McElroy, with a detachment of his regiment, was guarding a supply route to Cumberland Gap when his entire company was captured in a surprise attack one morning during the winter of 1862-63. He and his comrades were taken to Lippy Prison, and from there they were sent to Andersonville. McElroy spent the rest of the war as a prisoner. His story of attempts at escape, of comrades tracked through cypress swamps by packs of vicious dogs, and of the everyday struggle just to stay alive, is one of the great stories of the Civil War.

A greatly revised ed. of the author's Andersonville; a story of rebel military prisons, originally published in 1879. "The trial of Captain Henri Wirz ... a transcript from the Official record [of the War of the Rebellion] November 1865" : p. 299-350.

A lean and hungry land -- Andersonville -- The dead line -- A little blood spilt -- In the way of escape -- A fetid, burning desert -- Maggots, lice and raiders -- Six are hanged -- "So this is Andersonville, is it?" -- "Only an average man stands the misery" -- Like needles in pumpkin seeds -- The lame, the halt and the diseased -- The futility of successful explanation -- A general exchange -- Escaping by wholesale, recaptured en masse -- Winder, the man with the evil eye -- The fall of Atlanta -- Back to Andersonville -- Dreary weather -- A shattering disappointment -- The red-headed keeper -- Dull winter days -- unbounded luxury in God's country -- First trial of a war criminal.