John Ransom Andersonville Diary John L Ransom 9781540789105 Books
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John Ransom was a 20-year-old Union soldier when he became a prisoner of war in 1863. In his unforgettable diary, Ransom reveals the true story of his day-to-day struggle in the worst of Confederate prison camps--where hundreds of prisoners died daily. Ransom's story of survival is, according to Publishers Weekly, "a great adventure ... observant, eloquent, and moving."
John Ransom Andersonville Diary John L Ransom 9781540789105 Books
(Preliminary note from while I was reading) I am really enjoying this book for what it is - the immediate impressions of a man going through hell and stopping to share details of the journey. The fact that it is not polished gives it some of its power. However, whoever decided to make a Kindle version of it (great idea!) should have taken the care to edit (more thoroughly). There are numerous distracting errors that are clearly from a scan - John Ransom the printer would be disappointed if he knew.Full Review
John Ransom was an ordinary Union soldier captured during the Civil War, but, perhaps because he was a printer, he knew a record of his experiences could be valuable, and he made sure to secure a series of blank books to fill during his more than a year in Confederate hands. He mentions a couple of times how he hopes the book will make his fortune, and I do hope he profited by it. My rating is 4 stars instead of 5 only because as an authentic record, it is not carefully shaped for literary value.
I have read this as research for my work-in-progress about another Michigan soldier, Solomon Ramsdell, who was also at Andersonville, though I searched in vain for any mention of him in Ransom's pages. Small wonder, with throughput in the prison in the tens of thousands during the weeks they shared there!
Ransom records his daily routine, except when we can almost feel the torpor of his illness, his delirium. He often writes with just a stub of a pencil, and in his travels (including escape!), one of his greatest priorities is to secure the volumes within his jacket, for example, or to rejoice that a friend has saved them for him when he was at death's door. I was particularly impressed with his and his companions' efforts to maintain their health and good spirits with careful discipline and hygiene - they will not drink water without boiling it first, and Ransom himself turns away possibly-spoiled meat even as he moves into starvation. My grandfather was a P.O.W. on a Japanese island in WWII, and he was himself, as a doctor, a morale officer and leader in his camp. He told of gathering grass from the edge of the camp to make a tonic for prisoners suffering from scurvy, or to prevent it, and Ransom, too, tells of how the men did what they could to secure sweet potatoes and onions in a similar technique.
Fascinating is the detail at one point of a woman disguised as a man (to follow her lover into war), who, once she is discovered, is whisked out of the prison, cared for decently, and sent home to the North. Though Andersonville was terrible, and its commander Wirtz later hanged for his crimes in governing it, Ransom says Wirtz's own superiors should have been held culpable as well, instead of laying all the blame on him. In contrast is the humane and healthful care Ransom received once he was transferred to a prison hospital in Savannah.
I will not repeat more details that other reviews cover fully, but I would urge that those who want to understand history would do well to read primary source materials such as this diary, and in their entirety, as excerpts can skew the impression. We can learn from Ransom and others, and we should.
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Tags : John Ransom's Andersonville Diary [John L. Ransom] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. John Ransom was a 20-year-old Union soldier when he became a prisoner of war in 1863. In his unforgettable diary,John L. Ransom,John Ransom's Andersonville Diary,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1540789101,SOCIAL SCIENCE Penology
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John Ransom Andersonville Diary John L Ransom 9781540789105 Books Reviews
This book is an actual compilation of a Civil War Soldier's diary which was started at the at the beginning of his confinement in the infamous Andersonville Civil War Prison Camp. The horrors, degradation, and filth experienced by the prisoners who were unfortunate enough to end-up in this camp are on a par with Nazi death camps of WWII. The only difference is the prisoners were not being systematically exterminated by their captors. It is amazing that any of the Andersonville prisoners survived to tell their stories, as the Camp was rife with disease, starvation, crime (committed by their own fellow soldiers), and exposure to severe weather conditions; not to mention the ever-present threat of being beaten or shot by the prison guards.
I can't say I "enjoyed" reading John Ransom's book, Andersonville Diary. However, I benefited from reading it because it reinforces my conviction that indifference and apathy are deadly. There will always be ethically weak (spineless, without firm moral convictions) people in positions of authority over others. So the only lesson to be drawn will be on an individual level. I hope more people will raise children with firm moral convictions about what is right and what is wrong. The Golden Rule is the best moral compass out there.
As a student of history it was interesting for me to compare Andersonville with the history of the Japanese prison camps of WW II. Andersonville was every bit as brutal. The difference in culture between the Americans and the Japanese cultures may account, in part for their brutality. I had the privilege of reading the diary of a physician captured on Bataan and he detailed the disease and malnutrition he saw daily. But American treating fellow Americans is difficult for me to understand. It may again point out the marked cultural differences that existed between the North and the South at that time. These differences carried on for a long time after the war. It was a good read.
I use to live in Georgia from 1970 to 1977. I regret never going to Andersonville while I was there. Yet I knew of that place from my late Aunt. A great-great-great grandfather died there after being captured by rebel forces during the war. This book puts me there. While reading I could almost feel the suffering those men went through.
I cannot imagine 9000+ union soldiers dying in a place like that. Yet the numbers are real. Reading this book, I feel that that war was even more stupid. Now 157 years later I still get a shock from what happened then.
This is the best first person journal I have ever read. Written by a twenty year old captured Union soldier, it documents in straight forward unembellished language a year in Hell. Andersonville POW camp was as bad as any WWII concentration camp. Horrid sanitation leading to rampant diseases, starvation rations, gangs preying on fellow prisoners, lack of potable water to drink or medical care, and incompetent cruel jailers. Ransom barely survives his ordeal, and in fact, was saved by another inmate. What is redeeming in this journal are the acts of kindness and care some inmates shared, and the fact that the Confederate commander who ran this camp was hung for his crimes after the war. This should be required reading for every citizen of the US. It would be welcome to find out just how John Ransom lived post his ordeal, but a quick foray yielded little results. Our inhumanity shows itself, barefaced and ugly, on every page of this journal, as does our spirit to survive and help fellow travelers.
Documents such as this help define the extremes of our behavior. Hopefully, we will learn to be better people after reading this diary.
(Preliminary note from while I was reading) I am really enjoying this book for what it is - the immediate impressions of a man going through hell and stopping to share details of the journey. The fact that it is not polished gives it some of its power. However, whoever decided to make a version of it (great idea!) should have taken the care to edit (more thoroughly). There are numerous distracting errors that are clearly from a scan - John Ransom the printer would be disappointed if he knew.
Full Review
John Ransom was an ordinary Union soldier captured during the Civil War, but, perhaps because he was a printer, he knew a record of his experiences could be valuable, and he made sure to secure a series of blank books to fill during his more than a year in Confederate hands. He mentions a couple of times how he hopes the book will make his fortune, and I do hope he profited by it. My rating is 4 stars instead of 5 only because as an authentic record, it is not carefully shaped for literary value.
I have read this as research for my work-in-progress about another Michigan soldier, Solomon Ramsdell, who was also at Andersonville, though I searched in vain for any mention of him in Ransom's pages. Small wonder, with throughput in the prison in the tens of thousands during the weeks they shared there!
Ransom records his daily routine, except when we can almost feel the torpor of his illness, his delirium. He often writes with just a stub of a pencil, and in his travels (including escape!), one of his greatest priorities is to secure the volumes within his jacket, for example, or to rejoice that a friend has saved them for him when he was at death's door. I was particularly impressed with his and his companions' efforts to maintain their health and good spirits with careful discipline and hygiene - they will not drink water without boiling it first, and Ransom himself turns away possibly-spoiled meat even as he moves into starvation. My grandfather was a P.O.W. on a Japanese island in WWII, and he was himself, as a doctor, a morale officer and leader in his camp. He told of gathering grass from the edge of the camp to make a tonic for prisoners suffering from scurvy, or to prevent it, and Ransom, too, tells of how the men did what they could to secure sweet potatoes and onions in a similar technique.
Fascinating is the detail at one point of a woman disguised as a man (to follow her lover into war), who, once she is discovered, is whisked out of the prison, cared for decently, and sent home to the North. Though Andersonville was terrible, and its commander Wirtz later hanged for his crimes in governing it, Ransom says Wirtz's own superiors should have been held culpable as well, instead of laying all the blame on him. In contrast is the humane and healthful care Ransom received once he was transferred to a prison hospital in Savannah.
I will not repeat more details that other reviews cover fully, but I would urge that those who want to understand history would do well to read primary source materials such as this diary, and in their entirety, as excerpts can skew the impression. We can learn from Ransom and others, and we should.
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