Andersonville's Civil War weekend will include archaeologist's talks on how POWs coped with the trauma, resisted their captors

Former POW Thomas O'Dea's depiction of sickness at Andersonville (NPS)

A conflict archaeologist will speak this weekend at Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia about emotional trauma endured by Civil War prisoners of war and how they reacted.

The site 10 miles northeast of Americus is having its annual Civil War weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Activities include cannon and musket demonstrations and activities geared toward young visitors.

Andersonville is the emblem of POW suffering at Union and Confederate camps during the Civil War. Of 45,000 men held there, 13,000 Union service members succumbed to horrible conditions.

Ryan McNutt (right), assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia Southern University, will be lecturing on resistance, masculinity and mental health in POW populations at both Andersonville (Camp Sumter) and Camp Lawton, another Confederate site in Georgia. McNutt directs the GSU archaeological project at the latter site.

For more than a decade, GSU students have conducted excavations and conducted research at a state park and former federal hatchery near Millen, Ga. About 10,000 Union prisoners were held at Lawton for about six weeks in 1864. They had been moved there from Camp Sumter.

Disease, hunger and unusually cold and moist conditions that year exacted a toll at Camp Lawton, with 700 or more prisoners dying before they were shipped off in the middle of the night to other Confederate prisons.

Susie Sernaker of Andersonville NHS told the Picket that McNutt’s lectures, at 1 p.m. both days in the park theater, will help spread public knowledge about the travails of those held at Lawton.

McNutt and his students have focused on the location of Confederate and Union structures at  and the difficulties prisoners and guards faced -- and their interactions.

The professor’s research interests include utilizing technology such as LIDAR and GIS to answer questions about battlefield and conflict sites, power and dominance in the landscape and the impact of violence on non-combatants. 

A study conducted a few years ago found that postwar-born sons of many Union POWS had shorter lives than sons of soldiers who weren’t held captive. Basically, the study found that fathers’ prison hardships, including food shortages, altered the function of his genes in ways that could be passed on to sons.

Excavation at Camp Lawton site in March 2023 (Picket photo)

The free programming this weekend at Andersonville lasts from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday.

“Kids can drill like Civil War soldiers, build miniature shelters, and discover more about the Civil War period at Andersonville by participating in our Junior Ranger program,” the park said in a news release. “Living historians will be portraying Father Whelan, the women of Andersonville, Confederate guards, and Union prisoners, all to help the history of Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville Prison, come to life.”

Cannon firing demonstrations will take place at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.  on Sunday. Musket firing demonstrations will be at noon and 3 p.m. on Saturday and 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. 

For more information on the event or to find out how you can become a living history volunteer at the park, call 229-924-0343.