THIS WAS ANDERSONVILLE
by Pvt. John McElroy
Category: History

THE TRUE STORY OF ANDERSONVILLE MILITARY PRISON, AS TOLD IN THE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN MCELROY, SOMETIME PRIVATE, CO. L, 16TH ILLINOIS CAVALRY Aged only 16 years old in 1863, John McElroy enlisted with the Union Army as a private in Company L of the 16th Illinois Cavalry regiment, and was captured the following year near Jonesville, Virginia, by Confederate cavalrymen. McElroy was first sent to Richmond, then to Andersonville in February 1864. In October 1864 he was moved to Savannah and within about six weeks was sent to the new prison in Millen, Georgia (Camp Lawton); thence to several other camps before the war ended and his release from captivity. In 1879, John McElroy wrote Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons, a non-fiction work based on his experiences during his fifteen-month incarceration. It quickly became a bestseller. This is the edited 1957 version by Roy Meredith, richly illustrated throughout by Arthur C. Butts IV.