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.
In this carefully researched and compelling revisionist account, William
Marvel provides a comprehensive history of Andersonville Prison and
conditions within it. Based on reliable primary sources including
diaries, Union and Confederate government documents, and letters rather
than exaggerated postwar recollections and such well-known but spurious
'diaries' as that of John Ransom, Marvel's analysis exonerates camp
commandant Henry Wirz and others from charges that they deliberately
exterminated prisoners, a crime for which Wirz was executed after the
war.
According to Marvel, virulent disease and severe shortages of
vegetables, medical supplies, and other necessities combined to create a
crisis beyond Wirz's 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.
