Capt Wirz Monument, in Andersonville, Georgia

Capt Wirz Monument, in Andersonville, Georgia
When the War Between the States (Civil War) ended in
1865, Capt. Wirz was paroled. However, shortly thereafter,
he was arrested and carried to Washington, D.C. where he
was placed in the Old Capitol Prison. His trial before a
military tribunal lasted several months, and included the
perjured testimony of a Yankee soldier, Felix Oeser, who
was a deserter from the 7th NY Regiment, who falsely
claimed to be Felix de la Baume, a great nephew of Marquis
Lafayette of American Revolutionary war fame. For his
false testimony against Capt. Wirz, he was given a position
with the U.S. Dept. of the Interior. It was later learned that
this key witness whose perjured testimony contributed
considerably to the conviction had never been at
Andersonville. The vast Majority of defense witnesses for
Capt. Wirz were not permitted to testify. Many historians
call his trial a farce and travesty of justice. After the war in
1908, James Madison Page, a Michigan cavalryman, who had
been a POW at Andersonville, wrote a book completely
exonerating Wirz.
Capt. Wirz was falsely convicted of murdering 13 Union
prisoners at Andersonville, although neither a single body,
nor even the name of any of the 13 was ever produced. He
was also falsely convicted on a second charge of conspiracy
with high ranking members of the Confederate government
to create the conditions that caused the high death rate. Wirz
was made a scapegoat for the South. On Nov. 10, 1865, Capt.
Wirz was hanged in the yard of the Old Capitol Prison. He
declared his innocence to the end. The night before the
hanging he was offered a commuted sentence if he would
implicate Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a
conspirator for Andersonville deaths. Wirz was an honorable
man and would not lie to save his life.
After the hanging, the barbaric Yankees cut off his head
and arms and other body parts, and exhibited them about
the country. It took Capt. Wirz's attorney, Louis Schade, four
years to collect enough body parts to have a Christian burial
in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington.
The highly biased Northern version of Andersonville
Civil War Prison (POW) Camp is well known however the
true facts concerning Andersonville are not well known. The
true facts concerning Andersonville are not well known. The
government of The Confederate States of America issued an
order that a large POW prison should be constructed in early
1864 to alleviate crowding in existing camps in the South.
The requirements were that it be constructed at a location
further South away from the battle front and should be a
healthy location with plenty of pure water, a running stream,
close to grist and saw mills and if possible have shade trees.
The location selected was in South Georgia in Sumter County
and was officially named Camp Sumter although it became
known as Andersonville. It was constructed to house 10,000
Union POW's however numbers increased to as high as
45,000 due to a policy by the Lincoln administration to
discontinue exchanges.
The average death rate at other POW camps in the
South was about 9% as compared to 12% for POW camps in
the North where Confederate POW's were incarcerated. In
contrast the death rate at Andersonville was approximately
29% due to causes beyond the control of Confederate
authorities and was unintentional. Also in contrast were the
similar death rates at several Northern POW camps notably
Elmira New York and Camp Douglas Chicago where the high
death rates have been proven to be intentional. The U.S.
Senate and House passed a joint resolution, SR97, stating the
intent to kill Confederate POW’s by starvation, disease, and
exposure to inclement weather.
It is a well-known fact that the victor of a war writes the
history from a biased perspective.