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To: Pelham

“Probably very few”

12,900 union prisoners died at Andersonville thanks to the inhuman treatment by the rebels.

13 innocent civilians were tortured and murdered by the rebels in Madison County, North Carolina in January 1863.

“the burning of farms and cities, the destruction of crops and livestock, the rapes and looting and famine left in the wake of the Union Army.”

The Union Army ordered the destruction of property not civilian lives; that is a legitimate military tactic, if we follow your argument to it’s conclusion then the US (and almost every military on earth) is guilty of “war crimes” for destroying property.


99 posted on 06/24/2012 10:18:09 PM PDT by moonshot925
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To: moonshot925

The death rate for Confederate prisoners held at both Camp Douglas and Elmira Prison was just as high as Andersonville, and had the added quality of being avoidable. This is an evil ignored by neo-yankee fanatics, not to be confused with people who are simply proud of their Union Army ancestors. The Union had the resources to avoid the deaths and chose not to, unlike the conditions that existed in the South where shortages of food and medicine were extreme.

The South had requested prisoner exchanges that would have returned the Andersonville prisoners to the North, a policy that had been in effect for most of the war, but the Lincoln administration refused the offer.

“The Union Army ordered the destruction of property not civilian lives; “

Yes, and the unfortunate civilian deaths due to starvation and exposure as a result was something that no one could foresee. I also seem to recall Sherman ordering the execution of civilians in order to suppress guerrillas taking shots at his troops.


126 posted on 06/25/2012 8:08:22 AM PDT by Pelham (Amnesty for Illegals, a bipartisan goal of the Stupid Party and the Evil Party)
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