This has been discussed at length on this board before but I find it so interesting how often the first person to write wrong or not can set the dominant narrative and people will quite It taking it as truth and so it goes until someone rights the ship. It's amazing how many liars write the first books while the honest just get on with things.
Wow, an antique edition of a novel
According to some scholars (Chris Barr, Lesley Gordon), there was a perception that POWs were less "heroic' than other soldiers because they allowed themselves to be captured. Gordon's book deals with the 16th Connecticut, which reportedly turned and ran at their first battle (Antietam; can't say I blamed them) and were captured minutes into their second. According to Chris Barr, who used to be a park ranger at Andersonville, the among the prisoners themselves there was a prejudice against prisoners who accepted parole and took jobs outside the stockade, such as clerking or nursing in the prison hospital. You'll notice, when you read the book that McElroy accuses the sailors who worked in the hospital of stealing food from the sick and dying (how would he know this, being held in the stockade?). I have no doubt that they'd eat a man's rations if he had already died or was too far gone to eat). He neglects to mention that the sailors eventually saved McElroy's favorite boy soldier "Little Red Cap" by smuggling him out of the prison using the identity of a dead sailor when the sailors were paroled).
I think market rules apply for books - if people want it then it becomes more expsnsive. Noteriety is a huge component of fame. I'd guess a 'rare' and famous lie would be more valuable than a common, less-known truth.
To some extent, yes, and to some extent, no. I inherited another historian's collection of first edition Andersonville Memoirs when he died, some of which are autographed. About 10 years ago, I had tickets to the Antiques Road Show and brought a random shoebox full of them in to be appraised. The more common ones, like Kellogg and McElroy were both appraised at about $20 in "Very Good" condition. The one I had that was worth the most was a tiny pamphlet that I'd never heard of and have never come across being mentioned by any modern historian was valued at $250. I'm blanking on the title and the author. Something to do with apple boughs and if I'm not paying attention to where I put it on the shelf, it will take me months to find it again.
The Confederates locked children up in that horrible place. Despicable
Because his "book" is more of a booklet or a pamphlet at just 32 pages long. An actual novel would have required a lot more pages and work, and my impression of Mr. Murray is that he would prefer not to have to WORK.The Confederates locked children up in that horrible place. Despicable
It makes me wonder: if he wanted to get paid for making up stories about Andersonville, why not just write a novel?
The largest percentage of the prison population was evacuated to Millen, Savannah and the Carolinas between mid-September and the end of November. There were still 4706 POWs at Andersonville at the end of December 1864. They had received 3534 from Albany around Christmas. These were mostly men who had been sent to Millen from Andersonville and then were shuffled to Blackshear, Thomasville and Albany. The population increased to 5046 in January, and 5851 in February, before the final evacuation in late March 1865 when 1500 were sent to Vicksburg. The final monthly recapitulation shows that there were 22 prisoners remaining on May 5 - 17 in the stockade and 5 in the hospital.
I have four bookcases of published diaries and memoirs scattered throughout the house, plus a few dozen on my kindle (it's easier to search for a specific word or topic or person electronically), so I have lots of sources to choose from. Although, admittedly, it was a lot easier to keep the different accounts straight in my head before I started on chemo. Chemo definitely makes you stupider. Word recall is a problem now, too.
Details like that weren't relevant to the museum exhibits at Magnolia Springs. Descriptions of the prison layout, arrivals/departures, and big events such as the election were. McElroy's accounts corroborated those of other diarists so not everything he wrote was incorrect. It is much easier for you to ignore McElroy's writings because your focus is Andersonville, a place that has been written about since its construction. I am working on Millen, for which there is almost no documentation and very few accounts. I don't have the luxury of picking and choosing my sources. However, that doesn't mean that the information I gather from McElroy or Barber or Smith or any or the others who wrote about their imprisonment at Camp Lawton isn't valid or flawed, as you put it. But, again, our focusses and our access to information are different.
Definitely different kettles of fish. If you're going to write about a Civil War prison, there's easily more research material relating to Andersonville than any other prison, except maybe Libby.
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