How does MacKinlay Kantor display aspects of the Civil War era in the prison of his novel Andersonville?

Andersonville allows us a long glimpse into prison life during the Civil War era. Kantor shows us in graphic detail the inhumanity of man to man, the total disregard for life of any kind (which, unfortunately, has not remained confined to the Civil War era). But Kantor's novel also gives us a glimpse of what other aspects of life were like during this era. For instance, we gain some insight into the kinds of disease and illness that were common in this era, diseases we rarely see in first-world countries today: typhoid fever, dysentery, and tuberculosis, among others. We see how these diseases spread, how they affected the victims, and how they were treated, or not. We also gain some understanding of the medical practices that existed at this time, and which did not. For example, there was little knowledge of germs and the need for sanitary medical practices to help prevent their spread. Although doctors had access to anesthetics like ether and chloroform, antiseptics were virtually unknown, and doctors often treated patients with toxic "medicines," such as mercury and arsenic, which were often fatal. Those who survived these kinds of cures were simply lucky. Andersonville is replete with stories of this kind of "care" as well as those that demonstrate complete lack of any care at all.

Another aspect of the Civil War era that we see here is the devastation that the Union had inflicted on the Confederacy. By the time Andersonville Prison, also known as Camp Sumter, was built in 1864, the Civil War was within a year of its end. The South had been severely ravaged. Its supply lines had been intercepted or destroyed; its munitions factories had been commandeered and either destroyed or used to manufacture more arms for the North; and its farms, particularly through VA and the Carolinas, had either been turned to producing food for the Union or had been torched. The Union army was camped right outside Richmond, the Confederate capital, and fear that Richmond would fall was justified. Andersonville was built expressly for the purpose of moving Union prisoners currently held in the Richmond area to a more secure area where food, while not abundant, was more plentiful. Andersonville helps us to feel the increasing panic of the South as it faced the ever-growing power of the North. The novel also helps us to see that because of the situation, there was still not enough food to adequately feed even the Confederate soldiers much less the thousands of prisoners held at Andersonville.

One other important aspect of the Civil War era that Kantor illuminates is that of prisoner exchanges. Until 1862, prisoner exchanges were rarely based on formal agreements because the Union did not want to establish the legitimacy of the Confederate government. In 1862, there was a short period when prisoner exchanges gained some legitimacy, and a formal system of exchange was agreed upon; however, the system quickly broke down when the Confederates refused to exchange black Union soldiers. By the time Andersonville was built in 1864, prisoner exchanges were few and only then were usually based on a "gentlemen's agreement," many of which were broken, ignored, or undermined by a lack of mutual trust. The breakdown of the exchange system led to many prison camp situations like Andersonville: overcrowding, starvation, non-existent sanitation, death, and the ever-present disease.