Waubonsee Community College

Andersonville, the last depot, William Marvel

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-321) and index

government publication of a state province territory dependency etc

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Andersonville

bibliography

29255361

William Marvel

Civil War America

the last depot

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 - one-third 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 officialsIn this carefully researched and compelling revisionist account, William Marvel provides a comprehensive history of Andersonville Prison and conditions within itBased 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 warAccording 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