This comes fromHistory of Andersonville Prison by Ovid L. Futch, University of Florida Press, copyright 1968, 8th printing 1983. "In addition to prayer meetings and preaching services, pious prisoners also conducted funeral ceremonies, formed an organization to care for the sick, and met on Sunday mornings to study the Bible in an "Andersonville Sunday School." When a heavy August rain (1864) opened a fresh spring of water just inside the west deadline a short distance north of the creek, many prisoners considered it the result of divine intervention in answer to their prayers, and called the fount "Providence Spring". Present-day visitors to Andersonville Prison Park may still drink of its cool, free-flowing water." Page 61-62 "A few days after Colonel Chandler's inspection, the same heavy rains that opened up "Providence Spring" swelled Stockade Creek to four or five feet above its normal level and washed away portions of the wall on the east and west sides of the stockade. Order was maintained in the prison by the Regulators, aided by the sixteen artillery pieces trained on the inmates. No escape was attempted, but General Winder, on the verge of panic, telegraphed Richmond that whether the stockade could be saved was doubtful and begged that facilities be sent to Millen to hasten completion of the prison there. He kept the troops under arms for about sixty hours while the damage was repaired, and afterward he wrote Adjutant General Cooper: {Never in my life have I spent so anxious a time.} If we had not had a large negro force working on the defenses I think it would have been impossible to have saved the place." Page 95 This book is very interesting and describes the living hell the prisoners had to indure while inmates of Andersonville Prison. I found the book in a used book store several years ago. My great grandfather Jesse Vestal Hines was taken prisoner at the battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and March 15 1864 he was sent to Andersonville where he remained until the end of February 1865. He went from 155 pounds to 110 pounds and in his own words his diet consisted of "corn meal, ground cob, and a little rusty bacon." Patricia Curran