Albany SCV Camp to host Confederate Memorial Service

ALBANY — The Albany-based Lt. Col. Thomas M. Nelson Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 141 will host its annual Confederate Memorial Service at Confederate Memorial Park Saturday.

Albany Camp Commander James W. King will deliver the memorial’s keynote address entitled “The Truth and Facts Concerning Capt. Wirz and Andersonville.”

Capt. Henry Wirz, a Swiss native, was commander of the notorious Confederate prison at Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville. Almost 13,000 Northern inmates died of scurvy, dysentery, malnutrition and exposure at the camp, and when the war ended Wirz was tried and convicted of murdering 13 Union soldiers. He was hanged at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 10, 1865.

“The highly biased Northern version of Andersonville Civil War Prison Camp is well-known; however, the true facts concerning Andersonville are not well-known,” King said. “The camp was constructed to house 10,000 Union POWs; however, numbers increased to as high as 45,000 due to a policy by the Lincoln administration to discontinue prisoner exchanges.

“The average death rate at other POW camps in the South was about 9 percent as compared to 12 percent for POW camps in the North where Confederate POWs were incarcerated. In contrast, the death rate at Andersonville was approximately 29 percent due to causes beyond the control of Confederate authorities and was unintentional.”

Lee County band A Joyful Noise will kick off Saturday’s service at 9 a.m. by paying musical tribute to the Confederacy with a selection of Confederate and Southern Gospel songs.

Also scheduled as part of the program are the reading of Confederate Gen. Stephen Dill Lee’s charges to Sons of Confederate Veterans, Daughters of the Confederacy and people of the South; the reading of a 2015 proclamation marking April as Confederate History and Heritage Month; reading of the poem “A Georgia Volunteer;” awards to individuals who have contributed to the preservation of Southern and Confederate history, heritage and culture; the laying of flowers by United Daughters of the Confederacy Chapter 187 Past Georgia Division President Brenda Bush and honorary Georgia Division President Sandi Driskill; and rifle and cannon salutes by CSA re-enactors.

SCV and UDC members, as well as members of the public who are interested in Southern and Confederate heritage, are invited to attend the ceremony.