The Minneapolis journal., 1906-08-15
MINNEAPOLIS MAN
TELLS OF WIRz
Andersonville superintendent Was
Brute in Human Form and
Coward.

There is at least one Andersonville
prisoner in Minneapolis. S. 8. Wales,
who lives at BIG Lyndale avenue N, is
the man. Mr.. Wales was member of
Company B, Second Indiana cavalry.
Andersonville was established as a
1864. Mr.. Wales was taken prisoner
at Dalton, Ca, in the spring of that
year and remained an inmate Of the
Andersonville stockade until two weeks
after General Lees surrender. He fire.
quently saw Captain Wirz, the super
intendent of the prison, and is in entire
sympathy with the government for TAX
ing him to Washington, trying him by
courtmartial, and then hanging him. A
eral John n. Winder, in charge of the
commissary Of rebel prisons, and under
whose immediate direction Wirz acted,
but Winder dropped dead shortly be-
fore the close Of the war.
For purposes of discipline, securing
food and the services Of the prison ply
sician, the 10000 or more prisoners CON
fined at Andersonville were divided
into groups of ninety men, called
up a detachment. Mr.. Wales was the
sergeant Of his squad, and it was his
duty to represent the squad in contact
with Wirz and to accompany the sick
of the squad to the physician g Office.
I -, . Wirz Was Brute.
| "Wirz was brute in human form,
and likewise great coward,' said Mr..
Wales to T b Q Journal today. "He
never came into the stockade or con-
ferred with the sergeants of squads
right hand. Wirz was foreigner, a
| Swiss, but with few, if any of the hu-
manizing characteristics Of that won
derful people. To dense ignorance be
added fendish cruelty. have no doubt
that he not only complied with the in
structions Of General Winder, but even
exceeded them.
cit is not necessary for me to recall
In detail the horrors Of that open-air
stockade, the intense sufferings from
the hot sun Of summer, from the biting
cold of winter, and from exposure to all
the inclemencies of the weather. ]
fancy sometimes that I can hear again
the bloodhounds being got ready tc
trail some poor fellow who had slipped
thru the stockade to almost certain
death in the swamps, preferring this
to almost equally certain death in the
prison inclosure.
Plan for Mutiny Baked.
"During the fall Of 1864 the pris
oners, acting thru the sergeants OF
the squads, began to prepare plan
for mutiny. Wirz had his spies scat
tered thru the camp, and, Of course, he
soon got wind of the affair. The frst
thing he did was to summon the 800
or more sergeants Of the squads fol
a conference. We were marched out
of the stockade, between files Of
guards with loaded muskets, to ths
grass plot in front Of Wirz' house
We found him standing on the front
, in one hand, and his face pale and hi.
limbs trembling thru abject fear. H.
could scarcely talk to us intelligibly
owing to his condition Of fright, and
the interview made US all think tha
| If we could have preserved our plan,
secret for a week or two longer WI
might easily have overcome the guards
who were either old men or young
boys, and perhaps made good our way
"Wirz was horribly and offensivel,
profane and blasphemous, and hi
, tyranny over his poor guards wa
almost as complete, as it was over us
ebay after day I attended the sicl
:. roll at the. office Of the one physician
| who had been detailed to look afte
our bodily wants. Just imagine wha
one physician could do today amonl
5000 people properly housed and fed
| and then what his difficulties were
, and what, too, our suHerings, unde
, the enforced neglect which resulte
from the indescribabley conditions pre-
) vailing at Andersonville: Frequen
complaint was made TO Wirz by ou
L physician, but without effecting
: change for the better. All the medi
: cines this good doctor had were mol
: phine pills and shumacz berries, thes
3 latter offering an acid remedy for tn
3 scurvy with which the: camp wa
: ravaged.