I remember years ago reading the historic novel "Andersonville," by McKinley Cantor--if I recall the author's name correctly. That novel indicated that many of the criminal element in the prisoner population at Andersonville were bounty jumpers from large cities who made their living taking a bounty or substitute's pay and then deserting to do it all over again under a different name at a different place. These men were part of a criminal class of predators looking for any scam for a quick buck that didn't involve hard work--a class that is always with us but usually keeping a low profile to avoid detection. Eventually, a number of these men could no longer evade the battlefield and ended up in Confederate prisons as POW's. I believe the Union military eventually became wise and watched for these men when they entered active service and kept them from deserting to make them earn their pay like everybody else. I am not sure if I learned this from the novel, or from other books I read because the topic interested me so much back then during the CW centennial. The novel, which I recall was well-researched, indicated a number of these low-lifes banded together to take from the weaker POW's better clothes, shelter, food, and the like without regard for what happened to their victims--a number of whom they murdered, too. Captain Wirz, commandant at Andersonville, allowed the victimized POW's to try and execute on a gallows the six leaders of this gang, which took the remainder of them down a peg or two, at least for a while.

Bruce Nichols