The National tribune., 1883-02-22
is sustained by a conviction nine other distinC
allegations of murder.
UNI.wFTrI pJrNIsHmENrs


As TO the deaths resulting from the use of stocks
| and chain gangs the defence urged that the men
placed therein for the purposes of discipline;
| that they were commonly used for such purposes,
| and that their use at this place attributed to
| those higher in authority than Wlrz to whose or
ders he was subject Upon this point it is to be OBJ
served that prisoners put in these instruments
of torture punishment for having escaped, or
having made attempts to escape from their captors,
which attempts, whether successful or not, 1t was
! their right and duty prisoners of war to make.
Any punishment inflicted upon them, therefore by
! and deaths resulting from such unlawful punish
ment are murders. This would be the Judgment of
the law apart from some of the peculiar circum-
stances which surround these crimes, and which so
decidedly indicate their true character prominent
! among which is the often-declared animns of the
prisoner showing conclusiveiy that in these and
| kindred barbarities he deliberately seeking to
sacrifice the lives of his victims 1t was shown that
these stocks and chain-gangs We're under Wirzs
| immediate and direct control; that he exercised
full authority in committing prisoners to both.
| While it may be and probably is the fact that his
! action in this matter sanctioned by the rebel
Winder when he was on duty at that place, it does
not relieve the prisoner of responsibility for the
| result
Relating to the three homicidcs embraced in the
third class the prisoner makes special defence,
except as TO the killing of the man known as Chick
arnauga He urges, in his final statement, that his
order To the guard to shoot this only in
tended as a menace. II is clear however, from the
testimony that his order in this case as in the 9th
/ ers, percmptory, and according to his own
version, il was not a command that could be con-
strued by any subordinate merely menace;
!
! accompanied by threat that he would shoot the
guard if the guard did not shoot this crippled sol
der. He states further, and it is so found by the
record that this poor man desired to be killed. it
would seem, because he was suspected by his com
rades of having given information to the prison.
I keepers of attempts of prisoners to escape
/ from the stockade. This fact, however, i'll no de-
I gree palliates his murderous guilt.
! OF the homicides embraced in the fourth class
/ those committed directly by his hands, the
prisoners statement notices but one that OF stew
art. sworn to by the witness Gray. 1t Is asserted
81 81. aiNrifsa
/ ton. There i nothing found in the examination
of the record which casts doubt on his veracity,
and the court seem 30 have discovered nothing in
his on the stand TO raise the question OF his
| credibility.
As 10 ali those cases not heretofore specially
toned the defence insists that the allegations were
too vague and indefinite and that the testimony Is
insufficient to sustain them, and also that 1t IS alto
! gethcr improbable that such murders could have
| been committed without coming to the knowledge
o various witnesses, who stated that they had never
heard of such crimes at tAndersonville No evidence
| being submitted which contradlctS the concurrent
and explicit statements of the witnesses who gave
positive testimony of their preparation, these muir
i ders fastened to Wirz's hands. r-
Many points were raised by both sides relating to
the admission of evidence as the trial progressed
These were fully debated at the time. No discus
sion of them here is deemed necessary it not being
found that competent proof material to the prison.
er's defence the specific offences of which the
! court pronounced him guilty was excluded
Much latitude seems to have been given him. He
was allowed to show special acts of kindness to
| prisoners and to introduce declarations made by
|
official reports, and oral testimony of his personal
efforts, offered as indicating his interest n and a
care for, the comfort of the prisoners, were also
admitted. 1t is shown that every witness asked for
by the defence was subp9naed, except certain rebel
functonaries, who, for reasons stated at the time
did not appear on the stand. But the judge advo-
cate proposed that if the counsel for the defence
would set forth, according to the common rule by
affidavit schdt he expected and had reason to beete
any witness who did not so appear aCodd testify 1t
would be admitted of record that such witness
would so testify. This proposition was not
| q II
punaed for the defence, of whom sixty-eight re-
ported; but thirty-nine of these, many OF them
| soldiers of our army and sufferers at Anderson
| vile. discharged by the prisoners counsel
| without being put upon the stand.
A review of the proceedings leads to the opn-
ion that prejudice to the legal rights of the pris
oner can be successfully claimed to have resulted
| from any decision which excluded testimony he
desired to introduce The trial Is believed TO have
been conducted in accordance with the regulations
governing military courts, and the record presents
| no error which can be held to invalidate the pro-
ceedings
THE HORRORS OF ANDERsoNvILLE LAID BARE.
| The annals of our race present nowhere and at
time darker field of crime than that OF Anderson
vile, and it is fortunate for the interests alike of
public justice and of historic truth, that from this
field the veil has been faithfully and so completely
lifted All the horrors of this pandemonium of the
rebellion laid bare to us in the broad, steady
light of the testimony of some 80 witnesses, who
spoke what they had seen and heard and suffered.
/ and whose evidence, given under oath and sub
jected to crossexaminaton, and TO every other test
| which human experience has devised for the ascer-
tanment of truth must be accepted as affording an
| immovable foundation for the sentence pro-
| nounced.
The proof under the second charge shows that
some of our soldiers, for mere attempts to escape
from their oppressers, were given to ferocouS dogs
to be torn in pieces that others were confined in
stocks and chains till life yielded to the torture and
that others were wantOnly shot down at Wirzs bid
| ding or by his own haud Here In the presence OF
these pitiless murders of unarmed and helpless
men, distinctly alleged and proved, justice might
well claim the prisoners life. There remain, how
ever, to be contemplated crimes yet more revolving
| for which he and his co-conspirators must be held
responsible The Andersonville prison records
(made exhibits in this case) contain roster of over
| thirteen thousand Q3,000) dead, buried naked
manned, and putrd, in vast sepulchre. OF
| these surgeon of the rebel army who duty
at this prison. testifes that al teast threefourths
! died of the treatment inflicted on them while i'll
confinement; and surgeon OF our own army VINO
prisoner there, states that four ffths died from
| this cause Under this proof which has not been
assailed, nearly 10000 if not more of these deaths
must be charged directly TO the account of WirZ
| and his associates This widespread sacrifice of
| life not made suddenly or under the influence
of wild, ungovernable passion, but was accom-
| plished slowly and deliberately, by packing up
wards of $1,000 men, like cattle, in fetid pen-a
cesspoo there to die for need Of air to breathe
| for want of ground which to lie, from lack of
shelter from and rain, and from the slow, ago.
niZing processes of starvation when air and space
and shelter and food all within the ready gift
| of their tormentors. This work of death seems to
| have have been saturnalia of enjoyment for the
| prisoner, who amid these savage orgies evidenced
| such exultation and mingled with them such name
| less blasphemy and ribald jess, at times to
| hibit him rather a demon than a man. 1t
his continual boast that by these barbarites he
destroying Union soldiers than rebel generals
| were butchering the battlefield. He claimed to
| be doing the work of the rebellion, and faithfully
| in all his murderous cruelty and baseness, did he
represent its spirit 1t is by looking upon the ceme
teries which have been filled from Libby Belle Isle
Salisbury, Florence, and Andersonyiile, and other
rebel prisons and recalling the prolonged suffer
ings of the patriots who sleeping there, that
can best understand the inner and real life of the
rebellion, and the helish criIninality and brutality
of the traitors who maintained it. For such crimes
human power is absolutely impotent to enforce any
| adequate atonement.
II may be added, in conclusion, that the court be-
| fore which the prisoner tried was composed of
officers high in rank, and eminent for their faithful
services and probity of character and that several
| of them were distinguished for their legal attain
ments. The investigation of the case was conducted
throughout with patience and impartiality, and the
| conclusion reached is from which the
| whelming volume of testimony left escape
| Itis recommended that the sentence be executed.
| j. Holt,
| Judge Advocate General.
| THE EXECUTION.
The proceedings, findings and sentence of
the court were approved by President Johnson
on the Sd of November. 1865, and Major Gen
| eral Augur commanding the Department at
| WaShington was diractad to aYacute the san-