174
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #198,761 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Poor Historical Accuracy
It appears that the producer/s of this particular film used quite a few unreliable sources in the production of this film. Capt. Henry Wirz is portrayed as the original nazi (he was a swiss immigrant), a shallow, sadistic man who had absolutely no concern about the wellfare of prisoners in his charge. The fact is that the horrendous conditions at Andersonville (Camp Sumter) were the product of southern war shortages, not the product of a psychopath. Moreover, the battle royal between the raiders and the regulators depicted in the film never happened. In reality, Sgt. Key's (Limber Jim) regulators arrested the raiders with the help of the confederate guards and the courts-martial occurred at the insistance of Wirz, not the prisoners. Finally, only 11 men are known to have been shot on the deadline. However, in the film, confederate guards are portrayed as indiscriminately shooting a prisoner for fun, implying that such shootings were common. All this might make for excellent film drama but, it is extremely poor history. So, what is good about this film? The movie does depict the stockade and the terrible living conditions within quite accurately. But if you want to learn what really happened at Andersonville, I suggest you invest your time in reading William Marvel's book Andersonville: The Last Depot.
