My comments are based upon reports filed by former prisoners and especially the Naval prisoners who probably spent more time in than anyone else. Crocker filed a report in late 1865. In 1864, his request for clothes, medicines, etc., was appended to a similar document from the USA prisoners. You get the impression that the Confederates encouraged this because they lacked resources. A former doctor in the camp filed a report about conditions and was specific about the difference in treatment between the State troops and regulars. I ran across this stuff in the OR's and the Naval OR's while researching why it took so long for the Union naval prisoners to be exchanged. (at that time the Union didn't have enough Confederate naval prisoners to trade) I don't recall that any of the Union prisoners claimed that there were unnecessary killings. The emphasis was on hunger, overcrowding and disease, especially the last two. I know of at least two cases where Naval prisoners escaped and were recaptured, one at Galveston, two near Corpus Christi. None of the escapees were harmed and the latter almost made it to the blockaders. Union commanders didn't show a lot of sympathy for prison staffs after the war. They were nervous about Texas and undoubtedly did not want to provoke further conflict by pursuing the matter.