U.S. Corrects 'Southern Bias' at Civil War Sites

Reuters via Lycos.com ^ | 12/22/2002 | Alan Elsner

[Non-Sequitur]

The later states joined the rebellion because they didn't agree that Lincoln had the right to use force to supress the southern rebellion. But the original seven started the rebellion in the first place primarily because of what they saw was a threat to their institution of slavery.

[WhiskeyPapa]

At Andersonville, the Confederate guards and the prisoners ate similar rations, and a large number of the guards died.

There was a lot of mortality in all the camps north and south; I'd be glad to see some support that the camp guards at Andersonville had the same rations as the POW's.

But consider this:

"On another part of the line of invasion the Federal Twentieth corps, opposed only by desultory skirmishing of small Confederate bands, had made a path of destruction through Madison and Eatonton. Geary's division destroyed the fine railroad bridge over the Oconee, and the mill and ferryboats near Buckhead. On the 19th he also destroyed about 500 bales of cotton and 50,000 bushels of corn, mostly on the plantation of Col. Lee Jordan. This corps entered Milledgeville on the 20th, and Davis' corps, accompanied by Sherman, arrived next day...Howard at this date reported that he had destroyed the Ocmulgee cotton mills, and had supplied his army from the country, which he found full of provisions and forage. "I regret to say that quite a number of private dwellings which the inhabitants have left have been destroyed by fire, but without official sanction; also many instances of the most inexcusable and wanton acts, such as the breaking open of trunks, taking of silver plate, etc. I have taken measures to prevent it, and I believe they will be effectual. The inhabitants are generally terrified and believe us a thousand times worse than we are." The wanton destruction went on, however, with rarely such efforts to restrain the soldiery from depredations."

Georgia was full of provisions. You seem to be saying that the rebel government was too inept to supply its own soldiers with food.

There was in Georgia plenty of food for both guards and POW's at Andersonville. I am starting to think it was the deliberate policy of the rebel government to mistreat POW's, both black and white.

Walt

[billbears]

Interesting then isn't it that when the northern tyrant began his little war he didn't bother to call Congress back into session until he had suspended habeas corpus, taken money out of the US Treasury to fund his troops, purchased ships and began shipbuilding of other ships. Your argument has been used before here and soundly trounced. Taney had no one to go to because the only other branch, to which these powers belonged, were suprisingly out of the Capitol for the next three months!!

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that if one branch is not in session that another branch can assume those powers. However the northern tyrant assumed them and began his little war. Know thy history and thy Constitution

[wasp69]

I have the impression Keith is saying might makes right.

I am under the impression that we have someone who is putting revisionist history in the heads of impressionable youth. I am still waiting to see if Keith wants to defend Mr. Lincoln's rule by executive order. Or am I just "whining"?

[Non-Sequitur]

The film was purportedly about prisoners of war in general, not just about Andersonville prisoners. However, it did not point out that the North withheld food and supplies from Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons, even though the North had the food and supplies to give them. By any standards, the North's actions in that regard were a war crime.
At Andersonville, the Confederate guards and the prisoners ate similar rations, and a large number of the guards died.

Yeah, right. The south had the food, they just chose not to use it for matters unimportant to them, like feeding POWs.

[Non-Sequitur]

At Andersonville, the Confederate guards and the prisoners ate similar rations, and a large number of the guards died.

Did any of those confederate guards look like this when they died?

[rustbucket]

Georgia was full of provisions. You seem to be saying that the rebel government was too inept to supply its own soldiers with food.

Walt, we've posted back and forth about this before. If you invade a area during harvest time, you find, guess what? Food.

From the Feb 25, 1865 The Daily Picayune of New Orleans:

During a recent debate in the rebel Senate, the "food question" came up, when it transpired that thousands of soldiers' families had not tasted meat for the last six months, and were living on a short supply of bread alone. That the soldiers themselves had been without meat for a long time.

[rustbucket]

I regret to say that quite a number of private dwellings which the inhabitants have left have been destroyed by fire, but without official sanction; also many instances of the most inexcusable and wanton acts, such as the breaking open of trunks, taking of silver plate, etc.

Nice of you to finally admit it, Walt.

[rustbucket]

Did any of those confederate guards look like this when they died?

Probably. I suspect these photos were of prisoners who had severe diarrhrea or dysentery and could not retain what food they had been given.

I've posted about these photographs before. How they happened to be taken was recounted after the war by Judge Ould, the Confederate Agent of Prisoner Exchange. Judge Ould noted that the Federals had specifically requested the very worst sick prisoners on two occasions.

"Accordingly, the hospitals were searched for the worst cases, and after they were delivered they were taken to Annapolis and there photographed as specimen prisoners. The photographs at Annapolis were terrible indeed; but the misery they portrayed was surpassed at Savannah."

Here Ould is talking about some Confederate soldiers that were exchanged by the North in return for thirteen thousand Federal soldiers Ould had given up without asking for Confederate prisoners in exchange. The North had sent thirty five hundred prisoners to Savannah. Five hundred of them died on the trip south. Ould called them a cargo of living death.

From what I can find out from other sources, the bulk of the Confederate prisoners sent south on this occasion were not at death's door.

The North used the Annapolis photographs of the very worst prisoners for PR, but didn't own up to their own barbaric treatment of some Confederate prisoners. More Confederates died in Yankee prisons that Federals in Confederate prisoners according to US Secretary of War Stanton after the war.

[stand watie]

WELL SAID!

CSMC, by company, platoon and detachment, load buck & ball,BY REPEATING VOLLEY,

front ranks KNEEL,

READY,AIM, FIRE!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

MORE arrogant, anti-southron, race-baiting, ignorance from the damnyankees that run the NPS & VA!

NEVER FORGET that at the 50th reunion of the UCV & GAR at Gettysburg, that the NPS tried to EXCLUDE the MANY BLACK CSA veterans that came to participate in the re-enactment of Pickett's Charge.

at the 1999 re-enactment, they tried to EXCLUDE CSA re-enactors, who in many cases were the grandsons & great grandsons of BLACK CSA vets.

to quote an old saying: the more things change, the more they remain the same.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

CSMC BUMP!

free dixie,sw

[GOPcapitalist]

The Supreme Court said there was no secession, even referring to the "so-called Confederate states."

The Supreme Court (in Bollman) and the Circuit Court (in Merryman) also said that only the legislature can suspend habeas corpus. Yet you could care less about either of these decisions when it comes to that issue. Why the double standard, Walt?

[GOPcapitalist]

Did any of those confederate guards look like this when they died?

The ones who got sent to Point Lookout probably did.

[Non-Sequitur]

The ones who got sent to Point Lookout probably did.

But that's not what he said. We know what those Godless commie b*stard Yankees did to prisoners. Rustbucket is talking about selfless southron hero/martyrs who ate no better than the POWs did. Must have been hard to walk their post if they looked like the poor souls in the picture did. I suppose you have something similar showing Point Lookout rebs. You do, don't you?

[Cultural Jihad]

People need to grow up and stop whining about the excess baggage they choose to drag around all day.

[GOPcapitalist]

I suppose you have something similar showing Point Lookout rebs. You do, don't you?

Yeah. It's called a mass grave with something like 4,000 bodies of confederate prisoners in it.

[Non-Sequitur]

I've heard varying stories on POW deaths which indicate that more Union than confederate died. But regardless, neither side treated POWs as they should have. I just find it very hard to believe that southern soldiers would have been subject to the same menu as the Northern POWs were and still have been able to perform their duties.

[Non-Sequitur]

Yeah. It's called a mass grave with something like 4,000 bodies of confederate prisoners in it.

Now you haven't been paying attention to stand waite, have you? HE claims over 15,000 murdered POWs, all either shot in the back of the head or drowned. In any case, 4000 is about between a third and a quarter of those killed at Andersonville.

[GOPcapitalist]

Now you haven't been paying attention to stand waite, have you? HE claims over 15,000 murdered POWs

That's probably a good estimate. I'm simply noting that the main mass grave that is designated as a cemetary there has an estimated 4,000 in it.

In any case, 4000 is about between a third and a quarter of those killed at Andersonville.

Perhaps, if that is the total. The numbers for Point Lookout are not completely known though.

Perhaps the best indicator is the POW casualty record for each side. More confederates are known to have died in yankee prisons than the total casualties among yankee POWs in the south. This number is especially telling considering that the south captured more POWs than the north.