Commission, convened in accordance with Special Orders No. 453, War Department, Adjutant-General's Office, Washington, August 23d, 1865, the following is written:
"And the said Wirz, still pursuing his wicked purpose and still aiding in carrying out said conspiracy, did use and cause to be used, for the pretended purpose of vaccination, impure and poisonous matter, which said impure and poisonous matter was then and there, by the direction and order of said Wirz, maliciously, cruelly and wickedly deposited in the arms of many of the said prisoners, by reason of which large numbers of them—to wit: one hundred—lost the use of their arms; and many of them—to wit: about the number of two hundred—were so injured that soon thereafter they died; all of which he, the said Henry Wirz, well knew and maliciously intended, and, in aid of the then existing rebellion against the United States, with the view of weakening and impairing the armies of the United States; and in furtherance of the said conspiracy, and with full knowledge, consent and connivance of his co-conspirators aforesaid, he, the said Wirz, then and there did."
Among the co-conspirators specified in the charges were the surgeon of the post, Dr. White, and the surgeon in charge of the military prison hospital, R. R. Stevenson, Surgeon C. S. A. As the vaccinations were made in accordance with the orders of the Surgeon-General, C. S. A., and of the medical officers acting under his command, the charge of deliberately poisoning the Federal prisoners with vaccine matter, is a sweeping one; and whether intended so or not, affects every medical officer stationed at that post; and it appears to have been designed to go farther, and to affect the reputation of every one who held a commission in the Medical Department of the Confederate army.
The acts of those who once composed the Medical Department of the Confederate army, from the efficient and laborious Surgeon-General to the regimental and hospital officers, need no defence at my hands. Time, with its unerring lines of historic truth, will embalm their heroic labors in the cause of suffering humanity, and will acknowledge their untiring efforts to ameliorate the most gigantic mass of human suffering that ever fell to the lot of a beleagured and distressed people.
The grand object of the trial and condemnation of Henry Wirz was the conviction and execution of President Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and other prominent men of the Confederacy, in order that "treason might be rendered forever odious and infamous."
In accordance with the direction of Dr. Samuel Preston Moore, formerly Surgeon-General, C. S. A., I instituted, during the months of August and September, 1864, a series of investigations on the diseases of the Federal prisoners confined in Camp Sumter, Andersonville, Georgia.
The report which I drew up for the use of the Medical Department of the Confederate army, contained a truthful representation of the sufferings of these prisoners, and at the same time gave an
