Not for one man, but 13,000.

Music, remarks, wreaths and the procession of a caisson bearing a wooden casket will give those who exhaled their last breath in the putrid air of an overcrowded Civil War prison the dignity and funeral they never received when their gaunt remains were carted off to the burial ground.

"I think it gives a sense of closure," said Gordon.

For staff members at the historic site, the weekend is the culmination of its sesquicentennial observance of an often-overlooked aspect of the war: Away from the battles that are famous today -- Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh -- thousands of men on both sides endured wretched conditions. At Andersonville alone, nearly 13,000 soldiers and civilian captives died over 14 months -- an average of more than 30 a day in that span. Overall, 30,000 Union and 26,000 Confederate soldiers died in captivity.

Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Lance Greene, an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University, looks over sediment being sifted by students Heather McNamee, left, and Victoria Simpson during an excavation at the site of Camp Lawton, a large Civil War prison built just north of Millen, Georgia. Greene says the archaeological effort is aimed, in part, at trying to learn more about the grouping and ethnicity of Union prisoners who were housed there in late 1864. Hide Caption 1 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Georgia Southern University graduate student Hubert Gibson carefully removes soil from an area where the prison stockade wall once stood. Gibson has focused on techniques used to build the structure and the use of slave labor by Confederates who built the camp to relieve overcrowding at Andersonville prison. Hide Caption 2 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – This seven-round .22-caliber pistol cylinder was recovered in a metal detector survey on the grounds of Magnolia Springs State Park, just outside the stockade wall. It was probably associated with a Confederate guard on one of the towers, says Greene, but "we don't know that for sure." Hide Caption 3 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – This is a standard-issue Union "general service" button. It was on coats used by Union-enlisted men and officers. Some had a letter in the middle of the shield ("I" for infantry, for example) but many were produced without any lettering, such as this one. Several buttons of this style have been recovered, says Greene. Hide Caption 4 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Georgia Southern University archeology students placed flags where artifacts were found using metal detectors. Thousands of Union soldiers lived in an area of makeshift shelters. It even included a Main Street with goods and services for those who could afford them. The area has long grown over. The site is protected by a security fence. Hide Caption 5 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Amanda Andreu works near exposed bricks that may be part of several ovens at Camp Lawton used for communal cooking. Some soldiers crawled inside the ovens to sleep and get away from the persistent cold and rain in fall 1864. Hide Caption 6 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – The January 7, 1865, issue of Harper's Weekly, a popular publication during the Civil War, shows drawings of Camp Lawton and Millen on the page to the right. Union soldiers who hoped to liberate their comrades found an emptied prison and a few unburied bodies. This copy is in a Camp Lawton exhibit at the Georgia Southern Museum in Statesboro. Hide Caption 7 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – "Given that the buckle still had some cloth on it, and that there is no evidence that it was modified to be used as something else, I'd say it was probably used as a tourniquet buckle," says Greene. "We don't know that it was used in Camp Lawton, although there would be plenty of prisoners who had injuries that it might be useful to treat. However, it might have also just been brought in someone's pack, and kept or traded, and not used in the camp." Hide Caption 8 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Georgia Southern student Heather McNamee sifts dirt during an excavation dig. "It's really hard," she said of locating artifacts in piles of earth. "If you're wearing gloves, sometimes you have to take them off. It's a feeling thing." She took part in a dig that was interrupted by rain in late March. Hide Caption 9 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – A marker identifies the location of Camp Lawton near Millen. This part of the land once occupied by the prison is now Magnolia Springs State Park, while another portion where thousands of prisoners lived became a federal fish hatchery. Lawton, at 42 acres, was considered the largest prison in the world at the time of the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 1865. Hide Caption 10 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Charles H. Knox was a corporal in Company L of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry. Captured in Virginia in his first major battle, Knox was a prisoner at Andersonville and Lawton, both in Georgia. This medal is made in the shape of a stockade with cannons at each corner surrounding the image of a Union prisoner being attacked by a guard dog. The dog is a reference to reports that the Andersonville commander used dogs to track escaped POWs. The bottom panel reads: "Death before dishonor." The item is in the collection of the Georgia Southern Museum. Hide Caption 11 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – The handle of this two-tine fork is broken. This kind of utensil was among the few things that Camp Lawton prisoners were allowed to keep. They were used for eating, and perhaps for digging and other uses. Hide Caption 12 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – From left, Georgia Southern students Amanda Andreu, Amanda Shively, and Kylie Jones measure an excavation site in the part of the prison where about 10,000 Union soldiers were held captive during the Civil War. Jones said this semester was her first field school, at which she learned proper archeological techniques. "It makes the past more real," she says of the effort. Hide Caption 13 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – A massive timber log rests on the site of a now-closed hatchery where prisoners once lived. The log is believed to be one of the few remaining pieces of the original stockade wall, which encompassed a 1-mile perimeter around the prison. Kevin Chapman, left, a former Georgia Southern student who did extensive research at Lawton, and archeologist Rick Kanaski work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates hatcheries. Part of Camp Lawton was built on property now belonging to the federal government. Hide Caption 14 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – The remains of a kitchen knife were found in the prisoner area. Unlike many Civil War sites, Camp Lawton has not been picked over by relic hunters because it only existed for a few months before being hastily abandoned when Maj. Gen. William Sherman's army marched through Georgia. It was soon "lost" to history. Farmers worked the area and, eventually, trees and brush returned. Hide Caption 15 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – This 1831 half-real from Argentina was likely used as currency in the camp, just like all coins, as well as grocery tokens and buttons. Foreign coins were traded among prisoners. Many regiments featured new immigrants who had recently arrived in the United States and joined the Union army. The coin is among artifacts on display at the Georgia Southern Museum. Brent Tharp, head of the museum, says students helped prepare the exhibit. Hide Caption 16 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Greene uses a trowel in an opened area where a prisoner "shebang," or shelter, once stood. Behind him are bricks that were likely "liberated" by Union soldiers from a camp oven. They were likely used to support the walls of the shebang. The Georgia Southern team is excited about this feature, and have found evidence of a fire perhaps used for warmth. Hide Caption 17 of 18 Photos: Searching for history at Camp Lawton Searching for history at Camp Lawton – Hubert Gibson empties a bucket of water as he and other Georgia Southern students prepare to work on the Camp Lawton site. Students must contend with sore muscles from shoveling and hauling dirt, along with heat, gnats and mosquitoes during the summer. But the payoff is worth it, they say. Hide Caption 18 of 18

Officials hope that visitors don't see the events just as a history lesson. There are larger questions of how soldiers transition to civilian life. How a nation binds its wounds after war and tells the story of those who were held captive in all wars. The observance coincides with the annual National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

There also are the individual stories of men who felt real hardship and made choices with life-or-death implications. For those who survived those prisons, the return to family and community often was difficult.

"It doesn't end in a neat signature and the laying down of arms," said Stephanie Steinhorst, acting chief of interpretation at Andersonville.

'Chaos and human limitation'

A visitor to Andersonville, about a 2½-hour drive south of Atlanta, will have moments of keen loss and sadness while driving or walking the grounds of the stockade site and adjoining national cemetery.

At one point in the summer of 1864, some 33,000 Federal soldiers were packed into the prison. The sun beat mercilessly on them and they made shelter of anything they could get their filthy hands on. Inside and not far from the stockade wall was the "deadline," a series of wooden bars a prisoner could not touch or pass without the prospect of being shot by Confederate guards.

"I don't see how anyone could fail to be troubled and moved by the stockade, with its deadlines, escape tunnels and Providence Spring," said Judson Mitcham, the poet laureate of Georgia. "That subtext of such clean, well-kept grounds is chaos and human limitation, and I can't walk across the stockade field without feeling challenged and defeated by its awful irony. Even the sky looks different from there."

Mitcham will recite his "Prayer at Andersonville, 2015" at Saturday's funeral. It will seek to address "the better angels of our nature," a line made famous by President Abraham Lincoln.

Steinhorst said the simple, ceremonial casket brought to the cemetery rostrum will be covered by a U.S. flag bearing 35 stars, the number of states during the conflict.

The casket has been displayed at the site's museum, filled with paper stars made by students and others across the country.

"Memory stars" fill a ceremonial casket at Andersonville National Hisoric Site.

"The Memory Star program exceeded our expectations, with over 16,000 stars arriving at the park. The stars represent many things, each defined by the person who crafted them," the park said. "Some are dreams or the future jobs of young students, others are memorials to soldiers long buried, and still others honor mothers and fathers who currently serve as soldiers. From a Civil War perspective the combined 16,000 stars reflect the joint fatalities at Andersonville and another prison, such as Elmira Military Prison in New York."

Among those taking part in the events is retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, who suffered injuries when an American helicopter was shot down in 1991 during the Persian Gulf War. She was held captive by Iraqi forces. Andersonville is home to the National Prisoner of War Museum.

The keynote speaker Saturday will be Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey, who will talk about how soldiers transition to civilian life.

Importance of a proper burial

Gordon, a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, will be making her first visit to Andersonville. But it's not unfamiliar territory: Her book, "A Broken Regiment: The 16th Connecticut's Civil War" draws heavily on prison records and journals written by members of the regiment. About 400 were taken prisoner in North Carolina and sent to Andersonville; about 100 to 120 died in captivity.

The regiment was still haunted by the ignominy it suffered at Antietam in September 1862. The underprepared and ill-led soldiers fled the field.

At Andersonville, the prisoners grappled with their failure. But there came moments of courage and heroism as they helped each other during their harrowing months. Their sacrifice and solidarity brought them redemption, Gordon said.

Still, they lamented that fallen comrades rarely received a religious service. They made sure that changed in the years after the Civil War.

"Many of the survivors made a point of insisting when anyone in their regiment died they provided a reverent burial," said Gordon.

A memorial illumination will be held Friday and Saturday on the grounds of the camp stockade.

While there were joyous homecomings, many veterans suffered from their physical and mental wounds. The professor will speak at presentations of the enduring effects of "war trauma."

Descendants of prisoners and guards -- who also suffered during the prison camp's history -- will be among those making the pilgrimage, said Steinhorst.

A memorial illumination will be held Friday and Saturday evenings on the stockade site. Bags with yellow lights inside will be placed along the gentle hills.

At a place where thousands starved, visitors will be able to donate canned goods at the museum or at the front gate during the illumination. The items will go to the Harvest of Hope Food Pantry in nearby Americus.

"We want to make sure the 150th anniversary helped folks," Steinhorst said.