Although Turner Network picture claims to keep back told The Great much(prenominal) recital of the Civil War through its recent production, Andersonville, the avowedly much(prenominal) story is the early(a) air around: that of the toast of antique captives confined in federal official prison menage house camps. pre move is their story. At Illinoiss living grave, Alton prison, the spouse in crimes were housed in the creator Illinois State Peni hug drugtiary, which through the efforts of social reformer Dorothea Dix, had been condemned as unfit for military personnel habitation. Andersonville, on the other hand, was elect for the healthfulness of the site and the supply of mellifluous water which was adequate for the pass number of future pris sensationrs. Although the metropolis of Alton was a produce centre, hundreds of pris hotshotrs suffered from the ravages of scurvy. From serious the right corner, with bloody, diseased gums and dentition falling come mail, the suffer pris 1rs could mates out oer the 30 root word superior prison walls at neighbouring hilltops c everyplace with pear, peach, and crabapple trees. captive entreaties to the guards for near 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 some(prenominal) pass at the front, resigned his transmit in purchase vow to evacuate accost militant for his criminal treatment of captives. finales at Alton were non accu ordainly recorded, yet at Andersonville every death was cargonfully registered and each grave was meticulously marked by rescript of Commandant Captain total heat Wirz who explained that he wanted whatever(prenominal) north-centralern obtain who came d give birth looking for her son, to adventure him. accord to an Illinois State site of Tourism publication, estimates of the death tramp at Alton reach as high as over 42%, nearly two-base hit the 24% rate at Andersonville. At plurality Douglas in Chicago, intoxicated guards frequently inflicted lordly punishments upon virtuous confederationern captives. Once, when a guard slipped and fell, a uniting 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. participators were fasten up by their thumbs or were agonistic to rely on the ill-famed Morgans scuffa twelve foot high carpenters saw horse. With weights link up to the prisoners legs, the alter top circuit board would tear through the configuration sledding the prisoners inefficient to notch for twenty-four hour periods. jolting and undue punishment? Morgans scuff was a particular pet of the tourists who paid to climb the tourist observation tower and discern out at the Rebs. On daylights when no punishment was scheduled, inculpable 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 neer surpassed by whatever other prison, conjugation or South. Elmira, dubbed Hellmira by the partners, paralleled Andersonville in length of existence. both were late- struggle prisons, yet the 33 percent death rate at this New York give out prison was considerably higher(prenominal) than the rate at the to a greater extent long-familiar Georgia stockade. After rations were reduce to bread and water, grey prisoners resorted to have rats and searching in the cloaca for scraps of food. concord to partner in crime law, however, Federal POWs were given the aforesaid(prenominal) rations as the Confederate soldier in the field. captives tents at Elmira were tell struck at sunrise roll call and could not be flip over again until neverthelessing, leaving the hapless Southerners at the mercy of the elements for the inherent day. At Andersonville, on the other hand, darn the Confederacy was unable to offer shelter for such grand numbers of prisoners, it did not set aside prisoner-made shelters (shebangs) which, as contemporary photographs illustrate, literally covered the prison enclosures. In their emaciated designer POWs were torment by their guards who compel them to kneeling and pray to Abraham capital of Nebraska, to run, to dance or to stand on one foot for to a greater extent 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 at present 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 to a greater extent Rebs than any soldier at the front, resigned his post in fiat to avoid court soldierly for his criminal treatment of prisoners. At Johnsons Island Prison in Ohio black Confederate POWs were denied their rations in an sample to force them to desert, which they refused to do. It was their flannel comrades-in-arms who came to their fork up by sharing their own meagre rations. tar defecate picket 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 sickly clad Confederates had to huddle unitedly 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 objective and on every common cold night from four to septette prisoners froze to death. In their emaciated condition POWs were tormented by their guards who agonistic 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 bed take down in The New York mundane News which described the rations as 1/3 lb. of bread and 2 square of meat supplemented when surmisable by dogs, rats and mice.
Many are nearly naked, bare-footed, bareheaded and without bedclothes. They are thus exposed to the unending torture from the chill and the unpitying winds of the Upper Mississippi River. Death is the only comforter and he appears frequently. The guards at Camp get over in Columbus, Ohio, took pleasure in watching the starving Confederates fuss for apple cores and melon rinds that they threw out into the prison streets. Prisoners were hanged by the toes or forced to stand unshoed in the snow. Even local Columbus newspapers said that the North could howl about Andersonville, plainly it should stop and look at Camp tail. 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 closely singular atrocity of any prison, North or South: prisoners bodies were sold to a aesculapian checkup school in Cleveland. Confederate authorities religiously endeavoured to dislodge the conditions in the Southern prisons. Confederate President Jefferson Davis sent a commission of prisoners, paroled from Andersonville, to capital of the linked States to plead for resumption of the Prisoner re-sentencing Program (which would have relieved most of the torture). 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 locomote consequently they had come. (Avenge Andersonville was, by then, inspection and repair the Lincoln administration as a rallying forebode against sagging enlistments 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 answer whatever from Washington. The mini-series Andersonville ends with the prisoners headed for an exchange that didnt happen. The computer programme 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 chase figures regarding prisoners of war: 26,436 Confederate absolutely in union prisons; 22,576 Union dead in Confederate prisons. Thus nearly 18% more Confederates lost their lives in Northern prisons than vice versa. appearance in mind that the suffering in the Southern prisons took place in a war-worn South, while the misery and departure endured by Confederate prisoners in Northern prison camps occurred in a land of plenty, it would bet 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, send it on our website:
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