Sufferings of Union Soldiers in Southern Prisons: Transcript of Andersonville Trial

"Captain Henry Wirz, the Confederate officer in immediate command of the prison stockade at Andersonville, was, in the year 1865, tried by a Military Commission, at Washington, D.C., and convicted and executed for his brutality to the prisoners under his control." Samuel John Mills Andrews had been a prisoner at Andersonville and was one of the many witnesses at that trial. Hence he obtained a copy of the transcripts, which he published in a small book in 1870. His introductory pages contain a personal narrative of the horrors he endured there. Helen Cox Tregillis revives this historic work and adds some background information about Andrews and Wirz in her introduction. Particularly heinous was Wirz's sanctioning of a trial among the prison gangs, which resulted in the hanging of six inmates. Mrs. Tregillis has also added maps showing the movement of Andrews' regiment (the 17th Illinois). A bibliography and a new index of names and places round out this book. The index includes the names of Andrews' fellow soldiers in Company E.