rustycoinUT
December 3rd, 2005, 05:29 PM
Camp Ogelthorpe
The facility at Macon, Georgia, officially named Camp Oglethorpe in honor of the founder of the state, James Oglethorpe, was located about a quarter mile southeast of town in the old fairgrounds. The camp consisted of fifteen to twenty acres containing a large building used as a hospital and a number of sheds and stalls, all surrounded by a highboard fence.
The enclosure, situated between a triple set of railroad tracks and Ocmulgee River, stood twelve feet high and was constructed heavy upright boards. A sentry walkway around the top was occupied heavily armed guards at twenty-pace intervals.
"The gate," reported one prisoner, "(was) spanned from post to post by a broad, towering arch, showing on its curve, in huge black letters 'Camp Oglethorpe'. We were conducted first to the office of the prison, which stood but a few feet from the gate, and there halted and detained until preparation could be made within for another examination."
The prisoners were thoroughly searched, which even included unraveling their clothing linings to locate hidden money, and were led up to gate one at a time.
"The guard pounded the boards with the butt of his gun," remembered prisoner John Hadley, "the bolt glided back, the hinges creaked, the big gate swung open and then there appeared before us a sea of ghostly, grizzly, dirty, haggard faces, staring and swaying this way and that.''
All around the inside of the enclosure, an ordinary picket fence three and a half feet high, sixteen feet out from the wall, served as the prison deadline. At the northwest corner of the stockade was a large grove of pine trees. A small stream ran through the west end. The large one-story frame building, once the floral hall for the fair, stood at the center of the enclosure and was often occupied by two hundred POWs. The remainder slept in the sheds or stalls or created their own shelter in the yard. The Macon pen held anywhere from 600 prisoners in 1862 to 1,900 in 1864. Captain W. Kemp Tabb served as the prison commandant for some time until he was relieved by Captain George C. Gibbs in June 1864. Gibbs served in this capacity until transferred to Andersonville in October.
Rations at Macon, consisting of one pint of unsifted cornmeal per day, four ounces of bacon twice a week, and enough peas for two soup dinners per week, were issued in five- or seven-day allotments and left to the POWs to manage the rations through that period. "The only fights I saw in prison," noted one Macon prisoner, "grew out of the dividing of rations, and they were not infrequent."
Roll call at Macon was conducted in a sort of herding process. "The Officer of the Day would come in each morning with twenty guards and deploy them across the north end the pen, explained one of the prisoners, "then all began whooping and hollering and swearing to drive us to the south end. This being accomplished, an interval between the guards was designated as the place for the count, which was effected by our returning, one by one, through that interval, into the body of the enclosure."
The final disposition of Camp Oglethorpe is described thusly: Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, went on to serve as a parole site at the end of the war but was torn down sometime later."
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The camp faced 7th Street on the northwest, Pine Street on the northeast, Hawthorne Street on the southwest and a swamp on the southeast. The camp covered 12 acres and the site of the old fairgrounds in Macon.
rustycoinUT
The facility at Macon, Georgia, officially named Camp Oglethorpe in honor of the founder of the state, James Oglethorpe, was located about a quarter mile southeast of town in the old fairgrounds. The camp consisted of fifteen to twenty acres containing a large building used as a hospital and a number of sheds and stalls, all surrounded by a highboard fence.
The enclosure, situated between a triple set of railroad tracks and Ocmulgee River, stood twelve feet high and was constructed heavy upright boards. A sentry walkway around the top was occupied heavily armed guards at twenty-pace intervals.
"The gate," reported one prisoner, "(was) spanned from post to post by a broad, towering arch, showing on its curve, in huge black letters 'Camp Oglethorpe'. We were conducted first to the office of the prison, which stood but a few feet from the gate, and there halted and detained until preparation could be made within for another examination."
The prisoners were thoroughly searched, which even included unraveling their clothing linings to locate hidden money, and were led up to gate one at a time.
"The guard pounded the boards with the butt of his gun," remembered prisoner John Hadley, "the bolt glided back, the hinges creaked, the big gate swung open and then there appeared before us a sea of ghostly, grizzly, dirty, haggard faces, staring and swaying this way and that.''
All around the inside of the enclosure, an ordinary picket fence three and a half feet high, sixteen feet out from the wall, served as the prison deadline. At the northwest corner of the stockade was a large grove of pine trees. A small stream ran through the west end. The large one-story frame building, once the floral hall for the fair, stood at the center of the enclosure and was often occupied by two hundred POWs. The remainder slept in the sheds or stalls or created their own shelter in the yard. The Macon pen held anywhere from 600 prisoners in 1862 to 1,900 in 1864. Captain W. Kemp Tabb served as the prison commandant for some time until he was relieved by Captain George C. Gibbs in June 1864. Gibbs served in this capacity until transferred to Andersonville in October.
Rations at Macon, consisting of one pint of unsifted cornmeal per day, four ounces of bacon twice a week, and enough peas for two soup dinners per week, were issued in five- or seven-day allotments and left to the POWs to manage the rations through that period. "The only fights I saw in prison," noted one Macon prisoner, "grew out of the dividing of rations, and they were not infrequent."
Roll call at Macon was conducted in a sort of herding process. "The Officer of the Day would come in each morning with twenty guards and deploy them across the north end the pen, explained one of the prisoners, "then all began whooping and hollering and swearing to drive us to the south end. This being accomplished, an interval between the guards was designated as the place for the count, which was effected by our returning, one by one, through that interval, into the body of the enclosure."
The final disposition of Camp Oglethorpe is described thusly: Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, went on to serve as a parole site at the end of the war but was torn down sometime later."
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The camp faced 7th Street on the northwest, Pine Street on the northeast, Hawthorne Street on the southwest and a swamp on the southeast. The camp covered 12 acres and the site of the old fairgrounds in Macon.
rustycoinUT