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Captain Henry Wirz (November 1822 – November 10, 1865) was the only Confederate soldier executed in the aftermath of the American Civil War for war crimes.

Originally born in Zurich, Switzerland, Wirz immigrated to the United States in the late 1840s. Wirz worked throughout New England as a self-taught water-cure specialist. After a short stint in Kentucky, he finally settled In Louisiana. When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Wirz enlisted in the Confederate Army as a Private in the 4th Louisiana Infantry. He served on detached duty as a prison guard in Alabama before being transferred to help guard Federal prisoners incarcerated at Richmond, Virginia. During the Seven Days Battles, he was gravely wounded in the left wrist at the Battle of Seven Pines. Rapidly promoted to captain, he continued to work in prison administration.

After the Federal Government halted the practice of prisoner exchange, the Confederate Government found itself burdened with a rapidly increasing number of prisoners of war -- particularly in light of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's relentless Wilderness Campaign of 1864. Consequently, in February of that year, the Confederate government established a large military prison, Camp Sumter, near the small railroad depot of Andersonville, Georgia, to house Union prisoners. Though wooden barracks were originally planned, the immediate pressures of war forced the Confederates to hastily resort to incarcerating the prisoners in a vast, rectangular, open-air stockade originally encompassing 16.5 acres. Wirz, who officially commanded the stockade interior proper, found himself overwhelmed by a litany of logistical problems: A lack of trained and adaquately equipped prison guards, a gross lack of food, tools, and medical supplies, and severe overcrowding. Poor sanitary conditions and a lack of potable water only worsened the situation. At its peak in August 1864 -- when Camp Sumter held approximately 32,000 Union prisoners of war -- the monthly mortality rate from disease and malnutrition reached a terrible toll of 3,000 men. During its fourteen-months in existence, Camp Sumter incarcerated a grand total of 45,000 Federal prisoners -- of whom 13,000 (or 28%) died.

When the war ended, Wirz intended to return to his native Switzerland. However, the noteriety of Andersonville sealed his fate: After the end of hostilities, Wirz was arrested by a contingent of Federal cavalry and taken by rail to Washington, D.C. The Federal Government intended to place Wirz on trial for conspiring to deliberately impair the lives of Union prisoners of war. More importantly, the U.S. Seceretary of War, Edwin Stanton, sought to demonstrate a link between the Wirz and high-ranking officials of the former Confederate government, such as President Jefferson Davis and Vice-President Alexander Stephens. Such vindictiveness followed on the heels of President]] Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The suggestion that the Confederacy systematically deprived Federal prisoners of food and medical care quickly proved non-existent, and Wirz went to trial bearing the unfortunate burden of historical circumstance alone.

In July 1865, the trial of Henry Wirz convened in the Old U.S. Capitol Building (now the site of the U.S. Supreme Court). Without any significant historical precedent to lean upon, the U.S. Army commission that tried Wirz relied on the rather draconian nature of contemporary military law. The sensational trial lasted two months, and stole front-page headlines across the country. The court heard the testimony of former inmates, ex-Confederate officers, and even nearby residents of Andersonville. Finally, in early November, the commission announced its verdict: Wirz was found guilty of trying to deliberately impair the lives of the prisoners.

In addition, Wirz was also found guilty of eleven of thirteen counts of individual acts of murder. The Court tried to prove that Wirz had personally engaged in the assault -- and murder -- of Union captives. However, despite hundreds of pages of testimony, the only fully documented case involved the shooting, upon Wirz's order, of a disabled Federal prisoner known only as "Chickamauga." Chickamauga had repeatedly refused a guard's order to stand clear of the inner fence lining the interior wall of the stockade (known as the "deadline").

Sentenced to death, Wirz made a heartfelt plea to Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson for mercy, but the captain's letter went unanswered. On the bitterly cold morning of November 10, 1865, Wirz was escorted from his small prison cell and taken to the prison yard. Mounting the scaffold, Wirz stated his innocence to the end. Wirz was hanged on the very site where the Lincoln conspirators met their own fate just several months before—all within clear sight of the newly built U.S. Capitol dome. Wirz was eventually buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery. He was survived by his wife and one daughter.

Unfortunately for Wirz, the proceedings were less than ideal: For example, the court accepted hearsay evidence, key prosecution witnesses were later discredited, and key defense witnesses were prohibited from testifying. Furthermore, because it was a military tribunal, the chief prosecutor (Captain Norton Chipman) and all seven members of the commission were active members of the U.S. Army. Moreover, none of Wirz's fellow officers—including his immediate commander and subalterns—were ever charged or tried. In the end, the chief obstacle facing Wirz's defense attorney, Louis Schade, was that the trial went according to the machinations of nineteenth-century military, rather than civil, law; in other words, Wirz's guilt was already presumed.

For the record, although Camp Sumter was the largest of all Civil War prisons, it was not the deadliest. For example, death rates at the Confederate prison at Salisbury, North Carolina, were well over 30%. The mortality rate among Confederate prisoners held in Federal prisons, such as Camp Morton, Indiana and Point Lookout, Maryland, was just as comparable. Such pertinent facts, however, were deemed irrelevant to the case by the the military court, and not allowed to be admitted. It should also be noted that the Federal prisoners and their 2,000 Confederate guards not only ate the same rations, but endured the same rates of illness and mortality.

The Wirz trial was legally significant for two reasons. First, Wirz was the only man tried and executed for war crimes during the Civil War. Second—and more significantly—the Wirz trial was the very first war crimes trial in modern history. It served as a direct, historical precedent for the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after World War II.

References

Harper, Frank, Andersonville: The Trial of Captain Henry Wirz, MA Thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 1986.

External links

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 Sentenced to death, Wirz made a heartfelt plea to Lincoln's successor, President [[Andrew Johnson]] for mercy, but the captain's letter went unanswered.  On the bitterly cold morning of [[November 10]], [[1865]], Wirz was escorted from his small prison cell and taken to the prison yard.  Mounting the scaffold, Wirz stated his innocence to the end. Wirz was hanged on the very site where the Lincoln conspirators met their own fate just several months before&mdash;all within clear sight of the newly built [[U.S. Capitol]] dome.  Wirz was eventually buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.  He was survived by his wife and one daughter.
-Unfortunately for Wirz, the proceedings were less than ideal:  For example, the court accepted hearsay evidence, key prosecution witnesses were later discredited, and key defense witnesses were prohibited from testifying.  Furthermore, because it was a military tribunal, the chief prosecutor (Captain Norton Chipman) and all seven members of the commission were active members of the U.S. Army.  Moreover, none of Wirz's fellow officers&mdash;including his immediate commander and subalterns&mdash;were ever charged or tried.  In the end, the chief obstacle facing Wirz's defense attorney, [[Louis Schade]], was that the trial went according to the machinations of military, rather than civil, law; in other words, Wirz's guilt was already presumed.
+Unfortunately for Wirz, the proceedings were less than ideal:  For example, the court accepted hearsay evidence, key prosecution witnesses were later discredited, and key defense witnesses were prohibited from testifying.  Furthermore, because it was a military tribunal, the chief prosecutor (Captain Norton Chipman) and all seven members of the commission were active members of the U.S. Army.  Moreover, none of Wirz's fellow officers&mdash;including his immediate commander and subalterns&mdash;were ever charged or tried.  In the end, the chief obstacle facing Wirz's defense attorney, [[Louis Schade]], was that the trial went according to the machinations of nineteenth-century military, rather than civil, law; in other words, Wirz's guilt was already presumed.
 For the record, although Camp Sumter was the largest of all Civil War prisons, it was not the deadliest.  For example, death rates at the Confederate prison at [[Salisbury, North Carolina]], were well over 30%.  The mortality rate among Confederate prisoners held in Federal prisons, such as Camp Morton, Indiana and Point Lookout, Maryland, was just as comparable.  Such pertinent facts, however, were deemed irrelevant to the case by the the military court, and not allowed to be admitted.  It should also be noted that the Federal prisoners and their 2,000 Confederate guards not only ate the same rations, but endured the same rates of illness and mortality.