Civil War Diary

The incomparable Civil War diarist Mary Chesnut wrote that she had the luck “always to stumble in on the real show.” Married to a high-ranking member of the Confederate government, she was ideally placed to watch and to record the South’s headlong plunge to ruin, and she left in her journals an unsurpassed account of the old regime’s death throes, its moment of high drama in world history. With intelligence and passion she described the turbulent events of politics and war, as well as the complex society around her. 

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A revelation . . . a book in the Caro mold, using Lady Bird, along with tapes and transcripts of her entire White House diary, to tell the history of America during the Johnson years.”—The New York Times The inspiration for the documentary film The Lady...

John L. Ransom was taken prisoner in 1863 when his regiment was split into two smaller forces in East Tennessee. He was placed into Andersonville Prison, formerly known as Camp Sumter. Ransom wrote a journal, published in 1881, on his experiences in the camp. Andersonville was the worst of Confederate prison camps, where hundreds of prisoners died daily. Ransom’s diary is important as it provides information on the notorious Andersonville prison camp that may not have been known otherwise.

Almost 10 times as many men died in the Civil War prison camps of the North and South as were killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. One such camp was Andersonville, where Union soldiers like Brigade Quartermaster John L. Ransom of the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, were subjected to hunger, disease, cruelty, and despair. Captured in November 1863, Ransom kept his spirits and courage up enough to survive and record this compelling true account of his experiences.

This book is an extraordinary day-to-day documentary of the Civil War's most infamous Confederate prison, Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville.