John Henry Winder (February 21, 1800 – February 7, 1865) was a career United States Army officer who served with distinction during the Mexican–American War . He later served as a Confederate general officer during the American Civil War .
111-478: Henry Wirz (born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz ; November 25, 1823 – November 10, 1865) was a Swiss-American convicted war criminal who served as a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War . He was the commandant of Andersonville Prison , a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Andersonville, Georgia , where nearly 13,000 Union Army prisoners of war died as a result of inhumane conditions. After
222-601: A divorce in 1853. Wirz first went to Moscow , in 1848, and the next year to the United States , where he found employment in a factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts . After five years, he moved to Hopkinsville, Kentucky , and worked as a doctor's assistant. There, he learned to perform small surgeries and cast fractures . He tried to establish his own homeopathic medicine practice in Cadiz, Kentucky , and also worked as superintendent of
333-431: A saturnalia of enjoyment for the prisoner [Wirz], who amid these savage orgies evidenced such exultation and mingled with them such nameless blasphemy and ribald jest, as at times to exhibit him rather as a demon than a man." In a letter to U.S. President Andrew Johnson , Wirz asked for clemency , but the letter went unanswered. The night before his execution, Louis F. Schade , an attorney working on behalf of Wirz,
444-581: A water cure clinic in Northampton, Massachusetts . In 1854, Wirz married the Methodist widow Elizabeth Wolfe (née Savells). Along with her two daughters, they moved to Louisiana , where Wolfe gave birth to their daughter. In 1856 Wirz made the acquaintance of Levin R. Marshall , the owner of the plantation Cabin Teele, who employed him as its overseer and where he set up a practice for homeopathic medicine. Upon
555-528: A cadet. Winder served as the 1st Artillery's regimental adjutant from May 23, 1838, until January 20, 1840. He was promoted to captain on October 7, 1842. Winder fought with distinction in Mexico, winning brevet promotions to major on August 20, 1847 (for his conduct at the Battle of Contreras and for the Battle of Churubusco ), and to lieutenant colonel on September 14 (for the Battle for Mexico City .) He
666-488: A captain, was the highest-ranked of any executed), the others being Confederate guerrillas Champ Ferguson and Henry C. Magruder . Confederate soldiers Robert Cobb Kennedy , Sam Davis , and John Yates Beall were executed for spying ; Marcellus Jerome Clarke was executed for being a guerrilla; and Andrew T Leopold was executed for spying, being a guerilla, and murder. In 1869, Schade received permission from President Johnson to rebury Wirz's body, which had been buried at
777-478: A force of Plug Uglies imported from Baltimore to police the population of Richmond. Winder's first order was established prohibition of alcohol and required all citizens to surrender their firearms. Even though there were daily accusations or entrapment and corruption against his "plug-ugly" police force, Winder refused to order an investigation. By October 1864 newspapers reported the crime rate in Richmond exceeded
888-623: A heart attack in 1865. His body was brought back to Maryland and interred at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore . During the Civil War, Camp Winder and the Winder Hospital in Richmond were named after him. After the Civil War, Winder's son, Capt. William Sidney Winder unsuccessfully tried to clear his father's name. In 1965, a sign recognizing Winder was erected in Salisbury, Maryland , near
999-546: A higher rate than poor men because they had more to lose. Slavery helped provide them with wealth and power, and they felt that the Civil War would destroy everything that they had if they lost because they saw slavery as the foundation of their wealth, which was under threat and caused them to fight hard. At many points during the war, and especially near the end, the Confederate armies were very poorly fed. At home their families were in worsening condition and faced starvation and
1110-547: A lower grade officer. Barring the same type of circumstances that might leave a lower grade officer in temporary command, divisions were commanded by major generals and corps were commanded by lieutenant generals. A few corps commanders were never confirmed as lieutenant generals and exercised corps command for varying periods as major generals. Armies of more than one corps were commanded by (full) generals. There were four grades of general officer ( general , lieutenant general , major general , and brigadier general ), but all wore
1221-565: A month later in May 1865. By the time Abraham Lincoln took office as President of the United States on March 4, 1861, the seven seceding slave states had formed the Confederate States . They seized federal property, including nearly all U.S. Army forts, within their borders. Lincoln was determined to hold the forts remaining under U.S. control when he took office, especially Fort Sumter in
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#17328554548531332-655: A new prison camp in Georgia called Camp Sumter, better known as the infamous Andersonville Prison . Winder commanded the Department of Henrico for much of the war, until May 5, 1864. He then commanded the 2nd District of the Department of North Carolina & Southern Virginia from May 25 until June 7. Ten days later, he briefly commanded Camp Sumter himself, until July 26. Winder then was given command of all military prisons in Georgia as well as those in Alabama until November 21, when he
1443-483: A soldier, and his rejection of a Southern identity as a professional author. Because of the destruction of any central repository of records in the capital at Richmond in 1865 and the comparatively poor record-keeping of the time, there can be no definitive number that represents the strength of the Confederate States Army. Estimates range from 500,000 to 2,000,000 soldiers who were involved at any time during
1554-585: A squad or platoon, the smallest infantry maneuver unit in the Army was a company of 100 soldiers. Ten companies were organized into an infantry regiment, which theoretically had 1,000 men. In reality, as disease, desertions and casualties took their toll, and the common practice of sending replacements to form new regiments took hold, most regiments were greatly reduced in strength. By the mid-war, most regiments averaged 300–400 men, with Confederate units slightly smaller on average than their U.S. counterparts. For example, at
1665-431: A traitor against him, or anybody else, even to save my life." The Rev. P. E. Bole received the same visitor and later sent a letter to Jefferson Davis, who included it as well as Wirz's reply to Schade in his book, Andersonville and Other War-Prisons (1890). Andersonville quartermaster Richard B. Winder, who was in the prison at the time, also confirmed this episode. Wirz was hanged at 10:32 a.m. on November 10, 1865, at
1776-510: A vast, rectangular, open-air stockade originally encompassing 16.5 acres (6.7 ha), which had been intended as only a temporary prison pending exchanges of prisoners with the Union. The prisoners gave this place the name "Andersonville", which became the colloquial name for the camp. Camp Sumter suffered from severe overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and an extreme lack of food, tools, medical supplies, and potable water . Wirz recognized that
1887-407: A victim allegedly killed personally by Wirz. Among those giving testimony was Father Peter Whelan , a Catholic priest who worked with the inmates, who testified on Wirz's behalf. A former Andersonville guard named James Duncan was called to testify for the defence, but was arrested when he tried to give evidence for allegedly causing the death of a prisoner at Andersonville. In early November 1865,
1998-469: A year holding the post of commandant of the stockade and its interior. Wirz was praised by his many superiors and even by some prisoners, and was even recommended for, but not promoted to, major . Camp Sumter had not been constructed to its full plan, and was quickly overwhelmed by the influx of Union prisoners. Though wooden barracks were originally planned, the Confederates incarcerated the prisoners in
2109-476: Is a ready explanation for this apparent paradox. Emancipation was a salient issue for Union soldiers because it was controversial. Slavery was less salient for most Confederate soldiers because it was not controversial. They took slavery for granted as one of the Southern 'rights' and institutions for which they fought, and did not feel compelled to discuss it. Continuing, retired Professor McPherson also stated that of
2220-572: The Army of Tennessee and various other units under General Joseph E. Johnston , surrendered to the U.S. on April 9, 1865 (officially April 12), and April 18, 1865 (officially April 26). Other Confederate forces further south and west surrendered between April 16, 1865, and June 28, 1865. By the end of the war, more than 100,000 Confederate soldiers had deserted , and some estimates put the number as high as one-third of all Confederate soldiers. The Confederacy's government effectively dissolved when it evacuated
2331-573: The Battle of Bladensburg and was a second cousin to future Confederate general Charles Sidney Winder . In 1814, Winder entered the United States Military Academy at West Point , and graduated 11th of 30 cadets in 1820. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the artillery , and served first at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland , and then in Florida. During the early 1820s, Winder went through numerous transfers, going from
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#17328554548532442-634: The Confederate Army infantry on May 21. He was then promoted to brigadier general on June 21 and the next day was made Assistant Inspector General of the Camps of Instruction that were in the Confederacy's capital of Richmond, Virginia , a post he would hold until October 21. On March 1, 1862, Jefferson Davis declared martial law in Richmond and appointed Winder provost marshal general. Winder designated Samuel B. Maccubbin chief of detectives and gave him
2553-727: The Dix-Hill Cartel prisoner exchange agreement in July 1863. The Grand Army of the Republic , the United Confederate Veterans , Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), among others, evoked sad memories of Civil War prisoners portraying Wirz either a villain, or a martyr-hero, thus further contributing to the disputation. From 1899 to 1916, sixteen states erected monuments dedicated to
2664-459: The Niños Héroes . In 1947, President Harry S. Truman on a visit to Mexico City made an unscheduled stop at the stone monument to the child heroes. In front of Mexican cadets standing at attention, Truman placed a floral wreath helping to heal the century old wound. In January 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union. At this time, the pro-secession Winder was in command of
2775-629: The Old Capitol Prison in Washington D.C. , located next to the U.S. Capitol . His neck did not break from the fall, and the crowd of 200 spectators guarded by 120 soldiers watched as he writhed and slowly strangled. Wirz was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Wirz was one of only three men tried, convicted, and executed for war crimes during the Civil War (and, being
2886-841: The Potomac River in his first invasion of the North in the Antietam campaign in Maryland in September 1862. The Confederate States Army did not have a formal overall military commander, or general in chief, until late in the war. The Confederate President, Jefferson Davis , himself a former U.S. Army officer and U.S. Secretary of War , served as commander-in-chief and provided the overall strategic direction for Confederate land and naval forces in both eastern and western theaters. The following men had varying degrees of control: The lack of centralized control
2997-537: The United States Army (established 1775 / 1789). It was to consist of a large provisional force to exist only in time of war and a small permanent regular army. The provisional, volunteer army was established by an act of the Provisional Confederate Congress passed on February 28, 1861, one week before the act which established the permanent regular army organization, passed on March 6. Although
3108-502: The "flimsy and abstract idea that a negro is equal to an Anglo American". One Louisianan artilleryman stated, "I never want to see the day when a negro is put on an equality with a white person. There is too many free niggers ... now to suit me, let alone having four millions." A North Carolinian soldier stated, "[A] white man is better than a nigger." Decades later in 1894 , Virginian and former famous Confederate cavalry leader, John S. Mosby (1833-1916), reflecting on his role in
3219-524: The 6 percent of Union Army soldiers who were drafted. According to the National Park Service, "Soldier demographics for the Confederate Army are not available due to incomplete and destroyed enlistment records." Their estimates of Confederate military personnel deaths are about 94,000 killed in battle, 164,000 deaths from disease, and between 25,976 deaths in Union prison camps. One estimate of
3330-550: The American Civil War's soldiers, noted Princeton University war historian and author James M. McPherson (born 1936), contrasts the views of Confederate soldiers regarding slavery with those of the colonial American revolutionaries of the earlier 18th century . He stated that while the American rebel colonists of the 1770s saw an incongruity between owning slaves on the one hand, and proclaiming to be fighting for liberty on
3441-745: The Camp Sumter's prisoners. In response, the United Daughters of the Confederacy initiated a construction of a monument honoring Henry Wirz in Andersonville, Georgia . Every year the UDC and SCV hold a memorial service at the monument. Until recently, SCV annually marched to Wirz's memorial in Andersonville along with supporters of a congressional pardon for him. The SCV posthumously awarded Wirz their Confederate Medal of Honor , created in 1977. During and after
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3552-518: The Confederacy passed the first conscription law in either Confederate or Union history, the Conscription Act, which made all able bodied white men between the ages of 18 and 35 liable for a three-year term of service in the Provisional Army. It also extended the terms of enlistment for all one-year soldiers to three years. Men employed in certain occupations considered to be most valuable for
3663-460: The Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting against the United States forces to win the independence of the Southern states and uphold and expand the institution of slavery . On February 28, 1861, the Provisional Confederate Congress established a provisional volunteer army and gave control over military operations and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to
3774-773: The Confederacy: Control and operation of the Confederate army were administered by the Confederate States War Department , which was established by the Confederate Provisional Congress in an act on February 21, 1861. The Confederate Congress gave control over military operations, and authority for mustering state forces and volunteers to the President of the Confederate States of America on February 28, 1861, and March 6, 1861. On March 8,
3885-576: The Confederate Congress passed a law that authorized President Davis to issue proclamations to call up no more than 100,000 men. The C.S. War Department asked for 8,000 volunteers on March 9, 20,000 on April 8, and 49,000 on and after April 16. Davis proposed an army of 100,000 soldiers in his message to Congress on April 29. On August 8, 1861, the Confederacy called for 400,000 volunteers to serve for one or three years. Eight months later in April 1862,
3996-547: The Confederate sample. Indeed, while about one-third of all Confederate soldiers belonged to slaveholding families, slightly more than two-thirds of the sample whose slaveholding status is known did so. In some cases, Confederate men were motivated to join the army in response to the United States' actions regarding its opposition to slavery. After the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 - 1863 , some Confederate soldiers welcomed
4107-527: The Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans. One result was wave after wave of religious revivals in the Army, religion playing a major part in the lives of Confederate soldiers. Some men with a weak religious affiliation became committed Christians, and saw their military service in terms of satisfying God's wishes. Religion strengthened the soldiers' loyalty to their comrades and the Confederacy. Military historian Samuel J. Watson argues that Christian faith
4218-598: The Military Commission found Wirz guilty of conspiracy as charged, along with 10 of 13 specifications of acts of personal cruelty, and sentenced him to death . He was acquitted of specifications 4, 10, and 13. In his report on the trial, the Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt , who had prosecuted the Lincoln assassination trials , vilified Wirz and pronounced that "his work of death seems to have been
4329-482: The U.S. Rifle Regiment in 1820, to the 4th U.S. Artillery. Winder resigned his commission on August 31, 1823, and would not return to the Army for almost four years. On the 12th of February 1823, he married Elizabeth Shepherd, inheriting slaves through this marriage. The next year his father died, placing him in deep economic strain, and his mother was forced to turn her home into a boardinghouse. Winder failed to manage his father-in-law's plantation successfully, and he
4440-407: The Union. They felt that they had no choice but to help defend their homes. President Abraham Lincoln was exasperated to hear of such men who professed to love their country but were willing to fight against it. As in the U.S. Army , the Confederate Army's soldiers were organized by military specialty. The combat arms included infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Although fewer soldiers might comprise
4551-664: The Washington Arsenal alongside the Lincoln assassins. While the body was being transferred, it was discovered that the right arm, and parts of the neck and head, had been removed during autopsy. As of the late 1990s, the National Museum of Health and Medicine still had two of his vertebrae. The Wirz controversy grew out of the questions remaining after his trial pertaining to guilt and responsibility for multiple deaths of prisoners of war in camps on both sides following suspension of
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4662-404: The camp's 14-month existence, of whom close to 13,000 (28%) died. Wirz was arrested by a contingent of the 4th U.S. Cavalry on May 7, 1865, in Andersonville. He was taken first to Macon, Georgia , and then by rail to Washington, D.C. , arriving there on May 10, 1865, where he was held in the Old Capitol Prison since the federal government decided to put him on trial for conspiring to impair
4773-454: The city harbor began bombarding bombarding Fort Sumter on April 12–13, 1861 and forced its capitulation on April 14. The remaining loyal United States in the North, outraged by the Confederacy's attack, demanded war. It rallied behind new 16th President Lincoln's call on April 15 for all the loyal states to send their state militia units avolunteer troops to reinforce and protect the national federal capital of Washington, D.C. , to recapture
4884-649: The conditions were inadequate and petitioned his superiors to provide more support, but was denied. In July 1864, he sent five prisoners to the Union with a petition written by the inmates asking the government to negotiate their release. At its peak in August 1864 after its expansion to 26 acres, the prison held some 33,000 Union prisoners – around four times more than any other Confederate prison – with little more than patchy tents for shelter. The same summer saw more than 100 prisoners die of disease, exposure, or malnutrition every day. Around 45,000 prisoners were incarcerated during
4995-456: The defenses in Pensacola , which included Fort Pickens . However, he was away on leave and so Lt. Adam J. Slemmer took command and prevented the fort from falling into rebel hands. The Union would retain control of the fort for the rest of the war. Winder resigned his U.S. Army commission on April 20, 1861, and offered his services to the state of North Carolina. He was appointed a colonel in
5106-559: The depredations of roving bands of marauders. Many soldiers went home temporarily (A.W.O.L. - " Absent Without Official Leave ") and quietly returned when their family problems had been resolved. By September 1864, however, President Davis publicly admitted that two-thirds of the soldiers were absent, "most of them without leave". The problem escalated rapidly after that, and fewer and fewer men returned. Soldiers who were fighting in defense of their homes realized that they had to desert to fulfill that duty. Historian Mark Weitz argues that
5217-458: The extent the word " battalion " was used to describe a military unit, it referred to a multi-company task force of a regiment or a near-regimental size unit. Throughout the war, the Confederacy raised the equivalent of 1,010 regiments in all branches, including militias, versus 2,050 regiments for the U.S. Army. Four regiments usually formed a brigade , although as the number of soldiers in many regiments became greatly reduced, especially later in
5328-769: The field of battle." Because of his injury, Wirz was assigned to the staff of General John H. Winder , who was in charge of Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, as his adjutant. Later accounts by Wirz's daughter alleged that Confederate President Jefferson Davis made Captain Wirz a "special minister" and sent him to Europe carrying secret dispatches to Confederate Commissioners James Mason in England , and John Slidell in France . Wirz returned from Europe in January 1864 and reported to Richmond, Virginia , where he began working for General Winder in
5439-489: The four-year old capital of Richmond, Virginia on April 3, 1865, and fled southwest by railroad train with the President Jefferson Davis and members of his cabinet gradually continuing moving southwestward first to Lynchburg, Virginia and lost communication to its remaining military commanders, and soon exerted no control over the remaining armies. They were eventually caught and captured near Irwinville, Georgia
5550-618: The guards were to "open upon the Stockade [i.e. upon the prisoners] with grapeshot, without reference to the situation beyond these lines of defense." It was suggested that Winder's controversial tenure as Richmond's provost marshal in 1862–1864 and commissary general of Confederate prisons in 1864–1865 exemplified the inefficient administrative system run by the Confederate Government. Winder died on duty in Florence, South Carolina , of
5661-422: The harbor of Charleston, South Carolina . On February 28, shortly before Lincoln was sworn in as president, the Provisional Confederate Congress had authorized the organization of a large Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS). Under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis , C.S. troops under the command of General Pierre Gustave Toutant / P. G. T. Beauregard military forces surrounding
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#17328554548535772-403: The health and destroy the lives of soldiers in the military service of the United States, then held and being prisoners of war within the lines of the so-called Confederate States, and in the military prisons thereof, to the end that the armies of the United States might be weakened and impaired, in violation of the laws and customs of war" and for "violation of the laws of war, to impair and injure
5883-509: The health and to destroy the lives—by subjecting to torture and great suffering; by confining in unhealthy and unwholesome quarters; by exposing to the inclemency of winter and to the dews and burning sun of summer; by compelling the use of impure water; and by furnishing insufficient and unwholesome food—of large numbers of Federal prisoners." Wirz was accused of committing 13 acts of personal cruelty and murders in August 1864: by revolver (specifications 1, 3, 4), by physically stomping and kicking
5994-407: The heritage of 1776 in opposite ways. Confederates professed to fight for liberty and independence from a too radical government; Unionists said they fought to preserve the nation conceived in liberty from dismemberment and destruction ... The rhetoric of liberty that had permeated the letters of Confederate volunteers in 1861, grew even stronger as the war progressed. Before and during the Civil War,
6105-607: The home front (such as railroad and river workers, civil officials, telegraph operators, miners, druggists and teachers) were exempt from the draft. The act was amended twice in 1862. On September 27, the maximum age of conscription was extended to 45. On October 11, the Confederate States Congress passed the so-called " Twenty Negro Law ", which exempted anyone who owned 20 or more slaves, a move that caused deep resentment among conscripts who did not own slaves. The C.S. Congress enacted several more amendments throughout
6216-446: The hundreds of Confederate soldiers' letters he had examined, none of them contained any anti-slavery sentiment whatsoever: Although only 20 percent of the soldiers avowed explicit proslavery purposes in their letters and diaries, none at all dissented from that view. McPherson admits some flaws in his sampling of letters. Soldiers from slaveholding families were overrepresented by 100%: Nonslaveholding farmers are underrepresented in
6327-405: The lives of Union prisoners of war. A special military commission was convened with Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace presiding. The other members were Gershom Mott ; John W. Geary ; Lorenzo Thomas ; Francis Fessenden ; Edward S. Bragg ; John F. Ballier, U.S. Volunteers; T. Allcock, 4th New York Artillery; and John H. Stibbs, 12th Iowa Volunteers. Col. Norton P. Chipman served as Judge Advocate. During
6438-503: The move, as they believed it would strengthen pro-slavery sentiment in the Confederacy, and thus lead to greater enlistment of soldiers in the Confederate armies. One Confederate soldier from the West in Texas gave his reasons for fighting for the Confederacy, stating that "we are fighting for our property", contrasting this with the motivations of Union soldiers, who, he claimed, were fighting for
6549-592: The need to protect or to destroy slavery. Others point to less overtly political reasons to fight, such as the defense of one's home and family, or the honor and brotherhood to be preserved when fighting alongside other men. Most historians agree that, no matter what he thought about when he went into the war, the experience of combat affected him profoundly and sometimes affected his reasons for continuing to fight. Educated soldiers drew upon their knowledge of American history to justify their costs. Historian James M. McPherson says: Confederate and Union soldiers interpreted
6660-589: The new Confederate States government, Davis assumed control of the military situation at Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina , where South Carolina state militia had besieged the longtime Federal Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, held by a small U.S. Army garrison under the command of Major Robert Anderson . (1805-1871). By March 1861, the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States meeting in
6771-606: The newly chosen Confederate States president, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889),. Davis was a graduate of the United States Military Academy , on the Hudson River at West Point, New York , colonel of a volunteer regiment during the Mexican–American War (1846-1848). He had also been a United States senator from Mississippi and served as U.S. Secretary of War under 14th President Franklin Pierce . On March 1, 1861, on behalf of
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#17328554548536882-424: The number of Confederate soldiers, sailors and marines are between 750,000 and 1,000,000 troops. This does not include an unknown number of Negro slaves who were pressed into performing various tasks for the army, such as the construction of fortifications and defenses or driving wagons. Since these figures include estimates of the total number of soldiers who served at any time during the war, they do not represent
6993-464: The official count of 103,400 deserters is too low. He concludes that most of the desertions came because the soldier felt he owed a higher duty to his own family than to the Confederacy. Confederate policies regarding desertion generally were severe. For example, on August 19, 1862, famed General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863), approved the court-martial sentence of execution for three soldiers for desertion, rejecting pleas for clemency from
7104-458: The other, the later Confederacy's soldiers did not, as the Confederate ideology of white supremacy negated any contradiction between the two: Unlike many slaveholders in the age of Thomas Jefferson, Confederate soldiers from slaveholding families expressed no feelings of embarrassment or inconsistency in fighting for their liberty while holding other people in slavery. Indeed, white supremacy and
7215-524: The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the 37-year-old Wirz enlisted as a private in Company A (Madison Infantry), 4th Battalion of Louisiana Infantry of the Confederate army in Madison Parish . Shortly before his death, he said that he had taken part in the Battle of Seven Pines in May 1862, as an aide-de-camp to General Joseph E. Johnston , during which he was wounded by a Minie ball and lost
7326-451: The pivotal Battle of Chancellorsville , the average U.S. Army infantry regiment's strength was 433 men, versus 409 for Confederate infantry regiments. Rough unit sizes for CSA combat units during the war: Regiments, which were the basic units of army organization through which soldiers were supplied and deployed, were raised by individual states. They were generally referred by number and state, for example 1st Texas , 12th Virginia . To
7437-554: The play was recreated for an episode of PBS's 1970–71 season of Hollywood Television Theatre , Wirz was portrayed by Richard Basehart . Wirz was portrayed by the Czech actor Jan Tříska in the American film Andersonville (1996). Confederate Army The Confederate States Army , also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army , was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as
7548-469: The popular press of Richmond, including its five major newspapers, sought to inspire a sense of patriotism, Confederate identity, and the moral high ground in the southern population. The southern churches met the shortage of Army chaplains by sending missionaries. The Southern Baptists sent a total of 78 missionaries, starting in 1862. Presbyterians were even more active, with 112 missionaries sent in early 1865. Other missionaries were funded and supported by
7659-429: The precedent that certain wartime behavior is unacceptable, regardless if committed under the orders of superiors or on one's own. Wirz is an important character in MacKinlay Kantor 's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Andersonville (1955), introduced in the third chapter during his mission to France in October 1863. In Saul Levitt 's 1959 play The Andersonville Trial , Wirz was first played by Herbert Berghof . When
7770-485: The prison department. Wirz initially served on detached duty as a prison commandant in Alabama , but was then transferred to help guard Union prisoners incarcerated at Richmond. In February 1864, the Confederate government established Camp Sumter , a large military prison near the small railroad depot of Anderson (now Andersonville ) in south-western Georgia , built to house Union prisoners-of-war. In April 1864, Wirz arrived at Camp Sumter and remained there for over
7881-490: The prisoners received the same ration as did Confederate soldiers in the field, scanty as that allotment was." However, John McElroy's eyewitness account in his 1879 memoir Andersonville appears to contradict this. McElroy depicts Winder as boasting that he was "killing off more Yankees than twenty regiments in Lee's Army." McElroy claims that on July 27, 1864, Winder issued an order that if Union troops (under General Stoneman ) were to come within seven miles of Andersonville,
7992-449: The quality of his post-war trial. Wirz was born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz on November 25, 1823, in Zürich , Switzerland , to Johann Caspar Wirz, a master tailor and member of Zürich's city council, and Sophie Barbara Philipp. Wirz received elementary and secondary education, and he aspired to become a physician but his family did not possess funds to pay for his medical education. Instead, he
8103-404: The rank of (full) general; the highest-ranking (earliest date of rank) was Samuel Cooper , Adjutant General and Inspector General of the Confederate States Army. Officers' uniforms bore a braided design on the sleeves and kepi , the number of adjacent strips (and therefore the width of the lines of the design) denoting rank. The color of the piping and kepi denoted the military branch. The braid
8214-443: The right of property in slaves were at the core of the ideology for which Confederate soldiers fought. McPherson states that Confederate States Army soldiers did not discuss the issue of slavery as often as the opposing United States Army soldiers did, because most Confederate soldiers readily accepted as an obvious fact that they were fighting to perpetuate slavery and thus did not feel the need to debate over it: [O]nly 20 percent of
8325-409: The same insignia regardless of grade. This was a decision made early in the conflict. The Confederate Congress initially made the rank of brigadier general the highest rank. As the war progressed, the other general-officer ranks were quickly added, but no insignia for them was created. (Robert E. Lee was a notable exception to this. He chose to wear the rank insignia of a colonel.) Only seven men achieved
8436-422: The sample of 429 Southern soldiers explicitly voiced proslavery convictions in their letters or diaries. As one might expect, a much higher percentage of soldiers from slaveholding families than from non-slaveholding families expressed such a purpose: 33 percent, compared with 12 percent. Ironically, the proportion of Union soldiers who wrote about the slavery question was greater, as the next chapter will show. There
8547-513: The size of the army at any given date. These numbers also do not include sailors / marines who served in the Confederate States Navy . Although most of the soldiers who fought in the American Civil War were volunteers, both sides by 1862 resorted to conscription as a means to supplement the volunteer soldiers. Although exact records are unavailable, estimates of the percentage of Confederate Army soldiers who were drafted are about double
8658-459: The soldiers' regimental commander. General Jackson's goal was to maintain discipline in a volunteer army whose homes were under threat of enemy occupation. Historians of the Civil War have emphasized how soldiers from poor families deserted because they were urgently needed at home. Local pressures mounted as Union forces occupied more and more Confederate territory, putting more and more families at risk of hardship. One Confederate Army officer at
8769-479: The solidarity of the Confederacy was dissatisfaction in the Appalachian Mountains districts caused by lingering Unionism and a distrust of the power wielded by the slave-holding class. Many of their soldiers deserted, returned home, and formed a military force that fought off Regular Army units trying to capture and punish them. North Carolina lost nearly a quarter of its soldiers (24,122) to desertion. This
8880-453: The state capital of Virginia in Richmond. Both the United States and the Confederate States began in earnest to raise large, mostly volunteer, armies, with the opposing objectives: putting down the rebellion and preserving the Union on the one hand, and establishing Southern independence from the northern United States on the other. The Confederate States Congress provided for a regular Confederate States Army, patterned after its parent in
8991-455: The subsequent acts came before five state supreme courts; all five upheld them. In his 2010 book Major Problems in the Civil War , historian Michael Perman says that historians are of two minds on why millions of men seemed so eager to fight, suffer and die over four years: Some historians emphasize that Civil War soldiers were driven by political ideology, holding firm beliefs about the importance of liberty, Union, or state rights, or about
9102-457: The temporary capital of Montgomery, Alabama , expanded the provisional military forces and established a more permanent regular Confederate States Army. An accurate count of the total number of individuals who served in the Military forces of the Confederate States (Army, Navy and Marine Corps) is not possible due to incomplete and destroyed / burned Confederate records; and archives. Estimates of
9213-456: The time noted, "The deserters belong almost entirely to the poorest class of non-slave-holders whose labor is indispensable to the daily support of their families" and that "When the father, husband or son is forced into the service, the suffering at home with them is inevitable. It is not in the nature of these men to remain quiet in the ranks under such circumstances." Some soldiers also deserted from ideological motivations. A growing threat to
9324-401: The total Confederate wounded is 194,026. In comparison, the best estimates of the number of Union military personnel deaths are 110,100 killed in battle, 224,580 deaths from disease, and 30,218 deaths in Confederate prison camps. The estimated figure for Union Army wounded is 275,174. The main Confederate armies, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee and the remnants of
9435-405: The trial Wirz was reviled in the court of public opinion as "The Demon of Andersonville". One controversy concerns a witness for the prosecution, Felix de la Baume, who was actually Felix Oesser, a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers (Steuben) regiment. According to the National Park Service, de la Baume was definitely a prisoner at Andersonville and it is a myth that he was a key witness at
9546-537: The trial gangrene prevented Wirz from sitting and he spent the trial on a couch. The military tribunal took place between August 23 and October 18, 1865, was held in the United States Court of Claims , and dominated the front pages of newspapers across the United States. Wirz was charged with "combining, confederating, and conspiring, together with John H. Winder, Richard B. Winder, Joseph [Isaiah H.] White, W. S. Winder, R. R. Stevenson, and others unknown, to injure
9657-481: The trial, including former Camp Sumter prisoners, ex-Confederate soldiers, and residents of nearby Andersonville. According to Benjamin G. Cloyd, 145 testified that they did not observe Wirz kill any prisoners; others failed to identify specific victims. Twelve said that they witnessed cruelty on the part of Wirz. One witness, Felix de la Baume, who claimed to be a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette , identified under oath
9768-485: The trial. After time passed, some writers suggested Wirz's tribunal was unjust, stating that "Wirz did not receive a fair trial. Nevertheless, he was found guilty and sentenced to death." In 1980, historian Morgan D. Peoples referred to Wirz as a " scapegoat ." Wirz's conviction remains controversial. Despite the surrounding controversy, the Wirz trial was one of the nation's significant early war crimes tribunals , creating enduring moral and legal notions and established
9879-400: The two forces were to exist concurrently, little was done to organize the Confederate regular army. Members of all the military forces of the Confederate States (the army, the navy, and the marine corps) are often referred to as "Confederates", and members of the Confederate army were referred to as "Confederate soldiers". Supplementing the Confederate army were the various state militias of
9990-409: The use of his right arm. That account is disputed by historians, one of whom says the injury may have actually occurred during a six-thousand mile mission to track down missing records of Union prisoners. That journey and a subsequent three months of rehabilitation at his home, were completed by the end of 1862. After returning to his unit on June 12, 1862, Wirz was promoted to captain "for bravery on
10101-443: The various forts, arsenals, shipyards and other seized federal installations from the secessionists, to put down and suppress the rebellion and to save the Union. Four more upper border slave states (North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and finally Virginia) then joined the Confederacy, making eleven seceded states rather than fight fellow Southerners. The Confederacy then moved its national capital from temporary Montgomery, Alabama to
10212-427: The victim (specification 2), by confining prisoners in stocks (specifications 5, 6), by beating a prisoner with a revolver (specification 13) and by chaining prisoners together (specification 7). Wirz was also charged with ordering guards to fire on prisoners with muskets (specifications 8, 9, 10, 12) and to have dogs attack a prisoner (specification 11). The National Park Service lists 158 witnesses who testified at
10323-436: The war to address losses suffered in battle as well as the United States' greater supply of manpower. In December 1863, it abolished the previous practice of allowing a rich drafted man to hire a substitute to take his place in the ranks. Substitution had also been practiced in the United States, leading to similar resentment from the lower classes. In February 1864, the age limits were extended to between 17 and 50. Challenges to
10434-453: The war, Wirz was tried and executed for conspiracy and murder relating to his command of the camp; this made the captain the highest-ranking soldier and only officer of the Confederate Army to be sentenced to death for crimes during their service. Since his execution, Wirz has become a controversial figure due to debate about his guilt and reputation, including criticism over his personal responsibility for Andersonville Prison's conditions and
10545-488: The war, more than four were often assigned to a brigade. Occasionally, regiments would be transferred between brigades. Two to four brigades usually formed a division . Two to four divisions usually formed a corps . Two to four corps usually formed an army. Occasionally, a single corps might operate independently as if it were a small army. The Confederate States Army consisted of several field armies, named after their primary area of operation. The largest Confederate field army
10656-577: The war, stated in a letter to a friend that "I've always understood that we went to war on account of the thing we quarreled with the North about. I've never heard of any other cause than slavery." As stated by researcher / authors Andrew Hall, Connor Huff and Shiro Kuriwaki in the article Wealth, Slaveownership, and Fighting for the Confederacy: An Empirical Study of the American Civil War , research done using an 1862 Georgia lottery showed that rich white Southern men actually enlisted at
10767-486: The war. Reports from the C.S. War Department beginning at the end of 1861 indicated 326,768 men that year, 449,439 in 1862, 464,646 in 1863, 400,787 in 1864, and "last reports" showed 358,692. Estimates of enlistments throughout the war range from 1,227,890 to 1,406,180. The following calls for soldiers were issued: The C.S.A. was initially a (strategically) defensive army, and many soldiers were resentful when General Robert E. Lee led his Army of Northern Virginia across
10878-574: The worst days of Baltimore or New York and much of the blame went to the corrupt police force. This earned him the moniker "The Dictator of Richmond". In addition to his duties involving prisons, he was responsible for dealing with deserters , local law enforcement, and for a short time setting the commodity prices for the residents of a city dealing with a doubled population. During this time, he commanded Libby Prison in Richmond as well. In April 1864, Winder appointed Captain Henry Wirz commandant of
10989-410: Was a major factor in combat motivation. According to his analysis, the soldiers' faith was consoling for the loss of comrades; it was a shield against fear; it helped reduce drinking and fighting in the ranks; it enlarged the soldiers' community of close friends and helped compensate for their long-term separation from home. In his 1997 book For Cause and Comrades , which examines the motivations of
11100-468: Was a much-maligned man. He was set to perform a task made impossible by the inadequacy of supplies of men, food, clothing, and medicines. During the war, Winder was frequently derided in Northern newspapers, which accused him of intentionally starving Union prisoners. Military historian Ezra J. Warner believes these charges were without merit, saying, "Winder adopted every means at his command to assure that
11211-449: Was a strategic weakness for the Confederacy, and there are only a few examples of its armies acting in concert across multiple theaters to achieve a common objective. One instance occurred in late 1862 with Lee's invasion of Maryland , coincident with two other actions: Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and Earl Van Dorn 's advance against Corinth, Mississippi . All three initiatives were unsuccessful, however. Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown
11322-839: Was an extreme case of a Southern States Rights advocate asserting control over Confederate soldiers: he defied the Confederate government's wartime policies and resisted the military draft. Believing that local troops should be used only for the defense of Georgia, Brown tried to stop Colonel Francis Bartow from taking Georgia troops out of the state to the First Battle of Bull Run. Many of the Confederacy's senior military leaders (including Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston , and James Longstreet ) and even President Jefferson Davis, were former U.S. Army and, in smaller numbers, U.S. Navy officers who had been opposed to, disapproved of, or were at least unenthusiastic about secession, but resigned their U.S. commissions upon hearing that their states had left
11433-491: Was educated as a merchant in Zürich and Turin from 1840 until 1842, when he began working at the department store of Zürich. He married Emilie Oschwald in 1845 and had two children. In 1847, Wirz was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of embezzlement and fraud . He was released the next year and his sentence was commuted to 12 years of exile from the canton of Zürich , but his wife refused to emigrate and obtained
11544-577: Was noted for commanding prisoner-of-war camps throughout the South during the war, and for charges of improperly supplying the prisoners in his charge. Winder was born at "Rewston" in Somerset County, Maryland , a son of U.S. Army Brig. Gen. William H. Winder and his wife Gertrude Polk. Winder's father fought in the War of 1812 , most notably as the American commander in the disastrous and rallying defeat at
11655-636: Was put in charge of the Confederate Bureau of Prison Camps, a post which he held until his death on February 7, 1865. The assignment to run prisons in the South during the Civil War was a difficult job at best, hampered by the Confederacy's poor supply system combined with diminishing resources. In their post-war writings, some of the high level leaders of the Confederate government voiced the difficulties of Winder's assignment, saying: ...President Davis, Secretary Seddon , and Adjutant Cooper declared that he
11766-560: Was sometimes left off by officers since it made them conspicuous targets. The kepi was rarely used, the common slouch hat being preferred for its practicality in the Southern climate. Branch colors were used for the color of chevrons—blue for infantry, yellow for cavalry, and red for artillery. This could differ with some units, however, depending on available resources or the unit commander's desire. Cavalry regiments from Texas, for example, often used red insignia and at least one Texas infantry regiment used black. John H. Winder Winder
11877-509: Was the Army of Northern Virginia , whose surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in 1865 marked the end of major combat operations in the U.S. Civil War. Companies were commanded by captains and had two or more lieutenants. Regiments were commanded by colonels. Lieutenant colonels were second in command. At least one major was next in command. Brigades were commanded by brigadier generals although casualties or other attrition sometimes meant that brigades would be commanded by senior colonels or even
11988-439: Was the highest rate of desertion of any Confederate state. Young Samuel Clemens (1835-1910, later to be known as Mark Twain ) soon deserted the Southern army long before he became a world-famous writer, journalist and lecturer, but he often commented upon that episode in his life comically, even writing a book about it. Author Neil Schmitz has examined the deep unease Twain felt about losing his honor, his fear of facing death as
12099-442: Was told by an emissary from a high Cabinet official that if Wirz implicated Jefferson Davis in the atrocities committed at Andersonville, his sentence would be commuted. Allegedly, Schade repeated the offer to Wirz who replied, "Mr. Schade, you know that I have always told you that I do not know anything about Jefferson Davis. He had no connection with me as to what was done at Andersonville. If I knew anything of him, I would not become
12210-484: Was unable to help his mother. In 1826, Elizabeth died, leaving him to raise their young son William A. Winder , which forced him back into the U.S. Army. On April 2, 1827, Winder was reinstated as a second lieutenant, and he served in the 1st U.S. Artillery. He was promoted to first lieutenant on November 30, 1833. He taught tactics at West Point in 1827 where he met Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee , but lost his position after one year having lost his temper with
12321-551: Was wounded in an encounter near the Belén Gate when a piece of bone from the skull of one of his men scratched him in the face. At the battle of Chapultepec, Winder was responsible for attacking the Military Academy that was defended by Felipe Xicoténcatl and a few hundred cadets. While Winder's forces succeeded in either killing and capturing many of the cadets, that battle became a key part of Mexico's patriotic lore known as
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