Union Soldier in the Andersonville Prison. [caption title of illustrated broadside]

“In this rebel den I’m lying ... Suffeing, starving – all alone…”

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This broadside poem voices the imagined last words of a dying Union soldier held at Camp Sumter, more widely known as Andersonville. The text is set in display type with decorative borders and features a central image of a flag-bearing Zouave soldier rendered in a style simulating a wood engraving.

The anonymous verse describes thirst, starvation, and emotional torment, portraying the prison as a “cruel rebel den.” It emphasizes separation from home, appeals for letters and rescue, and ends with a vision of death as release. The soldier dreams of water,“green fields in which to roam”, and peace beyond the “Dead Line”—a reference to the real boundary in Andersonville beyond which prisoners were shot.

Poems like this circulated widely in the decades following the war, reinforcing narratives of Confederate cruelty and the martyrdom of Union soldiers. Likely produced in the 1880s or 1890s using a photo-mechanical process, this piece reflects the ongoing work of remembrance in the North through inexpensive printed ephemera.

Curiously, the broadside is printed on a single sheet of paper with a soft, matte vermilion-pink wash applied only to the verso. Unrecorded in OCLC.

Price: $100.00