Remembering Elizabeth

After weeks of balmy Fall, a deep Winter’s chill set in on the morning of Veterans’ Day, 2006, but it did not stop over a hundred from gathering in a small Trigg County cemetery to pay respects to Elizabeth Savells Wirz, the Kentucky wife of martyr Capt. Henry Wirz. Elizabeth’s final resting place was unmarked and largely unknown for decades, until a research effort led by Nancy Hitt and Betty McCorkle found Elizabeth (see the Winter 2006 Lost Cause for the full story). The time had come to remember Elizabeth, and the suffering she endured as her husband was falsely imprisoned, charged and executed as a scapegoat for the South. Capt Wirz’ only request was that the South take care of his family. In a small way, that is what we did under the cloudy, frigid skies of November.


Folks came from near and far, including groups from Georgia, South Carolina and Switzerland (that’s Col. Heinrich Wirz, great-nephew of Capt. Henry Wirz, in the beret). Nancy Hitt and the ladies of the UDC went to great pains to make the service solemn and special, and then treated all to a wonderful buffet afterwards.
Photos © Don Shelton originally published in the Winter, 2007 issue of The Lost Cause