War Criminal's Son: The Civil War Saga of William A. Winder

War Criminals' Son by Jane Singer explores the hidden aspects of the Civil War through the story of the Confederate Winder family and their first-born son, William Andrew Winder, who shattered family ties to stand with the Union. General John H. Winder was a cruel tyrant who brutalized his prisoners, including his own people. William was sent to command Alcatraz, a fortess-turned-Civil War prison, and treated his prisoners humanely despite being accused of disloyalty and treason. His father's villainy haunts him, and he is sent into a lifelong exile, on a mission to do good at all costs. Singer reexamines the horrors of Andersonville Prison and Alcatraz with new, unpublished research and family materials, bringing to life a family and a country at war with universal themes of loyalty, family shame, and reclamation of lost honor in the face of unspeakable cruelty.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 312 pages
\n Publication date: 01 May 2019
\n Publisher: Potomac Books Inc
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Set against the backdrop of the Civil War and its aftermath, War Criminals s Son by Civil War scholar Jane Singer brings to life hidden aspects of the conflict through the sweeping saga of the infamous Confederate Winder family and its first-born son, who shattered family ties to stand with the Union. General John H. Winder was the hard-handed provost martial of Richmond and subsequent commander of all prisons in the Confederate capital, including the prisoner-of-war death camp, Andersonville Prison, who had a reputation of being a cruel tyrant who brutalized his prisoners, even his own people. When he gives his son, William Andrew Winder, the order to come south and fight, or desert or commit suicide rather than ally with the Union, William goes to the White House, swearing his allegiance to President Lincoln, and is sent to command Alcatraz, a fortess-turned-Civil War prison.

As the war dragged on and men were dying daily in his father's keep, William treated his prisoners humanely in spite of being repeatedly accused of disloyalty and treason. Though General John Winder died before he could be brought to justice, his subordinate, Henry Wirz, was charged with war crimes and executed after his trial, the first war crime trial by military commission in American history. Haunted by his father's villainy, William is sent into a lifelong exile, on a mission to do good at all costs. We meet the politicians, pioneers, traitors, and generals who blazed through William's life until he stops at the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, where alone, old, and ailing, he vowed to better the lot of the Native Americans.

In War Criminal's Son, Jane Singer reexamines the horrors of Andersonville Prison and the command of Alcatraz with new, unpublished research and family materials, bringing to life the untold stories of the men who suffered and died in these infamous prisons.

\n Weight: 628g\n
Dimension: 163 x 236 x 27 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781612349114\n \n