On March 27, 1864, the Swiss-born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz was assigned to command the prison at Andersonville, which was given the name Camp Sumter.
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The prison was planned for ten thousand prisoners, but by August 1864, Andersonville, an open stockade, held more than thirty three thousand Union prisoners.
Wirz was blamed for the high death rate in that prison even though he had no means of getting additional food and supplies to the captives. He was tried for war crimes after the Civil War. He was not allowed an adequate defense at his trial, and he was found guilty in a travesty of justice.
Professor Carole Emberton will tell the history of Andersonville Prison, where thirteen thousand Union soldiers died, and about the trial of its commander, Henry Wirz.
Presenter: Carole Emberton is an associate professor of history at the University at Buffalo. A National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar, she is the author of the prize-winning "Beyond Redemption." She has written for the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post," and lives in Buffalo, New York.
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