Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1885 — The Skull of Wirz. [ARTICLE]

The Skull of Wirz.

Washington (D. C.) letter io Philadelphia Times: There was a lull in the game. One of the players had just captured a large jack-pot, when a proposition for refreshments took five hungry men away from their pleasant occupation for a few moments. Lunch finished, four of the players seated themselves. The absent man for the moment was an eminent physician, at whose house the pastime was going on. When the doctor returned to his place at the table he bore in his hand a skull. Why he should interrupt the festivities with this ghastly reminder of every man’s end puzzled all of the gentlemen present. The surgeon answered the curious look of inquiry upon each man’s face by saying: “This is the skull of Wirz, the keeper of Andersonville Prison, who was hanged within sight of my house. When

myself and associates performed the autopsy we skillfully removed this skull from the flesh, carefully filled the cranium with hemp, drew the hair and scalp over it, and the remains of Mr. Wirz were taken to the graveyard.” The doctor spoke eloquently of the different points of the skull, then quietly put it away and the game went on. He is dead now, and the skull of Wirz which he had has passed into the hands of one of the other men who sat about the table the night when it was first displayed and its singular history related.