800 Paces to Hell: Andersonville

800 Paces to Hell: Andersonville by Lynn, John W.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781887901192.

Lynns remarkable and thorough compilation and annotation brings to life the history, the horrors, and the dissolution of Andersonville Prison. Comprised primarily of hundreds of eye-witness accounts (thematically and chronologically arranged), this book emphasizes the struggles of those who survived their incarceration and of those who did not. Never before in Civil War literature has any book about Andersonville stressed the sickness of this human stockyard from a medically trained perspective. Union prisoners died in droves from neglect, malnutrition, disease, and pestilence, and other maladies described herein. Dr. Lynn portrays, in moving detail, the prisoners perceptions of the 800 paces from the train depot to the gates of the prison as entering the depths of Hell. The lack of provisions, medical supplies, food and the wherewithal to prepare it, had not only a horrible effect on the inmates, but it frustrated the efforts of some prison officials as well.