Thousands of prisoners were literally dying of thirst when on 14 August 1864 a spring burst forth at this site within the prison stockade at Camp Sumter. Its appearance was providential and it was one of the treasured memories of many veterans who returned to the site in the years following the Civil War. Pilgrimage to the spring was a regular part of Memorial Day activities here by the 1880s.
The prisoner’s cry of thirst rang up to Heaven. God heard, and with his thunder cleft the earth and poured his sweetest waters gushing here. These words are memorialized on a tablet inside the well house marking the site. The construction of the pavilion was a collaboration between the Woman’s Relief Corps and the National Association of Union Ex-Prisoners of War.
The site is among the most popular stops at Andersonville. Just don’t drink the water. Signs indicate it’s contaminated today.
Andersonville National Historic Site