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John Ransom's Andersonville Diary
written by Bruce Catton
Studio : Berkley Trade
by Berkley Trade
Publisher : Berkley Trade
Released : 1994-05-01
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780425141465
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 16 reviews)
List Price : $12.95
Our Price : $30.95
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Product Description |
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John Ransom was a 20-year-old Union soldier when he became a prisoner of war in 1863. In his unforgettable diary, Ransom reveals the true story of his day-to-day struggle in the worst of Confederate prison camps--where hundreds of prisoners died daily. Ransom's story of survival is, according to Publishers Weekly, "a great adventure . . . observant, eloquent, and moving." |
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Reads like a novel |
I appreciate this book more, also having read the novel ANDERSONVILLE, which is loosely based on this diary.
John Ransom was a michigan artilleryman captured and imprisoned, first on Belle Isle, and then in Andersonville. The language is accessible and the diary never descends into squalor, fear, or depression. Ransom and his comrades made a pact to stay as healthy and positive as possible during their imprisonment, and that comes through in the diary, written in three journals and hidden throughout his captivity. Ransom does not dwell on the horrifying details of the prisons, but focuses on the good and bad in the characters around him. His horror comes through, especially when he lists the dead of his acquaintance, or even just quantifies the daily death rate -- 15 per day... 20 per day ... 40 per day ... over 100 per day.
If you want the shocking gory details, read the novel Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor -- it isn't *near* the book that this diary is. But you will get physical descriptions of the prison that will turn your stomach. You will get physical descriptions of the diseases afflicting the prisoners -- much more detail than you probably want. But the novel Andersonville suffers from being way too depressing and maudlin, which never happens in John Ransom's diary.
This diary is by far the better of the two books. |
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Bad diaries |
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Although, Catton took this book on, it does not make it more valid to me. A person has to understand that Ransom's book was written at a time that the country needed to blame someone for the horrible atrocities on both sides of the war. They took his book and ran with it rather than running with the less sensational account of a Northern Soldier, like Eugene.. Someone had to pay for what happened. Ransom pointed his finger at Winder (the head of the prison) which set up the man for a death sentence. Yet, how could a man solve the problems of 20.000 men when the Southern army could not even pay to put their men in shoes. He was the fall guy. Did his death absolute the atrocities of the war? I think not. Even today, the war is still fought. Ransom never mentions the deaths and suffering of Southern solder in prisons. Someone has to pay, and he was the one to pay the painful death that we as Americans had inflicted on our population. It probably helped that Winder was not an American citizen. How convenient. |
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A true diary |
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When I was encouraged to read this book I saw it as a bore. However, upon embarking on this read, I could hardly put it down. I was intrigued on a major level. I've been to the old prison site three times and this book really sets you up to visualize the prison the way it was. The prison is all sad, however I was very disturbed by the way the north treated the fellow who was in charge of the prison during it prime. This was unmitigated revenge and spite. |
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A positive spirit, despite the horror |
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Ransom was a member of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry during the Civil War when, in Nov. 1963, he was captured in eastern Tennessee; he spent the next year a prisoner in a number of Southern prison camps, most notably Andersonville. He was finally able to escape and make his way back to Union lines. What distinguishes this book is Ransom's humor in the face of such adversity: "July 26 - Ain't dead yet. Actually laugh at the Rebel who thought if I wasn't dead I had better get inside. Had an onion." He writes of the hardships, mainly hunger and disease, but also makes it clear that the prisoners, because of poor self-discipline and low morals (stealing from one another was rampant) made their bad lot even worse. Prisoner exchanges, once frequent early in the war, were just about suspended by this time, thanks to U.S. Grant's belief that they helped the South more than the North. At one point Ransom writes that about 130 prisoners a day were dying in camp, mostly from disease. An interesting book, lively and always in celebration of the living, at least in spirit. |
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Civil War atrocity |
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When one considers that John Ransom, at the time of his interment at Andersonville, was not a professional writer, and that much of his recounting of his horrible experiences was censored, this diary is compelling, gritty, gruesome, and all too credible. This unblinking look at a part of Civil War history that is often overlooked, captured my attention as few diaries have. (The diary of Anne Frank, of course, being the most engaging and heart-rending of the genre.) The stories of mistreatment of the Union soldiers abound--by other Union soldiers as well as the Confederates! But no scourge was more frightful than the natural ones: the weather, insects, and contaminants were just as unfeeling and effective in their decimation of the prison population. This is not a diary for the weak-hearted. The constant tales of humiliation, hunger, and brutality, along with the growing list of Ransom's associates who were dying all around him, are incessant. Just when things get to their grimmest, the reader is treated to the suspense of Ransom's breakout and escape, which you have to read to believe. Whether you are a devotee of Civil War stories or not, John Ransom's "Andersonville Diary/Life Inside the Civil War's Most Infamous Prison" is a fabulous story of toughing it out in the worst of situations, and a thorough examination of one of the Civil War's darkest times and places. Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points. |
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