Today Wirz’s arm and the first tow neck vertebrae are on
display at the National Museum of Medicine and Health located in Silver Spring , MD approx.
8 miles from Washington DC
From the museum’s web-site “The National Museum of
Health and Medicine was established during the Civil War as the Army Medical
Museum
Click this link for the museum's web site.
The trial of Wirz lasted from August 23, 1865 to October 18, 1865. In early
November 1865 he was found guilty.
An autopsy was deemed appropriate for the convicted man for
legal reasons and on November 9, 1865 the following orders were sent from JH
Taylor AAS to surgeons W. Thompson and RO Abbott for them to attend the
hanging.
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Wirz was hung the next day on November 10,1865 at 10:32 am. At the Old Capital prison inWashington
DC
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Head Quarters Dept of Washington.
Washington, November 9, 1865
Surgeon R.O. Abbott
Medical Director, Dept of Washington.
Sir, The major general commanding directs that Astt. Surgeons W Thomson and H Allen attend the execution of Henry Wirz at the Old Capital prison, November 10, 1865 between the hours of 10:30 and 11:30 A.M. and make such examination etc. as will be necessary. This will be authority for the admission of surgeons Thomson and Allen to the Old Capital prison.
Very respectfully Sir, I am your Obedt Servt.
JH Taylor AAG (Assitant Agentent General)
Wirz was hung the next day on November 10,1865 at 10:32 am. At the Old Capital prison in
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The complete letter containing the orders for the surgeon's to attend the hanging is shown below. After the hanging the following was written at the top.
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Douglas US General Hospital
Washington, DC
November 12, 1865
Report of the final examination of the body of Henry Wirz executed by hanging on November 10, 1865
On the bottom of the letter the following
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In accordance with the foregoing order we have the honor to respectfully submit the following report of the autopsy made upon the body of Henry Wirz, executed the 10th instant by hanging.
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According to the autopsy report Wirz’s arm showed no fracture and that he suffocated to death rather than having his neck broken.
The surgeon’s report dated November 12, 1865 starts by
discussing the rope used in the execution and which a portion was included. “The
rope used a portion of which will be found herewithin, was half an inch in
diameter” The use of the rope was adjusted “ the knot was adjusted under the
left ear.”
Wirz’s death was described “After the fall of the drop,
several slight shrugs of the shoulders, lasting for a few seconds were noticed:
after which the body remained quiet until fifteen minutes had elapsed when it
was lowered; life was pronounced extinct and it was removed to the hospital,
when these observation were made.”
Witz’s External Appearances were described as “The body was
that of a man about forty year old, well developed, muscular , from emaciation
and would weight about 160 pounds. There was no rigor mortis. No involuntary
execration of feces, urine or semen had taken place.”
The examination showed that Witz’s skull was removed. His
Thorax (chest cavity), Abdomen and right forearm was described in detail.
The conclusion of the autopsy stated “it would appear that
death resulted from afixia alone, due to the mechanical closure of the
airpassages”.
A list of items sent to the Surgeon General’s office
included a portion the neck bone , voice box, part of a muscle, and wirz’s
right arm.
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The autopsy report is below
In a note in the file Dated November 14, 1865
Dr. I have the honor to forward to museum a section of the rope
used in executing Herny Wiz on the 10th. Very Respectfully A. Allen.
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The medical museum referred to was located at the Ford’s theater Between 1866 and 1887, the
theatre was taken over by the U.S. military and served as a facility for the War Department with records kept on the first
floor, the Library of the Surgeon
General's Office on the
second floor, and the Army Medical Museum on the third. In 1887, the
building exclusively became a clerk's office for the War Department, when the
medical departments moved out.
Wirz was subsequently buried naked at the
grounds of the arsenal of the Old Capital Prison. His skull had been removed
and a union soldier had it on display. The wife and family of Wirz attempted to get
his body for proper Christian burial but the War department refused. Wirz was
buried with the remains of the Conspirators who shot Lincoln . Mrs. Surrat, Payne, Harold, Atzerodt
and Booth.
Subsequently around 4 years later what was left of Wirz was
reburied at Mount
Olivet
The following news article
from the Cleveland, Ohio Leader news paper dated March 4, 1869 gave account of the
facts of the reburial and pointed out that the Wirz family attorney Mr.
Schade stated that “President Grant gave
him an order for the whole, and not a dismembered trunk.”
It would seem that approx. 150 years later that the remains
of a veteran of the Confederate States of America should be properly buried. The need to keep Wirz's body parts as part of the autopsy report as evidence in his hanging has long since past especially because President Grant gave permission for the whole body to be reburied.
Recent news stories dealing with the bones of deceased soldiers and the desire to rebury their remains lends credence that Wirz's body parts be buried. A Fitting tribute would be for this to occur on the 150th anniversary of his hanging November 10, 2015.
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