span.org/history/podcast or download them from itunes. >> next on american history tv, author and history professor michael ross discusses his book on the 1870 kidnapping of molly mollie, the child of poor -- mollie digby. digby was abducted by two black women and the case exacerbated racial tensions. the pratt library in baltimore hosted this 50-minute event ---month event. >> it's nice to be here surrounded by pictures of edgar allen poe and books about pow and baltimore in many ways has a feel a lot like new orleans, an old port city with traditions and a quirky and sometimes spooky history. and i always kind of feel at home in baltimore just as i feel

at home in new orleans. and where i lived for 10 years. what i want to do tonight is introduce you to this case that has a kind of -- that has kind of disfreard the american memory, but at least for the summer of 1870 captivated the nation, newspaper readers across the country and try to explain to it you in the -- so that you can see what i saw as i stumbled across it. i began writing -- i found this story while i was doing much more traditional legal history. i was researching the famous slaughter-house cases, the first case where the supreme court intercepted the 14th amendment and i was reading every single day of the new orleans newspapers in 1870 and suddenly there's this story about a bhite baby being abducted by two african-american women, and the rumor begins to circumstance late that the baby has been abducted for use as a voodoo sacrifice.

it's just like holy smokes, what can that possibly be about? is that true or is the press just telling a story? they talked about ghost sightings and other things. so as i was doing research, i started following along and the police began arresting voodoo practitioners. i realized i had stumbled on to something really quite interesting so what i want to do tonight is show you what interested me so much. this is new orleans around the time of 1870 and the digby family were rishe immigrants who had come with the great wave of famine irish back in the late 18 40's. thomas and bridget digby lives in an area known as the back of town. it's back in here and it was a low-rent district because it flooded tall time. it was a place where people of

different races and immigrant backgrounds all lived on to have of one another, and it is here that on a summer evening in 1870, the digby children are playing out in the street and a neighboring teenager is watching them and two african-american men come by and coo over mollie digby, the child. and the teenager allowed the women to hold the baby. and she goes down the block to look at a fire down the street and the women left the child. particularly in a poor neighborhood, this would have nded up on the second or third page of the paper. it would have disappeared into the mist until it gets entangled in the fearsome application of reconstruction. this is where that neighborhood is today.

the digby's stoun street, the old howard street is actually he street you walk down as you approach the super dome. the whole neighborhood torn down and urban redevelopment plans in the 50's and 60's. every time i tonight the saints game, i was walk down the street of my story. i was haunted by the story. here's the kind of thing i saw in the newspaper. this is actually from the mobile paper reporting the events in new orleans. you'll see what it says. "a horrible suspicion is connected in the public mind with the abduction of the infant child of mr. digby of new orleans." wo weeks later, st. john's eve which is a sacred night the voodoo religion and voodoo practitioners consider themselves to be cath licks. on st. john's eve they would

have ceremonies on lake upon char train. the newspapers of new orleans are going to allege that mollie digby has been abducted for use as a voodoo sacrifice at the st. john's ceremony. you'll see down below, a general suspicious that the child was stolen for the rights of voodooism which are prevalent among negroes in louisiana. it is true that the practicing of voodoo was a flourishing religion in 19th century louisiana and during slavery times it was kept under wraps because the slave owners found it threatening. ended, they ar could practice it. this would be a -- this is a depiction of a voodoo certificate mean isn't too critical. this is -- the next win is the

one that you would see more often, kind of sensationalized depictions. this is out of a new orleans newspaper. depravity and lust locked arms at a voodoo dance they were -- at the time. and again, you might write this off as just a sensational story, but i very quickly realize, particularly from the newspapers that were highlighting it that the story was being used by the conservative white press, and by conservative, i mean people at the time who were opposed to reconstruction. many of them were ex-confederates, former democrats and whigs who were appalled that the north backed where al bay on nets

african american men could vote, where about a third of the louisiana legislature were african-american, where african-americans were serving in government positions, serving on juries and in new orleans on the police force. the reconstruction governor integrates the new orleans police force. these are african-american members of the louisiana legislature during reconstruction and they were about a third of the membership of that body. here's pictures of african-american men in louisiana voting. after the military reconstruction act of 1867 and then the 15th e-mailed. and here is a black -- amendment. here's a deticks of black policemen in new orleans. you can see the deprappings the man who wrote this book, a northerner, but it said the light and efficient.

for many whites in new orleans, it was almost too much to bear. their world turned up side down in a short period of time because of the civil war. this is a critical depiction of the new orleans legislature -- of the louisiana legislature at the time where the critics of the legislature depicted it as a place where former slaves in from the fields, illiterate, elected to office, run amock -- n the leath sure legislature in the north of louisiana who they called scala wags. this will be featured in a movie alled dwoit birth of a nation. ." so as this case gets

sensationalized, as the white press is arguing, this is what is we can expect now that african-americans are free from savery, over 10,000 move from the plantations into the cities. now that there's plantations on the street who will wink and nod when black people commit crimes against white people, the newspapers will start to understand that the reconstruction governor solve this crime. in particular they're going to listen to the calls that the crime be solved fi elite white women of new orleans, the-wise of the most prestigious men in new orleans, travel to the back down tuned bring baked goods to the digby home. and marching to the home of the reconstruction governor understanding that he stolve

crime. i want to read you a paragraph from the book, a short reading from the book as -- to give you some sense of how the book is these activities by elite women. "as the coverage of the digby abduction became more sensational, prominent white women adopted the digby case as their own. in late june and early july, wealthy women of new orleans would usually be preparing to leave town for cooler climbs. just as in the theaters and restaurants closeds, elite families put covers on furniture, packed white hats nto trunks and went to the coast, new york or europe. but wives of dozens of the city's other prominent men

marched to headquarters to demand resolution of the digby case. they brought food and other ifts to the digbies' modos house. by motherhood, crime and race, the case -- enter into public debate over reconstruction and express anger at the governor. raised in a culture that required them to behave as traditional ladies, most elite women left public commentary to men. but in early july, 61 prominent women presented a feet governor warmoth urging him to do something, so that it may be allayed by the early restoration to those who love

it. they demanded that warmoth offer a reward for mollie's return. this is the reconstruction governor of louisiana. 28-year-old henry clay warmoth. a former soldier, elected to office largely by the votes of african-american men. his critics thought he was far too young to be the governor. they dubbed him the boy governor. he believed he was doing god's worth. there's this image of the northerners who were in the south who were called carpetbaggers, that they were there to make themselves rich and the votes of so-called ignorant negroes for their own gain. warmoth actually believes in what some people have called the republicans' gospel of prosperity. he believes that -- he believed that if these governments could build schools, finish the

railroads and bring all kinds of improvements, that they could ure into the republican fold economically-minded businessmen who would realize that they -- the republicans were doing things that they have long called for and that they might be willing to put racial animosity aside in return for economic development. this is warmoth's goal. and he is desperately wants to prove that his new integrated new orleans police force can solve this crime. and he accepts the petition. he puts up a state reward for the return of mollie digby that eventually goes up to $5,000, about $40,000 today, which is a lot of money after the civil war. it's going to turn the digby case into the powerball of the 20th century.

he has a group on his side that is going to make new orleans and perhaps mobile the places where many historians argue, if reconstruction was ever going to succeed, here it had the best chance. . the group in new orleans that i speak of are the afro-creoles. they are a very interesting group, largely in louisiana and mobile. they emerge from the culture of french colonial louisiana where ealthy white men often had remantic relationships with mixed race and black women and in this situation, when children were born, the white fathers, while they couldn't marry the women, made sure that their children had a start in life, make sure they had money, make

sure they got an education, they'd attend their baptisms at st. allow is cathedral and other places. there's a class that's going to continue on in leadership roles after -- louis ca need yal. i want to read to you from the book about the afro-creoles. so you can understand why they're so important and why warmoth is going to have the jort of his police force made up of afro-creoles, because they are a polished class of people who could put the lie to reactionary's arguments that they were too illit rattle to join in government. let me explain this to you. let me add one point just so this makes sense.

what warmoth is going to do is to prove that his police force can solve this case is he's going to have his police chief choose his best afro-creole detect to be the lead detective in the digby case. the detective that he chooses is a man named john baptiste jourdain who comes out of this free person of color class and then joins the union army when he gets the chance and then becomes a detect in the police rdant john baptiste jourdain was in some ways, the protagonist of my story. i'm going to place him in the ntext of his afro-creole heritage. detect jourdain belonged to a class of mixed-race men and women unique to the gulf coast. although the term creeole had different meanings in different

societies, in clone cal louisiana, anyone born in the colony was called a creeole. over time, louisianans, black and white, who identified with french language and chullchure and feareding with loverwhemmed by the people arriving in new rleans after the louisiana purchase, they considered themselves to be cosmopolitan gentlemen and ladies. they looked to paris for aesthetic inspiration. they bore silk pants and fine jackets. they defined silver utensils. built their homes with books, studied classical literature, formed exclusive ma sonic lodges and grew inspiration from the french revolution. they included painters,

sculptors, doctors, merchants nd skilled art sans. louisiana afro creoles held almost 60% of the real estate. creoles of color took great ride in the franco phone y dentedity they shared with whites. they relished wine, food served with rich sauces and french colonial arc deck chure. they attended plays, cock fights and circuses together, all ghee bee it on a segregated basis, and you get the idea. john baptiste jourdain comes out of this class and again what warmoth wants to prove is that the new orleans police force had been previously a -- largely a

group of thugs and every mayor that came in would turn the police force into his private army appointing their supporters. n the 18 50's when the know-nothings were in office they filled the force with thugs who would beat up the irish and the germans. and they fill it up with men from henry hayes' brigade that charged up the hill at gettysburg but who were virulently anti-reconstruction and when reconstruction begins, the police force now will get afro creoles along with white officers who are committed to reconstruction and the mannerly educated, polished, well dressed detect jourdain is exactly the person that warmoth wants eading this investigation. dd after >> images of white and black

creoles strolling about new . leans after a matt nay this is the police chief of new orleans whose job it is to direct jourdain and the other detectives in this investigation. he was part of the massachusetts redgeneant arrived on pratt street at the beginning of the civil war in response to lincoln's call for volunteers, is attacked by a baltimore mob and they had to fight their way across the city and badger was a member of that regiment. so he knew how fearsome resistance could be. one quick side light, and i had hoped he would have played more of a role. major dane is my lead detective. a detective named jordan noble,

72 years old. he was andrew jackson's drummer boy in the war of 1812. he's african-american and goes on to be the drummer boy when white new orleans forces go to fight in the seminole wars and the mexican war and becomes an officer in the union army during the civil war and then becomes a detect. early on he and major dane go in disguys who black nibeds try to get evidence dressed as common laborers, but unfortunately, jourdain doesn't continue on in his prominent role. badger is directing the case. and again people are now looking for any african-american woman who is seen with a white baby and all over new orleans and the south, that had been the condition of things through all times, so everyone who now sees

an african-american woman with a white baby goes running to the police saying i know where mollie digby is, i want to collect the reward. the newspaper fills with leads. leads come in from cincinnati, all over the place. at one point there actually was a traveling psychic in town. many people, including president lincoln had say onses to raise their dead some. they'd have a clair violent who says she knows exactly where mollie digby is. i'll let you read and find out what happens. you understand this is what ngages me. suddenly, i'm sucked into this story while looking for traditional constitutional cases. i didn't know it would be years before i'd come out of it. these are homes standing in up

town new orleans at bell castle and camp. they stand across the street from homes that are -- were central to my story since torn down but look exactly like those buildings would have looked. and this is what i want to tell you. i am not going to tell you tonight what happened to mollie digby. i want you to read the book to find out. will tell you who the republican reconstruction government eventually cuses of having committed the crime -- accuses of having committed the crime and they eventually accuse of having committed the crime two afro-creole sisters, one who lived in mobile and one who lived across the street me. and the sisters ran a very interesting business. they were proprietors in both cities of lying in hospitals.

and what that meant was, they were places where when wealthy white women got pregnant in difficult circumstances, out of wedlock, they could go to one of the sisters' houses and spend the time there during the pregnancy and have the baby outside of prying eyes. if a woman from a plantation family in mobile, alabama got in trouble, the sister in mobile, louisea murray, would bring the woman to her sister in uptown new orleans and the reverse was true of a nine new orleans family got in trouble, she would go to mobile. the reason they were able to pull this business off is because both of these women have exquisite tastes. when at their trial all the papers do is off and on over what they're wearing, how beautiful their hair is, how strikingly beautiful these women are and how their homes were

filled with rosewood furniture and paintings. this is an interesting business model where these women -- there were limited career possibilities for african-american women, could use their refined senseability to create a special niche in the economy of lying in hospitals, and it is these women that get accused of the crime. and the trial is in many ways what you think of as a classic southern courtroom drama, standing room crowds and sweltering courtroom fanning themselves. unlike the trials that you know from real life and stories like "to kill a mockingbird." where the outcome of the trial is predestined, reconstruction makes this trial so complex that in many ways, it is nothing like what a trial -- had the same trial happened shortly

thereafter during the era of jim crow, you know these women would get convicted. but what makes this trial so compelling is that you have an integrated jury. there are at least three afro-creole men on the jury. a hung jury is a possibility. you have -- once these women are accused of this crime by the republican government, old lions of the confederate bar, cluding thee dore gowier signed up to defend them. so you have a world where the republican government committed to immigration is trying to convict these women who they think are guilty of the crime in order to prove their police force works but at the same time they're going after two african-american women in a way that when you know the history of southern trials, you're like

uh-oh, a sort of complicated situation and it makes the verdict one in doubt right until the moment where the foreman stands up in the final trial which takes place against the back drop of the mardi gras parades to announce the verdict. has anyone ever written about this, i'm like, and no one had ever written about this. this is the first time this story had been told. i'm doing the wrong thing. this is the -- hang on. we'll -- hang on. let me go back a little. packed courtroom where the trial took place. but i also want to -- i don't know what i'm doing here. this is -- there we go. this is the headline as the story begins to unfold. the associated press puts the story out on the a.p. wire, so both the investigation and the

trial make national 23450urks the new york times, everyone in in the north is following the digby kidnapping much in the way today as we look for good news in america's efforts to reconstrict other nations, you look for successful public schools, something to tell you that this is working. efer we've got this is glamorous afro detective. and the story is being read all ver the country. at one level, i want the story to be a who-done-it. you're waiting to find out what happens to mollie digby, you're waiting to find out if these women get convicted. but i also want it to be for people interested many that narrative, but at the same time

get them interested in reconstruction by building the context about reconstruction. some people of -- let's say who went to public schools before 1954, let's say, were raised in a world where their elementary school textbooks, north and south, gave the southern version of reconstruction, that it was a tragedy era of carpetbaggers and amok.wags run you're familiar with the seen in "gone with the wind," home their lost adventure came the tattered cavaliers. grimly they came hobbling back to the desolation that had once -- the carpetbagger, he's

holding a carpet bag in the movie is allegedly someone who bag rpet bags were a cheap made of carpet remnants. if you didn't have a lot of money you cue buy a bag made out of carpet. and the story the historians have been telling since the 1960's but haven't managed to remove root and branch of the american memory, the free -- it's a much more complex story. there are some examples of corruption but there are lots of them who believe they're kind of of evangelical and northern progress thinking they're really needing to bring change to the south. my story kind of helps reinforce is that. and i hope to get people to read the book who may be still

whetted to the old visions of reconstruction and may get a more complex view. and again, i'm not doing anything novel here. the alternative vision of reconstruction as a noble experiment that eventually failed picks up steam with the work of other authors. there's been "american experience "documentaries. somehow it doesn't sing in. go to the amazon reviews of my book. there's one reader after another, this isn't the story of reconstruction we were taught in school. somehow despite all the work of historians, either people are whetted to the old view or they don't know anything about it. you know, i like people who love the civil war and, you know, i often go out, see the re-enactments and talk to people. they know every last detail of

went where.ng corps the civil war is important and we need to know everything in detail. what i hear, i don't like, so we're going to ignore it. i'm hoping my book, when i'm trying to tell the story, a lived experience on the ground brings that to life. this is on the sleft harold bakkay. what i want to do now is i'll start wrapping this talk up. when i started writing this story, i thought i was the only person alive who knew anything about it. because nobody had ever written about it before. none of my colleagues in history departments knew anything about it. and then as i started giving conference papers and other things, i started to get these e-mails. and i got an e-mail from a woman baccay in atlanta

who turns out to be a famous new orleans family. in tration her jean ol just back had realized her families are descendants of detective jourdain. isabell and i started doing all the research to put me on to the pones of these figures who had left very little historical footprint. when you get into the history of afro-creole families, it is extraordinarily complex and rich and it takes tons of work to get i've ry just right, and become friends of isabell and her uncle wayne, the famous new orleans creole restaurant family. the newcay is editor of orleans times. next week i'll be there where

'll have meetings with the descendants of major dane. on the right descendants of the digby familiar why, who are going to be coming to the event as well. these are members of the digby family who live in carey, north carolina, which as you might know is a place where people ve moved from all over the country. lynnians. ted new or the people didn't know each other. they lived within a couple of miles of each other in carey, north carolina. i got them all together in a house and they all pulled out these documents, box full of family documents. everything that came out of the box, i'm like no way, no way. and this story has been kept alive.

there's all kinds of elaborate family theories about who orchestrated the kidnapping, and why, which you'll read about in the book. i met them as well. and then i got an e-mail from a woman named sandra guenther clark and her father jerry up many new york. sandra was working at a business down in wall street and was in a stylish apartment. turns out they are descendens of the accused women. they had covered -- this is the golden age of jean logical research, and it turns out that what happened with their family is that after this case ends, many of the children of these women who were mixed race afro-creole women 3450u6ed to new york, detroit, cincinnati and passed for whifmente because in the era of jim crow, getting out from the stigma of all these

laws, there was more economic activity for someone who would pass as white. over time, the family didn't know they had african-american ancestors. in doing the research, jerry guenther who lives in wisconsin, jerry and daughter sandra in new york found out that they have african-american relatives and were fascinated by it. so the story -- and the memory of the story and the people have stomach sboobled the story -- was very much alive. i didn't know that until i wrote it. it's one of the things that makes history so much fun when you have these moments that's like holy, holy cow. this is a famous new orleans strount. he'll be hosting me next week. and then the photographer was a photographer in new orleans who i had contracted to take pictures for thebook from the

grants i received before i realized the case had any connection to the book. suddenly my photographer is a descendant of the detective and he's documenting scenes from his own family's history. this is what's one of the things the press has put out. but i'm hoping that in addition to being a who-done-it, you'll enjoy reading it. you'll see the importance of history and the layers of it and the courtroom logistics, etc. i try to tell the story as add ived experience, which i think a good microhistory does. the answers to anything you're still asking are in this book. i'd be happy to answer any questions from the audience. yes. oh, do we need -- i'm sorry. for c-span purposes, if you

could speak at the microphone. >> well, i know that you don't want to necessarily drop a cliffy, but three questions. number one, did they ever find the girl? >> can't tell you. >> ok. that answers that question. number two, the creeole -- african creeole women who were accused, what white families were they descended from? >> they were descended -- i've -- from the -- the fathers -- let me put it this way. as far as we can ascertain, they are descendants of augustine who came to the united states from haiti during the -- after the haitian revolution, a lot of haitian slave owners but -- as well as the mixed-race class moved to america and settled in

mobile, as far as we can glean descended from that class. >> and the third question is, your book wants to be turned into -- is your book going to be turned into an audio book? >> interesting question. please turn my book into an audio book. some of the pieces of the court were missing but other parts, good parts were there what i found is that the court stenographers such as they were, basically summarized what was going on. it would be -- and really, the best blow-by-blow accounts are from all of the reporters. i don't know how they did it. it's clearly different reporters at each of new orleans' seven newspapers creating the transcripts. and it's just enough different

to know that somebody different is transcribing it. they take down these accounts that run the next day in the newspapers. those are the best sources for what went on in the courtroom. the court records are good. lots of data about where witnesses lived and good official data. but the newspaper transcripts were really the ones that brought the scenes to life. >> thank you. >> what impact did this case have on the relationship between the creeoles of color, the free creeoles and the white community. >> can you quickly state that you're a new or lynnian? >> yes. >> and a descendant of a creole family. >> yes, i am >> what again was the question? > this case, what relationship change from the african creeoles

and -- >> there's a lot of mutual respect between the white creoles and afro creoles in new orleans that is deeply strained by the fact that so many afro creoles fight in the union ranks, because most of the white creoles, including beau reguard fight for the con fed rassy. yet, you can still see in the trial transcripts, in the relationships, because they're related. you know, there's still this mutual respect, pride in their franco phone traditions. what's going to happen -- i don't know that this case is the cause of it. but after reconstruction failed stored,te supremacy is re there is a push comes to shove moment as jim crow descends

where many noncreeole whites say to the afro creoles, you're either with us -- say to the white creeoles, you're either with us or you're against us. and white creoles began to stance themselves from their afro-creole compatriots and we get this -- i will get e-mail from this tell viced lecture with people arguing over the word creeole. >> i'm sure you will. >> what it means, who can claim it, etc. i've given you my version of that, but it's still a very contested word. and -- but i would argue that through the reconstruction period, it's not clear that that split is going to happen. there's a brief moment where something happens called the louisiana unification movement where some white elise businessmen including general

beauregard convince add number of lead afro-creole leaders to stay they will abandon the republican party, join them at a new party committed to business called the louisiana unification movement and the so-called best men of louisiana will now rule. it completely lapses -- collapses as the white creeole members are lambasted by noncreeoles for doing it. beauregard doesn't show up at their big meeting. things completely fall apart. that's probably the last place some sort of coalition could have worked. >> thank you. >> great. thank you. other questions? >> all right. so my question is, at the end of your book you discuss something about the coincidence between what you're researching and where you were at the time. can you explain that? >> in -- again, as mentioned, i'm in the edgar allen poe room.

i'm not much of a believer in the super natural. the houses i showed you earlier -- there. are across the street the home of the women that are accused. i found this story while i was living at -- with my wife ashley at 5229 camp street. and 5229 camp street -- and, you know, i began with the story of voodoo kidnapping. and then i found these women who were accused were operating the hospital. 5229 camp street is exactly across the street from where a good portion of my story took place. i'm sitting in my house looking out at the same view they would have looked out on. i started drinking. it -- it seemed like a

remarkable co inns deny, and it is just that, a coincidence. but it was in a city that's sort of spooky. it was sort of an uncanny moment. >> thank you. any other questions? ok. well, thaufpblgt you've been a great audience. [applause] >> and feel free to e-mail me, ma ross. i would love to hear from you. thank you for coming. [applause] >> join american history tv next saturday for all day live overage of a world war i centennial symposium from norfolk, virginia. we'll hear from scholars about the war. we welcome your calls, facebook posts and tweets.

and sean mcmeek an, author of the berlin baghdad express. that's next saturday starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern here on american history tv. >> the c-span cities tour takes book t and american history tv on the road traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history and literary life. next week we go to madison, wisconsin. it is a glorious service, this service for the country. the call comes to every citizen. it is an unending struggle to make and keep government representative. >> he's probably the most important political figure in wisconsin history and one of the most important in the history of the 20th century in the united states.

he was a reforming governor. he defined what progressivism is. he was one of the first to use the term progressive to self-identify. he was a united states senator who was recognized by his peers in the 1950's as one of the five gratest senators in american history. he was an opponent of world war i, stood his ground add vowvow indicating for free speech. he was about the people. after the civil war, america changed radically from a nation of small farmers and small producers and small manufacturers, and by the 18 's, 18 80's, 18 90's, we had concentrations of wealth. we had growing inevaluate and we had concern about the influence of money in government. of e spent the later part

the years speaking. he would give a speech if you needed a speaker. he went to county fairs, he went to every kind of event that you could imagine, and built a reputation for himself. by 1900, he was ready to run for governor advocating on behalf of the people. he had two issues. one, the direct primary. no more selecting candidates in convention. two, stop the interests. specifically, the railroads. >> next saturday starting at snoon eastern. next sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span 3. the 2015 c-span student cam video competition is under way, open to all middle and high

school students to create a documentary on the theme, the three branches and you, showing how the policies of the three branches of government have affected you or your community. there's 200 cash prizes for students and teachers totaling $1 00,000. go to studentcam.org for the rules and how to get started. >> next, eric leonard discusses the rise of prisoner carchrches during the civil war and the harsh life soldiers endured as p.o.w.s. mr. leonard describes the camps and gives first-hand accounts of the prisons. t's about an hour. >> at the conference last year, circumstances conspired so that i was a floating head on a screen and i'm very pleased this

morning to actually be present d projecting images of prisoner of war camps. i don't think i represent that well. i'm going to negotiate a very, very dangerous set of rapids this morning. the professor at georgia southwestern state university, who is married, in fact, to one of my employees, dr. glen robins, he says and i agree completely, generally, you can either talk about andersonville or the other military prisons of war. it becomes emotionally difficult to try to do both. and i will explore that. and i am going to weave in between the two a little bit. a note on semantics before i start any further. i hesitate to use the acronym p.o.w. in a civil war context, because it's a 20th centu