 For People With An Active Interest in the Civil War Today |
|
Use these links to navigate on CWN's web site Home/
Calendar/
News/ News
Archive/Opinion/ Book
Reviews/Living History
|
|
|
Book Reviews These are some reviews from a recent issue of
The Civil War News:
|
|
"Out of the Mouth of Hell" Civil War Prisons and Escapes
by Frances H. Casstevens
Illustrated, appendix, notes, bibliography, 376 pp., 2005. McFarland & Company Inc., Box 611, Jefferson, NC 28640, $55 plus shipping.
At the onset of the Civil War there was little need for large camps or stockades to hold prisoners of war as converted granaries, warehouses and forts filled the need for the holding of Confederate and Union soldiers. As the war progressed so did the need for larger holding facilities, thus large-scale prisons were born out of necessity. The camps, laid out and designed to hold a specific number of men, were soon filled to capacity and then overcrowded, so much so that the average prisoner would often relish quick death by bullet to the long drawn out starvation of camp life. Taxed beyond comprehension these men endured pain and suffered from malnutrition, infestations by all sorts of vermin, extremes in weather and disgusting sanitary conditions. Many a soldier succumbed from falling into a privy and being too weak to pull himself out, drowning in his and others’ filth. Out of desperation men would barter their very lives for a possible way to end their misery. They would sell clothing for food only to die from the elements, or be attacked by marauding inmates bent on trying to better their own horrible existence in "hell." Death became like a friend to many a soldier, offering him an easy way out of the pain and suffering. Heavy labor, starvation, endless beatings and putrid water became a way of life — a life not worth living. Many sought a quick escape to the tranquility and peacefulness of death. A few fell back on their trade and crafted jewelry out of animal bones or rocks and sold them outside the walls of confinement. This book sheds light into the misery and complexity of housing prisoners and does so quite well. The author chose 27 locations from the North and South and gives the reader excellent detail into the sites: when they were established, specific types of prison along with types of prisoners, capacities, known escapes and nicknames. Each facility is arranged alphabetically to aid in referencing the material. Since the Confederate prison records were sketchy at best only the federal prison population and escapes were reported from July 1862 through 1865. This is documented in the appendix right before the chapter notes at the end of the book and covers a 41-month period. Extensive research was put into this work and it shows not only in the writing but also in the chapter notes. Official correspondence from camp commanders is used quite heavily, as well as theOfficial Records. The Notes section alone will give readers interested in a particular facility a wonderful avenue in which to do further research. Author Casstevens gives readers a keen insight into what the common soldier faced within prison walls and how he battled the elements, vermin and his friends to live another day. The struggle to survive is reflected in the monumental efforts to escape and the details relating to several escapes along with the ideas hatched in the tormented soldiers’ minds. The extremes that they would go to in order to escape show just how bad life was within the walls. Considering local inhabitants, local terrain and how poorly some prison officials treated prisoners, one truly sees why the possibility of escape kept many a man alive. Some prisons were worse than others and to that point this book gives an accurate account of how men fared from prison to prison. It is an enjoyable book to read and is filled with first-hand information and primary source material. I'd highly recommend this work for anyone interested in prisons and escape attempts.
Scott C. Anderson
Scott C. Anderson has a B.A. in history and M.A. in social sciences from Edinboro University. He has spoken for the Smithsonian Associates, written articles and is a volunteer research librarian at Antietam National Battlefield.
|
|
| Use these links to navigate on CWN's web site Home / Calendar / News
/ Opinion / Civil
War on the Internet |
|