Beyond the Lines

Geer tells the story of his captivity in the Southern Confederacy. His stated purpose is to show slavery as it really was, peeling away the decorative myths and comforting half-truths that had grown up around the institution so that its brutality is plain to see.

When Geer was taken prisoner at the battle of Shiloh, he was brought before a court on charges he describes as flimsy. He was then shackled in the same chains used on enslaved people and moved from one military prison to another, and through ordinary county jails.

He later escaped, making his way across malarial swamps and evading bloodhounds, but was caught again. The account follows his flight and what came after.