Marcus F. Wright's Civil War Bios -  Henry Wirz

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Submitted by:  Marti Graham  marti@rootsweb.com
Posted by Ruth Price Waldbauer
http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/Transcriptions/CivilWar/1907MarcusFWrightBios
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                                    WIRZ
   p.550
   WIRZ, HENRY was a notorious criminal, who has, without doubt, directly
   caused more loss of life than any man that ever lived, expiated his
   crimes on the scaffold in the yard of the Old Capitol Prison,
   Washington, D.C. on Friday, November 10, 1865. At ten o'clock his
   spiritual advisors, Father Wiggett and Boyle, administered the
   sacrament, after which Wirz was informed by Captain Walbridge that his
   time had arrived; and he submitted himself to the black robe and cowl,
   which was put on by Captain walbridge and Major Russell, while Fathers
   Boyle and Wiggett stood by. He then drank from a tea cup a heavy dose
   of whiskey; nervously gnawed a piece from a plug of tobacco, which he
   threw back on the shelf; cast a hurried glance around the apartment,
   out at the window where the sun shone on the town, turned, and, with a
   light step, walked past the guard at his door into the hall,
   accompanied on either hand by his spiritual advisors, who consoled him
   with words and the sight of the crucifix.
   At a turn on the stairs he caught sight, through an open window, of
   the gallows and expectant crowd. A momentary start or shrinking, as if
   from a shock, and he passed on with the expression of countenance
   mistaken by many for a smile, but which, in reality, was far from it.
   Thus he came to the door of the room of Winder and Duncan - other
   Andersonville birds - and was suffered by the humane commandant to
   have a last word with them. Wirz then passed on down the stairs, out
   between the files of men, facing outward, up to the scaffold, showing
   something in his face and step which, in a better man, might have
   passed for heroism.
   As he advanced, all conversation was hushed, and the sombre draped
   figure marched on between the rows of soldiers, sending a chill
   through the hearts of all that looked upon the scene. The condemned
   had been draped with the shapeless robe of serge which had figured in
   all the executions known to the walls of the Old Capitol Prison, and
   which, drawn closely about the chin, increased the natural pallor of
   the face, and made the appearance of the man still more repulsive and
   indefinable. His whiskers closely cropped, lips apart, and his closed
   teeth, black with the use of tobacco, eyes sunken, forehead retreating
   and topped with disheveled and untidy hair, added to the weirdness of
   the look he had worn daily at his trial, and that impressed all that
   had ever seen him. Then commenced the enumeration of his crimes, to
   which he semmed stolidly to listen, while Father Boyle bent over him
   occasionally and pressed a small crucifix to his lips. For eighteen
   minutes this scene lasted, when his hand was shaken by the reverend
   fathers and by Major Russell and Captain Walbridge; his arms were
   drawn back and pinioned close, the rope was thrown over his head, and
   the black shroud drawn. Allretired from the platform, leaving only
   Wirz, who remained standing thus for eight or ten seconds, when the
   officer below raised his cap as a signal, and there was a crash of the
   falling trap, a sudden jerk and tension of the rope, and a dark and
   lengthened form swung convulsively beneath the scaffold.
   For a moment there was a hush upon the multitude within and the people
   upon adjacent housetops, as all eyes noticed the spasmodic twitching
   of the lower parts of the criminal's body. About a quarter to eleven a
   surgeon approached, carefully raised the lower part of the hood and
   peered for a little time into the dead man's face, and felt for the
   flutter of his pulse. There was no spark of animation remaining. The
   rope was made to loose its clutch, and the body was lowered upon a
   hospital stretcher and carried past the crowd into the deadhouse of
   the prison. The guard was brought to attention and filed out of the
   court, leaving the spectators in undisturbed possession of the field,
   quarreling and elbowing each other for fragments of the rope that
   performed the sacrifice. Not five minutes elapsed before the
   executionary cable was severed into inch bits that accompanied the
   delighted possessors from the field. And thus ended the execution of
   Henry Wirz, whose name will go down to posterity, accompanied by the
   execrations of thousands.