The Sinks area of Andersonville Prison, Andersonville National Historic Site

PRISON SITE TOUR STOP 5: THE SINKS

A small roadside pullout and a wayside exhibit mark the fifth stop on a tour of Andersonville Prison, The Sinks. This is the downstream end of Stockade Branch, a small stream that flows through the prison. The plan was to drink water from upstream and use the downstream end as the latrine, or sinks. The problem was that the stockade walls slowed the flow of the water, so the sinks often backed up and formed a disease-filled swamp. There’s not much to see today, and most people drive by without even noticing The Sinks stop on the tour.

Stockade Branch still flows, and it’s not that much smaller now than it was back during the Civil War.