Burying the Dead at Andersonville, Summer of 1864

The highest death-rate at Andersonville Prison, Georgia, from disease, insufficient food, and the shooting of prisoners who crossed the "dead-line" was one hundred and twenty-seven in a day, or one every eleven minutes. The dead men were hastily packed in carts and hurried out to the burial ground by burial squads composed of prisoners who volunteered gladly for this work, since it enabled them to get out into the fresh air. Trenches four feet deep were waiting, and the bodies were interred side by side without coffins. This haste was necessary to protect the living from the pollution of the air by rapidly decomposing bodies under the hot Southern sun.