Editing Sumter County, Georgia (section)

===Civil War years===
During the American Civil War (1861–65), the small village named Andersonville, {{convert|9|mi|km|abbr=on}} north of Americus on the county's northern edge, was selected by Confederate authorities as the site for a [[prisoner-of-war]] camp. The [[Andersonville prison]] was built in neighboring [[Macon County, Georgia|Macon County]], and became the largest such prison in the South. During the camp's 14 months of operations, some 45,000 Union prisoners suffered some of the worst conditions and highest casualties of any of the camps. Today, the [[Andersonville National Historic Site]] serves as a memorial to all American prisoners of war throughout the nation's history. The {{convert|495|acre|km2|adj=on}} park lies in both Macon and Sumter Counties and consists of the historic prison site and the National Cemetery, which originally was reserved for the Union dead.