The Andersonville Trial was a television adaptation of a 1959 hit Broadway play by Saul Levitt, presented as an episode of PBS's 1970-71 season of Hollywood Television Theatre.

The play was based on the actual 1865 trial of Henry Wirz, played by Richard Basehart, commander of the infamous Confederate Andersonville prison, where thousands of Union prisoners died of exposure, malnutrition, and disease. A notable cast included William Shatner as the Chief JAG Prosecutor Norton Parker Chipman, Jack Cassidy (who was nominated for an Emmy) as Wirz's defense counsel, and Buddy Ebsen as a Georgia physician called in to testify about the fate of many of the Union prisoners.

The television adaptation was directed by actor George C. Scott, who had played the Judge Advocate in the original stage version.

The TV production of the play won 1971 Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Single Program," for "Technical Direction and Electronic Camerawork," and for Levitt's adaptation. It was also honored with a Peabody Award.

Lou Frizzell, who plays Jasper Culver in this production of "The Andersonville Trial", played a Union Soldier in the original 1959 Broadway stage production. He is the only one of the original Broadway cast to appear in this production.

George C. Scott, who directed, played Chipman in the original Broadway production.

All of the witnesses as portrayed in the film are the actual witnesses who testified at Wirz's trial, and their dialogue in many cases is taken almost verbatim from the trial transcript. The major change from history is that Wirz did not testify and the whole "moral issue", around which this film revolves, was never raised at the trial.