Tag: Fort Oglethorpe GA
Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia was a military facility near the town of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, which housed some 4,000 enemy military personnel as prisoners of war and civilian detainees, during the World War I period, roughly 1917 to 1920.
“The War Prison Camp of Fort Oglethorpe consisted of a huge, somewhat hilly plot of land approximately a mile square. The entire area was surrounded by two barbed-wire fences, about ten feet high.” Tripod watch towers were located outside the barbed wire perimeter. Each tower was equipped with a search light, telephone and machine-gun.
The camp was divided into two component parts. Camp A, the “millionaire’s camp,” housed wealthy prisoners in private rooms who paid for their own food, and also retained cooks and servants recruited from the stewards and sailors of the German maritime fleet. Camp B consisted of some thirty barracks which housed the majority of the 4,000 prisoners. It was dominated by an immense mess-hall.
The military prisoners included…
