Looking for Andersonville Guards

Gary Morgan

First Sergeant
Forum Host
Joined
Aug 2, 2019
Having sold my book on the Andersonville Raiders, I'm now in the process of evaluating whether or not I could pull off a Middle Grade/Young adult book on Andersonville. I want to include several different perspectives in the book, and so I'm looking for information on individual guards but not having a whole lot of luck. An ideal would be to find a guard about the same age as the readers (16 years old or so) who left a written account of his service.

Does anybody know of any individual guards that I might be able to track down?

Thanks in Advance!

Gary
 
Cant help with any young Georgia guards, but some troops were sent there for detached duty from their regiments. The 26th Alabama was one of these that sent some.
 
I've mentioned s man named Kevin Frye several times here. He's done a lot of research on the prisoners and guards at Andersonville. I'd contact him and see if he knows anything that might be helpful.

Also, maybe check with the park at Andersonville. National parks usually have a collection of source material that, for the most part, goes unused in Civil War studies sometimes.
 
Thanks, General Casey. I've met Kevin Frye and toured the prison site with him, but haven't asked him about this. His website seems to be mostly lists of names of guards without any biographical detail.

The NPS at Andersonville has one file of letters written by a guard named Clark Chandler of the First Georgia Reserve. There are some prison details in the letters, like two to three guards a week dying in May, 1864, but the bulk of the letters have to do with family matters and telling his wife at home how he wants things done. He's in his 40's at the time.

I'm hoping that somewhere out there is a story that needs telling. I think the book will be better if I can tell the story of one of the guards.
 
Having sold my book on the Andersonville Raiders, I'm now in the process of evaluating whether or not I could pull off a Middle Grade/Young adult book on Andersonville. I want to include several different perspectives in the book, and so I'm looking for information on individual guards but not having a whole lot of luck. An ideal would be to find a guard about the same age as the readers (16 years old or so) who left a written account of his service.

Does anybody know of any individual guards that I might be able to track down?

Thanks in Advance!

Gary
Some of the Andersonville guards are here in Americus,Georgia:

2018-06-21 12.50.47.jpg


2018-06-21 12.59.37.jpg


2018-06-21 13.01.14.jpg


2018-06-21 12.53.47.jpg
 
I made a point of mentioning the mortality among the guards in the introduction. There's only one Confederate grave in Andersonville National Cemetery, and it's not a guard, but someone who fought in the Confederate Army and died later. His grave differs from the others in that the grave marker has a pointed top instead of the Yankees' rounded one - "So the Yankees can't sit on it!"

Thank you for sharing the pictures of Oak Grove, bdtex . It's on my list of places to go back and visit when I'm back at Andersonville in July (for the anniversary of the hanging).
 
Having sold my book on the Andersonville Raiders, I'm now in the process of evaluating whether or not I could pull off a Middle Grade/Young adult book on Andersonville. I want to include several different perspectives in the book, and so I'm looking for information on individual guards but not having a whole lot of luck. An ideal would be to find a guard about the same age as the readers (16 years old or so) who left a written account of his service.

Does anybody know of any individual guards that I might be able to track down?

Thanks in Advance!

Gary

James Ormond (1815-1892) of Florida was an Andersonville guard, and gives a little information on it in his autobiography. Also, the University of Florida has some of his papers, including a letter or two from Andersonville:

UFL Ormond Papers
Here's a reference to his autobiography,and available copies...
Ormond autobiography; libraries

Best,
J. Marshall
Hernando, FL
 
Having sold my book on the Andersonville Raiders, I'm now in the process of evaluating whether or not I could pull off a Middle Grade/Young adult book on Andersonville. I want to include several different perspectives in the book, and so I'm looking for information on individual guards but not having a whole lot of luck. An ideal would be to find a guard about the same age as the readers (16 years old or so) who left a written account of his service.

Does anybody know of any individual guards that I might be able to track down?

Thanks in Advance!

Gary
I visited Oak Grove Cemetery in Americus in June 2018. This soldier's gravestone was in one of my photos. Of all the guards' gravestones that I photographed and researched,this is the only one I found much biographical information on:

 
I think I finally found my guard! I was down at Andersonville last weekend to lead a tour of the grounds for the NPS, and there wasn't anything on any individual guards in the prison library, but I had dinner that night with a group of people who I'd "met" online, and one nice lady handed me an entire three ring binder of diaries and letters that were transcribed by the UDC, and there about half way in, were a series of letters from a 17 year old sergeant (!) in the Fourth Georgia reserves where he talks about his duties, details the paltry amount of food that the guards were issued, and then talks about how the guards are contracting and dying from measles, concluding with a letter from the prison doctor saying to the guard's mother, saying that he is gravely ill with typhoid fever.

If I wanted to tell the story of a guard with his own words, I think this guys checks off all of my boxes. It took a few years to find him, but hopefully it was worth the wait!
 
As a woman who had her first baby at the age of 16, I need feel obliged to point out that yes, it happens, and there is no shame in it.

Assuming that these ancestors were all born to parents around the age of 20, yes, it is quite possible.

If you were born in the year 2000, then your

Parent could have been born in 1980

Your grandparent could have been born in 1960.

Your great grandparent could have been born in 1940.

Your great great grandparent could have been born in 1920.

Your great great great grandparent could have been born in 1900,

Your great great great great grandparent could have been born in 1880. That's four greats, plus about 40 years left over.
 
As a woman who had her first baby at the age of 16, I need feel obliged to point out that yes, it happens, and there is no shame in it.

Assuming that these ancestors were all born to parents around the age of 20, yes, it is quite possible.

If you were born in the year 2000, then your

Parent could have been born in 1980

Your grandparent could have been born in 1960.

Your great grandparent could have been born in 1940.

Your great great grandparent could have been born in 1920.

Your great great great grandparent could have been born in 1900,

Your great great great great grandparent could have been born in 1880. That's four greats, plus about 40 years left over.
and so some Fathers had shotguns pointed at the knuckleheads that knocked up their young daughters hence "Shotgun wedding"!
 
there about half way in, were a series of letters from a 17 year old sergeant (!) in the Fourth Georgia reserves where he talks about his duties, details the paltry amount of food that the guards were issued, and then talks about how the guards are contracting and dying from measles, concluding with a letter from the prison doctor saying to the guard's mother, saying that he is gravely ill with typhoid fever.

What a great find -- should make a good point of view for the book you have in mind.

R
 
I was THRILLED to find it. I'd been looking for a guard who left behind letters or a diary that I could for well over a year. If my UDC friend had been with me when I finally found them in the binder I would have kissed her! THAT's how excited I was.

I don't think he was exactly a typical soldier - he had a rich daddy and came in as a 17 year old sergeant, and he seems to have brought at least 2 slaves with him - but he IS an authentic voice, and that's what I was looking for.
 
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