Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-03-10
THE LATE CAPTAIN WIRZ.

Major Ben Perley Poore, pronounced
republican, writes the following to the Bos-
ton Budget concerning the unfortunate
Captain Wirz, of Andersonville prison fame
"The trial, conviction and execution of
Captain Wirz, for alleged i'll treatment Of
Union prisoners, simply made this foreign
Confederate officer scapegoat for the sins oi
his superiors, whose orders he obeyed. When
he was brought to Washington to be tried by
military commission he was suffering from
scurvy On his right arm, near the wrist,
was an open inch deep wound, and part of
the bone already gone. The hand and that
part of the arm around the ulcer were very
much swollen, and two fingers were closed
to the palm of the hand. His left arm he
could not bend up to his face, as the deltoid
muscle was gone. His feeble state of health
made him sometimes SO weak that he could
not appear in court. When there be could
not sit up, and had to recline on sofa.
Besides, when the trinl took place, the sea
son was very hot, and the room in which
he was confined, and where q light was
burning throughout the night. was full of
mosquitoes, which troubled him greatly.
Zone morning the prisoner came into
court in very weak state. Colonel Chip
man, the Judge Advocate, had given orders
to have him put in irons, but The officer at
the Old Capitol, finding that the right hand
was too much swollen to permit the iron to
be fastened, except in the incision made by
the open and inch deep wound, had not
the cruelty to force the iron on his right arm,
but had, in order to show that he had been
willing to carry out the orders of his supe
riors, fastened theirons to the left hand only.
Even had it been possible to put irons Oh
both hands, it would, aside of the wound,
have been very cruel, as it prevented the
prisoner from driving the mosquitoes from
his face or even wiping of the perspiration, ,as
his left arm could not be bent up to his face.
His counsel called the attention of Gen. Lo-
reDzo Thomas, one of the members Of the
commission, to that outrage, and he became
very indignant. As soon as the court open.
ed he inquired by whose order the prisoner
had been put in irons, and Col. Chapman
acknowledged to have given the order, be-
cause he had feared, judging from the
high state of excitement under which the
prisoner labored, that he would commit su-
icide. The principal witness was pre-
tended Frenchman, who called himself a
q grand nephew of Lnfay yettc, and who pre-
sented pencil sketches representing mur-
ders and cruelties by Capt. Wirz, which
were accepted as evidence. The judge adj
vocate rewarded him by obtaining for him
81 cerkship in the Department OF The lnle.
rior, but eleven days after the death OF his
victim it was proven that he was German
impostor, whose name was Felix Oezer and
he was discharged
Capt. Wirz was hung in the yard Of the
Old Capitol, and he walked from bis cell to
the scaf1old with an undaunted air. as if
conscious that he was to be executed for
having, as an officer, carried out the instruc-
tons of, and acted in accordance with, the
wishes Of his superior officers. They went
unpunished, but he, a poor, friendless for
egner, was hung like dog"