The spirits of Andersonville and '800 paces to hell'

Nancy Garrison poses near where U.S. prisoners disembarked at a railroad depot in 1864-65.
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Meet Nancy Garrison, 3/4 quarter Cherokee, grandma, former mayoral candidate, character, and proprietor of Nancy’s Treasure Chest in Andersonville, Ga., the village next to the notorious Civil War prison camp.

“How many people live in Andersonville?” I ask.

“Well, about 230. Make that 229 since we just lost one.”

Business is slow Saturday, so we wave to strangers and swap stories while sitting on wooden chairs in front of her shop. My topics: Unimportant. Hers: Evolution, grandchildren, a local dude named Jimmy Carter, and the spirits of Andersonville.

“You oughta come back here in August when the ghosts come around,” she says, instantly grabbing my attention.

Nancy weaves a tale that includes shadows outside the window of her house and a spirit blowing in her face. Crazy talk, I’m thinking. But here, where nearly 13,000 Union soldiers died, who knows?

Up the road, in the center of the village, stands the controversial monument to Henry Wirz, the Andersonville camp commander. Wirz Street is beyond it.

Across from Nancy's shop, Yankee prisoners disembarked at the train depot for their slow walk to misery. On the road — Prison Way, they call it — her husband painted a path of footsteps of those unfortunates leading to the camp. 

“Eight hundred paces to hell,” Nancy calls the route.

After our ghost talk, I bid Nancy goodbye. Seconds later, she flags me down and hands me a gift: two Andersonville magnets. A fitting end to a spirited afternoon.

The controversial Henry Wirz monument in Andersonville, Ga.

Andersonville has a street named for the notorious Civil War camp commander.

"800 paces to hell": Camp Sumter —Andersonville POW camp — is in the far distance.

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