Download or read book Hellmira written by Derek Maxfield and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth history of the inhumane Union Civil War prison camp that became known as “the Andersonville of the North.” Long called by some the “Andersonville of the North,” the prisoner of war camp in Elmira, New York, is remembered as the most notorious of all Union-run POW camps. It existed only from the summer of 1864 to July 1865, but in that time, and for long after, it became darkly emblematic of man’s inhumanity to man. Confederate prisoners called it “Hellmira.” Hastily constructed, poorly planned, and overcrowded, prisoner of war camps North and South were dumping grounds for the refuse of war. An unfortunate necessity, both sides regarded the camps as temporary inconveniences—and distractions from the important task of winning the war. There was no need, they believed, to construct expensive shelters or provide better rations. They needed only to sustain life long enough for the war to be won. Victory would deliver prisoners from their conditions. As a result, conditions in the prisoner of war camps amounted to a great humanitarian crisis, the extent of which could hardly be understood even after the blood stopped flowing on the battlefields. In the years after the war, as Reconstruction became increasingly bitter, the North pointed to Camp Sumter—better known as the Andersonville POW camp in Americus, Georgia—as evidence of the cruelty and barbarity of the Confederacy. The South, in turn, cited the camp in Elmira as a place where Union authorities withheld adequate food and shelter and purposefully caused thousands to suffer in the bitter cold. This finger-pointing by both sides would go on for over a century. And as it did, the legend of Hellmira grew. In this book, Derek Maxfield contextualizes the rise of prison camps during the Civil War, explores the failed exchange of prisoners, and tells the tale of the creation and evolution of the prison camp in Elmira. In the end, Maxfield suggests that it is time to move on from the blame game and see prisoner of war camps—North and South—as a great humanitarian failure. Praise for Hellmira “A unique and informative contribution to the growing library of Civil War histories...Important and unreservedly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review “A good book, and the author should be congratulated.” —Civil War News

Download or read book History of Andersonville Prison written by Ovid L. Futch and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2011-03-06 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Andersonville Diary Escape and List of the Dead written by John L. Ransom and published by . This book was released on 1883 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Andersonvilles of the North written by James Massie Gillispie and published by University of North Texas Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study argues that the image of Union prison officials as negligent and cruel to Confederate prisoners is severely flawed. It explains how Confederate prisoners' suffering and death were due to a number of factors, but it would seem that Yankee apathy and malice were rarely among them.

Download or read book The True Story of Andersonville Prison written by James Madison Page and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Andersonville written by Raymond F. Baker and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Trial of Henry Wirz written by Henry Wirz and published by Legare Street Press. This book was released on 2022-10-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Download or read book The Horrors of Andersonville written by Catherine Gourley and published by Twenty-First Century Books ™. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Confederate prison known as Andersonville existed for only the last fourteen months of the Civil War―but its well-documented legacy of horror has lived on in the diaries of its prisoners and the transcripts of the trial of its commandant. The diaries describe appalling conditions in which vermin-infested men were crowded into an open stockade with a single befouled stream as their water source. Food was scarce and medical supplies virtually nonexistent. The bodies of those who did not survive the night had to be cleared away each morning. Designed to house 10,000 Yankee prisoners, Andersonville held 32,000 during August 1864. Nearly a third of the 45,000 prisoners who passed through the camp perished. Exposure, starvation, and disease were the main causes, but excessively harsh penal practices and even violence among themselves contributed to the unprecedented death rate. At the end of the war, outraged Northerners demanded retribution for such travesties, and they received it in the form of the trial and subsequent hanging of Captain Henry Wirz, the prison’s commandant. The trial was the subject of legal controversy for decades afterward, as many people felt justice was ignored in order to appease the Northerners’ moral outrage over the horrors of Andersonville. The story of Andersonville is a complex one involving politics, intrigue, mismanagement, unfortunate timing, and, of course, people - both good and bad. Relying heavily on first-person reports and legal documents, author Catherine Gourley gives us a fascinating look into one of the most painful incidents of U.S. history.

Download or read book Camp Douglas written by Kelly Pucci and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2007 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of Confederate soldiers died in Chicago during the Civil War, not from battle wounds, but from disease, starvation, and torture as POWs in a military prison three miles from the Chicago Loop. Initially treated as a curiosity, attitudes changed when newspapers reported the deaths of Union soldiers on southern battlefields. As the prison population swelled, deadly diseases--smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia--quickly spread through Camp Douglas. Starving prisoners caught stealing from garbage dumps were tortured or shot. Fearing a prisoner revolt, a military official declared martial law in Chicago, and civilians, including a Chicago mayor and his family, were arrested, tried, and sentenced by a military court. At the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas closed, its buildings were demolished, and records were lost or destroyed. The exact number of dead is unknown; however, 6,000 Confederate soldiers incarcerated at Camp Douglas are buried among mayors and gangsters in a South Side cemetery. Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison explores a long-forgotten chapter of American history, clouded in mystery and largely forgotten.

Download or read book John Ransom s Andersonville Diary written by John L. Ransom and published by Berkley. This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Ransom was a 20-year-old Union soldier when he became a prisoner of war in 1863. In his unforgettable diary, Ransom reveals the true story of his day-to-day struggle in the worst of Confederate prison camps--where hundreds of prisoners died daily. Ransom's story of survival is, according to Publishers Weekly, a great adventure . . . observant, eloquent, and moving.

Download or read book Civil War Prisons written by William Best Hesseltine and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 1972 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The articles in this book carefully consider the passionate and partisan documents of the era in order to arrive at a clear, dispassionate understanding of the prisons North and South, how they were administered, and what life for the captured soldiers was like" - from back cover.

Download or read book The Business of Captivity written by Michael P. Gray and published by Kent State University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the many controversial issues to emerge from the Civil War was the treatment of prisoners of war. At two stockades, the Confederate prison at Anderson, and the Union prison at Elmira, suffering was accute and mortality was high. This work explores the economic and social impact of Elmira.

Download or read book A List of the Union Soldiers Buried at Andersonville written by Clara Barton and published by . This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A List of the Union Soldiers Buried at Andersonville - Vol. 3 is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1868. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

Download or read book Haunted by Atrocity written by Benjamin G. Cloyd and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2010-05-24 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benjamin G. Cloyd deftly analyzes how Americans have remembered the military prisons of the Civil War from the war itself to the present, making a strong case for the continued importance of the great conflict in contemporary America. The first study of Civil War memory to focus exclusively on the military prison camps, Haunted by Atrocity offers a cautionary tale of how Americans, for generations, have unconsciously constructed their recollections of painful events in ways that protect cherished ideals of myth, meaning, identity, and, ultimately, the deeply rooted faith in American exceptionalism.

Download or read book Escape from Andersonville written by Gene Hackman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-05-13 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An explosive novel of the Civil War about one man’s escape from a notorious Confederate prison camp---and his dramatic return to save his men. July 1864. Union officer Nathan Parker has been imprisoned at nightmarish Andersonville prison camp in Georgia along with his soldiers. As others die around them, Nathan and his men hatch a daring plan to allow him to escape through a tunnel and make his way to Vicksburg, where he intends to alert his superiors to the imprisonment and push for military action. His efforts are blocked by higher-ups in the military, so Parker takes matters into his own hands. Together with a shady, dangerous ex-soldier and smuggler named Marcel Lafarge and a fascinating collection of cutthroats, soldiers, and castoffs, a desperate Parker organizes a private rescue mission to free his men before it’s too late. Exciting, thoroughly researched, and dramatic, Escape from Andersonville is a Civil War novel filled with action, memorable characters, and vividly realized descriptions of the war’s final year.

Download or read book Portals to Hell written by Lonnie R. Speer and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The holding of prisoners of war has always been both a political and a military enterprise, yet the military prisons of the Civil War, which held more than four hundred thousand soldiers and caused the deaths of fifty-six thousand men, have been nearly forgotten. Now Lonnie R. Speer has brought to life the least-known men in the great struggle between the Union and the Confederacy, using their own words and observations as they endured a true ?hell on earth.? Drawing on scores of previously unpublished firsthand accounts, Portals to Hell presents the prisoners? experiences in great detail and from an impartial perspective. The first comprehensive study of all major prisons of both the North and the South, this chronicle analyzes the many complexities of the relationships among prisoners, guards, commandants, and government leaders.

Download or read book Andersonville Prison written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *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 Ransom Notorious, 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.