The National tribune., 1909-12-30
PELLAGRA AT ANDERsoNvILLE.
Past Commander Castle, of Minnesota,
Discusses the Latest Apology.

| Editor National Tribune: / am great
ly interested in the extract you repro
lduce Dec. 16, from the statement of
DIR. Kerr, ex-Confederate Surgeon of
the infamous pest-house at Anderson
Vile.
1t is in a sense honorable to the con-
lScience of up-to-date Americans that
decent ex-rebels and their defenders.
instead of denying, as they formerly
Ibid, the hideous Andersonville atrocity,
now seek to explain, eXtenuate or apol-
logize for 1t.
The trouble is that their explanations,
|etc., are flagrantly inconsistent.
A few years since I happened to be
in New Orleans, when a grand demon
stration was made over Mrs Jefferson
Davis, then visiting there. The daily
papers devoted whole pages to the
speeches delivered, and more space was
given to defense of Andersonville than
to anything else. The trouble was that
the defenses did not agree. Each speak
er admitted the existence of certain
evils and abuses, but vehemently denied
others.
Collating all the admissions. one
would get the full case against WirZ ct
al, in face of which the corresponding
denials were, of course, ridiculous.
And now comes DIR" Kerr, who says
he was indicted with Wirz and "the
immortal Jeff Devils" and only escaped
being hanged himself by hiding away.
He brings an altogether new and sur
prising explanation, one that is incon-
sistent with all previous ones, and so
inconsistent with itself as to constitute
the latest and most conclusive of all
confessions.
DR.. Kerr says our poor boys died of
pellagra and hookworm. Why not also
of appendicitis? All these latter-day
a
if it were necessary. But it is not. The
apologist hoists himself with his own
petard. He says everything at Ander-
sonville was in a deplorable condition,
"36, 900 prisoners being confined in a
prison intended only for 5000" What
excusetlcan there be for this murderous
massing of helpless unfortunates when
thousands of acres of vacant land sur
rounded the reeking inclosure?
Then he goes on: Several thousand
were sick from what he called eczema
and typhoid fever. A large percentage
was suffering from disease which we
had never met before" Among the
symptoms of this strange disease he
enumerates "lassitude" and "emacia-
ton"
OF course, he had never seen this dis
ease before, for it was starvation. Las
situde" and "emaciation" were its un-
erring symptoms. 1t is too late in the
day to euphonize the young and vigor-
Gus patriots who died under the name
less tortures of that premeditated and
inexcusable famine with victims of the
then unsuspected pellagra and hook
worm. This belated and u...hinkable
diagnosis can deceive no one. 1t is
absurd on its face.
Thus we have here, in addition to
innumerable pleas of confession and
avoidance previously on file. the sig
nificant admission of this laundering
relic of medical incapacity that the
fearful mortality. superinduced by
crowding seven men into the space in
tended for one, was tremendously ag-
gravated by the disease" never before
observed by this sapient pill-peddler,
the leading symptoms of which were
emaciation and lassitude, namely,
starvation.
DR. Kerr has gained nothing by
emerging from his obscurity. He has
merely added to the previously known
criminal responsibility of Wirz and JEFF
Davis that of placing such weltering
mass of medical Incompetence in charge
of the pestilential hospitals at Ander-
sonville.-Henry A. Castle, Minneapolis.
MINI.