The Akron Bar Association, in partnership with the Canton based Courthouse Players, are offering a FREE performance of “The Andersonville Trial” on Friday, May 8, 2015, a performance based on the real-life 1865 trial in Washington D.C. This autumn marks the 150th anniversary of the lengthy, infamous war crimes trial held in what was then known as the federal Court of Claims. Defendant and Swiss immigrant, German accented confederate Captain Henry Wirz, was the commander of an overcrowded, under supplied and brutal prisoner of war camp in Georgia, where over 14,000 Union soldiers died in just over a year from starvation, disease and exposure.
The Andersonville Trial tells the story of the only person tried for war crimes at the conclusion of the Civil War. The theme of this powerful play, written by Saul Levitt, questions the moral obligations to disobey orders when inhumane conditions exist.
Details and online registration.