Why was henry wirz the only person executed for war crimes in the civil war?

Question

Why was henry wirz the only person executed for war crimes in the civil war?

Answer 1

I guess you don't classify the act of 'Spying' and being executed for that as a war crime????????

Answer 2

Wirz, the last Commandant of Andersonville, was, in most Historians opinions, a scapegoat. I am not defending anything that went on in that h**l hole, however, Wirz was an incompetent, bumbling, idiot Austrian who did not have the respect of those up HIS Chain of Command.

He DID make several futile attempts to get more food, medicine, clothing, basic human necessities..., but didn't. He was in competition with the Confederate Army which always won.

Wirz was a pompous ***, with a wound that never healed properly which caused him enormous pain which often clouded his judgment. His immediate Superior Officer often axed his requests before anyone else had a chance to see them. Wirz reached the point where he just didn't care, became obsessed with his wound and parading around in his fancy uniforms.

Wirz thought, initially, that his posting to Andersonville would be prestigious. Ha.

It is thought, and I agree, that Wirz was hanged to show the South that they couldn't get away with treating our men that way. They couldn't - but Henry Wirz was a small player in a much larger drama and THOSE guys got off scot free. The fact that he was Austrian - NOT American - didn't help.

Wirz was a s*****k and probably should have been hanged. But, if ALL War Criminals in the War of Southern Rebellion were hanged at Wars end it would have been a massacre and the Country would probably have devolved into Revolution and chaos.

Wirz was a s*****k.

He was a very bad "spy," of little worth. He was hanged for that which he did, and didn't do, at Andersonville.

Read the book.