Immortal Captives: The Story of 600 Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy (review)

266CIVIL WAR history which some 109 eventually do. And as the word spread, more joined in. The epilogue then explains what happened to the fugitives. However, this narrative is much more than merely a tale of a prison break. It also paints a very vivid picture of what life was like in that prison and in others nearby, with little food, few blankets, and no beds, if not worse. In addition, the death, disease, and misery is graphically portrayed, and one learns about the rivalries in the camp and the concerns about spies in the prisoner's ranks. The work condemns Major Turner, the abusive camp commander, and many of his staff, even while showing the difficulties of the prison camp and parole systems on both sides of the Civil War. However, in the fictionalized part of the book, many of the personalities are one-dimensional, as the account consists only of the viewpoints of Rose, Hamilton, and their associates. Thus, the work is a personalized story of prison life primarily and of the escape secondarily. Gindlesperger pens a good story that also serves as a competent cultural study. He ends the volume with ah excellent bibliography and an appendix containing short biographies of the 109 who escaped, which is billed as the only complete listing of these men extant. This treatise would have been improved by a clearer identification of which parts were history and which were only based in history, as those unfamiliar with the escape and the prison might have a difficult time perceiving the differentiation. Secondly, it should be noted, for those interested in such things, that the author is a chemical engineer by vocation and a historian by avocation. Overall though, Gindlesperger creates a very interesting, stimulating , and revealing dramatization of the historical record. Scott Merriman Northern Kentucky University Immortal Captives: The Story of600 Confederate Officers and the UnitedStates Prisoner ofWar Policy. By Mauriel Phillips Joslyn. (Shippensburg, Pa.: White Mane Publishing, 1996. Pp. xvi, 344. $29.95.) Immortal Captives: The Story of600 Confederate Officers and the United States Prisoner of War Policy directly examines the captivity experience of the six hundred Confederate prisoners of war and indirectly examines Federal prisoner of war policy. In the early stages of the war the Federal government reluctantly agreed to an exchange of prisoners of war, and as the war progressed their reluctance increased . The realization that exchanged prisoners would return to the Confederate army and rumors of Confederate mistreatment of Federal prisoners at Andersonville and other camps contributed to this hardened stance. The accusation that Federal prisoners of war at Charleston faced artillery fire from their own batteries led Federal authorities to a policy of retaliation. Gen. John G. Foster ordered the random selection of six hundred Confederate prisoners holding officer rank and placed them in a position receiving Confederate fire. book reviews267 The six hundred endured many privations, including insults from guards, theft of possessions, and near-starvation. The author records their escape attempts and their attitude toward each other and their situation. The Civil War veteran who survived captivity endured as much, if not more, than the soldiers who endured combat. The Federal bureaucracy wished to make the six hundred an example ofwhat could happen if the Confederates continued to mistreat Federal prisoners. Several times the Federals seemed ready to end the policy of retaliation, but some misstep always seemed to block the improvement of conditions. Joslyn has done a superb job of locating manuscripts, diaries, and photographs of the six hundred. She integrates their personal recollections with a concise summary of events and also includes adequate personal background of the key participants and a short overview of what happened to them after they returned home. A comparison of the experience of the six hundred to the Federal experience at Andersonville might have yielded interesting parallels. Captives Immortal makes compelling reading. The descriptions of captivity bring the inhumanity of war to the reader. Both the general reader and the specialist will benefit from this study. Damon Eubank Campbellsville University Guns for Cotton: England Arms the Confederacy. By Thomas Boaz. (Shippensburg , Pa.: Burd Street Press, 1996. Pp. ix, 86. $9.95.) Battlefield preservationist Thomas Boaz's Guns...