It should be noted that the Confederate War Department itself investigated Andersonville and recommended transferring prisoners from it. The head was notoriously ruthless. Andersonville had the higher death rate and if the South could not afford to feed (or provide clean water for that matter), then they should have transferred or released the prisoners long before 15,500 died. Fort Delaware was a despicable place and like Andersonville was built for far fewer men than it eventually accommodated. The deseases caused by this over-crowding was the cause for the vast majority of deaths in both camps, although many at Andersonville starved to death.

Also, most of the prisoners at Fort Delaware came after Gettysburg. By then, Union newspapers were reporting attrocities being committed at Andersonville. It is quite likely that cruelty exhibited at Fort Delaware was in part a response to these reports from Andersonville. General Schoepf (at Ft. Delaware) was pretty much a mirror image of Captain Wirz (at Andersonville). Should Schoepf have been tried for war crimes? Probably. Higher-ups who refused to recommend more prisons should have been tried as well. Wirz was probably not the only one responsible for attrocities at Andersonville, but I think he got what he deserved.

I think it is safe to say that in a conflict where over 600,000 men die, there will be attrocities on both sides. It brings out the worst in human behavior. To romanticize the sufferings of your ancestors without appreciating the harm done to "the other side" (I presume many of you still consider the Union the other side.) isn't particularly constructive. You can be proud of your ancestors, but don't white-wash their world.

By the way I am a Texan, born and raised in northeast Texas, and two of my three great-great grandfathers who were in the Civil War fought for the South. I'm proud to be a descendent of all three of them.