Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War (Vintage Departures)

by Tony Horwitz

posed the question that had gnawed at me throughout my stay. Rather than proclaim Wirz a hero and blame Andersonville on the North, wouldn’t it be more fruitful—and historically factual—to present Civil War prison camps as a dark chapter of our history that neither side should be proud of? “That dog just won’t hunt,” Reynolds said. “Yankees started all this and we’ve got to resist with all available force, even if it seems one-sided.” “We don’t want forgiveness,” Clements added. “We want people to come over to our side.” “But why polarize the story?” I asked. “Aren’t you swinging the pendulum to the opposite extreme?” “Perhaps,” Reynolds said. “But if we swing the pendulum all the way over to our side, maybe we’ll nudge the accepted view over a bit closer to where it belongs.” This was history as Middle East rug barter. The seller names his price and the buyer makes an offer as low as the seller’s is high. After a lot of haggling and cups of tea, they agree on a price. This was an entertaining if time-consuming way to shop. But it hardly seemed like a model for understanding our common history. “Imagine a train running down a track,” Reynolds went on. “A man from the North stands on one side and he says the train is moving left to right. A Southerner stands on the other and says it’s moving right to left. They’re looking at the same train and the same track and from where they’re standing they’re both correct. That’s the way it is with Andersonville. We have a viewpoint th...