The Reverend William Hamilton, pastor of Assumption…

The Reverend William Hamilton, pastor of Assumption Church in Macon and the man responsible for the Catholic missions in southwestern Georgia, had been visiting Americus, Georgia, and accidentally came upon Andersonville prison, which is officially known as “Camp Sumter,” and had stopped in May 1864 to learn how many Catholics were there.

What he saw had led him to write a report to the bishop about the condition of the stockade and hospital and to suggest that a priest be provided immediately.

Bishop Verot had asked Peter Whelan to go.

Before departing, the sixty-two-year-old priest, along with Father Hamilton had visited Major General Howell Cobb, a Georgian with close ties to the Confederate administration.

Hamilton had described the terrible conditions that he had seen and recommended that a parole be arranged for the prisoners.

Cobb had promised to inform the authorities in Richmond, but, as he had feared, nothing was done to help.

Whelan arrived at Andersonville on June 16, 1864.

Although the priest did not leave a record of the shock of his first entry into Andersonville, Father Hamilton descried his impressions of subsequent visits vividly: "I found the stockade extremely filthy; the men all huddled together and covered with vermin (lice).… I found [the hospital] almost as crowded as the stockade.
The men were dying there very rapidly from scurvy…diarrhea and dysentery…They were not only covered with the ordinary vermin but also maggots…they had nothing under them at all except the ground." (The Trial of Henry Wirz, 40th Congress, 2nd Session, House Executive Document 23 (Washington, 1868), p. 287-90) At Andersonville, a light fence known as "the dead line" had been erected approximately 19 feet (5.8 m) inside the stockade wall.

It demarcated a no-man's land that keeps prisoners away from the stockade wall, which is made of rough-hewn logs about 16 feet (4.9 m) high.

As was the similar fate facing Confederate prisoners in Northern camps which employed the same "dead line" fence, anyone crossing or even touching this line is shot without further command of any kind by sentries located in the pigeon roosts.

At this time in the war, Andersonville Prison is frequently undersupplied with food; this applies both to prisoners and the Confederate personnel within the fort.

Even when sufficient quantities are available, the supplies are of poor quality and poorly prepared.

The water supply from Stockade Creek had quickly become polluted when the Confederate authorities housed too many Union prisoners within the prison walls.

Part of the creek is used as a sink and the men are forced to wash themselves in the creek.