John Ransom's Andersonville Diary


Book Description

John Ransom was a twenty-year-old Union soldier when he wascaptured in 1863 and became a prisoner of war. Held in the infamousAndersonville prison until he was near death, Ransom never gave up his loveof life. He hated the conditions of his captivity, but not his captors--men likehimself who were caught in the whirlwind of forces beyond their control.With a rate honesty simplicity, and insight, Ransom unfolds a tale of struggleand survival in the worst of the confederate prison camps. His diary,enhanced by his own drawings, is a testament to the indomitable humanspirit and provides a unique viewpoint of the most wrenching of America'swars.







John Ransom's Civil War Diary


Book Description

John L. Ransom joined the Union Army in 1862, serving as brigade quartermaster of the Ninth Michigan Volunteer Cavalry. A year later, the 20-year-old soldier was captured in Tennessee and interned at the notorious Georgia prison camp, Andersonville. Ransom's harrowing firsthand account of Civil War prison life constitutes a valuable historical record — a true story not only of cruelty, death, and deprivations but also of acts of courage and kindness that ensured the young soldier's survival and preserved his faith in humanity.




John Ransom's Diary


Book Description




Andersonville diary


Book Description

One of the most starkly vivid and detailed accounts of survival in Georgia's notorious Andersonville prison during the American Civil War. John Ransom was only 20 years old at the time of his capture. He kept a nearly daily diary during his year of misery at the Confederate prison. He and his fellow Union prisoners endured lice, starvation, freezing cold, killing heat, theft from other inmates...and Captain Wirtz. "Capt. Wirtz very domineering and abusive. Is afraid to come into camp any more. There are a thousand men in here who would willingly die if they could kill him first." Death was a daily occurrence. Yet Ransom knew if he gave up hope, he would die. He somehow kept his humor and kept on writing. Through two escapes, time in a Rebel hospital, and eventual freedom, you'll read a POW account like none you've ever read before.




History of Andersonville Prison


Book Description

In February 1864, five hundred Union prisoners of war arrived at the Confederate stockade at Anderson Station, Georgia. Andersonville, as it was later known, would become legendary for its brutality and mistreatment, with the highest mortality rate--over 30 percent--of any Civil War prison. Fourteen months later, 32,000 men were imprisoned there. Most of the prisoners suffered greatly because of poor organization, meager supplies, the Federal government’s refusal to exchange prisoners, and the cruelty of men supporting a government engaged in a losing battle for survival. Who was responsible for allowing so much squalor, mismanagement, and waste at Andersonville? Looking for an answer, Ovid Futch cuts through charges and countercharges that have made the camp a subject of bitter controversy. He examines diaries and firsthand accounts of prisoners, guards, and officers, and both Confederate and Federal government records (including the transcript of the trial of Capt. Henry Wirz, the alleged "fiend of Andersonville"). First published in 1968, this groundbreaking volume has never gone out of print.




The True Story of Andersonville Prison


Book Description

Looks at Andersonville Prison's commandant during the U.S. Civil War, Confederate Major Henry Wirz, who was arrested and later found guilty on war crimes charges for allowing inhumane conditions and treatment of prisoners of war at the prison.







A Diary from Dixie


Book Description

In her diary, Mary Boykin Chesnut, the wife of a Confederate general and aid to president Jefferson Davis, James Chestnut, Jr., presents an eyewitness account of the Civil War.




Andersonville Prison: the History of the Civil War's Most Notorious Prison Camp


Book Description

*Includes pictures*Includes accounts of the prison written by surviving prisoners*Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading*Includes a table of contents“Wuld that I was an artist & had the material to paint this camp & all its horors or the tounge of some eloquent Statesman and had the privleage of expresing my mind to our hon. rulers at Washington, I should gloery to describe this hell on earth where it takes 7 of its ocupiants to make a shadow.” - Sgt. David Kennedy “There is so much filth about the camp that it is terrible trying to live here." - Michigan cavalryman John RansomNotorious, a hell on earth, a cesspool, a death camp, and infamous have all been used by prisoners and critics to describe Andersonville Prison, constructed to house Union prisoners of war in 1864, and all descriptions apply. Located in Andersonville, Georgia and known colloquially as Camp Sumter, Andersonville only served as a prison camp for 14 months, but during that time 45,000 Union soldiers suffered there, and nearly 13,000 died. Victims found at the end of the war who had been held at Camp Sumter resembled victims of Auschwitz, starving and left to die with no regard for human life.Rumors about the horrors of Andersonville were making the rounds by the summer of 1864, and they were bad enough that during the Atlanta campaign, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman gave orders for a cavalry raid attempting to liberate the prisoners there. The Union cavalry were repulsed by Southern militia and cavalry at that point, and even after Sherman took Atlanta, the retreating Confederates moved under the assumption that the Union would target Andersonville yet again. Before the end of the war, the Confederates were moving prisoners from Andersonville to Camp Lawton, but by then, Andersonville was already synonymous with horror. Unable to supply its own armies, the Confederates had inadequately supplied the prison and its thousands of Union prisoners, leaving over 25% of the prisoners to die of starvation and disease. All told, Andersonville accounted for 40% of the deaths of all Union prisoners in the South, and the causes of death included malnutrition, disease, poor sanitation, overcrowding, and exposure to inclement weather. In fact, Andersonville infuriated the North so much that Henry Wirz, the man in charge of Andersonville, was the only Confederate executed after the war. Before the war, Wirz was a Swiss doctor who had practiced medicine in Kentucky, but while some Southern scholars continue to believe he was simply a victim of circumstance, plenty of evidence suggests his actions were far more insidious and deadly. As the debate over Wirz's fate suggests, one lingering argument in the analysis of Andersonville is whether the abuse and starvation of prisoners was a tragic circumstance of wartime conditions and poverty in the South or if the mistreatment was purposeful and intended. Most scholarship supports the latter point of view, and for the most part, the major dissenting views come from Southern writers and historians who espouse the “Lost Cause.” There were articles of war and specific rules on how to treat prisoners on both sides, but by any measurement, humane treatment was all but nonexistent at Andersonville. Andersonville Prison: The History of the Civil War's Most Notorious Prison Camp chronicles the history of the Civil War's most infamous prison. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Andersonville like never before, in no time at all.