Ok, so Elmira had a 24% mortality rate while Andersonville had a 30% mortality rate, does 6% make the difference between a "war criminal" and a prison commander? Where would you rather spend winter Wakie? New York or Georgia?
Every war has to have a scapegoat, huh? How many black and white southern civilians and freedmen died at the hands of Sherman?
*Groan* Every argument between us usually goes this way.
A quick reread of my first post will demonstrate that I stated that I do not excuse those in charge of Elmira. All I'm doing is demonstrating that Andersonville was THE worst place to a prisoner in the Civil War (due to it having the highest mortality rate).
As for where would I rather spend a winter? Neither is appealing but I tend to believe that the Georgia winter is milder than the New York winter.
Does every war have a scapegoat? Yeah that tends to be how it goes. Did the Union have war criminals? Again, the answer is yes. That said, so did the Allies in WWII. In the documentary Fog of War Robert McNamara says that had we lost WWII he, Curtis LeMay, and many others would have been "rightly charged with war crimes". But in war the winners are never tried.
Now, on to the case of Wirz. He intentionally denied some of the already low food supply. Unlike other prison officials in Northern and Southern camps, Wirz didn't try to prevent his men from excercising excessive cruelty. In fact he encouraged it. There were war criminals in the Civil War and Henry Wirz was one of them.
