The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1908-01-31
HONOR OF WIRZ
ENRAGES GAR.
Daughters Of onftderacy Attacked
ii Btterest Criticism.
WRANGLE GROWSACUTE
Wording Of Inscription On AndsrsonviIIo
Monument Cause Of Fresh Outbreak
Of DcnunciatOry Comment.

VI DcnunciarOry Comment.
When the accursed soul Of Captain
Wirz Hoated into the corridors Of he'll.
the devil recognized that bis only pos
sible competitor was there.
With these gentle and brotherly
words, says Washington dispatch.
Corporal James Tanner greeted the
announcement Of the inscriptions that
the Georgia division, Daughters of the
Confederacy, has selected for the
monument erected forty-three years al
ter the surrender at Appomattox to the
memory Of Major Henry Wirz. Confed-
crate States Of America, just outside
the gates Of Andersonyille.
The comment Of Mrs. Isabel Worreli
Ball, president Of the O. A. r. wo-
mans relief corps, on the action Of
her sisters IN the south, was hardly
less bitter and vengeful: She said:
in my opinion the erection Of the
monument to Wirz is the crowning in
fanny Of an organization Of women
which does more to keep alive the fires
1T sectionalism than anything else in
the world"
Corporal James Tanner, past COM
mander-in-chief Of the Grand Army Of
I the Republic, was asked his opinion Of
the WirS monument, and the inscrip-
tons that have been placed thereon by
the United Daughters Of the Confed
aeracy.a
Y, I'm the first place. said Mr.. Tan.
1her, there is not an atom Of truth in
existence, and never has been, Of the
story Of Wirz being offered immunity
by the federal government If he would
implicate JEFF Davis"
Z The inscription In question follows:
"In memory Of Major Henry Wirz. g.
S. a.. born in Zurich, Switzerland, tried
by Illegal courtmartial under false
charges of excessive cruelty to fed
eral prisoners. sentenced and iudiclally
murdered at Washington, D. G., Novem-
Der 10, 1865.
"That the United States government,
not Major Wirz, Is chargeable with
the suffering at Andersonville, there is
abundant proof furnished by friend
and foe Let the fact that he chose an
ignominious death rather than bear
false witness against President Davis,
speak for his high qualities Of honor.
fortitude and self-sacrifice."
Captain William v. Dawson Of the
Union Veterans Alliance said that
while he did not care to discuss the
Wirz monument affair he had no doubt
the Grand Army posts and the patriotic
women would be heard from IN angry
protest against the proposed inscrip
lions on the monument.
"The site of the Andersonville pris
on penN he added, vis now owned by
the Woman's Relief Corps to the Grand
Army Of the Republic, and the propos-
ed monument win certainly not be al
lowed on that reservation, If such an
act was contemplated"
Colonel John McElroy, past senior
vice commander-in-chief Of the Grand
Army Of the Republic, and an ex-pris
oner Of war. who was an inmate at
various times Of seven prisons, includ-
ing Richmond and Andersonyille, says:
1.-THE proposed Inscription on the
Of Captain Henry Wirz is
glaringly false in every sense, and is
strongly contradicted BY documentary
evidence. ] have personal knowledge
Of the greater portion ofIthe history
Of Andersonville, as was in the first
squad that entered the prison, which
was February "A, 1854 Iand remained
there until the prisoners were run our
Of the stockade to- ayoid sherman"