A prisoner‐of‐war camp used by the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Notorious for the high death rate among its inmates, it had been established in 1864 and suffered from shortage of food, clothing, and medical supplies in the war‐stricken South. By the time of its capture by Union (Northern) forces, nearly half the prisoners had died from disease, and as a result of the ensuing outcry the ex‐commandant, Captain Henry Wirz, was tried and executed for murder. Subsequent investigation revealed the catastrophe to have been the product less of deliberate barbarity than of the collapse of the Confederate military machine.