died when my mother was only four years old. She was told that he survived on meager rations of cornmeal, which affected his digestive system for the rest of his life and contributed to his death in 1907.
Given my grandfather's experience at Andersonville, I have mixed feelings about the recent controversy over the dismantling of Confederate monuments. On the one hand, I understand the feelings of those who say that the monuments of Confederate generals glorify traitors and denigrate Blacks who were enslaved and mistreated. But I also understand that the monuments reflect a part of our history as a nation. The Civil War was devastating to this country and strong emotions about it exist to this day. I take no side regarding the issue of monuments. In fact, there are several monuments on the cemetery grounds at Andersonville which were erected by different states to honor their citizens who were incarcerated there. The Iowa Monument is one of four adorned with a female figure, bathed in shadows of grief. And unbearable grief the Civil War was--for Union and Confederate soldiers and their families.
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