Yeah, those blizzards in the deep south were just unbearable. But, yes, Camp Douglas scandalized many in the North, too. I didn’t say that it was great, either... but no-one’s calling those commanders a hero.
* When Andersonville Chief Surgeon R. Randolph Stevenson was found to have embezzled $100,000 (in 1864 money!!!!) from Andersonville, Wirz wasn’t horrified at the thousands of deaths this embezzlement caused; rather, he regarded Stevenson as a great man.
* Wirz placed the grease depot and hospital upstream from the camp’s only water source, despite being warned that would poison the prisoners.
* When the local newspaper reported that conditions were just fine at the camp, why didn’t Wirz correct them?
* Worst war crime in U.S. history planned Convinced that a Union raid on Andersonville is imminent, Brigadier General and Post Commander John H. Winder orders the artillery to open a cannonade of canister shot into the stockade if Federal troops attack the compound.
* Not enough resources for improvements? With 2,650 guards assigned to the prison?
Death toll at Andersonville: 14,000, in roughly one year of full operation.
Death toll at Douglas (”Andersonville of the Union”): 4,454 (official). Maybe up to 6,000, in four years of full operation. Most due to blizzards.
Andersonville: Camp filled with feces, in some places several feet deep. No clean water. No sewage disposal. No laundry. No cleaning.
Douglas: Latrines with plumbing, bath and laundry facilities.
Andersonville: Hospital built inside prison, over water source, contaminating water.
Douglas: Prisoners released to outside doctors for medical care, despite refusals of many doctors to return prisoners.
Oh yes, and why DID the North refuse prison exchanges? Not only the fear that the Confederate soldiers would return to combat (being as most of them were quite healthy enough to), but also because the Confederacy refused to include blacks in the exchanges. When blacks were included, the exchanges did commence.