"Little More Than a Dead Skeleton": Death and Despair At Civil War Prisons-- Part 1

From the May 5, 2014, CNN--US "We did this to ourselves": Deaths and despair at Civil War prisons" by Phil Gast.

Union Private Charles Tarsney saw the body of an emaciated prisoner he had given a drink of water to the night before.  "He had died during the night and was little more than a dead skeleton," he recalled.

John Tarsney was a POW at Confederate Camp Lawton near  Millen, Georgia.  He had been badly wounded and captured at the Battle of Gettysburg and then sent to the prison at Andersonville and now he had been moved to Camp Lawton.

He immediately came up with a scheme.

He decided to trade identities.  The soldier who had died was part of a group of prisoners who were to be exchanged for Confederate prisoners.

More to Come.  --Old Secesh