They Have Left Us Here to Die: The Civil War Prison Diary of Sgt. Lyle G. Adair, 111th U.S. Colored Infantry

Sgt. Lyle G. Adair of the 111th U.S. Colored Troops joined the thousands of Union prisoners when part of his regiment tasked with guarding the rail lines between TN and northern AL was captured by Confederate cavalrymen. Adair, who had first enlisted in the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the age of 17 & later became a recruiting agent in the 111th, spent the remainder of the war being shuffled from camp to camp as a prisoner of war. By the war's end, he had been incarcerated in five different Confederate camps: Cahaba, Camp Lawton, Blackshear, Thomasville, & Andersonville.

"They Have Left Us Here to Die" is an edited & annotated version of the diary Sgt Adair kept of his 7 months as a prisoner of war. The diary provides vivid descriptions of each of the 5 camps as well as insightful observations about the culture of captivity. Adair notes with disdain the decision of some Union prisoners to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy in exchange for their freedom & covers the mock presidential election of 1864 held at Camp Lawton, where he & his fellow inmates were forced to cast votes for either Lincoln or McClellan. But most significantly, Adair reflects on the breakdown of the prisoner exchange system between the North & South, especially the roles played by the Lincoln administration & the Northern home front. As a white soldier serving with African Americans, Adair also makes revealing observations about the influence of race on the experience of captivity.

"'They Have Left Us Here to Die' touches on the important themes of combat motivation, race, the end of slavery, the experience of captivity, & the competing st