Weekend Trip

We took advantage of the 3 day weekend and headed up to Georgia. Our reason for going was two fold - one was visiting a Civil War site since we are studying that time period now and the second was to do something enjoyable for the twins 11th birthday which fell on President's Day this year. Mike's uncle and aunt who live outside of Albany opened up their home to us which was a blessing. They had a nice big back yard for the girls to play in along with a hot tub that all of enjoyed some. They even had a duck named Stanley. Longlegged girl fell in love with him.





Andersonville is the site of a former Confederate prisoner of war camp. It was very sombering to walk around and read of how 45,000 Union prisoners lived here. It was only planned to hold 6,000 and was expanded quickly to hold more but the conditions were still very crowded, unsanitary and awful. It is amazing that the number was only 13,000 who died here by the end of the war. There is also a museum dedicated to POW's in all wars but we decided not to walk through it with the girls. Dh scanned through it and felt there was some info that was too graphic for the girls, especially the younger ones.

This spring was considered to be a miracle. It sprung up during a storm at a time when fresh water was greatly needed in the camp. The prisoners originally used cups on sticks to reach the water since it was in the "deadline", an area that the prisoners would be shot at if they stepped into it. The guards later agreed to let them cross over to reach the water.



These are all graves of the soldiers who died in the camp and it is only a tip of the iceberg.