Escape from Andersonville: a study in isolation and imprisonment

Civil War Camp Sumter, the notorious Confederate prison popularly known as Andersonville, became the world's first great concentration camp. Almost one third of the some 40,000 federal prisoners who entered its gates remain there today in its cemetery. The National POW Museum, representing all of America's wars, is part of the modern national park and cemetery on the site. The volumes of material in print about this prison do not, until now, include an in depth discussion of the subject of escape. Contrary to popular myth only some two dozen men broke out of Andersonville and successfully reached Federal lines. And despite legends to the contrary, almost none of them escaped by tunnel. This article uses statistics and personal narratives to explore how isolation thwarted efforts to flee the high mortality rate of this prison. Although the article covers many factors unique to Andersonville, such as POWs helped by slaves, it also compares fleeing this prison to generalities about escapes from confinement in later wars.