From Switzerland to Rowan to clear Wirz name from Civil War

“That’s what is striking,” he said. “The scene behind the scene and the similarities.”

The original Hartmann Heinrich Wirz, who became known in the United States as Capt. Henry Wirz, was sentenced in his native Switzerland to four years in prison for debts. He served only one year but was banned from Zurich for 10 years.

An exile, he left the country for Russia, then Italy, then the United States, where he arrived in 1849. He eventually wound up a member of the Confederacy’s 4th Louisiana Infantry in 1861.