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I saw a thread that I have been unable to locate that wanted to know where Capt. Wirtz was buried. According to “Portals To Hell” by Lonnie Speer he is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery on the East Side of Washington DC.
I did some reading and i think you are right i was under the impressoin he was re barried in switserland
Concentration camps, just like any western power prisoners camp implemented worldwide during the 19th century…
Andersonville wasn't a concentration camp just a very poorly run POW camp. The Rebs let themsleves be overwhelmed by the problem of dealing with the prisoners and did not provide adequate resources. I have actuallt visited the site of the Camp (it is now a national park and site of the US National POW Museum) and it is easy to see how they were overwhelmed.
Andersonville wasn't a concentration camp just a very poorly run POW camp. The Rebs let themsleves be overwhelmed by the problem of dealing with the prisoners and did not provide adequate resources. I have actuallt visited the site of the Camp (it is now a national park and site of the US National POW Museum) and it is easy to see how they were overwhelmed.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines concentration camp as: "A camp where civilians, enemy aliens, political prisoners, and sometimes prisoners of war are detained and confined, typically under harsh conditions." However I tend to agree with your statement about Andersonville : the casualties were probably due to poor management, or lack of civilised ethics. You are undoubtedly more informed than me about it. But, was this deliberate or there was no supervision of POW camps at the time ?
Wow Aetheling, you sure find the horriblest (yeah I know it's not a word) pictures to post. You're on a roll with the horror pics. Whew! 🙂
Wow Aetheling, you sure find the horriblest (yeah I know it's not a word) pictures to post. You're on a roll with the horror pics. Whew! 🙂
I didn't post a picture of me yet ! ;D
Andersonville wasn't a concentration camp just a very poorly run POW camp. The Rebs let themsleves be overwhelmed by the problem of dealing with the prisoners and did not provide adequate resources. I have actuallt visited the site of the Camp (it is now a national park and site of the US National POW Museum) and it is easy to see how they were overwhelmed.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines concentration camp as: "A camp where civilians, enemy aliens, political prisoners, and sometimes prisoners of war are detained and confined, typically under harsh conditions." However I tend to agree with your statement about Andersonville : the casualties were probably due to poor management, or lack of civilised ethics. You are undoubtedly more informed than me about it. But, was this deliberate or there was no supervision of POW camps at the time ?
It wasn't deliberate and there was supervision of the camps. The horrible conditions at Andersonville were due to the break down of he confederate supply system and that they tried to stuff more prisoners than it's capacity into the camp. One of the main causes is that they moved prisoners there from other camps as the Union advanced much like the Nazis did with Jews towards the end of WWII. The camp is actually pretty tiny, it took me and a guy I was in ANCOC with about 15 minutes to walk across the long side of the camp. They have even reconstructed a portion of the wall they had with examples of prisoner housing and the death zone the guards created as the situation inside deteriorated. Towards the end of the war, it was as much as the Rebs could do to keep the guards fed and the prisoners in. The camp administration did as much as they could to provide for the prisoners but it is in a pretty out of the way place and off of the regular supply routes for the front as well. The locals also tried to help but the South was pretty much falling apart at the end of the war with all the disruption from Sherman's March as the war went very badly for the South.. The camp commander was executed after the war and he probably shouldn't have been but he was made the scapegoat for a situation out of his control.
the only reason why they were overwelmed was because of Grant and his order to to stop exchange. The southern troops in VA were out of food and did not have clothing and were still getting shot at. Whirtz did what he tried to do the best with what he had!!! Now if anywhere should be called a consentration camp it should be camp douglass in Chicago The north had the resources to help the POWS but REFUSED TO GIVE IT. I mean look at the Bread Riots in Richmond!! If we could not even give food to the women in richmond the Captiol of the Confederacy how in the WORLD were we supose to feed a bunch of invading yankees
Camp Douglass on the South side of Chicago was much worse than Camp Sumpter( Andersonville) and it was not because of lack of resources. There are three thousand POWs buried in a mass grave thereBTW Scout, did you see the graves outside the walls at Andersonville where the Raiders are buried. The Raiders were outlaw POWs who preyed on the other prisoners. I can't recall if there are five or six. Wirtz allowed the POWs to hold kangaroo court and the prisoners sentenced the Raiders to death and they were hanged and buried outside the wall. It has been a while since I was there ( 50 miles away) but I think they are buried behind the main building as you go in.
Yes, I saw them. They are now in the kind of courtyard behind the new museum. The site is now the national POW memorial and Museum. I was there 3 years ago. I had a day off and took the chance to go see it becaue I did not know if I would ever be in the vicinity again. I am glad I got to see it. It is a part of Civil War history that should not be forgotten and the new meorial there will help ensure that it does not. I also visited the Tuskegee airman historic site while in ANCOC but the musuem and rehabilitation of the airfield was not complete. There is a pretty good museum at Tuskegee University too. Me and my friend, who is also white, got some pretty odd looks as we walked through campus to the museum though.
