PRESS RELEASE
CONGRESSMAN PAUL BROUN TO SPEAK IN HONOUR OF CONFEDERATE
HERO
(Atlanta - October 29, 2014) The Americus camp of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization will host an annual Memorial
Service for Civil War Andersonville Prison Commandant Capt. Henry Wirz on
Sunday Nov. 9. The musical group, "A Joyful Noise," from Leesburg,
will play and sing Southern Confederate songs and Gospel Hymns from 2 to 3PM
followed by a formal memorial service. The public is invited to join
the SCV and pay tribute to a Southern hero and martyr.
The guest speaker will be Congressman Paul Broun from Athens . Dr. Broun,
a native of Athens, practiced medicine in Americus many years ago.
Confederate Reenactors "The Muckalee Guards" will provide Honor Guard
duties during the Service. 
When the War Between the States (Civil War) ended in
1865, Capt. Wirz was paroled. However, shortly thereafter, he was
arrested and carried to Washington , D.C. where he was placed in the Old
Capitol Prison. His trial before a military tribunal lasted several
months, and included the perjured testimony of a Yankee soldier who was a
deserter from a NY. Regiment who falsely claimed to be a great nephew of
Lafayette of Revolutionary war fame. For his false testimony against
Capt. Wirz, he was given a position with the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.
It was later learned that this key witness whose perjured
testimony contributed considerably to the conviction had never been at
Andersonville . The vast Majority of defense witnesses for Capt. Wirz were not
permitted to testify. Many historians call his trial a farce and travesty
of justice. After the war, James Madison Page, a Michigan cavalryman, who
had been a POW at Andersonville , wrote a book completely exonerating Wirz.
Capt. Wirz was found guilty of murdering 13 Union prisoners
at Andersonville, although not a single body, nor even the name of any of the
13 was ever produced. He was also falsely convicted on a second charge of
conspiracy with high ranking members of the Confederate government to create
the conditions that caused the high death rate. Wirz was made a scapegoat
for the South. On Nov. 10, 1865, Capt. Wirz was hanged in the yard of the
Old Capitol Prison. He declared his innocence to the end. The night
before the hanging he was offered a commuted sentence if he would implicate
Confederate President Jefferson Davis as a conspirator for Andersonville
deaths. Wirz was an honorable man and would not lie to save his life.
After the hanging, the barbaric Yankees cut off his
head and arms and other body parts, and exhibited them about the
country. It took Capt. Wirz's attorney, Louis Schade, four years to
collect enough body parts to have a Christian burial in Mount Olivet Cemetery
in Washington .
The highly biased Northern version of
Andersonville Civil War Prison (POW) Camp is well known however the true facts
concerning Andersonville are not well known. The government of The
Confederate States of America issued an order that a large POW prison should be
constructed in early 1864 to alleviate crowding in existing camps in the
South. The requirements were that it be constructed at a location further South
away from the battle front and should be a healthy location with plenty of
pure water, a running stream, close to grist and saw mills and if possible have
shade trees. The location selected was in South Georgia in Sumter County and
was officially named Camp Sumter although it became known as Andersonville . It
was constructed to house 10,000 Union POW's however numbers increased to as
high as 45,000 due to a policy by the Lincoln administration to discontinue exchanges.
The average death rate at other POW camps in the
South was about 9% as compared to 12% for POW camps in the North where
Confederate POW's were incarcerated. In contrast the death rate at
Andersonville was approximately 29% due to causes beyond the control of
Confederate authorities and was unintentional. Also in contrast were the
similar death rates at several Northern POW camps notably Elmira New York and
Camp Douglas Chicago where the high death rates have been proven to be
intentional.
It is a well known fact that the victor of a
war writes the history from a biased perspective. Immediately after the end of
the war absurd war crimes claims were made by Northern politicians, military
authorities, newspapers, periodicals, and citizens that the decisions and
conditions that caused the human disaster at Andersonville were intentional on
the part of Confederate authorities. Demands for War Crimes Trials were made
and the Commandant of Andersonville POW camp, Capt. Henry Wirz, was arrested, tried,
and convicted in a farce trial by a military tribunal who had
predetermined that a conviction would result. No War Crimes Charges
against Northern POW commandants were ever made and no Northern POW camp has
ever been enshrined by the U.S. Government as a memorial to Confederate POW's.
Only Andersonville in the South has been enshrined and it has become a memorial
to American POW's of all wars that have involved American veterans.
In defense of the Confederate government and
Confederate prison officials in regards to Andersonville, a response was made
in 1876, by the Southern Historical Society, consisting of 9 points that place
the blame for deaths and suffering at Andersonville totally on Northern
politicians and military authorities. Specifically President Lincoln, Sec. of
War Stanton, Asst. Sec. of War Dana, and Gen. Grant shoulder the blame as noted
in the following 9 points.
1.
It is not denied that great suffering and mortality occurred but it was due to
circumstances and conditions beyond Confederate control.
2.
If the death rate be adduced as "circumstantial evidence of
barbarity" the rate of Confederate deaths was higher in Northern POW camps
where there was an abundance of food, medicine, and shelter.
3.
The Union POW's were given the same rations as Confederate guards and soldiers
and equal treatment in hospitals as required by the CSA government and the
death rate of CSA guards was the same as POW's. The Northern Federal
government did not have this humane policy.
4.
The exchange of prisoners was refused by the North
5.
The CSA government requested that Northern doctors and medicine be sent to
treat Northern POW's and the request was denied.
6.
The CSA tried to buy supplies including bowls and other utensils to use in
feeding the POW's. They offered to pay with cotton and gold but the offer was
refused by the Lincoln administration.
7.
The Federal Government under President Lincoln made medicine contraband causing
suffering and death of Union POW's and all Southerners, military and civilian.
8.
Prior to the period of greatest mortality, the CSA authorities offered to
release the Andersonville POW's without exchange but the offer was not accepted
by the Lincoln Administration who was told by CSA authorities "we cannot
feed or care for them-just come get them". Sherman 's barbaric war crimes
in Georgia consisting of stealing, destroying, and burning made food and
supplies even scarcer and increased suffering and mortality.
9. The Northern press was furnished lies and propaganda by Union
Sec. and Asst Sec. of War Stanton and Dana claiming deliberate cruelties and
war crimes by the South. The control of Northern POW camps was transferred by
Stanton and Dana to vindictive partisan criminal elements and deliberate war
crimes of cruelty, torture, and murder were committed against Confederate
POW's as proven by a joint resolution of the U.S. Senate and House SR97.
In 1906 former Confederate General Stephen D. Lee charged
the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) organization with the duty to defend the
honor of the South and the Confederate Soldier:
"To
you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the Cause
for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate
soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his
virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love
also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also
cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the
South is presented to future generations."
For
more information about the Sons of Confederate Veterans or any of this year's
planned events to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the War, contact the
Georgia SCV at 404-456-3393 or online at www.GeorgiaSCV.org
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