Henry Wirz
| Henry Wirz | |
|---|---|
Henry Wirz
|
|
| Born |
November 25, 1823 Zurich, Switzerland |
| Died | November 10, 1865 (aged 41) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Buried at | Mount Olivet Cemetery, Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Allegiance |
 Confederate States
|
| Service/branch |
 Confederate Army
|
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank |
 Captain
|
| Commands held | Andersonville Prison |
| Battles/wars | |
Heinrich Hartmann Wirz better known as Henry Wirz (November 25, 1823 – November 10, 1865) was a Swiss-born Confederate officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his command of Camp Sumter, the Confederate prisoner-of-war camp near Andersonville, Georgia; he was tried and executed after the war for conspiracy and murder relating to his command of the camp.
Born in Zurich, Switzerland, to Hans Caspar Wirz and Sophie Barbara Philipp, Henry Wirz received elementary and secondary education. He aspired to become a physician, but his family did not possess funds to pay for his medical education. Instead, he became a merchant and worked in Zurich and Turin. Wirz, who had married Emilie Oschwald in 1845 and had two children, received a four-year prison term in April 1847 for inability to return money that he borrowed. The court commuted his sentence to 12-year forcible emigration. His wife refused to emigrate and obtained a divorce in 1853.
In 1848, Wirz went to Russia 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. He tried to establish his own homeopathic medicine practice in Cadiz, Kentucky, and also worked as superintendent of a water cure clinic in Northampton, Massachusetts.
In 1854, he married a Methodist widow named Elizabeth Wolfe. Along with her two daughters, they moved to Louisiana, where in 1855 she gave birth to their daughter Cora. In Louisiana, Wirz worked for Levin Marshall as a plantation overseer and physician.
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