I happen to be very facinated with Andersonville Prison for two reasons. My g-g-grandfather, Newton Lynn was captured at the Battle of Rogersville, Tenn and my wife's g-g-g-uncle, James Padon was captured at Athens, Ala and sent there. Both were sent to Andersonville when it first opened in February, 1864. We are intrigued with the fact that they might have known one another while there. Unfortunately, my wife's uncle died there on Aug.12, 1862 and is buried at Andersonville today. My grandfather somehow lived through Andersonville and was paroled at Charleston, S.C., December 6, 1864. If anyone has any information that would be helpful concerning my g-g-grandfather or my wife's g-g-g-uncle we would certainly appreciate it. My grandfather, Pvt. Newton Lynn, was in the 2nd Tennessee Mounted Infantry, Co. A. He was captured at Rogersville, Tenn. on Nov. 6, 1863 and marched to Belle Isle Prison, Richmond, Va. He was later taken to Andersonville Prison when it opened in Feb. 1864. For anyone wanting to gather information on the Battle of Rogersville, Dave Mathews has put together an outstanding web site with tons of information on the battle, muster rolls of the 2nd Tennessee, statistics on those captured, and letters from commanding officers describing the battle. The address for his web site is: http://home.fuse.net/damathew/contents.html http://home.fuse.net/damathew/rogtitle.html My wife's family has the actual diary of her g-g-g-grandfather, Maj. William Padon who was in the 9th Illinois Infantry, Co.I. He wrote the diary from 1 Jan 1864 to 31 Dec 1864 and made daily entries describing his ordeals while on the march-to-the-sea with General Sherman (Uncle Billie). He joined the 9th Illinois with his two brothers, James and Judson Padon in 1861. In his diary, he visits Judson who is very sick in Washington Hospital, Memphis, Tenn. Judson died on Jan. 24, 1864 and just four days later James was captured at Athens, Alabama and sent to Andersonville Prison. Major Padon made an entry in his diary dated, "Thursday, January 28, 1864: Started for Athens with Lt. Randolph and two orderlies. Stopped at Smiths and Hughes. Arrived at Athens by 4 PM. Went out to meet flag of truce. Learned that James was a prisoner. Made arrangements for exchange. Took charge of the flag-brought them inside." Major Padon was not successful in the exchange for his brother and later found out he had died at Andersonville Prison. He went on, after the Civil War, to eventually settle in Coffeeville, Kansas and in 1892 was involved with the town shootout with the Dalton Gang when they tried to rob two banks in Coffeeville. Four of the Dalton Gang died that day and are buried in Elmwood Cemetary, the same cemetary that William Padon was later buried in when he died in 1901. Again, if anyone has any additional information, we would greatly appreciate it and of course, if we can help anyone out please feel free to email us. Ron Smith rsmith0127@uswest.net