The Indianapolis daily herald., 1865-11-13
How uirz Came tn be Jaiior at An
aersouvIlIeA Personal narrative
of his Movements Iva the fonfedcr-

of His Movements Iva the fonfedcr-
ate service.
some three weeks ago. whilc prapaung the
statement for hi- defense. Nirz gave % the
gentleman engaged iu that WORK = narrative
~ his movement. In the Coniederry. He has
since been making statements - some Of the
newspaper rCporter- which correspond aecur-
atelv with that which hc then mlde, except
that the latter j. more In detail, tracing his
course from the time he entered the Confeder-
ate service A. a private In = LOUISIANA regi-
ment. until De was appointed u command the
prison Al AndersonSillo. The fOloWing i a
correct transcript
been In th. country since 1872; bad a medi-
cal diploma when | came here, but a. 1 could
not speak English / went % Massachusetts, aud
Connecticut To work in factorie-, and 10 learn
the language: then went 10 Kentucky, where
/ practiced medicine for several year.. AT a
place called Cadiz. in Irigg county. There /
married. In 1871. our TWO ehluren were
stepdaughters. children Of my vile by former
marriage. We had three children Of mine
two Of them have died since the war, and the
one now living l. little girl ten years old. /
lived AT CadiZ for about year. when | went
south, 10 Louisiana. 20 a place called Milliken's
Bend. nearly opposite Nlcksbufg' Nhere i
lived till the war commenced. lJ0incd the
rebel army in 1861. not a. a surgeon, BECAUSE l
had conscientious scruples, but n private sol
dicr in an independent company OF Louisiana
troops which was Afterwards. in Richmond, f,
put into the Fourth Louisiana Battalion. My
company was ordered on guard slnty at How
ards Factory prison. Tue lieutenant IN com. com
acted as orderly for him, -
One day that I had nethif< ye0, -tkcs
ing over some papers there. and sdw that they
had no list of prisoners. took the papers and
commenced making out a list. While | was
working ON il. General Winder came In and
m Ia Skcf mo l.o 4 Ma md nj hnf
was doing. told him that | Wa trying 10
make out list 0f prisoners. said he: That
l. the very thing want you TO do. and when
YOU get through bring il To my Office" | said
General, / cannot DO il. because | belong TO
the company. and ~ soon as the Lieutenant
leaves | have 10 leave" said he: Never
mind, will see 10 that" | told him my CON-
pany and battalion. He said All right" A
few days afterwards the Captain received an
order from the Secretary Of War like this
" Private Henry Wirz. Madison Infantry, Is
hereby detailed, and will report 10 General
Windcr for duty" Then / acted as Sergeant
at the prison. In December, 1861, Gen. Win
der said: "Wirz, want YOU 10 go 10 Alabama
with some prisoners, and TO stay there; / am
going 10 send somebody with you who know
nothing about il, and told him that he must
let you have your own way; but, OF course, /
have 10 send somebody To keep command"
started with Captain GrswOld, CommiSSary at
Tuscaloosa, Ala, and attended 10 the prison
there. | had fuller control over that prison
than anywhere else. Griswold knew nothing
and did not cere about il. and lad my own
way about everything. The prisoners did not
suffer there. Griswold was ordered TO Rich
mond 10 take the post Of proyost-lnarshal, and
left me there in command, without any rank.
l drew there S20O,O 900 in acquisitions as Com
misSary, and commanded the prison without
having even commission. 1 carried on that
prison till an order came 10 break IL up.
Then l telegraphed from Montgomery 10
General Winder, and he ordered me 10 Rich
mond. where | was promoted to captaincy in
the adjutant-generafs office. He only asked
for "A lieutenancy for me; but the secretary Of
War told him he could not give me any promo
tion IN the line, but that he had right TO
make rs many assistant acknowledgements as
he needed, who must have captains rank.
General Winder said, II don't think Wirz Is
sorry for that Then | was put in charge Of
the provost-marShars Office at Manchester, OPP
posite Richmond. stayed there a couple Of
weeks, but did not like the duty, and asked to
be relieved. General Winder would not do il
but had an opportunity one day 10 see Colo
mel Ould. Ould spoke 10 me. lt was at the
time when they wanted TO exchange prisoners,
and they did not know where they had their
prisoners. | said TO him, A." There must be some
six or seven thousand Of them IN Georgia; |
exchanged three or four thousand i'm Mont
gomery." said he. "lOu must 60 all over the
south 10 get these prisoners, and you must get
-.
Every thing l. in confusion" | said, 'I cannot
do it, because General Winder will not let me
gO." Ould went 10 Winder, aud Winder re-
fused. Then Ould went TO the Secretary of
War, and got an order for me TO GO, went
rs far as Texas. I'm Madison, Ga., j found
General Prentice, General Critecndcs, ar6 sew
erol other federal officers of high rank. No
body in Richmond knew anything about them.
! sent them 20 Richmond 90 be exchanged.
Then went TO Nicksburg, Shreveport, Alex
andria, and on 10 Austin, Texas. When /
came back 10 Richmond, the provost marShal's
office at Manchester was broken up, aud Gen
eral Ninder ordered me TO take charge of the
detective police al Richmond as chief under
Major Griswold, but still independent. That
again was thing could not do; there was TO
much rascality going on; people were getting
passes IL they had money 10 pay for them /
saw what il would come 10 il should ATTEMPT
10 clean II out, and 80 ! went TO General Win
der and asked him 10 relieve me. He would
not do II. Said he: II must have somebody 10
trust to and you must remain there"
III that time they were inquirng nj Rich
mond for an officer who knew Louisiana. The
secretary of the Navy wanted TO send him
across with guns and ammunition for the Red
river. | went To tue Chief Of Ordnance at
Richmond, Captain Miner. and asked him
about IL. Secretary Mallory went b see VIM
der. and Ninder consented 10 my going.
was ordered 10y the Secretary Of War 10 report
10 the Secretary Of the Navy for orders. | re-
ceived some English Blakcly guns ana fixed
ammunition, and the Chief Of Ordnance of the
army gave me guns for Kirby Smith start
ed with those guns, and was gone several
months, could not get across because Far.
ragut was lying on the Red river, and had 20
leave the guns AT Port Hudson and return TO
Richmond. was put back again as chief of
police. but swore would not stay. Nv arm
had been wounded by piece OF she'll al the
battle Of Seven Pines where had gone with
ar,l off 70
and the wound was then pretty bad 1t was
the other arm-my left was hurt by my
being thrown of a stage coach in louisiana
which the judge advocate referred. ! am lame
i'm both arms. | told the doctor in Richmond
that | would like 10 90 10 Europe, and he said
he would give me a certificate for four months.
General Winder approved my furlough, and
the Secretary Of War gave me permission 10 20
10 Europe. secretary SeddOn indorsed IL:
The within named officer has permission 10
proceed 10 Europe 10 have an operation more
successfully performed" / had 10 pay INV
own way. | went 10 Wilmington, and paid a
hundred dollars In gold for IA passage TO Mas
sau and from there 10 Liverpool. / borrowed
some sixteen thousand dollars in Confederate
money, and converted Ii into Confederate
bonds, which | expected 10 sell IN England az
profit enough to pay my expenses. But when
son had fallen, and Lee had been beaten at
Gettysburg, and | could not get for the bonds
more than eleven cents on the dollar. | would
not sell them al that price, \ brother-in-law
Of my Richmond doctor told me not TO sell the
bonds as they would go up, and insisted on
giving me draft for three hundred pounds.
| got money from father. and left the bonds
there. bought great many things 10 bring
back with me.
j went TO Bermuda, and shipped my goods
on three different vessels. Two Of them were
lost. The one / was in myself got in safe,
after being chased for two nights. but all nv
things were lost. IL was in February. 1861.
that ! reported 70 General Winder, aud told
him the reasons why l over-stayed INV fur
Tough. That same day | had orders to leave
for Augusta, and 70 remain there and attend
70 the passing there Of prisoners on their way
20 Andersonyille. and provide them with two
days rations. lie ordered his Quartermaster
10 hand me twenty thousand dollars, 10 pay
for bread and meat for these prisoners IN tran
stu. / started for Augusta, and made ar
rangements 10 have meat cooked. / STAYED
there for two weeks, when was relieved, and
sent 10 Andersonville 10 relieve ". :. Winder
You do not need 70 be told anything about my
history there. asked several times 10 be re.
lieNed. | asked General Cobb, General Win.
der, and General Pillow, who was Commis.
sary General of Prisons after General Winder'.
death
This statement. which Is given in Nirz',
own words. was made by him quite freely, anO
without any apparent attempt at reservation