Henry Wirz, a Swiss immigrant and the commander of Andersonville prison in Georgia, is hanged for the murder of soldiers incarcerated at his prison.
Wirz was born in Switzerland in 1823 and immigrated to the United States in 1849. He lived in several Southern locations, mostly in Louisiana, and studied medicine. Eventually, he became a physician to slaves. When the war broke out, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Battalion. After the First Battle of Bull Run, Wirz guarded prisoners in Richmond and was noticed by Inspector General John Winder. Winder had Wirz transferred to his department, and Wirz spent the rest of the war working with prisoners of war. He commanded a prison in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; escorted prisoners around the Confederacy; handled exchanges with the Union; and was wounded in a stagecoach accident. After returning to duty, he traveled to Europe and likely delivered messages to Confederate envoys. When Wirz arrived back in the Confederacy in early 1864 he was assigned the responsibility for Andersonville prison.
While both sides incarcerated prisoners under horrible conditions, Andersonville deserves special mention for the inhumane circumstances under which its inmates were kept. A stockade held thousands of men inside a barren and polluted patch of ground. Barracks were planned but never built; the men slept in makeshift housing, called "shebangs," constructed from scrap wood and blankets that offered little protection from the elements. A small stream flowed through the compound and provided water for the Union soldiers, but this became a cesspool of disease and human waste. Erosion caused by the prisoners turned the stream into a huge swamp. The prison was designed to hold 10,000 men but the Confederates had packed it with more than 31,000 inmates by August 1864.
Wirz oversaw an operation in which nearly a third of its 46,000 inmates died. Partly a victim of circumstance, Wirz was given few resources with which to work, and the Union ceased prisoner exchanges in 1864. As the Confederacy began to dissolve, food and medicine for prisoners were difficult to obtain. When word about Andersonville leaked out, Northerners were understandably horrified. Poet Walt Whitman saw some of the survivors of the camp and wrote, "There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them."
Wirz was charged with conspiracy to injure the health and lives of Union soldiers and murder. His trial began on August 23, 1865, and ran for two months. During the trial, 160 witnesses were called to testify. Though Wirz did demonstrate indifference towards Andersonville's prisoners, he was, in part, a scapegoat--some evidence against him was fabricated entirely. On the scaffold, Wirz said to the officer in charge, "I know what orders are, Major. I am being hanged for obeying them." He was found guilty on October 24 and sentenced to die on November 10. Wirz was the only person executed for crimes committed during the war.
I just read something not long ago where there was a memorial placed for him. MY POV, he was an innocent man and there were a lot more men who wore blue who deserved to be have been executed.
I will try and find the Memorial, and yes Andersonville was a horrible place, but we all know what happened or failed to happen to the brutal Commanders at the Island, and Camp Chase to name a few, he was a scape goat and thats it.
