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.