Details
WIRZ, ELIZABETH (MRS. HENRY), Wife of the Commandant of Andersonville Prison. Document signed ("Elizabeth Wirz"), Trigg County, Kentucky, 24 November 1865. 2 pages, folio, clerk's certification on integral blank leaf, original 5-cent stamps, a few small holesÿ, minr rwea along lower edg.
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE EXECUTION OF THE ANDERSONVILLE COMMANDANT, MRS. WIRZ REGISTERS A FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST THE "HONOR AND JUSTICE OF A SHOULDER STRAP COURT"
Henry Wirz, a self-professed physician of Swiss origin, was Commandant of the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia during the entire period of its existence, from March 1864 to the end of the war. He was arrested in May 1865 and, held responsibile for the brutal conditions at Andersonville which resulted in the death of thousands of Union prisoners of war. After a three-month trial, on specific charges which he vigorously denied, Wirz was condemned to death on 6 November and hanged four days later. He was the only Confederate executed for war-related crimes after the Civil War.
Mrs. Wirz deposes that: "...she left Washington City on the 3rd day of October past; that Gen. L[afayette] C[urry] Baker promised her the privilege of seeing her late husband Capt. H. Wirz... she went to the prison at the appointed hour, but Genl. Baker did not attend and she was compelled to leave...without having an interview with her husband.... She says that she had no such interview with Capt. H. Wirz as narrated...in the published statement made by Gen. L. C. Baker; she says it is not true that she attempted to convey by means of a kiss or otherwise to Capt. Wirz poison contained in silk....; the statement to that effect made by Baker...is a falsehood from beginning to end: false in sum & substance, and false in detail and every particular. She says that she had...many opportunities of giving him (Wirz) poison, had she been wicked enough to conceive & perpetrate such a cime; that the statement that she did so & that Gen. Baker choked Wirz and compelled him to spit it out of his mouth is a wicked and base fabrication; that...the last interview she had with Capt. Wirz was on the 25th day of September last, and in the presence of General Baker. The conversation... had, was in relation to the character of the testimony against Capt. Wirz, she accusing the witnesses with having been bribed by Government Officials and pronouncing their testimony false, which Genl. Baker denied; that he became offended with her, becouse she had accused his pet liars ....of perjury, and never permitted to have another interview with him; that she was compelled to leave Washington City...committing her husband to the care of his Maker, and submitting his fate to the honor and justice of a shoulder strap court, and the veracity of corrupt, bribed and perjured witnesses".
Mrs. Wirz's accusations against Baker, whose propensities to untruthfulness and corruption throughout his career were well-known, were probably justified. Her husband, on the other hand, justified the brutality of his management of the prison--where the inmates' death rate may have exceeded 50 percent--with the familiar excuse that he had only been "obeying orders."
TWO WEEKS AFTER THE EXECUTION OF THE ANDERSONVILLE COMMANDANT, MRS. WIRZ REGISTERS A FORMAL COMPLAINT AGAINST THE "HONOR AND JUSTICE OF A SHOULDER STRAP COURT"
Henry Wirz, a self-professed physician of Swiss origin, was Commandant of the infamous Andersonville Prison in Georgia during the entire period of its existence, from March 1864 to the end of the war. He was arrested in May 1865 and, held responsibile for the brutal conditions at Andersonville which resulted in the death of thousands of Union prisoners of war. After a three-month trial, on specific charges which he vigorously denied, Wirz was condemned to death on 6 November and hanged four days later. He was the only Confederate executed for war-related crimes after the Civil War.
Mrs. Wirz deposes that: "...she left Washington City on the 3rd day of October past; that Gen. L[afayette] C[urry] Baker promised her the privilege of seeing her late husband Capt. H. Wirz... she went to the prison at the appointed hour, but Genl. Baker did not attend and she was compelled to leave...without having an interview with her husband.... She says that she had no such interview with Capt. H. Wirz as narrated...in the published statement made by Gen. L. C. Baker; she says it is not true that she attempted to convey by means of a kiss or otherwise to Capt. Wirz poison contained in silk....; the statement to that effect made by Baker...is a falsehood from beginning to end: false in sum & substance, and false in detail and every particular. She says that she had...many opportunities of giving him (Wirz) poison, had she been wicked enough to conceive & perpetrate such a cime; that the statement that she did so & that Gen. Baker choked Wirz and compelled him to spit it out of his mouth is a wicked and base fabrication; that...the last interview she had with Capt. Wirz was on the 25th day of September last, and in the presence of General Baker. The conversation... had, was in relation to the character of the testimony against Capt. Wirz, she accusing the witnesses with having been bribed by Government Officials and pronouncing their testimony false, which Genl. Baker denied; that he became offended with her, becouse she had accused his pet liars ....of perjury, and never permitted to have another interview with him; that she was compelled to leave Washington City...committing her husband to the care of his Maker, and submitting his fate to the honor and justice of a shoulder strap court, and the veracity of corrupt, bribed and perjured witnesses".
Mrs. Wirz's accusations against Baker, whose propensities to untruthfulness and corruption throughout his career were well-known, were probably justified. Her husband, on the other hand, justified the brutality of his management of the prison--where the inmates' death rate may have exceeded 50 percent--with the familiar excuse that he had only been "obeying orders."