Henry Wirz Executed for War Crimes in American Civil War (1865)
In 1864, Wirz, a Confederate officer, became superintendent of Georgia's Andersonville prison, officially known as Camp Sumter. Providing only makeshift shelters, the prison confined tens of thousands of Union soldiers and became notorious for conditions so appalling that 13,000 of them died. Wirz was later convicted of conspiring to murder prisoners and hanged, becoming the only person executed for war crimes committed in the American Civil War. What was Wirz's occupation before the war?