JOHNSON’S ISLAND, A Prison For Confederate Officers by Roger Pickenpaugh. Softbound, 6”x9”, 123 pages. In 1861, Lt. Col. William Hoffman was appointed to the post of commissary general of prisoners and urged to find a suitable site for construction of what was expected to be the Union’s sole military prison. After inspecting four islands in Lake Erie, Hoffman came upon one in Sandusky Bay known as Johnson’s Island. With a large number of fallen timber, forty acres of cleared land, and its proximity to Sandusky, Ohio, Johnson’s Island seemed the ideal location for the Union’s purpose.
    Johnson’s Island tells the story of the camp from its planning stages until the end of the war. Because the facility housed only officers, several literate diary keepers were on hand; the author draws on their accounts, along with prison records, to provide a fascinating depiction of day-to-day life.