On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) surrendered his Confederate forces to Ulysses Grant (1822-85) at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the Civil War. The following month, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville was arrested for the murder of soldiers incarcerated at the prison during the war.
Wirz was born in Switzerland in 1823 andmoved to the United States in the late 1840s. He lived in the South, primarily in Louisiana, and became a physician. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Battalion. After the First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia, in July 1861, Wirz guarded prisoners in Richmond, Virginia,and was noticed by Inspector General John Winder. Winder had Wirz transferred to his department, and Wirz spent the rest of theconflict 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 the prison at Andersonville.
Wirz oversaw an operation in which thousands of inmates died. Partly a victim of circumstance,he was given few resources with which to work. As the Confederacy began to dissolve, food and medicine for prisoners were difficult to obtain. When word about Andersonville leaked out, Northerners were horrified. Poet Walt Whitman (1819-92) saw some of the camp survivorsand wrote, “There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them.”Wirz was charged with murder and conspiracy to injure the health and lives of Union soldiers. His trial began in August 1865 and ran for two months. During the trial, more than 100 witnesses were called to testify. Though Wirz did demonstrate indifference toward Andersonville’s prisoners, he was, in part, a scapegoat and some evidence against him was fabricated. Nonetheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.
Just before he was executed by hanging in Washington, D.C., on November 10, 1865, Wirz reportedly said to the officer in charge, “I know what orders are, Major. I am being hanged for obeying them.” The 41-year-old Wirz was one of the few people convicted and executed for crimes committed during the Civil War.