Hollywood Television Theater; The Andersonville Trial; Part 1

<v Announcer>The Advocates and the Forsyte Saga will not be seen tonight so that we may bring you the following special broadcast, these programs will return next week at the regularly scheduled times. The following program is made possible through a grant from the Ford Foundation. <v Henry Wirtz>As I have said, as I say for the last time, that was to me a military situation,. <v NP Chipman>But this was not a military situation most helpless unarmed men were not the enemy. No matter what was said, this was no longer a question of north and south. A question of a war, a question of human beings changes all that. The women who tried to bring the food to the starving men, they saw that. What was your conscience? <v Henry Wirtz>Burr!

<v NP Chipman>You lined his pockets along with ?inaudible? Back with his money and worth more than any- <v Henry Wirtz>You speak ?inaudible? In this room, if they can say in their hearts they would have done different if they had been to my place. Ask them. <v George C. Scott>Hello, I'm George C. Scott. It's my happy job this evening to give you an improvizational introduction to the Andersonville Trial, a play by Saul Levitt. I did it 10 years ago on Broadway as an actor. And I've directed it here for you tonight. I don't know how good it is as far as a directing assignment goes, but you're going to have to be the judge of that. The cast is splendid. The play is wonderful. It means a great deal to me. And I think it can mean something to you contemporaneously. It takes place 100 years ago. But what it says and what it means, I think you'll understand and I sincerely hope you'll enjoy it. And so the Andersonville Trial.

<v Court speaker>Aten-hut!

<v General Wallace>This military court convened by order of the war department is now in session. The lieutenant in charge is advised to post additional guards in the corridor. The lane is to be kept open at all times to the courtroom doors. <v Speaker 4>Yes, sir. <v General Wallace>I take it all concerned with these proceedings have signed the necessary allegiance to the government of the United States. <v Announcer>Yes, sir. <v General Wallace>Lieutenant Colonel NP Chipman for the War Department, Mr. Otis Baker for the defense. The defendant, Henry Wirtz, is to be tried by this military commission consisting of General Marks, General Thomas, General Geary, General Fessenden, General Belliard, Colonel Allcock, Colonel Stibbs and myself, General Wallace. As the defense, any objection to any of its members? <v Mr. Otis Baker>No objection.

<v General Wallace>Well. I don't see the defendant, the <v NP Chipman>Court, please. Captain Williams is here, will explain his absence. <v Captain Williams>Sir, regarding the defendant, he will be here shortly. <v General Wallace>Is he ill? <v Captain Williams>know, sir, he is temporarily indisposed following his attempt on his own life early this morning, which was quickly foiled by the ?inaudible? of the guards, sir, <v General Wallace>Mr Wirtz attempted to take his life? <v Captain Williams>Unsuccessfully, sir. <v General Wallace>Captain, you will explain to this court how such an attempt could have possibly occurred. <v Captain Williams>Yes, sir. Mr. Wirtz tried to slash his wrists after breaking a bottle. <v General Wallace>A bottle? <v Captain Williams>Yes, sir. A brandy bottle, which he received daily as a stimulant by order of Dr. Ford. <v General Wallace>This incident should not have happened. You are charged with custody of the prisoner. You will take the necessary steps to see it does not happen again. <v Captain Williams>Yes, sir. <v General Wallace>However, you say the prisoner is in condition to appear shortly? <v Captain Williams>Yes, sir. In a few minutes. And I will personally, according to this court. <v General Wallace>Thank you. That'll be all. <v Captain Williams>Yes, sir. <v General Wallace>I will now ask defense counsel to plead to the indictment in the absence of the defendant. <v Mr. Otis Baker>We would prefer that the court will permit that captain Wirtz to hear the charges against him directly.

<v General Wallace>This trial has been postponed several times. The court intends to proceed without further delay. Will counsel plead to the charge? <v Mr. Otis Baker>Counsel will plead. <v General Wallace>If the judge advocate is ready, the indictment will be read. <v NP Chipman>A charge criminal conspiracy to destroy the lives of soldiers in the United States in violation of the laws and customs of war. Specification, that Henry Wirtz, who was in charge of the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia, did keep in barbarously close confinement, federal soldiers up to the number of 40000 without adequate shelter against the burning heat of summer, the cold of winter and specification that said, Henry Wirtz and carrying out this conspiracy did not provide the prisoners of war with sufficient food, clothing and medical care, causing them to languish and die with a number of more than fourteen thousand. Specification that he established a line known as the deadline that instructed the prison guard station on the walls of the prison stockade to fire upon and kill any prisoner who might pass. Beyond that deadline specification, let me use bloodhounds to hunt down, seize and mangle escaping prisoners of war and throw these various causes, bringing about the deaths of about 50 federal soldiers. Their names unknown. Specification through direct order and or by his own hand, brought about the murder of 13 prisoners. Their names unknown <v General Wallace>Mr. Baker pleading for the prisoner. How do you plead to the charge?

<v Mr. Otis Baker>We depose a motion that this military court discharge itself as being without proper jurisdiction. Now that the war is over. <v NP Chipman>This court has jurisdiction with the full powers of the president, which are still in force. It is well known the die hard rebel officers still refuse to lay down their arms officially. And in fact, the war continues. Move to deny <v General Wallace>Motion is denied <v Mr. Otis Baker>Motion to postpone on the grounds of potential witnesses who in more normal time might speak for the defendant, refused to do so for fear of that being misunderstood as signifying support for the late Confederacy. <v NP Chipman>If Mr. Baker's witnesses can in good conscience sign the oath of loyalty to the government of the United States, they have nothing to fear. <v Mr. Otis Baker>The court is aware that temper of the times it has only been four short months since Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. <v General Wallace>Mr. Baker will leave that name out of this trial. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln's presence is felt in this room and his murder is felt in this room. And it swells a charge of murder against the defendant, a gigantic size. <v General Wallace>Which the Southern causes responsible defense counsel will not carry Mr. Lincoln's tragic death to his advantage here.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>My general concern is that the indictment leaves out Captain Wirtz's his military superiors making him the single target of the national mood of vengeance against the South. <v General Wallace>That will be all, Mr. Baker. The motion is denied now if you have no further motion. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I do. As the specifications alleging the charge of murder and abetting murder against certain persons moved to strike. And since no persons are named. <v NP Chipman>This counsel cannot, with its motions, dispose of the horror of fourteen thousand unknown dead, dumped into unmarked graves at Andersonville. Better records were kept of bales of cotton, moved to ?inaudible? <v Mr. Otis Baker>Will the judge advocate, tell us where accurate prison records were kept during the war? The judge advocate owes me common courtesy here. A person accused of crimes punishable by death is entitled to a proper defense. <v NP Chipman>We know what is being defended here. Counsels political motives are well understood. <v General Wallace>This exchange will stop. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I only remind the judge advocate that he is now in a court of law and no longer on the battlefield. He behaves as if the horror of war was not universal. No other designers had its Andersonvilles. <v General Wallace>The government of the United States is not on trial here, Mr. Baker.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>That remains to be seen. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Baker. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Meaning no offense to the court. That remark stated in full would have been. That remains to be seen through the testimony that will be offered here. I was referring to what the record will show. <v General Wallace>So the court is not misled. Mr. Baker, in the future, you will exercise care in your remarks to this court. The motion is denied. <v Court attendant>?inaudible? to the court. <v General Wallace>If you have no further motions, I will order the defendant to plead to the charge. <v Mr. Otis Baker>No further motions. But if it please the court, we have made a special request of the judge advocate on behalf of the defendant, which he has apparently forgotten. <v NP Chipman>It has been requested that the defendant be allowed to recline on the sofa during the proceedings on his claim of great pain and weakness due to a so-called war wound. <v Henry Wirtz>Not so-called colonel. I was a soldier in the line. I was honorably wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines. <v NP Chipman>The defendent is not the only man in this room to bear the scars of war. <v Henry Wirtz>I will not be slandered. <v General Wallace>Permission is granted for the prisoner to recline during the proceedings and he will now plead. <v Henry Wirtz>I thank you. I would like to make a statement, sir, as-.

<v General Wallace>You will be given an opportunity to do so. Mr. Wirtz. <v Henry Wirtz>As to my attempt on my own life this morning, if the court is interested. <v General Wallace>Very well, make your statement. <v Henry Wirtz>It was not guilt of conscience that drove me to that. I have no guilt of conscience, none whatsoever. <v General Wallace>If that's all you have to say, Mr. Wirtz. <v Henry Wirtz>Few words more sir, I calmly sized up the situation as a soldier. As I see it, I have simply no. No chance whatsoever, and I decided not to give the government-. <v General Wallace>That'll be all Mr. Wirtz. <v Henry Wirtz>One of the matters-. <v General Wallace>That will be all. <v Henry Wirtz>Then the court will not permit me to mention a personal matter which should be of concern to this court. <v General Wallace>Very well. What is it? <v Henry Wirtz>I write letters to my family and I do not know if they are received. <v General Wallace>The court has nothing to do with the mails. Mr. Wirtz. Possibly your letters are delayed. After all, conditions are still unsettled. <v Henry Wirtz>I was taken from the midst of my family without warning and under the eyes of my children arrested. I do not care what the newspapers call me. Let them call me the butcher of Andersonville. But what my children know that is important to me. I have the right to present myself to my children as I wish I had the right. It is a cruelty that I do not know if my letters are received.

<v General Wallace>If you wish, Mr. Wirtz, we will see to it that your letters go to your home by military packet. <v Henry Wirtz>I thank the court most kindly. They have been most considerate of the medical care, the spiritual comfort of the priest who is permitted to visit me daily and vice president the court has been most kind. All that is wanted of me is my life. <v NP Chipman>The court, make due allowance for the strain that the defendant is obviously under. The defense counsel must share guilt with the prisoner for that outburst. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Everything is conspiracy in the eyes of the judge advocate. I am not here to make your case as much as you would like.

<v NP Chipman>I would like you to-. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I would like to remind you that normal courtroom behavior that normal, that normal courtroom behavior calls the outward appearance. I don't care what you think. That one's opponent is acting in good faith. <v NP Chipman>I cannot assume so, since I know where you stand. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And where is that, sir. <v NP Chipman>Side of those who secretly oppose this government when I was fighting for its life, who pays you here? <v Mr. Otis Baker>Not the government. <v NP Chipman>Not this government, but the remnants of that other still active. <v Mr. Otis Baker>The judge advocate is suspicious of my politics and wants to know who pays me. If the court will permit, I will apply to judge advocate. I am paid by a committee formed to defend Captain Wirtz. I take my cases where I find them subject to one condition that I must feel that is a shade, the smallest shade of doubt as to a man's guilt. Regarding my politics in my home city of Baltimore, city of divided loyalties some held that I was an enemy to the Confederate side because I felt that slavery was not worth dying for, since it is an unworkable institution, doomed for extinction anyway. And then there were there were others who who suspected me of being lukewarm as to the glorious future that would follow a northern victory. Colonel might make his own position clear. <v NP Chipman>It was natural for me to go to war against a cause that you wish to perpetuate human bondage, and I am here in the service of the union seeking justice for those men barbarously murdered by that Southern cause. I am personally involved here. Mr. Baker, if you are not

<v Mr. Otis Baker>As a lawyer, as a clerk under orders to process work through to the hangman. As I thought, we can make the full charge. <v General Wallace>Well, I take it, gentlemen, are through. Under military law, we could, of course, dispense with defense counsel. The defendant would not have to be present in this case, could be heard in a small room. But the government has seen fit to set it here in a court of claims and before an audience conceding the temper of the times and the emotions of all parties, we intend to hold this trial within bounds. I do not further advise the testing of the power of this court to maintain order. Now, the defense counsel has stated he has no further motions. I will now order the defendant to plead to the charge prisoner. How do you plead? <v Mr. Otis Baker>The prisoner enters a plea of not guilty to the charge and all the specifications.

<v General Wallace>The judge advocate may summon his first witness,. <v NP Chipman>General charge of criminal conspiracy we summon Mr. DT Chandler. <v Henry Wirtz>Mr. Baker, you have all the necessary documents. Yes, including the evidence that I allowed the youngest northern prisoners out on parole. You remember, I let them out to pick blackberries. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I know. I know. <v Henry Wirtz>It will no good that I must die ?inaudible? I must die. The real crime I have committed here. Do you know what it is? Of course. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well? <v Henry Wirtz>That I chose the losing side. <v NP Chipman>Before we begin with the state, briefly, the rules of evidence apply in cases of criminal conspiracy. The evidence of a common design is sufficient to convict. And we will prove that such a common design existed at Andersonville to which the defendant willingly lent himself. Mr. Chandler, what were you employed in the 1864? <v DT Chandler>I served in the Army of the Confederacy, the Lieutenant Colonel. <v NP Chipman>What was your official function?

<v DT Chandler>I was assigned by the war office to inspect and report on all of the military prisoners maintained by the Confederacy. <v NP Chipman>Were you at any time in the Andersonville military stockade at Sumter County, Georgia? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. There had been civilian reports forwarded to Richmond. <v NP Chipman>How long were you there? <v DT Chandler>Two weeks. <v NP Chipman>I asked you, Mr. Chandler, if this is a fair map of the Andersonville Stockade. <v DT Chandler>Yes, it is. <v NP Chipman>Will you describe its dimensions, its area? <v DT Chandler>The longside a thousand feet, not so eight hundred feet from east to west, comprising an area of about 16 acres of ground. <v NP Chipman>What was the nature of the terrain <v DT Chandler>Sentry earth, ?inaudible? <v NP Chipman>Was this the condition of the terrain in advance of it being a site for the camp? <v DT Chandler>No, sir. It was originally part of a section of Pinewoods. <v NP Chipman>And what can you tell us about the climate in that part of Georgia? I refer now to extremes of temperature, summer heat, winter cold. <v DT Chandler>In July and August. It can be quite hot, over a hundred degrees. Winter's, near freezing, rainy.

<v NP Chipman>And was this camp laid out with the provision for shelter of any kind? <v DT Chandler>No, sir. <v NP Chipman>Will you describe this outer stockade line? <v DT Chandler>That was a wall, some 15 to 20 feet high, made out of rough hewn timbers, and there was a platform run around the top of it and there were sentry boxes at intervals. <v NP Chipman>And this inner line? <v DT Chandler>That was a line of posts parallel to the outer line, about 25 feet inside of it. <v NP Chipman>It had a name didn't it? <v DT Chandler>The deadline. So called because if a prisoner went beyond it, he could be shot by the guard. <v NP Chipman>And this meandering line here? <v DT Chandler>Had to be the stream that ran through the camp entering under the west wall of the stockade, emerging under the east side <v NP Chipman>Its width and depth? <v DT Chandler>No more than a yard wide and a foot deep marshy areas around the stream.

<v NP Chipman>That marshy area could better be called a swamp, could it not? <v DT Chandler>A swamp yes. <v NP Chipman>Of what size? <v DT Chandler>150, 50 feet on either side of the stream, <v NP Chipman>Having a considerable oozy depth? <v DT Chandler>A person venturing to cross it might sink up to his waist. That would be the cookhouse, the burial yard, the dead house. That's the main entrance to the camp. <v NP Chipman>Thank you, Mr. Chandler. And that would you tell us something of the history of this camp? Will you state the circumstances under which it was established. <v DT Chandler>Toward the latter part of 63, all of the military prisons maintained by the Confederacy were overcrowded. The war office decided to create a new camp. <v NP Chipman>And who was responsible for its establishment? <v DT Chandler>General John H. Winder. <v NP Chipman>Now deceased? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>And what was his official function? <v DT Chandler>General Winder who was in charge of all of the military prisons for the Confederacy east of the Mississippi.

<v NP Chipman>You've stated that this site that the camp was located on was originally part a part of a Pinewood. But cutting down of every tree that could have provided shade, was General Winder responsible for that? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>So this site and the arrangements made for the care of the prisoners was known to and approved of by your office? <v NP Chipman>I don't know with what knowledge or approval the colonel knows how land the command works. <v NP Chipman>Wasn't it their responsibility? We will withdraw for the time being. Will you describe conditions at Andersonville as you observed them? <v DT Chandler>When I visited the camp, it was totally crowded with men in the area. <v NP Chipman>Giving each man how much space? <v DT Chandler>Perhaps thirty six square feet per prisoner. <v NP Chipman>Space equivalent to a cell six feet on each side. What else did you find at Andersonville?

<v DT Chandler>There was a general insufficiency of food, water and shelter. I think that would cover it. <v NP Chipman>I think not. When you say insufficiency of water. You mean that the available water supply for all purposes for drinking, cooking, washing came from that narrow brook? Isn't that so? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>And that stream at the same time was the repository for all waste matter, isn't that correct? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>So all waste matter from the camp was emptied into that street. Hmm. <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>The waste from the cook house, the bodily waste of the prisoners. <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>Turning that stream into a foul sluggish sink is that correct? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>And the foul stinking stream was the total water supply for forty thousand men. And that is what you mean by an insufficiency of water. Isn't that so?

<v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>And as for the insufficiency shelter. There was in fact no shelter. The men lived on bare ground winter and summer or dug themselves into the ground, into burrows. Isn't that correct? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>And as to the sort of clothing the men had, please be specific. <v DT Chandler>So some of the men were shirts and trousers. <v NP Chipman>You mean the newly arrived prisoners still have their shirts and trousers? The others, the vast number of them were in rags. Isn't that correct, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>You mean those men were in a state of nakedness or near nakedness under the terrible weather conditions you've just described? Isn't that correct, sir? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>Tell us about the food. <v DT Chandler>Mostly corn meal. <v NP Chipman>Fine, ground, or coarse? <v DT Chandler>Unbolted meal.

<v NP Chipman>Unbolted meat, meaning menial ground so coarse it was as good as swallowing a knife, but what it did to a man's insides, considering the weakened condition those men were in, isn't that correct, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>Did the man have any other sort of food besides the meal? <v DT Chandler>A bit of meat now and then. <v NP Chipman>What sort? <v DT Chandler>Certainly not very good. <v NP Chipman>Not very good. The soldiers had a joke about that meeting, their grim kind of soldiers joke to describe the meat that came from those sick and dying mules and horses. They told you that animal that meat came from had to be held up on its legs to be slaughtered. Isn't that correct. <v DT Chandler>Jokes of that kind, yes sir. <v NP Chipman>And you saw with your own eyes that it was a rotten maggot ridden meat. And that's what you mean when you say not very good. Isn't that correct? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>The conditions the men lived under drove them to extreme measures in order to survive is not so?

<v DT Chandler>Extreme. Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>To the point where they considered rats a delicacy. Is not correct? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>To the point where when one of them died, the others in the desperation they had been driven to strip the body clean of whatever was on it in five minutes. Boots, trousers, if there was any bread. Greenbacks to bribe the guards, anything in order to keep alive, is that correct, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>Driven in their desperation to the point of cannibalism. Isn't that correct, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>You were able to establish that for a fact in your mind, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>How? As delicately as you wish. <v DT Chandler>From the condition of some of the bodies, some very rough surgery had been performed.

<v NP Chipman>So in that place, men had been driven to the disposition of beasts. Isn't that so, Mr. Chandler? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>And if I were to sum up Andersonville as a pit, as an animal pit where men wallowed, the sick, the dying, the insane wallowing among the dead, would I exaggerate a picture of that place? <v DT Chandler>No. <v NP Chipman>Concerning what you saw there, you submitted a report with recommendations to General Winder and your office. Here's copy of the report. <v DT Chandler>This is the report. <v NP Chipman>Submitted into evidence. You say in this report that Andersonville is a blot on the Confederacy. You recommend that the prisoners be transferred to other prisons without delay and that Andersonville be closed down immediately. <v DT Chandler>Yes, I did.

<v Court speaker>Exhibit one for the government. <v NP Chipman>And this report was ignored. Was it not ignored? Disregarded the conditions allowed to remain. <v DT Chandler>Colonel, I didn't come here to indict the leaders of the cause for which I fought as plotting the murder of defenseless men. <v NP Chipman>Your report revealing how Winder and Wirtz were operating that camp was ignored. <v DT Chandler>I told you I could not endure Andersonville. But you people act like you were better human beings than we were. <v NP Chipman>No but our cause was. Your report was ignored . <v DT Chandler>Due to the crisis, the bitterness, the disorder, the General Sherman marching through Georgia, burning his way. <v NP Chipman>Your report was ignored. <v DT Chandler>As your officers would have ignored sir if it had been generally marching through Pennsylvania to New York. <v General Wallace>Chandler. <v DT Chandler>Difficult situation for me. <v General Wallace>Nevertheless, you will answer the question, the judge advocate will repeat the question and you will answer. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Chandler, your report on Andersonville was ignored, was it not? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir.

<v NP Chipman>Mr. Chandler, General Winder ever expressed to you his disposition towards the men? <v DT Chandler>When I spoke with General Winder, he had a hard and bitter feelings toward the men. <v NP Chipman>How did he express those feelings? <v DT Chandler>He finally said that if half of the men died would be twice as much room for those that were left in <v NP Chipman>The half that were slated for the grave were well on the way at Andersonville. Mr. Wirtz set up certain rules at the camp, rules pertaining to the punishment of prisoners attempting to escape, did you not? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>His command of the camp conforming to general Winder's inhuman disposition towards the men. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I must ask the judge advocate what he means by that suggestive, ambiguous phrase conforming to. <v NP Chipman>Withdrawn. Wirtz's rules at Andersonville. Were they rules violating the customs of war?

<v DT Chandler>Well, yes. <v NP Chipman>In addition, were they cruel and inhuman rules? <v DT Chandler>Yes. <v NP Chipman>Was Wirtz the personal choice by General Winder for superintendent of that camp? <v DT Chandler>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>That'll be all. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Colonel Chandler made a second report on Andersonville for the Confederate War office, did you not? <v DT Chandler>Yes, I did. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Is this a copy of that report? <v DT Chandler>That's the report. <v Court speaker>Submitted by the defense and to the evidence. Exhibit number one for the defense. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Colonel, in this report, which the judge advocate has failed to call attention, you recommend the dismissal of General Winder? <v DT Chandler>Yes, I do. <v Mr. Otis Baker>But not of Captain Wirtz. <v DT Chandler>No, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Why not? <v DT Chandler>The time I inspected Andersonville there was nothing in Captain Wirtzworth's conduct, malignant disposition toward the man that would justify my asking for his dismissal. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I noticed also in this report that you took various prisoners aside, urging them to speak freely to any instance of ill treatment by Captain Wirtz and that they had no complaints on that score.

<v DT Chandler>No, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>So that neither you nor the prisoners who are presumably being subjected to captain Wirtz's is cruel and inhuman treatment, blame him for it. Did you? <v DT Chandler>No, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>No more questions. Thank you. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Chandler. Very often, as you know, commanders are forewarned of inspection of dressup. That command in advance could have occurred in your case? <v DT Chandler>Perhaps. <v NP Chipman>And isn't it possible that the prisoners would fear the consequences of complaints against works? The men did not know which would still be there after you'd gone under the circumstances isn't it possible that the men would not answer you truthfully? <v DT Chandler>Possibly. I did the best I could with that. <v NP Chipman>But did Wirtz do the best he could under the circumstances? Despite Winder's orders, couldn't have chosen to. There are ways. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Ways of doing what? Evading the orders of his military superiors? Now, what is the judge advocate suggesting?

<v NP Chipman>Withdrawal. Thank you, Mr. Chandler. <v General Wallace>If there are no other questions. The witness may stand down the court thanks you, Colonel. <v NP Chipman>Shall we call Dr. John C. Bates. <v Court speaker>Dr. John C. Bates. <v Court speaker>Do you solemnly swear that the evidence that you shall give to the court shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. <v NP Chipman>Dr. Bates, were you in the service of the Confederate Army in 1864? <v Dr. Bates>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>Were you at any time inside the Andersonville Stockade? <v Dr. Bates>Yes, sir, for about eight months in 64. <v NP Chipman>What was your official function? <v Dr. Bates>As a medical officer assigned to the camp by the surgeon general. I can't say I asked for it <v NP Chipman>Sure not. Describe your activities there as physician.

<v Dr. Bates>Writing prescriptions for drugs that were not available, amputation or limbs due to gangrene. Quite a lot of that. Certifying the dead in my section every morning. <v NP Chipman>Did you at any time just stay there, make an estimate as to the rate of death in that place? <v Dr. Bates>Yes, I did. I had always kept a ledger book covering the ailments and treatment of my patients in civilian life, our farmers, their families, their horses too. And I decided to keep some sort of a record of that camp because I was deeply shocked by that place when I came here. <v NP Chipman>Would you please tell the court your estimate of the rate of death? <v Dr. Bates>Dduring the spring months of 50, 60, 70 men a day during periods of extreme heat during the summer, reaching 100 hundred men a day. More in May than April or in June and in May, and during July, August and September, three thousand men a month were dying. <v NP Chipman>And what were the principal causes of that higher rate of death?

<v Dr. Bates>Oh, lack of sanitary facilities, lack of exercise and the anemia of the men due to lack of food, rendering them subject to fatal illness from the slightest abrasion or infection, the lack of medical supplies. <v NP Chipman>Dr. Bates, in your professional opinion, the thousands who died at Andersonville, how many would have lived if conditions had at least been sanitary? <v Dr. Bates>I would estimate 75, 80 percent and ten to eleven thousand of those fourteen thousand men. Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>Can you think of any sanitary measures which you have taken at Andersonville would have saved lives? <v Dr. Bates>Yes, sir. <v NP Chipman>Did any of you suggest these measures to Mr Wirtz? <v Dr. Bates>Yes, sir, myself, probably others. <v NP Chipman>And what did he say? <v Dr. Bates>He said I was a doctor and didn't understand his difficulties in running a huge camp like that. He was downright incoherent. He me for a Yankee sympathizer, cursing me out in English, German and some other foreign dialect. <v Henry Wirtz>French. That was French.

<v General Wallace>Keep in mind, Mr Wirtz, that your situation here is not amusing. <v Henry Wirtz>And I cannot explain it to myself or to God. Why I have this feeling to laugh when I hear how I killed all those men. Perhaps the court can explain. <v General Wallace>Do not play the clown here. Continue, Colonel. <v NP Chipman>Only one more question. On a not so humorous occasion when you spoke to words and he complained to you of the difficulties of his job, did you understand him to mean difficult administratively or difficult humanly? <v Dr. Bates>Mr Wirtz dwelt on his own difficulty, not to men. <v NP Chipman>That will be all.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Dr. Bates. Dr. Bates, you regard yourself as a fair minded man, do you not, Doctor? <v Dr. Bates>I do. The fact that <v Mr. Otis Baker>The fact you disliked Captain Wirtz hasn't influenced your testimony in any way, has it? <v Dr. Bates>No, I have not. <v Mr. Otis Baker>But you did dislike him. <v Dr. Bates>Well, not so as to influence my professional objective opinion. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I now address myself to the professional objective side of your doctor and strictly to that side, so far as you know, by whose authority was the amount of food per prisoner decided on? <v Dr. Bates>Commissary general enrichment, I believe. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And not by Captain Wirtz and by whose authority was the amount and type of medical supplies to the camp decided on. <v Dr. Bates>The surgeon general. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And not by Captain Wirtz. He was responsible neither for the lack of food or the inadequate medical supplies?

<v Dr. Bates>I would have to agree. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You would have to agree. You don't want to agree, but you would have to agree. Is that what you mean? You seem seem to have found Captain Wirtz rather callous towards the condition of the prisoners, doctor. <v Dr. Bates>This was my honest impression. <v Mr. Otis Baker>We are all entitled to our honest impressions Dr. I seem to recall you're saying a few minutes ago how shocked you were at the higher rate of death at Andersonville Prison when you came there, deeply shocked. Well, one can understand how unnerving that would be, Doctor, that was in what month, by the way? <v Dr. Bates>In February. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You had to face that unnerving scene day after day, month after month. Oh. It's difficult to understand how you could do that, Dr.. <v Dr. Bates>Well, sir, I had to steel myself gradually, the shock of it became bearable.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>I'm curious, Doctor, how gradually did your your feeling of shock lessen? Well, for example, how do you react to the dying? By June, let us say? <v Dr. Bates>Not as much. <v Mr. Otis Baker>By September? <v Dr. Bates>Even less. <v Mr. Otis Baker>So that by September, when, as you said, three thousand men per month were dying, you hardly reacted at all. <v Dr. Bates>I meant I had grown accustomed to seeing-. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Any human being to save his sanity would have to do that. So that Captain Wirtz's callousness in that place wasn't so strange after all, was it, Doctor? <v Dr. Bates>Yeah, my impression of Mr. Wirtz remains the same despite that.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Thank you, Doctor. That'll be all. <v NP Chipman>Dr. Bates do you recall one single instance and conversing with words when he made any criticism of the orders or disposition of his superiors. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Objection. How I find that a strange question to be asked by our counsel for the war department himself a soldier. Is it being held against Captain Wirtz that he did not make a public judgment of the motives of his military superiors? <v General Wallace>The court must agree Wirtz was not bound to comment on the orders of his military superiors. <v NP Chipman>If it please the court, we're concerned here with the frame of mind of a man carrying out the opinion who designed this. We are bound to explore his his thinking when he obeyed those orders. <v Mr. Otis Baker>His thinking when he obeyed those orders. And if he did like those orders, what was he supposed to do, disobey them? If conscience is a measure by which a soldier obeys or disobeyed, then we could hardly condemn the army officers who went over to the Confederacy since they did so on the grounds of conscience and on that ground of conscience. Robert E. Lee deserves a monument.

<v General Wallace>That'll be all, Mr. Baker, I am certain it was not in the mind of the judge advocate to raise the issue of disobedience to a superior officer. <v NP Chipman>In certain circumstances, that issue may require consideration. <v General Wallace>Well, Colonel, the court, of course, is not suggesting a line of inquiry the judge advocate is to take here, but the court will say it is disposed to draw its own inference as to a criminal design from evidence of the defendant's words and acts, and not from an examination of moral factors which can lead us into a bottomless pool of philosophic debate. I am certain that judge advocate will agree and that he will withdraw that question as to whether or not which criticized his superior officer <v NP Chipman>Order is withdrawn. Dr. Bates. You never grew so accustomed to that place as to forget your human obligations as manager, you manage your daily business to bring food to those starving men, of course, and there was plenty of food in the region of Andersonville to draw on if we wish to bring it in. The yield of green vegetables in the region of Andersonville was considerable, isn't it?

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Is Dr. Bates put forward as qualified to testify on the agricultural situation? <v NP Chipman>Withdrawn if the court please. We'd like to change the order of witnesses. We'd like now to call a witness better qualified to speak with accuracy on the available food supply in the region of Andersonville. <v General Wallace>Does defense counsel offer objection to a change in the government witnesses? <v Mr. Otis Baker>Not at all. <v NP Chipman>We call Ambrose Spencer to the stand. Thank you, Dr Bates. You may step down. <v Mr. Otis Baker>We thank the witness. Thank you. Dr. Bates. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Spencer, where do you reside?

<v Ambrose Spencer>I reside in the town of Americans in Sumter County. <v NP Chipman>What is your occupation? <v Ambrose Spencer>I operate a plantation. That county corn, cotton, tobacco. <v NP Chipman>Is that plantation in the proximity to the Andersonville site? <v Ambrose Spencer>Practically bordering. <v NP Chipman>Then you are in a position to know as well as any man the yield of grain and vegetables in the region of Andersonville. <v Ambrose Spencer>I would say so. <v NP Chipman>What can you tell us of the yield in the years 1863 and 1864? <v Ambrose Spencer>Both good years, Sumter and the adjoining county, Macon, I may point out, a part of a very productive area sometimes in the Garden of the Confederacy. <v NP Chipman>We have some details as to the yield. <v Ambrose Spencer>Corn averaged about eight bushels of wheat, six. Now that's the general average. But we have land that is up to produce as much as thirty five bushel vegetables. Well, there was an uncommon amount during the war since that was so little cotton planted, practically all the ground was put into provisions, you see. <v NP Chipman>And if Mr. Wirtz had solicited food for the prisoners from the neighboring farms and plantations, what do you think would have happened? <v Ambrose Spencer>He would have gotten it.

<v NP Chipman>How can you be so certain of that? <v Ambrose Spencer>The proof says that without it being solicited, there were people in the vicinity who came forward and made an effort to get food into that camp. But in one case, a group of women in Americus said, including my wife made that attempt. <v NP Chipman>Will you tell the court on that occasion? <v Ambrose Spencer>Well, some of the ladies thought it would be the Christian thing to do, having heard that the prisoners were doing so poorly. Now they're paid enough food through contributions to fill four wagons and have them driven. <v NP Chipman>How large were the wagons? <v Ambrose Spencer>Four of the largest farm wagons that we can find, each required for the six horses pulling a load of how much food for the prison or maybe trying to turn. <v NP Chipman>Please continue. <v Ambrose Spencer>They had those wagons driven right up to the gate of the stockade, most of which was at the gate when the ladies arrived. He would not permit the food to be brought in case those women he told them they were giving aid and comfort to the enemy that the Yankees were unlawfully invading and looting the South and that those women were traitors. And worse, he used violent and profane language I've ever heard in a man's mouth. He said that if he had his way, he would have a certain kind of a house built for those women and he'd have them all put in there by Confederate soldiers, would teach them a lesson in loyalty, in a hurry, a teach to him in a way they wouldn't forget. <v NP Chipman>Yes, we understand the remark. These women were turned away by Mr. Wirtz from giving food to starving men.

<v Ambrose Spencer>Yes. So they were turned away and they wept. <v NP Chipman>And if Mr. Wirtz had solicited food on Christian grounds and on behalf of the good name of the Confederacy, you think that would have brought in large amounts? <v Ambrose Spencer>I'm certain the people of Georgia would have responded, yes. <v NP Chipman>You knew the defendent, do you not? <v Ambrose Spencer>Quite well. <v NP Chipman>And you knew General Winder as well? <v Ambrose Spencer>Knew him too. <v NP Chipman>From your knowledge, what can you tell us about General Winder disposition towards the prisoners <v Ambrose Spencer>When they came there? Once Winder said that the Yankees had come south to take possession of the land and he was endeavoring to satisfy them by giving them each a small plot. Part of the gravesite. <v NP Chipman>Did you ever hear Wirtz express himself along similar lines? <v Ambrose Spencer>But I can tell you that he stated that he wished all old men and hell boasted that he was killing more Yankees at the Andersonville than Lee was at Richmond. <v NP Chipman>You heard those remarks? <v Ambrose Spencer>Yes. To wipe out all those man, that that was the scheme. <v Ambrose Spencer>That'll be all. <v Henry Wirtz>That was my scheme you said, to wipe out all those men on my head. All those men were. I was a man like-.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Mr Baker. You will please restrain the defendant. <v Henry Wirtz>Who will understand an ordinary man like me. <v General Wallace>. Please restrain[audio file clips]. <v Henry Wirtz>My boys. I saved them and now I am ?inaudible? <v Court speaker>A bottle of brandy in the back. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I ask for a postponement. <v General Wallace>?inaudible? <v Another general>A fainting spell, General, from which he recovers, he's lacking in strength and suffers from strength, but he should be able to continue, I suppose. <v General Wallace>Mr. Baker, this trial must go on. <v Mr. Otis Baker>If the court please. <v General Wallace>No use Mr. Baker. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well, the open bias of the witness is a case in point. I need not remind this court of the bitterness in our time.

<v General Wallace>It is no use, Mr. Baker. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Even the sight of a tattered Confederate blouse is causing a riot in the streets. Here is charge. <v General Wallace>We are not empowered to move this trial into the next century. This trial will continue. You will make it clear to the defendant that should there be another demonstration here in this courtroom, he will be tried in absentia. <v Henry Wirtz>In absentia, Latin for absence. I understand all languages, but the language of this trial. <v Mr. Otis Baker>This court has suffered sufficient provocation to send Captain Wirtz in the room. But I suggest that it does not. <v General Wallace>You suggest we do not-. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Since it is not. He alone in this room was stripped out and naked hatred and anger. <v General Wallace>You counsel will cross examine or stand down. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Counsel will cross-examine. Now, Mr. Spencer, you don't regard yourself as prejudiced against Captain Wirtz, do you? <v Ambrose Spencer>I don't. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And why is it that you have chosen to leave out of that touching tale about those women bringing food to that camp? The fact that General Winder was there at the time and it was he ordered that food kept out. Yes. Why you would that I mean, get in a cab together with those other civilians. When you heard General Winder say loudly and emphatically that that food was not going to be brought in. <v Ambrose Spencer>Wirtz would not have tried.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Answer the question, why didn't you say so? <v Ambrose Spencer>Well, I wasn't asked. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You weren't asked. Motion to dismiss Mr. Spencer's testimony as irrelevant and that it offers nothing more than the fact that Captain Wirtz was carrying out a direct order. <v NP Chipman>Move denied. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Will, the judge advocate for denial. Is he saying that Captain Wirtz should have defied those direct orders of general Winders? <v NP Chipman>Will you deny it was an inhuman order, which he should have disobeyed? <v General Wallace>Defense motion is denied. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Of course it is denied. It is now plain enough to know why the government has chosen to try Captain Wirtz on a conspiracy charge. On that charge, the accused may be convicted without any direct evidence against him. <v General Wallace>Mr. Baker. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And if there is a conspiracy, it is one that is directed against Captain Wirtz. And I say now that the motive and framework for trial here disarm the government of the United States and contradicting its own military code, the army will have that man despite the fact that he was doing his duty. <v General Wallace>Are you through, Mr. Baker? <v Mr. Otis Baker>I am through.

<v General Wallace>You have been in contempt since the beginning of that outburst. This court will consider a formal charge against you. You are dismissed from this proceeding forthwith and you will immediately leave this room. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Let Captain Wirtz be without counsel so that this trial may be judged for what it is. <v General Wallace>Escort Mr. Baker from the room. <v Henry Wirtz>I appeal the court, I will have no counsel. No counselman. It makes no difference. <v NP Chipman>I respectfully request the court, the court has borne the provocative behavior from the defense counsel with the utmost patience. I urge that Mr. Baker be allowed to purge himself of contempt if he so wishes. I pray that the magnanimity of the court may extend itself so that not even in the wildest misrepresentation of this trial can it be said that that defendant was denied counsel of his choice. <v General Wallace>Mr. Baker. On the single reason that Mr. Wirtz may have counsel of his choice, you may purge yourself of contempt if you so wish, you may do so by recanting those remarks, impugning the integrity of the government and army of the United States. By apologizing to this court and by giving us your solemn oath, such outburst will not occur again.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>I do so recount and apologize and give my oath. But I will not hereafter impugn the fairness of this court or the motives of the government and the army of the United States. Thank you. <v General Wallace>The judge advocate. General, are we through with this witness? <v NP Chipman>Yes. <v General Wallace>Witness may step down. Call your next witness, Col. <v NP Chipman>Yes sir. <v Court speaker>On the specification that the defendant should keep in barbarously close confinement, soldiers numbering at times 40 thousand men without adequate shelter from the rain and the heat of summer and the cold winter.

<v Announcer>The Hollywood Television Theater's production of the Andersonville trial continues following Station Identification. The Hollywood television theater continues with the Andersonville trial. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Davidson, Captain Wirtz knew the dogs tore and killed prisoners of war, didn't he?

<v Davidson>Commonly known. Yes. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Davidson, did you ever see a prisoner of war torn by dogs, I mean, on occasion when Mr. Wirtz was president? <v General Wallace>Colonel Chipman the court does not wish to exclude pertinent testimony, but we have heard a great number of former Andersonville prisoners. <v NP Chipman>Of course, we call one of those witnesses we think necessary and necessary, and we cannot altogether control the amount of time required for a thorough examination. <v General Wallace>Does the judge advocate hope, as he stated yesterday, to conclude this afternoon? <v NP Chipman>Yes, we will make every effort. <v General Wallace>Continue colonel. <v NP Chipman>Thank you, sir. The question is did you ever see a prisoner of war torn by dogs with Wirtz present? Well, tell us about this incident. <v Davidson>Saw that after tunneling out of the stockade with another prisoner. Dogs treated. Guards ordered us down. Dogs tore my companion. <v NP Chipman>And where was Wirtz?

<v Davidson>Rode up a minute after that pack of dogs retreated. Yelling Get those Yankee bastards. I beg your pardon? <v NP Chipman>And what was Wirtz doing while the dogs tore your companion? <v Davidson>Damning him to hell. His eye started out of his head like a ?inaudible? <v NP Chipman>Can you think of another instance? <v General Wallace>Colonel, the court repeats, it does not need to hear further evidence, corroborating facts alleged many times <v NP Chipman>Captain, his presence on occasion with dogs, not only tore prisoner of war, will actually kill him. <v General Wallace>Yes. Will the government conclude this afternoon? <v General Wallace>Yes sir. So the question is, Mr. Davidson, of an instance where the dogs not only tracked down a prisoner of war, but actually killed them and of course, Captain Wirtz was present. You heard my question? <v Davidson>Yes.

<v NP Chipman>Well. <v Davidson>I don't like to talk about that place called. <v NP Chipman>State the circumstances. <v Davidson>Was this time a man from my prison squad escaped, but then we'd heard he'd been captured by the dogs, <v NP Chipman>But you actually saw him being brought back to the stock? <v Davidson>Yes, it. First in the gate to Captain Wirtz on the big grey he rode. Then two guards with this man in between them. They was holding them up, letting them go once he was inside the gate. He fell down. His legs was tore through the open. Flesh torn about the legs and his neck. <v NP Chipman>Did he get up or did he just lie there? <v Davidson>Made as if to get up and lay back. He didn't move after that.

<v NP Chipman>And where was Wirtz during all this? <v Davidson>Right there. <v Speaker>Right where? <v Speaker>Like I said. <v Davidson>We will hear it again, please, Mr. Davidson. <v Davidson>Like I said, he rode in, the man fell down, Captain Wirtz rode around, looking down at him, reining in his horse, which is skittering and. That was a horse with a temper. And then he rode back out to camp. <v NP Chipman> That'll be all. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Mr. Davidson, we won't take long sir. At first instance, you described when you were making your escape attempt, you say that Captain Wirtz yelled urging on those dogs that were turning in your companion. <v Davidson>Yes.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Mr. Davidson, any time in your career, have you ever yelled? Get those rebel bastards. <v Davidson>I guess so. <v Mr. Otis Baker>What was it that Captain Wirtz yelled? <v Davidson>Get those Yankees. That was different. <v Mr. Otis Baker>How different? <v Davidson>Well, he meant for those dogs to tear them, and I saw them do that. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You were close enough to see that? <v Davidson>Yes, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well, how close would you say Mr. Davidson? <v Davidson>10, 15. 15 feet away, maybe no more than from here to there. <v Mr. Otis Baker>How can you say, Mr. Davidson, those dogs, those ferocious dogs didn't attack you, can you account for that? Can you think of any reasons, Mr. Davidson? <v Davidson>I wouldn't know why.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Well, now, since you admit that those ferocious dogs did not attack you, shall I understand that you were completely unhurt when you were brought back to the camp? <v Davidson>Oh, no, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You were bruised as a result of rushing pell-mell through those swamps, weren't you? <v Davidson>Yes. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Bloodied a bit, too, from all that run and stumbling against rocks. <v Davidson>Yes, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Yes. And from those bramble bushes and those whipping branches in a dead cypress trees, some of them pointed as knives. <v Davidson>Yes. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well, that would bruise and bloody any man trying to beat a pursuit through a Georgia swamp, wouldn't it? <v Davidson>I guess so. <v Mr. Otis Baker>So in that second instance you spoke of and you saw that man brought back to the stockade and you saw those marks on which you say were caused by dogs. Could they have been caused by his rushing headlong through that swamp, as yours were? <v Davidson>That man was torn by dogs. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Now, Mr. Davidson, you didn't see him being torn by dogs, did you? <v Davidson>It was commonly known though.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Many things are commonly known. So could you identify the marks on that man as being indisputably caused by dogs? <v Davidson>He was bitten by the dogs and he died. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Possibly. How long did you remain at that spot after that man? You don't know his name do you Mr. Davidson? <v Davidson>No sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well how long did you remain there after that man fell out? <v Davidson>Three, five minutes. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Did you have an occasion to look back that way later on? <v Davidson>Sometime later, yes. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Was he still lying there? <v Davidson>No, no, he's taken off to the dead house. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Or to the sick ward. Mr. Davidson, you can't really say for sure that that man died as a result of being mutilated by dogs, and you can't identify him, isn't that correct? <v Davidson>Sir. Please. I got to go back home.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Captain Wirtz riding around that man without a word. That sounds mighty unfeeling. You wouldn't happen to know if Captain Wirtz notified the guard at the gate to have that man move, would you? <v Davidson>I've got to go home, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>No more questions, thank you, Mr. Davidson. <v NP Chipman>Captain Wirtz openly showed his contempt and hatred of those men brought back, didn't he? Those men torn and and killed by those dogs. <v Davidson>I don't know.

<v NP Chipman>You don't know. Captain Wirtz coldly sitting as horse horse, indifferent to that man brought back to that? <v Davidson>I can't say for sure how he felt. <v NP Chipman>But those were marks of teeth and claws you identified on his body weren't they? <v Davidson>I guess so. <v NP Chipman>Well, you were quite sure of that at one time. You also said that he died, that he lay there, that the fly set on his face, he made the move to to brush them off. And Captain Wirtz, looking on looking on a dying man. <v Davidson>I don't remember. <v NP Chipman>All I'm asking you to repeat is what you've already sworn to under oath, Mr. Davidson, that his attitude was monstrously cold and indifferent to those dying man. <v Davidson>Let me be Colonel, please. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Davidson I'm warning you. <v Davidson>I've got to forget that place. <v NP Chipman>Or has it been suggested that you forget that place. <v General Wallace>Colonel Chipman. I think the witnesses through. Are you now ill, Mr. Davidson?

<v Davidson>Yes. I've got pains. <v General Wallace>And you've told us about the incident as well as you can now recall. Is that correct? <v Davidson>Yes. <v General Wallace>How old are you, Mr. Davidson? <v Davidson>Nineteen sir. <v General Wallace>I believe you said you fought with a second Vermont Cavalry, <v Davidson>2nd Vermont Cavalry. Yes. We turned their flanks many times. <v General Wallace>Well you may now go home, Mr. Davidson, and this court wishes you godspeed and recover in good health and and then forget what you've endured in war and in prison.

<v Davidson>Yes. Thank you, sir. Could be, could be those dogs didn't tear me for the same reason Daniel was not torn in the lion's den. It was many died in that place. Many died. I had dogs being at night. I hear voices cry out help. Help. No one to help. Many died. Many, many died. <v NP Chipman>Mr. I apologize for the witness.

<v Davidson>Yes sir. <v General Wallace>Yeah. Well, gentlemen, the weather continues hot, and we've been at this trial longer than anticipated, so I will inscribe tempers to the heat. You may call your next witness, come on. <v NP Chipman>Mr. HF to the stand. <v General Wallace>Mr. H.F. called to testify on the specification that dogs attacked escaping prisoners? <v NP Chipman>Yes sir. <v General Wallace>The court refuses to hear further testimony on that specification. It's unnecessary. So call your next witness, Colonel. <v Court speaker>The final witness on the specification that the defendant caused the death of prisoners by the direct order we call Jasper Culver to the stand. <v NP Chipman>Who next?

<v Hosmer>?inaudible? <v Non-dialog>[Unidentified General and N.P. Chipman speak over the swearing in of Jasper Culver]. <v NP Chipman>Mr. Culver, what is your regiment? When were you captured and brought to Andersonville? <v Jasper Culver>I was connected with the 15th Wisconsin Infantry and I was captured and brought to Andersonville in March 1864. <v NP Chipman>Did you see a prisoner of war killed inside the stockade? <v Jasper Culver>I did. <v NP Chipman>Who killed him? <v Jasper Culver>The guard. <v NP Chipman>Did the guard do so on his own or by direct order? <v Jasper Culver>He was given a direct order to kill him. <v NP Chipman>By whom? <v Jasper Culver>By captain Wirtz. <v NP Chipman>And where did this take place. <v Jasper Culver>At the deadline? <v NP Chipman>And who did you see killed? <v Jasper Culver>We called him Chickamauga because he'd lost a leg in that battle and because he'd lost his memory there. So we called him by that name, Chickamauga. <v NP Chipman>And why did Chickamauga want to cross the deadline? <v Jasper Culver>Wish to lie down under a pine tree, he said, because a long time ago, not that he remember where he had laid down under a pine tree. I can't remember nothing before Chickamauga is what he told the guard. <v NP Chipman>State, the circumstances when did this occur?

<v Jasper Culver>Was in the early fall, I believe I remember the smell of burning leaves. <v NP Chipman>Please continue. <v Jasper Culver>I watched Chickamauga go toward the deadline and I called to him to stop, but he went on as if not hearing it. The line he shouted for the sentry let him across, but the sentry waved him back. Then Chickamauga began to move up and down the line, hopping back and forth on his one leg and begging to be let out of the stockade just for ten minutes. The guard let him stay on the line, but he was nervous and telling Chickamauga to get back. And Chickamauga laughed. And then Chickamauga, he said, for the guard to tell Captain Wirtz that he knew of a plot whereby all the men would escape, and that he'd tell the captain about that plot in exchange for being let out a few minutes. And with that, the guard said for the captain to come and words came. And when he saw words, Chickamauga made the captain promise to let him rest for a few minutes underneath that pine tree. If you told him about that plot and the captain said he'd do that, then Chickamauga said, All right, I'll tell you about that plot. Here it is in a nutshell. What you know, Billy Sherman and his White Sox is marching through Georgia. And what he's going to do is blast Andersonville open from that side and that's how the men will get free. Then Wirtz began to rave and he said to Chickamauga, I'm going to give you a pass to hell. Chickamauga that you can't give me no pass to hell on account I'm in hell now. And words turn to the guard said, get that man back, cross the line or shoot him. The guard said, I can't shoot no cripple. And Wirtzsaid, If you don't obey me, I'm going to have you court martialed. And the next thing, the guard shot Chickamauga and he fell over the deadline, done for. <v NP Chipman>That'll be all

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Mr. Culver, I'm thinking about accurately you could tell that story. That's but you remember the details down to the exact words back and forth. And that sense of detail makes you a most excellent witness, Mr. Culver. <v Jasper Culver>Thank you, sir. <v Mr. Otis Baker>And one might add it, it's also a characteristic of a good soldier, which I'm sure you were before Andersonville. <v Jasper Culver>Before Andersonville. <v Mr. Otis Baker>When you were in the line. <v Jasper Culver>In the line. Antietam Bridge, Chancellorsville and Stafford Courthouse, <v Mr. Otis Baker>you must remember those nighttime bivouacs round the fires, listening to those sentries. <v Jasper Culver>Around the fires, hearing them calling through the dark all as well, post one to post two, all as well. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Of course, that outpost like that was a line that no man dared cross on the pain of being shot by those sentries <v Jasper Culver>On pain of being shot by the sentries. And who goes there is a crime. Who goes there, who goes there.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>And of course, you can tell us why such lines were set up by their commanding officers. Mr. Culver. As you remember it. By the book. <v Jasper Culver>By the book. Yes, sir. And that is for the order and safety of the camp <v Mr. Otis Baker>And inside the stockade at Andersonville. There were signs posted there warning men not to cross that deadline. <v Jasper Culver>I recall some some. Yes Counsel, they were <v Mr. Otis Baker>Now Mr. Culver. I was just telling you that story you told about Chickamauga. But I'm sure that the great interest that that people have an anecdote about the war, that you undoubtedly had had occasion to tell that story many times already. <v Jasper Culver>I I have been requested to tell it a number of times. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Oh, you could tell it a hundred times that it would come out exactly as you told it here today. <v Jasper Culver>A thousand times council did come out the same way

<v Mr. Otis Baker>And usually would with great effect, I'm sure. <v Jasper Culver>With great effect. <v Mr. Otis Baker>But it would hardly be as effective if Captain Wirtz didn't come out the villain of the piece with it. <v Jasper Culver>Well, hardly. You wish to make a fool of me, counsel, I'm not lying. <v Mr. Otis Baker>No, you are not Mr. Culver. Man, can't help it, fables grow in his head can't he? <v Jasper Culver>Fables, I don't know what you're talking about. <v Mr. Otis Baker>I'm looking for facts and I'm hunting for them through fairy tales of good and evil. Mr. Culver, you say you heard Captain Wirtz say, get that man back across the line and shoot him. Didn't Captain Wurtz actually say, for God sakes, get that man back across the line or you will have to shoot him? <v Jasper Culver>It is frozen into my memory, as I have said it,

<v Mr. Otis Baker>When Chickamauga said I'm in hell now. Did Wirtz say you and I both. You and I both are in hell. As indeed they were, <v Jasper Culver>I have said it as I remember it. <v Mr. Otis Baker>As you need to remember it, Mr. Culver. No more questions, thank you. Move to dismiss on all counts under this specification, since that deadline was a proper military line required for the order and safety of camp. <v NP Chipman>It was a purely military line. Mr. Culver come over here. Take a look at this map here. The stream enters the west wall of that camp. What was the water like there? <v Jasper Culver>Somewhat fast flowing? <v NP Chipman>Was it drinkable? <v Jasper Culver>Somewhat drinkable That man here. <v NP Chipman>By the deadline. What was the water like there? <v Jasper Culver>Not fit in to drink.

<v NP Chipman>By that time, it was filthy and clogged with waste matter, wasn't it? Driving the men to do what? <v Jasper Culver>Try for a drink near the west wall. <v NP Chipman>Yes. And to get to that water, they had to wade waist deep through the the swamp. <v Jasper Culver>Waist deep. <v NP Chipman>And once they succeeded in getting that water, what do the guards do? <v Jasper Culver>Open fire on them. <v NP Chipman>Killing them? <v Jasper Culver>Killing and wounding <v NP Chipman>Killing and wounding for a drink of water, where you ?inaudible? shot down. Council calls it a purely military line. Move to the line defense motion as the deadline in that it was clearly part of the cold, inhuman design ?inaudible? <v Mr. Otis Baker>Well the judge advocate openly and finally admit his belief that Captain Wirtz's duty was a moral and not a military choice. <v NP Chipman>A human choice. <v General Wallace>This arguing over irrelevant issue becomes intolerable. Parties are want. Defense motion is denied. Now, will the judge advocate state the connection between the moral issue and the charge of conspiracy? <v NP Chipman>The judge advocate will not attempt to make that connection.

<v General Wallace>Thank you, Mr. Culver. You may stand down. Well, if the judge advocate has concluded we'll adjourn until tomorrow, at which time the defense will be ready. <v NP Chipman>We may wish to ask for further witnesses. <v General Wallace>If so, there will be witnesses bringing in new criminal evidence. I say new criminal evidence and the precise legal meaning of that term bearing directly on the charge of conspiracy. I hope that's understood. <v NP Chipman>Yes, sir. <v General Wallace>This court's adjourned. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Tell me, Colonel, how does your role in this room differ from Wirtz's at Andersonville?

<v NP Chipman>You compare me to him. <v Mr. Otis Baker>You know, in your heart, you condemn them for carrying out the orders of his military superiors, but this court will have no part of that argument. And whatever you do, withdraw it. You oby as Wirtz obeyed. <v NP Chipman>You compare me to him. <v Mr. Otis Baker>Of course, you are governed by much purer motives. Let's forget about the fact that you're in a position to walk out of this case, the envy of every young, struggling lawyer in the country, a successful prosecutor of the one war criminal to be hanged out of this war. Your career assured. If you don't jeopardize it, then the government's own counsel go out and preach disobedience to orders. How does it feel to be an instrument of policy and nothing more? <v NP Chipman>God damn you.

<v Mr. Otis Baker>Get as angry as you wish. But that's the truth of it. Good afternoon, gentlemen. <v NP Chipman>Oh. <v Hosmer>You see what he's trying to do? <v NP Chipman>I see. <v Hosmer>He's trying to provoke you. <v NP Chipman>I know. I shout at you. Shouted at Davidson, only a boy, a sick boy. Where do we stand after today's witnesses on the stand, sick, broken survivors, that place. We haven't proven criminal acts. What kind of a case do we bring in here? <v Hosmer>Well, if you want a better one.

<v NP Chipman>Close with gray. <v Hosmer>You saw Wirtz commit murder. <v NP Chipman>You heard Grady believe him? <v Hosmer>Let the court decide. ?inaudible? Is the name of the murdered man, his name, Reginald. What's the difference ?inaudible? is doomed anyway? <v NP Chipman>The kind of case we bring in doesn't really matter. And if we believe that Wirtz should have disobeyed to save those men, then what? We're afraid to raise the issue. <v Hosmer>?inaudible? <v NP Chipman>Well, are we any better than he was at Andersonville or has Baker raised an issue that's a been in this case from the beginning, one that we haven't wanted to face? <v Hosmer>We don't need to face it. I'll say it again. Wirtz is doomed. No matter how our case looks. Now, you can make it hard for yourself if you want to by turning up the wrong way. But you're a soldier and you know how this army has to function. Itif functions at all. Has ways of dealing irregulars, you seem to want to go a hard way. <v NP Chipman>I want to go a hard way. This blood spattered country, skulls bleaching in this under the sky, the dead of my own, Iowa's second. Names you wouldn't know. Did any of us want to go a hard way? We did. We did. As if we had any choice. As if I have any choice here, I ask for this case feeling hot against them, hating them enough to want to flog them. So you think I want to shed that hatred? Understanding what Baker wants me to do to lock me in a quarrel with the scum. I can't go around that. I hate that damn Southern cause I still can't go around that issue and ?inaudible? Into my bones and I still can't go around what Baker says.I'd like to believe that I'm more of a man than Wirtz was, that I would have disobeyed to save those men. But am I more of a man than he was? Either I press the court to consider the issue of words of Wirtz's moral responsibility to disobey or I'm no better in my mind than he was and I can't go around that.

<v Hosmer>Just how will you raise your moral issue?

<v NP Chipman>I don't know. Baker were to put Wirtz on the stand. <v Hosmer>Which he won't do, but you don't have to put great standing ?inaudible? with a statement of murder, and you have your man, even if it isn't in your way. Government has a point to make too you know, it struggles to pull together a divided country. Isn't that a worthy and important thing, at least as important as the purity of your soul? <v NP Chipman>Hosmer, Hosmer. There are larger issues than a man's own convictions are, so. <v Hosmer>You make me feel old.

<v Announcer>The Hollywood Television Theater's production of the Andersonville Trial continues following Station ID.