The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy

A rare and insightful account of the thousands of Union soldiers who escaped Confederate imprisonment and aided in the final dissolution of the Confederacy.

During the winter of 1864, more than three thousand Federal prisoners of war escaped from Confederate prison camps into South Carolina and North Carolina, often with the aid of local slaves. Their flight created, in the words of contemporary observers, a “Yankee plague,” heralding a grim end to the Confederate cause.

In this fascinating...