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The concept behind Andersonville Prison, one of the worst prisoner of war camps of the Civil War, began in 1863. Using slave labor, the Confederates took what they wanted from the small town of Anderson and the farmers in the surrounding fields, creating an enclosure that would comfortably house about a thousand Union prisoners. Unfortunately, many more prisoners were sent south to Georgia and, at its height Andersonville’s head count numbered in the tens of thousands. There was no shelter and the men slept in lean tos fashioned from tree branches, lying in wet wool uniforms in all kinds of weather. The water in Andersonville Prison was foul, the food full of maggots and weevils and... More > diseases ran rampant through the ranks.

The horrors of Andersonville cried out to Jonas Biggs, an archaeologist hired to investigate the prison. It was almost as though the soldiers who had died there were speaking to him, crying out to him across the ages. As they uncover more of the prison’s secrets, Jonas and Savannah Biggs are unfortunately targeted by two locals desperate to secure their inheritance and keep the secrets of the past safe.

In a tantalizing contrast of the past and present, Ms. Mason pieces together for the reader a colorful quilt of American history. Every delectable fragment of information is revealed like a rare treasure, leading the reader toward the dangerous and exciting conclusion. I close the book with a host of questions lingering upon my lips, thirsty to learn more about this tragic and important period of our history. < Less