Although Turner Network Television claims to return told The Great much(prenominal) narration of the Civil War through its recent production, Andersonville, the avowedly much(prenominal) story is the other way around: that of the toast of decrepit captives confined in Federal prison house bear house camps. present is their story. At Illinoiss living grave, Alton prison, the partner in crimes were housed in the actor Illinois State Penitentiary, which through the efforts of reformist Dorothea Dix, had been condemned as unfit for gracious habitation. Andersonville, on the other hand, was chosen for the healthfulness of the site and the supply of accented water which was adequate for the intercommunicate number of future pris peerlessrs. Although the metropolis of Alton was a produce centre, hundreds of prisoners suffered from the ravages of scurvy. From estimable the right corner, with bloody, diseased gums and odontiasis falling come out, the ailing prisoners cou ld mates out over the 30 fundament high prison walls at neighbouring hilltops cover with pear, peach, and crabapple trees. captive entreaties to the guards for some of the trees life-saving increase were cruelly denied. At Elmira, however, the chief surgeon, E. L. Sanger, who boasted that he had killed to a greater extent Rebs than twain pass at the front, resigned his post in purchase wander to evacuate accost martial for his criminal treatment of prisoners. cobblers lasts at Alton were non accurately recorded, yet at Andersonville every death was conservatively registered and each grave was meticulously marked by secern of Commandant Captain Henry Wirz who explained that he wanted whatever(prenominal) north-centralern return who came d have looking for her son, to find him. accord to an Illinois State line of Tourism publication, estimates of the death rate at Alton reach as high as over 42%, nearly two-baser the 24% rate at Andersonville. At ring Dougla s in Chicago, intoxicated guards frequently ! inflicted arbitrary punishments upon virtuous southwesterlyern captives. Once, when a guard slipped and fell, a North Carolinian, who could non contain his laughter, was shot and killed on the spot. For the crime of spitting too much prisoners from juice up #10 were do to sit naked on the ice. companions were fasten up by their thumbs or were agonistic to ride the ill-famed Morgans scuffa twelve foot high carpenters saw horse. With weights attached to the prisoners legs, the alter top plank would tear through the flesh sledding the prisoners inefficient to offer for twenty-four hour periods. Harsh and undue punishment? Morgans mule was a particular favourite of the phaetons who paid to climb the tourist observation tower and gaze out at the Rebs. On days when no punishment was scheduled, innocuous prisoners had to ride the mule fixly for the entertainment of the paying tourists. In February 1863, out of 3,884 POWs at Camp Douglas, 387 died. This mortality rate of ten percent of the immaculate prison population in one month just was never surpassed by any other prison, North or South. Elmira, dubbed Hellmira by the Confederates, paralleled Andersonville in length of existence. Both were late- struggle prisons, yet the 33 percent death rate at this New York herald prison was considerably higher than the rate at the to a greater extent well-known Georgia stockade. After rations were decreased to bread and water, Confederate prisoners resorted to eating rats and searching in the sewage for scraps of food. concord to Confederate law, however, Federal POWs were given the analogous rations as the Confederate soldier in the field. Prisoners tents at Elmira were tenacious struck at morning roll call and could not be flip again until neverthelessing, leaving the hapless Southerners at the mercy of the elements for the inherent day. At Andersonville, on the other hand, duration the Confederacy was unable to provide shelter for such hug e numbers of prisoners, it did not prohibit prisoner-! made shelters (shebangs) which, as contemporary photographs illustrate, literally covered the prison enclosures. In their emaciated rail POWs were pain by their guards who compel them to kneel and pray to Abraham Lincoln, to run, to trip the light fantastic or to stand on one foot for more(prenominal)(prenominal) than a half-hour. Not withstanding TNTs portraiture of Andersonville commandant Wirz as (according to Newsweek magazine) an aging (Wirz was 42 at the onset of hostilities), barbarous, pre-Nazi, obligated historians now regard Wirz as an innocent scapegoat and dupe of post-war hysteria. At Elmira, however, the chief surgeon, E. L. Sanger, who boasted that he had killed more Rebs than any soldier at the front, resigned his post in parliamentary procedure to avoid court martial for his criminal treatment of prisoners. At Johnsons Island Prison in Ohio African-American Confederate POWs were denied their rations in an begin to force them to desert, which they refused to do. It was their flannel comrades-in-arms who came to their rescue by sharing their own meagre rations. target Lookout in Maryland, the largest prison in the North, housed nearly 20,000 by wars end. POWs there lived in leaky, U.S. Army-reject tents. The often severely clad Confederates had to huddle together all day or run to nix actually freezing to death. At one time, fully trey of the prisoners lacked a single blanket. The Southern captives slept on the b ar object and on every frigorific night from four to septet prisoners froze to death. In their emaciated condition POWs were tormented by their guards who forced them to kneel and pray to Abraham Lincoln, to run, to dance or to stand on one foot for more than a half-hour. Beginning in late 1864 Rock Island Prison in Illinois was likened to Andersonville. Stories of the atrocities of Rock Island appe ared even in The New York routine News which described the rations as 1/3 lb. of bread and 2 square of meat suppleme nted when thinkable by dogs, rats and mice.
Many are nearly naked, bare-footed, bareheaded and without bedclothes. They are thus exposed to the perpetual torture from the chill and the remorseless winds of the Upper Mississippi River. Death is the only comforter and he appears frequently. The guards at Camp get behind in Columbus, Ohio, took pleasure in watching the starving Confederates scamper for apple cores and melon rinds that they threw out into the prison streets. Prisoners were hanged by the toes or forced to stand unshod in the snow. Even local anaesthetic Columbus newspapers said that the North could howl about Andersonville, besides it should stop an d look at Camp groove. Indeed, the record of prisoner deaths in one day at Camp Chase surpasses the record, percentage-wise, at the larger Andersonville prison. Although perpetrated upon the unwarranted, it was at Camp Chase that occurred the nigh singular atrocity of any prison, North or South: prisoners bodies were sold to a medical checkup school in Cleveland. Confederate authorities conscientiously endeavoured to dislodge the conditions in the Southern prisons. Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent a delegation of prisoners, paroled from Andersonville, to working capital to plead for resumption of the Prisoner re-sentencing Program (which would have relieved most of the throe). Abraham Lincoln refused to fulfill the men and the cabinet member who did meet with the Andersonville delegation contumeliously admonished them that they did their country more good by returning consequently they had come. (Avenge Andersonville was, by then, share the Lincoln administra tion as a rallying margin call against sagging enlis! tments for its highly unpopular war.) Moreover, Jefferson Daviss gracious offer to purchase, in gold, medicine and supplies that were unavailable in the South, for the sole use of the prisoners at Andersonville, received no response whatever from Washington. The mini-series Andersonville ends with the prisoners headed for an exchange that didnt happen. The weapons platform fails to mention the reason: that the United States switch officials refused to accept the prisoners. In 1866, United States Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, released the following figures regarding prisoners of war: 26,436 Confederate bushed(p) in Union prisons; 22,576 Union dead in Confederate prisons. Thus nearly 18% more Confederates lost their lives in Northern prisons than vice versa. Bearing in mind that the suffering in the Southern prisons took place in a destroyed South, while the misery and deprivation endured by Confederate prisoners in Northern prison camps occurred in a land of plenty, it wo uld await that Ted Turner picked the wrong prison. Kay Reyes is Commandant-In-Chief of the Confederate Prisoner of War Society, PO Box 702, If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website:
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