As told by Chapman from the NY Daily News: "Wirz, a Swiss immigrant and a doctor, had enlisted in the rebel army, had been severely wounded and, a semi-invalid, had been put in command of this military prison. It was merely a stockade with no shelter from winter or summer, and its food consisted of rough corn bread. In summer, Wirz testified at his trial, a hundred men died there each day…Torn by awful memories and coldly pursued by his prosecutor he [Wirz] maintains that he ran Andersonville as a soldier acting under superior orders." The crux of this stirring play raises the question of when the responsibility of the individual to his conscience transcends any power or authority.