Henry Wirz

Henry Wirz was the Confederate commander at Andersonville, and one of a very few important Confederates hanged at the end of the war. After watching a crappy History Channel documentary on his trial, the following question struck me:

Should the Union have pursued its relatively concilliatory course toward the South at the end of the war, allowing such figures as Davis and Lee to return to private life, or would it have been better to hold to a take-no-prisoners policy and carry out a bloody purge of Confederacy’s military and political leadership in the months following the surrender? Legal justification for the hanging of Davis, Lee, et al certainly existed; they committed treason to the tune of roughly 600000 dead and a vast swath of the nation destroyed.

Thoughts?