In the months after Robert E. Lee’s surrender, three factors increased Northern determination to Reconstruct the South. The first was Lincoln’s Good Friday assassination. Coming soon after the surrender, the murder of the American president convinced many Republicans that even the defeat of the Confederate armies did not guarantee the end of armed conflict. The second was the killings of United States Colored Troops and other Southern Unionists returning home after the war by Confederate sympathizers. The third were the stories of atrocities committed against Union soldiers held as prisoners at the Confederate prison camp at Andersonville in Georgia.
While prisoners died at high rates in a number of prisoner of war camps in both the North and South, Andersonville occupied a special place of horror in the hearts of Northerners. Here are a few accounts of Andersonville published in Northern newspapers in the weeks after the Confederate surrenders.
Lowell Daily Citizen and News
Monday, Jul 31, 1865
Lowell, MA
Vol: XV
Issue: 2834
Page: 2
Thursday, May 04, 1865
Newark, NJ
Page: 2
Numbers played a big role in the unveil of Andersonville. The idea that some men died nearly every day:
Press
Monday, May 08, 1865
Philadelphia, PA
Page: 2
