I know Jim asked that this string be moved to the "News and Views" forum, but since the "Fort Delaware versus Andersonville" subject line only appears here on the Mississippi CWMB, I thought I'd post my response here.
The Fort Delaware Society does not (nor should it in my opinion) endorse an official position on whether the Union army prison on Pea Patch Island (Fort Delaware) was the "Andersonville of the North" or not. Everything I am about to say is my own personal opinion based upon my own research.
Early in the Society's history, this "Andersonville of the North" comparison was used as a marketing technique to call attention to the Fort and to generate public interest in preserving and restoring this remarkable facility. The full story of Fort Delaware as a Civil War POW camp has not yet been told (in my humble opinion) and there are as many opinions within the Society about "how bad it was" as there are members! Our nationwide membership, by the way, is made up of descendants of Union soldiers, descendants of Confederate soldiers, and descendants of people who came to this country long after the "late unpleasantness" was concluded. I would describe our organization as an American heritage historical society devoted to the preservation, study, and interpretation of Fort Delaware and surrounding sites from the War of 1812 to W. W. II. We have an official statement about the Society's purposes, etc., posted on our website: http://www.del.net/org/fort I would encourage you all to visit the website! And to visit Fort Delaware and Finns Point National Cemetery next summer!!
We all look at Civil War history through our own set of filters. I have at least two personal filters that I freely acknowledge. The first one is family heritage. As George already knows, all four of my great grandfathers and 12 of their brothers and brothers-in-law served in Confederate military units from Louisiana and Mississippi.
My research into the history of the 12th Louisiana Infantry regiment in which one of my great grandfather's served led me to study Fort Delaware. Some 65 men captured from this regiment in the aftermath of the fighting at Baker's Creek (Champion Hill) on May 16, 1863 and Big Black Bridge the next day were delivered to Fort Delaware in mid-June 1863. Nearly 4,000 Confederate POWs from these two battles arrived in the space of ten days and they began dying like flies upon arrival. They almost always suffered from chronic diarrhea caused by dirty water, short rations, and severe overcrowding while en route to the prison aboard river steamers and troop trains. They also suffered from chronic diarrhea caused by dirty water and short rations while marching and fighting with the Confederate army in May 1863. Being sick explained why many were captured in the first place, especially my 12th Louisiana boys. Although newly expanded to hold 10,000 prisoners of war but with only 51 on hand, the Fort Delaware staff was not prepared to handle the sudden onslaught of 4,000 POWs from Mississippi. The arrival of Gettysburg campaign prisoners in July 1863 pushed the number of Confederate prisoners up to about 12,500 by August 1863. This was alleviated when Point Lookout was opened in September 1863 and the excess Fort Delaware population siphoned off. But dirty water, short rations, and overcrowding would continue to be a problem at Fort Delaware for the balance of the war.
The second filter through which I look at Civil War history comes from my own military experience. Commissioned through Army ROTC from LSU in 1965, I was pressed into service as XO and then CO for an AIT training company at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. For eight months, my responsibility was administrative control of 400 men, half of whom were going to Germany or Korea, and the other half of whom were destined for Vietnam (myself included). Being a training company commander under these wartime conditions was very much akin to being a prison keeper in the Civil War!
I find it easy to put myself in General Schoepf's, or Captain Wirtz's shoes and ask "what the hell would I do" when confronted with prison administration problems. Schoepf's advantage was that he operated in a "land of plenty" and was frustrated with tight control by army bureaucrats from Washington. Wirtz's problem was that he operated in a land under siege and was left dangling in the wind by an army bureaucracy that could rarely feed its own armies in the field. A book or research paper comparing the lives and experiences of Brigadier General Albin A. Schoepf and Captain Henry Wirtz might be very interesting. Both men were foreigners in what was essentially still a Protestant America when they arrived in 1849. Both set out to "do their jobs" and were hampered by the army bureaucracies for which they worked. My personal opinion is that neither man was a war criminal.
Randy wrote: >>>Also, most of the prisoners at Fort Delaware came after Gettysburg. By then, Union newspapers were reporting atrocities being committed at Andersonville. It is quite likely that cruelty exhibited at Fort Delaware was in part a response to these reports from Andersonville.<<<
Statistically, the largest numbers of deaths (200 to 300) per month at Fort Delaware occurred from June 1863 through about November 1863. With two exceptions, monthly death rates were 100 or less for the balance of the war. The deaths at Fort Delaware had much to do with the medical ignorance of the times. Smallpox brought in by the prisoners became a factor in the fall of 1863. Civil War medicine knew how to inoculate against smallpox and much is made of the deaths from smallpox being brought under control, although never entirely eradicated. However, contemporary medical practitioners with access to the prisoners noted that, whatever else the men had, they almost all suffered from various degrees of chronic diarrhea. This condition resulted from "microbes in the moat", the dehydrating effects of salt pork rations, and the lack of vitamin C in their diets. This underlying condition made them more vulnerable to all diseases that came along that could not be controlled. A lot of whitewashing (or yellow washing) of the prison barracks took place, especially during the period of retribution, but this was an attempt at cleaniless (nobody knew about the microbes!) and at looking good for the many outside inspectors who showed up to see the prison pen.
Andersonville came into being in early 1864 in response to the Federal suspension of the exchange agreement (Dix-Hill Cartel) and the proximity of the Federal army to the Confederate capital at Richmond where many Union prisoners were being held. Its "horrors" peaked in July and August 1864 and then the Confederates began to disburse the survivors to other camps.
The POW ration reductions of 1864 were ordered by Colonel Hoffman in Washington at the direction of Secretary of War Stanton. This was done system wide and implemented with various degrees of enthusiasm throughout the Federal gulag and not exclusively at Fort Delaware. The Confederate POWs at Fort Delaware were allowed to receive "care packages" which included from time to time foodstuffs from sympathizers and family who lived in the northern states. Even these were cut off during the time of retribution and retaliation (last nine months of the war).
When I think of deliberate "cruelty" at Fort Delaware, I think in terms of the personal hazing, degradation, and petty humiliation to which individual prisoners were subjected by the "understrappers" ( junior officers and enlisted men who dealt directly with the prisoners). These "cruelties" were on-going from the start. The worst set of guards were the 157th Ohio Infantry (90 day National Guard men avoiding having to fight in the real war down South) who rotated through the prison in the summer of 1864.
Corporal punishment was allowed in the Federal army of the Civil War and the things that the garrison staff did to their own men for minor infractions of the rules are truly astounding. Also, the prison kept on hand about 300 Union army convicts (deserters and bounty jumpers for the most part) and many of these men were sent to Fort Delaware to do hard time - manual labor with a ball and chain to carry. These Union courts-martial cases suffered a certain amount of brutality because of their status and their own criminal tendencies. Confederate prisoners were most often slapped, pushed, kicked, or shot.
For those still interested in forming their own opinion as to which Federal prison camp qualifies as the "Andersonville of the North", let me recommend the following books:
(1) Lonnie R. Speer, "Portals to Hell: Military Prisons of the Civil War" (Stackpole Books, 1997).
A "no holds barred" detailed review of all prison camps, North and South.
(2) Dale Fetzer & Bruce Mowday, "Unlikely Allies: Fort Delaware's Prison Community in the Civil War" (Stackpole Books, 2000)
This book does an excellent job recounting the history of the site and the building of the current Fort and telling about the garrison that staffed the fort during the Civil War.
The great weakness of "Unlikely Allies" is that the authors staked a claim to the "moral highroad" by not allowing post-war Confederate remembrances into their work. Their grounds were that these post-war remembrances were contaminated by Lost Cause mythology and the vituperation of post-war politics. The problem with this "reasonable exclusion" is that everything the Confederate prisoners of war did or said while in prison was censored. Anything bad being said about the prison conditions and/or the prison administration was quickly suppressed and the writer punished. Letters were limited to one page to friends and family and all letters read by staff censors no matter how long it took. So only after the war could the former prisoners speak up about their experiences. A few diaries were kept and smuggled out but these are extremely rare and were edited and published in the post-war years. Reverend Handy's diary is the most complete. However, if one is historically well read, common sense can tell you when the post-war writer is venting his emotions (or buttering up the victors). And even then, there are always facts to gleaned from the account that are, in fact, true.
(3) Brian Temple, "The Union Prison at Fort Delaware: A Perfect Hell on Earth" (McFarland & Company, 2003)
Excellent endnotes! And he lets the Confederates speak to give a balanced account!
(4) William Marvel, "Andersonville: The Last Depot" (UNC Press, 1994)
I visited Andersonville this past summer. I have the book but it is on my winter reading list. I am told he tends to exonerate Captain Wirtz.
(5) Michael Horigan, "Elmira: Death Camp of the North" (Stackpole Books, 2002)
Horigan's conclusion (at least it is mine having read his book and a few other things) is that Secretary of War Stanton should have been tried and hung as a War Criminal. Horigan is a long time resident of Elmira, New York and taught school there.
Does Fort Delaware deserve to be called "The Andersonville of the North?" My opinion is a emphatic NO! Point Lookout and Elmira, and perhaps others, stand in line well ahead of Fort Delaware for that honor. But it was not the "Christian camp for wayward boys" that many current historians would have you believe. The "truth about Fort Delaware" lies somewhere in between, and in the eyes of the beholder!