John Ransom's Diary Andersonville

Rating:
Summary: ANDERSONVILLE DIARY
Review: I was all fired up to read this book, as I was always fashinated by the horrors of Andersonville, but after reading the same tragic events, over and over again by John Ransom, I think I got the point after the first three or four chapters...It was hell for sure, but a drawn out book...

Rating:
Summary: Best Andersonville diary I ever read
Review: John Ransom holds back any unnecessary fancy writing and gets to the point. Unfortunately for the 20th century reader, it was published in the 19th century, when censorship in print was at an all time high, so we don't get to read about every vulgarity that he saw while in that deathcamp, and he admits to the reader that some of what he is seeing is undescribable. Even so, I highly recommend it. I even cried at the end (I'm a girl).

Rating:
Summary: Excellent diary, ABOMINABLE edition! Stay away!
Review: John Ransom's own words could not be more moving, nor his character more sterling. Five stars for his work! However, ZERO stars for the publisher here. The "intro" by Bruce Catton is not even three full pages long, and lacks...well, nearly everything an intro should have.

There are no maps. There are few illustrations, apparently only reproductions of those included in Ransom's own publication after the war. There are no footnotes nor timeline. There is no index of names (genealogists beware!!!) nor of anything else, and there was no attempt to provide us with more detail on the individuals named other than Ransom's own contemporary concluding notes. There is nothing to tell us if Ransom ever returned to the South to "make millionaires" of the black slaves who helped him, as he had hoped. There is no death and discharge roll even for his own company, much less a larger view. There is no concluding note to reflect that Andersonville has become a national park, nor a word re its current state of preservation.

Shame, shame, shame on Catton and Berkley Books. Ransom's heroic work deserves much better, as does the memory of the tens of thousands of men (and at least two women, see the entry for December 23, 1863) who suffered and, in horrifying numbers, died at Andersonville. When a worthy edition comes out, buy it -- I surely will. Meanwhile, don't spend your money on this inferior edition of a great Civil War memoir.

Rating:
Summary: Good Civil War POW story, but . . .
Review: QUICK REVIEW: An adequate record of the horrors of the Andersonville POW camp during the Civil War. This is not as descriptive as it could be but it still captures the story of a POW's live as a prisoner in an interesting way.

FULL REVIEW: This account of one soldier's life as a prisoner is good as a story of the events that occur during his imprisonment. However it is not a great account of life at Andersonville specifically. He is only in Andersonville for six months and spends the other half of the book telling us about the other situations he was involved in. He tells us first about life as a prisoner in Richmond, then later about his escape attempts, life in the hospital, etc. He admits, in the diary, that he is not good at writing discriptively, so there are some important details that are left out which other books on Andersonville would describe. But the events he records do reflect the conditions that existed there. It is an interesting story of a prisoner in the South during the Civil War, and is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Ransom's Andersonville is such a interesting first-hand account of the daily miseries of being a Union prisoner. Ransom mentions his stay in Richmond before being transferred to Andersonville, Georgia. He also describes his daily affairs, hardships, horrors and escapes with much detail. Due to the horrid conditions of the camp, details are captured by Ransom and are sometimes quite graphic. Ransom thought that someday his diary would reach others and certainly didn't want others not to know what hardships actually carried on daily. His vivid descriptions of camp life and his own personal battle of deteriorating health encompasses the reader in this book. His daring escape after being released from Andersonville while being shipped to another southern prison is another gripping tale that awaits the reader in this very interesting story. It's a great book about humanity and suffering. One wonders how people can inflict such burden upon prisoners, though by 1864 the supply withered Confederacy only created further havoc for those contained. This book is a graphic tale of Andersonville and an important asset to explaining Civil War History. 5 STARS!!

Rating:
Summary: Andersonville - Words can't describe...
Review: Ransom's Andersonville is such a interesting first-hand account of the daily miseries of being a Union prisoner. Ransom mentions his stay in Richmond before being transferred to Andersonville, Georgia. He also describes his daily affairs, hardships, horrors and escapes with much detail. Due to the horrid conditions of the camp, details are captured by Ransom and are sometimes quite graphic. Ransom thought that someday his diary would reach others and certainly didn't want others not to know what hardships actually carried on daily. His vivid descriptions of camp life and his own personal battle of deteriorating health encompasses the reader in this book. His daring escape after being released from Andersonville while being shipped to another southern prison is another gripping tale that awaits the reader in this very interesting story. It's a great book about humanity and suffering. One wonders how people can inflict such burden upon prisoners, though by 1864 the supply withered Confederacy only created further havoc for those contained. This book is a graphic tale of Andersonville and an important asset to explaining Civil War History. 5 STARS!!

Rating:
Summary: Real History
Review: This book was rugged and raw and right. Censorship was NOT that great during the 1800's (the Civil War was the most photographed war in U.S history and WWII and Vietnam were even more censored) so you know that while the un needed obscenities and nightmare descriptions are withheld it is left to your own brains to fill in the blanks and this we can do all too well. Great book! It certainly isn't Gone with the Wind whitewash of the Confederates! Well done sir.

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding personal history
Review: This is simply the best Civil War personal history I have ever read. It is at the same time depressing and uplifting. The struggle, humor, and horror of the situation is amply described. John Ransom lived an entire lifetime in a little over a year spent as a prisoner. It is history presented as it should be.

Rating:
Summary: Civil War atrocity
Review: 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.