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As far as the "scapegoat" issue is concerned, perhaps a better term to use here would be an object lesson. Just as with the Nuremburg trials in 1945-46, single individuals were tried and condemned not only for their own actions (which merited punishment of the most severe kind), but as symbols of the defeat of the ideas they represented. I think the parallel goes even further than that - with war crimes tribunals, the prosecution of the person who is "taking one for the Team" is particularly valid if there is a basis in truth. In Captain Wirz's case, there was plenty of truth to go around.
Just one comment about the surgeon at Elmira who boasted about how many Rebs he killed -- that's an apocryphal story as far as I can tell. Does anybody have a reference which quotes this surgeon directly?
Wes, I have hugged my Dutch Mastiff today! (An old name for Pug.)
Some of this old stuff tends to be interesting, so I'll bump this for out newer members.
__________________ F. S. Powers
Union Ancersor: Pvt Arnuah Norton, 60th Ohio. (G-G-G Grandfather) Died at Salisbury NC, November 3, 1864
Confederate Ancestors: Captain Thomas A. Morrow, 29th Texas Cavalry (G-G-G- Uncle) and 2LT George W. Morrow, 31st Texas Cavalry (G-G-G Grandfather). Both survived the war
I think the true culprit in what went on at Andersonville is Wirz supierior Gen. Winder. I think if Winder did not die in Feb. of 1865 it would have been him on trial and not Wirz. I think Wirz was inept and made things worse but the true crime rests with Gen Winder. Just my 2 cents worth.
Andy
If I am not mistaken, when General Winder left Richmond, a newspaper had published something like, "may god have mercy to whom he has been sent!"
As far as Wirtz being a hero, his being wounded at Seven Pines is the only thing that I would consider heroic. As commandant, I personally feel that Wirtz could have done more to relieve some of the suffering than what he actually did.
Speaking about Andersonville, I still recall my very first visit. About 13 years ago, I was a participant at a living history event there, and had arrived on site around 1am after a rainshower. When the headlights of my truck hit the rows of Union grave markers with the fog around the area, I had a chill to run up my spine to see just how many graves, and how closely packed together the soldiers are buried.
I doubt any prison camp in any country, during the 19th Century wasn't a death camp for many.
In fact, the mere presense of an army camp, run by the soldiers' own army, was a death camp for many.
In any camp, you had the passing of diseases from one soldier to another. The Confederacy had serious problems feeding its own soldiers and civilians. What can one expect with captured soldiers, so far down the line of importance. How many prisoners, recovering from wounds, would be prey to any number of sicknesses and disease.
Want to understand deaths in prison camps? Study sinks.
If you don't know what a sink is, you have no working idea of a Civil War prison camp.
In fact, the mere presense of an army camp, run by the soldiers' own army, was a death camp for many.
A confederate soldier had a better chance of surviving as a prisoner of the Yankees than he did in his own army's camp.
The death rates for the major Northern prison camps are:
Alton 11.8%
Camp Chase 8.7%
Camp Douglas 12.4%
Camp Morton 10%
Fort Delaware 7.6%
Johnson's Island 2.7%
Point Lookout 5.6%
Rock Island 15.8%
Elmira 24.3%
The average death rate in Northern prisons was 11.7% while the average in confederate prisons was about 15.3%
[Averages calculated by Michael Horigan in his book, _Elmira: Death Camp of the North,_ pages 180 and 222]
Using the figures in E. B. Long's _Civil War Day by Day,_ we can calculate the estimated nonbattle death rates for each side:
Nonbattle death rate for Federal troops = 11.0%
Nonbattle death rate for Confederates = 21.9%
So approximately 11.7% of confederates in Northern prisons died, while approximately 21.9% of confederates in southern army camps died.
Wirz got caught up in that eternal quandary: in the wrong place at the wrong time. If his hut had collapsed on him on a still night while he was in bed, it would be the same.
Wirz was likely more incompetent than responsible; but the camp at Andersonville got the headlines and the focus. Someone had to hang. Guess who?
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
The average death rate in Northern prisons was 11.7% while the average in confederate prisons was about 15.3%.
Math is something like the ziiiiinnnnngggg I hear when something passes over my head.
Does the death rates of the nine camps listed, totalled and divided by nine, equal 11.7 percent? I tried several times to reach that figure and failed. (My numberpad fingering are as bad as my grasp of math.) Are we saying that your average Confederate POW had an 88.3 percent chance of surviving his incarceration?
Or does the 11.7 percent take into account that Elmira was very large and lost 24.3 percent of its charges? Bottom line, did 117 of every 1,000 reb POWs die in Federal camps?
Don't gimme that look! I said numbers confuse me. And especially statistics. When I see them, I immediately try to find out who's lying and why.
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
A confederate soldier had a better chance of surviving as a prisoner of the Yankees than he did in his own army's camp.
BS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cash
The death rates for the major Northern prison camps are:
Camp Douglas 12.4%
There were about 26,000 Confederate POWs at Camp Douglas.
The "official" tab(s) of deaths range from 4000 to about 4500.
Either of these numbers gives you a greater mortality rate than 12.4%.
The problem with the official tabs is there is about 6,000 buried at Confederate Mound, Oakwoods Cemetery (Chicago)......or 23% of that 26,000.
__________________ POWER & MONEY
"Your New-York bankers and merchants are shrewd people, but I never gave them credit for so much sagacity as when they took the Government Loan. It was not merely patriotism, it was a high stroke of policy. It has saved the Government, and what they will regard as equally important, saved them from a great financial disaster."
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