Ghosts and Shadows of Andersonville: Essays on the Secret Social Histories of America's Deadliest Prison (review)

Robert S. Davis, Director of Wallace State College's Family & Regional History Program in Alabama, has investigated unexplored subjects related to the Civil War prison in Andersonville, Georgia. Davis, motivated to write his book by Mackinlay Kantor's 1955 novel about the camp, also "seeks to build upon the earlier scholarship of Andersonville," notably the works of Ovid Futch and William Marvel (p. xiv). This book, however, lacks the scholarly touch and deep analysis found in those studies, and consequently, Ghosts and Shadows of Andersonville might appeal more to a popular audience than an academic one. Thorough editing by the press would have helped. The author's strength lies in his storytelling within the essays—yet informalities in style, such as contractions, first names, writing in the first person, and typographical errors make their way into the text. Content oriented questions arise as well, such as over dramatizing Andersonville Prison, including reference to it as a concentration camp (p. 127), while understating conditions in other pens, particularly in the North. For example, the author writes that "Some Confederate soldiers even preferred to remain prisoners of war in camps like Elmira rather than return to the starvation and other hardships of service in the butternut and gray armies" (p. xx). In addition, Davis contends "The ghosts and shadows of Andersonville remain, made worse by the bizarre but steady modern movement toward more interpretation based on secondary sources, political correctness, and regional prejudice instead of record" (p. xxi). However, Davis makes reference to many secondary sources himself in the text, while some of his primary accounts might indicate sensationalism—"Maggots became as numerous as to make the ground move" (p. 22); a prisoner who received a package of food and seemingly wanted to put himself out of his misery "gorged himself—to commit suicide with a full stomach" (p. 24).

The book, however, is not without merit. Davis does indeed present African American and women captives, but he does so sparingly, while his coverage of the clergy and photographers visiting Andersonville is very enlightening. Furthermore, Davis sheds light on other prisoners and their keepers. He wades through the legend of inmate "Limber Jim," who was likely a combination of different people. And finds camp administrator D. W. Vowles, who mysteriously disappeared after the war without a trace (Davis even petitioned the television program Unsolved Mysteries), eventually tracking him down through archival research in Missouri. Davis does investigate another important theme in the Andersonville story, that of escapes. Yet he does not analyze the issue of why, with such poor conditions inside the stockade, so many men managed to find their way outside by tunneling—an endeavor requiring much physical strength. The author does tackle the debatable issue of William T. Sherman's time in Georgia, feeling the Union General "abandoned [the prisoners] to their terrible fate" (p. 161). Here, one might draw parallels to World War II and the real Nazi concentration camps, as Allied leaders pondered over similar issues concerned with saving lives there, or focusing on their larger task of winning that war.