Customer Reviews

Andersonville: The Last Depot (Civil War America)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this book an excellent read. My sole sources about Andersonville prior to it were Mackinlay Kantor's captivating novel "Andersonville", The 1970 PBS powerful drama "The Andersonville Trial, A Play by Saul Levitt" - directed by George C. Scott, the brief and not really well researched references to it in the PBS special "The Civil War" by Ric Burns and the rather one-sided TNT moltion picture "Andersonville". Prior to reading this book I had been particularily touched by "The Andersonville Trial". The acting was very well done (William Shanter, fresh from Star Trek cancellation portrayed the "hero" of the play -- Colonel Chipman") and the purpose of that play, in my opinion, was to try and make Andersonville appear as a percursor of the Nazi Death camps and Captain Wirz a percursor of the guards and commandants who "only followed orders" in those places. However after I read Mr. Marvel's well researched account of this most infamous prison I am convinced that Captain Wirz was more a victim of circumstance and Colonel Chipman's vengence rather than some cruel monster of a man who had lost his soul to General Winder as portrayed by Mr. Levitt. Indeed, perhaps, I would suggest that maybe Mr. Levitt, if he still lives, should read this work and perhaps, consider a rewrite of his play keeping faitful to facts this time rather than using have baked anecdotes of dubios origin -- or if he isn't, maybe someone ought to try and revise it. In any event, and to conclude, I heartily agree with James McPherson, well known author of "The Battle Cry of Freedom" that this is " . . . the best account of the tragedy of Andersonville that we have or are likely to have."

In Andersonville: The Last Depot, William Marvel gives the serious student of Civil War history a balanced and highly accurate account of what transpired during those fourteen awful months between Feb. 1864 and Apr. 1865. The events of Capt. Henry Wirz's trial and execution are also covered in detail and for the first time we begin to get a glimpse of who the real man was. While the book is filled with many historical facts about the prison itself, Mr. Marvel does not neglect the human side of Andersonville. Through thorough and meticulous research, Mr. Marvel acquaints the reader with men like Thomas "Chickamauga" Herburt, George "Albert", Salvador "Thomas" Genzardi as well as many others. How important is this historical work? In July 2002, I traveled to Andersonville spending two days walking the stockade grounds and those of the national cemetery. This book served as my guide.

This book was recommended to me by a civil war scholar with the warning that a lot of what was written about Andersonville is not true, but this book tries to be. I found that the book is an effort to be scholarly and to portray this part of history in a truthful light.

It is easy to read a book like this from our perspective as 21st century Americans and harshly judge how people acted in the 19th century. By any measure conditions at Andersonville were harsh and primative. However it was a brutal time and a wrenchingly difficult time for all Americans. So it is a more difficult thing to understand what happended without judging it. That is where this book excels. I would recommend it to any serious student of American history.

The last depot depicts the pathetic and political aspects of this prison that I consider more of a battle than Antietam. The suffering was unbelievable. Marvel uses Eugene Forbes as one of as his obscure sources. He uses many more but he makes it clear that Wirz the head of the prison was not the problem but the dissolving Confederacy that was built on shifting sand. Without bias this book shows the horror of being a POW.

This is an excellent compact account on life in Andersonville as well as an excellent description on how Andersonville became a prison that became so large it was the 5th largest 'City' in the south at its peak. Marvel explains that Andersonville came about due to the ever closer raids near Richmond including Grant's approach requiring prisons outside of Richmond. As Marvel notes well the increase in a total war effort by Grant increased the federal capture rate and due to the termination of prisoner exchange, the south had the ever burdening increase of prisoners they could not shelter and barely feed. The history told through numerous diaries with the ability to create biographies on the captured with descriptive detail of their life in the prison. Marvel even can tell the reader where the captured served and how whey came to be captured. The over taxing of the prison includes a total lack of shelter, lack of clothing, inadequate health care , horrible sanitation and at times a brutal organized gang of thieves that made the prison something barely less than hell. The fact that so many died from scurvy, malnutrition, intestinal gangrene, gangrene from virtually minor sores due to poor sanitation is heart rendering and reminds one of a concentration camp, albeit not intentionally. Captain Wirtz who commanded the prisoners was undermined, as Marvel explains by a complex command structure with layers that constrain Wirtz's efforts to improver the prison or command the soldiers delegated to provide security. Wirtz becomes as sickly as the prisoners and as Marvel explains, unfairly bares the price of commanding a prison that is minimally supplied with food, structural resources or hospital staff. Amazingly, Wirtz mans his post to the bitter end, even after numerous transfers of prisoners as the war fractures towards its end and he is the only officer of substance left after others with command status died (Winder) or moved to different commands. The grotesqueness of the prison and large death rate among the prisoners require a responsible party, and Wirtz is all there is.

I did wish that Marvel provided more detail on Wirtz's trial with his forced upon defense limitations, and I wish he included reasons why the severely ill were not exchanged or at least returned to their lines. It is quite heart rendering to read how many soldiers perished due to food shortages, horrible sanitation, over crowding and lack of shelter. The stoppage of the prisoner exchange along with the south's disregard to exchange black soldiers contributed to Andersonville's plight but it seems more should have been done on both sides for humanitarian reasons. A must read for students of the Civil War since it directs attention to what can happen, and happened, to the plight of captured prisoners once the battles are over.

In this piece of revisionist history the author seems determined to exonerate Henry Wirz as largely a victim of circumstances. I do not think that this book is biased in favor of the Confederacy, only biased in favor of disproving the traditional view of Andersonville. To me, the bottom line on Andersonville is that, despite an abundance of trees in the vicinity, the prisoners were provided no shelter nor were permitted to build their own. Perhaps the accounts of Wirz's cruelty were exagerated, but he was in charge of the camp, and, at a minimum, was criminally negligent. As the author states, almost 13,000 men, a third of those interned at Andersonville, died there. This was more than twice the average death rate at other prison camps, North and South. Wirz was responsible for the welfare of these men, and I found the author's excuses for his failure unconvincing.

This "comprehensive" account is only 249 pages long, with only four pages devoted to Wirz's trial, the issue of most interest to contemporary readers. Marvel never mentions all of the members of the military tribunal or the substantial body of official correspondence, from Confederate government sources, critical of conditions at and the administration of Andersonville, that was submitted as evidence during the trial.

For a far more believable account of Wirz's trial, I suggest you read the article on the Wirz trial written by John H. Stibbs, a member of the military tribunal that tried Wirz. You can find it in "A Perfect Picture of Hell" by Ted Genoways & Hugh H. Genoways. If Stibbs' account is inaccurate, I would like to understand in what way that is the case. By the way, Stibbs is never mentioned in Marvel's book.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST NOT ONLY FOR CIVIL WAR BUFFS, BUT FOR ALL PEOPLE WHO MIGHT THINK THAT THERE WERE WINNERS AND LOSERS.THE COUNTRY LOST,AND IN PARTICULAR, HUMANITY LOST.

THE DETAIL WAS AMAZING,NECESSARILY GRAPHIC,BRUTAL AND PROVIDED A SOMBER MESSAGE.
READ THE BOOK TO SEE WHAT THE MESSAGE IS.

AMAZON VERIFIED PURCHASE

If you can read only one history of Andersonville, this should be the one. It is thoroughly researched, dispels a lot of the old myths, and is eminently readable.

Mr. Marvel's book does not defend Andersonville, but neither does it villify it's operators. The story of the infamous camp is balanced and the book is well-written. An important book if one's knowledge of Andersonville is limited to the TNT film.

I ONCE SAW A DOCUMENTARY ON THE HISTORY CHANNEL CALLED HORROR ATANDERSONVILLE PRISON THE TRIAL OF HENRY WIRZ.IT ANGERED ME SO MUCH THAT I CONVINCED MY MOTHER TO BY ME A COPY OF THE BOOK FROM YOUR FINE WEBSITE. IT ALLOWED ME TO SEE HOW MUCH THOSE MEN SUFFERED THEY WERE TREATED LIKE CATTLE.BUT AT LEAST YOU FEED CATTLE . THEY WERE TREATED HORRIBLY .AND PEOPLE IN PRISON HAVE THE NERVE TO COMPLAIN THAT THEY ARE BEING TREATED BADLY THEY OUGHT BE LUCKY THAT THEY ARE NOT TREATED LIKE THE SOLIDERS AT ANDERSONVILLE WERE.