Editing Andersonville, Georgia (section)

== History ==
The hamlet of Anderson was named for John Anderson, a director of the South Western Railroad in 1853 when it was extended from Oglethorpe to Americus. It was known as Anderson Station until the US post office was established in November 1855. The government changed the name of the station from "Anderson" to "Andersonville" in order to avoid confusion with the post office in [[Anderson, South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/a.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/a.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=5 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref>

[[File:Captain Henry Wirz obelisk (cropped).JPG|thumb|left|upright|Monument in Andersonville dedicated to Henry Wirz]]

During the Civil War, the [[Confederate army]] established Camp Sumter at Andersonville to house incoming [[Union Army|Union]] [[prisoners of war]]. The overcrowded [[Andersonville National Historic Site|Andersonville Prison]] was notorious for its bad conditions, and nearly 13,000 prisoners died there.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.thoughtco.com/andersonville-prison-2360903 | title = American Civil War: Andersonville Prison  | last = Hickman | first = Kennedy | date = May 16, 2016 | website = ThoughtCo.com | access-date = 2017-07-14}}</ref> After the war, [[Henry Wirz]] was convicted for [[war crimes]] related to the command of the camp. His trial was later regarded as unfair by several pro-confederacy groups,<ref name="Moyer Giroud 2022 e043">{{cite web | last=Moyer | first=Justin Wm. | last2=Giroud | first2=Tara E.M. | title=Confederate war criminal buried in D.C. has an unlikely defender: A Swiss descendant | website=Washington Post | date=February 10, 2022 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/02/10/henry-wirz-confederate-switzerland-ancestor/ | access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref> and a monument in his honor has been erected in Andersonville by the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]].<ref name="Bailey 2015 s355">{{cite web | last=Bailey | first=Greg | title=Why Does This Georgia Town Honor One of America's Worst War Criminals? | website=The New Republic | date=November 10, 2015 | url=https://newrepublic.com/article/123365/why-does-georgia-town-honor-one-americas-worst-war-criminals | access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Magazine Eschner 2017 e226">{{cite web | last=Eschner | first=Kat | title=How the Trial and Death of Henry Wirz Shaped Post-Civil War America | website=Smithsonian Magazine | date=November 10, 2017 | url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-trial-and-death-henry-wirz-shaped-post-civil-war-america-180967139/ | access-date=February 15, 2024}}</ref>

The town also served as a supply depot during the war period. It included a post office, a depot, a blacksmith shop and stable, a couple of general stores, two saloons, a school, a Methodist church, and about a dozen houses. Ben Dykes, who owned the land on which the prison was built, was both depot agent and postmaster.<ref>{{cite web |title=Reading 1: Andersonville Prison |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/11andersonville/11facts1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170416174656/https://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/11andersonville/11facts1.htm |archive-date=Apr 16, 2017 |access-date=September 21, 2016 |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref>

Until the establishment of the prison, the area was entirely dependent on agriculture, supported by dark reddish brown sandy loams later mapped as Greenville and Red Bay soil series. After the close of the prison and end of the war, the town continued economically dependent on agriculture, primarily the cultivation of cotton as a commodity crop.

It was not until 1968, when the large-scale mining of [[kaolin]], bauxitic kaolin, and [[bauxite]] was begun by Mulcoa, Mullite Company of America, that the town was dramatically altered. This operation exploited {{convert|2000|acre|km2}} of scrub oak wilderness into a massive mining and refining operation. The company now{{When|date=April 2023}} ships more than 2000 tons of refined ore from Andersonville each week.

In 1974, long-time mayor Lewis Easterlin and a group of concerned citizens decided to promote tourism in the town, redeveloping Main Street to look much as it did during the American Civil War. The city of Andersonville and the Andersonville National Historic Site, location of the prison camp, are now tourist attractions.