During the Civil War, James Madison Page was a prisoner in
different places in the South. Seven months of that time was spent
at Andersonville. While there he became well acquainted with Major Wirz,
or Captain Wirz, as he then ranked. Page takes the stand that Captain
Wirz was unjustly held responsible for the hardship and mortality of
Andersonville. It was his belief that the Federal authorities must share
the blame for these things with the Confederates, since they well knew
the inability of the Confederates to meet the reasonable wants of their
prisoners of war, as they lacked a supply for their own needs, and since
the Federal authorities failed to exercise a humane policy in the
exchange of those captured in battle.
The writer, "with
malice toward none and charity for all," denies conscious
prejudice, and makes the sincere endeavor to put himself in the other
fellow's place and make such a statement of the matter in hand as
will satisfy all lovers of truth and justice.