Hope Springs Infernal

[ColonelBuckwalter]

Ever since I first learned about Camp Sumter I have the story of the prisoners praying for water and a spring appearing as a miracle. How much of that story is fact, how much fiction, or 100% true?

 

[OldSarge79]

I heard that about Andersonville as a kid when our family visited there in the early 60's. Maybe someone confused the two camps.

 

[RedRover]

I heard that about Andersonville as a kid when our family visited there in the early 60's. Maybe someone confused the two camps.

They are the same place. Andersonville is the name of the railroad depot and small town, and "Camp Sumter" the name of the Confederate military prison facility developed nearby. Even many Confederates, however, just referred to it as "Andersonville."

In this drawing of the prison facility, the railroad is visible in the background, with a train of cars on it passing through Andersonville...

The spring the popped up through the earth was called "Providence Spring."

The Veterans and the Women's Relief Corps saw to it the providence spring site was suitably marked in following decades.

The Spring popped up inside the prison stockade in August, 1864, and was considered a tremendous relief, as the creek which ran through the stockade, was terribly polluted. The "sinks" for the 30,000 inmates were located along it!

The prisoners, to avoid water polluted by the sinks, etc., walked to the edge of the stockade to dip water from the creek there, though the camps of the several hundred Confederate guards were outside, and contributed to rendering even that water less than pure. Many of the prisoners to find water fit to drink dug deep wells amid their tents. Generally though, the prisoners were constrained to water more or less polluted. After a heavy rainstorm in August, which caused a tremendous freshet to wash through the stockade, a spring burst forth, which provided fresh water from the ground, unpolluted by the miasmic swamp water of the creek generally... Hiram Buckingham recalled...

More detail of the appearance of the spring given here...

1864 - Fresh water at Andersonville through Providence | Traveler's Companion - Visit Historic Sites

Jul 18, 2012 Summer of 1864 at Andersonville Prison was hot, dry and deadly. On August 3rd, 1864, a group of Christian soldiers finally decided they would pray to God for pure water and would not stop until their prayers were answered. They took turns, praying for hours every day. On August...

civilwartalk.com

John Levi Maile, one of the inmates, noted later that while some in the post-war years were included to consider the spring's breaking forth, in its modest way, rather less than miraculous, others among the prisoners considered it just so.

The Providence Spring site is maintained within the Andersonville National Park...

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I wouldn't fault any of those poor, suffering men who considered that a miracle, anyway you want to define it.

 

[ColonelBuckwalter]

I heard that about Andersonville as a kid when our family visited there in the early 60's. Maybe someone confused the two camps.

I didn't mean to confuse you.

 

[East Tennessee Roots]

Ever since I first learned about Camp Sumter I have the story of the prisoners praying for water and a spring appearing as a miracle. How much of that story is fact, how much fiction, or 100% true?

I posted this music years ago. The song "Providence Spring" is about the water at Andersonville.

God Didn't Choose Sides, Volume 1 Civil War on AirPlay Direct

 

[ColonelBuckwalter]

They are the same place. Andersonville is the name of the railroad depot and small town, and "Camp Sumter" the name of the Confederate military prison facility developed nearby. Even many Confederates, however, just referred to it as "Andersonville."

View attachment 541703

In this drawing of the prison facility, the railroad is visible in the background, with a train of cars on it passing through Andersonville...

View attachment 541706


The spring the popped up through the earth was called "Providence Spring."

The Veterans and the Women's Relief Corps saw to it the providence spring site was suitably marked in following decades.

View attachment 541707

The Spring popped up inside the prison stockade in August, 1864, and was considered a tremendous relief, as the creek which ran through the stockade, was terribly polluted. The "sinks" for the 30,000 inmates were located along it!

View attachment 541709View attachment 541710

The prisoners, to avoid water polluted by the sinks, etc., walked to the edge of the stockade to dip water from the creek there, though the camps of the several hundred Confederate guards were outside, and contributed to rendering even that water less than pure. Many of the prisoners to find water fit to drink dug deep wells amid their tents. Generally though, the prisoners were constrained to water more or less polluted. After a heavy rainstorm in August, which caused a tremendous freshet to wash through the stockade, a spring burst forth, which provided fresh water from the ground, unpolluted by the miasmic swamp water of the creek generally... Hiram Buckingham recalled...

View attachment 541711


More detail of the appearance of the spring given here...

1864 - Fresh water at Andersonville through Providence | Traveler's Companion - Visit Historic Sites

Jul 18, 2012 Summer of 1864 at Andersonville Prison was hot, dry and deadly. On August 3rd, 1864, a group of Christian soldiers finally decided they would pray to God for pure water and would not stop until their prayers were answered. They took turns, praying for hours every day. On August...

civilwartalk.com

John Levi Maile, one of the inmates, noted later that while some in the post-war years were included to consider the spring's breaking forth, in its modest way, rather less than miraculous, others among the prisoners considered it just so.

View attachment 541708


The Providence Spring site is maintained within the Andersonville National Park...

View attachment 541712

You are advised not to drink water from it. It has a lot of alkaline in it.

I don't think Andersonville Spring water would sell very well anyway.

"Now is a homemade gourd cup!'