The Yankee Plague, Lorien Foote
The Yankee Plague, Lorien Foote
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The Yankee Plague
Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy

Author: Lorien Foote

Narrator: Traber Burns

Unabridged: 6 hr 54 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/07/2016

Synopsis

A rare and insightful account of the thousands of Union soldiers who escaped Confederate imprisonment and aided in the final dissolution of the Confederacy.During the winter of 1864, more than three thousand Federal prisoners of war escaped from Confederate prison camps into South Carolina and North Carolina, often with the aid of local slaves. Their flight created, in the words of contemporary observers, a “Yankee plague,” heralding a grim end to the Confederate cause. In this fascinating look at Union soldiers’ flights for freedom in the last months of the Civil War, Lorien Foote reveals new connections between the collapse of the Confederate prison system, the large-scale escape of Union soldiers, and the full unraveling of the Confederate States of America. By this point in the war, the Confederacy was reeling from prison overpopulation, a crumbling military, violence from internal enemies, and slavery’s breakdown. The fugitive Federals moving across the countryside in mass numbers, Foote argues, accelerated the collapse as slaves and deserters decided the presence of these men presented an opportune moment for escalated resistance.Blending rich analysis with an engaging narrative, Foote uses these ragged Union escapees as a lens with which to assess the dying Confederate States, providing a new window into the South’s ultimate defeat.

About Lorien Foote

Lorien Foote is a professor of history at Texas A&M University, with a specialty in the American Civil War and Reconstruction. She is the author of Seeking the One Great Remedy as well as The Gentlemen and the Roughs, which was a finalist for the 2011 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize.

About Traber Burns

Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Christopher on January 23, 2022

The inmates are escaping the asylum. A great slice of little known or researched Civil War history. Foote's 2016 "Yankee Plague" approaches the decline of the Confederate war effort from multiple angles (the collapse of slavery, state governments, and the Confederate government in toto) through the l......more

Goodreads review by Amy on December 06, 2022

The Yankee Plague is the fascinating account of how some 4,700 escaped Union prisoners caused chaos and contributed the collapse of the Confederacy in North and South Carolina ahead of Sherman's March to the Sea. Despite being hunted by some (usually white) locals, they were also actively assisted b......more

Goodreads review by Tyler on June 21, 2017

And the same goes for my friend Lorien Foote: I checked out her book from the library rather than pay the $24.17 to buy it. But I am glad I read this book as well because she gives a fresh perspective to the last months of the Civil War. Rather than rehashing the oft told stories of the soldiers in......more

Goodreads review by Shrike58 on November 13, 2020

Having read some of the author's previous scholarship I had mixed expectations, in that I expected to be informed but not necessarily engaged. I was pleased to discover that I was actually entertained, as the memoirs of the Union escaped prisoners give real dash to an analysis of the Confederacy's s......more

Goodreads review by Bill on December 10, 2021

There are numerous stories of Allied soldiers escaping POW camps in World War II but you never really hear about it from the Civil War. Andersonville is the image that pops into people's heads. This would be due to the publicity given to it after the war, and its propaganda usefulness for the radica......more

Quotes

“In this utterly fascinating look at the collapse of the Confederacy, Lorien Foote narrates the history of the South’s disastrous attempts to move prisoners into and around South Carolina as the Union army began rolling up victories in late 1864. The result was a sloppy system that allowed thousands of boys in blue to escape, flooding the backcountry with white fugitives and hastening the demise of the CSA. Brimming with energy, the book relates the chaos of the Confederacy’s final days like no other.” Stephen Berry, University of Georgia

“Superbly researched and interpreted, [adding] layers of complexity to our understanding of the chaotic Confederate home front and the last gasps of rebel resistance.” Daniel E. Sutherland, author of A Savage Conflict

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