The trial of Henry Wirz

Henry Wirz, a Swiss immigrant who settled in Lousiana before the civil war, had enlisted in the Confederate army and by 1864 held the position of Captain.
Captain Wirz was appointed commander of the POW camp at Andersonville, GA, after it was established in 1864.  Andersonville was the largest Confederate prison camp, holding at one time nearly 33,000 union prisoners.  Of the 45,000 prisoners who passed through the camp, nearly 13,000 died of diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, small pox, scurvy and hospital gangrene.  Wirz's conviction and ruthless murder through hanging as a "war criminal", ranks as one of the most, shameful, unjust, legal atrocities perpetuated in American history.  After failing to trace the Lincoln assassination to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the Judge Advocate General of the army tried to link President Davis, Robert E. Lee, Confederate secretary of war, James Seddon and Capt. Wirz to alleged war crimes at Andersonville.  Wirz was refused a trial by jury and was tried by a military commission.  13 specific murder allegations were made, and yet not a single name was given or mentioned of these alleged victims.  the prosecutors presented a parade of all the horrors in Andersonville and even attempted to use Wirz's letters as evidence against him but all that the letters proved was Wirz's requests for food and supplies for the poor prisoners.  Over 160 witnesses were called and 145 of them testified that they had no knowledge of Wirz ever killing or mistreating a prisoner.  1 prisoner gave the name of someone Wirz allegedly killed but the date of the "killing" didn't match those on the charges so the indictment was changed to match the testimony.  However, the prosecuting attorney, Cal Chipman, exerted an extraordinary control over the whole masquerade of a trial and refused to allow many witnesses to defend Wirz and for the defense to present crucial evidence to clear Wirz, stating that the evidence was "irrelevant" to the case.  In the end, Capt. Wirz was convicted on the "evidence" of a man called Feliz de la Baume who testified that he personally saw Capt. Wirz shoot prisoners.  He was given a commendation for his "zealous testimony" and was even given a job in the Department of the Interior.  After the trial ended de la Baume was identified by veterans of the 7th New York as a deserter and he was fired at which time he admitted to having committed perjury at the Wirz trial.  At the conclusion of the trial the defense was refused time to prepare their closing arguments and in frustration the last two defense attorneys quit, leaving the prosecution to present both their case unopposed.  And so it was, that on October 24th, 1865, Wirz was given a verdict of guilty and the brave Southern Captain was unjustly hung November 10th, 1865 at 10:32am.