Brotherhood. I know that with his persistence without his persistence, we would have never known this tale , nor how his existence on this earth created a family of future soldiers. Being o invention of the anon did researchmillers through the National Archives to uncover archives to pay a portrait of his ancestor. Like a puzzle, piece after piece, perfectly placed, these facts and figures help contribute to our now intimate, and personal, glimpse into a shared National History that comes directly from the genealogy of many family trees. Miller was himself a volunteer soldier. He chose to serve and a time of war, despite being a student at. Enn State University as he turned back the pages of American History, he learned how improbable his existence was, and yet, he stands amongst us today to share the unlikely yarn. You see, little did he know that in the course of just one year, fight, benlist, captured at st. Marys church prisonginia, survived , and be relocated to andersonville, and
Different. It is a valor and honor. Those concepts take a different form here. And many respects, in a standard guess, they are prisoners of war, and then you move right back to the battles. Often, and addressing the story, there is an and knowledge of that, and then no detail, and you move on. Andersonville has a name brand recognition. The public often doesnt know any of the details beyond the name and that something unusual took place there. Host lets start with the basics. When was it built . What was its purpose . Mr. Leonard in the fall of 1863 as the Exchange System of the previous two years falls apart, due to the presence of black soldiers in the field, and the question over how to treat like soldiers black soldiers. With afederacy is faced problem. There holding the mostly in the richmond area. Thousands, 10,000 prisoners in richmond it has a drag effect on the community. Resources are going in to maintain the prisoners. If you are in the Confederate Army, or the government,
And that speaks to the two of them in quite frankly not the flattering ways. With the army does the work of using the captured records, the death records that they have with them, with that expedition, hos dorance atwater, he served as a clerk in the prison hospital, and he was one of the halfdozen boys who were keeping the death register, other records of the hospital complex. So, for one of the bravest acts of conscience in the entire civil war. In midaugust 1864, when 100 men are dying a day, he thinks to himself, if my government knew, they would stop this. And he commits an act of bravery. He makes the choice when the chief surgeon is not present to start copying the entire death register. His fellow paroled clerks, they see what he is doing, they know what he is doing, they dont tell. A couple of them copy the idea. The difference is someone like hyde copies the dead from just his home state. Atwater was thinking of that posterity. He was thinking about the thousands of families
The deadline. So andersonville is also a place of great contradiction. In some of the northern prisons, it is a ditch or a line of posts where at night they put candle lanterns on. A line that if you cross you are going to get shot at is the sort of thing which soon shouldnt have any ambiguity. Host the next call is mike from california. You are on with our guest, eric leonard. Caller yes, thank you for the programming. I have kind of a twofold question. Firstly, i want to know what happened to the actual prison site when the war ended . The physical structure. Was it just left or was it torn down and the fields farmed . Wasalso, i know that there a photographer, i think his name mightve been [indiscernible] and i wondered if there were any pictures of the prison after the war ended . I wondered if there was any magazine articles or book that describes that . Mr leonard the ghost and chattels of andersonville is a , a valuable book because it is not a narrative history, it explores var
Good afternoon. If you can go ahead and take your seats, well get started. Good afternoon again. Id like to take this opportunity to thank the Maneuver Center of excellence Brass Quintet for their musical selections. Their music continues to enhance our programs each year. [ applause ] on behalf of the National Park service, i welcome you to Andersonville National Historic Site and to Andersonville National cemetery. My name is charles cellars and as the park superintendent i have the honor and privilege of serving today as the master of ceremonies. This weekend is the capstone event of the 150th anniversary of camp sumter military prison called andersonville. Many of you have traveled hundreds of miles to join us today and on behalf of the park we sincerely thank you for being here. I invite you to stand as the Georgia Army National guard advanced the color. After the colors are posted, please follow me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. Will you please stand. Please join me in the