Portals
To Hell - Military Prisons of the Civil War - by
Lonnie
R. Speer Portals
To Hell - Military Prisons of the Civil War - by
Lonnie
R. Speer
Item No. 93429 - publ. 2005 - Softbound - 6 x 9 -1lb. 5.7oz. 410 pgs - ISBN: 0-8032-9342-9 - price $21.95
The holding of prisoners of war has always been both a political and a military enterprise, yet the military prisons of the Civil War, which held more than four hundred thousand soldiers and caused the deaths of fifty-six thousand men, have been nearly forgotten. The author has brought to life the least-known men in the great struggle between the Union and the Confederacy, using their own words and observations as they endured a true "hell on earth." Drawing on scores of previously unpublished firsthand accounts, Portals to Hell presents the prisoners' experiences in great detail and from an impartial perspective. The first comprehensive study of all major prisons of both the North and the South, this chronicle analyzes the many complexities of the relationships among prisoners, guards, commandants, and government leaders.