A difficult read but well worth the effort. Andersonville was a Confederate prison formally known as Fort Sumter that housed over 45,000 union troops in its short 18-month existance. Due to harsh conditions, starvation, disease, and assualt from guards and other POWs, over 13,000 soldiers died at the prison. Kantor provides a fictional account of the horrors that transpired at the prison. Due to his meticulous research, most of the story comes from actual diaries and other accounts from those who were there. Kantor does not take sides in the conflict but shows the devastation on human lives that results from war. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1956 and it was well deserved.

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