Tuscaloosa's Civil War Prison
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(micro)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Tuscaloosa, located far from the major theatres of the Civil War, was spared from violence until the closing days of the conflict. The city served with support in the form of manpower, services, and supplies.
Tuscaloosa was the site of one of the earliest Prisoner of War camps during the Civil War. Located deep in the heart of the Confederacy, it was thought that Yankee prisoners would have less chance of escaping north. After Bull Run, the first major battle of the war, prisoners were shipped to Tuscaloosa where they were housed in warehouses at the foot of River Hill and in the business district in the two brick buildings once located at the intersection of Greensboro Avenue and University Boulevard. Sergeant Henry Wirz, who would later oversee the Andersonville Prison in Georgia, commanded the prisons here.
Henry Wirz was born in Switzerland in 1823 and moved to the US in the late 1840s. He lived in the south, primarily in Louisiana, and became a physician. When the Civil War broke out, he joined the Fourth Louisiana Battalion. After the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, Wirz guarded prisoners in Richmond and was noticed by Inspector General John Winder. Winder had Wirz transferred to his department, and Wirz spent the rest of the war working with prisoners of war. In addition to commanding the prisons in Tuscaloosa; he escorted prisoners around the Confederacy; handled exchanges with the Union; and was wounded in a stagecoach accident. After returning to duty, he traveled to Europe and delivered messages to Confederate envoys. When Wirz arrived back in the Confederacy in 1864, he was placed in command of Andersonville Prison.
The first inmates began arriving at the Andersonville in February 1864 while it was still under construction. This facility became necessary after the prisoner-exchange system between the North and South collapsed in 1863 over disagreements about the handling of black soldiers. The stockade at Andersonville was hastily constructed using slave labor and was located in the Georgia woods near a railroad. The prison covered 16 acres of land, the prison was supposed to include wooden barracks. However the inflated price of lumber delayed construction and the Yankee soldiers imprisoned there lived under open skies, protected only by makeshift shanties called shebangs, constructed from scraps of wood and blankets. A creek flowed through the compound and provided water for the Union soldiers; however, this became a cesspool of disease and human waste.
Andersonville was intended to hold 10,000 men, but within six months more than three times that number were incarcerated there. The creek banks eroded to create a swamp, which covered a significant portion of the compound. Rations were inadequate, and at times half of the population was reported ill. Some guards brutalized the inmates and violence broke out between factions of prisoners.
On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate forces at Appomattox Courthouse ending the Civil War. The following month, Henry Wirz, the commander of Andersonville was arrested for the murder of soldiers incarcerated at the prison during the war.
Wirz oversaw an operation that housed about 45,000 soldiers; there are grave markers there for 13,714 for those inmates that died. Partly a victim of circumstance, he was given few resources with which to work. As the Confederacy began to dissolve, food and medicine for prisoners were difficult to obtain. When word about Andersonville leaked out, Northerners were horrified. Poet Walt Whitman saw some of the camp survivors and wrote, "There are deeds, crimes that may be forgiven, but this is not among them."
Wirz was charged with murder and conspiracy to injure the health and lives of Union soldiers. His trial began in August 1865 and ran for two months. During the trial, more than 100 witnesses were called to testify. In early November of 1865, the commission announced that it had found Wirz guilty of conspiracy as charged, along with 11 counts of murder. He was sentenced to death.
Just before he was executed by hanging in Washington, D.C., on November 10, 1865, Wirz reportedly said to the officer in charge, "I know what orders are, Major. I am being hanged for obeying them."
Wirz was hanged at 10:32 a.m. on November 10, 1865, at the Old Capitol Prison, the present-day site of the Supreme Court of the United States. His neck did not break from the fall, and the crowd of 250 spectators watched as he writhed and slowly suffocated. He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
Eleven days after the execution, it was revealed that the star witness from the trial had perjured himself. The witness was not held in the Anderson Prison but was actually a deserter from the 7th New York Volunteers.
Henry Wirz was one of only two men tried, convicted, and executed for war crimes during the Civil War.
To locate the final, gather information from the story.
33 12.7AB
87 34.2CD
A = The second digit in the date that Wirz was executed.
B = The number of letters in the name of the state that Wirz lived in before the Civil War.
C = The fourth digit in the year that Wirz was born.
D = The number of men executed for war crimes for actions during the civil war.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Chyy naq pngpu