[Non-Sequitur]

In that case the Union army would have been within their rights to shoot just about any confederate enlisted man they captured since uniforms were rare in the rebel army. Sorry, it just strikes me as an arbitrary act of murder on the part of the southern authority. If 7 deserved to hang then they all did. If 14 warrented POW camps then they all did. Why hang some and parole the others?

[flying Elvis]

Uniforms weren't rare in the Confederate Army.
The second part of your statement, however, is worthy of investigation.

[nathanbedford]

I believe the Rebs always maintained some fragment of miletary indicia even when they wore blue as they often did in the beginning of the war. In any event, the Rebs might have been in jeopardy if they had been raiding far behind the lines as these Yanks were.

I do not accept your logic,often advanced by liberal opponents of capital punishment today, that it is wrong to execute some guilty murders because other equally guilty (but white or wealthier) murders are not executed. All are deserving of execution and it should not be heard as an exculpation that others, equally deserving, escape their just fate.