9. Escape via parole and deception
Work gangs of prisoners, under guard, left the stockade during the day. Their main reasons for doing so were to collect corn flour delivered via the railroad, cut and collect wood, or serve as burial parties. During the course of the day, as men died, they were carried outside the stockade, left in rows near the burial ground. They were buried en masse by work parties. Father Whelan attended the burial parties each day that grim summer. A few enterprising prisoners made it outside of the stockade by feigning their demise, lying in the rows with the other bodies until sundown. Afterward, they rose and fled for the nearby woods. Most were recaptured. The deception was revealed when it was noticed that some of the “dead” retained their clothing. When Wirz learned of the practice, he ordered all bodies carried from the stockade be first examined.
Men in work parties gave their parole in order to leave the stockade, though most considered it to be non-binding. If an opportunity presented itself, they simply ran for freedom. Approximately 350 escaped in this manner, though nearly all were caught in a matter of hours, Returning to the camp they faced harsh punishment for their misdeed. Wirz used food deprivation, the stocks, shackles, and even execution as punishments for escape. Prisoners at Andersonville expected to be exchanged, unaware the cartels for such events had broken down. They attempted to escape more to flee from the conditions of the camp than out of patriotic duty. Nonetheless, most were hampered by their weakness, as diarrhea and other illnesses usually set in almost immediately.
