Customer Reviews |
| Lt. James Madison Page was captured by
Confederate forces in 1863 and eventually was shipped to
Andersonville Prison. There he observed Major Henry Wirz
firsthand as well as life in this famous Confederate prison
for Union prisoners of war. After the war, Major Wirz was
tried by military tribunal, found guilty of "war crimes" and
hanged. Forty years later, in 1908, Page wrote his memoir to
tell "the true story of Andersonville," which was quite
different from the popular view, namely, that Wirz and those
in his command were deliberately cruel to their captives. Page
explains how the prison was designed to hold, at most, 10,000
prisoners at any one time, and then only temporarily while
awaiting prisoner exchange. When the exchange was stopped, the
prison population quickly swelled to 30,000 prisoners,
overwhelming the South's ability to feed, clothe and house the
Andersonville prisoners. Although the North advanced many
self-serving reasons for stopping the exchange, the real truth
was later admitted by Ulysses S Grant in his memoirs, i.e.,
that the Union POWs were expendable, and that exchanging them
for Rebel soldiers would prolong the war by reinforcing the
Confederate army. This was a legitimate and understandable
strategy of war, one that undoubtedly brought the war to a
faster close. In 1865, however, it would have been political
suicide to tell the truth to grieving families, that their
sons and husbands and fathers were not exchanged because they
were considered expendable. The story as Page saw it, was that
Wirz was made a scapegoat to appease the wrath of the Northern
people over the Andersonville dead (13,000 POWs died out of
45,000 prisoners due to disease and diet). Page tells how many
Northern myths about Andersonville simply aren't true, e.g.,
that the Confederate guards would get a 30 day furlough as a
reward for shooting a prisoner, or that the reason the
prisoner exchange between North and South was stopped was
because of the North's protest against the South's refusal to
exchange black Union POWs -- the truth was that blacks were a
miniscule number of Union POWs and the exchange was stopped
before there were any black POWs. Page describes the trial and
the accusations against Wirz, and refutes them convincingly.
The trial, as described by Page who was there, was a sham. The
prosecution could call any witnesses it wanted, but the
defense could only call witnesses approved in advance by the
prosecution! The prosecution's key witness was a perjurer who
claimed to be former Union POW "Felix de la Baume," but was
actually a deserter from the 7th NY infantry named Felix Oeser
who was paid off for his false testimony with a job in the
Dept of the Interior. Oeser had never even been to
Andersonville. James Madison Page's book closely jives with
Confederate sources, like the memoir of Confederate guards and
officers, who say the same things. Page ends his narrative
with "I am just as committed to the preservation of the Union
today as I was in 1861, but after forty years we can at least
afford to tell the truth." This book wasn't popular in 1908
nor will it be popular in 2001 with those who don't want to
hear it. |
| James Madison Page was my husband's
great grandfather and we own a copy of the original edition.
Mr. Page went on to be a Montana pioneer and surveyor. The
book was very controversial when it was published, but to his
dying day Mr. page stood by what he had written. It is quite a
contrast to the generally accepted view of Andersonville
Prison. Possibly, the prison conditions were not uniform at
all times or in all places of the prison. The rather
antiquated, but clear, prose alone is reason to read the book
and get a taste of the past. |
| This book was written by a union soldier
from a Michigan unit, as the subtitle indicates. He wrote this
as a "Defense of Major Henry Wirz." Unlike many of the books
written about incarceration in southern POW camps, this
soldier was rather positive in terms of the treatment he
received by Confederate soldiers during his inprisonment at
Belle Isle and Andersonville. He had several personal
interviews with Major Wirz, the Commandant of Andersonville
prison, petitioning for better conditions for his fellow
prisoners. He claims that the Major was as gracious to his
requests as the limited supplies of the Confederacy would
allow, considering the Union blockade of all supplies
including medical. He also includes some information in what
appears to be transcripts and letters relevant to Major
Wirtz's trial that led to his hanging, which are quite
revealing in terms of Secretary of War Stanton's, vendetta
against Jefferson Davis and other prominant leaders of the
defeated South. |
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