Andersonville Journey: The Civil War's Greatest Tragedy - Softcover

Roberts, Edward F

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1572491809 ISBN 13: 9781572491809

Publisher: Burd Street Press, 2007

Synopsis

Showing the importance of Andersonville Prison in our understanding of the prisoner of war experience in American history, Andersonville Journey objectively tells its complete story from before the Civil War to the recent placement of Georgia Monument in its cemetery grounds. Andersonville--the name itself immediately evokes visions of human suffering and death amid crowded, filthy conditions. This is the first book to go beyond its war years to document the important and fascinating post-Civil War story of one of the most famous prisoner of war camps in history.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Andersonville. The very name of our Civil War's most infamous prison is enough to cause dissension in the ranks of both scholars and buffs of the conflict. From February 1864 to April 1865, more than 13,000 Union prisoners of war died in this Georgia hellhole. Captain Henry Wirz, its commandant, was arrested, tried and found guilty of war crimes, then became the first American executed for such crimes. Roberts realizes that the sensational nature of the vituperative literature about Andersonville makes historical research difficult at best. Although not nearly as scholarly as some other recent books on the subject (e.g., Bill Marvel's Andersonville: The Last Depot), Roberts's book does a creditable job of presenting the sordid history of the pestilence-ridden prison. He takes the reader through the war years, then examines the arrest, trial and execution of Wirz. The heroic Dorence Atwater, the Yankee prisoner who worked as a hospital clerk and secretly compiled a burial list of prisoners, is featured, followed by the government's attempts to squash public knowledge of his death roll. Clara Barton, the legendary nurse, helped Atwater mark the graves. Roberts then chronicles the postwar years, including controversial reunions at the prison that infuriated local citizens, monumentalizing by Northern states and the erection of a monument to Wirz in the nearby town of Andersonville. A number of minor factual errors do not detract from the book's overall effectiveness at presenting both sides of a historical quagmire. Illustrations and maps complement the text.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Burd Street Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1572491809
• ISBN 13: 9781572491809
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 308