Almost more remarkable than having survived the horrors of the Confederate prison at Andersonville is the fact that Melvin Grigsby could 33 years later pen this often hilarious recounting of his experiences in the American Civil War. He does not shy away from descriptions of life as it was in Andersonville. In fact, this is one of the best accounts of life in Rebel confinement. Over 13,000 of the 45,000 Union POWs died in the squalor of the camp. But Grigsby's education and intelligence made him one of the keenest observers at a very young age. Only 16 when he entered the Union army, he was only 20 upon his final escape to freedom and the end of the war.