New photography by Pat Cagney captured with a digital camera.

Capt. Henrich (Henry) Hartmann Wirz While on Diplomatic Mission in Europe

Artist Unknown

CultureAmerican

Date1863?

MediumAlbumen print

DimensionsOverall: 3 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (8.9 x 5.7 cm)
Overall, Frame: 22 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (56.5 x 46.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of David L. Hack and Museum purchase, with funds from Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., by exchange

Object number98.32.266

Collections

Photography

Not on view

DescriptionThe David L. Hack Civil War Photography Collection. Photograph of a man in a suit with a long coat. There is barely visible a stool behind him while a wooden chair stands to the left side of the frame which his right hand rests on. This is from _Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War_ (Hack Collection No. 2].

Label TextUnknown American Captain Henrich (Henry) Hartmann Wirz (1822-1865) While on Diplomatic Mission in Europe, 1863 Albumen print on original mount 98.32.266 Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Wirz graduated from the University of Zurich, and obtained a medical degree from the colleges of Paris and Berlin. He was fluent in English, German, and Dutch. Immigrating to the United States in 1849, he settled first in Kentucky and later Louisiana, where he enjoyed a lucrative medical practice. When the war began he enlisted with the Louisiana Volunteers and at the Battle of Seven Pines, was severely wounded in his right arm. Promoted to Captain, his nearly useless arm rendered him unfit for battle. In the summer of 1863, President Jefferson Davis appointed Wirz a Special Minister and sent him to Europe carrying secret dispatches to Confederate Commissioners, in England and France. Wirz returned from Europe in January 1864 and began working in the prison department. After serving at prisons in Richmond and Tuscaloosa, Captain Wirz was ordered to take charge of Georgia's Andersonville Prison in April 1864. He was sentenced to death for atrocities committed while he was Commandant at Andersonville, and became the only confederate soldier to be executed after the war ended. Edited By: DS Edited Date: 01/2006Exhibition History"Civil War Photographs from the David L. Hack Collection and Civil War Redux: Pinhole Photographs by Willie Anne Wright," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, February 3 - October 29, 2006; Cape Fear Museum, Wilmington, NC, February 15 - May 28, 2007; Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV, July 26 - September 21, 2008