Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/391

 Andersonville Prison. . 383

ANDERSONVILLE PRISON.

TESTIMONY OF DR. ISAIAH H. WHITE, LATE SURGEON CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY. AS TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS THERE.

[/Richmond Times, August 7, 1890,]

Recently several articles have appeared in leading magazines and journals in the country agitating the treatment of prisoners at Ander- sonville and other Southern prisons during the late war between the States.

In order that the true condition of this subject might be learned, a reporter for The Times called upon Dr. Isaiah H. White yesterday, who was chief surgeon of military prisoners east of the Mississippi during those days, and his headquarters were for a time at Anderson- ville.

As evidence of the efficiency of Dr. Isaiah H. White in the position which he held the ** Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion,'* in referring to one of his sanitary reports, says : '*.The following extract shows him neither insensible to the suffering around him nor ignorant of the cause.**

DR. white's POSITION.

sentatives show that Dr. Isaiah H. White, surgeon in charge of the prison camp, repeatedly called the attention of his superiors to the condition of the prisoners, appealing for medical and hospital sup- plies, additional medical officers, and adequate supply of cooking utensils, hospital tents, &c. The medical profession owes a debt of gratitude to this gentleman and his colleagues in their labors for the unfortunate men confined at Andersonville."
 * The papers published by the committee of the House of Repre-

FACTS FROM KNOV^LEDGE.

When asked to give his knowledge of the facts connected with the reports of the inhuman treatment of Federal prisoners by Confed- erate authorities, Dr. White said : *' It is not easy to see what pur- pose is served by the publication of these articles. Under circum- stances like those of the civil war, the remembrance is painful."

SADDEST EPISODE.

It was'the saddest of its episodes not to be willingly recalled either