Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons

by John McElroy

John McElroy, a private in the 16th Illinois Cavalry, was captured in Virginia in January 1864 and spent the next fifteen months in Confederate prisons: Richmond, then the stockade at Andersonville in Georgia, then Savannah, Millen, Blackshear and Florence. Andersonville, published in 1879 from articles in the Toledo Blade, is his account of those months and of the thirteen thousand Union prisoners who died in the Georgia camp from starvation, exposure and disease. He describes the arrival, the dead line, the raiders who preyed on their fellow prisoners and were hanged by them, the commandant Wirz, escapes and recaptures, and the final release. It is angry, detailed and one of the most widely read prison narratives of the war. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.