With exhaustive research and meticulous attention to detail, this comprehensive history of US military prisons traces the evolution of incarceration in America from the Revolutionary War to the present day. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources, including government records, personal memoirs, and archival photographs, this groundbreaking volume sheds new light on one of the most consequential and controversial aspects of America's military history. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

"Long Binh Jail was a place so feared that American soldiers would rather face the Viet Cong than be sent there." "Known as "LBJ" or simply "The Stockade," it was officially the U.S. Army Installation Stockade in Long Binh, South Vietnam. Within its confines were Americans whose offenses ran the gamut from drug possession, insubordination, and AWOL, to assault, rape, and murder. Containing up to a thousand prisoners at a time, Long Binh jail was, in effect, the Army's own little penal colony and one sharply divided by racial tensions." "In 1968, these tensions erupted when most of its African-American prisoners took over the prison compound. The riot, which had to be put down by armed American troops using tear gas, was noted around the world as another sign of the sagging morale of U.S. forces. Noted military historian Cecil Barr Currey tells the story of Long Binh jail through the words of dozens of former guards, prisoners, and administrators. They reveal a disturbing aspect of the Vietnam War that has not been examined until now."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This study is primarily a treatment of the use of prisoner of war labor by the United States Army. It also provides a comprehensive treatment of the employment of prisoners of war by private employers in the United States. The primary objective of the monograph is to provide in one volume a comprehensive record of the use of prisoner of war labor for the guidance of General Staff officers and students in the Army school system. It is hoped that the study will assist the industrial and military mobilization planners of the future in planning for the use of prisoner of war labor. The document also will further the understanding of basic problems related to the employment of prisoners of war among persons interested in military affairs. Since the monograph is limited to the military history of prisoners of war through World War II, it is merely background for the events that have followed that conflict. An additional monograph dealing with the employment and treatment of prisoners of war during the Korean War is currently being prepared. The study is divided into three parts. Part One, "The Early Wars, "contains three chapters covering the period from the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. Part Two, "The Beginnings of Global Warfare, "contains three chapters covering the period from the Spanish-American War to the beginning of World War II. Part Three, "World War II, "contains the bulk of the study. The planning, policies, interested agencies, and actual employment both in the continental United States and in oversea theaters are presented in detail.

The fifth part of a century almost has sped with the flight of time since the outbreak of the Slaveholder's Rebellion against the United States. The young men of to-day were then babes in their cradles, or, if more than that, too young to be appalled by the terror of the times. Those now graduating from our schools of learning to be teachers of youth and leaders of public thought, if they are ever prepared to teach the history of the war for the Union so as to render adequate honor to its martyrs and heroes, and at the same time impress the obvious moral to be drawn from it, must derive their knowledge from authors who can each one say of the thrilling story he is spared to tell: "All of which I saw, and part of which I was." The writer is honored with the privilege of introducing to the reader a volume written by an author who was an actor and a sufferer in the scenes he has so vividly and faithfully described, and sent forth to the public by a publisher whose literary contributions in support of the loyal cause entitle him to the highest appreciation. Both author and publisher have had an honorable and efficient part in the great struggle, and are therefore worthy to hand down to the future a record of the perils encountered and the sufferings endured by patriotic soldiers in the prisons of the enemy. The publisher, at the beginning of the war, entered, with zeal and ardor upon the work of raising a company of men, intending to lead them to the field. Prevented from carrying out this design, his energies were directed to a more effective service. His famous "Nasby Letters" exposed the absurd and sophistical argumentations of rebels and their sympathisers, in such broad, attractive and admirable burlesque, as to direct against them the "loud, long laughter of a world!" The unique and telling satire of these papers became a power and inspiration to our armies in the field and to their anxious friends at home, more than equal to the might of whole battalions poured in upon the enemy. An athlete in logic may lay an error writhing at his feet, and after all it may recover to do great mischief. But the sharp wit of the humorist drives it before the world's derision into shame and everlasting contempt. These letters were read and shouted over gleefully at every camp-fire in the Union Army, and eagerly devoured by crowds of listeners when mails were opened at country post-offices. Other humorists were content when they simply amused the reader, but "Nasby's" jests were arguments—they had a meaningthey were suggested by the necessities and emergencies of the Nation's peril, and written to support, with all earnestness, a most sacred cause. The author, when very young, engaged in journalistic work, until the drum of the recruiting officer called him to join the ranks of his country's defenders. As the reader is told, he was made a prisoner. He took with him into the terrible prison enclosure not only a brave, vigorous, youthful spirit, but invaluable habits of mind and thought for storing up the incidents and experiences of his prison life. As a journalist he had acquired the habit of noticing and memorizing every striking or thrilling incident, and the experiences of his prison life were adapted to enstamp themselves indelibly on both feeling and memory. He speaks from personal experience and from the stand-paint of tender and complete sympathy with those of his comrades who suffered more than he did himself. Of his qualifications, the writer of these introductory words need not speak. The sketches themselves testify to his ability with such force that no commendation is required.