Richmond, Macon, Savannah, Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte, Raleigh, Goldsborough, and Andersonville—all places of unspeakable suffering during the American Civil War. These were sites of Confederate prisons where Union soldiers were held in squalor, disease, and starvation. A.O. Abbott brought together a collection of these accounts shortly after the close of the war. The bitterness and pain in these stories still remained vivid to the survivors. Here they provide the details of what the war did to some men. One writes: "These cruelties were not the result of accident, but of a deliberate purpose. By this we do not mean that the Southern people were committed to these acts. In many cases their humanity compelled them, though in opposition to the authorities, to attempt the alleviation of the sufferings which they witnessed." At the end, Abbott writes: "To some the burden was too much, and they have never recovered from its baneful effects. Others have nearly recovered, but the scars remain."