US Civil War DEADLINE at Prison Camp:

Radio people were talking about writers having "deadlines" to produce their work when something went 'DING' in my head .. that word sounds serious eh.

It seems the term DEADLINE originated in the 1861-65 American Civil war when Federal prisoners of war were held in an open Confederate stockade Camp Sumter near Andersonville Georgia.

- The DEAD line was an inner perimeter line that - if crossed by a prisoner - he would be shot.

Andersonville Prison Camp Makeshift Shelters, Prisoners & DEADLINE.

This camp extended to 26.5 acres - was built in February 1864 as a temporary facility to hold prisoners until they might be exchanged - but during the 14 months it was used - around 45,000 soldiers were held there and nearly 13,000 died (28%).

Within the camp conditions were foul and there was a claim that a gang of nearly 500 prisoner 'raiders' would prey on the others by robbing anything of value. Link:

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2014-03-28-hc-andersonville-prison-0323-20140328-story.html

Captain Henry Wirz a Swiss-American was in charge there from April 1864, for 12 months - then at the wars end he was tried by Military Tribunal and hanged for the various acts of cruelty he was accused of.

LINK TO Wikipedia page:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wirz

"And he, the said Wirz, still wickedly pursuing his evil purpose, did establish and cause to be designated within the prison enclosures containing said prisoners a “dead line” being a line around the inner face of the stockade or wall enclosing said prison and about twenty feet distant from and within said stockade; and so established said dead line, which was in many places an imaginary line, in many other places marked by insecure and shifting strips of [boards nailed] upon the tops of small and insecure stakes or posts, he, the said Wirz, instructed the prison guard stationed around the top of said stockade to fire upon and kill any of the prisoners aforesaid who might touch, fall upon, pass over or under [or] across said “dead line” 

It is generally accepted that the record of history being written by the winners - is not always without bias. There is no question but that conditions in the camp were hellish and prisoners lacked proper shelter, food, clean water and all other necessities.

Despite many of the prisoner witnesses stating they never saw Wirz act inhumanely .. he was found guilty of the multiple charges and at 10.32 a.m. November 10 1865 he was cruelly hanged in Washington .. his neck not broken - and slowly choked to death in front of 200 witnesses and 120 guards.

War is Hell.

Marty K.