ANDERSONVILLE — The 42nd annual Memorial Service for Capt. Henry Wirz, commandant of Andersonville Prison Camp, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov.12 in the town of Andersonville. The first Memorial Service was initiated by CSA Real Son Arthur Park of Orlando, Florida, on Nov. 10, 1976.
The annual service is currently sponsored by the Alexander H. Stephens Camp, Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) in Americus, and John Carroll is Camp Commander. Guest speaker is immediate past CIC of the SCV, Charles Kelly Barrow. The public is invited. In case of inclement weather, the service will be held in the Andersonville Village Hall. Music, provided by The Southern Sounds, begins at 2:15 p.m. at the bandstand near the Wirz monument.
Wirz was declared a Confederate Hero/Martyr at the 1977 SCV National Convention in Dallas.
Wirz was found guilty of murdering 13 Yankee prisoners by a military tribunal in Washington, D.C., and was hanged on Nov. 10, 1865. Many historians have called this the most unfair trial in American history and a national disgrace. No body of a Yankee prisoner was ever found, nor was any name ever given for a single one of the 13 prisoners.
The Yankees did what they called “an autopsy” after the hanging, and cut offWirz’ head, arms, and legs. It took Wirz’ attorney, Louis Schade, four years to collect a few of his bones to have a Christian burial at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The bones of part of one arm are still being publicly exhibited in a Medical Museum in Maryland.
For more information, please contact Memorial Service Committee Chairman James Gaston at 229-924-7460 or gaston7460@bellsouth.net.