War of Vengeance

The American Civil War was a vicious conflict that developed in intense hatred between opposing sides. Despite some historians’ assertions that this was history’s last great “gentlemen’s war,” the conflict was anything but civil. There is ample evidence to suggest that both sides quite commonly retaliated against one another throughout the war, often in chillingly inhumane ways.

Violent retaliation was most apparent within Federal and Confederate penitentiaries. Prisoners of war were frequen...