Point Lookout Prison Camp for Confederates by Edwin W. Beitzell (HC/DJ) Signed by the Author.

This book is the first complete history of the prison camp for Confederates at Point Lookout, Maryland and it is entirely factual. The data outlining the terrible sufferings of the prisoners which resulted in over 1500 deaths in a period of less than two years that the prison was in operation is taken from War of the Rebellion, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, the large collection of Point Lookout Official War Records at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, DC, the diaries and other accounts of life in the prison camp and other reliable sources. It is a story of cruel decisions in high places - decisions made coldly and without compassion. It is a story of diarrhea and dysentery, of typhoid and typhus, of burning sands and freezing cold in rotten tents - it is a story of senseless shootings by the guards - it is a story of despair and death - death of many men that could have been saved. The author is well equipped to tell this story of his native county. From 1956 through 1983 he was the Editor of the Chronicles of St. Mary's County Historical Society, in which much of this material has previously appeared.