This is John Batchel, a conversation with the author and professor Fitzhue Brundage,

writing his new book, Worse Than How, about the POWs in the Civil War,

how it developed into a system that was beyond brutal, sadistic, and murderous.

It started out, however, with the intention of exchanges,

with the intention of treating officers well, treating enlisted men well, and not burdening

the infrastructure of either the Confederacy or the Union to feed and house and guard. However,

it developed quickly into brutality.

In this instance, the transformation of a warehouse,

a tobacco warehouse in Richmond,

into early understanding of infamous prison.

Fitzhue Brundage, much more of this, Tonight and tomorrow night, his new book, W, W, W, W, in the Civil War, 1861 to 1865. All of this informed many of the conventions that were adopted later in the 19th century,

most notably the Geneva Convention, for the proper and lawful treatment of enemy POWs.

Here's the professor.

Richmond had, as the second largest city in the Confederacy, but really the most industrialized city and Confederacy,

aside from its location close to the battlefields, Richmond had one other comparative advantages.

It had lots of industrial buildings that could be repurposed. And that's what the Confederacy

did for many of its prisons. It just took, in the case of Libby Prison, a tobacco warehouse

and repurposed it as a prison. And so Libby Prison was one of several tobacco warehouses in Richmond that, as I said,

were repurposed. Libby was repurposed particularly for union officers. And that's important for a

couple reasons. One, because, of course, some of the most prominent captives were, of course, union

officers.

But in addition to that, officers were given better, I'd say more generous, not conditioned so much as more generous leeway.

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