Andersonville is a 1996 American television film directed by John Frankenheimer about a group of Union soldiers during the American Civil War who are captured by the Confederates and sent to an infamous Confederate prison camp.
The film is loosely based on the diary of John Ransom, a Union soldier imprisoned there. Although certain points of the plot are fabricated, the general conditions of the camp accurately match Ransom's descriptions, particularly references to the administration of the camp by Captain Henry Wirz. His line on escaping prisoners is very similar to the book, "The Flying Dutchman [Wirz] offers to give two at a time twelve hours the start".
Plot
In June 1864, a group of soldiers from Company I, 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment are captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia. They are transported by train to Georgia and marched to the military prison, Camp Sumter. Confederate Captain Henry Wirz, the commandant, explains to the new prisoners of war that escape is impossible due to his use of scent hounds and that a prisoner exchange is expected to occur soon.
The group encounters Dick Potter, a former comrade who was captured at the Battle of Antietam. He prevents them from being lured into the territory of the "Raiders", a collective of rogue prisoners who attack, rob, and sometimes kill new internees in order to hoard their supplies. Potter further explains the grim realities of the camp; there is minimal shelter, safe drinking water, and food. Due to the Confederacy's dwindling population of able-bodied men, teenagers and old men are used as guards. Some of them delight in coaxing the prisoners to step over the "dead line" fence under the guise of trading for food, resulting in the prisoners being shot dead. A Confederate Colonel audits the camp, chastising Wirz for the abysmal conditions. Wirz responds with nothing but excuses, even asking for a promotion recommendation.
A group of men from the 19th Massachusetts ally themselves with other prisoners who are working on a secret tunnel under the stockade wall. As the group comes closer to completing the tunnel, the Raiders attack and tensions rise after they kill Potter. One prisoner attempts to inform the guards of the tunnel in hopes of receiving a reward; he is captured and "TT" (tunnel traitor) is carved into his forehead. The tunnel is completed and the escape commences; all except a few are killed or captured and placed in standing stocks as punishment.
The situation with the Raiders eventually becomes unbearable. A prisoner rallies support from the disparate groups and a prison riot ensues, resulting in the defeat and capture of the Raiders. With disagreements over what to do with the Raiders, a request for a legitimate court-martial is made to Captain Wirz who approves only if the trial is handled internally by the prisoners themselves. A jury of new internees find the six Raider chieftains guilty and they are sentenced to death by hanging.
Life in the camp becomes relatively peaceful. A group of new internees arrive and inform that one of the escapees successfully made it to General Grant and informed him of the camp's horrid conditions, but that Grant ordered no further prisoner exchanges due to the Confederacy's poor treatment of black Union soldiers. A Confederate officer arrives and offers the prisoners a deal: fight for the Confederacy to earn their freedom. The men of the 19th Massachusetts fall into formation and turn their backs on the officer; the companies of other prisoners follow suit. As time progresses and conditions worsen, starvation and disease begin to take their toll and thousands perish. Later, Captain Wirz announces that all prisoners are to be exchanged. The surviving prisoners leave the camp, filing past their dead comrades on the way to the trains.
Against a view of the present-day Andersonville National Cemetery, the movie's end coda reads: In 1864–5, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned in Andersonville. 12,912 died there. The prisoner exchange never happened. The men who walked to the trains were taken to other prisons, where they remained until the war ended. After the war, Wirz was hanged, the only soldier to be tried and executed for war crimes committed during the Civil War.