During the Civil War, James Madison Page was a prisoner in different places in the South. Seven months of that time was spent at Andersonville. While there he became well acquainted with Major Wirz, or Captain Wirz, his rank during Page’s confinement.

Page takes the stand that Captain Wirz was unjustly held responsible for the hardship and mortality of Andersonville. It is his belief that the Federal authorities must share the blame for these things with Confederate authorities, since they were well aware of the inability of the Confederacy to meet the reasonable wants of their prisoners of war, as they lacked supplies for their own needs and since the Federal authorities failed to exercise a humane policy in the exchange of those captured in battle.