New-York daily tribune., 1865-06-29

"~'
Sanitary report was printed-a large portion Oh IL
in these columns and to that we reler our
readers. Further than that, we can notice
briefly but few of the points which the Rebel
Committee make.
The ignorance of the Committee is amusing
OF Valentine Mott, the first surgeon OF America,
of DR.. Delaiield President of the College oi
Physicians and Surgeons OF New-io ., O''
Ellerslie Wallace Professor in the Jefferson
Medical College, Philadelphia, OF Judge hafe
or,be District Court of Philadelphia, the Kebel
Committee seems never to have heard ana
sneaks of them as persons 200 obscure to merit
ot,ention. But the afiectation OF ignorance Is
greater. we presume, than the ignorance, ana
serves at the outset as an illustration Oh tho
fairness with which the Committee meant 10
handle the whole subject.
OF the Annapolis cases-familiar by descrip-
tion and photograph to the NOrth-the Rebel
Committee has nothing better to say than that
they were not fair specimens. The photo
graphed skeletons were sick men, is the defense.
Undoubtedly they were, but that does not meet
the point. Theu mere made sick by starrdtion'
and by that oniy--is the charge. They had no DIS
ease They would have been well men II they had
been fed So testify our surgeons, and the
Rebel Committee does not even attempt to con-
test that evidence. And when the Rebels talk
of sick men sent from our prisons and
bosnjtals TO Savannah to be exchanged,
we can afford to admit all they
claim. for they nowhere claim that any single
instance of sickness was due to starvation.
The exchange under which deliveries were
made by the Rebels at Annapolis and by us at
Savannah and Charleston, was by the terms Of
the agreement, of sick men only. The
difference was that we sent Rebels
who were i'll of ordinary diseases;
they sent Union prisoners dying wholly from
starvation. The specific statements alleged to
have been made by sundry Rebel surgeons in
regard TO the Rebels whom they received at
Savannah, may or may not have been true,
but il true, they DO not affect the question at
issue. We may add that these surgeons are
invited to testify as 10 their patients by COM
psrison with the photographs, and the testimony
resulting from such a method OF examination
would not be held credible by jury in any
court of Justice.
The proved charge that our prisoners were
habtually robbed OH entering the Rebel prisons
is met by simple denial. No testimony is
offered to rcbul the evidence under oath OF our
returned soldiers which has been published by
the Sanitary Commission. The same il true Ms
to the charge that the Rebel guards wantonly,
and by encouragement Of. their officers, shot the
prisoners in their custody. Sworn testimony
proves the fact-the contradiction Of partisan
committee does not even tend to disprove H.
As to the CLEANLINESS Of Libby Prison, whom
DO our readers suppose the Rebel Committee
call As a witnessi The keeper OF Libby Prison,
Major Turner!
The mining Of Libby Prison is admitted and
justified How justified On the ground,
among others, that "the real object was to
save their (the prisoncrs) lIves" A curious
way 10 save mans life, TO blow him heaven
ward with barrel OF gunpowder. We do not
ask anybody to take this Oh our assertion, but
refer him to the report.
We have space to comment on but one more
point. The Rebel Committee declares the
prisoners on Belle lsle were protected from
the weather, aud that there was but one
instance Of freezing. They allege in proof of
this that the whole number of deaths was
very small. And they save the inconceiv-
able eiIr ntery TO declare specifically that
from June, 1862, 10 February, 1865, the
whole number OF prisoners received on Belle
Isle was over 10000, and that out Of that
whole number there were but lGl deaths !!
The report Of the Sanitary Commission to
which the Rebel Committee were replying, con-
tains this statement: "a hospital steward,
while prisoner, attending to some duty in the
hospital, found by accident, the Confederate
Surgeon-Generals quarterly report, which be
brought away with him when he was paroled.
By this, it appears that in the months OF
January, February and March last, out oi
nearly twenty .eight hundred patients, about
fourteen hundred-or half the number-died
This document viii be found in the appendix
The document is given in the appendix,
where of course the Rebel Committee saw it,
bat they refer to it in 10 way, and do not pre-
tend to deny its genuineness. Yet while from
an official Confederate report Of the Richmond
hospitals for one quarter alone it appears that
the deaths of prisoners were ], 1896, this Com.
mittee AYERS that on Belle Isle, which held the
tor nnmhor nf nrisnnnrs The whole nllmleI