English: The grave of Confederate Captain Henry Wirz in section 27 at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Heinrich "Henry" Hartmann Wirz was a captain in the Confederate States Army. In April 1864, he assumed command of Camp Sumter, a military prison near Andersonville, Georgia. Camp Sumter consisted of 16.5 acres of open space surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, with no barracks, latrines, or medical facility. The camp was severely overcrowded (at times, five or six men per 10 foot-by-10 foot square), and prisoners were given little food, water, medical care, clothing, or shelter. Wirz treated prisoners harshly, and for the camp was severely understaffed and the Confederacy feared a mass escape. More than 3,000 prisoners a month died from disease, dysentery, and malnutrition.
Wirz was arrested in May 1865 and accused of inhumane treatment of prisoners, conspiracy, murder, assault, ordering guards to murder prisoners, and attacking prisoners with dogs. He was found guilty on all nearly all charges, and hanged on November 10, 1865.
Wirz was buried in the prison yard of the Washington Arsenal (now Fort Leslie J. McNair). In February 1869, President Andrew Johnson gave permission to have Wirz's remains turned over to the Wirz family burial. When the coffin was opened, they discovered that the head, right arm, and two vertebra in the neck were missing. The neck and arm had been removed by surgeons of the U.S. Army and were on display at the National Medical Museum: The neck was on display to prove that Wirz's neck did not break during his hanging (he strangled to death). The arm was on display because Wirz claimed he could not have committed murder due to his wounded arm, but an autopsy revealed no problems with the limb. Wirz's skull was removed by persons unknown. The skin and flesh were skillfully peeled from the skull, the skull surgically removed from the neck, and the flesh and skin sewed up again. Rumor was that a soldier at the Old Capitol Prison had the skull and would display it, but this was never proven.
The government declined to return the vertebra or arm. Wirz's defense attorney, Louis F. Schade, paid for a burial plot. On March 2, 1869, Wirz's remains were reburied at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C. The burial was presided over by Father Francis Xavier Boyle of St. Peter's Church.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans, Camp No. 305, in Maryland arranged at some point to have a headstone (seen here) placed on his grave. They later placed a "Southern Cross of Honor" marker there as well.