Henry Wirz

 Henry Wirz

Henry Wirz was born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz in Zurich, Switzerland on November 25, 1823.

He was to a German-Speaking Family.

His Father, Johann Wirz, was a Master Tailor and Member of Zurich's City Council and his Mother, Sophie (nee Philipp.)

He wanted to became a Physician but his family didn’t have the money to send him to Medical Schools so Wirz became a Merchant from 1840 until 1842.

In 1842 he started working at a Department Store in Zurich.

In 1845 he married Emilie Oschwald.

They had 2 Children.

In 1847 Wirz was sentenced to 4 years in prison for Embezzlement and Fraud.

He spent 1 year in Prison before his Sentence was changed to 12 years exile from Zurich.

He first went to Moscow in the Russian Empire in 1848 before immigrating to the United States in 1849.

His Wife, Emile, wanted to stay in Switzerland with their two Children and they were divorced in 1853.

He worked in a Factory in Laurence, Massachusetts for 5 years before moving to Hopkinson,  Kentucky and working as an Assistant Physician in 1854.

In 1854 he married Elizabeth Wolfe who had two Daughters from a previous Marriage.

Using his Self-Taught Medical Skills he worked as a Doctor on a Plantation in Louisiana (dividing his time between Kentucky and Louisiana) where his 3^rd Child (his First with Elizabeth) was born.

When the American Civil War started in 1861 37 year old Wirz enlisted as a Private in Company A (Madison Infantry), 4th Battalion of Louisiana Infantry of the Confederate Army.

In 1862 he was either wounded or hurt (the exact cause is unknown) and lost the use of his Right Arm.

He spent 3 months at his home recuperating.

In June 1862 he was promoted to Captain and was assigned to the Staff of General John H. Winder, who was in charge of the Confederate Prisoner-of-War Camps,

Wirz initially served on detached duty as a Prison Commandant in Alabama, but was then transferred to help guard Union Prisoners incarcerated at the Confederate’s Capital in Richmond, Virginia.

In February 1864 the Confederates established Fort Sumter Prisoner-Of-War Camp in Andersonville, Georgia (the Camp was often simply called Andersonville.)

Wirz became the Commandant of Andersonville.

Andersonville was intended to be a Temporary Camp and so no wooden Barracks were created for the Prisoners.

Instead the Confederates kept the Union Prisoners in an open-air stockade.

Andersonville suffered from severe overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and an extreme lack of food, tools, medical supplies, and potable water.

At its peak in August 1864 Andersonville held 33,000 Union Prisoners-of-War (four times more than any other Confederate POW Camp.)

The Summer of 1864 saw 100 Union POWs die of disease, exposure, or malnutrition every day.

45,000 Union POWs were held in the Andersonville POW Camp (during its 14 month existence) with 13,000 Prisoners-Of-War dying in the Camp.

Wirz was arrested by the Union’s 4th U.S. Cavalry on May 7, 1865 at the Andersonville Camp.

Union Survivors of the Andersonville POW Camp were emaciated when the Union Army liberated the Camp.

(Liberated Union Soldier from Andersonville in 1865.)

They looked more like Holocaust Survivors in May 1945 than Prisonersof-War in May 1865.

He was sent to Washington DC and arrived there on May 10, 1865 where he was held in the Old Capitol Prison since the Federal Government decided to put him on trial for conspiring to impair the lives of Union Prisoners-of-War.

On May 26, 1865 the American Civil War ended.

A Special Military Commission was convened with Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace presiding.

The other Commission Members were Gershom Mott; John W. Geary; Lorenzo Thomas; Francis Fessenden; Edward S. Bragg; John F. Ballier, U.S. Volunteers; T. Allcock, 4th New York Artillery; and John H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Volunteers. Col. Norton P. Chipman served as Judge Advocate.

The Military Tribunal took place between August 23-October 18, 1865 and dominated the front pages of newspapers across the United States (including the Former Confederate States.)

He was charged with 10 Counts of War Crimes including Torture and not providing adequate Food, Water and Shelter to the Prisoners-of-War in his charge.

In early November 1865, the Military Commission found Wirz Guilty of Criminal Conspiracy as Charged, along with 10 of 13 specifications of acts of Personal Cruelty, and sentenced him to Death.

In a letter to U.S. President Andrew Johnson, Wirz asked for Clemency, but the letter went unanswered.

Wirz was hanged at 10:32 a.m. on November 10, 1865, at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C., located next to the U.S. Capitol.

His neck did not break from the fall, and the crowd of 200 Spectators guarded by 120 Soldiers watched as he writhed and slowly strangled.

Wirz was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC.

Wirz was one of only three Men tried, convicted, and executed for War Crimes during the American Civil War (and, being a Captain, was the highest-ranked of any executed.)

In 1908 The United Daughters of the Confederacy built a Monument honoring Henry Wirz in Andersonville, Georgia.

Today, the Fort Sumter (Andersonville) Prisoner-Of-War Camp is administered by the National Park Service.