John
Henry Winder was
born in Maryland on 21st February, 1800. He joined the United States
Army and taught at U.S. Military Academy at West
Point in 1837 he joined the United States
Army and saw action in the Seminole
War (1838-42) and the Mexican War
(1846-48) where he won two brevets.
On the outbreak of the American Civil War
he joined the Confederate Army. He was
appointed brigadier general and placed in charge of Libby Prison in
in Richmond.
In May, 1862 President Jefferson Davis
placed Winder in command of Richmond. He was also given the task of
organizing the care of all Union Army
prisoners east of the Mississippi.
During the summer of 1863 an agreement under which Union and Confederate
captives were exchanged, came to an end. There was now a rapid increase
in the number of prisoners and so it was decided to build Andersonville
Prison in Georgia. In April, 1864 Winder appointed Henry
Wirz as commandant of this new prison camp.
By August, 1864, there were 32,000 Union
Army prisoners in Andersonville.
The Confederate authorities did not provide enough food for the prison
and men began to die of starvation. The water became polluted and
disease was a constant problem. Of the 49,485 prisoners who entered
the camp, nearly 13,000 died from disease and malnutrition. John Henry
Winder died on 7th February, 1865.
When the Union Army arrived in Andersonville
in May, 1865, photographs of the prisoners were taken and the following
month they appeared in Harper's Weekly.
The photographs caused considerable anger and calls were made for
the people responsible to be punished for these crimes. It was eventually
decided to charge General Robert Lee, James
Seddon, the Secretary of War, Henry Wirz
and several Confederate generals and politicians with "conspiring
to injure the health and destroy the lives of United States soldiers
held as prisoners by the Confederate States".
In August, 1865 President Andrew Johnson
ordered that the charges against the Confederate generals and politicians
should be dropped. However, he did give his approval for Wirz to be
charged with "wanton cruelty". Wirz was found guilty and
executed on 10th November in the same yard where those involved in
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln
had died.
This photograph taken by Alexander
Gardner
shows Major Russell reading
the death warrant to Henry Wirz on the
gallows at Washington Penitentiary.
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