Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons — Volume 2

McElroy, John, 1846-1929Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7

Word count: 278K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons — Volume 2 by John McElroyAuthor: McElroy, John, 1846-1929,Language: English, Class: E456: History: America: Civil War period (1861-1865), Release Date: Jun 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is the second volume of McElroy's prisoner-of-war camp memoir, continuing the narrative of the first volume and further recording the author's experience of confinement in a Confederate prison camp during the American Civil War. Compared with the first volume, this volume is more concentrated in the progression of events and the experiences of its figures, allowing readers to see further the deterioration of living conditions in the camp, the internal order of the prisoner community, and the author's ongoing reflections on this experience. As a public-domain historical source, its significance lies in offering a rear-area picture of the war from the perspective of an ordinary soldier, filling in aspects not easily reached by official battle reports and generals' memoirs. The style remains the direct narrative manner of nineteenth-century memoir, with direct emotional expression, and some passages carry strong personal judgment. It is suitable as supplementary reading for the history of the American Civil War, prisoner-of-war studies, or nineteenth-century American social and cultural history. Readers should note the subjectivity of the author's stance and cross-reference other historical sources, rather than treating a single book's evidence as the whole truth.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who have read Volume 1 and wish to continue following the author's prisoner-of-war experience
Students and teachers studying the lives of American Civil War prisoners of war and the history of military prisons
Readers interested in nineteenth-century American documentary writing and the memoir genre
Learners who need public-domain English historical sources for textual analysis or translation practice

Not a good fit for

Readers who have not read Volume 1 and wish to understand the full background independently at once
Readers who prefer objective, neutral academic argument and do not accept personal emotional judgment
Readers who are sensitive to and easily affected by descriptions of war, hunger, and disease

Reading tips

Review the ending plot and figures of Volume 1 before entering this volume for better continuity.
Take brief notes on names of people or places for easy cross-reference with Volume 1 and external materials.
Select chapters related to the camp system and prisoner mutual aid for close reading.
After finishing, write a paragraph of overall judgment, distinguishing historical narrative from the author's evaluation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can Volume 2 be read on its own?

It can be read on its own, but this volume continues the narrative thread of Volume 1, with many carried-over figures and background. Readers who have not read Volume 1 may lack understanding of the causes of some events; it is advisable to at least skim the summary or opening of Volume 1 before entering this volume.

Is the book suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as supplementary reading for courses on American Civil War history or prisoner-of-war history, but the book contains heavy descriptions of war, hunger, and disease, so teachers should explain this in advance and select appropriate chapters. In use, students should be guided to distinguish the author's personal stance and the limitations of his time.

What is the difference between this book and Volume 1?

Both volumes belong to one memoir; Volume 2 continues the narrative of Volume 1, with more concentrated events and deeper description of internal relations among prisoners and living conditions. Specific content should be based on the original text; reading in order is recommended for a complete thread.

What is the reading experience of the e-book edition like?

This is a public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg, usually provided in plain text format, convenient for searching and copying, but lacking annotations and maps of modern typesetting. Readers may pair it with a dictionary or historical materials; the paper reading experience depends on the device used.

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About the author

McElroy, John, 1846-1929 Author

John McElroy (McElroy, John, 1846–1929) was an author known chiefly for works on the American Civil War. Public information about him is limited, and many details of his life cannot be verified. The library holds 17 of his works, the more representative including Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons and its Volumes 1 to 4, as well as The Struggle for Missouri and Books 1 and 2 of the Si Klegg series. These works draw mainly on Civil War military prisons, regional campaigns, and soldiers' lives, with narratives that lean toward firsthand observation and documentary accounts and carry a strong flavor of historical recollection. The Andersonville material is substantial and presented in several volumes, offering source value for understanding the conditions of prisoners of war at the time, while The Struggle for Missouri focuses on the regional contest during the Civil War. Overall, his writings preserve part of the historical memory of the Civil War era in a documentary style and are suitable for readers interested in that period.