Friends, much has been said about Andersonville NOT having enough food for their prisoners. I offer this letter written by Anna Harden herself, NOT in the spirit of right or wrong or good or bad, but rather as a piece of history left to all of us.

It's hard to believe that the sutlers did NOT engage in the selling of some extra food stuffs at Andersonville with Wirz's knowledge.

Anna Harden was a Southern woman who lived near Dawson, Georgia. She wrote to her mother in North Carolina and her following letter is in the manuscipt department at Duke University. Although the letter does NOT have a date it is judged by myself to be in the neighborhood of the 2nd week of May of 1864.

"A large party of ladies and gentlemen from this place paid a visit to Andersonville-the Yankee prison- on last Saturday. We were invited to witness a sham battle which took place on Saturday evening and we had a pleasant trip. We had an extra train provided for our accomodation and it was loaded almost to suffocation. I suppose there must have been twelve hundred persons present- most of them ladies from the adjacent country. The soldiers presented quite an imposing appearance with their glittering musketry. It passed off finally without a single accident, and then we repaired with the soldiers to a table laden with the good things of life which had been prepared by our patriotic ladies- each lady carried a basket of provisions with her and gave our soldiers a good dinner. There are several regiments stationeld there to guard the prisoners- I suppose there are twevle thousand confined in the stockade. It is a great sight to see them. It looks almost like New York now they are so numerous! Yours affectionately- Anna Harden."

A sham battle is noted in Mr. Marvel's book "Andersonville, the Last Depot" but NOT the letter. In September of 2003 I made a copy of the letter for Andersonville and their records as they were NOT familiar with this letter.