ANDERSONVILLE A STORY OF REBEL MILITARY PRISONS FIFTEEN MONTHS A GUEST OF THE SO-CALLED SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY A PRIVATE SOLDIERS EXPERIENCE IN RICHMOND, ANDERSONVILLE, SAVANNAH, MILLEN BLACKSHEAR AND FLORENCE BY JOHN McELROY Late of Co. L. 16th Ill Cav. 1879 TO THE HONORABLE NOAH H. SWAYNE. JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, A JURIST OF DISTINGUISHED TALENTS AND EXALTED CHARACTER; ONE OF THE LAST OF THAT ADMIRABLE ARRAY OF PURE PATRIOTS AND SAGACIOUS COUNSELORS, WHO, IN THE YEARS OF THE NATION’S TRIAL, FAITHFULLY SURROUNDED THE GREAT PRESIDENT, AND, WITH HIM, BORE THE BURDEN OF THOSE MOMENTOUS DAYS; AND WHOSE WISDOM AND FAIRNESS HAVE DONE SO MUCH SINCE TO CONSERVE WHAT WAS THEN WON, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED WITH RESPECT AND APPRECIATION, BY THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION. The fifth part of a century almost has sped with the flight of time since the outbreak of the Slaveholder’s Rebellion against the United States. The young men of to-day were then babes in their cradles, or, if more than that, too young to be appalled by the terror of the times. Those now graduating from our schools of learning to be teachers of youth and leaders of public thought, if they are ever prepared to teach the history of the war for the Union so as to render adequate honor to its martyrs and heroes, and at the same time impress the obvious moral to be drawn from it, must derive their knowledge from authors who can each one say of the thrilling story he is spared to tell: “All of which I saw, and part of which I was.”