Jeremy Maddux’s Reviews > The True Story of Andersonville Prison: A Defense of Major Henry Wirz > Status Update

'“I am doing all I can, I am hampered and pressed for rations. I am even exceeding my authority in issuing supplies. I am blamed by the prisoners for all of this suffering. They do not or will not realize that I am a subordinate, governed by orders of my commanding officer. Why, sir, my own men are on short rations. The best I can do is to see that your sick comrades are removed to the hospital.'

'"Brace up; never say die. You will be exchanged in a few days. I have it straight from headquarters.” Looking back more than forty years and diagnosing those “rebel lies,” I can find no better reason for them than kindness of heart.'

'The reader may expect in this account only the plain, unvarnished tale of a soldier. 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.'