August 14, 2023

“Hardened veterans, scarcely strangers to the sting of battle, nevertheless found themselves ill-prepared for the horror and despondency awaiting them inside Civil War prison camps. While they often wrote frankly of the carnage wrought by bullets smashing limbs and grapeshot tearing ragged holes through advancing lines, many soldiers described their prisoner of war experiences as a more heinous undertaking altogether.” (American Battlefield Trust) After the brutal fighting at Antietam on September 17, 1862, Wells Waite Miller of the 8th OVI headed to Harpers Ferry, Virginia with his unit where they went to rest, reinforce, and resupply. On October 29, 1862,