Much like the Civil War itself, accounts of prison camps can seem at opposite ends of the spectrum. Some, like Camp Douglas in Chicago, are as obscure as the physical sites themselves, buried under city development. Andersonville, the camp for Union POWs in Sumter County, Georgia, has had the most notorious reputation of any camp during the conflict. And yet some Union prisoners, like James Madison Page, reported a very different experience.
The facts are stark. Over the 13 months of its existence, some 45,000 Union soldiers were imprisoned there, and 13,000 died.
John Ransom, an acting quartermaster sergeant for the 9th Michigan Cavalry, was captured on Nov. 6, 1863, in east Tennessee. He was first sent to Belle Island, an island in the James River adjacent to Richmond, then to a tobacco warehouse building in Richmond itself, and finally by train to Andersonville. He survived the experience, but only barely. In 1881, he published Andersonville Diary, a memoir of his experiences, using the almost daily journal he kept as the basis.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.
Some Wednesday Readings
Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army by Adam Mendelsohn – book review by Mike Smith at The Detroit Jewish News.
Check out Paul Lynch’s reaction to winning the Booker Prize – Dan Sheehan at Literary Hub.
‘Mathematization yet!’ Why Exec Comms Pros Don’t Like to Measure (and Why I Don’t Blame Them a Bit – David Murray at Writing Boots.
The Nights of Old London – Spitalfields Life.
Poems to Listen To: Earth Song - 2: A Meeting -- Laurie Klein at Tweetspeak Poetry (for Patreon subscribers).
Horseshoe Bend, a Dark Teesside short story by Glenn McGoldrick, is free on Amazon Kindle today and tomorrow.
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