Post on 13-Jul-2015
Andersonville• Camp Sumter confined
more than 45,000 Union prisoners, of which more than 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure to the elements over the 14 months it was in operation.
Capt. Henry Wirz
• The camp's commandant, was arrested and charged with conspiring with high Confederate officials to "impair and injure the health and destroy the lives ... of Federal prisoners" and "murder, in violation of the laws of war."
Execution of Commandant• Wirz was tried and found guilty by a military tribunal
in Washington, D.C., and hanged. His arrest, trial, conviction and execution at the first war crimes trial
remains controversial to this day.
Clara Barton
• In July and August of 1865, Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, along with a detachment of laborers and soldiers and Dorence Atwater, came to Andersonville to identify and mark the graves of the Union dead.