One of my favorite books is “1,000 Books to Read Before You Die,” compiled by James Mustich. A recent review of that book prompted me to read “Andersonville,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by MacKinlay Kantor.

If you’re looking for a light beach read, you’d better pass on “Andersonville.” It’s a horrific story about a sad chapter in the nation’s history: the Civil War. Andersonville, also known as Camp Sumter, was a Georgia prison used for impounding Union Soldiers during the last 14 months of the Civil War.

Andersonville encompassed 26.5 acres and was surrounded by a 16-foot wall. It housed about 45,000 Union soldiers and about 13,000 of them died. Some of them were shot trying to escape the prison, but the vast majority died of various diseases, such as scurvy, diarrhea and dysentery. The creek, the source of drinking water, also served as the latrine. Food was very scarce, to put it mildly, and there were no fruits and vegetables. The horrible stench stemming from the conditions could be smelled well beyond the walls of the prison.

One prisoner later reported the following:

“As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes that almost froze our blood with horror, and made our hearts fail within us. Before us were forms that had once been active and erect;—stalwart men, now nothing but mere walking skeletons, covered with filth and vermin. Many of our men, in the heat and intensity of their feeling, exclaimed with earnestness. ‘Can this be hell?’ ‘God protect us!’ and all thought that he alone could bring them out alive from so terrible a place. In the center of the whole was a swamp.”

That description evokes memories of the photos of prisoners at Auschwitz and Dachau during World War II.

Not surprisingly, such conditions brought out the worst in some of the prisoners in their struggle to survive. New prisoners, described as “fish,” were often beaten and robbed of their belongings by gangs of prisoners, known as raiders. Other prisoners, known as regulators, fought the raiders. At one point, six of the raiders were hanged because of their dastardly deeds.

On the brighter side, at one point some good Christian folk in the area surrounding the prison decided to collect food and clothing and deliver them to the prison. Sadly, they were turned away by prison officials.

Henry Wirz, the truly evil commander of Andersonville, was tried and hanged after the war for his crimes.

Maybe we can learn some lessons from this sobering book about a horrible place that epitomizes the tragedy of a war in which brothers fought brothers. Bad things happen when people with opposing views can’t resolve their differences in a peaceful way. Some southerners will argue to this day that the Civil War was about “states’ rights,” not slavery. They are wrong. No state should ever have the right to buy or sell human beings.

Some current issues come to mind, such as abortion and gun regulation and same-sex marriage and immigration, in which legislation shouldn’t be left up to the whims of the states. As Lincoln declared, borrowing from the Bible, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

What can we everyday citizens who believe in the promise of America and the power of freedom do to help bridge the divide that separates us? What can we do not to make American “great” again — it already is great — but to make it kinder and more unified? I’ll offer some thoughts on the matter next week..

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns at dtreadw575@aol.com.