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| Henry Wirz | |
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| November, 1822 – November 10, 1865 (aged 43) | |
 Henry Wirz |
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| Place of birth | Zurich, Switzerland |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |
| Allegiance | Confederate States of America |
| Years of service | 1861–65 |
| Rank | Major |
| Commands | Andersonville Prison |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Seven Pines |
Henry Wirz (November 1822 – November 10, 1865) was a Confederate officer tried and executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for conspiracy and murder relating to his command of Andersonville prisoner of war camp.
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Medical career and family
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Wirz graduated from college in Zurich. He later went to medical school in Paris and Berlin, obtaining two medical degrees. Wirz practiced medicine for a time before he emigrated to the US in 1849. He established a medical practice in Kentucky where he married a Methodist widow named Wolfe. Along with her two daughters they moved to Louisiana. In 1855 his wife gave birth to their daughter Cora. By 1861 Dr. Wirz had a successful medical practice.[1][2]
Civil War
When the American Civil War broke out in 1861 Wirz enlisted as a private in Company A, Fourth-Battalion, Louisiana Volunteers of the Confederate States Army. He took part in the Battle of Seven Pines in May 1862, during which he was severely wounded by a minie ball and lost the use of his right arm.[2] Wirz subsequently served on detached duty as a prison guard in Alabama, then transferred to help guard Federal prisoners incarcerated at Richmond, Virginia. Because of his injury Wirz was assigned to the staff of General John Winder, who was in charge of Confederate prisoner of war camps.[1]
In February 1864 the Confederate government established Camp Sumter, a large military prison near the small railroad depot of Andersonville, Georgia, to house Union prisoners of war. In March Wirz took command of Camp Sumter where he remained for over a year.[1]
Though wooden barracks were originally planned, the Confederates incarcerated the prisoners in a vast, rectangular, open-air stockade originally encompassing sixteen and a half acres which had been intended as only a temporary facility pending prisoner exchanges with the north. The prison suffered an extreme lack of food, tools and medical supplies, severe overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions and a lack of potable water. At its peak in August 1864, the camp held approximately thirty-two thousand Union prisoners, making it the fifth largest city in the Confederacy. The monthly mortality rate from disease and malnutrition reached three thousand. Around forty-five thousand prisoners were incarcerated during the camp's fourteen-month existence, of whom thirteen thousand (twenty-eight percent) died.[3]
Trial and execution
Wirz was arrested in May 1865 by a contingent of federal cavalry and taken by rail to Washington, D.C., where the federal government intended to place him on trial for conspiring to impair the lives of Union prisoners of war.[1]
In July 1865, the trial convened in the Capitol building and lasted two months, dominating the front pages of newspapers across the United States. The court heard the testimony of former inmates, ex-Confederate officers and even nearby residents of Andersonville. Finally, in early November, the commission announced that it had found Wirz guilty of conspiracy as charged along with eleven of thirteen counts of murder. He was sentenced to death.
In a letter to President Andrew Johnson, Wirz asked for clemency, but the letter went unanswered. Wirz was hanged and later buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife and one daughter.
Henry Wirz was the only man tried, convicted and executed for war crimes during the Civil War. His conviction is controversial still today.[3][4]
Popular culture
- Wirz's trial was depicted in the 1970 television film The Andersonville Trial, directed by George C. Scott who had appeared in the Broadway play by Saul Levitt upon which it was based. It featured Richard Basehart as Wirz and William Shatner as chief government prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel N.P. Chipman. The film centered upon the question of whether Wirz should have been condemned for following orders, in a parallel with the then-current controversy over the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War.
There were two individuals executed after the Civil War. Wirz and Champ Furgeson, a confederate guerilla from Missouri.
Notes
- ^ a b c d http://history.swissroots.org/263.0.html Swiss Roots:Henry Wirz
- ^ a b http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Wirz/BIO1.HTM Wirz Trial, Biographies:Capt Wirz
- ^ a b http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/11andersonville/11facts1.htm Andersonville Prison
- ^ http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Wirz/Wirz.htm The Trial of Captain Henry Wirz Commandant Andersonville Prison 1865
References
- Frank Harper, Andersonville: The Trial of Captain Henry Wirz, MA Thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 1986.
- Ovid Futch, History of Andersonville Prison, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1968.
See also
External links
- Entries from Wirz's diary made days before his execution
- Henry Wirz biography
- Crime Library: Captain Henry Wirz
- Trial of Captain Henry Wirz
- The Andersonville Trial (Broadway play) at Internet Broadway Database
- The Andersonville Trial at the Internet Movie Database
