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The True Story of Andersonville Prison: A Defense of Major Henry Wirz
During the Civil War, James Madison Page was a prisoner in different places in the South. Seven months of that time was spent at Andersonville. While there he became well acquainted with Major Wirz, or Captain Wirz, as he then ranked. Page takes the stand that Captain Wirz was unjustly held responsible for the hardship and mortality of Andersonville. It was his belief that the Federal authorities must share the blame for these things with the Confederates, since they well knew the inability of the Confederates to meet the reasonable wants of their prisoners of war, as they lacked a supply for their own needs, and since the Federal authorities failed to exercise a humane policy in the exchange of those captured in battle.
The writer, "with malice toward none and charity for all," denies conscious prejudice, and makes the sincere endeavor to put himself in the other fellow's place and make such a statement of the matter in hand as will satisfy all lovers of truth and justice.
The writer, "with malice toward none and charity for all," denies conscious prejudice, and makes the sincere endeavor to put himself in the other fellow's place and make such a statement of the matter in hand as will satisfy all lovers of truth and justice.
143 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1908
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 7, 2022
I found this book on the shelf at my parents house and later found out the author, James Madison Page, is my great-great-great-great-great uncle. The book provides a thorough account and retelling of events that took place during Page’s stay at Andersonville Prison in 1864. The main purpose of writing this book was not to dwell on his imprisonment or talk poorly of the opposition, but to defend the actions of Captain Henry Wirz, who oversaw operations of the prison at the time Page was taken prisoner.
Page defends Captain Wirz in the book, explaining he did the the best he could with what he had available, and made multiple efforts to improve the conditions of the prison. At that time, it was important to note the South could barely feed and supply its own soldiers, let alone prisoners in their camps. While Andersonville swelled to more than 30,000 prisoners in an area with a capacity of 10,000 - prisoner exchanges had been requested, but denied due to the poor condition of the soldiers. Furthermore, Page describes a scene involving “raiders” at the prison that stole and murdered other prisoners. Page approached Captain Wirz describing the actions of this group and Wirz gave Page and his men the go-ahead to bring the criminals in for prosecution, and these men were tried and hung for their crimes. So at times, Wirz was willing to work with prisoners and maintain order.
When it came time to charge Captain Wirz for crimes committed during his leadership - counts brought against him were related charges of murder of several prisoners, but during witness testimony, none of them could name any soldiers that had been killed by the hands of Wirz, and several of these soldiers were alleged to have lived days after their mortal wounds were inflicted.
There is no doubt that what Union soldiers experienced at Andersonville was horrendous, and Page does not deny the atrocious treatment of his fellow prisoners. However, he does not see fit that all blame be put upon one individual or even a group of individuals. So who is to blame for the tragedies encountered at Andersonville? I certainly need to read further accounts from different sources on the matter before getting an answer to that question. From what I have read in Page’s account, it seems like a combination from both sides.
After spending months living in those unsettling conditions, my uncle never had ill will or harbored hatred toward his captors. In his words, “The Confederate Veteran is not a foreigner. He is our brother, he is related to us by the closest blood ties, and he is our countryman.” Describing a visit to the South many years after the war, he proclaims, “I felt then, as I do now, that every American citizen should thank God that we are one people, one country under one flag.”
Page defends Captain Wirz in the book, explaining he did the the best he could with what he had available, and made multiple efforts to improve the conditions of the prison. At that time, it was important to note the South could barely feed and supply its own soldiers, let alone prisoners in their camps. While Andersonville swelled to more than 30,000 prisoners in an area with a capacity of 10,000 - prisoner exchanges had been requested, but denied due to the poor condition of the soldiers. Furthermore, Page describes a scene involving “raiders” at the prison that stole and murdered other prisoners. Page approached Captain Wirz describing the actions of this group and Wirz gave Page and his men the go-ahead to bring the criminals in for prosecution, and these men were tried and hung for their crimes. So at times, Wirz was willing to work with prisoners and maintain order.
When it came time to charge Captain Wirz for crimes committed during his leadership - counts brought against him were related charges of murder of several prisoners, but during witness testimony, none of them could name any soldiers that had been killed by the hands of Wirz, and several of these soldiers were alleged to have lived days after their mortal wounds were inflicted.
There is no doubt that what Union soldiers experienced at Andersonville was horrendous, and Page does not deny the atrocious treatment of his fellow prisoners. However, he does not see fit that all blame be put upon one individual or even a group of individuals. So who is to blame for the tragedies encountered at Andersonville? I certainly need to read further accounts from different sources on the matter before getting an answer to that question. From what I have read in Page’s account, it seems like a combination from both sides.
After spending months living in those unsettling conditions, my uncle never had ill will or harbored hatred toward his captors. In his words, “The Confederate Veteran is not a foreigner. He is our brother, he is related to us by the closest blood ties, and he is our countryman.” Describing a visit to the South many years after the war, he proclaims, “I felt then, as I do now, that every American citizen should thank God that we are one people, one country under one flag.”
January 11, 2018
Wonderful book
At last a true history by a Union soldier having been in several Southern prisons prior to going to Andersonville. He also writes about the Union Government’s involvement in the deaths of many Union prisoners during the war. Secretary of War Stanton was a main proponent of stopping the exchange of prisoners. Secretary Stanton didn’t want Confederate prisoners repatriated to the south to rejoin their units so he left the Union prisoners to suffer in the Confederate prisons. I highly recommend this book to open people’s eyes.
At last a true history by a Union soldier having been in several Southern prisons prior to going to Andersonville. He also writes about the Union Government’s involvement in the deaths of many Union prisoners during the war. Secretary of War Stanton was a main proponent of stopping the exchange of prisoners. Secretary Stanton didn’t want Confederate prisoners repatriated to the south to rejoin their units so he left the Union prisoners to suffer in the Confederate prisons. I highly recommend this book to open people’s eyes.
August 29, 2018
I have read a number of books about Andersonville Prison, but this one is a must read.
December 21, 2017
For me, this was an interesting book to read. My great grandfather was imprisoned in Andersonville Prison during the Civil War. My grandmother often said that he was unwell for the rest of his life after being there. He told her that he was skin and bones when he left and was exchanged for a southern prisoner of war that was held by the North. After reading this book, I better understand the hardships he endured. So many lives were lost on both sides. Andersonville housed 30,000+ men during the Civil War. Many had no shelter from the rain, cold and heat. Rations were few. I now better understand the horrible hardships he went through.
February 8, 2018
Author James Madison Page was a Union soldier who first saw action at Gettysburg in July 1863 and was captured shortly afterward near Fredericksburg during the pursuit of Lee’s army. He spent most of the remainder of the war in notorious Andersonville prison, a 25 acre open air enclosure intended for 12,000 men. When the prisoner exchange system between north and south expired and could not be renegotiated, Andersonville’s population quickly swelled to 33,000. Most detainees lay on open ground without shelter from the elements or adequate nutrition. Sanitation was non-existent and the starving, lice infested men began dying at the rate of a hundred a day. After the Confederate surrender, a wave of outrage over Andersonville swept across the North. Major Henry Wirz, the man immediately in charge there, was tried and hanged for war crimes.
Page emphasizes he is a born Yankee who had never been south of Pennsylvania prior to the war. Nonetheless, he felt compelled to write this brief 140 page account of his experiences both in combat and as a prisoner to correct postwar falsehoods about Southern war crimes. Though conditions at Andersonville have been accurately reported, he insists Major Wirz was in no way responsible. Page had come to know the man personally and had worked with him to address the most immediate needs of inmates. He was subpoenaed to testify at Wirz’s trial, but when prosecutors heard what he had to say refused to allow him on the stand.
The catastrophe at Andersonville was a consequence of the economic collapse of the South that set in toward the end of 1863. Much of the Confederate army in the field was shoeless and received rations only marginally better than Union captives in prisons. Deterioration of Southern railroads from overuse, and destruction of track by raiding Union cavalry, left food and medical supplies to accumulate in warehouses at Charleston or Wilmington for lack of means of distribution even to Lee’s army in the field.
Page blames Secretary of War Stanton for the Andersonville catastrophe because of the man’s opposition to renewal of a prisoner exchange system. Lincoln was under pressure from the Northern peace moment that sought to replace him in the November elections and needed a quick victory. Prisoner exchanges would reinforce the dwindling Confederate army and prolong the war. Page oversimplifies this argument somewhat in downplaying obstacles to an exchange. The South refused to recognize the legitimacy of black Union soldiers and refused to exchange them. Black soldiers if former slaves were returned to their masters, and otherwise were shot. Page admits this but nonetheless argues, from his perspective and that of the other 33,000 men at Andersonville, their government was obligated to work out some sort of exchange to save them.
Page is a soft spoken writer, hesitant to dispute claims of Southern atrocities in books of other Union veterans. He insists that he draws solely on what he personally saw and experienced. The first hundred pages of the book give us his portrait of life at Andersonville. The last forty are biography of Wirz and an account of his trial and execution.
October 7, 2021
I read this book primarly because my third great-grandfather barely survived Andersonville, but died at age 35 due to health complications endured while there. He was a 1st West Virginia Cavalryman and Courier.
While the book does not go into a great deal of detail as to what prison life was like for the average prisoner there, it is a remarkable tale by a Union soldier who lived through the Andersonville experience and wanted to set the record straight. He does so by also mentioning and challenging other Andersonville survivor narratives and quoting from them.
It is more of personal and observational memoir that makes you feel evermore sad as it leads up to the scapegoating of a man sentenced to death for an entire situation that had many elements involved, from major political military moves to smaller personal tragedies within the prison gates.
Wirz is humanized and retained as someone doing the best he could within the scope of war and running a prison that was like hell on earth with little resources. Granted, the writer makes his way into some privileges, but he also got to know, first hand, how the characters of people really were as opposed to stereotypes that have been handed down in other narratives.
For instance, he writes early on in his war experiences that there were many kindnesses exchanged between opposing sides and you get learn how many people were trying to uphold their morals during wartime. However, he does place an even amount of blame on the Union Army for not exchanging sickly Union solidiers for more healthy Confederate soldiers. By the time my ancestor was "exchanged" or freed, he had spent two years as a POW, with one year of that time spent in Andersonville when it was most populated and unhealthy to be there.
Ultimately, if I really want to know what Andersonville was like for the average prisoner who did not make a way to work in a shoe repair and gain more interpersonal and observational insights, and maybe slightly more resources, I will have to read another narrative, as this author lived substainially more years beyond Andersonville than my ancestor. However, I will be glad to have read this one first so I can go into another narrative with a more open mind.
While the book does not go into a great deal of detail as to what prison life was like for the average prisoner there, it is a remarkable tale by a Union soldier who lived through the Andersonville experience and wanted to set the record straight. He does so by also mentioning and challenging other Andersonville survivor narratives and quoting from them.
It is more of personal and observational memoir that makes you feel evermore sad as it leads up to the scapegoating of a man sentenced to death for an entire situation that had many elements involved, from major political military moves to smaller personal tragedies within the prison gates.
Wirz is humanized and retained as someone doing the best he could within the scope of war and running a prison that was like hell on earth with little resources. Granted, the writer makes his way into some privileges, but he also got to know, first hand, how the characters of people really were as opposed to stereotypes that have been handed down in other narratives.
For instance, he writes early on in his war experiences that there were many kindnesses exchanged between opposing sides and you get learn how many people were trying to uphold their morals during wartime. However, he does place an even amount of blame on the Union Army for not exchanging sickly Union solidiers for more healthy Confederate soldiers. By the time my ancestor was "exchanged" or freed, he had spent two years as a POW, with one year of that time spent in Andersonville when it was most populated and unhealthy to be there.
Ultimately, if I really want to know what Andersonville was like for the average prisoner who did not make a way to work in a shoe repair and gain more interpersonal and observational insights, and maybe slightly more resources, I will have to read another narrative, as this author lived substainially more years beyond Andersonville than my ancestor. However, I will be glad to have read this one first so I can go into another narrative with a more open mind.
November 25, 2019
It was an interesting account of one who had spent time as a prisoner in Andersonville. I am going to need to read another book about Andersonville. From what I read about its history, his account is significantly different. Although his account does tell of atrocities, he seems to put somewhat of a good face on his experiences there. Apparently there is controversy about Major Wirz. Even though he was executed, some argue that his trial and the verdict was largely due to the fact of his being in charge of Camp Sumter and the emotions riding high after the Civil War.
He writes "Touching my treatment on the whole, I cannot recall a solitary instance, during the fourteen months while I was a prisoner, of being insulted, browbeaten, robbed or maltreated in any manner by a Confederate officer or soldier." That's different than all I had heard of Andersonville.
I am giving a three rating primarily to the Kindle version. Whoever edited that version really did not do their job. Chapter sub headings were stuck in the middle of sentences, Paragraph spacing was in the middle of scentences and sometimes in the middle of words. It was distracting to say the least.
He writes "Touching my treatment on the whole, I cannot recall a solitary instance, during the fourteen months while I was a prisoner, of being insulted, browbeaten, robbed or maltreated in any manner by a Confederate officer or soldier." That's different than all I had heard of Andersonville.
I am giving a three rating primarily to the Kindle version. Whoever edited that version really did not do their job. Chapter sub headings were stuck in the middle of sentences, Paragraph spacing was in the middle of scentences and sometimes in the middle of words. It was distracting to say the least.
December 14, 2017
This was a change from all the other books I've read about the Civil War prison at Andersonville. It was written by a Union prisoner who was there. It still describes the conditions as hell on earth but espouses the unpopular opinion that maybe it was the big picture circumstances that caused the catastrophe that was Andersonville rather than Southerners being demonic. This is a non-fiction classic and if you have any interest in the Civil War this is one that you need to read.
July 7, 2021
Seems to be a Fair Account
of life and death at the Andersonville Prison. It was a tragic loss of life that might have been mitigated if Stanton had shown the least bit of empathy for Northern prisoners held in the severely impoverished South during the latter stages of the Civil War.
of life and death at the Andersonville Prison. It was a tragic loss of life that might have been mitigated if Stanton had shown the least bit of empathy for Northern prisoners held in the severely impoverished South during the latter stages of the Civil War.
February 13, 2018
This is a well written account of how Union troops were treated. It explains the truth as to why there was so much death in Andersonville. The book takes a look at who and what is truly the blame. A excellent read for anyone interested in the horrors of the American Civil War.
March 25, 2018
Bravery and honesty...
Here is a brave soldier hitting hard against the greatest injustice to come out of a war filled with hatred and cruelty. In doing so he strikes a nerve that the whole world is struggling with, "forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
Here is a brave soldier hitting hard against the greatest injustice to come out of a war filled with hatred and cruelty. In doing so he strikes a nerve that the whole world is struggling with, "forgive them, for they know not what they do!"
July 6, 2018
Great Book
I could hardly put the book down once I started to read it. It opened my eyes and mind as to what actually went on in Andersonville Prison Camp. I understand now that the southerners were not near as cruel as we were told several years ago.
I could hardly put the book down once I started to read it. It opened my eyes and mind as to what actually went on in Andersonville Prison Camp. I understand now that the southerners were not near as cruel as we were told several years ago.
March 17, 2021
This was a very different type of book than I'd thought it might be. It tells a unique story about this prison and how things were at the time. It's less story like and more like journals and ledgers like in its telling. Very informative.
April 27, 2022
History repeats itself
Today America is divided like North and South of the civil war. Political parties try to destroy each other and individuals with falsehoods. In time though the truth always seems to rise up and set things straight.
Today America is divided like North and South of the civil war. Political parties try to destroy each other and individuals with falsehoods. In time though the truth always seems to rise up and set things straight.
June 16, 2023
I had read a book on Andersonville prison well over 20 years ago in college, and wanted to re-read it, but couldn’t find it. I found this one instead, and what a great read, and the last couple of pages were remarkably well written. This is worth the read.
May 8, 2018
Interesting historical view on Andersonville Prison.
May 19, 2018
Interesting Read
August 29, 2018
History in the alternative
Excellent read giving a different perspective on a terrible tragedy.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in the Civil War.
Excellent read giving a different perspective on a terrible tragedy.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in the Civil War.
October 14, 2018
Fair and tragic story
The first book on this tragic subject that I have ever read that attempts to look fairly at both sides.
The first book on this tragic subject that I have ever read that attempts to look fairly at both sides.
April 7, 2019
Great book
Wasn't able to put it down Tll the end. Great information about the civil war that rarely gets told. I will add to my collection and read again
Wasn't able to put it down Tll the end. Great information about the civil war that rarely gets told. I will add to my collection and read again
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews