TNT made a movie several years ago called "Andersonville" that is pretty accurate.
Yes, We watched this on the on the way to and from the park. I thought that although it did give an fairly accurate portrayal of what went on their, the actor portraying Capt Wirz was pretty over the top.
Also, it seemed as if he had more of a Cuban accent rather than one from Switzerland (the actor, Jan Tříska, is from Prague which could explain it a little bit). It just seemed obvious that the producers were going out of their way to make him the bad guy. Even if he had the greatest of intentions, the conditions wouldn't have improved much as he did not have the resources to shelter, feed, or water the prisoners. After the war, he was tried and hung as the responsible party because the General who was in charge of the prison systems had died of a heart attack (lucky break for him).
Unfortunately for Wirz, in addition to the outrage about the deaths at Andersonville, Lincoln had just been assassinated, so sympathies for the south were few. I'm no Wirz apologist, but it does seem as though the man got railroaded. The only man to be tried and executed following the Civil War, his action were not much different than those of Union controlled prisons whose death rates were not much better. Andersonville just happens to have been the biggest of all of the prisons, north or south, so attention was focused on it. This strikes me as very similar to the reluctance on the part of the United States to pursue any of the officers or men responsible for crimes during WWII or other wars (save Iraq, of course - thank you Mr. Murtha.)
Bottom line: Would I put up a memorial to the man in the town square (like the one in the town of Andersonville), no. But nor do I think he should have been hung.
