21 h 7 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Inside a prison stockade, hunger, sickness, and rumors of release shape the struggle to stay alive.
John L. Ransom serves in the 9th Michigan Cavalry until his capture in 1863 changes his war. His prison journal follows him into Confederate captivity, from Belle Isle in Richmond to Andersonville in Georgia. Here, the fighting lies beyond the walls. Inside them, shelter, food, and the strength to endure become the urgent concerns of each day.
In Andersonville Diary, Ransom records hunger, disease, sudden cruelty, and small acts of kindness in a plain, often dry voice. He shows how prisoners form groups and organize life inside the stockade, where illness can weaken a man in days. His entries bring you close to the people enduring these conditions, and to the daily uncertainty of waiting for release.
What you’ll discover
- A soldier's changed war Follow a Michigan cavalryman's passage from military service into the daily struggle of captivity.
- Life behind timber walls See how Andersonville works through the eyes of a prisoner living inside its stockade.
- Order amid hardship Discover how prisoners form groups and build their own order under harsh conditions.
- Kindness beside cruelty Encounter small acts of care alongside the sudden cruelty Ransom records.
- The work of surviving Explore how friendship, work, and luck matter when hunger and disease threaten life.
Who will love it
This book suits readers of Civil War history, anyone who wants a witness rather than a summary, and those curious about how people endure captivity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A cavalryman becomes a prisoner
- Richmond teaches him how hunger works
- Andersonville was built for far too few
- Prisoners build their own order and justice
- Staying alive takes friends, work, and luck
- A witness whose record has lasted and been questioned
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- Large print hardcover
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Andersonville Diary
by John L. Ransom· 1881
Inside a prison stockade, hunger, sickness, and rumors of release shape the struggle to stay alive.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A cavalryman becomes a prisoner
Ransom begins as a soldier of the 9th Michigan Cavalry, a regiment raised in the Union cause and sent into the fighting in the western theater. He was captured in the fall of 1863, and from that day his war changed. He was no longer a man in a unit with orders and rations. He was a prisoner with a pencil and a small book, and he began to write.
The diary form matters here. Ransom does not look back from a safe distance, at least in the way the text presents itself. He records what happens each day, so the reader shares his uncertainty. He does not know when he will be moved, whether he will be exchanged, or whether the next place will be worse.
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What is Andersonville Diary about?
It is John L. Ransom's account of being a Union prisoner in the Civil War. It covers his time in Richmond and especially the Andersonville camp in Georgia, with daily entries about hunger, disease, danger, and survival.
Is Andersonville Diary a true story?
Yes, it is a firsthand memoir by a real prisoner, first published in 1881. Historians think Ransom revised his notes before publication, so it reads as a polished diary, and scholars often check it against other sources.
What was Andersonville prison?
Andersonville, officially Camp Sumter, was a Confederate prison in southwest Georgia that opened in 1864. It was a crowded open stockade where thousands of Union prisoners died, mostly from disease, poor water, and lack of food.
The author
John L. Ransom
American Civil War diarist
John L. Ransom (1843–1919) was an American soldier and author who lived in the United States. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was held prisoner at Andersonville in Georgia. His account of his imprisonment, Andersonville Diary, was published in 1881.
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