The Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, formally…

The Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, formally called "Camp Sumter", is established in February 1864 in the small town of Andersonville, Georgia, in response to a surplus in prisoners-of-war (POWs) that has been the result of a breakdown in POW exchanges in 1863.

The surplus has led to overcrowding in Confederate-run POW camps across the northern part of the Confederacy, particularly in the Richmond camps.

As a result, the Confederacy had needed to create a large Southern prison that could handle a considerable population of inmates.

Andersonville had been chosen as a strategic location due to its small location and close proximity to fresh water and railroad.

Andersonville prison (as it will later be named by prisoners) opens in February 1864, originally covering about sixteen and a half acres (sixty-seven thousand square meters) of land enclosed by a fifteen-foot- (four point six meters-) high stockade.

The first five hundred Northern prisoners, having left Richmond, Virginia, seven days earlier, arrive on February 25.

Its creators have built Andersonville not for quality but with the dual priorities of preventing escape and enabling as many prisoners as possible to be housed within the new camp.

No wooden barracks are built; prisoners are required to live in self-built tents.