“Today few Civil War figures are as controversial as Henry Wirz. To some people, he is a martyr or a scapegoat for a failed Confederacy. To others he is the vilest criminal of the war. Henry Wirz was born in 1822 in Switzerland. In 1849 he immigrated to the United States. In 1857 he moved to Louisiana to “take charge of” Cabin Teele, a 2,200 acre plantation owned by Levin R. Marshall. At Cabin Teele, Wirz oversaw the hundreds of slaves in bondage there. This was Wirz’s first experience with controlling large numbers of people, a skill that would serve him later. In February 1864, General Winder, having worked with Wirz before, assigned this experienced officer to the new prison at Camp Sumter Military Prison at Andersonville. Unable to carry out his orders to maintain the stability and security of the stockade by military means, Wirz used his reputation and behavior to maintain order. Threats were an important tool in his arsenal of control, and he used them liberally. His experience on a plantation before the war influenced how he punished prisoners – plantation hounds and iron shackles were used to capture and punish escaped prisoners. Wirz was unable to control the bureaucracy that plagued the Confederate military prison system, so he controlled the prisoners in the only way he could – through intimidation and punishment. It was these actions towards the prisoners that ultimately doomed Wirz. He could not escape his own orders and actions, and was convicted of conspiracy and murder. He was hanged on November 10, 1865. A monument was erected in memory of Henry Wirz in the town of Andersonville that further reinforced the increasingly popular notions of his innocence.”
“The site of Camp Sumter (Andersonville Prison), the most famous of the prison camps of the Civil War, is preserved as part of the National Historic Site. The historic prison site is 26.5 acres outlined with double rows of white posts. Two sections of the stockade wall have been reconstructed, the north gate and the northeast corner.” (National Park Service website)
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