The Case Of The Missing Dog At Andersonville Prison

Jim's Photo Taken At Andersonville Prison Camp In Georgia

This story is gross, but in the context of prisoners of war held in the Andersonville Prison in Georgia, it's understandable.

"Captain Henry Wirtz, the commander in charge of Andersonville Prison, was usually accompanied by a savage bull dog, especially when he entered the prison stockade.  A few mornings later the dog was missing. Capt. Wirtz was very angry and gave orders to issue no more rations to the prisoners until the man or men who took the dog confessed. The death rate, already large, increased so rapidly...[that his staff feared reprisals]."

"Capt. Wirtz did not learn what became of his bull dog, nor did the fate of the dog become known to the thousands of prisoners in the stockade."

"In 1917 the writer [Rev. Winfield Scott Sly, Co. H, 132 Ill Inf., of Lansing, Michigan] visited J.H. Barnes, a veteran of the Civil War, having, like the writer, enlisted when he was only fifteen years of age and was captured and sent to Andersonville prison."

J. H. Barnes solved the mystery of the disappearing dog; visit the link, OLD VETERANS STORIES, for the details.