Henry Wirz at the gallows right after the door was dropped

Henry Wirz was a Swiss-born man trying to escape the persecutions of his country and ended up moving to Louisiana just in time for the Civil War where he fought as a private for the Confederacy. In 1862 he was wounded by a bullet to the right arm in the Battle of Seven Pines. The injury prevented him from further participation in combat, and he was afterward promoted to captain for his bravery.

For the next two years, Wirz was on assignment for Jefferson Davis in Europe. When he returned in 1864, he began working for the prison department where he took charge of one of the most famous prison camps:Andersonville.

Andersonville was a prison camp for captured Union soldiers and was known for its cruel tactics, deplorable food, medicine, and water, and severe living quarters. Once the war ended, Wirz was put on trial for his actions and found guilty. He was hanged on 10 November 1865.

The first charge of which Henry Wirz was found guilty at his trial

“Maliciously, willfully and traitorously, and in aid of the then existing armed rebellion against the United States of America…combining, confederating and conspiring together with Jefferson Davis…at Andersonville…to injure the health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States, then held and having prisoners of war within the lines of the so-called Confederate States and in the military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the United States might be weakened and impaired: in violation of the laws and customs of war.”

The execution of Wirz is still a debated topic due to the situation he had to deal with. Medical supplies from the Union to the Confederacy were cut off, and everyone in the South received strict food rations. In other words, the prisoners weren’t the only ones suffering. However, the testimonies of the witnesses were damning, even if many of them couldn’t be verified.

Read more of Henry Wirz’s trial records here and find out about additional Civil War executions here.

The Trial of Henry Wirz