CIVIL WAR PRISONS AND ESCAPES

The greatest mistreatment of POWs in American history took place in the Civil War, when nearly 50,000 soldiers starved or froze to death, died of torture and forced labour, succumbed to untreated wounds and diseases, or were hanged for escape attempts - all while captives of their fellow countrymen. The author of the "Civil War Years" weaves a tale arranged as a day-by-day, year-by-year account of the prisoner problem, the development of the exchange cartel, the political games played with the lives of the prisoners, and life in the prison camps.