The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-09-04
THE WIRZ TRIAL.
Proceedings of Saturday.
THF LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Adjournment of the Conrt till Tues
day


ICY Union Line cor. Water and Monroe Sts.l
WASHINGTON, Sept. 2.--The Wirz mill
tary commission reassembled to-day
Mr.. @. S Bclder, testified that he was
| (. prisoner al Aud,rspIyillr On one oc-
casion Wirz came into The stockaie.
when cripple walking on crutches asked
! to 90 outside. The request was refused,
and the cripple said he would rather be
shot than stay there. The witness soon
heard Wirz hollow to the sentinel, to tell
the man if did not go back he would
shoot him. The man did not return,
when the sentinel fired and shot him in
the Jaw. On another occasion, while the
prisoners were being divided into squads
Of hundreds one of the men, owing to
sickness, did not fall in. Wirz threat
eped 10 shoot hIm and did shoot him
The ball went through the mans hat
The prisoners were kept in the sun all
day, and were not allowed to procure
water. If they could not give salts
factory account of any one of their num-
Der missing, they were deprived of their
rations. Witness had seen % or 30 men
shot over the dead line, and others fired
into who were not over the dead line.
James H. Davidson testified that he
was for week the driver of the dead
wagon. Sometimes twenty-five men
were thrown into it ut time, and on the
return he would bring wood and rations
in the same cart Captain Wirz he
knew made a breakfast on some of the
crackers, cheese and beef sent there for
our prisoners He had seen 400 or 800
boxes marked U S. 1t was common for
men to be pat on the chain gang; one
man died OH chain gang with an iron
collar around his neck. He had seen
hounds there One of the dogs badly
tore the flesh from mans leg. Wirz
shot a man short time after he assumed
command of the prison The latter was
sick, lying on the ground, and asked
Wirz something, when Wirz shot him
The witness had seen men starved to
death. Food was so scarce at one time
that some of them picked mp particles of
food that had already passed. through
the system.
On his CROSS examination by the de.
fense, the witness said the graveyard was
COMPOSED of % or 30 acres, and when he
left Andersonville ON the llth of Septem-
Der last, it was about two thirds full
Witness had never seen Wirz shoot more
than one man. The grave diggers were
Union soldiers.
By the Court-The dead Were buried
about two feet and halfdeep. Witness
had never seen any of the dead stripped
before they were buried. Men were
buried in trenches. On one occasion l5O
bodies were put in single trencl,
Capt. ]. H. Wright and Col. Tanning,
formerly in the Confederate service, tes-
tilted as to the signatures of Gen. Winder
and Capt WirZ, to a consolidated return
for August last, which was exhibited to
them.
Major Hosmer, Associate Judge AdvO'
cate, was sworn and testified that he OBJ
tanned the paper from the chief having
custody of the rebel papers at the War
Department. The paper was read IN
evidence and shows that 1898 prisoners
died during the month of August.
Thomas Ham testified that he had
charge of a squad of ninety persons, but
only one out of the entire number sur
vived. They gave him another squad
from the new stock. The men died OIL
rapidly. A good many sunk down from
exhaustion and starvation, and could
not get up. Capt Wirz threatened that
if they did not rise he would blow the
brains out of the God id Yankees. He
heard a sentinel remark after shooting a
man: "I'll have furlough for that, and
if l thought l would get furlough
for 60 days, would shoot another"
VIM. Bilger testified that he had acted
in the U. S. Army as Assistant Surgeon.
When at Jacksonville he attended large
number of the cases from Andersonville,
and described the horrible condition of
the sufferers.
B, Fairbanks testified that the treat
ment mt Libby prison was better in every
respect than it was ut AndcrSonville.-
The step father of the witness was also
a prisoner, and afflicted wit! the scurvy.
and was lying on the ground and could
not straighten his arms. Wirz approach
ed him said you Id Yankee son-of u
bitch, / wont give you anything to eat,
and stopped his ratiOns for twcntv-tour
hours, Wirz also kicked his step father,
causing him great pain. The father oi
the witness died III tho prison about Il
month after the occurrence. His step
father made a statement to him about ten
months before he died. The witness
placed his hand on the paper and wrote
what was now presented To the court rs
follows:
CAMP SUMpTER, ANDERSONNlLLE,
August 9th, 1863
Alive, | died from sheer starvation,
and don't for the world tell your mother
of the awful condition which am con-
PEELED to die in.
1Sipned. ROBT FAI&CLOUGH
I