The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-28
THE EXECUTION OF WTRZ.
The Friendtess Foreigner who Was Hanged
for the Sins OF Others.

for the Sins OF Others.
Ben: Perley Poore
The trial, conviction and execution of Captain
Wirz for alleged i'll treatment of Union prison
ers, simply made this foreign confederate officer
a scape goat for the sins of his superiors, whose
orders he obeyed. When he was brought to
Washington, to be tried by military commits
sion, he was suffering from seurvy. 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 md 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 weak that he could not
appear in court. When there he could not sit
up and had to recline sofa. Besides, when
the trial took place the season was very hot, ard
The room in which he was confined and where a
light was burning throughout the night, full of
mosquitoes, which troubled him greatly.
One morning the prisoner came into court in
very weak state. Colonel Chapman, the Judge
advocate, had given orders to have him pat in
irons, but the officer of the Old Capitol. finding
that the right hand was too much swollen to per-
nit the iron to be fastened, except in the incsion
made by the open and inch-deep wound. had not
had the cruelty to force the iron on his right
arm, but had, in order to show that he had been
willing to carry out orders of his superiors,
fastened the iron TO the left hand only. Even
had 1t been possible to put iron on both hands,
it would aside of the wound, have been very
cruel, as IL prevented the prisoner from driving
the mosquitoes from his face, or even wpng off
the perspiration, as his left arm could not be
bent up to his face. His devoted counsel, Mr..
Louis Shade, called the attention of General
Lorenzo Thomas, one of the members of the
commission, to that outrage, and he became
very indignant AS soon the court
opened he inquired by whose order the prisoner
had been put in irons. and Colonel Chapman ac-
knowledged to have given the order, because he
had feared, judging from the high state of excite
ment under which the prisoner labored, that he
would commit suicide The principal witness
was pretended Frenchman, who called himself
a granddaughter of Lafayette, and who presented
pencil sketches representing murders and cruel
ties by Captain Wirz, which were accepted as
evidence. The judge advocate rewarded him by
obtaining for MIN clerkshp in the Department
of the Interior, but eleven days after the death
of his victim it was proven that he was a Ger
man impostor. whose name was Felix Oeser and
he was discharged.
Captain Wrz was hanged r the yard of the
Old Capitol, and he walked from his cell to the
scaffold with undauDted air, as if conscious
that he was to be executed for having as an
officer carried out the instructions Of and acted
in accordance with the wishes of his superior
officers. T@ey went unpunished, but he, poor,
friendleSs foreigner, was hanged like q dog