CAPTAIN HENRY WIRZ 1823-1865 , GHM 129-2 Sumter CO.
Posted by: 
GA Cacher
N 32° 11.748 W 084° 08.390
16S E 769631 N 3565726
Henry Wirz State Historical Marker
Located on Ga. 271 in Andersonville, Ga.
Waymark Code: WM3X2K
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 05/29/2008
Views: 18
CAPTAIN HENRY WIRZ
1823-1865
Captain Henry Wirz, under the immediate command of Brigadier-General John H. Winder, C.S.A., absent on sick leave, August 1864, commanded the inner prison at Camp Sumter, April 12, 1864 to May 7, 1865. 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 here -- though his guards ate the same food -- and mortality was as high among Confederate guards as among prisoners. Of him, Eliza Frances Andrews, Georgia writer, 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, November 10, 1865.
129-2 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956
Wikipedia article on Wirz.