The Andersonville Trial

“…and on the charge that the prisoner did with others to conspire to destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States in violation of the laws and customs of war-Guilty” were the words that soared out of Wallace’s mouth at the end of the trial. It was then that Henry Wirz was found guilty. Why? Why was he found guilty? This decision was based on the emotional aspect of the witnesses, and not by the actual guilt. Not only my defense, but also the defense of Wirz’s attorney, Baker, the testimony of the defendant, Henry Wirz, shows that Wirz should not have been found guilty.

Henry Wirz ran Andersonville, one of the many Confederate prison camps, which was located in Georgia. Andersonville opened in February of 1864 and closed down in May 1865. Significantly, Andersonville was not the only prison of war camp. The Union also had a prisoner of war camp located in New York, Elmira, which was also, in fact, very horrid. There were many deaths at this camp; therefore, Henry Wirz should not be found guilty. The death rate at Elmira was 25%, and the camp was only open for a year, whereas the death rate was 30% at Andersonville when it was open for fourteen months. The Elmira camp, just like Andersonville, had very bad living conditions from the start and had very poor food supplies, mostly lacking in the vegetables. Also, out of the 12,122 soldiers imprisoned at Elmira, 2,963 died there of sicknesses. Elmira, otherwise known as Hellmira, is just as bad as Andersonville was, even worse. So I am going to ask this question again: why, why should Henry Wirz be found guilty?

Wirz was being blamed for allowing the prisoners to live in a harsh living environment, but in reality, it was not him who created ...

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...nt, I was put in a time and place where I did not have the ability to think before my actions. This summer in Israel, before going to the Holocaust museum, our authority figures, our counselors, told us to get in a circle. They told us to hit the person next to us harder than the person before hit us. Not knowing why we were doing this, my group starting hitting away, almost breaking each other’s backs because we were hitting so hard. The majority of us hit the people next to us because that is what everyone else was doing. It would have been difficult to stand up for what we believed in. Just like we obeyed our authorities because we feared what they would do to us, Wirz feared General Winder because he was not sure what he was going to do to him.

Winder was superior to Wirz; therefore, he felt the need to obey him, or else he would have, himself, became killed.