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The Civil War: Man Escapes Andersonville Prison

By Capper's Staff
Published on October 31, 2012

A very good friend was an old soldier who served during the Civil War. He was captured by Confederate soldiers and taken to Andersonville Prison where he was starved for weeks. He said food was so scarce that their captors were almost as hungry as they were. Finally, he said, he was able to escape, and he kept hidden until he was several miles from the prison. The first thing he saw that was food was tomatoes growing in quite a large patch. He ate of them until he had all he could eat. And when he got to a place where a Union soldier took him in, he was certainly sick from eating too many tomatoes. He never would eat them after that.

Mrs. F.A. Ramel
Beverly, Kansas


Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.