The Feelings of Captivity - A Review of Living by Inches by Evan A. Kutzler

Evan A. Kutzler Living by Inches: The Smells, Sounds, Tastes, and Feeling of Captivity in Civil War Prisons (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019)

I first became interested in the Civil War prison experience while working on my dissertation at The University of Virginia - way back when. I was writing about Civil War veterans and it turns out that they had a LOT to say about the conditions and treatment in various Civil War prisons. None of it was nice, as you might imagine, and their words contributed to what I called the “atrocities narrative.” Their words ran counter to the reconciliationist sentiment that informed the national commemorative ethos, which was common in other writings. If you’re interested in how all that worked out in the end, just read my book, Across the Bloody Chasm. Anyway, my fascination with Civil War prisoners has never subsided. Even now I am contributing to a web-based project concerning the prisoner of war letters of one Henry A. Allen.

Suffice it to say that I was very excited to read Evan A. Kutzler’s latest work, Living by Inches. I suppose we’ve always known that the wretched reality of captivity at places such as Andersonville and Elmira must have involved suffering through horrendous experiences…but until now no single study has focused on or has really harnessed the testimony of prisoners writing during their captivity to provide such vivid detail of the senses. To be sure, this study is not a tit-for-tat examination of which side forced the most heinous living conditions upon captives. Rather, we learn what the realities of coping with and understanding the sensory experiences suggested about individuals.

Kutzler’s work underscores the prisoners’ reflections of their sensations associated with living in captivity and thus humanizes the prisoner of war narrative beyond the reduction to atrocities and the simplistic victim/villain binary. Post war veteran accounts of Civil War prisons certainly suggest that captors could intentionally harm prisoners. There is in fact ample evidence that such episodes took place, which merits our attention. But one looking beyond the victim narrative might also ask how the filth and vermin affected men’s decision making processes while in captivity. “Surviving captivity meant understanding the more subtle dangers of the sensory environment that came from passive neglect rather than active punishment.” (3) Kutzler addresses this survival in fine style.

Andersonville Prison

In addition, Kutzler wonderfully illustrates how the sensory experiences informed prisoners’ understanding of freedom, of manhood, and of morality by looking closely at prison diaries and collections of prisoner of war letters. I highly recommend this fine example of scholarship (though not before eating…it can get kind of nasty) for anyone who wishes to engage new takes on the “common” experiences of Civil War soldiers in captivity. This is a much welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship dealing with soldiers who were forced to come to terms with the realities of and the traumas associated with the Civil War.

Be sure to check out my recent Rogue Historian Podcast interview, where Evan Kutzler and I discuss the book, his methodologies, and his arguments. Then by all means get a copy of this book so we can carry on the conversation.

With compliments,
Keith