John Ransom (1) (1843–1919)

It's difficult to critique someone's diary -- especially when that someone survived the hell-hole that was the Andersonville POW camp during the Civil War.

I think for most anyone who is at all familiar with the Civil War, the name Andersonville brings to mind the most horrific of conditions, thousands dead, survivors who came out looking like skeletons. John Ransom's diary recounts the day-to-day events of a union soldier taken POW and eventually sent to that most infamous of Confederate prison camps. It is sometimes repetitious because life was repetitious -- day after day, scrounging for food, fighting off the "raiders" -- fellow prisoners who were as brutal as their captors -- dealing with the grossest of unsanitary conditions, starvation, disease, cruelty, death. (So many dead!)

I must say that I can hardly believe Ransom survived it all, and I get the feeling he's surprised, too. I'm impressed that he had the tenacity to keep up the writing through all his trials -- trading food for pencils and notebooks to write, entrusting filled notebooks to fellow prisoners when he was too incapacitated to carry them all. Ransom had a great eye and ear for detail, and somehow managed to maintain some semblance of humor through much, if not most, of the horror he endured. His diary is a fascinating account of survival with honor. Recommended.… (más)