Henry Wirz (1823-1865), was an officer of the Confederation, tried and executed at the end of the American Civil War for conspiracy and murder in connection with his command of the Camp Sumter.
In February 1864, the Confederate government established the Sumter camp, a large military prison in Georgia, near the Anderson railway station (as it was then called), to house the prisoners of war of the Union. In March, Wirz took command of Camp Sumter, where he remained for more than a year.
Wirz was arrested in May 1865, by a contingent of federal cavalry and taken by train to Washington DC, where the federal government tried him for conspiring and endangering the lives of the prisoners of war of the Union.
In July of 1865, the trial was held in the Capitol building and lasted for two months, it was a popular subject that monopolized the front pages of newspapers across the United States. The court heard testimony from former inmates, Confederate officials and even the residents of Andersonville. Finally, in early November, the commission announced that it had found Wirz guilty of the conspiracy charges, along with 11 of 13 charges he was sentenced to death.
In a letter to President Andrew Johnson, Wirz asked for clemency, but the letter was not answered. Wirz was hanged in Washington, DC, in the current location of the Supreme Court of the United States.
