Andersonville Prison

The worst prisoner-of-war camp in American history, where nearly 13,000 of 45,000 Union soldiers died from disease, starvation, and exposure during 14 months of operation. Commandant Henry Wirz was executed for war crimes.

Andersonville Prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, was the most notorious POW camp of the Civil War. In just 14 months of operation from February 1864 to May 1865, nearly 13,000 Union soldiers died here from disease, malnutrition, and exposure - a death rate of 100 men per day at its peak. The prison was designed for 10,000 but held over 32,000, leaving men crammed into an open-air pen split by a stream so polluted that drinking from it often proved fatal.

Captain Henry Wirz commanded the prison and became the only Confederate official executed for war crimes after the war. His ghost is among the most frequently reported at Andersonville, walking the roads in search of the retribution he believes he deserves - many historians argue he was a scapegoat for a broken system.

The paranormal activity here is intense and disturbing. Visitors report phantom sounds of prisoners milling about the stockade, accompanied by moans of pain and hunger that drift across time. Many experience the nauseating stench of rotting flesh - a smell so strong that park rangers have been called to investigate, finding nothing. One Vietnam veteran compared it to the sickening odor of a wartime field hospital.

Ghost soldiers in tattered Union uniforms wander the grounds, still searching for an escape that never came. A notorious cold spot marks the burial place of six "Raiders" - Union prisoners who terrorized their fellow captives through theft and murder. Their evil spirits hover near their graves, convicted even in death. Visitors consistently describe an overwhelming feeling of melancholy and dread that seeps into their bones - an aura impossible to shake even after leaving the haunted grounds.