Publisher's Synopsis
This work is 1995 Lincoln Prize, Second Place Winner, Lincoln and Soldiers Institute, Gettysburg College; recieved 1995 Douglas Southall Freeman History Award, Military Order of the Stars and Bars; and 1995 Malcolm and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, Georgia Historical Society. It tells about the real tragedy of the notorious Confederate prison camp. Between February 1864 and April 1865, 41,000 Union prisoners of war were taken to the stockade at Anderson Station, Georgia, where nearly 13,000 of them died. Most contemporary accounts placed the blame for the tragedy squarely on the shoulders of the Confederates who administered the prison or on a conspiracy of higher-ranking officials. According to William Marvel, virulent disease and severe shortages of vegetables, medical supplies, and other necessities combined to create a crisis beyond the captors' control. He also argues that the tragedy was aggravated by the Union decision to suspend prisoner exchanges, which meant that many men who might have returned home were instead left to sicken and die in captivity.
