Civil War and a Democrat for President (15th September)

A variety of things to see today. Firstly is the Upson County Court House, which in itself is a pretty impressive building but also has on its grounds, the cannon ball that was fired to start the Civil War. That ball has a lot to answer for!!. Can never let a covered bridge go by so we see one of the rare ones in the south, and still used today. We have morning tea at the little village of Andersonville that has the distinction or the ignominy (depending on whose side you were on) as having the largest POW camp for Union soldiers in the Civil War. The National Park now houses the National POW Museum and includes the cemetery and the land where the meadows of the POW camp existed. It is so hard to imagine 45,000 odd soldiers being kept here and nearly 13,000 dying, not of wounds but of sickness such as dysentery and malaria. The rows and rows of tombstones tell the story. Our next major stop is the Jimmy Carter Historic place in Plains. The Welcome Centre is in Jimmy's old school, which houses displays on both Jimmy and wife, Rosalynne through the years from school until after his presidency had finished. We move on to see his boyhood home and farm, including the farm shop that was run by his farmer. In the depot is a display on the campaign to get him to the presidency. It all happened here with a lot of the locals being participants. The locals hired a train to get them to Washington for the inauguration. The large peanut with the Jimmy Carter smile was part of his campaign. He really was a small town boy that with hard work and perseverance, came to be governor of Alabama and then president of the United States.