The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-08-16
MINNEAPOLIS MAN
TELLS OF WIRz
Andersonville superintendent Was
Brute in Human Form and
Coward.

There is at least one Andersonville
prisoner in Minneapolis. 8. 8. Wales,
who lives at BIG Lyndale avenue N, is
the man. Mr.. Wales was a member of
Company B, Second Indiana cavalry.
Andersonville was established as
rebel prison in the late winter of
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
similar fate would have overtaken Gen.
eral John H. 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
siclan, the 10000 or more prisoners con
fined at Andersonville were divided
into groups of ninety men, called
squads, and three Of these squads made
up 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 s Office.
Wirz Was Brute.
HWirz was brute in human form,
and likewise a great coward,' said Mr..
never came into the stockade or con
ferred with the sergeants of squads
without carrying a heavy pistol in his
right hand. Wirz was foreigner, a
Swiss, but with few, if any, of the hui
| manizing characteristics Of that won.
derful people. To dense ignorance he
added fendish cruelty. I 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
stockade, the intense sufferings from
| the hot sun Of summer, from the biting
| cold Of winter, and from exposure to al
the inclemencies Of the weather ]
fancy sometimes that I can hear agar
the. bloodhounds being got ready tx
trail some poor fellow who had slipped
thru the stockade to almost certain
| death in the swamps, preferring thi.
to almost equally certain death in thu
prison Enclosure.
Plan for Mutiny Baked.
"During the fall of 1864 the pris
oners, acting thru the sergeants Of
the squads, began to prepare q plar
for mutiny. Wirz had his spies scat
tered thru the camp, and, of course, he
soon got wind of the affair. The first
thing he did was to summon the 300
or more sergeants Of the squads fol-
a conference. We were marched out
Of the stockade, between files Of
guards with loaded muskets, to The
grass plot in front Of Wirz' house
We found him standing on the front
porch to receive us, the large pisto
In one hand, and his face pale and hi.
limbs trembling thru abject fear. HI
could scarcely talk to US intelligibly
owing to his condition Of fright, and
if we could have preserved our plane
secret for week or two longer we
might easily have overcome the guards
! who were either old men or youns
boys, and perhaps made good our way
to freedom within the union lines.
| "Wirz was horribly and Extensively
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
our bodily wants. Just imagine wha
one physician could do today amonI
10000 people properly housed and fed
and then what his difficulties were
and what, too, our sufferings, unde
the enforced neglect which resulte
from the indescribable. conditions pre-
J vailing. at Andersonville: Frequen
complaint was made to Wirz by GU
| physician, but without effecting
change for the better. All the med!
cines this good doctor had were mol
: phine pills and shumac berries, thes
} scurvy with which the camp wa
: ravaged. .,
NThe average life of the union so