Captain Henry Wirz

Captain Henry Wirz, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General John H. Winder, C.S.A., commanded the inner prison at Camp Sumter from April 12, 1864 to May 7, 1865 while Winder was absent on sick leave in August 1864. To the best of his ability, he tried to obtain food and medicine for Federal prisoners and permitted some to go to Washington in a futile attempt to get prisoners exchanged. He was tried for failure to provide food and medicines for Federals imprisoned there, though his guards ate the same food, and mortality was as high among Confederate guards as among prisoners. Georgia writer Eliza Frances Andrews said, “Had he been an angel from heaven, he could not have changed the pitiful tale of privation and hunger unless he had possessed the power to repeat the miracle of the loaves and fishes.” Refusing to implicate others, he gave his life for the South on November 10, 1865.

Andersonville, Georgia · United States