A "Funeral for 13,000" was held at the Andersonville National Cemetery on September 19, 2015 to remember the Union soldiers who died in captivity there during the Civil War. Keynote speakers included Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey and University of Akron history professor Lesley Gordon. The ceremony included a ceremonial casket on a horse-drawn limber and caisson, the Pledge of Allegiance, an invocation, poetry, the Maneuver School of Excellence Brass Quintet, wreath presentations, rendering of honors by the Georgia Army National Guard, taps, and a benediction.
The Camp Sumter military prison at Andersonville, Georgia, was built in early 1864 to hold Union POWs during the Civil War. By the time it closed, over 45,000 soldiers had been imprisoned there and almost 13,000 had died. The "Funeral for 13,000" was part of the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Andersonville National Historic Site.
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