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No.

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PROCEEDINGS.

The following paper has been prepared in consequence of the proceedings
of the Sanitary Commission, of Friday, November 27th, 1862, morning, as fol¬
lows :

Resolved, That a Committee be appointed to confer with Messrs. Bates and
Broad well on the subject of the claims put forward by the Branch Organization
at Cincinnati.

Dr. Newberry was appointed such Committee, and reported that the Cincinnati
Associates would submit a proposition in writing. *********

Mr. Olmsted read a paper on the executive organization of the Commission.

A written communication was received from Messrs. Bates and.Broadwell. en¬
closing printed copies of a Report, dated 12th November, 1862, to the Cincin¬
nati Branch of the Sanitary Commission, and stating that the Report and reso¬
lutions appended thereto embodied the propositions made by them.

(The Report opens with a statement that the Sanitary Commission is a self-
constituted, voluntary society, without constitution, by-laws, or rules ; that its end
is “ Constitutional Freedom and American Nationality,” through the means of
guarding the health of the Army, and “ restoring it in the hospitals ;” that “ what¬
ever is best at any time to this end is by the law of its organization, not written
and yet clearly understood, the policy of the'Commission ;” that there are asso¬
ciate members of the Commission, who are sometimes “ organized into Branch
Sanitary Commissions, but by no resolution or other written definition of powers has
the Sanitary Commission ever allotted to its associated members or its branches any
given duties ; ’ that the members of the Commission are gentlemen entitled to
confidence ; that it meets at rare intervals at Washington, and has an Executive
Committee, which meets daily at New York, a General Secretary stationed at
Washington, and a IVestern Secretary, elothed with duties unknown to the Com¬
mittee, who has had an office at Cleveland, and has been usefully employed in
distributing supplies for a Cleveland society, “and in various other ways.”

It next describes the Western Sanitary Commission, ast a body of the same sort
with the other, “ both being self-constituted and recognized by the authorities.”
The Western Sanitary Commission is as yet, however, limited in its scope fit does
not include the whole West, but is, “ more properly, a St. Louis Commission.”'
It cannot be more without *the co-operation of Cincinnati. This co-operation it.
earnestly desires ; it is a praiseworthy institution.

The Report next gives a history of the Cincinnati Branch, as it is understood
by the Committee ; of which the material matter is that the first meeting, held at
Dr. Mussey’s residence, was attended by Dr.Newberry, who suggested the organ-

izafcion, but gave no information as to

*zr2t sr? — ' a^; «

as well as the collection of supping was * ’of soldiers, wiO,-

Commission ; on the Sontvary, with the ex-

vices of its members, who are men ’ ice to t^at of paid agents.

means 0/ distribution ^^tecvetovy, and a few Inspectors,” and expresses
agents *oM«Ungo» * g Commission is better prepared to discharge

£ ^::r^ttr,tar/comlfsion - just to the extent that volnn-

%yomT— tit ‘‘a" convention tfaU the Western branches,” called by the
Some account o Indianapolis, is then given. It was attended

^ from this it is inferred that he then had no objection

J it •• If a different view prevails in any quarter now, [which is apparently as-
,1 to he the case 1 its causes must be sought for in events which have occurred
!•!!! >’ An &count of the donation to the Commission from California is next given,
and it is stated that the President of the Sanitary Commission bad said (not in the
foi l f “ promise) that $50,000 would be placed “ at the centre of operations™ he
Ow“ ” Id at least half of it “expended through the Western auxiliaries; that he
delay in this expenditure through the Western auxiliaries is not satisfactory , a ind is

feared to be caused by a disinclination to have them participate in the w oik of
feared to can y headquarters at Louisville, is sen-

Which “would thus be assigned it would be better that it should connect itself
;Uh th W fern Sanitary Commission,” which has itself received «0 000 ft*m
California, and a member of which proposed at the Convention tha a “real
Western Sanitary Commission” should be formed, which proposition being op-
Ited by Dr. Newberry was then defeated ; that the fear that the Sanitary Com-
mission would undertake to control the details ot the work in ie o , c o
ginally to the formation of the Western Sanitary Commission, the organizatio
It whfch is considered to be justified by the delay of the Commission indv,d,„g
its treasury with its. branches, and by the proposition ot »« estei n Council
the chict; cause of immediate alarm is the appearance of a circular which con-

“^Branch Aid’^deto are chartered by the Commission to be ^Hshed a|
points suitable for obtaining supplies, intended for distribution
It the Commission, from States or large districts. They must be response tor
the necessary labor and expense of this duty, and must account exactly and
punctually to those from whom supplies are received, and to t e ommission.

“ As the Commission are trustees for the judicious distribution of the gifts of
t e people to the soldiers, the branches are intermediate trustees for collecting,
assorting, packing, storing, and forwarding the gifts. In emergencies the Branch
Societies are often called upon to assist the Commission even more directly in
the performance of its duties.”

Upon this the Committee comment as follows :

“ The policy thus announced we do not hesitate to condemn in the strongest terms,
and to advise you [ the branch] to use every proper means of repelling. Since the
commencement of the war until now the branches have done the work of distribution
in the West.”

Again the proposition is termed “ an insult.” Three courses of action are then
suggested for the adoption of the branch: 1st. “To close our business;” 2d.

^ lo enter upon terms of alliance with the Western Sanitary Commission;” 3d.
“To assume an entirely independent name and position.” Several expedients
are then suggested for attaining unity and harmony; the last is that “ the Western
Secretary should be a Secretary, and not a superintendent or man-of-all-work.”
“It is not necessary to his usefulness in this capacity that he be clothed with
any authority whatsoever in the work of distribution.”

It is nowhere distinctly stated, but the opinion of the Committed is plainly
indicated to be that a plan for an entire change in the whole policy of the Sani-
' tarJ Commission, especially in respect of undertaking an independent method
of distributing supplies, has been contrived since the California donation was re¬
ceived. with the purpose of establishing grounds of apology for not dividing
this donation among its branches Inasmuch, however, as this plan has not ye
been adopted, and may not be, “ however strong the convictions of the Genera
Secretary that it is. or ought to be,” the Committee conclude by recommending
the passage of the following Resolutions :

“ Resolved, That the President and three other members attend the meeting of
the Sanitary Commission on Monday next, whose duty it shall be to use every
honorable effort to prevent the establishment of any Western Council or the
adoption of any change in the present successful and well-established plan of
distribution in the West, and to procure, if possible, the appropriation of half of,
the gross receipts from California and Oregon to the ‘Western auxiliaries,’ and
whose further duty it shall be, if they succeed in this, to insist upon the terms
of the trust, as expressed in California, so that the Branch at Cincinnati be en¬
abled to spend an equal proportion of this money in its field with the Western
Sanitary Commission at St. Louis.

“ Resolved. That we endorse the statement of Rev. Dr. Bellows, made in his let¬
ter acknowledging the second donation of one hundred thousand dollars, dated
October 28th. 1 8 B 2 , in these, words : ‘ But fortunately wTe have already adopted
plans and methods which require no change, but only larger means of more ef¬
fectively carrying them out. Our regular and usual methods are the wisest we
can devise, and we shall expend the gift of California in and through them as
the most effective and direct means of succoring and saving our sick and wounded
men.’

“ Resolved . That the ‘regular and f^^luorthrOTghthe branches

Sanitary Commission in the West is required, but only larger

*- *— *• ^ peopieof"m or

tlie provision of' such means. )

LU JJLU V ^ *

After the reading of the Report, Mr. Binney offered the followmg resolut.om

viz

1. Besolved, That the funds of the Sanitary ^nd^espeoW to enable

trust for the benefit of the whole army, East ™ pf „ inq„ivy and advice in

the Commission to fulfil its great and P™<^'f^„q

respect to the Sanitary interests of the lm . ^ ,y natj0nal field, and

2. Resolved. That the field of mquiiy ™ f n'y increasing extent

one of which the cost is immense, and, like the hem,

and dimensions. caimot, without a breach of trust.

3. Resolved, That the Sanitary Commission c ' . ofany organization

. - — .

Which were unanimously adopted.

On motion, it was unanimously M Olmsted’s paper on Execu-

* *

r:rT^

s ^ action proposed 111 their

Report of November 12th would b? rec?“ld“ Vted to reply to the Report pre-

gente^to ns^by^^Ckmtnmt^delegation, in answer to our request to them for a

" T"— ducted to seek a conference with the Cincinnati

Branch, for the purpose of presenting our *!?’* .'^jyeTgent, bqdirected to pre-
Resolved , That the General Secretary, . _ . tion and r„les deemed by ns

pare for that Committee a statement of r , . and of the reasons

"necessary to carry out the duties assigned to the Commission,

of their necessity. Philadelphia, and Judge Skinner,

Resolved, That Horace Binney, ., ' l ,.,,nferencc with power to add

of Chicago, constitute the Committee of reply and conference, 1

to their number.

REPORT.

Washington, December 18 th, 1862.

It is clear that the Cincinnati Committee, in the preparation
, of their report, acted under an unquestioned conviction that the
Sanitary Commission had a perfect right to vote an appropria¬
tion of fifty thousand dollars to their branch, and that in no
other way could this sum be expended with so much effect for *
the relief of sick and wounded soldiers. It is also clear, that
this conviction rested primarily on the assumption, with a state¬
ment of which their report begins, that the Sanitary Commission
is not under the control of any constitution, but is wholly self-
constituted and self-governing; and secondarily, upon the assump¬
tion that the business of the Commission, at least until very
recently, lias not been that of a methodical distribution of hos¬
pital supplies to sick and wounded soldiers.

It is also clear, that the. members of the Commission, in hesi¬
tating to meet the wishes of their friends in Cincinnati, have
been primarily influenced by a conscientious doubt of their right
to make such an appropriation. The vote upon the resolutions
offered by Mr. Binney establishes the fact that those attending
the meeting of November 27th, including the Rev. Dr. Bellows,
Dr. Agnew, Dr. Yan Buren, Dr. Howe, Prof. Gibbs, Prof. Bache,
Mr. Strong, and Mr. Binney, were unanimously of the conviction
that such an appropriation could not be made of money which had
been placed under the control of the Commission, without a breach
of trust. The only remaining members of the Commission who
are not at this time engaged in stated duty with the army, are the

Rt. Rev. Bishop Clark, the Hon. Mark Skinner, and the Hon. R.
W. Burnett. At a meeting of the Commission, Held December
17th, 1862, -Bishop Clark declared that his convictions were com¬
pletely with those of the majority of the Commission. To Judge
Burnett, who is President of the Cincinnati branch, and who is
known to entertain a different view; to Judge Skinner, who is
President of the Chicago branch, and whose opinions on the sub¬
ject have never been expressed, and are unknown to the Commis¬
sion; together witli Dr. Bell, an associate member of the Commis¬
sion, and President of the Louisville branch, whose views are also
unknown, the question of the appropriation of a certain special
sum of $50,000, (witli reference to which the duty resting on the
, Commission is thought to be most a matter of question ) has been
now referred, with power. The committee for whom the present
report was originally prepared having been discharged of their
duty, I have been directed to lay the following statement before
the special committee of reference above named.

Washington, December 8th , 1862.

To Horace Binney, Esq., Chairman:

There are at least nine organizations other than that at Cin¬
cinnati, each of which has as good a right as that to designate
itself “Branch of the Sanitary Commission ;” there are about
four hundred gentlemen who are styled “ Associate Members of
the Sanitary Commission,” who are not included within these
branches; and there are several thousand “ Auxiliary Associa¬
tions of the Sanitary Commission.” Although umbrage has as
yet been taken in no other quarter, at the alleged cause of dis¬
satisfaction, presented in the report of the Cincinnati Commit¬
tee, there has been everywhere much the same ground 6f dis¬
trust, the same danger of misunderstanding.

. T,ie Comi"ission can liave no wish to continue on such ques¬
tionable terms with any of its associates; and it is a fortunate
circumstance which gives occasion for establishing its relations
with them for the future, on grounds which shall at least be of
assured truth and frankness. If it should prove that the Com¬
mission had been imposing upon those who have hitherto sus¬
tained it, they will, it is to be hoped, still be able to conceive
that, it lias done so unwittingly. If the plan upon which its
resources were about to be employed, is, when fairly under¬
stood, altogether what they would wish it not to be, they will
believe that its Cincinnati associates could have earned its
gratitude in no other way so well as in that which they have
adopted.

I piopose, tliei efore, to review tlie relief organization of the
Commission in its groundwork, according to the knowledge
which, as its chief executive agent, I have of it.

On the 18th of May, 1861, the Advisory Committee of the
Boards of Physicians and Surgeons of the Hospitals of New
York, the New York Medical Association, and the Woman’s
Central Association of Relief, addressed a memorial to the
Secretary of War, in which is found the first suggestion on
record of the Sanitary Commission. It is in the following
words : “ Convinced by inquiries made here of the practical

" dlfficuIty of reconciling the aims of their own and numerous
“ similar associations in other cities with the regular workings
“of the Commissariat and the Medical Bureau, and yet fully
“persuaded of the importance to the country and the success
“of the war of bringing such an arrangement about, the under-
“ signed respectfully ask, that a mixed Commission of' (a) civil-
“ians. distinguished for their philanthropic experience and ac-
“ (fuaintance with sanitary matters, of (b) medical men, and of
“'('■) military officers, be appointed by the Government, who
shall be charged with the duty of investigating the best means

“of methodizing and reducing to practical service the already
“active but undirected benevolence of the people towards the
“ army, who shall consider the general subject of the proven-
“tion of sickness and suffering among the troops, and suggeb
“the wisest methods which the people at large can use, to mam
“fest their good-will towards the' comfort, security, and health

“ of tlie army.”

Among the objects which it is urged that such a Commission
would serve arc mentioned, “ the best methods of aiding tie
department with such supplies” as “the spontaneous benevo¬
lence of the people is ready to furnish.” '1 lie desne is also 1 s
pressed, “to play into the hands of the regular authorities in
ways as efficient and as little embarrassing as extra-official co-
operation can be.”

J5y reference to an order of the War Department, (see enclo¬
sure marked A,) dated June9t.li, 1801, the original of which,
countersigned by the President of the United States, is on hie
at this office, and the accompanying plan and specifications on
dorsed by the then Acting Surgeon-General and the Secretary
of War also on tile in this office, the whole constituting an
instrument of commission, it appears that certain persons of
the three several classes suggested in the memorial, were on
that day appointed by the President of the United States, to
undertake certain specified duties. As a part of these, the
for mi nc of a plan of common action in respect o( “supplies
Ms* and methods ” of popular relief to the sick and wounded,
is contemplated. “ Direct relation with the public associations
of benevolence” is authorized, and the purpose of such rela tion
indicated as follows: “First, to secure uniformity of ]dans,
and then proportion and harmony of action, and finally abun¬
dance of supplies, in money and goods, for such extra purposes
as the laws do not and cannot provide for.” “ The organizing
methodizing, and reducing to serviceablencss,” “ the vague and

haphazard efforts7’ of the public towards the army, is also
referred to as an appropriate duty. “ Contributions from pat¬
riotic and benevolent associations” are mentioned as u the
natuial supply of the cost of sustaining” the proposed under¬
taking. The free entrance of the Commission and of those
acting for it to “camps, hospitals, fortresses, &c.,” is provided
for, and “all persons in the employ of the United States Gov¬
ernment are directed and enjoined to respect and further the
enquiries’ and objects of the Commission to the utmost of their
ability.” (By a subsequent special order, the books and rec-
01 ds of all hospitals are thrown open to the authorized agents
of the Commission.)

Hie grant of these privileges, however, is accompanied bv an
obligation which requires that the plan of common action to be
devised, shall be “without embarrassment to the usual ma¬
chinery of the army, and that some one fit to be trusted in
confidential intimacy” by the War Department, shall be ap¬
pointed under the Commission to be personally responsible for
such agents as can be safely” employed by virtue of its au¬
thority to visit “camps, hospitals, fortresses, &c ;” such agents
leceiving instruction from and reporting to” this person.*
ISine Commissioners were named in the instrument, of whom
three were at the time officers in the service of the War De-
paitment; two others had previously been in the service of the
War Department ; and one other had been in foreign military

~ H -

* These papers have been extensively published in the newspapers, and three
times in pamphlets printed by the Commission: in the edition issued October,
1861, at page 13, (3d paragraph,) page 18 (1st, 2d, and 6th par.) and page 20,
(at the foot.) the clauses referred to will be found. Twenty-five hundred copies
of this edition were sent out from this office addressed to individuals and
(usually in packages of several hundred each) to auxiliary societies. Uecord
appears of two early copies sent to Dr. Mussey and Mr. Pendleton, at Cincinnati,
by mail, and of two hundred to Dr. Newberry, then at Cleveland, Ohio, by express.
Copies were sent to every associate member of the Commission by mail.

service. Of the others, one declined to serve. There were,
consequently, but two members out of eight who were not con¬
versant with the regulations, customs, and discipline of military
service. Of these two, one was a man of distinguished reputa¬
tion in science, the other a man of learning and a divine, able
to speak witli authority of the demands of the philanthropy of
the. country.

It must have appeared to the President that as thus consti-
tu,ted, the philanthropic and scientific element was not as strong
as. in carrying out the purposes committed to the Commission,
might be found desirable. Authority was therefore given to
the Commission, if it saw fit, to elect additional members, its
military constituents having, of course, a determining voice in
this question, and controlling the selection and the number of
those to be thus added, if any. Of the military members, one was
chief of the staff of Lieutenant-General Scott, another the active
head of the Medical Bureau, another the active head of the
Commissary Department. The object of constituting the Com¬
mission in this manner is made obvious by a memorandum on
the point, signed by thajnixed committee, as follows :

« As the Government will select its own Commissioners, * * *
it is hoped that the character of the Commission will be the
best, warrant the Government can have that the inquiries of the
Commission, both as to their nature and the manner of conduct¬
ing them, will le pursued with discretion and a . careful eye to
avoiding important and offensive interference with the legal au¬
thority and official rights of any of the Bureaus with which it
may he brought in contact.”*

It is clear that the fear of annoying intrusions, over-zealous
endeavors to aid, and of practices which would militate against
discipline and subordination, and which would encourage discon-

* San. Com., Doc. 25, p. 10.

tent and indolence in duty, at first led tlie President to hesitate
to grant the prayer of the memorialists. It appears, also, that
these objections were at length considered to be obviated, in part,
by the suggestion that an executive officer should be appointed,
to be under obligations of confidence to the War Department,
and personally responsible to it for the due instruction and con¬
trol of all who would be engaged in the active operations of the
Commission in connection with the army, and by giving a con-
I trolling voice in the appointment of this officer, and in all de¬

cisions of the Commission, to men whose habits and sympathies
were of a thoroughly military stamp.

During the period in which its organization was incomplete,
five additional members of the Commission were elected. One
of these was a man of science, and of medical skill and experi¬
ence of a special character, and who was at the time, also, in the
service of the War Department. Another had the same profes-
( sional recommendation, and had, also, been a medical military

officer; the third was a physician who had been in charge of the
most important Governmental hospital in the country; the fourth
was a member of the directory of several important corporations,
- commercial and benevolent, and was immediately elected Treas¬

urer of the Commission; the fifth was the chief executive officer
of a public work employing more than three thousand men,
and was immediately elected chief executive officer of the Com-
I mission. The last named was the present writer. Every

member of the Commission could lay claim to a standing and
reputation as an expert of some one or other of the special
functions assigned by the President to the Commission as a body.

Of the members since added, one is the Judge Advocate
General of the United States, a second is a bishop of the Pro¬
testant Episcopal Church, and the three others are men of high
professional standing, eacli holding positions of unusual trust in
their respective communities. The service of the members as

Commissioners is wholly gratuitous. With the exception of the
military members, and of one who lias been suffering from pro¬
tracted illness, they all have given a large share of their
time and talent to the service of the Commission. The Execu¬
tive Committee meets daily, not having failed to do so ten times
in six months, and more than two-thirds of the whole time of
every member of the Commission has, on an average, been given
to the affairs of the army, from the day of its organization to the
present. The number of members is now, and has been for a
ygar past, eighteen, of whom nine have held military positions,
or been officially connected with the War Department.

Upon accepting the office of Secretary to the Commission, I
was informed that its policy would be guided exactly in accord¬
ance with the requirements of the President’s commission, and
was advised that it was my right under it, as chief executive
officer, to require the removal of the persons already employed,
even of the Corresponding Secretary. Unanimous action was
taken upon a motion of the Vice-President, the object of which
he state 1 to be to fully convince me of the fact of the unquali¬
fied responsibility which it was designed to fix upon me in this
respect. The Corresponding Secretary being himself a member
of the Commission, and present, assented then and thereafter

• to this action and design.*

The Commission being organized, fell at once to work:

* This design lias since been sustained, not, perhaps, without some inadvert¬
ent inconsistencies, but in general, with such punctiliousness as to conclusively
establish the understanding whicli prevails of the peculiar function of the Gene-
ral Secretary ; for instance, members of the Commission, when engaging in ex¬
ecutive duties on the battle-field, have obtained credentials of appointment for
that duty from me, and have reported to me in the same manner as the regular
employees of the Commission. Again, when the Surgical Committee of the
Commission have, at my request, employed professional assistance of the, r own
selection, they have asked my formal confirmation of their action. The office
of Corresponding Secretary has since been discontinued, not at my suggestion
or request.

Wi tliin twenty-four hours of my appointment, several questions
of a practical character, affecting the health of the army, were re¬
ferred to appropriate committees, a scientific study of the ration
of the army was begun, and a depot for the collection of extra-
governmental hospital supplies was provided for. Special duties,
involving weeks of hard professional labor, were assigned to and
cheerfully undertaken by every member present except the
President, Dr. Newberry, Dr. Harris, and myself, who were
assigned temporarily to general executive service with the
army, as follows : the President, with Dr. Newberry, to the
army in the West, Dr. Harris to the army in the East. The
question then arose, “How shall we obtain the means of making
the results of our studies and deliberations of practical use, and
of distributing wisely the goods which may be entrusted to us? ”

It was incompatible with the confidential character of the
Commission, as an adviser of the War Department, and with
the design of its constitution, to greatly enlarge the number
of its members — to make it either a representative or a popular
body. It was accordingly voted, as shown by the minutes,
page 14, that —

“Whereas, the professional and scientific character of the
“ Sanitary Commission , make it dependent on the existence of
“financial committees in various parts of the country, to be
“ composed of business men for the collection of funds :

11 Resolved, that the following gentlemen, and such others as
“they may choose to associate with them, viz: [here follows a
“list of names] who are hereby constituted associate members
“of this Commission,” &c.

The following day a circular letter was prepared, soliciting the
co-operation of associate members, which was signed by every
member of the Commission, and soon afterwards printed and pub¬
lished. In this letter, associate members are asked “ to obtain for

11 the Commission the means required to carry out its object; to
« inform the public fully (through the press and otherwise) of
“ the existence and design of the Commission, and of the gieat ||

“and pressing danger which it is intended to avert; to pio
“mote the establishment of auxiliary associations; and so to
“ direct the labors of associations already formed for the aid
“ and relief of our armies, that they may strengthen and sup¬
port those of the Commission.” No other duty or desirable
service on the part of associate members is hinted at, except 1)1

that “suggestions or advice” are invited.*

I then understood, and have since assumed, that no direct
action of the executive office of the Commission was intended
upon the volunteers before they took the field, except by pub¬
lication and correspondence, but that the Commissiofi would
rely upon its associate members and the societies which they
would influence, to provide whatever assistance might be re¬
quired by troops at recruiting stations and in transitu. Such |

an assignment of duty does not distinctly appear in the above
quoted letter to associate members, nor otherwise of formal
record, but it can be shown that this has been the un¬
derstanding of the Commission, and it is undeniable that the
majority of the associate members have acted in accordance

* Copies of this letter were sent to every Associate Member of the Commission,
including those of Cincinnati, as elected during the next six months: some
declined to accept the office, including one associate member elect at Cincinnati,
on the ground of engagements incompatible with the obligations required to be
assumed. This was not the case with any present member of the Cincinnati
branch, I believe.

In December a formal report was made to the Secretary of War, of the ap¬
pointment of about four hundred “Associate Members.” Their relation to the
work of the Commission was stated in the following terms: “Through these
Associate Members, auxiliary organizations have been established in our prin¬
cipal cities, which have rendered material service to the Commission in supply¬
ing it with funds, in stimulating the supply of hospital material , and in the prepara¬
tion of medical and surgical papers .”

with it. This has been most obviously the case at Philadelphia
and Cincinnati— where, and at St. Louis, the demand for the
required service has been greatest— and the generous and ad¬
mirable manner in which troops at these points have been
cared for by the local associations has often been a subject of
the most hearty praise and congratulation on the part of the
Commissioners toward the associate members in those cities.

The field of special executive responsibility, under the Com¬
mission, I have always supposed to be defined by the limit of
the need for special authority from the President to inspect

hospitals, camps, fortresses, etc./’ that is to say, to be espe¬
cially that of troops in the field, and it has been my general
purpose wherever I believed that any required service could be
thrown upon other associations, as a rule, without destroying
the symmetry of the Commission’s work, to encourage them to
assume it, and to be very cautious about entering upon it until
a trial had been made of leaving it to them. The line between
the two fields of duty, as at St. Louis and Louisville, Washing¬
ton and Baltimore, is, obviously ,*not perfectly well defined; but,
with a generous motive, sufficiently so for all practical purposes,
it being more probable that it would be somewhat overlapped
from both sides, than that a neglected gap would occur.

Onthb 5th of September, 1861, when the new levies for three
years were being raised, the Commission

Resolved , That the subject of the inspection of volunteers
[recruits] be referred to a committee of three. Mr. Strong,
Dr. Agnew, and Professor Gibbs were so appointed.

Resolved , That Mr. Strong, Bishop Clark, Professor Bache,

* an^ Dr. Newberry, be appointed a Committee to nominate ad¬
ditional associate members.

Resolved , That this Committee be requested to define the rela¬
tions of the associate members to the Commission, and to pro-

pose some scheme for making them [more] practically useful in
promoting the ends of the Commission.

Mr. Strong, as the Chairman of both Committees, five days
afterwards reported verbally, and it was then

Resolved, That whereas the Commission is convinced that the
seeds of neglect and disease are extensively sown in the recruit-
in. stations of the army, in all cities and towns throughout

the country; and whereas the opportunities of enforcing cor¬
rect sanitary habits, and communicating judicious suggestions,
can be readily and abundantly offered at these stations; there
fore the Commission earnestly solicits the co-operation of its
associate members in the neighborhood of recruiting ’stations,
in enforcing sanitary regulations on officers and men.

Resolved, That the Secretary be instructed to appoint local in¬
spectors at the several recruiting stations,, to serve without com¬
pensation, and to enquire into the wants and sanitary condition
of troops, and to report from time to time to the Commission.

Resolved, That the Reverend Frauds W. Williams be and he
is hereby appointed such Sanitary Inspector at t

The only case in which the Commission has appointed an
Inspector is that above shown, and this exception to its usual
custom proves that the duty for which I was to be held especi¬
ally responsible, did not extend to the recruiting districts of
the country; that is to say, to completely loyal communities;
while the previous resolutions show that, for the execution ot
the work of the Commission within loyal communities, its- asso¬
ciate members were depended on. Even for the pui poses indi
cated, with this limitation, and with the view of meeting its

* Minutes, p. 55.

f Minutes, p. 65.

“ solicitations/7 the Commission did not conjecture that its asso¬
ciates would appoint Inspectors, that title as used in the Com¬
mission being supposed to establish a certain authority from
and "responsibility to the War Department, Accordingly, the
Secretary was directed to "appoint Inspectors for this special
duty, who should report, not to its associates or to the Secre¬
tary, as all other Inspectors did and do, but to the Commission
direct. To harmonize this order, however, with the limited re¬
sponsibility which the associate members were solicited to
assume, I addressed the latter, in the following circular note,
copies of which were sent to each, including those at Cincinnati :

Circular to Associate Members.

Sanitary Commission, Washington, D. C.,

Treasury Building, September 23, 1861.

The following resolutions having been adopted by the Com¬
mission, the General Secretary requests Associate Members who
may be willing to undertake the duty of inspecting recruiting
stations in the vicinity of their residences, to so inform him, by
letter addressed to this office, when he will forward to them the
t necessary credentials of appointment, under authority derived
from the Secretary of War. At stations where no member will
find it convenient to undertake the duty, the selection and nom¬
ination to the Secretary of some other suitable person is re¬
spectfully suggested. It would be the duty of the inspector to
procure the adoption and enforcement of proper sanitary regu¬
lations at the stations and camps of recruits, and to offer such
advice in regard to the means of preserving health to the offi¬
cers and privates as might in each case be found desirable.
[Here followed a copy of the Resolutions.]

FRED. LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary.

Candidates were nominated, in answer to this request, by as¬
sociates in several cases, and were duly appointed and qua i-
fied, receiving in every case formal credentials, and the usual
printed advisory documents and instructions. One of these
associate Inspectors, nominated by- the Philadelphia branch of
the Commission, was afterwards refused the means of inform-
in«. himself satisfactorily of the condition of one of the U. b.
General Hospitals in that city; a regimental officer in a camp
at Harrisburg also declined to answer his enquiries. Report
of this was made to the Commission, which, at its next session,
laid the matter before the War Department, when the offending
officer received prompt reproof under the direct hand of the
Secretary of War himself, and proper amends were made.

In April last, the attention of the Commission was directed
to the question of providing for the wants of disabled dis¬
charged soldiers, under certain circumstances. It was. then
argued and acknowledged that it would be scarcely consistent
with the implied conditions of its trust to employ its funds in
paying even for the transportation home of such men; the
President therefore entered into a correspondence with the
Governors of the loyal States (ex-officio Associate Members)
on the subject, and the agents of the Commission have since,
referred men, in the circumstances alluded to, to other agencies,
established in some cases at the suggestion of the Commission,

but not responsible to it.

In July a more general discussion of the subject of disabled
soldiers occurred; and in August, one of the Associate Mem¬
bers was asked to make it a matter of special study. Careful
reports have since been received from this gentleman. In Sep¬
tember tine matter was again discussed, and a paper, prepared
hy the President, was agreed upon as expressing the judgment
of the Board, upon the general question of how disabled sol-

■t

diers, after being discharged from the service, should be dealt
with by the community. This paper was then ordered to be
printed for distribution at the discretion of the President. It
has not been given to the public at large. Though the action
of the Commission on this- subject originated in a suggestion
from myself as a member, as executive officer, no responsibility
has been given me about it whatever, the President and Execu-
tive Committee acting directly in everything that has been
done.

This action, taken in connection with that previously had,
establish the fact of an intended division of duty, as follows :

1st. On the part of the Commissioners personally: scientific
and professional investigations and deliberations, with deci¬
sions of judgment upon matters practical to the health and
strength of the military and naval forces of the country, where¬
upon advice should be given, and action taken.

2d. On the part of Associate Members : relations with the
public, especially with “ public associations of benevolence;”
the collection of funds and stores, either directly or through
such associations; and arrangements in aid of the authorities,
under advice of the Commission, for protecting the soldier from
disease, and adding to his comfort, while yet in the midst of loyal
communities, or after his return to them.

3d. On the part of the Executive Office: direct relations
with the War Department, especially all duties ordered by the
Commission, involving scrutiny of camps, hospitals, fortresses,
etc., under military law, and dealings with the troops in the
field.

To the whole arrangement of members, a uniting centre was
formed in the President of the Commission; and in the person of

the President the necessity was met for keeping all mere busi¬
ness concerns under the direct controlling influence of a wise,
though warm and readily sympathetic humanity, closely intimate
with" and answering to the heart of the people; for, from this,
all was to be nourished, and cut off from this, all would lie dead
and useless. And in every department of the Commission’s
affairs, whether in the field, the office, or on the platform, the
personal influence and not unfrequently the personal presence
of the President, is to be found, keeping alive the generous
soul of the original impulse of the Commission.

I think it has been further established, by the citations I have
made, that the Commission is not a purely voluntary and self-
constituted body, governing itself, or entitled to govern itself,
without reference to any established formulae, as has been sup¬
posed by its Cincinnati associate members; also, that it is through
no concealment or neglect of publication on the pait of the
Commission, that these gentlemen have remained in ignorance,
till now, of the facts of its constitution, and of their Own duty.

I think it is also established by the words of the documents
published by the Commission, which I have quoted, that it was
constituted for no purpose more distinct, and that its members
were pledged to nothing more thoroughly than to establish
a common°method of distributing extra-governmental hospital
supplies ; that this method was required to be free from the
danger of intruding persons into camps, hospitals, and fortresses,
of whose discretion or loyalty the War Department could have no
adequate assurance, or who, from ignorance of the necessities of
the service, with ill-directed zeal, might become an embarrass¬
ment to it; that this method was also required to be universal m
respect to the army of the Union, and one into which the liber¬
ality of all patriotic men and women, and of all associations of
patriotic men and women, willing to aid in the care of the sick

and wounded of the army of the Union, where and when their aid
was most needed, could play, with reasonable ground of assurance
that their offerings would be fairly, equitably, discreetly and
honestly employed. For this purpose it was obviously neces¬
sary, in the first place, that the wants of the army should be
carefully ascertained, and that those wants for which the only
radical remedy would be found in an improvement of the admin¬
istration of the army should be clearly distinguished from those
which could only be met by calling upon the public benevolence.

Hence the first and most essential, immediate duty of the Com¬
mission was that of enquiry.

By reference to the enclosure marked C, p. 38, it will be
seen that, at the session of the .Commission following that in
which its own organization as a deliberative body was com¬
pleted, I presented a report, in which, after showing that the
formation, of ati executive staff had been commenced, I ex-
piessed the opinion that twenty men “of special qualifications,
thoroughly instructed” in#their duties, would be needed for the
visitation of camps, under the authority of the Commission.
This was early in July, 1861, and the estimate referred to the
comparatively small army then expected to be kept in the field.

By reference to the enclosure marked A, p. 89, it will be seen
that a month after this, a committee of the Commission stated in
a paper, (cojfies of which were sent to all the associate members of
the Commission,) that “extra hospital clothing” and “additional
supplies ’ had then “been provided by the Commission as liberally
as the funds under its control would justify ,” and that it was
“ in constant receipt of supplies of stores, clothing, and other
articles, contributed by patriotic individuals and associations
throughout the country .” By reference to enclosed printed slip
marked 0, which was generally published in the newspapers

about the middle of August, it will be seen that the liberality
and promptness with which the public had already begun to
make use of the means of distribution offered by the Commis¬
sion, was deemed worthy of a formal acknowledgment. By
reference to the enclosure marked E, (copies of which were
sent by mail, directed to Judge Hoadly and several of his
associates, before the distinctive organization of the “branch
in Cincinnati was formed,) it will be seen that in September, of
the same year, Dr. Newberry reported that during August, the
wants of the troops in camp, from Western Virginia to Missouri,
had been carefully ascertained on the ground, and that “ much
had been done during the mbnth in supplying” these wants
at the hands of the regular agents of the Commission. By ref¬
erence to enclosure marked C, page 38, it will be found that, on
the 5th of September, 1861, I reported to the Commission that
dSpdts for receiving extra-governmental hospital supplies, to be
distributed by the Commission, were necessary »t various points
through the country, and that I then estimated that, unless the
government-system itself could be greatly improved, a capital in
hand would be required by the Commission of fifty thousand
dollars, and a secure income, in addition, of five thousand dollars
a month, to form and carry out a proper national method of
extra-governmental hospital supply.

These citations, I presume, will be found to fully establish the
fact that, between the organization of the Commission in June
and the first of September following, a “method of distribution”
for extra-governmental hospital supplies to the army in the field,
had been contemplated; had been, in part, at least, established,
and was proposed to be continued and enlarged, in exact accord¬
ance with the plan for this purpose, which, as I have already
proved, was had in view from the beginning, and even before the
Commission was constituted.

By reference to enclosure marked E, p. 8, it will be seen that
the Cincinnati branch of the Sanitary Commission was not then
in existence. The Commission at that time had no “ branches,”
nor was there even the germ of a branch in all the West, except,
perhaps, in the Soldiers’ Aid Society of Cleveland, which was
then sending supplies in large quantities to be distributed by the
method which had been established by the Commission, as will
be seen by reference to enclosure marked E, p. 11, and G, p. 11.

It is obvious, then, that the statement which is an important
point in the argument of the Cincinnati committee, that “since
the commencement of the war until now the branches have done
the work of distribution at the West,” was made inconsiderately.

I am now called upon for a statement of the rules by which
the executive service of the Commission is governed, and of the
reasons for tl^ese rules ; in other words, to describe the usual
and regular method of distribution adopted by the Commission,

and to show why it has been adopted.

•

The who^e duty of the Commission, its executive duty as well
as its administrative, financial, and deliberative duty, is fore-
stated in the instrument of its commission.

The weightiest discretionary duty in its executive depart¬
ment has been the selection, instruction, and superintendence
of suitable sub-executive officers, with each of whom could be
placed, within certain geographical limits, the use of the com¬
plete discretionary power of the whole Commission, so far as it
could with advantage be used, at any time, within those limits;
and a share of all the means at the disposal of the Commission,
justly commensurate with the extent of the legitimate claim of
those under his observation upon the liberality of the public.
The chief purpose sought to be attained by the President in con-

stituting the Commission was to remedy evils arising from the
necessary limitations of discretionary power placed upon offi¬
cers of Government. If, therefore, similar limitations were to
be placed upon the agents of the Commission; if every import¬
ant question arising in their duties had to be referred to Wash¬
ington, or Louisville, or New York, or Cincinnati, the chief pur¬
pose of the President would be frustrated. My business -has
been, then, to station such trustworthy agents, properly instructed
as to the whole executive duty of the Commission, in such a
way that they would together cover the whole field of active
operations, and to see that* they were each gble to command a
fair share of whatever it should be in the power of the Commis¬
sion to offer the army ; to give them, as far as possible, all needed
assistance in the distribution of this bounty, and to hold them
accountable for using the authority and advantages of the Com¬
mission for the benefit of the army, in strict subordination to the
requirements, defined and implied, of the instrument of the Pres¬
ident’s commission.

These discretionary agents are denominated the General In¬
spectors of the Commission, and each is responsible for the con¬
duct of all other agents of the Commission within his beat. For all
practical purposes, each of these Inspectors stands for the Sanitary
Commission, with the portion of the army under his observation,
being endowed with all the power which the Commission itself
could rightly use for the benefit of its sick and wounded, the
restrictions placed upon his action being only such as are neces¬
sary to prevent an unjust concentration of the energies of the
Commission to meet the special wants of a certain limited part
of the field. There are now, and there have been since the
organization of the staff was complete in 1861, on an average,
constantly sixteen General Inspectors in the service of the
Commission.

* 0*7

- t

The privileges of which the commission of the President of the
United States authorized the use are cited in .the credentials of
each Inspector.

It mav be doubted if these privileges have any practical value.
It has just now occurred* that an agent of the Commission having
been stopped under an order forbidding any civilian to enter the
military lines at Warrenton, upon presenting his credentials, was
promptly answered tlie moment the heading was seen : “ Sanitary
Commission? The Sanitary Commission goes anywhere, at all
times, and is always welcome.” Passes within the military lines
^ ot the grand armv#of General Burnside are at the present time

rigidly refused, except under a special order, rarely given, by
the Secretary of War in person. Three inspectors of the Com¬
mission, with a number of relief agents, aue, however, with that

army, and both General Burnside and General Hooker, without
any request or suggestion from the Commission that they should
do so, have taken the trouble personally to give advice as to the
best points for establishing the depots of the Commission, and
the best routes of communication with them. Soon after Stew¬
art’s raid in the rear of the army of the Potomac a general
* order forbidding the admission of civilians within the lines was

most rigidly enforced ; even members of Congress, bearing pa¬
pers from the Secretary of War, being turned back at White
House. The Commission at this time had a relief station beyond
\ the Chickahominy and, a number of agents within the army lines.

I applied personally to the Provost Marshal for passes for addi¬
tional- agents to be sent on from W hite House, and was answered,
in the presence of a member of Congress, who had himself been
refused the privilege: “Any one bearing orders from the Sani-
tai*y Commission is considered a part of the army, and will, of
course, be allowed to pass.” Other Belief Agents, some bearing
credentials from Governors of States, others from societies, one

Of (l,e lotto,, .. least, being termed (.none... , ) • «.» J

Commission," w.r. turned b.ck, and became todel, tod te l *« «
mission f„ lodging and «"•» k

the loyal par. of the ^ “

and General Bo.ee, an., the .am. disetimmat... ha. he n usee

the West, when the rep— - *-— * .

..ho, civilians ha,, been r.f«rf -eess to camp. . , h«p,» •
restrictions to, this purpose have *«. ho.evr,
frequently established and less rigidly enforced ■» *•
than the Eastern armies.

I, i, necessary .. refer to the fc* *h* *«*

of the Commission began to engage public attention, a g

° • fine of the West save themselves the

number of voluntary societies at the W g

name of. “Sanitary Commission,” with no more thought

impropriety of doing so, in the minds of their members, .t may

he Lei than would have been the case if they had been

naming a L steamboat. An order of General Halleck which

was once published in the newspapers, that no more

Commissions” were to he allowed access to Ins -
course no reference to the real Sanitary Commission, which was
never ’interrupted in its work with his army for a single day
On the contrary, General Halleck has frequently expressed
entire satisfaction with the conduct of its agents.

There can be no doubt, that had the business of the Samta y
Commission with the army been conducted with 1* — * -
tion than it has, protests against the exercise of its pr g
Lid long ago have been made by the Generals
come its agents, and it would have been the duty of the P
dent to annul these privileges. A greater abundance of supp hes
miaht perhaps, have been got to the hospitals m some quai ,
”t bed no, I;,, for .he cons, mint of .he
scribed for the .gent. of >'» Commissi... Th» poss.ble greeter

profusion at certain times and in few places, however, would
but poorly compensate for the loss of the right which the
Commission has alone enjoyed for bringing relief at all times to
four-fifths of the army when engaged in actual serious operations
of war in the territory of the rebellious States. As it is, the
agents of the Commission have been everywhere (with a single
justifiable exception,) with the advance of the army, and have
operated as promptly and as generously in Mississippi and
Louisiana and Florida, and both the Carolinas, as in Virginia
and Kentucky. In this they have justified a large part of all
the plan and purpose of the President’s commission ; it is, at
least, doubtful if as much of this could have been accomplished
by any radically different method.

No restriction is directly established by the terms of the
President’s commission upon the use to be made of the privileges
which it confers, but the precaution taken of requiring a chief
executive officer of the body commissioned, to be in confidential
relations with the War Department, and who should be responsi¬
ble to it for the employment of agents who could be “ safely en¬
trusted” with the duty of visiting “camps, hospitals, fortresses,
&c.,” I have always supposed, to establish an intention of holding
this agent personally accountable for the purposes, character,
discretion, and reserve of all who should be thus employed, and
have governed myself accordingly. Hence a fundamental rule
in the executive duty of the Commisssion, which may be ex¬
pressed thus :

JSfo one shall use the privileges of the Commission, except for
the f urtherance of the purpose had in view by the President in
tlie grant of them , nor otherwise than in strict subordination to,
and aid of, the discipline of the national forces and the immediate
purposes of their commanders.

This rule has been rigidly observed from the outset; requests
from members of Congress, the purpose of which would not
have been strictly justified under this rule, having been more
than once refused, and an agent of the Commission having been
dismissed for writing to a newspaper from within military lines.

That the Commission could appoint associate members; give
these the authority to appoint others, and these again the right
to appoint agents to visit the army when in the face of the
enemy, and that these agents, unknown t6 the chief executive
officer- of the Commission by name, not reporting to him or to
any officer or member of the Commission, could claim to be
agents of the Sanitary Commission, and to act under its au¬
thority is, of course, a proposition which it had never occurred
to me that any one could entertain, until I saw it apparently
credited by Judge Hoadly, and his associates of the committee.

Judge Hoadly and his associates, must be aware that the word
commission has a meaning entirely different from that of society or
committee, and they cannot be supposed to share in that popular
error which confounds the simplest laws of military success with
a degrading subjection to military pedantry, and which, accord¬
ing to recent statements of the highest officers of our Govern¬
ment, leads to a dissipation of the real strength of our armies
equal to one-half of their force. It is satisfactory to know that
no suspicion of having administered in the smallest degree to
this expensive mistake, through the conduct of its regularly ap¬
pointed and recognized agents, can rest upon the Commission.

The method of guarding against it is simple and uniform,
applying equally well in Kentucky and in Florida.

The first formal instructions given to an agent of the Com¬
mission with reference to a duty involving a visit to camps,
hospitals, or fortresses within the . military lines, commenced
with the following sentences :

“ Sir : You will, in the first place, proceed, if practicable, to
“ the headquarters of the portion of the army which you are to
“ visit, and present your credentials to the general commanding.
“ Having explained to him the objects of your visit, you will

“ re(luesfc from Mm such endorsement or aid as will be necessary
4 t° your further proceedings.

■ “ If the regiments which you are to visit are brigaded, you
should also pay your respects to the brigade commander, or the

commanding officer of the post, before calling on the regimental
officers.

“It is required of you, in all cases, in like manner, to show
“your respect for the regulations for the discipline, order, and
“ rank of the army, as far as practicable, by approaching the in¬
ferior by way of the superior officer, and only with a formal or
“ implied approval or endorsement of your purpose by the latter.
“ Unquestionably the first of all conditions of health of the army
“ is strict discipline. Do all, therefore, in your power to encour-
“ a£e and strengthen a good purpose in this respect; do all in your
“ power to sustain it. Honor in your own conduct the strictest
“ ru,es of military etiquette, and let it be seen that you expect
“ them t0 be stringently enforced. Let it be known that you con-
“ Slder no disease so destructive to an army as laxity of discipline.
“ Demand, wherever you can properly do so, that the standard of
“ the volunteers shall be at least as high as that of the regulars in
“ this respect, and reprove any intimation that this is not to be
“ attempted.

“ 0n amving at the camp of a regiment, (supposing that no
u officer has been detailed by the general to escort you,) ask for
the officer of the day, and, stating your business, request him to
“ present you to the colonel or commanding officer of the regi-
“ment,” etc.

Similar but more emphatic instructions were given to Inspec¬
tors appointed within the last month.

It will be seen, then, that the agents of the Commission are
not only instructed to scrupulously refrain from any misuse of
the privileges of the Commission, but they are enjoined to take
precautions to prevent any reasonable ground of apprehension
that they may be misused in the minds of the officers in com¬
mand of forces which they visit. These, they are required to
remember, have too much to guard against that is unavoidable,
and they are warned never to add a particle to their anxieties.
The sentiment in this respect which is cultivated among the
agents of the Commission has been expressed in the following
terms :

“ The cause our armies have to defend is alone dearer to the
“ people than are those who have to suffer in its defence. The
“ strength and mobility of the army cannot be sacrificed to the
“ care of its sick and wounded. The sick and wounded should be
“ sacrificed unflinchingly to every unavoidable military necessity ;
“ but all the more should they be supplied with whatever mitiga-
“ tion of suffering military necessities leave possible.”

There are three conditions under which hospital supplies may
be furnished, and which it is desirable should be kept in mind,
in considering the organization and rules of the Commission,
with especial reference to this way of administering aid to the
health of the army. They may be defined as follows :

1st. Where hospitals already have all that Government under¬
takes to supply.

2d. Where hospitals are lacking in what Government under¬
takes to supply.

3:!

3d. Emergencies which government can not undertake at
once to fully meet.

Theoretically, Government undertakes to provide all things
necessary for the patients in its military hospitals. The Gov¬
ernment’s standard of the necessity of patients has been very
greatly advanced since the war commenced, however, and from
this it follows that it is a fluctuating standard ; hence it is never
quite certain that Government does furnish any particular pa¬
tient with all that which is his particular necessity. In other
words, there is a limit to the duty undertaken by Government.
It is the duty of every Surgeon having charge of a hospital, if
possible, to obtain from Government for his patients whatever
they want that will come within this limit. But in almost all
cases there will be something beyond it which would give grati¬
fication and comfort to his patients, and which would, perhaps,
increase in some slight degree their chance of life, or expedite
their recovery. With this end in view, and under the first con¬
dition, there are some kinds of supplies furnished by the people,
and most bountifully at the West, as for instance, eggs, butter
and canned meats, fruits and vegetables, which may be distributed
to all hospitals, at all times, with a certain advantage. .Danger
only arises when ignorant persons, in order to enjoy expressions
of gratitude from the patients, or from distrust of the honesty or
efficiency of the surgeon of the hospital, insist upon placing the
gifts they bring in the haq,ds of the patients themselves, a prac¬
tice which has occasioned many deaths.*

But it frequently happens that surgeons in charge of hospitals
do not, for various reasons, obtain the supplies which they are

* Green fruit lias been often given to men and boys in the hospitals, when
desperately low with dysentery or typhoid fever.

entitled to receive from Government. It can never be m the
power of individuals or benevolent associations to relieve the
sick of the army from dependence, in the main, upon govern¬
mental supplies.* The danger arises, then, that, if surgeons in
charge of hospitals are relieved in any measure from the conse¬
quences of a failure to obtain the authorized governmental sup¬
plies, such relief will act as an interposition between them and
the official correction of neglect; the occasion for such relief
being prima facie evidence of culpability on the part oi some
one ; if not of the surgeon, then, perhaps, of the quartermas¬
ter’s department, or of the military commandant. Again, it is
hardly possible, if surgeons find they can usually obtain what is
necessary for their patients more easily from voluntary supplies
than from the Government stores, that they will not be influenced
to neglect to make sufficient and timely provision for their patients,
trusting that the deficiency will still continue to be made good
by the eager and careless hand of the public. But this cannot
always be the case. When most needed, the voluntary supply
may be most insufficient. Hence, unless the assistance thus
offered is carefully guarded, there is danger that it may, in the
long run, do more harm than good. So much weight is attached
to the objections thus indicated to the usual methods for aiding
the. sick and wounded of the army of most of those who do not
act through the method of the. Commission, that the opinion has
been often expressed by medical officers themselves as well as by
others whose judgment is entitled to respect, that all efforts of

* Notwithstanding the apparently immensely large contributions ol ’thepublio
to the hospitals since the war commenced, it is certain that not one-tenth
!° actual cost of sustaining the sick and wounded has been thus met. The
real' value of these supplies is almost wholly dependent on their being so is
permed as to meet the accidental and occasional defects of the govermental

supply.

this kind must be harmful. When the Commission was orcrarii-
ized, some of its own military members held that any advantage
to be secured by the distribution of extra-govermental hospital
supplies, was at least questionable. The results of carefully
watched experiment, however, have so far removed these doubts,
that no one can now be found disposed to question that at least, in
certain cases , where the Government supplies are found inadequate,
the advantage to be secured by promptly meeting the deficiency
will greatly more than compensate for whatever bad influence
may be exerted. When this is so can only be determined, how¬
ever, with a knowledge of the circumstances of each particular
case. Hence it woulil be better, if it were possible, that the de¬
ficiencies of hospitals, in respect of the regular Government sup¬
plies, should in no case be made good by the public generosity
without a special inquiry as to the occasion of the deficiency, and
a deliberately formed conviction, on the part of some competent
judge in the case, that, on the whole, advantage must result from
* it. But even with as close an approximation to this rule of pre¬
caution as possible, the necessities of the patients immediately con¬
cerned can only justify the offer of volunteer supplies as the less
of two evils ; and it is therefore necessary to consider what can
be done, in each case where aid is given, to reduce to a mini¬
mum this smaller evil ; that is to say, the demoralizing and
undisciplining influence of an act which interposes to prevent
the legitimate consequences of some official neglect or misman¬
agement.

It will have some influence in this way if a mere recocr-
nition of the fact can be secured that the agent of supply is
not justified in furnishing what is needed until he has satisfied
himself of the cause of the deficiency, and that, without satisfac¬
tory explanation, such deficiency must needs be regarded as dis¬
creditable to the surgeon. Hence, under the second condition, it

is an established rule in the service of the Sanitary Commission
that supplies shall not, under ordinary circumstances, be issued

except in case —

1st. The need for them is beyond question ;

2d. An explanation has been requested of the way in which
this need has been allowed to arise;

3d. A request for a written voucher from the surgeon, or some
other responsible agent of government, showing what the Com¬
mission has been called upon to do in the case.

Such voucher must, under ordinary circumstances, be consid¬
ered either as an admission of neglect on the part of the sur¬
geon, or an accusation of neglect against some one else respon¬
sible to the War Department.

It is, of course, then, in the power of the Inspector to report
all cases wherein neglect of duty on the part of the surgeon or
of the medical purveyor is apparent to the medical director or
other superior medical officer, thus subjecting the delinquent to
reproof and loss of favor; or if the neglect appears to have been
in the department of transportation, he may report the quarter¬
master responsible for it to his superior officer.

Why should not the Inspector be required to do this in all
cases ? For two reasons : first, because the number of cases m
which a certain small amount of delinquency is apparent is so
large, it is certain that, if all were reported, little notice won
be taken of them, while the Inspector would be accounted a busy¬
body It is an axiom of executive science that habitual fan -
finding destroys rather than establishes an habitual sense of just
responsibility; second, the Inspector can often do more good by
aiding the lax conscience and fagged energies of the surgeon by his

counsel and sympathy than by bringing upon him the reproof of
his superior, while the knowledge that such reproof was likely to
be the result of his furnishing the Inspector with full and correct
information would lead the surgeon to conceal the real wants of
his patients from the Inspector, and create a feeling adverse to
his good influence.

Although, therefore, specific reports may be made by the In¬
spector to the Medical Director, in aggravated cases, it is better
that he should endeavor, when hospitals are found deficient in
necessaries, to assist the Surgeon to obtain these with greater
facility, promptness, and certainty from the Government stores.
This he may do, for instance, by searching out and striving to
remove any obstructions by which Government supplies are kept
back in the Purveyor’s or Quartermaster’s office, or elsewhere
outside of the hospital.

In order to keep this report within proper limits, nothing is
said that can be well avoided, of the duty of the Commission, as
an instructor or adviser of the army. It will be readily under¬
stood, however, that whatever instructions it is able to give will
* be most appropriately and successfully disseminated through the
regimental surgeons, and it is therefore desirable that the In¬
spectors establish the best understanding with these gentlemen,
possible to be maintained without a clear neglect of a paramount
duty.* The first general advice to Inspectors as to their dealings

* It is evidently the impression of the Cincinnati committee, that the all-impor¬
tant duty of the Inspectors of the Commission has been the detailed sanitary in¬
spection of camps, with the incidental instruction of regimental officers given in
connection with such inspection. It may not be denied that such an error can have
been founded upon statements formerly made by authority of the Commission. It
is well known that there has been a difference of opinion among members of the
Commission as to the advisability of continuing its relief system, and that it has
been expected, by some of them, at least, that the chief value of its inspections
would not be found in the opportunity they would disclose for judicious aid to

with surgeons, issued July , eighteen hundred and sixty-one , con¬
tained the following instructions. While the recent, present,
and proposed plans of the Commission differ not at all from them
in spirit, the policy indicated in the second and fourth para¬
graphs has been so confirmed and strengthened by experience
of its good results, that it has gradually become a well-defined
trunk to its whole executive system :

u Having obtained an introduction, in your official capacity,
“ to the regimental surgeon, it will not, generally, be difficult for
“ you to gain his confidence and good will, for your duty will lead
u you to magnify his office, and if he properly appreciates its
“ responsibilities and difficulties, he will value the services you
“ will be able to render him.

“ it is the duty of the surgeon to point out whatever is nn-
44 favorable to tfie health of the regiment, and to suggest the
“ proper remedy. You should encourage him to make and to
“ persevere in making such suggestions, and wherever possible,
“ consistently with your judgment, should add the weigh]: of your
“ own influence to his advice. You may find it necessary to
44 remind the surgeon that he becomes responsible for the exist-
44 ence and continuance of any unjustifiable sanitary condition
“ pertaining to the camp or to the management of the regiment,
“ against which he does not perseveringly expostulate.

the hospitals. The error of the impression of the Cincinnati Committee, how¬
ever, will be sufficiently established by the simple statement that written instruc¬
tions were given Dr. Newberry, more than six months ago, to discontinue the
detailed sanitary inspection of camps by the Inspectors at the west, and to direct
them to devote themselves wholly to the relief system aud duties which could be
pursued with advantage in connection with it. Not more than fifty sanitary in¬
spections of camps, in detail, have been made by the Inspectors since the troops
last left winter quarters. In the previous six months the number of these in¬
spections was about one thousand.

“ It is difficult to define the rights and the duties of regimental
“ surgeons, because these vary so much with circumstances. The
44 medical and surgical provision for a regiment, on detached ser-
“ vice of a special kind, should be altogether different from that of
“ a regiment quartered with many others in the immediate vicinity
“ of a general hospital. The regulations were not formed with
“ reference to large armies in the field, and are not perfectly
“ adapted to the circumstances in which our volunteer surgeons at
44 present find themselves. A patient study of their provisions
44 will, nevertheless, disclose the means of remedying most of the
44 difficulties of which you will hear much complaint. When this
44 is not the case, an appeal may be made to the Medical Director,
44 or, if necessary, to the Major General commanding, who, for a
44 special purpose, can override the restrictions ordinarily placed
44 upon the supply of medical stores and hospital conveniences.

44 Inexperienced regimental surgeons will generally be found
44 to err in attempting to maintain too complicated and extensive
44 hospital arrangements, and in undertaking to deal with cases for
44 which proper supplies and accommodations cannot be provided,
44 except in fixed general hospitals. There should be nothing in
44 a regimental hospital to stand in the way of sudden and rapid
44 movements ; and whenever a cure cannot shortly be expected,
44 patients should be transferred to a general hospital. In some
44 cases, however, this will not be possible; and when you meet
44 with these, you are expected to do all in your power to obtain
44 such supplies as are immediately needed , and which cannot be
“ got by official process. This may be done either, by requisition
44 upon the stores of the Commission , by an appeal to local charity,
44 or, when necessary , by a moderate expenditure of money on
44 account of the Commission. Whenever practicable, special
44 authority for this purpose may be requested by telegraph.

44 Regimental surgeons also frequently err in the opposite

“ extreme, sending patients to general hospital who have some
“ simple illness which would yield to judicious treatment under
“ canvas, in a few days. Experience is needed to enable the
“ judgment to be exercised confidently in discriminating between
“ proper and improper cases for camp treatment, and your oppor-
“ tunities of observation and comparison will stand you in place of
“ an extended experience in this respect. It is your primary duty,
“ as it is that of the regimental surgeon, not to take care of the
“ sick, but to guard against whatever weakens or embarrasses the
“ use of the greatest possible strength of the regiment for warlike
14 puposes. The surgeon’s stores, and the hospital, and the ambu-
‘k lance, should all be instruments to the end of the utmost possible
“ rapidity, spirit, and force of movement in the regiment. Discour-
“ age whatever really weakens the regiment ; encourage whatever
“ tends to strengthen it against the enemy. Oftentimes tender-
“ ness to individuals is not true humanity; and the surgeon whose
“ baggage impedes an advance or a retreat, may easily be the
“ cause of more suffering than the. one who carries the hospital
“ stores for a regiment in a knapsack, or whose medicines and
“ instruments are all conveyed in a pocket-case.

“ The surgeon should be prepared for battle duty. If he has
“ an ambulance, lias he a trusty driver for it, and an ambulance
“ corps, upon which he can depend under fire ? Do they know
‘‘how to lift and carry a man with shattered limbs? Do they
“ know that water is more precious than gold to those who follow
“ the track of a battle, and are they instructed how to secure it
“ and administer it providently ? Beds and sheets and wine and
“ delicate food in the hospital tent are of little consequence to the
“ regiment compared with these preparations.”

After all, the chief ground of trust that the evil will be over¬
balanced by the good, in any attempt to supply the necessaries

of proper hospital management from other than governmental
stores, must rest upon the deliberate judgment of the Inspector
in each particular case, after due consideration of all the circum¬
stances affecting: it.

Thus it is of the highest importance that those employed in
this duty should be men possessed not only of good professional
judgment, but men whose faculties of moral and intellectual
analysis are rapid and trustworthy ; and for this, with regard to
the Inspectors of the Commission, I am held responsible for having
reasonable grounds of assurance.* But it is obvious that something-
more is needed than even professional skill and the best possible
common sense; and that is, a thorough familiarity with the army
regulations and customs. An Inspector almost needs to be in fact
a military lawyer. For this reason an Inspector is rarely placed
in any responsible position till he has had several weeks’ training
under constant superintendence, and has had time and opportu-

*The following statement with regard to the Inspectors of the Commission
was made in the Report to the Secretary of War, dated December 9th, 1861, of
which copies were furnished the Cincinnatti branch:

“ Fourteen well qualified physicians are now employed by the Commission,
each having a defined portion of the army under his observation. Six other
gentlemen, each possessed of special acquirements, are engaged on special
duties. A list of their names and of the posts to which they are respectively
assigned is appended. It is proper to' record the fact that they have in several
cases withdrawn from positions far more remunerative than that now occupied by
them, and have undertaken their present duty from motives of the highest benevolence
and patriotism. Others have declined the office of Brigade Surgeon, tendered
them by the War Department, to enter on what they considered a wider
field of usefulness in the service of the Commission. No one is now employed
on this duty who is not entitled, by education, experience, and social stand¬
ing, to speak with a certain degree of moral authority ; and whatever success
the Commission may have attained in the execution of its duties, is believed
to be due as much to the high character and intelligence of its Inspectors, as
to all the other advantages it has enjoyed.”

I refer with reluctance to the observations of the Cincinnati Committee
upon the subject of paid and unpaid service. A majority of the Commission’s
employees have, at the outset, offered to serve it gratuitously. For reasons

nity to familiarize himself with the practices of the quartermaster,
commissary, and medical purveyor’s departments of the service.

Where, however, the information and judgment of the Inspec¬
tor cannot be wholly relied upon, as must be the case at least
with the younger members of the staff, it by no means follows
that the work they do will be harmful. It is the duty of each
Inspector to keep a record of his observations, and to report
frequently, fully, and accurately of the character of every hos¬
pital he visits, as well as the general character of the hospitals
in his field of observation, their common deficiencies, and the
causes of these. From all the information thus received, the
Commission will be prepared to advise reforms and improvements
of the supply system, the removal of neglectful surgeons from
important responsibilities, and the promotion of those whose
special fidelity and capacity is brought to their notice. or is
the influence without its value, which, by this careful ana ubiqui-

which are satisfactory to the Commisrfon the names of aU persons penna-

nentiy * their amount, to the

on its pay-roll wit . . , , h As a ruie, salaries are payable

- rrceiptea for Within on;mon th «

tjtsss rpr V - “

withheld from -epl^ Commission, hy motives
would have been laiger cervices which have been

- Commission

rendered the sick aau T»rnfp«ional charges, amount to

gratuitously, would, at the ordinary rates of professional g

considerably more than fifty thousand dollars.

* It would hardly be proper for me to state what the Commission lm done
■ ti •« wav I will venture, however, to repeat an assertion recent y J

all other agencies, intended to benefit them, together.

tous surveillance of tlie army hospitals, can be exercised by the
Commission, upon the reputation of the surgeons having them in
charge, in the medical community of civil life. Many a surgeon
of the army knows that he is now making or marring the for¬
tunes of his life through the judgment formed of his character
by the inspection systems, general and special, established by
the Commission.*

* _As it may become necessary to place this report in the hands of some
who will not have been informed of the “ special inspection system/’’ here
alluded to, Document No. 56 of the Commission, just published, is referred to
as giving a full account of it. Application was made, in September, (immedi¬
ately after the receipt of the first donation from California,) to one hundred of
the marked men of the medical profession throughout the country, whose
established duties and other circumstances had prevented them from accepting
engagements in the military medical service, to enter the service of the Sanitary
Commission for short periods, for the purpose of making a special examination
of the treatment of the sick and wounded of the army in the general hospitals.
Fifty of those to whom application was made have, up to the present time, ac¬
cepted the invitation of tire Commission* and twenty-four have been actually
engaged m duty at different points, or are now on their way to distant stations.
Assignments to duty are at this moment being executed by these special inspec¬
tors, as follows : To general hospitals at Nashville, Lexington, Bowling Green,
Cincinnati, Louisville, Evansville, New Albany, Keokuk, St. Louis, Mound City,
Philadelphia, Washington, Newbern, Beaufort, New Orleans. The well estab¬
lished fame in their profession of many of the gentlemen constituting this
special corps of inspection gives great influence and authority to their sugges¬
tions with every hospital surgeon. Their reports are made with great care;
briefs of them are always prepared for and transmitted to the Surgeon General,
and the facts and opinions presented invariably receive the most respectful
attention from the Department. Dr. H. G. Clark, the Inspector in Chief, lately
reported as follows :

“An examination of the reports of the Inspectors, at different and consecu¬
tive dates, will also^show, in many instances, a very markeHmd progressive
improvement in the condition of the hospitals inspected.

“This improvement has, no doubt, been partly owing to the natural effects of
time and the better experience and opportunities of the officers in charge, but
partly, also, I am assured by the surgeons themselves, to the friendly influence
of the Inspectors, and of the establishment, in this way, of a sort of standard
of excellence. In fact, it is impossible but that the opinions of men of standing
and knowledge in the profession should have its proper weight upon a class of
earnest, hardworking, and many of them capable, men, upon whom the acci-

The third condition under which supplies supplementary to
those furnished by Government may with advantage be pro¬
vided by the public is on the occasion of certain emergencies. The
movements of an army, just before and during a great battle,
are generally so influenced by the events of the moment, and
the exhaustion of all other resources during the battle is gener¬
ally so great, that the supply of hospital stores from govern¬
mental sources is liable to be poorest when the need is greatest.

Under such circumstances, commanding officers seldom think
it necessary to maintain the usual restraints with regard to the
movements of any who profess to come to the field for the pur¬
pose of aiding the wounded. It cannot, 'of course, be expected
that the Commission should be more scrupulous than the military
authorities, and its ordinary rules may safely be in part sus¬
pended. How can its organization be best turned to use, is a
question which chn be answered only with such a knowledge of
the circumstances of any particular battle as it will have been
the duty of its Inspectors in the vicinity to* obtain. It will ordi¬
narily have happened that a battle was anticipated, and that for
a short time beforehand the available resources of the Cominis-

dents of war have unexpectedly and suddenly cast the gravest labors and re¬
sponsibilities. *

“ I must not omit to notice here another instrumentality, which has, in a very
important degree, contributed, in my judgment, to the establishment of the
1 entente cordiale’ between the surgeons and the officers of the Commission.”

* * * * * * * *

LL The meetings have been fully attended, and the result has been the forma¬
tion of a permanent society, which, with a very simple organization, takes
cognizance of all matters’ relating to the hygiene, the administration of military
hospitals, and the care of their inmates.

“The active members comprise the surgical staff within the District, and
some of the officers of the Commission ; but it affiliates to itself, as associates ,
all the surgeons of the army and navy , and all the medical members of the Com¬
mission, inviting them all to contribute to its stores of knowledge, and inviting
them to partake freely of its benefits.”

sion with the army engaged had been husbanded with reference
to it. When the battle occurs, more goods may need to be dis¬
tributed in a day than in months before, and the ordinary force
of the Commission in the vicinity will be quite inadequate for
the purpose. Whoever comes, then, will be invited to aid in their
work of mercy, the Inspectors doing all they can to direct these
volunteers, as wrell as their regular assistants, to those parts of
the field where the greatest good is to be accomplished by the
distribution of the stores at their command. As the news of the
battle spreads, aid, both of goods and hands, will come, hour
after hour, in increasing quantity. The Commission’s goods,
which have been accumulated in the vicinity, will soon be ex¬
hausted, perhaps sooner than consignments will arrive which
have been called for after the battle. Meanwhile, will there
be nothing for the agents of the Commission, who have by this
time, probably, thoroughly studied the whole field and the vicin¬
ity, to do ? Obviously, the new comers, who will be bringing
the first fruit of the excited sympathy of the nearest loyal dis¬
tricts, will need the aid of their experience to guide them in its
most merciful distribution. It is no more than the simplest pru¬
dence, then, to calculate somewhat on this course of events before¬
hand, to arrange the affairs of the Commission with some regard
to it, and to expect that others will to some extent depend upon
their being so arranged.

The established medium of connection between the Commission
and the loyal public being its body of associate members, and it
being a part of the duty assigned in advance to associate members
(See ante p. 16) “ so to direct the labors of associations ” of the
people, “ that they may strengthen and support those of the Com¬
mission,” the proceeding thus sketched as most likely to occur,
under the simplest dictates of common sense, is almost precisely
that which has occurred in practice in every considerable battle of

the war on this side of the Mississippi. Take that of Fort Donel-
son, for instance.* Under advice from Gen. Grant, the Commission
had, a short time before this battle, got together a good stock of
hospital stores at Cairo, drawing largely on its ddpots at Boston
and New York for this purpose. From these it first furnished
clothing, dressings, and bedding very largely to hospitals at Cairo
and Mound City, which were expressly prepared to receive the
wounded of the expected battle. It next largely equipped and
sent stores, with an Inspector, on board a floating-hospital, pro¬
vided by Government at the suggestion of an officer of the Com-
mission.t This was stationed, when the battle occurred, at the

*Ihad, shortly before, in anticipation of a battle in Kentucky, telegraphed
to Dr. Newberry, offering to detach the most experienced Inspector of our torce
in the East, that he might be added to the number of those in Kentucky, and on
his replying that he was not needed, I wrote urging that the Inspectors in Ken¬
tucky should be strongly reinforced with men, horses, money, and goods. e
Associate Secretary and Inspector of the Commission at St. Louis were at the
same time directed to hold themselves in readiness to move with the forces then
in Missouri, which afterwards fought the battle at Fort Donelson.

fThis was the first floating-hospital of the present war, the 'statement of
the Cincinnati Committee on this subject being a mistake. Both at the Bast
and the West, it was the policy of the Commission to induce Government to
provide completely for the sick and wounded, as far as practicable, and no
to take any duty which was deemed to properly belong to officers of Govern¬
ment until it was clearly necessary. The Western Sanitary Commission of
St. Louis, having taken upon itself the duty of fitting up the hospital boats
on the Mississippi, before the Sanitary Commission had thought it necessary
to further assume this duty, (but not till after the Commission had urged the
necessity of providing such accomodations for the forces on the Mississippi,
upon Government,) it was, thereafter, mainly left in their hands unti
Government adopted the arrangement in full. A similar policy was fol¬
lowed in the East three months later. After waiting till the Army of the
Potomac had commenced the siege of Yorktown, finding that the Government
would not provide suitable accommodations, the Commission solicited the
privilege of fitting up vessels for this purpose. The expenses of the western
hospital boats, so far as not paid by Government, were chiefly defrayed by
collections made in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, for the express purpose
by the “Western Sanitary Commission” of St. Louis. Those of the eastern
fleet, from similar collections, at the same points, through the treasury of the
Commission.

point nearest the field then accessible by an unarmed boat. As
soon as the works were taken, this boat was brought to the land¬
ing of the fort itself, and the goods of the Commission on board
were thus made available at the earliest moment possible, and
the whole field was explored in person by the Inspector. It next
placed another Inspector with an assortment of hospital stores
sufficient for five hundred patients, at Paducah, the nearest point
to the battle ground at which fixed hospital accommodations could
be prepared, and whither, as soon as possible after the battle, the
wounded were brought in large numbers. But the resources at
hand of the Commission had been all exhausted both at Paducah
and Fort Donelson, as well as at Cairo, when aid began to arrive
from the Commission’s associates. Four of its experienced med¬
ical officers, three of whom were well informed as to the locality
and arrangements of all the hospitals and depots of the wounded
and of the plans of the medical officers, were then ready to give
the most judicious guidance to this aid. Of the expeditions
arriving, the most important was that organized by the associate
members of the Commission in Cincinnati, which brought to the
ground the Western Secretary of the Commission himself, under
whose advice its operations were directed, as reported to the
Commission in person shortly afterwards by a delegation of the
Cincinnati associates. The promptness of the Cincinnati asso¬
ciates, in leading off and ably directing the popular eagerness of
their fellow citizens to give aid and comfort to the brave men who
had been stricken down in this important battle, was all that the
members of the Commission could ask, and their satisfaction was
accordingly expressed in a vote of thanks and the request of a
historical sketch of the expedition for publication. This was
the formal vote by which, as argued by the committee, the “policy
and methods ” of their branch was sanctioned and established as
a part of the policy and methods of the Sanitary Commission.

Again, at Pittsburg Landing, the Commission had, a week
before the battle occurred, sent more than 8,000 articles of hos¬
pital clothing to Savannah, Tennessee, the nearest point at
which hospitals could then be prepared. These stores were all
available for the first wounded men removed from the field, and,
in the terrible destitution resulting from the unexpectedly great
losses of the battle, they were of inestimable value. Instantly
on the receipt of the first telegraphic despatches of the battle at
the depot of the Commission at Cairo, a hundred cases more of
selected hospital stores, including chloroform, styptics, mor¬
phine, stimulants, and many other things for want of which men
were dying by hundreds, and which had been got here ready in
anticipation, not of this, but of any such emergency, were placed
in the first boat leaving, and with a reinforcement of seven relief
agents sent forward the same day. Before these goods had been
distributed and the relief agents posted where they could render
the greatest service, another steamer arrived with another and
still larger quantity of most carefully selected and valuable
hospital stores, sent directly to the care of the Inspectors of
the Commission by its associate members -at Chicago. Twenty
surgeons and forty selected nurses, from Chicago, also arrived
by this boat, who were immediately organized, and stationed
where aid was most needed, by the chief officer of the Com¬
mission on the ground, acting in all things with the concurrence
of the Medical Director. Just after this, again, came a boat
under the direction of the associate members of the Commis¬
sion at Cincinnati; and a little later came a perfect fleet of
steamboats, all swelling the stream of relief of which the
spring had been opened by the Commission, simultaneously
with the battle itself. It was the same at Corinth, at Perry-
ville, at Roanoke Island, at Williamsburg, and West Point; at
every battle on the Chickahominy and the James; at Winches-

ter, at Cedar Mountain, at Centreville, at West Mountain, and
at Antietam: and should the telegraph bring news of battles to¬
day at Holly Springs or Fredericksburg, the Commission knows
that, at each point, there are several of its trusty and experi¬
enced Inspectors provided with many tons of selected stores and
means of rapidly and carefully distributing them, while, at the
nearest safe point in the rear, there are large reserves to be
thrown promptly forward when these fail or are cut off.*

What part, then, should the associate members of the Commis¬
sion take in the work to be done on these occasions ? Precisely
that which it was contemplated they would take in such emergen¬
cies from the day the Commission was organized ; precisely that
which they have hitherto very generally taken ; precisely that
which the Commissioners themselves always take; which the
chairman of the committee I am now addressing took after An¬
tietam, and which his associate in that committee took after the
battle of Pittsburg Landing.

The only question can be, whether, when they reach the battle¬
ground, they shall place themselves and those they bring with them,
with their goods, absolutely at the disposal of the officers of the
Commission, or whether they shall simply propose to act under the
advice of these officers. The first course the Commission has no
right to require of them, it being no part of the duty which those
who accept the office of associate members have been publicly in¬
vited to undertake. Moreover, if they are to be placed, by virtue
of their office, under the control of the officers of the Commission,
they will become qualified agents of the Commission, and the

* Since this was written the battle of Fredericksburg has occurred, and the
work of the Commission’s agents has been precisely what was anticipated, the
delegates of “ the Christian Commission ” voluntarily placing a large portion
of their stores and of their personal services at the disposal of the officers of
the Sanitary Commission on the ground.

Secretary of the Commission will be held accountable for them to
the War Department. It will he evident that this would he unjust
if it is considered that the right of selection and appointment of
such agents would be distributed among five hundred associate
members, and that they would not necessarily have received any
previous instruction as to their rights and duties while un er
military rule.

What might possibly happen in this case is illustrate y an
incident of recent occurrence : A day or two after one of t e
severe battles in Maryland the rebels having retreated across the
Potomac, several regiments of United States troops were sent
over the river to follow them. After a severe encounter with
the enemy, our forces were repulsed and obliged to retire across
the river, leaving their dead and wounded on the other side.
The next day some benevolently-disposed gentlemen, acting ap¬
parently as an independent committee, without waiting, as they
said “for the formality of a regular flag of truce,” forded the
river in company with several officers and privates, (who had
been’ only a few weeks in service,) for the purpose of assisting
the wounded and identifying the dead, and, hoisting a white
handkerchief, improvised a flag of truce for themselves The
pickets of the enemy, supposing them to have proper authority,
allowed them to come within their lines. The pickets, some hours
afterwards, discovering the party to be unauthorized, ordered
them to return, which they did; some of the accompanying
soldiers, (in unconscious ignorance of the nature of a flag of tiuce,
it was asserted,) bringing away arms, and actually capturing a
prisoner ! The next day a regularly authorized flag of truce
was arrested, the flag refused, though accompanied by a regular
officer and the parties accompanying it found themselves in pos¬
session of the enemy, with a fair prospect of their being sent to
Richmond. The rebel officer who met the flag stated, in ex-

planation, that “ a party had been over the day before, under
pretence of a flag of truce, and had stolen arms, &c., and that
he was directed by General Lee to refuse any flag whatever.”
The entire flag of truce party were then obliged to return across
the river and wait upon the opposite shore, until after three hours
consumed in explanatory correspondence between the command¬
ing officers, and a formal disavowal of the improper acts of the
day before, they were allow*! to proceed upon their mission.
The actions of the unauthorized truce party coming to the
knowledge of one of the United States Medical Directors, he
expressed great indignation at the utter want of discipline which
it evinced, and denounced the whole performance in unmeasured
terms, declaring that such a party deserved to be shot.

It is easy to see how men who are liable to make such mistakes
as this may be no inconsiderable annoyance to the commander of
an army, and that the effective power of the army may even be
quite seriously impaired through the ignorance and blundering
of civilians, who are anxious to bustle about, in independent
movement, instead of acting strictly in subordination to the mili-
tary authorities.

Had the Sanitary Commission been in any manner responsible
for the conduct of this unauthorized truce-party, the President
would have been perfectly justified in withdrawing his commis¬
sion from it. This is no reason, however, why the Commission
should not be thankful for any extraneous aid which may be of¬
fered in such emergencies. Much less should the Commission dis¬
courage the gentlemen to whom it looks as its medium of com¬
munication with the public from seeking to lead and control the
public impulse to offer such aid in the best practicable way which
they find open. By the publications which it sends to them, the
Commission endeavors to keep these gentlemen informed of the
principles desirable to be had in view in all attempts to give vol-

unteer aid to the regular provision of Government for the sick an
wounded, and of the experience and observation of its agents in
their endeavors to organize relief for battle-field sufferers * hj
should it not, then, when its associates in any town or district are
embodied in a local organization, call upon them, in emergencies,
to endeavor to direct the inexperienced efforts of the public to pro¬
vide aid for the wounded in such a way that it shall harmonize
with the labors of the Commission's agents, strengthen their hands
and replenish their stores? Is it not entirely consistent with
the whole theory upon which the Commission operates, tha
should do so ? Is it more, or is it less, than the associate mem¬
bers were asked to undertake in the printed letter of Ju
1861, copies of which were sent to every member of the C .

nati branch before he took upon him the obligations which the
Commission, by his election, invited him to a“ ’
a diligent study of the Report of the Cincinnati Committee
I confess myself unable to decide. Yet this is exacdy what
was had in view, and it is all that was had in view, m the con¬
cluding words of the paragraph, to which the Cincinnati .

*Le so warmly object in my circular to those “who stay at
homc - « In emergencies, branch societies arc often called upon

t0 aid the Commission even more directly in the performance of

t(8 That there was nothing new or peculiar to the General Secre
tary in this view of the proper duty to be undertaken by the
tranches in connection with the officers of the Commission, on
the occasion of emergencies of battle, within accessible distance
/ loyal communities, namely, to lead, guide harmonize and sys-
7,„ the ea«er and desultory efforts of the people, to the
endof brilging about the speedy and complete relief of suffering,
the following extract from Dr. Newberry’s report of the batt e

of Pittsburg Landing, addressed to this office immediately after-
wards, will sufficiently demonstrate :

“ A lar£e number of other boats were sent by the efficient
•“ branches of our Commission which now exist throughout the
“ Western States, and nearly all were fitted out by our stores,
“ and were accompanied by our associate members.

“This splendid display of humanity may therefore be re¬
garded as the exponent of the value of our organization, and
“ in a great part the legitimate fruit of the efforts we have made
“and the system we have adopted for ‘promoting the health,
“ comfort and efficiency of our volunteer troops.’

“ 11 1S true> tllat the luxuriant growth of the measures of
“ relief in which the interest of the people in the success of our
“ arms> a!ut tiic fate of brothers, sons, husbands and lovers has
“expressed itself, symmetry has been often lost, and system
‘■'■overshadowed; yet, while we have to regret that in many
“ cases the efforts for the relief of suffering have been irregular ,
wasteful, fruitless and even harmful, we can congratulate our-
“ selves that, on the whole, incalculable good has been done, in
u which all should heartily rejoice.

The part which Dr. Douglas , Dr. Prentice and myself were
“ a^e to Verform in the great work which has been done at Pitts¬
burg Landing , was , I think, not without its value and impor-
“ tance. It was to harmonize and systematize , so far as possible,-
the diverse , and sometimes discordant elements which are in
“ action in a common cause .

“ Through our relations with the military and medical author¬
ities, we were able to facilitate the accomplishment of the objects
u for which our friends had come, and to effect the more speedy
u and complete relief of the suffering .

“ Ifc affords me sincere pleasure to say that at all times and in

“ all cases, we were most courteously and kindly treated by those
“in authority, and a degree of respect and consideration
“accorded to us, as the representatives of our Commission,

“ which was most gratifying to us and complimentary to it'. *

The second, fundamental rule governing the service of the
Commission, rests upon the fact that its name, authority, privi¬
leges, and duty are derived from the President of the United
States, without law or recommendation of Congress or of any
State authority. The President is responsible for the Commis¬
sion. The members of the Commission are deputies of the
President. It is right for them to do nothing that it would he
wrong for him to do. The President is the federal head of the
country, standing for its unity as other branches of the govern¬
ment stand for its parts. So must the Commission. Whatever
is contributed to its treasury or stores, then, must come into a
common stock. All its work must be with a common and com¬
prehensive purpose. It is not necessary that each man who acts
for the Commission should himself look over the whole country
and the whole army. It is necessary that the work done by
each man should be an undivided part of a work which compre¬
hends in its purpose the whole country and the whole army.
No one can be allowed to work in the name of the Commission
who does not work in subordination to this common purpose.
No drafts can be rightly made from the common stock without
due regard is had to the wants of all interested in that stock.

It is alleged that it is impossible for a board or a secretary at
Washington to appreciate the necessities of the army in the
West, and to adapt the organization or the rules of the Commis¬
sion to these necessities. The same might be said with regard

* 2,500 copies of this report were printed and circulated at the time.

t0_ the a™y !n tfle far South, and it is obvious that the same
might be said of the “Army Regulations,” or of the duty of the
President of the United States in the West and the South. As
a practical fact, the President does not see either the West or the
East with his own eyes, and the affairs of the Government will
truly be in a bad way when the President’s means of obtaining
information off the wants of the West are less effective than his
means of obtaining information of the wants of the East, because
the Federal capital is geographically in the East. It being clear
that a Governor at Columbus cannot see the needs of the people
anywhere else as well as at Columbus ; if to see these wants with
his own eyes is what is required of the executive office of the
business of a State, the same reasoning should detach Cincinnati
from the State of Ohio.

It is true, however, that in meeting the sudden wants of the
wounded at the West there might be a loss in prompt and effi¬
cient action if the use of the central resources of the Commis¬
sion could only be commanded at Washington. Perceiving this,
perceiving, also, that there were local jealousies, ambitions, and
rivalries operating at the West, the importance of consulting
which I could not appreciate, and also that my want of familiarity
with western communications might in time lead me to some un¬
intentional injustice, or to unnecessary expenditure, in a desire to
avoid all possibility of injustice to the West, I proposed to the
Commission, soon after I entered upon my duties, to authorize the
appointment of a deputy chief executive officer to reside at the
West. A western member of the Commission, my senior in it, sup¬
posed to be charged fully with its spirit, and familiar from the out¬
set with its whole mode of work, was appointed to this position.
The committee of the Cincinnati branch have distinctly acknow¬
ledged that a better man, or one more acceptable to them, could

not have been selected. I have never heard an intimation to the
contrary from any source. *

I have said that contributions to the Commission must come to
a common stock. The Cincinnati committee declare this to be
a new doctrine and may allege that it is but a recent inference
from the letter of the commission. So far is it otherwise that,
from the first day to this, of my service to the Commission, I have
declined to receive, or to allow other agents of the Commission re¬
porting to me, to become responsible for goods or money offered
for a special purpose, or with any restriction upon the place
where, the body or persons to whom, or the mode by which, such
contributions should be applied. When funds have, in exceptional
cases, been received by agents of the Commission for a special
department of its duty, I have not allowed them to account to
me for the use of such funds. Amendments to papers read before
the Commission have been made, at my request, by unanimous
vote, for the avowed purpose of maintaining in the minds of its
agents the fact that it could officially take cognizance of nothing
which was not of the common stock.f

• Since .his was written, it has been asserted that certain members of the
Cincinnati branch do not regard Dr. Newberry with favSr. I know of no
reason for this except that he has expostulated with them as he states, r
pursuing a method of forwarding relief goods for the army of which he could

not approve.

4- The fact that a majority of the Executive Committee are physicians re-
eidinv in New York, thus allowing its sessions to be held without who ly
withdrawing its members from their important ordmary duties in society^
leads this committee to be called upon to meet many wants of recruits land of
hospitals at New York, which appeal here, as elsewhere, strongly to the feel¬
ing! of the citizens, and which could readily be made a most effective ground
for a call for funds to be especially collected for their reme y. u e ®0™
mittee having sometimes determined, where prompt action was required, to
meet these wants, have always drawn upon the general fund and stores for
the purpose. This adherence to the rule above given may seem to be not
consistent with the statement on page 16 with regard to services to troops

Whatever has been under the control of the Commission, at
any point, has thus always been considered as a part of a com¬
mon stock, to be drawn upon wherever it was most wanted
in the field of the war; to be everywhere held and guarded
for all. The depots of the Commission on the Atlantic have
been as ready to meet the wants of the army in the West as
those on the Ohio or Mississippi. Hundreds of cases have been
shipped from depdts at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia
upon the shortest possible telegraphic calls from Missouri, Ken¬
tucky, and Tennessee. No such call from an authorized agent
of the Commission has ever been disregarded. No explanations
have been required ; no credit taken for generosity. The thought
that there was more generosity in aiding the army when opera¬
ting against our enemy on the west side of the Alleghanies, than
when on the east, has never, to my knowledge, received utterance
at the East. It is universally understood that what is contributed to
the depots of the Commission goes to a common stock for the whole
army, wherever it may be. But, for the same reason that I wanted
a deputy at the West, possessed of whatever prestige might be
supposed to attach to a commission from the President, I have
allowed issues from the common stock and the common treasury
to be made more freely at the West than at the East. For
instance, at the East, Inspectors’ requisitions for goods from the
common stock are, under ordinary circumstances, required to be
approved and endorsed by one of the Secretaries before issues
can be made upon them. This precaution against local favor at
the expense of the common stock has been generally neglected
at the West; Inspectors drawing directly from the receiving

within the loyal States. It is not hut it may be justified, as an exception, on
the ground that, by reason of such action, the committee had been able to
increase the contributions of New York to the store and treasury of the Com¬
mission by much more than the amount thus issued by them for local relief.

depots. This was because the Western Secretary, contrary to
my personal judgment, was of the opinion that the greater
security for equitable distribution which would result from keep¬
ing the control of all considerable movements of goods closely
within his own hand, would be of less value than the more prompt
and ready meeting of the ordinary demands of the several west¬
ern columns which was supposed to be secured by the course
adopted.

With regard to issues from the Treasury, the custom has been
for the Western Secretary to send me a monthly estimate for
ordinary expenditures of money required for the western opera¬
tions of the Commission. Such estimates are subject to my re¬
view, but their amounts have never been in the least reduced by
me, and the amount called for has in every case, with the ap¬
proval of the Treasurer, been promptly remitted. In addition
to these calls for ordinary expenditures, special calls have fre¬
quently been made by the Western Secretary upon the Central
Office. With a single exception, (when a short delay occurred
because of a recent general order of the Executive Committee,
which had been unknown to the Western Secretary when making
his draft,) these calls have also, in every case, been promptly
and fully met. I have sometimes transmitted twice the amount
called for. I have never reduced it by one dollar. I have fre¬
quently urged the Western Secretary to enlarge his operations
and expenditures ; but, even when the treasury of the Commis¬
sion was at its lowest, and I was contracting operations and dis¬
missing agents on that account elsewhere, I have never advised
him to contract or reduce at the West. It is my duty to see that
the army is as well provided at the West, in those particulars
wherein the executive organization of the Commission can aid it,
as at the East or the South. I believe that it has been. I will not

assert that there has been no reason for such suspicions as are
expressed by the Cincinnati Committee, but I trust that it will
appear 4>hat they have been chiefly derived from the fact that the
army in the West has been, for the most part, less compactly
massed, less frequently operating with the -enemy in force close
upon it, and that, consequently, there have usually been less
stringent restrictions upon direct popular communication with
its hospitals than with those of the Army of the Potomac.

For another reason many hospitals of the Army of the Potomac
have received, during long periods, no assistance at all from any
source of volunteered supply except at the hands of the agents
of the Commission. This is to be found in the fact that a very much
larger proportion of the regiments of the Army of the Potomac
than of any other part of the army have been recruited in large
towns and manufacturing districts, and, to a considerable extent,
from the foreign born population of these. It is a fact that the
poorer people in our towns, and especially the foreign born of them,
send little or nothing to the hospitals, while the wealthier classes
of our eastern towns either send nothing in the form of hospital
goods or send very much less than the people of the rural dis¬
tricts for the special use of regiments raised in their own neigh¬
borhoods. A larger proportio n of the Army of the Potomac being
composed of town-recruited regiments than of any part of the
army in the West, there is constantly a larger proportion of its
hospitals, the inmates of which are found, by the Inspectors of
the Commission, to be in need of supplies, which they are able
to obtain from no other source than the Commission’s common
stock.

Not only is the town population of the West less in proportion to
its whole population than that of the East, but the difference be¬
tween town communities and rural communities is less in the West
than in the East. Western townspeople are generally less federal

and more locally bound in their benevolent inclinations than
the townspeople of the East. There are five legiments sent
from the city of Chicago, for instance, for whose exclusive
benefit I believe that much more than half of all the voluntary
gifts of the people of that city for the sick and wounded of the forces
of the Union have been, hitherto, by express stipulation, rigidly
restricted. The hospitals of these five regiments were not long
since reported to me not only to be actually encumbered with
the gifts they had received, but to have a hospital reserve-fund
laid up in bank of over sixty thonsand dollars. Besides which,
as I am informed, there is a large stock of goods kept back in
Chicago, from which supplies are sent to them at tne first inti¬
mation from their surgeons that they will not be in the way. I
know of no regiments in the army of the Potomac thus liberally
provided for, and, as a general rule, the city regiments of the
East receive little or no direct assistance from the city people.
One hundred regiments have probably been raised in the cities of
New York and Massachusetts, whose sick and wounded have had

* It should not be forgotten that when wounded in any important battle, the
men of these regiments have very little, if any, better chance than others of es¬
caping the good offices of the Sanitary Commission. It is ten to one that in
any important movement, and when relief would have its highest value, they
will be separated from their baggage- wagons and their regimental surgeons, and
if wounded, thrown into general field hospitals, where it would not be in the
heart of a savage to maintain any distinctions save those established by degrees
of suffering. It is a fact most creditable to our men, that under these circum¬
stances, the offer of assistance coupled with state preferences, is generally re¬
ceived with indignation. “Are there any Pennsylvania men here?” asked a man,
looking in upon a barn-floor half covered with wounded Pennsylvanians, after
Antietam. There was no answer, and the question was repeated : the man en¬
tering with a large basket, “ are there any Pennsylvania men here?” No sir,”
faintly answered a young hero at his feet, “ some of us came from Pennsylvania,
but we are all Union men now.” “ Are you not the boy I gave a bottle of wine
to yesterday ?» “ Yes.” “ Where is it ?” “ Why I sent it round, d’ye think I’d

keep it to myself because I came from Pennsylvania. Some of these men
wanted it more’n I did. Tell you, we are all Union men here.”

less direct provision made for them altogether, by the people of
those cities, than the wounded of these five regiments alone will
have had secured to them, by the people of Chicago. The inference
that the people of the eastern cities had been less patriotic, or
sympathetic, or liberal, would be unjust, unless it could be shown
that their contributions for the wounded of the whole fighting
forces of the Union had been relatively less than those of the
citizens of Chicago, which may or may not be the case ; but the
inference that they are more federal, and regardless of personal
and local predelictions in their patriotism and benevolence is, at
present, not to be avoided.

I have shown that it is regarded as the duty of the Commission
to see that all goods received by it for the army come practically
into a common stock, and that this stock is drawn uj5on, accord¬
ing to the relative wants , not otherwise met , of the sick and
wounded , of the different divisions of the army. How is this to
be done ? Absolutely and perfectly, to the fraction of a parcel,
it would obviously be absurd to attempt it. To a reasonable
approximation of accuracy, how can it be ? Certainly not by
the method of the Cincinnati branch ; certainly not by that of
the Western Sanitary Commission ; I mean no disrespect to either.
It is not what they propose. The Western Sanitary Commis¬
sion has taken at least twenty thousand dollars, and more than a
thousand cases of goods, probably, from the States of Massachu¬
setts and New York. It has transported these goods at no incon¬
siderable cost to somebody, to St. Louis, and has then distributed
them, with the wise zeal of the gentlemen who have the control
of its operations. But to the soldiers of New York and Massa¬
chusetts, so far as I know, it has distributed nothing; to the sol-
* diers of the Western States wounded on the Potomac, the Rap¬
pahannock, the Peninsula, in the Carolinas and on the Gulf, it
has distributed nothing. It is not its province to do so. It is the

province of the Sanitary Commission to see that all within the
field of active operations, as far as practicable, are equally 'well
provided for.

Hence by the method of the Sanitary Commission, all hospitals
within the field of active operations, are intended to be inspected
at frequent intervals by physicians of ability in their profession, +
just-minded and discreet, reserved and trustworthy. This inten¬
tion, at least, is carried out as well in the West as in the East. Of
the sixteen Inspectors at present employed by the Commission,
eight are stationed in the States of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ar¬
kansas. Ten are west of the Mississippi. These Inspectors make
stated frequent reports to central offices intermediate between
them and the people, and upon the best judgment which can be
formed by the chief executive officers of the Commission stationed
at these places, the most direct movement practicable toward the
different positions of the army hospitals is given to the offerings of
the people, according to the varying necessities of the hospitals
in each quarter. These central offices are intended to be also m
constant correspondence with collecting agencies in the midst of
loyal communities, in order to bring goods at all times by the
shortest and most economical routes to the, common-stock depots
under their control.

Before its arrangements for collection were complete, the Com¬
mission itself sent many hundred cases of goods from its Eastern
depots to be distributed at the West. But it has lately been found
that in respect to certain important classes of supplies, the contri¬
butions of the people of the West to the army have been more lib¬
eral than those of the East. Hence it has happened in emergen¬
cies, when the Eastern depots of the Commission were exhausted,
that it would be more economical as well as more expeditious and
life-saving to purchase such stores as were imperatively needed
than to transport them from the Western depots. The same

thing has been done at the West, not so much, so frequently or
so largely, only because there has been less necessity for it. The
resource has always been ready to be used at the West as freely
as at the East, and as far as I have been able to ascertain from
the reports of the Western officers and members of the Commis¬
sion, it has been used as freely, relatively to the wants of the
West.

That the necessity of purchasing stores at the West has been
less than at the East is owing, it must be acknowleged, in consid-
erable'part, to the irregular action of such agencies as the Western
Sanitary Commission, which has taken large quantities of goods
from the East to be distributed at the West, and to the State
.relief agents. There is no Eastern Sanitary Commission ; nor
are the benevolent operations of the people of any State of the
East directed with reference to the assistance of the trodps of
that State to the degree, which this is the case in several western
States.

That these methods of relief of limited scope, which prevail
not exclusively at the West, but much more there than at the
East, have their advantages is not to be denied : nor is it to be
denied that they have their peculiar disadvantages. One of
these is, that goods often travel great distances to be given to
troops already abundantly provided for, while troops to whom
they might have been as cheaply and quickly sent, may be suffer¬
ing for the need of them.

I could point to a body of hospitals in which the patients have
been for months better provided for than any other in the United
States, yet I see appeals made by certain societies, whose agents
are particularly devoting themselves to this body of hospitals,
for contributions in aid of them, and I know that such contribu¬
tions are constantly being sent to them from a distance of many
hundred miles, passing on their way through the very midst of

another body of hospitals, the patients of which are not pro¬
vided with one-fourth as much of extra-governmental supplies.

Goods are known to have been sent last week by citizens of
Chicago, who choose not to avail themselves of the arrangements,
of the Commission, by way of New York, to soldiers at Fred¬
ericksburg, in Virginia; goods of the same kind were being sent
the same day from New York by way of Chicago, to soldiers in
Missouri. Many tens of thousands of dollars have in this way been
wasted in freight since the war commenced. The goods which have
been distributed to the soldiers in the hospitals in Missouri, have
been drawn not from Illinois or other adjoining districts alone,
but to an enormous extent from New York, Philadelphia and
Boston. Goods indeed, in many cases, after bearing this immense
transportation, have again been sent eastwardly, into Kentucky
and Tennessee.

That the method of the Commission affords a completely ade¬
quate remedy for this, it might be too much to claim. That it
does so as far as practicable, due regard being paid to a provi¬
dent use of the funds at its command, I believe may be justly
claimed.

But it may be asked, if any needed goods are contributed to the
dfepots of the Commission more freely, relatively to the wants of
the army at the nearest distance from the contributors, at the
West than the Bast, why does not the Commission meet the wants
of the army on the coast by a transportation of a fair propor-
’ tion of the goods of the West to the East ? Many of these
goods are of a character requiring, and are packed with reference
to direct transportation to the consumers and immediate con¬
sumption. They are very largely contributed on account o
public reports of immediate wants in the army at the West.
Similar accounts of special wants in the East do not result in
immediate large contributions of the supplies wanted, so much as

■'J

in contributions of money to the treasury. It is neither in ac¬
cordance with the wishes of the western contributors nor with a
wise economy to convey the contributions in goods of the West
to the East unnecessarily, nor to convey the contributions of
the East to the West in money unnecessarily. What the Com¬
mission has to do is to meet the wants of the sick and wounded
everywhere, by the cheapest and most direct means at its com¬
mand.

The Western associates of the Commission have chosen,
because more convenient to them, to have much done for the
army at the West by means of special contributions of goods, and
of money expended directly by themselves, to obtain what they
have deemed necessary to meet certain occasions. They have
availed themselves of the services of the Commission’s agents ;
have acted in the name of the Commission, and have been intend¬
ing in good faith to advance the work of the Commission. On
occasions, the associate members of the Commission in Chicago, a
body of gentlemen as liberal, industrious, just, and prudent as any
who have honored the Commission with their service in this capa¬
city, have gathered ten thousand dollars worth of battle-field stores
m a single day, and made their contribution in this form to the
common-stock. On similar occasions in the East, the associate
members in Boston have taken no special action at all ; but
while the associate members of the Commission in Chicago' have
collected $1,000 for the Commission’s common-stock treasury,
the Boston associates have collected for it $20,000. The
Boston associates have a right then to say, as they have done, “ If
you stand in need of whiskey nr beef-soup or fresh vegetables
for that portion of the army nearest us, don’t wait for us to send
these goods, but buy them at once with the money we have given
you. The Western associates have again and again said to the
Commission, “ Don’t expect us to raise money, but if the army
5

wants anything which our citizens have in store, you may rely
upon our getting a wholesale supply of it on any emergency
which appeals to their sympathies.” It would have been great
folly to have attempted to gather contributions of stores at the
West, for the purpose of transportation to the East, as a constant
arrangement. Emergencies at the East, therefore, have generally
called for larger direct expenditures of money, than emergencies
at the West. But I have no reason to doubt that the stores of the
Commission, since its collecting system has been well organ¬
ized, have been on an average, as ample and as freely given to
those needing them, at the West as at the East.

Reference here cannot be avoided to the delusion of the Cincin¬
nati Committee in supposing that the suggestion of a “ Western
Council,” to which so much importance isgivenin their report, pro¬
ceeded from a desire to avoid a distribution among the W estern as¬
sociates, of the funds of the Commission, since the large donations
from California have been announced. The first I heard of a
suggestion looking in this direction was at a meeting of the Com¬
mission in Washington, which was attended by the chairman of
the Cincinnati committee himself. I was then informed that he
had entertained it with favor, and it was proposed that he should
be a member of the body to be established. This was all before
the first message was received from California. On the same
occasion, I myself gave more exact form to the suggestion, and
first employed the phrase “ Western Council.” Nothing what¬
ever was intended by it, as far, at least, as I was concerned, but
to give to Dr. Newberry’s mind the support of the opinion and
endorsement of others in making drafts upon the Commission s
treasury. The suggestion was communicated by me to the Presi¬
dent of the Commission ; no action of the Commission was ever
had upon it, and the first step has never yet been taken to carry
‘ it out.

The following passage from a communication addressed to Dr.
Newberry, November 18th, 1861— more than a year ago, and
before the Cincinnati branch was established — will, perhaps, more
clearly show why such support might be felt to be desirable :

“ You are authorized to employ and discharge all agents ; to
“ determine remunerations for service ; to collect and distribute
u money and supplies. Matters of the whole army, as [with]
u tke Surgeon-General, the allotment system, etc., belong strictly
U to thi® [central] office. The governing purpose of the organi-
“ zation is to avoid delay and circumlocution to the end of ac¬
complishing efficiency and directness of action. All practicable
“ checks and methods consistent with and * subsidiary to this are
to be observed. In one are to be cared for which assuredly in-
“ terfere with it. * * *

hat one man cannot do two must. It is immaterial
whether the work is done here or there. The question is one
of time, not of trouble. When the money gives out we are to
U scuttle and go down — -till then, do our work thoroughly.”

Yours cordially,

FRED, LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary.

If the phrase “do our work thoroughly” should be ana¬
lyzed to its root in the mind of the writer, it would be found
to have this significance, “ we, are under obligations to see the
* sick and wounded of the Western armies as well cared for as
the rest. While there is a dollar in our treasury, therefore, it
must be placed by the Commission at your disposal, if it shall
appear that it is more needed at the West than anywhere else.
When the demands which this assurance lays the Commission
open to receive from you can no longer be met, it will be time
for it to resign, because no longer able to maintain the primary

condition of its right to exist.” Obviously, an advisory council
of three gentlemen of his own selection, would give confidence to
Dr. Newberry in the use of this discretionary right of ca .
is it not equally obvious that no such confidence could be rig it y
placed with committees formed at will by the associate members
of the Commission ? Is it not obvious that the existing me 10
is more direct and efficient, as well as more certainly just and

legal, than such an one would be?

No instructions abrogating those above cited have ever been
given to Dr. Newberry, nor by word or action has the policy or
the administration of the executive office of the Commission
toward the West ever varied in the least from the spirit of those
instructions.*

*1 am ashamed to feel forced to earnestly argue this question. Wer eit

otherwise than it is, neither I nor any other member of the Commission woo d
stand with it for an hour, for X doubt if there be one whose blood is not in
the army in the west. My only brother, the very light of my father s house
which is left anxious and lonely, carries his musket to-day, in the ranks
regime itt in the valley of the Mississippi. If he falls, God will have accepted
as pure an offering for mere love of the Union, and of what stands with the
Union as ever man and woman made. Ten of those who were under my roof,
my Lends and professional assistants, when the trumpet first sounded, are
now in the military service of the Union, in hospital from honorable wounds,
or have been slain by rebel bullets. One commands a Missouri brigade,
another a Missouri regiment, and less than half of those living, are a i
moment on the Bast side of the mountains. There has not been a battle
the West since the war commenced, that I have not lost a friend Whoeve ^
publicly sustains the idea that armies operating in the West, are the peculi
property of the people resident in th'e West, not only encourages a mischie
vou's, dangerous, and impracticable theory, but a false, cruel, unju ,

"fer/istrded evidence, that a chief ground of hope with the greatest
onhc villains whom we have got to subdue before we can hope for any peace
that Ihall not he more dreadful than war, has been the belief that when he
burden Of war became a trying one, divisions between the "c and *
Valley can he effected, and a hearty co-operation in the strength of the
people of the country he rendered impossible. There are indications that we
are approaching our time of trial, and upon what an American has been
willing to do, to give, and to suffer, during the next year or two, to disappoint
this hope, will forever hereafter depend his right to exist with self-resp .

To those who would say then, “ I wish that <vhat I have to
offer, whether of goods or money, should go exclusively to com¬
fort the wounded of my town, of my county, or of my State,” or
“ to fche wounded of the army which is nearest to me,” or “ of
that which is at this moment most commanding the public inter¬
est,” or “ to those Avhich are to be cared for in a particular lo -
cality,” the organization of the Sanitary Commission is insuffi¬
cient. There is room for methods which will meet this demand,
and the Commission has never opposed itself to such methods,
but it is not right that any method should be claimed to be
that of the Sanitary Commission, which proposes to regard the
army at the West by itself, or the army in the East by itself, or
the army in the far South by itself.

To those who would say, “I wish that what I have to offer
should go — if it will not cost more than it is worth to carry it
there— to the point where it is wanted most, where it will do the
most to relieve the suffering of the sick and wounded of the whole
army of the Union,” the Sanitary Commission can say, 66 this is
exactly what we lay all our plans with a religious purpose to
accomplish. Our means to this end are not perfectly adequate,
but they are measurably so, far more so than any other that can
be offered you, and their efficiency is constantly increasing ;
give us what you have to offer, and they will be more nearly
perfect.” This, in effect, is what the Commission has been
constantly saying to the public ever since it was first
organized. Every part of its organization has been in¬
tended to be subservient to this purpose. It was in subservi¬
ency to this purpose that it added the arrangement of u associate
members” to its organization. It was in subserviency to this
purpose that it authorized the organization of “ branches.”

The report of the Cincinnati branch is entitled “A Report upon

the relations of the Sanitary Commission and it! branches,’ an
its aim is to show that these branches were constituted at the re¬
quest of the Sanitary Commission, or its agents, for the purpose
of undertaking certain duties, among which duties one of the
most important was that of administering, directly by the hant s
of the members, or indirectly by agents of their appointment, to
the wants of the sick and wounded soldiers of the army in t ie
field, independently of any method of distribution established y
the Commission. The ordinary and generally understood meaning
of the 'word branch is an out-growth, and the relations of an out¬
growth to that from which it proceeds are the functions whic it
performs with reference to its trunk, or which are performed
by the trunk with reference to the outgrowth. The function of a
branch in relation to its trunk may be either that of collection or
feeding, or that of dissemination. It may be both. What it c<y
lects, however, it cannot immediately and independently dissemi¬
nate ; it must collect for and toward and into its trunk, or the
common stock of all the branches; what it disseminates it dis¬
seminates from the common stock. This is the primary mean-
ing of the word, and the ordinary usage of the word in its analo¬
gical sense, as applied to organizations, corresponds exactly to
this. I do not say always or necessarily, though I know o no
instance in which the contrary appears, from the Brick Lane
Branch of the United Grand Junction Ebenezer Association, in
the Pickwick Papers, to the branch banks of the United States
Bank in the presidential messages of General Jackson. It does
not follow that such must be always the case. It cannot be de¬
nied, however, that the common meaning should be assumed to
be the true meaning, unless it plainly appears that a different,
meaning has been intentionally established.

The Cincinnati committee argue that this has been the case
with reference to their organization.*

“ On the 27th of November,” says the Report, “a number of
gentlemen, who had been notified a few days before , by Dr. New¬
berry, of their election to associate membership in the Sanitary
Commission, were called together to meet him at Dr. Mussey’ s
residence ; the objects and methods of the Sanitary Commission
were explained by him, and at his suggestion the Cincinnati
branch was organized.” Whether these gentlemen were at this
time informed of the method of distribution, which, a,s I have
shown, had already been established by the Commission, or not ;
and, whether they were distinctly informed, as the committee
allege, that -‘one branch of the work” required of them “was
to be the distribution, [to the army in the field,] as well as the
collection of supplies for the army,” is a question the decision of
which might be decisive, as to the point in debate. Upon this
question the testimony offered by the committee is simply that of
their memory — that is to say, it appears that the members of the

* Their argument is prefaced with the statement, that the Sanitary
Commission had been nearly eight months in existence before any associate
members in Cincinnati had been notified of their appointment; and the delay
of notification is referred to as a neglect. It was apparently forgotten by the
committee, for the fact must have been well known, that at least one gentleman
of Cincinnati had been zealously engaged in the performance of the duties of
associate membership to the Commission, as long as any other in the country,
having been elected among the first, and within a week after his election hav¬
ing accompanied the President of the Commission and Dr. Newberry in an
official visit to the various camps of the army in the West, from Cincinnati to
beyond St. Louis. It may be well to state, also, that the very first active work
of the Commission was with reference to the adoption, by Government, of a
hospital at Cincinnati ; a project, which, at the suggestion of this associate
member, in June, 1861, was successfully presented to the War Department. It
was probably unknown to the committee, that thirteen gentlemen of Cincinnati
had been elected associate members of the Commission only at its meeting last
preceding the date before which they admit that their notification of election
had been rece ved.

committee do not, at present, recolleet that they were informed that
the Commission had established any method of distribution, and,
according to their recollection, they were distinctly informed that
they were themselves called upon to establish such a method. They
probably suppose that if this had not been the case, their course
would have been different, and their present position different;
and, therefore, that their statement must be correct. They offer
no documentary evidence. Dr. Newberry’s own recollection is
quite different from that of the committee, and there is documen¬
tary evidence that Dr. Newberry’s recollection is correct ; and
that the recollection of the committee is completely at fault.
Before offering this, it will be necessary to again refer to the
history of the executive organization of the Commission.

As before stated, with the knowledge and approval of the Com¬
mission, I had commenced, in July, 1861, the formation of an
executive staff, by whose aid I could collect the information re¬
quired by the Commission, and disseminate the advice and dis¬
tribute the aid which it was to offer the army. My progress
in this duty was slow, for two reasons: 1st. The difficulty of
getting suitable medical assistants; 2d. The small amount of
funds at the command of the Commission, and the uncertainty as
to the extent to which the public could be relied upon to sustain
any scale of operations which might be adopted. The latter
difficulty prevented a confident application to the former, of the
commercial principle of demand and supply. By September,
however, the business was fairly well organized, and though,
owing still to the want of funds, the staff for relief purposes
was not as large as might have been desirable, the skeleton
was so far complete that it has since been scarcely at all
enlarged; I was receiving regularly, specific and trustworthy
professional reports from every column of the army, irom

Kansas to the Atlantic, and was thus, for the first time,
able to speak with entire confidence of the wants of the
hospitals, and of the ability of the Commission to assume before
the public the full responsibility of the task assigned it by the
President.

On the 16th, accordingly, I advertised this fact to the
public; (see enclosure marked J); again, on the 26th: (see
enclosure marked K); and again, fully, formally, and carefully
on the 1st of October. The form in which I did so was after¬
wards (October 15th) approved and adopted unanimously by the
Commision ; (see Minutes, p. 81) ; a copy of the advertisement
referred to is herewith sent to the committee, marked I. It was
published extensively in the newspapers, among others, in the
Weekly New York Tribune, which is known to circulate largely
in the West. An edition of eighty thousand , in the form
of a circular letter, bearing the endorsement of the President
of the United States, and of General Scott, was printed at
the Government Printing house, by order of the Secretary of
War, which, by a special order of the Postmaster General, was
sent free by mail, marked “ On Government Business.” By ref¬
erence to enclosure marked P, it will be seen that it was also
printed in the form of a poster; and by another special order of the
Postmaster General, of which a copy is enclosed, marked R, all
postmasters of the United States were required to aid in placing
this conspicuously before the people, and in carrying out its
objects.

The post offices in California, and Oregon, were served at my
special request, with copies of this order, and three copies of the
advertisement, in the circular form, were also sent to each
postmaster in those distant loyal States for distribution. Copies
of the letter were also sent by my direction to each editor,
clergyman and physician, so far as names and addresses could

be obtained, as well as to many citizens, of California and
Oregon.*

A copy was sent, as far as possible, to every clergyman and
family physician in the loyal States. Ohio was not neglected in
this distribution ; not only were many thousand sent to that State
from Washington, but a special edition of the advertisement was
printed at Cleveland, in pamphlet form ; and an important
quotation from it will be found in the first circular of the Cin¬
cinnati branch, published some months afterwards.

In the advertisement, thus laboriously distributed, the Commis¬
sion tenders its services for certain specified duties to those who
shall choose to make use of them. The method by which these
duties are to be performed is set forth as distinctly as it well
could bo in a brief form, as is the necessity for such a method.
This is argued on precisely the same grounds as in the original
memorial upon which the President’s commission was founded.
The impossibility of an equitable method of distribution, without
a method of ascertaining tbe'respective wants of the different
parts of the army, is alluded to; the impossibility of such a
method, unless it shall be sanctioned by Government, is asserted,
and the reason is given why Government should refuse to sanc-

* I had recommended in the advertisement, of which several thou¬
sand conies went to California early in October, that contribution boxes

should be placed in hotels and public offices, es

Wounded,” and that whatever money was received in these ^ shouU 1 be
pended for material to be made up into garments, and sent to the Comm
Sion’s depots for distribution.. Whether it was owing to this suggestions,
not I have never been informed, but at the State election of California, con¬
tribution boxes so labelled were placed at the polls in seve™l instances:
from the collections made, the local military and naval hospitals, which had
been neglected in the pressure upon the Government of affairs on le an 1
side of the country, received needed assistance, and from the surplus I had,
'in February, the pleasure of acknowledging the first
to the treasury of the Commission, in the form of a draft for $1, •

tion any such method, unless there is incorporated with it a per¬
fect system of accountability for all the agents employed, to the
War Department.

The broadest publicity which, with the means at my command,
I knew how to secure, having been given to this announcement,
the Commission, in the act of formally adopting it, was bound,
as I have always considered, as by a written contract with the
President and the War Department on the one side, and
with the people who should choose to make use of its agency
for the conveyance and delivery of goods to the sick and
wounded of the army on the other, to distribute such goods
only by means of qualified agents, held strictly accountable
for their judicious delivery, according to the method in¬
tended by the President’s commission and recited in the
advertisement.

The advertisement concludes with advice how to make use of
the agency, which, in brief, is as follows : That in every neigh¬
borhood where army-aid societies do not exist they should be
formed, and that existing societies should be devoted, for a time,
with them to the work of the Commission, and that as fast as
packages of needed hospital goods, (of which a descriptive list of
those most wanted is given,) can he made up by these societies,
or by individuals, they should be sent “as soon as possible to the
most convenient of the depdts of the Commission

A list of these depdts concludes the advertisement, as here
follows :

“ Office of Central Relief Association, New York.

“ Care of Messrs. S. & W. Welsh, Philadelphia.

“ Care of Dr. S. G. Howe, Boston.

u Care of Dr. W. H. Mussey , Cincinnati.

“ Care of Dr. C. D. Griswold, Wheeling.

“Care of F. L. Olmsted, Washington. ”

It will be observed that the word “ branch ” is not used m
this advertisement, and that in accordance with my suggestion
of September 5th, before quoted, ddp6ts for the receipt and stor¬
age in reserve of goods are provided for “at various points in
the country,” and that these are placed in charge of members
or associate members of the Commission, as originally proposed
in June, in every case but one.

Nothing can be more clear than that all the arrangements
here referred to are parts of a well-digested, long-contemplated,
and thoroughly-organized system of which the method of distri¬
bution of the Sanitary Commission is the key and governing
condition. Nothing can well be more clear than that the only
just sense in which the words “ depots of the Commission in
the advertisement can be understood is that of places of collec¬
tion for goods to be distributed according to the obligations as¬
sumed before the public by the Sanitary Commission.

The first “ depot” for the receipt of goods to be distributed by
the method of the Commission was established in Washington,
and was exclusively under my care and control. The second
was established at New York, and was placed in charge of the
Women’s Central Relief Association, of that city, which entered
into a formal contract with the Commission, signed by a commit¬
tee of the association and by the President of the Sanitary Com¬
mission. As will be seen by reference to the first numbered sec¬
tion, (of which a copy is enclosed, marked X,) it was distinctly
stipulated that, the supplies which should be received at the depot
should “ be delivered solely upon requisition from the Sanitary
Commission, or to agents authorized by it.” The third depot
was established at Boston, and was placed in charge of a
member of the commission. The fourth was established in
Cleveland, Ohio, in charge of a member of the Commission ;
the fifth in Philadelphia, in charge of Messrs. S. & W. Welsh,

merchants-, and associate members of the Commission, who, on
your' application, at my request, agreed to receive and hold
all hospital goods which should be sent to their warehouse
“subject to the order of the Commission;” the sixth in Wheel¬
ing, in charge of an employee of the Commission ; the seventh in
Cincinnati, in charge of Dr. Mussey, the senior associate member
of the Commission in Cincinnati.*

There was no instrument of contract between the Commission
and any of these parties except the Women’s Central Association
of New York. No distinction however was ever made or pre¬
sumed in the manner of dealing with those in charge of these
depots and the Commission. In every case the goods in them
were assumed to be and were in like manner as in the first, un¬
der “the exclusive control of the Commission.” Except in one
case, those in charge of them, were members or associate mem-
beis of the Commission, and their services were gratuitously ren¬
dered.

As I anticipated, however, that the work to be done at the
depots would increase as the result of the advertisement, so far
that it would be wrong to ask that all the labor of managing
them should continue to be gratuitously performed by individ¬
uals, on the same day that I sent the advertisement to the print¬
ers, I directed that the Messrs. Welsh, of Philadelphia, should be
written to as follows :

“ It is possible that the service will involve greater trouble
“ and mconvenience than you may be disposed to be burdened
with, in which event you will please not fail to communicate
“ with this office.”

Neither in this nor in any other case did I think it right to

* See report of Cincinnati branch.

wait, however, for the burden, which I had thus thrown on indi¬
viduals, to become too heavy to be patiently earned. I, there¬
fore, began at once- to take measures to have it divided among all
the associate members resident in the towns where the depots
had been established, sometimes suggesting to them to form an
organization among themselves for the purpose ; sometimes to

induce existing organizations of ladies to relieve individuals or

commercial firms upon whom I had ventured to temporarily im¬
pose the charge. Dr. Howe was requested to act in the matter
in Boston, yourself in Philadelphia, «nd Dr. Newberry at Cleve-
land and Cincinnati.

In Boston, the depot of the Commission was transferred by
Dr. Howe to the care of the New England Women s Auxiliary
Association, which is not composed of associate members of
the Commission. Goods received therein have ever since con¬
tinued absolutely at the control of the Commission.

In Philadelphia, the depot of the Commission was transferred
by yourself, from the care of two of the associate members of the
Commission to that of an organization of all the Philadelphia as¬
sociates, and goods contributed to it have ever since been, as they
were before, at the absolute control of the Commission.

The agencies which took this duty were called branches, this
title having, with the approval of the Commission, been assumed
previously by the Women’s Central Association of New York.
The following is a copy of the official announcement of this

action :

Office of the Sanitary Commission,

Treasury Building , Washington ,

September 16, 1861.

Messrs. J. S. Newberry, M. D., J. H. Douglas, M. D., and J.
Foster Jenkins, M. D„ are from this date appointed Associate
Secretaries of the Sanitary Commission. A. J. Lioor, Bsq., is
appointed Assistant Secretary in the central office of the Com-
mission in Washington.

'•1

The Inspectors of the Commission will, in their respective dis¬
tricts, receive instructions from the Associate Secretaries, and,
unless by special orders, report to them.

The distribution of duty for the Associate Secretaries will, for
the present, be as follows :

To Dr. Newberry, the department of General Rosecrans,
General Fremont, and General Anderson. Post office address,
Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Newberry will establish hospital depots at
Wheeling, Virginia, (in charge of C. D. Griswold, M. D.,) at
Cincinnati, (in charge of W. H. Mussey, M. D.,) and at Quincy,
Illinois.

To Doctor Douglas, the columns under General Banks and
General Dix. Post office address, Baltimore, Md. Dr. Doug¬
las will establish hospital depots at Baltimore and Frederick city.

To Dr. Jenkins, the columns under the immediate command
of General McClellan and General Wool ; with hospital depots
at Washington and Fortress Monroe. Post office address,
Washington, D. C.

Contributions of hospital stores may be made to either of the
above depdts, or to the Women’s Central Relief Association, No.
10 Third Ave., Cooper Union, New York.

The Women’s Central Relief Association of New York is,
by order of the Commission, at its own generous instance,
constituted an auxiliary branch of the Sanitary Commission ;
retaining, however, full powers to conduct its own affairs in
all respects independently of the Commission ; neither
the Commission nor the Association being in any way respon¬
sible for any pecuniary liabilities or obligations, except such
as are contracted by itself or its authorized agents.

Benevolent societies north and east of New York, propos¬
ing to contribute supplies for the national forces may com¬
municate with the Women’s Central Relief Association, which
will be in constant correspondence with the various Secre¬
taries of the Commission, and will, from time to time, forward
supplies where they may be most needed.

Contributions of money may be made to the Treasurer,
George T. Strong, Esq., 64 Wall street, New York.

IT. W. BELLOWS, President.

FRiiD. LAW OLMSTED, G-eneral Secretary.

No change was made in the previously arranged contract?
and it has been carried out since to the letter.

Care was taken, however, as will be observed, that the pub-

ic should understand that the Women’s Central, in taking
this title of “branch of Sanitary Commission,” assumed
it only with reference to the’ office of collecting and hold¬
ing hospital supplies for the Commission’s system of distri¬
bution to the army, and that even in respect to this the Com¬
mission came under not the slightest obligations to it in a
pecuniary way. This was even more specifically stated in the
letter in which I informed the association of the action of the
Commission upon its application. A statement of this action
of the Commission, in nearly the words of the above advertise¬
ment, was furnished to the associate members of Cincinnati,
and proof can be given if required that it was received by
them before the organization of their branch.

The Women’s Central Association is composed in part of
associate members of the Commission, in part of others. It has
received, held, cared for, and forwarded goods contributed to
the depdt of the Commission at New York, exactly according to

instructions from the Commission or its agents. It has never

used these goods in any other wise than as thus instructed.
It has, however, always maintained its perfect independence with
regard to all duti.es which its members chose to undertake which
were not duties already assumed by the Sanitary Commission.
The Commission has never undertaken to provide female nurses
for hospitals, for instance; the Women’s Central Association
has an independent arrangement of a very perfect character for
training and registering female nurses, and has supplied some
hundreds of these to the government hospitals. It had made ar¬
rangements with the public and with Government for this pur¬
pose before the Commission was established. It had a consider¬
able fund in its treasury, contributed in part for sustaining these
arrangements when it undertook the collecting duty for the Sani¬
tary Commission in New York. I know from its publications that

:v.

'81

It has since sustained most extensive correspondence with all parts
t)f the country and with Washington, on this portion of its inde¬
pendent duties, with regard to which it is no more a branch of
the Sanitary Commission than it is of the Society for the Propo¬
rtion of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.*

No communications have passed between the Commission and
the Association on this subject, nor with reference to its nurses
in Washington or elsewhere. The simple fact that the head of
the Sanitary Commission holds a subordinate office in the organ¬
ization of the Woman’s Central, being its Vice President, estab¬
lishes the purely functional character in which it is a branch of
the Sanitary Commission.

The word “branch,” then, was first used in connection with
this enterprise simply to designate a collecting and forwarding
agency for goods to be distributed according to the advertised
method of distribution of the Sanitary Commission. That the
word has been caught up and carelessly applied in quite another
way, I am aware, just as the word “ Sanitary Commission” itself
has been. Still this is its more common and popular meaning.
Thus, in the annual report of the Soldiers’ Aid Society of North¬
ern Ohio, a list is given of more than five hundred societies of
Northern Ohio, all of which are designated “ branches,” that is
to say in one word, contributive societies.

But the words “branch of the Sanitary Commission” had
an established meaning, before the words “Cincinnati branch
of the Sanitary Commission” had ever been pronounced, and

believe that the Commission’s associates in Chicago, have united to do
the same service for the hospitals of the West, that the Woman’s Central does
m this respect for those of the East. 1 have learned incidentally, (for no re¬
port of this or various other valuable services rendered by these gentlemen to
the army outside of the duty assumed by the Commission has been made to

is office,) that they have placed nearly one hundred female nurses in the
Western hospitals,

that meaning clearly was whit I have stated, to wit : a collecting
agency of the Sanitary Commission. The branches all grew out
of the hud of associate membership, and no duty having been for¬
mally given them by the Commission, their true relationship to
the Commission can be best inferred from the carefully defined
duties assigned by the Commission to its associate members;
that is to say, “to obtain for the Commission the means to carry
“ out its object; to inform the public fully (through the press and
«. otherwise) of the existence and design of the Commiss.cn; to
« promote the establishment of auxiliary associations, and so to
« direct the labors of associations already formed, that they may
« strengthen and support those of the Commission.” Less than,
this might be the duty of a branch, more than this, its duty to the

Sanitary Commission, could not he.

It by no means follows that the same societies or persons can
have no other and independent functions. I have shown that
the Woman’s Central had other functions when it undertook the
collecting agency of the Commission at New York, and that it
continued to perform these independently of the Commission ;
not responsible to the Commission ; not controlled by the Com¬
mission any more than the Messrs. Welsh, in Philadelphia, were
controlled by the Commission, in whatever other charitable or
commercial affairs they were interested, when they assumed
the charge of the Commission’s depot at Philadelphia. The
goods which it collects are marked by it “Sanitary Coin-
mission.” They are controlled by the Sanitary Commission ;
they go into the common stock, and are called Sanitary Com¬
mission goods. But its nurses do not conic under the control
of the Sanitary Commission ; they are not called Sanitary Com¬
mission nurses; they are called the Woman’s Central nurses.
The Woman’s Central is then, in part, independent of the Sanitary
Commission ; in so far as it is, it has never been considered

branch of the Commission. Its treasury, for instance, is not
considered any part of the branch of the Sanitary Commission
in New York, not being controlled by the Sanitary Commission.
It has a ddpdt for goods which is not independent of the Sani¬
tary Commission, but is controlled by it and is a true branch of
it — a branch of the common stock of the Sanitary Commission.

On the 22d November, Dr. Newberry addressed a circular
letter to associate members at the West, of which a copy, marked
AA, is enclosed, with a memorandum of Dr. Newberry upon it,
showing that a copy was sent by him to Judge Iloadly at Cin¬
cinnati, Mr. Blatchford at Chicago, Dr. Smith at Columbus,
and Dr. Bell at Louisville. At none of these points did depots or
collecting agencies of the Commission then exist except at Cincin¬
nati. Within a short time they were established at each of the
points designated, the gentlemen to whom the circular was ad¬
dressed joining with others in forming the organizations which
took charge of them, in all cases except one. This was at Colum¬
bus, where the depot was established by an existing society, and
on the 5th of December following, the Commission, then in ses¬
sion at Washington, “ On motion of Dr. Newberry, Resolved,
That the Soldiers’ Aid Society of Columbus, Ohio, be recog nized
as an association auxiliary to this Commission, on the same terms
as the Woman’s Central Association of New York.”

Dr. Newberry, in this circular of the 22 d November, directs
attention to the “ Letter soliciting the co-operation of associate
members, and which defines their duties in the words which I
just now quoted. He promises that a copy shall be sent to
each with the circular. Thirteen gentlemen of Cinc’nmti had
been elected associate members of the Commission by the Board
at its session in Washington, on the 19th of October. Dr. New¬
berry assures me that at this time he personally sent a copy of

this document to Judge Iloadly and to every one of these gentle¬
men. It would, indeed, have been a noteworthy accident if he had
failed in his promise to do so, and he would probably have been
informed of it by those interested. The circular of Dr. New¬
berry, as will be seen, is little more than an extension and ex¬
planation of the Letter to associate members, but points among
other things to the special duty required of associate members,
at this time, “the formation of auxiliary aid societies, and aiding
them to procure depot rooms.

The advertisement was issued in October, and there was a
depot at Cincinnati, which received goods sent to be delivered in
accordance with what it promised during the month of November.
This is proved by the Report signed “R. W. Burnett,” (a mem¬
ber of the Commission, and President of the Cincinnati branch,)
addressed to “ Dr. John S. Newberry, Western Secretary, Sanitary
Commission,” of which a copy is enclosed, (marked N,) bearing the
hand-writing of Judge Hoadly. It will be observed that it is ex¬
pressly stated by Mr. Burnett that these goods were sent to the
ddpot in consequence of the advertisement of the Commission
dated October 1st. (See first to fourth line, page 2.)

By reference to enclosure marked H, evidence will be found
that the agencies which, as I have already shown, had been previ¬
ously established for distributing supplies to the army in the field
at the West by the Commission, had been enlarged and extended
during the months of September, October, and November. With
regard to the military district nearest Cincinnati, a list of hos¬
pitals which had been aided in person by the Inspector of the Com¬
mission upon that beat during the month of November, is given
at page 26 of the same enclosure, in the report of Dr. W. M.
Prentice, (who was acting under directinstruction from Dr. New-
berry,) us follows :

; Frankfort,

patients 60 furnished supplies.

' Lexington,

220

' Nicholasville,

: Camp Dick Robinson,

200

Brick Church,

100

Lancaster,

Crab Orchard,

440

London,

620

“ in part.

Mt. Vernon,

Stanford,

Danville,

185

Baptist Church,

Lebanon,

820

New Haven,

Louisville,

1000

u in part.”*

The above is reported at the last of November bj Dr. Pren¬
tice, and appears in a printed document of the Commission,
copies of which were sent at the time to Judge Hoadly and his
associates at Cincinnati, as I have proof. It will be remembered
that the first preliminary meeting for the organization of the
Cincinnati branch was held on the evening of November 27th.

What, then, was the probable motive of Dr. Newberry in re¬
questing the associate members elect of the Commission in Cin¬
cinnati to give him an opportunity to converse with them at the
residence of Dr. Mussey on the night of November 27th? Dr.
Newberry is the gentleman styled by the Cincinnati Committee

* These hospitals, it will be remembered, come within the category defined
at page 17 of this report, and the words “in part” indicate, I presume, that
at the points designated, the Inspector found local associations at work, whose
aid it was only necessary to supplement in some few particulars of articles
which could be procured locally.

the “ man-of-all-work” of the Sanitary Commission for the West,
a descriptive designation which he need not be ashamed for the
present to bear. What work sent him at this time to Cincin¬
nati? Dr. Prentice was just then distributing supplies to cer¬
tain hospitals which are within the distance of a morning’s ride
from Cincinnati, while the supplies thus distributed had been
collected and sent to him by associate members of the Commis¬
sion or auxiliary societies, not in Cincinnati, as it must have
appeared to Dr. Newberry should have been the case, but by
associate members and societies more than five hundred miles
away. If these supplies could be collected just as well in the
adjoining rich and populous loyal agricultural communities of
southern Ohio, and in the rich and enterprising loyal commercial
community of the Queen City of the West, it would plainly be
better.

By reference to the enclosure marked II, at page 2, it will be
seen that Dr. Newberry had recently added two medical inspec¬
tors to his force, and had sent them into Kentucky. By refer¬
ence to the enclosure marked I, page 8, it will be seen that on
the 22d of November, five days before the first meeting of the
Cincinnati associates, Dr. Newberry had, in the circular letter
previously cited, stated to several persons, among others to Judge
Hoadly, of Cincinnati, that the agents employed by the Com¬
mission at the West “ are paid from funds all of which, up to the
present time, have been contributed in Eastern cities,” and that
these funds were, at the moment, “nearly exhausted.” In the
scheme of the Sanitary Commission, as I have proved, the duty
of its associate members had, beforetime, been to aid in the
formation of auxiliary societies; to collect extra-governmental
hospital supplies and to provide it with funds ; it was for this pur¬
pose that associate members were first appointed; there is no
documentary evidence that any other duty had ever been asked

of them, in behalf of the Commission, or that any has since been,
(except that of nominating inspectors of recruiting stations,)
nor that authority to invite them to undertake any other duty
has at any time been given to Dr. Newberry, or any one else.
I distinctly assert that no authority or consent has in any man¬
ner been given by this office, intentionally or to my knowledge,
at any time, for placing with branches or associates any other
duty of the Commission.

There had been goods, on the first of December, 1861, held in
trust by Dr. W. II. Mussey, to be distributed by an organized
method or system already in operation, and known by those who
delivered the goods to him as that of the Sanitary Commission.
Dr. Mussey had also held the duty of receiving goods for this
purpose, in behalf of the Sanitary Commission, under a continu¬
ous obligation, assumed before the people of Southern Ohio, with
great pains-taking, by the Sanitary Commission. When Mr.
Burnett, a member of the Sanitary Commission, and certain
other persons, who had been solicited to assume the duty of
associate members, under the Sanitary Commission, were asked
a few days afterwards, to receive those goods from the hands of
Dr. Mussey, it is fair to presume that they were asked to as¬
sume the obligations of Dr. Mussey, unless the contrary is very
clearly shown ; that is to say, they were asked to receive those
goods in trust , under a stipulation that they should be distributed
hy the method of distribution previously existing of the Sanitary
Commission.

I have shown that at the time the advertisement of October
was issued, I had it in mind to relieve individuals who were
serving gratuitously of the labor of taking care of the depots
of the Commission, before this should become a very heavy task„
by inducing associate members coming together in an organiza¬
tion, either of themselves alone, or of themselves in connection

with others, to assume the duty, and’ in either ease the term*
“branch,” following the precedent established at its own sug¬
gestion by the Woman’s Central Association of New York, was
applied indifferently with the special title of the organization, to
indicate such an agency. I have stated that this was gradually
accomplished at the East, and that Dr. Newberry was advised to
see it accomplished at the West; that, at this moment, thirteen
gentlemen were elected associate members at Cincinnati; that
they were notified by Dr. Newberry of their appointment, and
that a few days afterwards, at his suggestion, they organized
under the title of the Cincinnati bruiicJi of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion. I have shown that, in previous instances, the word branch
had been publicly used and accepted to indicate a certain rela¬
tionship to the Commission, which relationship was one simply
of collection. I have shown that the organization called the
braneh at Cincinnati, and which consisted of a collection of asso¬
ciate members, assumed a charge which had been previously held
by a single associate member ; that this charge, when held by
him, was one simply of collection ; and that a precisely similar
transfer had been made at Philadelphia, and had not been
attended by any inoculation of the duty of distribution to the
army in the field upon this charge. I have shown that the duty
of associate members, in relation to the Commission, had been
defined to be merely that of collection and the facilitating of
collection through publications and organizations for the pur¬
pose. I have shown that, at the very moment of the organiza¬
tion of the Cincinnati branch, the established distributing agency
of the Commission was employed within half a day’s ride of the
city of Cincinnati in distributing supplies to the army in the
field; that this agency was supported by funds, every dollar of
which had been collected a thousand miles away from Cincinnati^
which funds were now nearly exhausted, and that Dr. Newberry

informed the associate members of this fact, a few days before
the organization of the branch, by a written circular letter. I
have also shown that the supplies which were then being dis¬
tributed almost in the neighborhood of Cincinnati by the agency
of the Commission, were brought from a long way off, and of
course at a cost which it was desirable to avoid. Under all these
circumstances, does it appear possible that Dr. Newberry should
have said nothing, whatever, of the Commission as a distributing
agency ; that he should have taken this opportunity to inaugurate
a new feature in the arrangements of the Commission, by giving
the Cincinnati associates the peculiar duty of going into the field
to distribute goods collected at the branch depot of the Commis¬
sion already established and in operation at Cincinnati, this
being not merely unprecedented, but in violation of an under¬
taking publicly assumed in advance by the Commission?

Against all this inherent improbability and against the distinct
recollection of Dr. Newberry himself,* there stands merely the
absence of recollection of Judge Hoadly and his associates,
and the fact that they have recently been acting in a manner
quite at variance with the obligations, which in this case, it
might have been understood they had assumed and which it seems
almost incredible that, honorable men as they are known to be,
they should have forgotten.

Let us ask, then, how trustworthy is their memory of what
they were then unquestionably informed about ?

Enclosed, marked BB, is a copy of a letter addressed espe-

* Dr. Newberry says that so markedly plain was his statement before the
organizing meeting of the purely collecting function of the proposed branchy
that one of the members present addressed him in ihe meeting thus : “ I don’t
see, then, but that all the Commission wants of us is simply to get all the
money and the goods we can for it.” “ In one word,” replied Dr. Newberry,
“that is all.”

daily to the chairman of the committee himself, which was sent
by Dr. Newberry, (accompanying the above-recited circular letter
to western associate members of the Commission, and the gen¬
eral letter defining the duties solicited of associate members by
the Commission,) as appears by the memorandum, upon the copy,
of Dr. Newberry. In this letter Dr. Newberry, after stating
what, in particular, is wanted of the associate members of the
Commission in Cincinnati, suggesting, for instance, the selection
of some one to immediately relieve Dr. Mussey of the labor of
taking care of the Commission’s depot, closes with these words :

“ We have sent about 100 boxes hospital stores into Kentucky
within the last two weeks.

Could Judge Iloailly have been unaware that these goods
were sent into Kentucky for distribution by the agents of
the Commission ? Could be have remained in ignorance of
tins, when shortly afterwards be received the printed report
of Dr. Prentice’s distributions at Lexington, Frankfort, Dick
Robinson, and the rest of the camps over there?

On the 9 tli of December, twelve days after the first meeting
of the Cincinnati associates, I presented my report as the
officer charged with “the chief executive duties of the Com¬
mission ” to the Secretary of War. From portions of this
report referring to the particular duty of the Commission
now under consideration, I copy the following passages:

11 The Commission lias for some months past held itself
“ready to receive and to distribute where most required
« among the soldiers of every portion of the army all sup¬
plies, Especially of hospital stores, which might he for-
“ warded to its depots by the humane and charitable societies
“ that are working for the army in every northern city, town,

“and village. These supplies have been forwarded to it in
“ large quantity.

“The Quartermaster General having advertised for blan-
“kets from the private stocks of citizens, and having become
“acquainted with the method of action adopted by the Corn-
emission, has also directed that all blankets which shall be
“obtained by his agents shall be placed in the stores of the
“ Commission for gratuitous distribution, where found to bo
“ needed by the sick.

“System of Distribution.— It is the duty of the Commis¬
sion to prevent, as far as possible, the sacritice of human
life to matters ot form and considerations of accuracy of
accounts. Its method of distribution, is as thorough and
“exact as can be maintained consistently with this duty.

Phis department ot its business has so greatly increased,
of late that it has been difficult to enlarge its clerical organ¬
ization with corresponding rapidity. Vouchers signed by
“the surgeon, or his assistant, ot every regiment or hospital,
aided, and countersigned by an Inspector of the Commission,
who has ascertained that the articles supplied are actually
needed, have been obtained, however, for every dollar’s
woitli issued at all the depots directly controlled by the
“Commission. + *

“ Caution is exercised in the distribution of the gifts of
“the people, chiefly in the following particulars:

“1. Ihat they should be as fairly divided as is practicable
“ — those most needy being most liberally dealt with.

That no officer shall be unnecessarily relieved from
an existing responsibility to secure for all dependent on him
all the supplies which it is his right and duty to demand
“directly of Government.

44 The Commission has, b}f circulars and advertisements,
a given the widest publicity to the need of hospital supplies
44 at all its depots, specifying particularly the nature, dimen¬
sions, form, &c., of the articles especially needed.

44 Depots of the Commission. — The principal depots of
44 stores for the Commission are in New York, ( under charge
44 of the 4 Woman’s Central Relief Association of New
44 York,’) at Boston, at Providence, R. I., at Philadelphia, at
44 Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio, at Wheeling,

44 Va., at Louisville, at Chicago, at Cairo, at St. Louis, and at
44 Washington.”

This report was laid by the Secretary of War before Con¬
gress ; it was, in considerable part, republished in the news¬
papers, among others in the New York Times, World, and
Herald, also in the London Times, and other foreign journals;
ten thousand copies of it were printed and circulated by the
Commission, a thousand or more being sent into Ohio.
One hundred copies were sent to Judge Hoadly, in person,
and I have the Expressman’s receipt for them.

In addition to what I have quoted, this report states, with
reference to the plan of making distributions by the Com¬
mission, that (previous to November 15th x 1861,) fifty-one
thousand articles of hospital clothing, besides several tons of
hospital diet, had been issued from the Cleveland depot of
the Commission to the army in the West; that 4,814 articles
of bedding and clothing had been distributed from the Wheel¬
ing d^pot; and that the value of the supplies which had been
issued 44 during the month of November , 1861, by agents of the
Commission , amounted , at a very moderate estimate , to the sum of
forty thousand dollars .”

At this time there was not a 44 western branch” in ex-

istence, and yet, Judge Hoadly’s recollection of all this is
so much at fault, that on the 5th of November, 1862, he
wrote as follows: “It is idle to consume ink and paper to
“prove what you know, viz: that up to this time the western
u branches have, with your approval, undertaken the work of
“supply to the army, and that you have never even attempted
“to provide means for that work on your part. I do not
“know, of course, what you have proposed, but if you ever
“ thought or talked of any plan other than the one adopted in
“practice, [assuming this to be by distribution through the
“ western branches,] I never heard of it. Query: would he
“be ungenerous who should intimate that the whole plan of
“ making distributions in the West by the U. S. Sanitary Com-
“mission is an after thought, the result of the generosity ot
“California?”

This statement of the chairman of the Cincinnati com¬
mittee enables us to measure very exactly the value of the
testimony of the committee upon the question, whether the
branch at Cincinnati was formed at the request of the Sain¬
tary Commission, through Dr. Newberry, for purposes of
independent distribution of the stores to be collected at the
ddpot ot the Sanitary Commission, in Cincinnati, as now sup¬
posed by the committee, or not; for this all turns upon the
trustworthiness of their supposed recollection that Dr. New¬
berry addressed them in a way very different from that in
which he had a few days before written to them, and in a
manner wholly inconsistent with all his instructions, and with
the established and published plans and duties of the Com¬
mission.

The question, ^whether “he would be ungenerous who
should intimate that the whole plan of making distributions

m the "West, by the U. S. Sanitary Commission, is an after
thought, the result of the generosity of California,” cannot
be regarded as a mere error of memory; but, as I am in¬
formed, that this idea has been strongly impressed upon other
persons besides the committee, I will undertake, from the
materials I can readily lay my hands upon in the office, to
show that the “plan of distribution,” which, as I have al¬
ready proved, was established and working throughout the
West before, and up to the time when, the Cincinnati Branch
was organized, was supposed, by those responsible for it, to
be in continuous operation up to the day the first intelli¬
gence of the first of the recent California donations reached
them; the only changes made in the “plan” having been
for its enlargement and improvement, according as the
moneyed means of the Commission warranted.

The Cincinnati branch went into operation December , 1861.
I to-day opened, for the first time, the London Medical Critic
and Physiological Journal, for October. At page 626 I
came upon the following passage, reviewing the work of the
Sanitary Commission to the close of that year, from infor¬
mation obtained from the newspapers and some few publi¬
cations of the Commission, found, probably, at thc.Hunterian
museum :

“It had filled up several serious blanks in the provision
for wounded ami sick, which had arisen from the inaptitude
of the medical bureau, hampered by its regulations, adapt
only to the small force of the regular army; it had become the
recognized agency of the bulk of that private bounty which was
lavished bg the different States upon the forces; and it had offim ted
many ameliorations in the Sanitary condition ot the volun¬
teers.”

By reference to the enclosed advertisement, dated January
1st, 1862, marked T, it will be seen that on that day the

Commission announced to the public that it was “ dispen¬
sing supplies to the wounded and suffering to the value of
more than a thousand dollars each day,” and that it employed
“ more than fort)/ hard-working men in the duty, of whom fif¬
teen were skilful physicians constantly serving as Inspectors
of camps and hospitals.” By reference to the enclosed ad¬
vertisement marked S, issued under instructions from the
Central Office, in February, 1862, it will he seen that the
Commission was still calling on the public for general hos¬
pital supplies to he sent to its depots. By reference to the
enclosure marked V, it will be seen that in March renewed
and increased contributions of hospital supplies were called
for, and that the system of distribution which had been ad¬
vertised in October was again recommended to the public;
it will be seen also that the list of receiving depots had been
enlarged during the winter; it being mentioned* that the
Commission had recently established additional “ distributing
depots at Port Royal, Ivey West, Ship Island, Nashville,” etc.

By reference to the Minutes , page 123, it will be seen
that from March 4th to March 8th the Sanitary Commission
was in session at Washington, and that its meetings were
attended by Messrs. Baker, Shoenberger, Andersoi^ and
Baldwin, associate members, of the Cincinnati branch.
Reports were read giving account of the recent operation of
the relief system of the Commission by several of its western
officers, as follows: general report by Dr. Newberry as to
the Mississippi valley; by Dr. Douglas, as to Missouri ; Dr.
Warriner, as to Missouri ; Dr. Aigner, as to Southern Mis¬
souri, and Illinois, and Western Kentucky; Dr. Reed, as to
Kentucky; Dr. Griswold, as to Western Virginia; Dr. Blake,
as to Louisiana. Reports from other points on the coast,
and from the army of the Potomac, were also read, and a

complete system for the equitable distribution of hospital
supplies was shown to be in equally efficient operation
throughout every column of the army. Among other evi¬
dences of an intention to continue the system, at this time
evinced by the Commission, was the discussion of a motion
u for the appointment of a committee to make an appeal to
the clergy of the loyal States for collections in their respec¬
tive churches for the aid and relief of the volunteer army
through the Sanitary Commission.1 ” This discussion elicited
the fact that one member, and but one member, of the Com¬
mission had any doubt as to the duty of the Commission to
continue the system of distribution which it had undertaken
for the people. This was Dr. Howe, whose views had been
previously published. Ilis objections were against all 'vol¬
unteer relief, as likely to exert an influence unfavorable to a
proper accountability on the part of the medical officers of
Government, and a full statement was made by Dr. Hew-
berry and myself of the system of distribution which we had
adopted, for the purpose of satisfying the Commission that
proper precautions had been taken to guard against this
evil. Dr. Howe has since approved of and given his aid to
the system. It was considered inexpedient to pass the mo¬
tion, because it was deemed better that the churches should,
in many cases, make contributions of hospital clothing to
the depots of the Commission, and use their money for the
purchase of material to be made up for this purpose, in
accordance with the policy of the advertisement of October.

By reference to enclosure, marked C C, it will be seen that
on the 16th of April, an advertisement was issued from the
Central office, which contained the following exhibit of the
general relief system of the Commission :

“The Commission has, at this moment, special professional

agents attending respectively the Mississippi fleet , the army at
Pittsburg Landing, General MitcheV s division , [then in North¬
ern Alabama.] Banks' column, Dix’s column, McDowell’s
column, Wadsworth’s division, at General McClellan’s head¬
quarters, at Newbern, at Fern^ndina, and at Ship Island, to
each of ivhom supplies are shipped as often as it is advised they
should be."

It was at the same time urged, as will be seen, that “ in
no other way, and through no organization less general and
comprehensive in its scope" than that thus exhibited, could
the sick and wounded of the army be as well aided by the
public. The above was published in the newspapers as well
as in circular form, and was especially addressed to the
Commission’s ‘ Associates."

On the 19th of April , 1862, an elaborate article appeared
in the New York World newspaper, the following extracts
from which will show that the Commission’s “ method of dis¬
tribution," as first fully presented to the public in October,
was still understood to be in full operation East, West, and
South :

“ There was great danger at the beginning of the war that
the gifts of the patriotic and benevolent, intended for the
sick and suffering volunteers, which would fail to reach their
destination entirely, or be so distributed as to leave very many
unsupplied, while others had a superabundance. * * *

One ot the good works done by the Sanitary Commission has
been the systematizing of this spontaneous benevolence, so
that all could work for the good cause, and when sending the
products of their patriotic endeavors and their gifts to some
depot, be assured that where there teas suffering there would
their gifts go, without reference to the State badge of the re¬
giment or the hospital.

In this zuay the Commission has labored everywhere, and has
depots of hospital stores at St. Louis, Cincinnati , Chicago,
Cleveland, Wheeling, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress
Monroe, Newbern, Hilton Head, Ship Island, New York,
Boston, and Philadelphia. The expenses of storage are usu¬
ally borne by Government, or by the owner of the premises

used. Having these depots selected with reference to bases
of military operations, the Commission is not only enabled to
anticipate and relieve the suffering in battle and hospital any¬
where throughout the United States, but to furnish centers
about which local benevolence •and patriotism, may organize
themselves

On the 1st of May, the following advertisement was issued:

“The Sanitary Commission asks contributions for the aid
and relief of the volunteer army. There will in all proba¬
bility soon be many wounded men to provide for, and our
troops on the southern coast are endangered by the unhtdfl by
season now approaching. There is therefore special need of
public liberality on their behalf, at least until the measures
now pending in Congress to strengthen the Medical Depart¬
ment of the army shall be perfected. Agencies and depots o.
hospital stores, &c., are maintained at heavy expense m con¬
nection with every portion of the army. Contributions may be

aduiessed to qeqrG-E T. STRONG, Treasurer,

No. 68 Wall street, New York.

May 7th, the Treasurer made his usual monthly public
acknowledgment of cash contributions received, adding at the
close this sentence :

“ Further contributions for the objects of the Commission,
and Specially for floating hospitals at the West and in the
waters of Virginia, will be received by

GEORGE T. STRONG, Treasurer „
No. 68 Wall street, New York.

May 23d, the “New York Agency of the Sanitary Com¬
mission’ ’ advertised as follows .

“ The following articles of hospital clothing and supplies

are urgently wanted by the Commission and may he sent to

the ‘ Women’s Central Association of Relief,* No Goopei s

fll“The prodigious demand of the last month, during v Inch
more than a hundred thousand articles of clothing (ben les
other supplies) have been issued by the Commission to the

Slck and wounded in the Army of the Potomac alone (and
probably a much larger amount to the Western and other
Departments,) has reduced our stock, and although 686 cases
have been received at the Washington depot since April 23
the demand is much greater than the supply.”*

It was in May, also, if I mistake not, that the letter from
an Ohio associate member of the Commission, from which I
make the following extracts, was published in the Columbus
Journal :

“Dr Prentice, of Cleveland, Medical Inspector, appoint-
ed by the United States Sanitary Commission, has now three
large tents near the Purveyor’s office, and is distributing
sanitary goods without regard to States. Any needy regi¬
mental hospitals can be supplied. Many Aid Societies com-
phun that their goods are not distributed to the immediate
friends from the points from which they are sent It is im¬
possible for him to do. so, and the rule of the Commission for¬
bids it. Some local institutions have sent goods here and
carried them back, and others have been thrown upon the
shore with. none to care for them. Dr. Prentice is indefati¬
gable in his labors to correctly distribute anything sent to
him, to examine personally the needs of the regimental hos¬
pitals, and to distribute only to the surgeons or on their re¬
quisitions. . Goods sent to Dr. Prentice, United States Sani¬
tary Commission, care United States Purveyor, Pittsburgh
Landing, Tennessee, or to the Commission at Cleveland, Co¬
lumbus or Cincinnati, will be properly cared for. Had it not
been the sanitary system at Pittsburgh Landing, many a
brave man would have been beyond saving.” * * *

lo the depot at Pittsburgh Landing I have since sent a
lai ge amount of stores, and shall to-morrow start with over
two hundred boxes more, and with nearly a steamer load of
potatoes, vegetables, fruits, stimulants, ice, &c., &c., all fur-
ms led by the liberality ot the Soldier’s Aid Society of North¬
ern Ohio.” J

F. C. SESSIONS.

By reference to the enclosure, marked W, it will be seen

*The last three advertisements quoted, may be found in the New York Tribune,
daily, of the dates named.

100

that the circular of March was re-issued in June , with, the
following additions :

Washington, D. C., June 1st, 1862.

“ While the general objects of the Commission remain the
same as at the date of the foregoing circular, there is now
added the claim put forth by our soldiers engaged in active
operations in the field, who have suffered in battle, or fiom
the more destructive influence of an unfriendly climate.

11 Besides furnishing very large supplies of hospital bed¬
ding and clothing, (more than 100,000 articles having been
issued during May from the Washington depot alone,) the
Commission has felt itself called upon to supply additional
comforts for the sick and wounded, which involve an expen¬
diture for the past month of not less than $22,000.*

{( Our armies on the Peninsula, in North Carolina, through-
out, General Hunter’s Department, and at New Orleans and
vicinity, are all sharing the attention and good offices of the
Commission, while the wants of our large army near Corinth,
Mississippi, are in like manner freely supplied^ by our West¬
ern Secretaries and their generous co-laborers.”

July 15th the Soldier’s Aid Society of Northern Ohio issued
a circular, (see copy enclosed marked DO,) the following
sentence from which will show that its managers had not yet
been informed of any discontinuance of the Commission s
'‘method of distribution :”

“The United States Sanitary Commission is laboring most
diligently to establish depots for relief in every quarter where
suffering can be found, and to prevent as far as possible the
waste and loss of supplies, which are to a degree unavoidable,
and we doubt not in the future our stores will be still more
widely disseminated.”

In the same document appears a letter from the Western
Secretary of the Sanitary Commission, the statements of which

%Note. — Not one cent of this expenditure was made through the Cincinnati,
Philadelphia, or any other branch.

101

are endorsed by the managers of the society from personal
knowledge, some of their number having visited the seat of
war in Tennessee for the purpose. The following passages
are taken from it:

“2d. The system of distribution of sanitary stores, which
has been introduced into my department, is the result of much
thought and effort, and, so far as adopted, seems to render all
great abuses impossible.

“My aim and practice have been to establish at all import¬
ant head-quarters of the army, near the office of the medical
purveyor, a depot of sanitary stores, to which the surgeons of
regiments or hospitals, when coming for supplies, may have
recourse for such things as government cannot furnish. These
depots, under the care of competent persons, are managed
with as much care and system as that of the medical purveyor,
a record being kept, and receipts taken for all articles issued.
They are also under the general supervision of the Inspectors ,
who are constantly employed in visiting the camps and hos¬
pitals in the vicinity, drawing on the depot for the supply of
all real wants. Nor does the care of the Inspector over your
bounty end here. On his rounds of inspection he repeatedly
visits every hospital, and sees with his own eyes that his gifts
are properly used, and while he is instructed to err, if at all,
on the side of liberality, he is also enjoined to keep careful
watch that the stores he dispenses are not misused.

“Where this system has not been adopted, and stores are
hurriedly distributed by inexperienced persons, making but
a single visit to a locality — a course still pursued by some aid
societies and sanitary associations — errors and abuses are lia¬
ble, even sure, to occur. But your stores have not been, and
will not be, thus distributed, so long as they are entrusted to
the care of the agents of the U. S. Sanitary Commission/’
“Yours, very respectfully,

' J. S. NEWBERRY,

Secy Western Department.”

On the 9th of August , the following statement appeared in
the newspapers of Buffalo, N. Y.:

“ The committee of twenty, appointed by the citizens of
Buffalo to provide for the sick and wounded of the regiments

102

organized in or sent from Buffalo, have adopted the following
report and ordered it to be published. [The committee state
that they have been in conference with the Sanitary Commis¬
sion, and had been advised that:]

“The great extent of territory occupied by the army, and
the distribution of our soldiers at such various and remote
points, rendered it impossible to supply specific assistance to
any particular regiment. The arrangements of the Commis¬
sion were so extensive and complete , that any means 'placed in
its hands would he sure to reach all suffering soldiers , without
reference to their particular locality

“The report not meeting the original moving element of
the organization, somewhat paralyzed the operations of the
committee, and render it necessary to investigate more thor¬
oughly the subject, and information was sought from other
sources. ”

The committee at length deliberately concluded that the
purpose of their organization had been a wasteful and un¬
worthy one; that even if it were not so, it would be impracti¬
cable to follow the Buffalo regiments with any method of re¬
lief, which would reach them when relief was most needed,
unless it were equally comprehensive, elaborate, and carefully
systematized with that of the Sanitary Commission, and that
the citizens of Buffalo would not only best serve the sick and
wounded of their own regiments, but the national cause and
their own self-respect, by dividing their relief fund between
the treasury of the Sanitary Commission and the Soldiers’
Aid Society of Western New York, for the purchase of mate¬
rial for its members to work up.

The recommendations of the committee were adopted by the
citizens of Buffalo, and the local society has since sent a special
committee to more thoroughly examine the affairs of the Com¬
mission. This committee made a searching investigation of
the accounts of the Commission, and of all its methods ot
business, and as the result reported the most complete and
hearty expression of approval of all they found which the

103

work of the Commission has ever received. (See enclosed,
marked E E.) The contributions of the Soldiers’ Aid Society
of Western New York have since been sent exclusively to the
Commission’s depots at New York, Washington, or Louisville,
according to the varying demand of the Eastern, Western,
and Southern armies. The report of the first committee was
made about one month before the Commission was advised of
the recent California donations to its treasury; the investiga¬
tion of the second committee was in progress on the very day
that the first advices of these donations were received, and its
chairman, in returning to Buffalo from Washington, spent
an evening in conversation with Judge Hoadly and two other
associate members of the Commission from Cincinnati by in¬
vitation of the President of the Sanitary Commission, in hie
library, in New York.

By reference to the Minutes , it will be seen that from Sep¬
tember 16th to September 20th the Commission was in session
in Washington. The following are extracts from the minutes
of proceedings on the 18th:

<k The Surgeon General and the Hon. George Hoadly were
present.”

“ The Secretary reported that since the commencement of
active operations in Maryland, and previous to yesterday, five
wagons and one railroad car, loaded with supplies, had been
sent by the Commission to and beyond Frederick; that six
Surgeons and Inspectors of the Commission, with a car load
of supplies, were sent on yesterday afternoon; that three wag¬
ons left Washington for the front of the army on the Upper
Potomac at 12 o’clock last night, with a party of eight, in
charge of Drs. Agnew and Harris; that a train of army wag¬
ons are now loading with supplies to he despatched imme¬
diately for the battle-field, also by way of Frederick; that Dr.
Crane had been previously stationed at Chambersburg or Ha¬
gerstown, with large discretionary powers to act for the Com¬
mission; and that despatches had been sent to Philadelphia,
ordering the purchase of large supplies at that point; that

104

these, with stores forwarded from the North, would be for¬
warded to Hagerstown in charge of special agents/'

UA report was presented from Mr. Caleb Cope, treasurer of
the Philadelphia associates, showing a balance now in the
treasury of fourteen thousand seven hundred and sixteen dol¬
lars and fifty-two cents, and an aggregate of receipts by him
as such treasurer amounting to thirty -three thousand ^ seven
hundred and thirty-four dollars and thirty-eight cents.

u Dr. Howe presented a report of receipts and expenditures
of Boston Agency ot the Sanitary Commission since Maich 1?
1862, showing a balance to its credit of $4,444.

On the next day :

“ Mr. Olmsted presented a report on the general operations
of the Commission since the last meeting."

u Dr. Newberry presented a special report of the operations
of the Western branch of the Commission’s [executive force,}
in the Valley of the Mississippi since March last."

(It does not appear of record that Judge Hoadly was pres¬
ent at this time. He had been invited to be.)

The battle of Antietam was in progress, and during the
session several wagon trains, one of them accompanied by a
member of the Commission, departed for the battle-field from
before the door of the building in which the session was held.
More than 30,000 articles of clothing, with several tons of
articles of nourishment, stimulants, &c., were sent during the
week from the Washington depot for distribution to the wound¬
ed by the method of the Commission.

The Commission adjourned on the 20th, and on the 21st, in¬
telligence of the first of the recent donations of California was
first received.

On the twentieth , however, I had had printed a brief expo¬
sition of the “national system of distribution," adopted by
the Sanitary Commission, for “all divisions of the army,
those “on the Mississippi and the Western frontier," as
well as those “on the Southern coast," being particularized.

105

Copies of this paper were placed on the table of the Commis¬
sion, and the attention of Judge Skinner, of Chicago, I re¬
member, was particularly called to it by myself, while it was
in proof, and it received his endorsement. I cannot say that
a copy was given to Judge Hoadly, but copies were sent to
newspapers the same day, and it will be found in the New
York evening papers of the 22d, the morning papers of that
date having first published the telegraphic dispatch from San
Francisco, announcing the donations from California. Sub¬
sequently to its general publication, which was very promi¬
nent in the New York daily papers, Judge Hoadly met the
President and New York members of the Commission with
the President of the Chicago branch, and spent an evening
with them discussing the affairs of the Commission, and the
next day the President wrote me that the advertisement was
satisfactory.

It appeared in the newspapers of Cincinnati the following
week. It was published for one month, daily, in the Cincin¬
nati Gazette, as follows:

“FOR THE SICK AND WOUNDED.

“Under an order from the President of the United States,
a national system has been established by the Sanitary Com¬
mission for the safe transmission and judicious distribution of
articles contributed by the people for the sick and wounded of
the Army and Navy. The system, after being well tried, has
been formally approved and recommended by the President,
the General-in-Chief, and the Surgeon General. The security
it offers against misappropriation is practically perfect, 'until
the contributions are delivered in the hospitals, where they
necessarily pass from the control of the Commission. Of more
than a million articles sent through one of the largest of its
channels of supply, it has been ascertained that not one hun¬
dred have miscarried or been dishonestly used. Discreet

106

and trustworthy agents are constantly employed in visiting
all divisions of the army, including tnose on the Southern
coast, the Mississippi, and .the Western frontier, to observe
their wants; to direct supplies where they are most tmeued,
and to secure, as far as practicable, their honest ^ ,

Commission does not undertake to deliver articles to individ¬
uals, and declines to receive contributions with any res.r.otion
as to their destination within the limits of the force employed
in the service of the Nation, it being one of its secondary b-

jects to strengthen the sentiment of National unity wherever
it can come in antagonism with State or loca PM< ‘ •
distribution of hospital supplies is but a branch of the wo k
of the Commission. It employs the best professional talent
which can be obtained in the country to aid its larger pur¬
pose— to do all that is possible for the health and vigor of our
fighting men, to lighten their burdens, and to sustain then
spirits under the privations and hardships which are an es¬
sential part of successful warfare. For this purpose contribu¬
tion to its treasury are solicited. They may be directed to
the Treasurer, G. T. STRONG, esq., No. 68 Wall st„ Eew

^“Commissioners under appointment from the President of
the United States: The Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D.; Prof.
A. D. Bache, LTj. D.; George W. Cull urn, U. S. A , Alex¬
ander E. Shims, U. S. A.; Robert C. Wood, M. D ,D. S.A.,
William II. Van Buren, M. D.; Wolcott Gibbs, MD. .Sam¬
uel G. Howe, M. D.; Cornelius R. Agnew, M. D..; E.isha
Harris, M. D.; J. S. Newberry, M. D.; George 1. ^'""0.
Horace Binney, jr.; the Right Rev. Ihos. M. dark, : D O.,
the Hon. Joseph Holt; R. W. Burnett; the Hon. Mark Skin-
ner; Frederick Luiw Olmsted.

“Contributions of suitable supplies for the sick and wounded
will be received at the Rooms of the Sanitary Commission, cor¬
ner of Sixth and Vine streets, Cincinnati, Ohio.”

On the day that the first telegraphic dispatch was sent from
San Francisco to the Sanitary Commission, the Sanitary Com¬
mission had eight, of its regular “paid agents” constantly and
systematically employed in making distributions of hospital
supplies to the army in the States of Kentucky and Tennessee.

107

In no single month of the last year have less than one
thousand cases of hospital goods been distributed, exclusively
by the hands of these agents to the sick and wounded of the
army within those States.

I have quoted the passage from Judge Hoadly ’s letter,
and have shown how completely mistaken it was, because
it suggests the only explanation of which I can conceive
for the character of the Report of November 12th of the com¬
mittee of which he was chairman. Strangely uninformed, or
forgetful, as the other members of tin's committee equally
with Judge Hoadly must have been of the real facts of the
case, they were probably imposed upon by the statements of
some interested persons, who, to induce the consummation of
some* previously conceived purpose, had contrived a theory of
their own to account for their unwillingness to divide the trust
of California with their “associates,” and had made facts after
a very common fashion, to fit their theory.

The following is a fair indication of the allegations of the
report in which this is apparent:

-The U. Sc Sanitary Commission had not when we organ¬
ized, nor have they now, any adequate means at their com-
“mand for doing properly the work of distribution. During
“the last year they have had in service a number of paid
“agents, viz: A western secretary and a few inspectors.”

Judge Hoadly, of course, received the misinformation thus
conveyed, as a statement of truth: The truth is this, however:
The Sanitary Commission has had, on an average, at least
fifty “paid agents,” devoting their whole time to its service
during the whole of the past year. At the time this was
written its paid agents numbered exactly one hundred, accord¬
ing to the statements presented to the Commission at its
November session.

108

“In fact, if consolidation is to be the policy, and but a single
“agency is to undertake the work of distribution, the W estei n
“Sanitary Commission is, in our opinion, better prepared to
“discharge the duty than the Sanitary Commission— just to
“the extent that voluntary service exceeds in value hired
“labor.”

I am confident that the Sanitary Commission has, and has
always had, on an average, ten times as many volunteer la¬
borers in its service as the Western Sanitary Commission; that
its system of distribution reaches daily ten hospitals for every
one reached by that of the Western Sanitary Commission, and
that it daily gives aid and comfort to ten sick and wounded
soldiers where the Western Sanitary Commission touches one.
Moreover, the sick and wounded who are ordinarily reached
by the Sanitary Commission are by far the most in peril of
life lor want of aid of the character bestowed.'

* The Western Sanitary Commission was constituted “ with a view to the health
and comfort of the Volunteer Troops in and near the City of St. Louis while
the relief organization of the Sanitary Commission was yet incomplete. The
Cincinnati Committee are mistaken in their statement that the Western Sanitary
Commission is, in the same sense with the Sanitary Commission, «ogmad by
the authorities.” The Western Sanitary Commission was recognized for a local
purpose early in September, 1861, by the General commanding ^epartm
whose Headquarters were then at St. Louis, in an order tom which ^th above
quotation is taken, and for which he was reproved, in an order of the Secret y
of War, dated October 2d, 1861, in the following words: Such a step, .by
ding the authority, can only embarrass the general plan adopted by the ^Depart-

ment. I would therefore request you to rescind the order creating e sai *

or that you would direct the said Commission at St. Louis to work under the
instructions of the Sanitary Board here.” When the main body of the Ar^ of
the West withdrew from Missouri to operate on the base of the Ohio, just befo

the movements which resulted in the capture of FortHenry and Fort Donelson the

St Louis Society was left in sole charge of the duty of relief for the hospitals at
SL Louis and vicinity, and for the field hospitals of the troops operating ^
base the State of Missouri being considered as a loyal State, and within the cate¬
gory of the intermediate ground described at page 17 of this report, and Ahe Com¬
mission has since refrained from working within the selected field of the Society
at St Louis, from a desire to avoid the danger of conflicting action betwee s
agents and a body of men whose motives are believed to be the same with its own
Td who command its respect. The Commission has relief agents in Arkansa

109

There are not less than twenty associations, and so-called
“commissions” and “branches” operating independently of
the Commission, which have engaged in the work of relief to
the sick and wounded within the region of warlike operations.
I believe that any honest, intelligent man, who will take the
trouble to investigate the matter, may satisfy himself that the
Sanitary Commission has distributed four times as much
of needed hospital supplies; has mitigated ten times as much
suffering, and has saved ten times as many lives as all of these
together.

I am, in this case, giving opinions and not proofs, but my
character for sound judgment is worth something, and my
convictions have been formed with as much general knowledge
of the subject, probably, as is possessed by the Cincinnati com¬
mittee, and certainly with a much better knowledge of the
work of the Sanitary Commission than they have shown.
They are considerate convictions, which Judge Hoadly’s on
this subject certainly are not. Of the precipitancy with which
he has been ready to express very ill-considered impressions,
the following circumstance affords some evidence:

In his letter to the President of the Sanitary Commission
from which I have before quoted, (dated November 5th,) and
which constitutes a part of the personal correspondence be¬
tween Dr. Bellows and Judge Hoadly, from which quotation
is made in the Cincinnati Committee’s report, Judge Hoadly
opens with an expression of surprise at “the erroneous opin-

and Kansas. The Western Sanitary Commission at St. Louis has recently 'em¬
ployed the system of the Sanitary Commission for distribution of goods to the
Army in Tennessee and Mississippi. The President of the St. Louis Commission
is an associate member of the Sanitary Commission, and while confined, as it
mainly has been, except in emergencies, in its operations, to Missouri, it performs
precisely and very admirably the duty which is elsewhere performed in loyal
communities by the regular “ branches” of the Commission.

110

ions” evinced by Dr. Bellows in a letter to wliich this is a
reply. He then takes up these erroneous opinions one by
one, thus:

“I. It is not true that our body has ever styled itself, or
“permitted itself to he called, ‘The Cincinnati Sanitary Com-
“mission.’ Our title is, e Cincinnati Branch of the U. S. Sani-
“tary Commission. * I speak whereof I know; for I have writ¬
ten every circular our Commision has addressed to the public
“from the beginning. I enclose the last of these, issued in
“August. * * * Our first circular I also enclose.”

Judge Hoadly encloses not only the two, hut a third circu¬
lar of the Cincinnati branch, on which he writes: “ Please
read all of this;” and the President having sent them to this
office, they are herewith sent to the committee. On the
fourth page of the August circular, and on the fifth page
of the other two, will he found the designation in large block-
letter capitals, as distinct as type can make it :

CINCINNATI SANITARY COMMISSION.

I enclose the leading article of a Cincinnati paper, marked
W, which hears abundant internal evidence of having proceed¬
ed from a member or an employee of the Cincinnati branch,
who had been upon a visit to the hospitals at Perry ville, Iven-
tucky, after the late battle there, and throughout which the
term “ The Sanitary Commission” is used as the proper desig¬
nation of the Cincinnati branch, and this in connection with
most serious charges against a Medical Director of the U. S.
army: charges of a character such as the Sanitary Commis¬
sion itself has never made against any surgeon without being
able to procure his dismissal in disgrace from the service; but

Ill

which, according to the testimony of the agents of the real
Sanitary Commission, are pure libels on a faithful officer of
the Go vernment.

How carefully I have felt to he my duty to guard against
any such wrong being committed for which “ the Sanitary Com¬
mission” could be justly held accountable, I have already
shown.

How long it was, after the preliminary meeting, before the
organization of the Cincinnati branch was in working order
and entered upon its separate work of- camp inspection and
hospital-supply distribution at certain accessible points with¬
in the field of war, does not clearly appear from any pa¬
pers in my possession. It is morally certain that it was
not till after the “Report of Operations of the Sanitary
Commission in the Valley of the Mississippi during the
months of August, September, and October” had been
placed in the hands of the members. Now, this report,
besides the table of the relief operations under Dr. Prentice
in that part of the valley, occupied by our troops in force,
nearest Cincinnati, contains on every page evidence of the
thoroughness with which the wants of the hospitals were
explored by the Inspectors of the Commission, the prompt¬
ness and clearness with which Dr. Newberry was informed
of them, and of the zeal and energy, labor and pains-taking
of that gentleman in obtaining, forwarding and distributing
supplies to meet these wants by the hands of these agents
and their assistants.

Presuming, of course, that the report of the Cincinnati
Committee is not intended for mere special pleading, but to
honestly express the convictions of its members, I think it is
again established, not only that they are mistaken in suppos¬
ing that the Sanitary Commission had no arrangements for

112

the distribution of supplies, when they entered the field, but
it is also established that it was no fault of the Commission if
they failed to be informed of it, before they entered upon
their plan of a separate distribution. That the means of dis¬
tribution were “adequate” to the occasion, it would be impossi¬
ble to prove until a standard of adequacy had been establish¬
ed. A standard for this purpose, from which there would be
no appeal, is not attainable. But even if the means of the Com¬
mission were not adequate, it still remains extremely im¬
probable that Dr. Newberry went to Cincinnati for the pur¬
pose of asking the associate members of the Commission there
to organize an entirely new system of distribution of supplies
from that depot. It is quite certain that he was never au¬
thorized to do so. And when Dr. Newberry reported, as he
did to the Commission in person, on the 5th of December,
1861, that the gentlemen who had been appointed associate
members of the Commission in Cincinnati, at its last previous
session, had united to relieve Dr. Mussey, in charge of
the Commission’s depot in that place, as the associate members
in Philadelphia, at your request, had united to relieve
the Messrs. Welsh, it is equally certain that no member
of the Commission had the smallest suspicion that within
a year, it would become a part of the duty of the Sanitaiy
Commission to collect the means of obtaining supplies for
these gentlemen, to distribute to the army in the field, by
their voluntary labor in the intervals of business, or by the
assistance of two hired agents, and that this, in connection
with similar arrangements of other bodies, would be claimed
by them not merely to be a vastly superior method to that
which the Commission itself had originally undertaken, but
the usual and established method of the Commission itself'!*

*See Resolutions of Cincinnati branch, unanimously adopted, November 13th,
1862 ; ante page 5.

113

Dr. Newberry states that he did not hint that auy such
duty was required of them, or would ever be required of them,
as that of distribution, unless, as was the custom of the
associate members of the Commission elsewhere, to the re¬
cruits or to the hospitals in their midst. He did not even
propose to them to relieve Dr. Prentice at Lexington. He
did propose to them at this time, and this we know, for it
stands on record, to collect funds for the Sanitary Commis¬
sion to enable it to sustain the agents by which its established
method of distribution was carried on, which funds, till then,
as he told them, had been wholly contributed in the East,
and which funds were at that moment nearly exhausted.
He did ask them to stimulate the contribution of hospital
supplies to the depot of the Commission in their midst; and
he did ask them to take measures to relieve Dr. Mussey of
the burdensome charge of this depot.

But, would all this constitute a branch of the Sanitary Com¬
mission, with an independent treasury at Cincinnati, in the
sense claimed by the Cincinnati committee or meant by the
California contributors? Would not the Commissioners be
justly charged with a careless administration of their trust if
they had hastened to obey the evidently friendly impulse toward
their Cincinnati associates, with which the somewhat am¬
biguous suggestion of the first California message was un¬
questionably received by them ?

In the deliberate judgment of every member attending its
late important sessions, including able jurists and grave
divines, it could not be justly and truly concluded that an au-
thorized branch of the Sanitary Commission had ever been es¬
tablished at Cincinnati, with an independent treasury, for the
purpose of sustaining an independent system inconsistent and
inharmonious with the system of the Sanitary Commission,

114

for distributing the gifts of the people to the sick nnd wounded
of the Federal army. The Sanitary Commission includes
within itself a system based on the commission of the Presi¬
dent, for distribution to the army everywhere. This system,
as a part of itself, the Commission, aided by the Secretary of
War and the Postmaster General, bad been at pains to adver¬
tise through every city, village, and neighborhood ot Califor¬
nia. The gentlemen from Cincinnati came with a claim to
the Commission for a share of the contribution to the treasury
of the Commission from California, based on the assertion
that they were a branch of the Commission with an indepen¬
dent treasury, and that this branch ignored and repudiated,
and had nothing to do with this system of distribution. It is
surprising that the Commission did not know what to make
of this, or that they hesitated to make the appropriation
demanded ?

But, the Cincinnati branch had been “insulted by the
Commission’s General Secretary. Such, I am pained to
see, was the unanimous opinion of the associates, in branch
meeting assembled.

Your committee is instructed to seek an interview with
them, and through your committee I hope that I may he al¬
lowed to tender, most respectfully, to the gentlemen ot Cin¬
cinnati the following explanation of the circumstances and
considerations which immediately led to the production ot
the supposed ground of offence, sincerely trusting that it
may remove from their minds the belief that I can have been
guilty of any intentional or real discourtesy to them.

Could the Commission’s system of distribution, with
its accompaniments of inspection, advice, and reporting,
be completely and steadily sustained, with contident su-

115

pervision and energy, in all parts of the Held of war, by
capable and faithful men, well instructed and trained, and
held to a strict accountability, I believe that no Commis¬
sioner now doubts, nor do I believe there is a well-informed
officer of the army who now doubts that it would be, ^o the
end of the war, and not only in this, but in all wars, a
humane and economical arrangement, not embarrassing,
but augmenting the force and efficiency of the army, in
its work of punishing the enemies of the law of the land.

What is in the way of this good thing?

The grand difficulty heretofore experienced has been the
uncertainty of being able to maintain as large a number of
suitable agents in the field as would be necessary to fully
carry it^put, and of being able to hold so large a number to
such effective accountability as, in sending them to positions
of close observation of the army, in all situations, the Com¬
mission is bound to require : the California donations
gave it the means of overcoming this difficulty, for a certain
period at least.

A second difficulty has threatened the integrity of the
system, from the inadequate or uncertain rate of supply of
goods from the people. This admits of a simple illustration :
the inspectors may be regarded as retailers of the supplemen¬
tary supplies; their stocks must be replenished at intervals,
and irregularly, according to the demand arising from battles
and sickiiess, in their respective ranges of observation.
For this purpose they call upon the Secretaries of the Com¬
mission. The Secretaries must meet these calls as the whole¬
sale merchant meets the orders of the retailers. They may
come from many at once, and for all sorts of stores at once.
The Secretaries, then, to enable them to carry on the busi-

116

ness with regularity and system, must have large and well
assorted stocks in reserve.

Suppose, for example, that our fleets should next month
open the Mississippi, from Memphis to New Orleans; oui
inspector at New Orleans informs us that his stores are very
low ; that sickness is increasing, and that an expedition is
preparing to move upon the enemy in Alabama, and urges
that large supplies of certain articles should be sent him as
soon as possible. If goods have been sent forward to the
army as fast as they could be gathered, it will be impossible
to meet this call, and the sick and wounded in the army of
the southwest will be deprived of that to which they are
justly entitled, and which it is the Commission’s special
charge from the President to secure to them. <*

It is the duty of the Commission, then, to provide in some
measure for calls of this kind, by keeping stocks at its dif¬
ferent ddpQts of supply, or wholesale stores, to any one of

which, most convenient, New York, Boston, or Philadelphia,
Memphis, Louisville, or Cincinnati, resort can he had, with
confidence that any moderate order will he met without
delay.

The necessity of establishing depots at different points
being thus evident, it will also be seen that they cannot safely
be placed in close proximity to actual operations of war. It
is better, then, that they be placed, as far as convenient, in
loyal commercial towns, from which communication is read¬
ily had with the different departments of the army.

At such points, the responsibility of the Commission for
the discretion of its agents with reference to military opera¬
tions, amounts to nothing. It is chiefly necessary that goods
should he accumulated, assorted, and packed, and held ready
for shipment; that the central distributing agents of the

117

Commission should be informed, at frequent intervals, of the
stock on hand, and that their orders upon it should be prompt¬
ly met. These will be laborious duties. If the associate num¬
bers, or members of local societies, are disposed to under¬
take them they will, in so doing, contribute most valuable
aid to the purpose of the Commission, and such aid must be
gratefully accepted.

Reserve depots of the Commission have been maintained
at Washington and Louisville under direct management, and
at Boston, Hew York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, under
the management of local auxiliaries. The latter were in¬
tended to be depots of collection as well as of reserve.
Depots solely for collection have been intended to be main¬
tained at Providence, Hew Haven, Hewark, Buffalo, Cleve¬
land, Columbus, Indianapolis, and Chicago, each in charge
of a local association, which should provide for all the labor
and expense of collecting, packing, and freighting to any
point designated by the Secretaries of the Commission, such
goods as should be collected.

These intentions had been mainly, though not precisely
lealized before the California donations were received.
The business of the Commission at some of its depots
had been admirably transacted; others had failed in
rendering clear and punctual accounts, and there was a want
of uniformity in their methods which caused unnecessary
embarrassments, and labor of correspondence in the offices
of the Secretaries of the Commission. In %t, no uniform
sj7stem had ever been distinctly established in the dealings
of the Commission with the societies managing its depots.

I considered an improvement in the affairs of the Commis¬
sion in this direction, practicable. It was a question with
me how it should be brought about, but the question, how

118

the supply should be made larger, or rather, the current ot
supply steadier and the reserves increased, was one of much
greater, and more immediately pressing, importance.

A lamentably deficient, stock for ordinary distribution,
after certain recent emergencies, had led me to carefully
study the prospect of being able to command a sufficient rate
- of supply to .justify a further enlargement ol the arrange¬
ments for distribution, such as the California donation
would otherwise have justified. In fact, I considered that
a large accumulation of supplies under direct, central con¬
trol was absolutely necessary to any equitable arrangement
for distribution to the whole army. My first duty, then,
after I was informed of this donation, was to make certain,
if possible, of a sufficiently large accumulation. What was

the difficulty in securing this?

I was satisfied that it was not any want of liberality with
the people. I was satisfied that enough was given already

were it judicially directed.

Why was it not judiciously directed?

It appeared to me that it was chiefly because of represen¬
tations made by individuals and other organizations, whose
observation was local only, and who, generally with a good
purpose, set forth the wants of a comparatively small num¬
ber of the sick and wounded of whom they were personally
cognizant, or thought they were, and who appealed for the
means of relieving them to considerations of State and local

pride, sympathy, and jealousy.

More than half of all the seriously wounded, and not
permanently disabled and set-aside men of the whole
army of the United States were at this time in the hos¬
pitals of Washington and its vicinity, and there were
more than a dozen organizations, with several hundred

119

men and women belonging to them, each operating in¬
dependently of the other, for the relief of the patients in
these hospitals. They did not act in concert; they did
not act under any common system ; as a rule they paid
no respect to the responsibilities of the surgeons ; they were,
for the most part, rather inclined to look upon the surgeons
unkindly and suspiciously. It did not enter into their pur¬
poses to so give their aid to the hospitals as not to encourage
the surgeon in neglecting to make timely and sufficient pro¬
visions for his patients through the government channels of
supply. Yet this assistance was not regular, and a hospital
was liable to receive from them ten times as much aid in
one day as it had received the previous day, and this with¬
out any request for it by the surgeon; and when, the same
day, other hospitals, where these goods would have been
more desirable, received none. These facts had been all es¬
tablished and strongly impressed upon me by the statements
of the surgeons, made at meetings preliminary to the organ¬
ization of the Army Medical Society, at the Commission’s
rooms, in Washington.

A hearty convalescent patient had been known to receive
six pairs of socks in one day, from as many different visitors,
and this at the very time that some thousand severely
wounded men lay sixty miles distant, bare-footed or nearly
so, and we were purchasing, with the very last dollar in our
treasury, socks for them, in Washington, because the supply
contributed to our depots was exhausted, and the emergency
was extreme. This is a literal fact. There were men, as
there probably are still, who made it a business to buy from
soldiers the articles thus inconsiderately given them at the
expense of the well intended bounty of the loyal women of
the land, and I was able to get possession of a large case of

120

goods thus obtained which the industrious collector was

about to ship to the North for sale.

While this was the case in the hospitals of the District of
Columbia, hundreds of visitors, each corresponding directly
or indirectly with the liberal givers far away in all parts of
the country, each having his or her particular tale of suffer¬
ing, personally witnessed, wherewith to point an appeal for
immediate, direct assistance in the work of relief— while this
was the case with the hospitals of the District— in the hospitals
of the department of North Carolina, there was at the same
time but one agency through which relief, supplementary to
that which government furnished, could be conveyed to the
suffering, and that agency was the Sanitary Commission,
which equally regards the soldiers of the Union, be they m
North Carolina or Washington, New Orleans or Nashville.

Again, I knew that some northern villages were sending all
• their* offerings of relief to a certain chaplain, because he was
before the war the pastor of one of their churches, and the
people knew they could depend on his using the goods, it
they should ever reach him, for the benefit of the men who
had volunteered from' that village. It is true, that he would
do so, and he would truly write to the donors afterwards, that
the goods had been thankfully received by the boys. lie
would not tell them— for that would be the concern of an¬
other chaplain less fortunate in a clientage of benefaction,
and, perhaps, less humane or industrious — that in another
regiment of the same brigade, fighting the same enemy, for
the same good cause— fighting their battles equally with
their own regiment — the men had been in far greater want ot
the things they had sent, and that they could expect them
but from one source — the depots of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion— that when this resource failed they had none other.

121

The daily experience of almost every inspector or relief
agent of the Commission, in the field, established the gen¬
eral fact thus illustrated, at a time when our storehouses
were nearly empty, and the calls upon them were urgent.
I knew that the surgeon of one favored regiment requested
his friends at home to refrain from sending further sup¬
plies, as the regiment suffered in health from the excessive
quantity of certain articles of luxury which, the men re¬
ceived as presents, and they were unable to march, from
the weight of clothing and “good things” which had
been sent them, and which they were unwilling to throw
away. I knew that some hospitals in the same division
were, at the same time, poorly provided, and that from the
county in which this regiment had been recruited the Sani¬
tary Commission had never received a case of goods, nor a
dollar in money.

I knew, that there were many societies acting carefully,
discriminatingly, methodically, within the limited field of
operations to which they devoted themselves, but, I also
knew, that even in Washington, the aid furnished by hospital
visitors was so indiscreetly rendered, on an average, that it
was not uncommon to hear surgeons declare that, on the
whole, it did their patients more harm than good.

It was, then, perfectly obvious to me, that much of the vol¬
untary supplies of the people for the sick and wounded sol¬
diers were really wasted, and that a much larger part failed
to be expended when and where it was most needed. It was
equally obvious to me, that this was not the case with any
part of the supplies directly and fully controlled by the San¬
itary Commission.

What, then, was my duty as the responsible executive
officer of the Commission?

Was it not, in the first place, to put the claims of the
federal system of assistance to the soldiers of the Union
more distinctly before the people at home? to ask the people
at home to forego the gratification of their local, State,
county, or sectional interests in what they were ready to do
for the army; to say to them, “you have offered the lives of
your sons and your brothers to the Union, make now the
offering complete— do not give of your substance to comfort
your sons and brothers alone, give to comfort the soldiers of
the Union, to all who need, most to those who need most,
wherever they are, whether you know them or not. Give,
trusting us that your gifts shall be well used, as they should
be used by the President of all the States, fraternally, fairly,
equitably.”

It seemed to me that we had hitherto gone to the peo¬
ple too much on the grounds, that others had done
that any one else might have done. The wants and
dangers of this or that army, of this or that regiment,
had been too often urged by our associates as the ground
of a claim for contributions to our stores. This had been,
I was aware, more the case at the West than at the
East. At the East, from the outset, it had been well under¬
stood by all, that all goods contributed to our branch depots
came to a common fund as money to our treasury, and the
contributions of towns or States, in fruit or flannel, were no
more known after it had been contributed, as the contribu¬
tion of that town or State than its particular dollars or dimes
were known in our treasury. I mean, that we accounted for
it in particular no more. They were the Sanitary Commis¬
sion’s goods which we distributed— goods given by the
people of the United States to the sick soldiers of the United
States, and the goods we distributed at Port Royal and New

Orleans was j ast as much contributed by citizens of the United
States in Indiana as by those in Hew York, for all that was com¬
monly said of it. That the people of Pennsylvania or Hew
York were more interested in what he did than those of
Ohio or Illinois, never entered the head of an Insnector on
the Atlantic columns or in the Atlantic hospitals. Yet, it
seemed to me, that we had not presented our federal claim
as we should, even at the East. That we had not asked the
people to disregard local and personal interests, and to re¬
member only the army of the Union, as we should. Had
we done so; had it been known and appreciated that we
differed in this from others — aside from all other claims —
it seemed to me that they would gladly have sent to our
depots much of that which I knew had been in great part
wasted through injudicious distribution. Under this con¬
viction, I sent a gentleman who had been engaged in our
relief service, to visit some of the eastern fields of supply,
with instructions to put the following alternative fairly and
distinctly before the people: ,

“You can, if you please, send all your contributions to
some special agency, to be delivered at some designated
point where you can know exactly how, and to whom, they
will have been given. You can, on the other hand, entrust
all, or a part, of them, if you prefer, to us, not knowing and
never expecting to know where what you give us is to go,
or whom it is to benefit; only knowing that we, the Com¬
missioners of the President of the United States, watch the
soldiers of the United States^ everywhere ; and that it is our
duty equally to aid all wherever we find any needing aid ;
and that for this we are responsible to the President. Which
do you prefer?”

The immediate result of this mission, I am happy to say,

124

*has been most unexpectedly gratifying and encouraging, so
much so that it is probable that our rate of steady supply
from the districts visited by this gentlemen will be
than doubled.

I determined at the same time, to ask a council of women,
drawn from the active managers of our largest auxiliaries,
to meet me at Washington, from whom I could obtain ad¬
vice as to the probability of an increased continuous late of
supply, as one of the necessary bases of a general enlarge¬
ment of the executive operations of the Commission, and
upon whom I could urge the advisability of spreading a
knowledge of the claims of the Commission, as a federal
body, upon the liberality of the people. I had intended at
the same time, to present a scheme for aunifoim, and a
more exact, accountability to the branches, or societies hav¬
ing charge of depots, and as a part of the general enlarge¬
ment and improvement of the organization for executive
duty. I contemplated at the same time, procuring from the
Inspectors more exact and complete reports of their distribu¬
tions, and other work of relief; and the issue of frequent
bulletins, made up in great part from these reports. An
examination of the documents enclosed (marked F. F. and
G. C.) will disclose the various measures taken to carry out
the general scheme of improvement which I had at this time
* in contemplation.

The circular entitled: “ What they have to do who stay at
Home” so strongly objected to by the Cincinnati commit¬
tee, was drawn up under the impulse of the same reflections^
and was intended to serve the same general intentions. It
consists of two distinct parts; the second being, however, in
the nature of a note or postscript to the first.

The first is an appeal for an improved organization of

those who stay at home, to. the end of obtaining' a more
secure supply, to the distributing depots of the Commission,
urged by a presentation of the essential rightness, justice,
and beauty of its federal or fraternal purpose, in distinction
from any merely local or sectional purpose of benevolence.
Tt concludes with the following fervent exhortation, and the
subjoined memorandum :

“Hence the necessity for a carefully guarded yet elastic sys¬
tem of distribution, resting upon large accumulations of
supplies. Such accumulations cannot be obtained, except
the people shall be generally willing to forego the gratifica¬
tion of those impulses which allow personal and sectional
feeling to narrow and determine the channels of beneficence
and patriotism.”

“In view of the immensely increased worth, in the absolute
saving of the lives of our soldiers, which the system of the
Commission has given to the benefactions of the people, as
demonstrated at Autietam, at South Mountain, at Manassas,
at Cedar Mountain, at Winchester, at Malvern, at Seven
Pines, at West Point, at Williamsburgh, at Corinth, at
Shiloh, at Port Donelson, at Hew Orleans, at Roanoke
Island, at Hewbern, and at Port Royal ; in view of the
obvious fact that such articles as are most needed are becom¬
ing more scarce and valuable ; in view' of the large force now
taking the field; and in view7 of the sterner spirit with which
the people now plajfly demand that the war should be con¬
ducted, it is hoped that all good men and women wTho are
not privileged to take a more active part, will lay hold here,
and try to have this business henceforth put, everywhere,
fairly and squarely on the same ground as that of the cause
itself for which we are struggling. In union is strength. In
disunion is weakness and waste. Can we not, in this trial of
our nation, learn to wholly lay aside that poor disguise of
narrowness of purpose and self-conceit, wThich takes the
name of local interest and public spirit, but whose fruit is
manifest in secession ? Distrust of generous policies, and
want of faith in principles, with an indolent dependence on
leaders and parties, have been the national sins of which this
war brings the plain and direct retribution. God grant us
grace to turn from them. Let us remember that, while we
are called to lay our household offerings upon the bloody

altar of the war, we are also called to bring forth fruits meet
for repentance.”

“ The plan of the Relief Service of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion, is” —

1. 44 To secure, as far as practicable, reserves of hospital
and ambulance supplies, in order to be prepared to act with
efficiency in emergencies.”

2. “ To cover in its work, as far as practicable, the whole
field of the war, dispensing supplies wherever most needed,
to all in the service of the Union, without preference of
State, arm, or rank, army or navy, volunteer or regular. ’

3. “To study the whole field, by means of carefully select¬
ed and trained medical Inspectors, in order to determine
where supplies are most needed, and to watch against their
misuse.”

4. “ While administering to all pressing needs of the suffer¬
ing, to carefully avoid relieving the officials in charge in any
unnecessary degree from their responsibility, but to do all
that is possible to secure his full rights to the soldier, unable
to help himself.”

5. “ To cordially co-operate, as far as practicable, with the
hospital service of the Government, endeavoring to supple¬
ment, never to supplant it.”

“Societies, churches, schools, and all other organizations,
the members of which cherish the principles upon which
this plan is founded, are cordially invited to avail themselves
of it in any action which they may see lit to take for the
benefit of the sick and wounded.”

1st. “ Contributing Aid Societies will send supplies whep
they see fit, through the channels*established by the Com¬
mission.” ,

2d. “ Corresponding Aid Societies must be devoted to the
collection and preparation of supplies, to be sent to the
soldier exclusively through the Commission.”

3d. “Branch Aid i Societies are chartered by the Commis¬
sion, to be established at points suitable for obtaining sup¬
plies, intended for distribution by the system of the Com¬
mission, from States or large districts. They must be re¬
sponsible for the necessary labor and expenses of this duty,
and must account exactly and punctually to those from
whom supplies are received, and to the Commission.” .

“ As the Commission are trustees for the judicious distribu¬
tion of the gifts of the people to the soldiers, the Branches
are intermediate trustees for collecting, assorting, packing,

storing, and forwarding gifts. In emergencies, the Branch
Societies are often called upon to assist the Commission even
more directly, in the performance of its duties.”

“Branches and Corresponding Societies will he supplied
with the bulletins ajml all other publications of the Commis¬
sion as soon as issued.”

“Commissioners under appointment from the President of
the United States: The Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D.;
Prof. A. D. Bache, LL. D.; Gen. George W. Cullum, U. S 4 •
Alexander E. Shiras, U. S. A.; Robert C. Wood, M. D., if!
S. A.; William II. Van Buren, M. I).; Wolcott Gibbs, M.’d •
Samuel G. Howe, M.D.; Cornelius R! Agnew, M.B.; Elisha
Harris, M. Eh; J. S. Newberry, M. D.; "George T. Strong-
Horace Binney, Jr.; the Right Rev. Tlios. M." Clark, I). D.;
the Hon. Joseph Holt; the Hon. R. W. Burnett; the Hon.’
Mark Skinner; Frederick Law Olmsted.”

“ For further information, apply to”

“FRED/ LAW OLMSTED,”

“ General Secretary.”

“Washington, October 21st, 1862.”

The Cincinnati committee accuse me personally, not only
of an insulting suggestion toward all the associate members
of the Commission, but of an attempt, in the words above
quoted, to establish an ex post facto plan, by which the Sani¬
tary Commission may seem to have undertaken to be direct¬
ly responsible for the distribution of goods contributed to its
depots by the people, and in this way to impose upon the
people of California, with a fictitious claim, or, in their own
words, “a pretext” that the Commission is able of itself to
expend the funds entrusted to it judiciously toward the relief
of the sick and wounded of the army of the Union, and they
propose, that unless the Commission promptly repudiates the
claim made by “its General Secretary,” that -its associates in
Cincinnati shall withdraw their countenance from it, and
form an alliance with an institution, the object and aim of
which is highly laudable, but which is as different from that
of the Sanitary Commission as the duties of the Governor of

Missouri are different from those of the President ot the
United States. - If it had been desired to prove that the G.n-
cinnati branch in maintaining the claim of this report, thereby
established itself no true branch of the Sanitary Commission
of the United States army, this readiness to entertain the
purpose of distinctly limiting its field of view to that ot the
Western Sanitary Commission would have been more time v
than it was under the circumstances. For if the committee
had really any substantial ground for their suspicion ot a
trick in behalf of the Commission, so contemptible, inte -
lectually and morally, that it would have disgraced the mean¬
est pettifoger hired to help a swindler to get the better ot the
]aw I cannot conceive that any one who knows them can be
in doubt what course would have been taken by the men
whose honorable names were appended to the circular, the
moment it came to their knowledge. And the manner m '
which the circular had actually been received by members
of the Commission, before the Cincinnati committee had
taken action upon it, affords conclusive evidence that it pre¬
sented no new or unauthorized view of the relation of the
Commission to its associates or its branches. ^

I had issued the circular in a letter-form edition ot five
thousand, from the central office, on my own responsibility,
without consulting any member of the Commission, unless it
was Professor Baohe, who is a resident of Washington, on
the 21st October, just one month after the first donation from

California had been announced to ns.

When read by the executive committee, consisting of the
Rev. Dr. Bellows, Prof. Gibbs, Dr. VanBuren, Dr. Agncw,
and Mr. Geo. T. Strong, at their meeting in New York, so
far from repudiating it, and at once suspending its author
from duty, as they unquestionably would have done, had

129

they taken the Cincinnati view of it, a special vole of appro¬
val was passed, and a new edition ordered to he printed in
pamphlet form often thousand copies, of which five thousand
were directed to be sent to California. This was before the
question of assigning a portion of the California donation to
the control of the Cincinnati associates had been discussed
in the committee* and before the first letter from Judge
IToadly advising Dr. Bellows of the expectations of the Cin¬
cinnati associates had been received. *

I cannot suppose that to any mind which has not a strong
bias of inclination against a fair conclusion upon the ques¬
tion, this will not be conclusive, confirmed as it has since
been by a unanimous vote of the Commission in session.

To remove any possibility of a lingering doubt, fyowever,
as to how the views which have been announced by the- Cin¬
cinnati associates through their committee, since the Califor¬
nia contribution to its treasury have excited public atten¬
tion, would have been received by the Commission, had it
been made aware of them long before that occurrence, I
will conclude this report with a copy of a paper written more
than six months before those contributions were heard of.
This paper was manifolded, and copies have been sent on seve¬
ral occasions as an answer to inquirers about the relations
sustained by the branches to the Commission. Copies were
sent at the time it was written to Judge* Skinner, President
of the Chicago branch ; to Dr. Bellows, the President of the
Commission, and JoDr. Newberry, the Western Secretary,
who acknowledged its receipt and expressed his satisfaction
with the ground taken. At the subsequent meeting of the
Board — the same which was attended by the five members of
the Cincinnati branch, as well as by Mr. Blatchford, Secre¬
tary of the Chicago branch — I read the letter as an appen-
11

dix to my general report, before the Commission, when it
was informally approved, and the suggestion made that it
should be printed, which, however, I then deemed to be un¬
necessary, presuming that all concerned were now sufficient¬
ly well informed of the general scope of duties undertaken
by. the Commission, and of the part in those duties which the
branches had been organized to fulfil.

Washington, February 6th, 1862.

To the Rev. Geo. F. Magoon,

Secretary , Iowa Army Sanitary Commission:

Sir: — I yesterday received your favor of January 28th,
in which you suggest that a connection should be formed
between your association and the Sanitary Commission.
You do not state the object to be gained by the connection,
nor indicate any advantage which would arise from it. As
there will be sufficient time for letters to be exchanged be¬
tween us before the next meeting of the Commission, at
which it will give me pleasure to propose any plan of con¬
nection which you may think desirable, I should be glad
to hear further from you on this point.

You will excuse me for reminding you of a few circum¬
stances which must influence the Commission in whatever
action it may conclude to take.

Our loyal Yellow countrymen in Tennessee are suffering
persecution, their crops and cattle have been taken for the
support of the rebel hordes, their houses burned, their stores
plundered. Sick and weary, thousands hide in the moun¬
tains, biding their time. How they support life, God knows.
They certainly have nothing to spare, and though many have
broken through the defensive lines of the enemy, if they had
to spare it would not be possible to send their goods where
they are more wanted than they are at this moment in Ten¬
nessee.

But of those who have escaped, the strong and healthy
men to the number of two or three thousand, are fighting
our battles side by side with your Iowan heroes [in Ken¬
tucky.] Those who are not strong and well, fill the homes of
our noble and hard tried brethren of “ the dark and bloody

ground,” and the latter have enough to do to provide for
their own necessities.

\ iigima, in like manner ravaged by war, has furnished
seven thousand men to fight the battles of our common
country.

This Commission received the other day seventeen thou¬
sand dollars in hard cash, collected in one of "the States of
New England. It has received in two months in hospital
stoies, fiom the same State, sufficient supplies for ten times
as many men as that State has sent to the field. The troops
of Iowa and Virginia and of Tennessee have recei ved within
two months, at least as great advantages from those contri¬
butions as those of that State.

Do you wish Iowa troops to be dependent on the contribu¬
tions of New England? On the other hand, do vou wish to
spurn for Iowan Volunteers the patriotic offerings of New
England? Would you at such a time as this say to New
England : ‘Mind your own business;” would you say to
Virginia and Tennessee, “ Take care of your own sick folk,
and we will take care of ours?”

Suppose that in the next battle in Kentucky the brunt
should be borne by Iowans, and some thousand of them
should be thrown on the surgeon’s hands— do you wish that
the surgeons should refuse all assistance for them until it
can be sent from Iowa.'1 AVould you be unwilling that they
should be dependent, for a time, on the provision for such
an emergency to which the women of New England have
contributed so liberally ? Whether you would or not, they
will be so dependent: they have been so dependent; and at
this moment some of your Iowan sick, I do not doubt, rest
011 beds sent from New England, and their strength is sus*
tained by wine sent from New York.

This being so, are you willing that when, in the next bat¬
tle in Virginia, the husbands and fathers and sons and
brothers of the women of New England are brought low,
Iowa shall have contributed nothing (except in the form of
a tax) by which their lives also can be cherished?

Of course I do not ask these questions reproachfully ;
upon their answer, seems to me, to depend the answer which
should be made to your proposal. In the work of this Com¬
mission no State is known ; all contributions to it are to a
common stock, for the army of a common country. It has
received, as it appears, by far the most from those States for
whose men it has done least. Whether aided by Iowa or

132

not, it will be as ready to aid Iowa as to aid New oik,
New England, Ohio, or Tennessee.

You may ask bow far.it has done so? I do not know
because I have never thought of asking how far it has aided
one or another. I know that its agents, under their orders,
can never regard one and disregard another.

To be mom explicit, however, I will give the outlines of
the arrangements of the Commission tor collecting and sup¬
plying hospital stores. # ,, ,

Depots for hospital supplies are established at different
points, with reference to accessibility for different columns
of the armv. Four of these are at the four largest seaports;
one at Washington, for the army of the Potomac; one at
Wheeling, for Western Virginia and Kentucky; one at
Louisville; one at Cairo, and one at St. Louis, for the col¬
umns operating in the Mississippi Valley _ and Missouri.
Another will probably be established soon further West.
There is also one at Port Royal; one at the Tortugas, and
one at Ship Island. At each of these depots it is intended
to keep a stock of hospital goods in reserve. A further
reserve is also usually maintained at Cleveland, intermediate
between those of the" East and West, and which is intended
to he drawn upon both from the East and West, upon ocea-

There are three associate Secretaries of the Commission,
one of whom is responsible that the goods given in charge
to the Commission are distributed, as far as possible, to those
most in need of them on the Atlantic. The second is in
like manner responsible for the necessary distribution to the
armies between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi; the
third for those west of the Mississippi. The duty of the
latter is, however, complicated, and embarrassed somewhat,
by the existence of a Commission organized by General I ie-
mont, which has undertaken to do the same work in the same
field, believing that is can do so harmoniously without being
in subordination to the same rules. The national Commis-
' sion has thought best, while it regards the arrangement as
a bad one, to yield to the wishes of the excellent men at fet.
Louis, who, under official sanction, have established a local
institution, which they are, perhaps, naturally indisposed to
make merely auxiliary to the national system. 1 Ins local
institution, however, while it has an independent depot and
makes independent collections therefor, and exercises duties
other than those undertaken by the Commission, is perfectly

naf onal and catholic in its purpose. Although its members
all Ine m St Louis, it takes thought as much tor the siek II li
no, s, a, . or Ohioan, as for the sick St. Louisian or Missourian
It can, therefore, work harmoniously with the Commission'
The Commission is, however, obliged, in order to carry out
its plan completely to maintain an independent depot at Sr
Louis, free of any local control, and always ready, like that
m New York Cleveland, or Washington, to^serve any
demands of the sick and wounded of the army or nnv/
wherever they may arise. At any of these depots contribu¬
tions are received from the various societies of patriotic

SmteeLosr‘otgT Ut the, ^'d’ ,C0UMti"S hundreds in every
State Last ot Iowa and North of Kentucky, and including

some m Kentucky as well. It is not known, and it never

will be known, how much the women of one State have

given and how little those of another. All who contribute

st°o" kbUTl t y’ ?CC01'dLn» -t0 their means, to a common
sto, . I he advantage ot this common stock thus divided
is almost daily illustrated. For instance:

. ^ COMS>derable force has been recently massed and placed
in movement in the mountain region of Virginia, west of the
held previously occupied by the army of the Potomac, and
east of that occupied by the army of Western Virginia.
Ovying to the difficulty of transportation, this force was
without tents, and being obliged to bivouac in bad weather
at midwinter in a highland region, a large sick-list was rap¬
idly formed. An Inspector of the Commission had been
sent a week ago to look after it, but it was not until the day
before yesterday that information of its wants was received
by the associate Secretary of the Commission for the army
ot the Potomac to which the column was subordinate. To
send goods to the position in question from Washington, or
any of the Eastern depots, it would have been necessary to
move them several days journey by wagon, and with eonsid-
eiable hazard. A supply of hospital stores for a thousand
patients was consequently ordered by telegraph from Wheel¬
ing, whence, although needed by the army of the Potomac,
l was sent by railroad at least sixty miles nearePto the point of
demand, than itcou dhave been by any railroad from theEast.
At the same time the agent at Wheeling was advised by tel¬
egraph that, if his supply ran short, it could immediately be
replenished from Cleveland, and those in charge of the de-

v ?e a'ilJL>iV?r<i fd,v.Ised that akhough the depots at
v ork and Philadelphia had been drawn low to supply

naval expeditions, a considerable reserve existed at Boston,
upon which, if they were not amply provided for al possible
demands from Kentucky and Missouri, they should imme¬
diately make requisition. This, however was found to be
unnecessary, the industry of the women ot Michigan, Wes¬
tern New York and Ohio, having at this time supplied a
verv large accumulation at Cleveland. , , .

There has been no time to my knowledge during the last
six months when any demand made upon any one ot the
depots of the Commission has failed to be met, and yet the
Commission has been, during all that time giving out to
hospitals nearly two thousand articles ot clothing everyday,
and no surgeon has allowed a want of hospital clothing in his
regiment to become known to the Commission or to any ot
its" twenty camp inspectors, or other agents, that a supply
has not been immediately placed at his disposal. Since our
depots were fairly established at Cleveland, Wheeling, Cairo,
and St. Louis, I 'am not aware that any demand upon any
one of them has failed to be met at once. Nevertheless,
urgent appeals have frequently been made by ignorant per¬
sons to New England, New York, New Jersey, and Penn¬
sylvania, ' for goods immediately needed for a regimental
hospital within fifty or a hundred miles of those depots, and
manv tons of freight have been conveyed unnecessarily and
at great cost from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, in answer

to such appeals. . A .

The Commission cannot engage that its depots alwa\a
will be fully supplied, it cannot engage that all proper
demands upon it shall be met. This will depend upon what
is supplied to it. It can engage, having better means ot in¬
formation than any organization of a local character, or any
not in immediate connection with the War Department, can
have, that what it receives shall, as far as possible, be so
distributed as to be of the greatest good to the greatest num¬
ber of soldiers of the Union, come whence they may, go

where they may. . ., T1

At each depot where goods are received to a considerable
amount by direct contribution, there are local organiza¬
tions auxiliary to the Commission, composed ot its asso¬
ciate members and other men, with a body of women
and young people, who undertake the onerous labor and
expense of opening, .assorting, packing and accounting tor
goods, and of the necessary correspondence, t hese aux¬
iliary organizations also frequently purchase articles needed

l>.y the sick -winch they fail to receive as contributions in
kina, m sufficient quantity. They pay the local rents, &c.
A large working staff is constantly required and is main-
tamed for these purposes. An expenditure of many thou-
sand dollars, in each case, has thus been saved the treasury
of the Commission. J

There are many hundred sub-depots maintained in the
same manner, again auxiliary to these, no one of which
however, is expected to be constantly ready to meet a sudden
demand, as is the case with the regular directly auxiliary
depots of the Commission, among which, besides those
already named, there is a very important one at Chicago
foi the State of Illinois; another at Cincinnati, for southern
Ohio, &c.

It the good people of Iowa believe that they can best serve
the common cause by directing their energies exclusively to
the supply of their own neighbors and relatives gone to "the
war, it is no part of my duty, nor am I disposed to argue
against that conviction. At the same time, I cannot conceal
that my own judgment is led to a different conclusion, and it
is within my duty to fully explain and justify the plan of the
organization I represent, which plan would certainly fail if
none should take a different view of their duty, from that
which I find indicated in your letters and publications. There
seems to me to be a stain of the very soft, out of which the
monster Secession has grown, when such a complete ma¬
chinery as you have formed in Iowa is confined in its opera¬
tions by State lines.

But, if you contribute to the common stock, it may be
asked, what assurance will you have that Iowan# will" not
be neg ected? I might ask, in reply, what assurance has
Massachusetts, Yew York, or Ohio? But a better answer is
found m the fact, that no surgeon from Iowa, or anywhere
else, has, for months past, asked for a single article which
it was not in his power to get, as a right, directly from a Gov¬
ernment source, that it has not been supplied to the full ex¬
tent of the entire resources of the Commission, and as soon
as possible. '<

. the Iowa hospital have, nevertheless, wanted much

is to be accounted for —

1st. By the constant movements and frequent changes in
the plan of the campaign in Missouri, which, for a time, ren¬
dered all attempts at systematic supply abortive.

2d. The failure of the arrangements instituted under Gen-

eral Fremont to relieve the national Commission of duty in
Missouri, it having been understood that these would lender
unnecessary if not impertinent any undertaking on its part

to pro “de^Btematically for the wants of the forces within
the field of the St. Louis organization. f, ■

3d. The neglect of the surgeons to call upon the Comm
sion; excusable when it is considered what a variety ^
sources they are invited to resort to for the h

as for instance, first, the Government stores; second the
Sanitary Commission ; third, the St. Louis S^riitaiy
mission; fourth, the Iowa Army ban, tfry Commission ,fitth,
various village Sanitary Commissions, which, as I obseive .by
your report, supply directly as well as thioug y
organization; sixth, eastern local societies; seventh, ^ In cl.
societies, &c., in St. Louis; eighth, individual benevolence.

I am advised that an impression prevails with you,
our organization has chiefly confined its operations to the
East. On the contrary, the very first action of the Comm s-
sion after its complete organization, before it looked at t
amiv in Maryland, was to send its president, along with a
special resident western secretary, to look after the koojr
then beginning to concentrate in Illinois and Missouri. The
first Iowa volunteers were visited by the President of he
Commission and Dr. Newbery, in June last, and before he
Commission had met in Washington, except in pait, tor the

nnrnose of organizing. . . , i

P You observe in your own report, of a visit to the bospi a s
at Mound city, on the Mississippi, the largest military hos-
uitnl iu the United States — .

1 “The surgeons assured us that they could not

on but for the Sanitary Commission. Said one , You uiu ji

a hundred articles here from the Sanitary Commission where you

will find one from the Grovernment. r li ,

By reference to our report of operations in the W est, for the
three months ending 30th November, you will see t hat tl esc
supplies were from our depots at New York and Cleveland
and that at that time upwards of 90,000 articles had been
sent from our Cleveland depot alone to Western P y
and in the first report of the Chicago branch of the Comni s
sion n. 4, you will find reference to repeated visits ot the
“ members^ of the U. S. Sanitary Commission to the camps

find hosDit.als at and near Oairo. TTr . .

The meetings of the Commission are held at M ashmgton
because Washington is the headquarters of the army, an

137

the seat of Government, with whom it is a part of the duty
of the Commission to constantly advise. A majority of the
members of its central board reside in the East, because it
is necessary that they should be frequently and quickly
assembled. For the same reason its central office is estab¬
lished at Washington.

If the army of the Potomac has been better supplied than
that of Wisconsin, it is because the former has been closely
concentrated and at rest. Systematic provision for it has,
therefore, been more practicable. But precisely the same
machinery of supply has been extended throughout the
West. And as soon as it became apparent that the Com¬
mission should re-assume the duty of providing for the forces
in Missouri, one of its Secretaries, familiar with all the
details of its operations in Maryland, was sent to reside in
Missouri, and all the resources of the Commission placed at
his command. Obviously, however, if other organizations
undertake the supply of the hospitals in Missouri, obtaining
their supplies from the neighboring sources, our Secretary
for Missouri must either enter into a competition with them
for these supplies, or obtain supplies at greater and unne¬
cessary cost from other sources, which he can have no cer¬
tainty will be required.

The explanation I have thus given of the existing arrange¬
ments of the Commission will, I trust, enable you the more
readily and definitely to determine in what manner your
very efficient State organization can be honorably and ad¬
vantageously brought into connection with it.

The Commission will probably meet at Washington about
the 21st inst.

Reciprocating your assurance of sympathy in the cause
and the work,

I am, &c.

The above letter, written nearly a year ago, embraces es¬
sentially the same ideas which characterize the recent circu¬
lar, “ What they have to do who stay at home.” I am
confident that, could the inmost record of my desires and of
my actions be clearly read, they would bear testimony to a
deep and unremitting purpose, existing in my mind from the
day I assumed the office I have the privilege of holding to
12

establish and maintain, with all my might, the bestmethods by
which the common sympathies of this people could be brought
to bear most effectively for good, and with the least danger of
mischief, upon the work of relieving the common suffering
of all parts of its common army fighting for its common
cause. Such a purpose is wholly incompatible with any dis¬
respectful intention toward the associate members of the
Sanitary Commission, in whose service, as well as that of the
members of the Commission,

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

FRED. LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 60.

DOCUMENTS

OF THE

U. S. Sanitary Commission.

VOL. II.

NUMBERS 61 to 95.

NEW YORK:
1866.

documents

OP THE

iiiteil states! Jwuto (tamintejsion

VOL. II.

Numbers 61 to 95 inclusive.

“• «*«•
Jan. 27, 1863.)

G2. Rules of the Supply Department.

(Jan. 27, 1863.)

03. Letter to the Women of the Northwest, "assembled
at the Fair at Chicago/ Ill, for the benefit of the
u. b. Sanitary Commission.

{Oct. 29, 1863.)

64. What the Sanitary Commission is doing in the

Valley of the Mississippi.

Letter to Hon. W. P. Sprague.

(Feb. 16, 1863.)

65. Special Inspection of General Hospitals - 2d

Keport.

(Jan. 21, 1863.)

66. General Regulations for the Supply Department.

67. Report on Pension Systems and Invalid Hospitals
in Europe.

68. Preliminary Report of the Operations of the Com¬

mission in the Army of the Potomac, during

June and July, 1863. .

69. Statement of the Object and Methods of the Sam-

tary Commission — with Supplement.

(Dec. 7, 1863.)
70. Preliminary
Sanitary

Report of the Operations of the U. S.
Commission before Charleston, S. C.

71. Report ofthe Operations of the Sanitary Commission

at Gettysburg in July, 1863.

(Aug. 15, 1863.) . , * r»

72. Account of the Field Relief Corps in the Army of

the Potomac.

73. Letter’ tothe President of the United States con-
cerning the Removal of Surgeon General \V. H.
Hammond.

74. List of Associate Members.

(March 15, 1864.) . . . ,1

75. Report on the Operations of the Commission m

Mississippi Valley.

(Sept. 1, 1863.) . . at

76. Preliminary Report on Campaign m or iein

Virginia.

(May 24, 1864.) / .

77. Fifth Report concerning the Aid and Comlort given

by the Sanitary Commission to Sick and Invalid
Soldiers. — Dec. 15, 1862, to Oct. 1, 1863.

78. An Answer to the Question— “ Why does the

Sanitary Commission need so much Money ?

(Jan. 1, 1864.)

79. Special Inspection of General Hospitals — 3d Report.

(May, 1863.)

80. Letters from the Army of the Potomac.

^May, 1864.)

81. Regulations for Field Relief Agency Corps.

(July 8, 1864. Extract from Minutes of Standing Committee.)

82. Rules for Executive Service.

(July 14, 1864.)

83. Financial Report from June 1, 1861, to Oct* 1, 1864

— with Supplement.

(Dec. 1, 1864.)

84. Report on the Operations of the Commission in the

Mississippi Valley.

(Oct. 22, 1864.)

85. Case and Opinion — The Trust on which the Sani¬

tary Commission holds its Funds, and the Objects
to which they can properly be applied.

(Nov. 4, 1864.)

86. Plan of Executive Organization of the Commission,

and Rules for its Executive Service.

(Dec. 16, 1864.)

87. Preliminary Report on Work at Wilmington, N. C.,

and upon Physical Condition of Exchanged
Prisoners.

t Aprif4, 1865.)

88. Address at Packer Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y., in

Aid of the Great North-Western Fair.

March, 1865.

89. Concerning Rebel Hospitals at Richmond, Va. —

Extracts from Quarterly Special Relief Report.

(April 20, 1865.

90. Circular to Branches and Aid Societies.

(May 15, 1865.)

— Supplement to Hoc. 90. — Bureau of Information
and Employment.

(June 10, 1865.)

91. Report of the Auxiliary Finance Committee.

(June 1, 1865.) # .

92. Report concerning the Field Relief Service with

the Armies of the Potomac, Georgia and Ten¬
nessee, in the Department of Washington.

(July 7, 1865.)

93 Circular to Branches and Aid Societies, accompanied
by Circular respecting the “Army and Navy
Claim Agency ” of the Commission.

(July 4, 1865.)

94. Report concerning the Aid and Comfort given by

the Sanitary Commission to Sick and Invalid
Soldiers, for the Quarter ending June 30, 1865.

95. Report concerning Provision required for the Relief

and Support of Disabled Soldiers and Sailors
and their Dependents.

(Dec. 15, 1865.)

u. S. SANITARY COMMISSION

date of

Rev. H. W. Bellows, D. D.

APPOINTMENT.

Alexander Dallas Bache, LL. D
William H. Yan'Buren, M. D.

Wolcott Gibbs, M. D. .

* Robert 0. Wood, M. D., U. S. A

t George W. Cullum, U. S. A

t Alexander E. Shiras, U. S. A

Samuel G. Howe, M. D

Elisha Harris, M. D . .

Cornelius R. Agnew, M. D

George T. Strong, Esq. .

. . .New York

J ohn S. Newberry, M. D.

Frederick Law Olmsted, Esq

Rt. Rev. Thomas M. Clark.

Horace Binney. Jr., Esq.

§ Hon. R. W. Burnett.

• • . .July 30, 1861.

C 1 OD 1

Hon. Mark Skinner.

. . .Jan. 23, 1863.
...Feb. 6,1863.

. . .Jan. 15, 1864.

...Mar. 9,1864.

§ Hon. Josepet Holt

Rev. James H. Heywood
|| Fairman Rogers, Esq

J. Huntington Wolcott, Esq

Charles J. Stille, Esq.

Ezra B. McCagg, Esq. .

* Resigned, December, 1864.
t Resigned. February, 1864.

+ Resigned, December 17th, 1864.

§ These gentlemen never took their seats.
II Resigned, 1864.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

IVo. 03.

Mineral ©nln- of t\u <§»tutoy iomiHteioti

FOR ITS

EXECUTIVE SERVICE.

1. There shall be a Central Office for the executive service
near the Central Office of the War Department, and a branch
of the Central Office at a point where communication can
best be commanded with the chief sources of supply of goods
contributed by the public for this service which are at the
greatest distance from the Central Office, and with those
portions of the army which will be best served therefrom.
The portions thus to be in communication with the Branch
Central Office shall be determined by the General Secretary,
and shall form the Associate General Secretary’s department
of the executive service.

2. The Central Office shall be responsible for all the execu¬
tive service of the Commission, except as hereinafter provided
for, and shall be answerable to the Commission for the entire
management and control of all agents employed in it ; it
shall also be charged with the duty of keeping full records
of the whole executive service of the Commission, and of
accounting for it to the Secretary of W ar when required ; it
shall also be charged with the preparation of all reports of
the executive service for the Commission, for record or for
publication ; it shall also be charged with the duty of trans¬
mitting all orders or instructions of the Commission for the
whole of its executive service.

3. There shall be an Assistant Secretary for the Branch
Central Office, who shall be in charge of the records and
correspondence of the department of the Associate General
Secretary, and who shall be accountable therefor to the Cen¬
tral Office. It shall be the duty of this Assistant Secretary
to take for office record and use copies, abstracts, or briefs

of all Offlci.1 paper. p»i<>« *'« ^

Office. All official communications received at t
Central Office from the agents of the Commission w.thjhe
army shall be sent as soon as they can be copic
to the Central Office. Copies or memoranda of all orde
instructions given to the agents of the Commission from the
Branch Central Office shall he sent to the Central Office j
the next mail after they have been given. All mipo tant
information of the operation of the Commission s agents of
large movements of goods for the Commission, and especially

of battles and special relief operations in conneetion with

battles shall he transmitted to the Central Office briefly bj
Xraph as soon as received, and more frilly by letter a, soon
as possible after their receipt by the Branch Cential Office.

4 In all other respects the Assistant Secretary _

Branch Central Office shall act under the instruction of the

EZ2&— »■,, mhI Ml. *

Branch Central Office of the Commission, whenever the

Associate General Secretary is absent therefrom

5 The Associate General Secretary shall select, appoint,
and assign to duty the agents of the Commission to be
employed with the army in the field of his department, and
he shall he charged with their immediate control and man
agement, and shall he responsible for their compliance with
the general instructions and rules given for the executive
service of the Commission, and for then- faithfulness and
efficiency. He may remove any of them at will. He s
supply them with goods for the relief of the sick and wounded
i/such a manner as shall in his judgment most equitably
distribute the means placed at his command for that purpose,
relatively to the degrees of want not otherwise provided ,
of the sick and wounded of the array in las department

6 The Associate General Secretary shall he accountable
for all goods received by the Commission or any of its agents
in his department, whether gifts, transfers, or
Account shall he rendered monthly to the Cential 0
all goods received and all goods issued in his department for
ordinary distribution to field, floating, or general hospitals
designating these, with the names of the persons becoming

responsible for the goods when they have passed out of the
control of the Commission’s agents. He shall also render
an account monthly, or oftener, of goods distributed in
emergencies, giving estimates when exactness is imprac¬
ticable, and stating enough of the circumstances to show
why the particular account required for ordinary distribution
is impracticable. Goods issued for individual or special
relief, or administered to the sick and wounded, convales¬
cents, or disabled men, and for the assistance of those engaged
in medical or relief service, shall be accounted for in the like
general manner.

7. Between the 1st and the 15th of February and of May,
of August and of November, there shall be prepared in the
Branch Central Office, and transmitted to the Central Office,
a statement of all the property of the Commission in the
Associate General Secretary’s department, with an estimate
of its value ; a statement of all persons employed therein, in
the service of the Commission, their respective stations and
compensations, and an indication of the class of duty required
of each ; together with a full statement of all expenditures
made in behalf of the Commission, classified as shall be di¬
rected by the Central Office. Accompanying these statements
an estimate of expenditures to be made in behalf of the Commis¬
sion in the department for the following quarter shall be fur¬
nished the Central Office, regard being had in this estimate to
the general condition and prospects of the Commission’s treas¬
ury, and to the prospects of the war in the department.

8. At each quarterly meeting the Central Office shall
present to the Board a general report of the operations of
the executive service of the Commission; a statement of all
the property in its possession, with an estimate of its value;
a statement of all persons employed under pay in the service
of the Commission ; their respective stations, duties by
classes, and compensations ; together with a classified state¬
ment of all expenditures made in behalf of the Commission
in the Receding quarter.

9. At each quarterly meeting of the Board appropriations
of money to be expended during the ensuing quarter in the

executive service of' the Commission shall he made, under
divisions and classifications of service, including an amount
for contingencies which shall he at least fifteen per centum ot

the sum of the appropriations.

10. Remittances for the executive service, under these
appropriations, shall he made in sums not exceeding ten per
cent, of the whole appropriation, hy the Treasurer, upon the
order of the General Secretary ; provided that no remittances
shall he made, except hy order of the Executive Committee,
until an account has been rendered from the Central Office of
the expenditures from the second preceding remittance, and
the same shall have been approved as authorized expenditures
hy the Executive Committee.

11. All expenditures not thus provided for shall he made
only upon special appropriations of the Executive Committee.

12. A monthly report shall he made hy the Central Office
to the Executive Committee, showing the disposition of all
the agents of the executive service, the date of the last advices
from each subdivision of them, together with information of
the goods on hand, and ordered to each part of the army, the
recent rate of issue, and the prospect of supply.

13. It shall he the duty of the Executive Committee to see
that the undertakings intrusted to the management of the
General Secretary are administered as intended and provided
for hy the Commission. They shall, when they see fit, make
special appropriations to provide for exigencies not contem¬
plated hy the Board in its appropriations, or for deficiencies
in these appropriations for the purposes for which they were
designed by the Board.

14. In case of the failure of the General or Associate
General Secretary to provide for the accomplishment of the
purposes entrusted to them by the Board, through ignorance,
neglect or inefficiency, the Executive Committee may super¬
cede them in any of their duties, reporting such action, and
the grounds for it, to the Board at its first subsequentjsession.

By order of the Commission :

FRED. LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary.

Washington, January 21, 1863.

SANITARY

COMMISSION.

No. «2.

R IT L E S

OF THK

^uPpIff Sqiartotent of tlje Saitifari) Commission.

1. Depots of supply shall be established at Boston, New
Wk, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Louisville, and Chicago, and
at such other points as may he determined by the General
Secretary. These depots shall be placed in charge of agents,
committees of members or associate members, or of auxiliary
societies who, under the general designation of Branches-of-
supply, will assume the duty of collecting goods for the
Commission, ot acknowledging donations, of preparing goods
received suitably for shipment and holding them for shipment,
subject to the call of either the General Secretary or the
Associate General Secretary, or of some one authorized by
them to call for the Commission’s goods.

2. Each depot shall be in correspondence either with the
Central or the branch Central Office, and a weekly account
of goods received, issued, and remaining in store shall he
rendered from it to the office with which it is in correspond-
ence.

3. For each depot there shall he appointed by the Treasurer
a Branch Treasury Committee, the duty of which shall be to
make collections in money for the Commission, to be remitted
to the Central Treasury, or to be issued to the Branch-of-
supply for the purchase of materials to he made up for their
depot stock, or to be held as a fund for local purchases to be
made when required by either of the Central Offices of the

Commission The Branch Treasury Committees shall also
he 'purchasing committees to procure good, reared the
executive service, which shall not have been contributed in
sufficient quanti v to the depots of the Branches-of-supply
meTe the funds in any Branch Treasury shall be insufficient
to meet the demands of the executive offices forgoodj reqmr
to be purchased, and it shall be deemed impracticable
immediately obtain the necessary amount by
the Branch Treasury Committee shall ^e authom d^o dra.
upon the Treasurer of the Commission for the defici y,
provided that not more than two thousand dollars shall be
so drawn by anv Branch Treasury Committee m any week,
except by special authority from the Executive Committee.

By order op the Commission :

FRED. LAW OLMSTED.

General Secretary.

Washington, January 27, 1863.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

KTo. 63.

A LETTER TO THE WOMEN OF THE NORTHWEST,
ASSEMBLED AT THE FAIR AT CHICAGO, FOR
THE BENEFIT OF THE U. S. SANITARY COMMIS¬
SION.

New York, Oct. 29, 1863.

Mrs. R. H. Hoge,

Mrs. D. Y. Livermore,

and others :

Ladies, — I have received your kind invitation to attend the
Fair held in your wonderful city on the closing week of Octo¬
ber and the first week of November ; and, later, your call to
the Dinner to be given by the ladies of the North-Western Fair,
on the 5th November— at which the governors of the States are
expected as guests. I have been hoping to indulge myself in
the pleasure of meeting the marvellous hive of industrious and
patriotic women, to whose love and labor is due the honey that
has sweetened the lot of so many suffering soldiers in this war.
I do not wholly despair of it yet. I would sacrifice all ordinary
or extraordinary business, to meet you face to face ; the only
thing I cannot sacrifice is the claim of dying parishioners, who
bind me to their bed-sides at this moment with the sacred cords
of duty and affection. If these are broken by Divine Providence, I
shall be with you on the 5th of November. But, lest I should
not come, I have determined to send a messenger to you, to
bear the expressions of my profoundest sympathy in your work,
to thank you for the past energy you have displayed in the
Northwest — that miracle of our generation ! — and to tell you how
dear and sacred to us are the bonds which unite us in our great
common undertaking,

The Central Board has watched the patriotism, the self-sacri¬
fice and the unwearied fidelity of the Northwest, to the federal
principle which animates the work of the U. S. Sanitary Com-
mission, with the utmost admiration. They know full well that
you are a people complete in your own resources, independent
in your spirit, and capable of controlling your own concerns.
They know, too, how natural it is for a region so vast and strong
as yours, to assert its independence, and even refuse to mix in its
lot with other and far-distant sections of the country. What,
then, has been its gratitude, in recognizing that your devotion
to the principles of Union and Nationality, was such that you
could sacrifice local feelings and the consciousness of your com¬
plete independence, to the desire to mingle your spirit and your
work with that of your sister States, however distant ; to swell
the federal principle, at the hour when it is threatened by polit¬
ical rebels, with the tides of womanly fidelity, and make up for
all the losses it has suffered at men’s hands, by the free offerings
of women’s hearts ? The noble temper of Nationality maintained
in the Northwest, equally in its political and military move¬
ments, and its benevolent operations, but nowhere more mani-
fiest than in the whole history of your vigorous Branch of the
U. S. Sanitary Commission, is one of the. chief securities of our
perfect triumph over all the disintegrating influences which
have threatened to make the grand loaf of the Union, a basket
of crumbs . Thank God ! the Northwest does not mean to put
her wheat into any such beggar’s wallet. She will bake it into
the biggest batch of Union-bread the world ever saw, and invite
all honest hearts from all oppressed nations, to come and eat at
her hospitable board, beneath the glorious Stars and Stripes of
a vast American nationality. I believe a great deal more in
human instincts, than in human reasonings. I believe, there¬
fore, more in the people of this country, than in the politicians
and editors and thinkers, because the people follow their in.
stincts, which are divinely implanted, while the would-be lead-

ers follow their theories and their guesses, or their fears and
hopes. . It is the great drift of the people's hearts that is saving
the nation and the Government are merely careful raftsmen
some of them happily accustomed to flat-boats, who float on a cur¬
rent they do not make, are subject to freshets they do not ex
pect, and are only capable of steering and keeping afloat what
receives ds mam direction and its speed, and has its pre-ordained
destination, from other and irresistible sources ! But most of all
I trust the women of this country, because of all its people they
are most controlled by their instincts; which are purer, holier
and better than those of men. The women of America have the
filial instinct toward their country, in a form and degree as
marked as their maternal instinct for their own children They
have shown a holy passion for the preservation of the nation in
its absolute wholeness. They have given their husbands, their
sons, their lovers and brothers, with a generous abnegation of all
their own interests, to the army and the cause, with a heroism
that cannot be surpassed even by those they have sent, many of
whom have already sanctified the soil which rebels had polluted,
with their own blood, and all of whom stand prepared to re-
baptize and re-claim it with their heart’s gore. This passion,
not content with giving up the bread-winners, the pride and joy
and stay of their homes, has led the women of the land to take the
snowy quilts and blankets from their beds, the curtains from their
windows, the hoarded linen from their presses, and send it in
avalanches of comfort to our storehouses of relief. The women
have considered themselves as at a great national quilting-party ;
the States so many patches, each of its own color or stuff, the boun¬
daries of the nation the frame of the work; and at it they have
gone, with needles and busy fingers, and their very heart-strings
for thread, and sewed and sewed away, adding square to square,
and row to row ; allowing no piece or part to escape their plan of
Union; until the territorial area of the loyal States is all of a-
piece, first tacked and hasted, then sewed and stitched by women’s

hands, wet often with women’s tears, and woven in with wo¬
men’s prayers ; and now at length you might truly say the Na¬
tional Quilt — all striped and starred — will tear anywhere sooner
than in the seams, which they have joined in a blessed and in¬
separable unity !

Is not the U. S. Sanitary Commission the woman’s plea for
nationality ? — the expression of their instinctive determination
to have an undivided country ? They have said in Massachu¬
setts, New York, Illinois, in Rhode Island and Kentucky, in
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in Iowa and in Connecticut, in
Michigan and Maine, We will know no East and no West, no
middle and no sides. We have a common country ; are fellow
countrymen ; are all national citizens ; our troops all national
soldiers ; and we will work for them only as such. At other
times and seasons unlike this, let state and local jealousies and
sectional pride have their natural way ; but not now ! No !
not now ! Leave it to Southern traitors to first talk, and then
act secession! Leave it to angry Copperheads and rebels in
loyal disguises, to hiss division and breed disaffection and party
and sectional animosities. We will give our sacred instincts
of Union to the great cause of co-operative charity ; of national
relief to national distress ; of national succor and comfort to
national soldiers ! And so the patriotic women all over the
land have fallen in as by a Providential necessity, as by a true¬
hearted, disinterested, magnanimous spirit of love and sympa¬
thy, into the great common work, in which you, the North¬
western women assembled at this Fair, are now so gloriously and
successfully engaged. And while you, with true western large¬
ness, energy and invention, are conducting this immense enter¬
prise with such marvellous spirit and success, remember that
New England is just preparing, in a similar Fair, to exhibit her
fidelity to the same principles and the same common cause, the
U. S. Sanitary Commission ; and that she does not mean to be

behind the noble example you, by a month’s priority in time,
will have the opportunity of setting her ! Don’t give her any
excuse for raising, by her Fair, a dollar short of your mark —
$25,000 ! ! ! I don’t believe that will turn out to be high-water
mark in Chicago. I think there will be a 3 in the sum total of
your labors! You have raised your streets to get out of the
wet ; you must lower your pockets to lift your Northwest
reputation as high as your Eastern admirers fix it! We bid
Boston prick up her ears when Chicago reports the result of the
N. Western Fair.

Lest you should for an instant fancy that my words are
sweetened by the hope of seeing some of your money in the
general treasury of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, I beg here
to disclaim either the expectation or desire of the Board for any
such diversion of your funds into our central coffers. It would
be a mere waste of time and transportation. While the store¬
houses of the Northwestern Branches are open to the cry of our
Western Secretary, what interest have we in fingering the money
which, if you did not yourselves, with a noble pride, raise for
your own and for our ultimate use, we should have to raise
for you? We are spending hundreds of thousands of dol¬
lars upon our western armies, from the central treasury. Every
dollar you raise and every article you accumulate saves our
treasury and our store-houses just so much. In God’s name, go
on! and the richer your local treasury and store-houses, the
richer we are in the common work, which our united country—
and especially our American women — are carrying on, through
the TJ. S. Sanitary Commission.

Let me, through you, thank the women of Wisconsin, Iowa}
Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, for their incessant and most pro¬
ductive labors in this good and gracious work. Their sisters in
the Middle States and in the East hail them with true family
affection ! I pray you guard, as the apple of your eye, this holy

oneness of plan and organization. Trample on the serpent that
would tempt you out of this Paradise of national wholeness of
heart and soul. Suspect all who seek to sow seeds of division
and local rebellion ; we have escaped it thus far almost entirely ;
only enough of that bitterness has entered into our common cup
to make us beware of any more. To the generous, intelligent,
and whole-hearted Northwest we look for a persistent support
to the last. The nation has adopted the United States Sanitary
Commission as its own work ; a rampart of women’s hearts
protect it — a ring more sacred and inviolable than if it were a
park of artillery. The time will surely come when the great
uprising of the women of America, — nay, their systematic
organization and co-operation in a common w^ork, will be
regarded as the most marked social feature of the war, the most
splendid achievement on record of spontaneous humanity, the
brightest augury of perpetual peace and unity in our Nation.
May God give the Northwest a continuance of its faith and
fervor in this cause ! The blessing of the Almighty Father rests
on the women of the Northwest, and on their pious endeavors
to bind up the wounds of the national soldiers, and preserve,
without seam, the spotless robe of our National Union.

Faithfully and affectionately yours,

HENEY W. BELLOWS,

President of the United States

Sanitary Commission .

P. S. I desire to commend to you and all our Northwestern
friends and coadjutors, our minister plenipotentiary and extraor¬
dinary, charged with delivering in person this message from
your President ! He is our most tried and trusty Special Relief
Agent, now also the head of the Eastern department, holding
here precisely Dr. Newberry’s place among you. No man,
outside the Board itself, understands better than Mr. Knapp the
spirit, the methods and the plans of the United States Sanitary
Commission, and, in conjunction with our deeply honored
fellow Commissioner, your efficient President, Hon. Mark
Skinner, and Dr. Newberry, he is fully authorized to come to
any understanding with the Northwestern branches which
changes of circumstances may commend to the common judg¬
ment of our constituents. We know no occasion for any im¬
portant changes in our machinery and relations. We are always
glad, however, to hear of any new lessons which your local
experience may be able to suggest for the common good.

H, W. B,

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 04.

SECOND edition.

What the U. S. Sanitary Commission is Doing
in the Valley of the Mississippi.

LETTER FROM DR. J. S. NEWBERRY TO HON. W. P. SPRAGUE.

Hon. W. P. Sprague, Lo™“, Ky, Feb. 16, 1863.
Chairman Military Com. Ohio State Senate:

Dear Sir-I received your letter of the 13th yesterday
and improve the first leisure moment to send you the infer’
matron you have requested in regard to the operations of the
Sanitary Commission. If you will have the kindness to
read the accompanying documents, I think you will „et a
good general idea of what the Commission is doing in the
Valley of the Mississippi, and how its business is done If
you care to go outside of this department, and learn what it
is accomphshing in the East, I must refer you to the series

of the Commission s publications, which I send vou by
express. J

In addition to other matters with which I thus burden
you— or, perhaps, more properly, in explanation of them-
peimit me to call your attention to the following brief

Common1116 aimS> meth°dS’ aDd results> of the Sanitary

?' T,ht U\ 8' SanitaiT Commission was authorized and
ordered by the President, Secretary of War, and Surgeon
General, and by them it was granted certain powers and
p lvileges, and assigned special duties, set forth in Docu-
men s No. 2 and 25 of its series of publications.

- It was, however, designedly made dependent for its
support on the voluntary contributions of the people. This

support has been more and more liberal, as the value and
magnitude of the work it is doing has been more generally
recognized. Since its organization it has expended over
three hundred thousand dollars in cash, and has distributed
hospital stores of the value of several millions. At the
present time, more than three fourths of all the contributions
made by the people, for the benefit of the sick and wounded
in the army, pass through this channel ; in the aggregate,
amounting to something over one thousand dollars in cash,
and ten thousand articles of clothing and diet, expended and
issued each day. Of this aggregate, about one third of the
money, and more than one half of the stores, are being
expended and distributed in the Western Department, the
remaining two thirds being expended in the work of the
Central Office and in the armies of the East. Since the
battles of Murfreesboro and Vicksburg, over 4,000 packages
of hospital stores have been forwarded to these points by the
Sanitary Commission.*

3. Among the agencies by wffiich the Commission does
its work, may be enumerated : First. Its system of Inspec¬
tions — general and special — for the prevention of disease and
the investigation of wants. Second. Its system of General
Relief, for the production, transmission, and distribution of
needed supplies not furnished by Government. Third. Its
system of Special Relief, for procuring papers, pay, trans¬
portation, and pensions, for discharged soldiers and all those
requiring this sort of assistance. Fourth. Its system of
Publication, for the dissemination of sanitary knowledge,
technical or general, through the medium of the press.
Fifth. Its Soldiers’ Homes. Sixth. Its Hospital Directory.
Seventh. Its system of Transportation of sick and supplies
by Sanitary Commission steamers and hospital cars.

Although the limits to which I am restricted in this
communication will forbid me from giving you a full
description of all the details of this somewhat complex
machinery, the functions of a part of it may be inferred
from my enumeration of the different classes of agents

* Over 11,000 packages at this date, May 1st.

employed by the Commission, with a synonsis of tv,0; a ,•

££2, S' to ,h' p.«°

army, keeping watch over camps and hospitals ; occupied in
removing the causes of disease, investigating the condition
and wants of the sick and wounded, supplementing n
necessary the resources of the Government in the supply 0f
these wants, and carefully supervising the use made J/the
s ores furnished by the people and distributed by themselves

i *evssiBrts- !Second- special rsz

petals Eminent medical men, temporarily employed to
make rounds of inspection through all our military hospitals
T urd. Hospital VisiTORs-Earnest Christian men, who view
the hospitals in the light of humanity and religion and

Set consolation to all individual cases of want,

egiect, or sorrow. Fourth. Storekeepers — In charge of
depots of sanitary stores, which are located among or near
< important bodies of troops, delivering, on requisitions

forTheSsLSk “t I0" °Ur own ^Wbuting agents, supplies

issues Kfth «“g re°el?.tS f°r and maldn° record of ^11
. fth; Special Relief Agents— Engaged in the
stnbution of stores, in procuring discharges and pay
transportation and pensions, and, so far as possible, relieving

I™ “trf " Dg tThereVer they °CCUr- Sixth- Canvassing
Agents -Exploring the home field, and promoting the prepa¬
ration and forwarding of supplies. Seventh. Office Clerks^
Keeping up the accounts, records, and correspondence, of the
Commission and the Hospital Directory, in its offices at
Mhmgton and Louisville. Eighth. Messengers-WIio

Sw rentS 0f St0res> t0 prevent delays or W

Western Department there are nearly one hundred
these agents constantly employed in the service of the
mmission, to say nothing of all that noble band of women
o are engaged in the preparation and forwarding of stores
or our distribution, and the earnest and indefatigable corps
vo unteer laborers who are connected with our Branch

Commissions, at Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati,
Louisville, &c.

5. Soldiers’ Homes. — These are intended to afford comfor¬
table quarters to discharged men, who, weak and disabled,
without money or friends, need such resting places on their
way to their places of residence ; to those taken sick in
transitu, and to those waiting for their papers or their pay.
All such are here received, cleansed, fed, clothed, cared for
kindly and well, saved from sharpers, and helped on their
way. A number of Homes of this kind have been established
by the Commission in the East and West, and up to the
present time have accommodated over 60,000* of our soldiers.
At least half of these have been entertained at the Sanitary
Commission “ Homes” in the West, established at Cairo,
Louisville, Nashville, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland.
Measures are now being taken to increase the number and
efficiency of these institutions, which confessedly represent
one of the most important branches of our work.

6. Hospital Directories. — Of these there are two estab¬
lished by the Sanitary Commission — one at Washington,
and the other at Louisville. f They are intended to be com¬
plete registers of all the inmates of our military general
hospitals. Already they contain each over 50,000J soldiers’
names — Louisville over 65,000 — and are affording precious
information and unspeakable comfort to those who have
friends sick or wounded in the army. At Louisville we are
sometimes called upon to answer a hundred or more inquiries
in a day, coming from residents of all parts of the West.
We here receive regular reports from hospitals in the follow¬
ing places :

Columbus,

Ohio.

Mound City,

Ill.

La Grange,

Tenn.

Cleveland,

Bardstown,

Ky.

Murfreesboro,

Camp Dennison,

Bowling Green,

“

Memphis,

Cincinnati,

Columbus,

Nashville,

c c

Gallipolis,

Covington,

( i

Keokuk,

Iowa.

Clarksburg,

Va.

Columbia,

Davenport,

Charlestown,

Danville,

Ironton,

Mo.

* May 1st, 75,000.

f Besides local directories at Philadelphia, New York, and Cincinnati.
£ May 1st, Washington 'TO, 000, Louisville 76,000.

Grafton,
Parkersburg,
Point Pleasant,
Jeffersonville,
Evansville,

New Albany,
Quincy,

Cairo.

Ind.

Ill

Tenn.

Holla,

St. Louis,

Springfield,

Helena,

Vicksburg,

Corinth,

Mo.

Ark.

Miss.

Va. Louisville.

Lebanon,

Lexington,

Paducah,

Perry ville,

Clarksville,

Gallatin,

Jackson,

7. Hospital and Supply rp .7

slTnTd 7 °f St0I'eS t0 the dep0t‘S 0f the Sanitary CoSmt

mission SWk 7hen desirable> the Sanitary Com-

r.ck.Se. of stores. Geoer.l G,„, b“~j

der, given the control of another steamer to the agents of

he Co nmis n> t0 be employed by them ^

of sanitary stores, and she is now in use for that purpose

ini? * 77 CT~T° pr0vide the comfortT the
inmates of hospitals in the interior of Kentucky and Ten-

essee, destined to be removed by rail to Louisville a train

mspital cars lias been fitted up, and is now running under
he supervision of agents of the Commission. These ca

medicbi; lWlthdC°mf0rt\b,e b6dS’ Wlth f°0d> stim«lants"

On? f d are ln charSe of kind and faithful men

cWrafd ff 6 daiu traDSp0rted in them> with as little
7ep i8fring: tb0«gh they remained in hospital.

lished in a -1,1 v^' + T f Sanitai7 Commission has now pub-

one t?dred ?rn T" min01' cirCulars> n°tices, &c„ nearly
f ,, dlstlnct pamphlets, comprising many millions

of pages, all bearing on the health of the army

10. Special FAciLiTiEs.-Through the liberality of the

setore°s ha? "7 S*Tboat lines> *<» transportation
stores has been afforded to the Commission throughout

^enS free? ‘ ^ limi* military depart¬

ments free transmission of stores is universally granted to

the Cfommrssion by the various quartermasters f and this

Cen T?S bee" further guaranteed by special orders from
General Kosecrans and General Grant-which orders, ho “

ever, definitely limit tire fever to good, forwarded l.y Ur"
by the Government, and most ot our depo s

‘h^^^offi.»..,tke0.mmi.«^

free nee of meet of the telegraph ..... m the
a large part of it. oorre.pondene. .. franked • *“
C.ngre.1 or other offieer. of the ‘

privilege; by all of which favors and facilities I

doing good is greatly increased. fi;«erimination

The U. S. Sanitary Commission makes no discnmmation

between the ai.lt and ..feting of. .Ygh.
feren. State., reekoning .« Toemm.n

under one flag, for one cause, a tmided

fate • sivin°' equally of its bounty and its caie to all, gmueu

only' by the°rule that the most needy aretbemost worthy^

*r its

authority and ^vor which 1 ’ ^ steamboat, and

the pnvdeges granted to 7 cotnbination of a great

telegraph lines, ancl, maeea, u,y . • +0

variety of influences, the Sanitary Commission^ Mejo

transmit stores for the sick and woun e ; tbem with •

celerity, certainty, and economy, an ° organization

more justice and effect, than any State 01 local g
whatever; and I would earnestly dissuade the
the honorable body which you represent torn penmt g

resources of our State to be employed to B^tam y g

zation less catholic in its spirit, less systematic
methods, and less effective in its results. •

Yours, respectfully,

J S. NEWBERRY,

Sec’y West. Dep’t U. S. San. Com.

24 of Appendix.

APPENDIX.

TESTIMONIAL OF MAJ. GEN. ROSECRANS. -

Headquarters Department of the Cumberland
T, n , ~ , Murfreesboro, Feb. 2.

The (xenera] Commanding presents his warmest acknowledgments to

th n^Dr." ° ® 80 diers of thls armJ> whose generous sympathy with

the suffering of the sick and wounded has induced them to send for their
com ort numerous sanitary supplies, which are continually arriving by
. , JS. °f individuals and charitable societies While he highly appre¬
ciates and does not undervalue the charities which have been lavished^
. arm-V- exPerieDce has demonstrated the importance of system and
impartial, ty, as well as judgment and economy, in the forwarding and
distributing of these supplies. g

In ^AthT reSpeCtS the United States Sanitary Commission stands
unrivalled Its organization, experience, and large facilities for the work-
are such that the General does not hesitate to recommend, in the most
urgent manner, all those who desire to send sanitary supplies, to confide
them to the care of this Commission. They will thus insure the supplies
reaching their destination without wastage or expense of agents or trans¬
portation, and their being distributed in a judicious manner, without
disorder or interference with the regulations or usages of the service
I his Commission acts in full concert with the medical department of the
army and enjoys its confidence. It is thus enabled with few agents to
do a large amount of good, at the proper time and in the proper wav.
-mce the battle of Stone River it has distributed a surprisingly large
amount of clothing, lint, bandages and bedding, as well as milk, con¬
centrated beef, fruit, and other sanitary stores essential to the recoverv
of the sick and wounded. J

VT. S. ROSECRANS,

Maj. Gen. Commanding Department.

LETTER OF COL. MOODY.

Dr. A. N. Read, Murfreesboro, Tenn., Feb. 5.

Inspector I. S. Sanitary Commission :

Mp.— I desire to express to you, and through you to the generous and
patriotic donors sustaining the Sanitary Commission, my high apprecia¬
tion of the works of love in which they are engaged. As I have visited

the various hospitals in this place, and looked upon the pale faces of the
sufferers, and marked the failing strength of many a manly form, IJhav
reioiced in spirit as I have seen your benevolence, embodied in eubstant a
forms of food, delicacies, and clothing, judiciously and systematical y
distributed by those who are officially connected with the army.

If the donors could only know how much good their gifts have do
and could but hear the blessings invoked upon their unknown fnen >
the suffering ones, they would more fully realize the divine proverb, It

;s rjssass rrind *. **

as to reach the suffering officers and soldiers, who have stood betwe
their loved homes and foul war’s desolation,” to commit their offerings
to the custody of “the United States Sanitary Commission, an orgamza-
on aulorized by the Secretary of War and the Surgeon General, having
the confidence of the entire army, and affording a direct and expeditious
medium of communication with the several divisions of the army free ot
expense to the donors, and entirely reliable in its character. It is
worthy of special note, that the goods entrusted to the Commission a
distributed to those who are actually sick or convalescent ; and this is
“under the security of the most responsible persons in its empl y
and through regularly established official agencies in the army H the
patriotic donors of the several States would direct their contributions m o
this channel, it would save much expense of agencies, blend the sympat,
of Union men of the several States, and prevent unpatriotic distinctions
in the patients in the hospitals, who are from every ^giment from every
State Side by side they fought and were wounded, and side by side
they suffer in the hospitals; and the Commission, through appropriate
agencies extends its aid alike to the sons of Virginia and Pennsylvania,
Ohio and Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee, Michigan and Missouri,
thus giving prominence to our cherished national motto, “ We are many
i ne ” As an illustration, the other day an agent of a Wisconsin
society came to a hospital with sanitary goods lor Wiscoman so drers and
went along the wards making careful discrimination in behalf of W -
cousin soldiers, but soon saw that it was an ungracious task, and handed
his mods to the United States Sanitary Commission. Learning
Z one JS Wisconsin soldiers said, ‘‘I am glad of that, for it made

me feel SO bad, when my friends gave me those good things the other
dal and passed by that Illinois boy on the next bed there, who needed
them just as much as I did; but I made it square, for I divided what I
„ot with him .” Brave, noble fellow ; his was the true spirit of a soldier
g, *1 TTnited States We have a common country, language, religion,

tz&sz. *• ** •' -

SO that the genius of liberty may, like Him “who went about doing
good wear a “ seamless garment.” We believe in the constitutional
nghts of States, but most emphatically believe in our glorious nationality
which like the sun amidst the stars, has a surpassing glory, and is of
infinitely greater importance, and should be cherished in every appropriate
form of development.

GRANVILLE MOODY,

Col. Commanding 'lA.th Regiment 0. V. I.

LETTER OF DR. G. G. SHUMARD.

Dr,

Medical Director’s Office,

Danville, Ky., Dec. 20, 1862.

J. S. Newberry,

Associate Secretary Sanitary Commission :

Dear Sir— Permit me through you to acknowledge my obligations to
t le United States Sanitary Commission, for the very efficient aid it has
rendered me in furnishing supplies for the sick and wounded soldiers

under my charge, at a time when they could not be obtained through any
other source. & J

When the hospitals were first established in this district, we were almost
entirely destitute of hospital and medical supplies, including almost every
article necessary for the comfort of the sick. With an unusually large
number of sick and wounded on our hands, we were compelled to see
them suffer, without the proper means of affording them relief.

The condition of things was immediately telegraphed to the Medical
1 urveyor in Louisville, and that officer, with his usual promptness, at
once furnished everything necessary to render our sick comfortable ; but
from some cause the supplies were detained several weeks on the road,
and were not received until long after those arrived that were sent by the
Sanitary Commission.

Considering the large number of sick and wounded in the District,
(between six and seven thousand,) and the almost total absence of every¬
thing necessary to render them comfortable, I have no doubt that the
timely aid afforded by the Commission in this single instance has been
the means of preventing much suffering as well as of saving many val¬
uable lives.

I trust that the Commission will be able to continue in its good work,
and that it may have, as it certainly deserves, the thanks of every friend
of humanity.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully,

GEO. G. SHUMARD, Surg. U. S. V.,

Medical Director Danville District.

ORDER OF GEN. ROSECRANS.

Headquarters 14th Army Corps,

Department oe the Cumberland,
Nashville, December 11, 1862.

The General Commanding, appreciating the vast amount of good which
the soldiers of this army are deriving from the .sanitary stores distributed
among them by the United States Sanitary Commission, directs:

That all officers in this department render any aid consistent with their
duties to the agents of this Society, and afford them every facility for
the execution of their charitable work.

By order of MAJ. GEN. W. S. ROSECRANS.

C. Goddard,

Maj. $ A. A. A. G.

LETTER OF JOSEPH SHIPPEN, ESQ.

Louisville, Dec. 20, 1862.

Dr. J. S. Newberry,

Secretary Western Department U. S. Sanitary Commission:

Sir — Under a commission from the Governor of Pennsylvania to visit
the regiments, and to report the condition of the sick and wounded from
that State throughout the Western Department, I came to Kentucky in
the early part of November, and since then, in pursuance of my instruc¬
tions, my time has been employed in visiting all the hospitals of Louisville,
New Albany, Jeffersonville, Lexington, Lebanon, Perryville, Danville,
Bowling Green, and Nashville.

The purpose of this communication is to express to you my apprecia¬
tion of the kindness and courtesy I have constantly, while in this depart¬
ment, received from yourself, from the gentlemen connected with the
Louisville Branch Commission, and from your agents everywhere; and
to bear testimony to the faithfulness and efficiency wRich I have personally
witnessed in the performance of the duties imposed upon you all. Aware
of the prejudices which exist in some minds against the United States
Sanitary Commission, I have embraced the opportunity presented to me
to become acquainted with the objects to which your attention is directed,
the system you have adopted for accomplishing them, and the degree of
success that attends your efforts. Your system of keeping accounts and
correspondence seems to me simple yet comprehensive ; your business is
conducted with economy ; and the agents you have employed, so far as
my observation extends, are active and faithful men, and take pleasure
in ministering to the needy. The trust of distributing hospital stores

committed to their bauds, 1 am led to believe, from my own observation
and the testimony of various surgeons, to be faithfully and conscientiously
executed. On seeing the imperative needs existing in the hospitals at
Nashville, Bowling Green, and Perryville, my only regret was that the
supply of goods from your rooms fell so far short of the demand.

These facts I have communicated to Gov. Curtin, and one of my recent
reports urgently recommended that whatever hospital stores the Surgeon
General of Pennsylvania might design for the Western Department should
be forwarded to your care at Louisville.

My admiration has been aroused by the broad generous spirit with
which your Commission is animated. It recognizes all suffering soldiers
to be brothers, needing help and succor, and it strives to do the greatest
good to the greatest number, regardless of State lines and local distinc¬
tions. Observation and reflection teach that this is the true system of
benevolence, founded upon pure patriotism. All special distributions are
attended with great difficulty and expense, and inevitably engender State
pride at home and jealousy among the soldiers. They are opposed to the
fundamental idea for which we are warring — our undivided nationality.
If the people throughout the breadth of our land would accept these facts,
and would with doubled energy in unison and co-operation work for the
cause of suffering humanity upon these principles, how much the sick
soldier would gain.

With sincere respect, your obedient servant,

JOSEPH SHIPPEN,

Commissioner from Pennsylvania.

LETTER PROM DR. J. S. NEWBERRY.

United States Sanitary Commission,

Cleveland, July 12, 1862.

Mrs. B. Rouse,

President Soldiers’ Aid Society :

Dear Madam — You ask me if I can give you an assurance that the
hospital stores received from your Society, and distributed by the agents
of the Sanitary Commission, are not wasted or misapplied.

In reply, I must say that I cannot assert positively that every article
is honestly and wisely used to relieve the suffering of the sick in the
army, for human nature is proverbially imperfect, and it would be too
much to expect that all the various persons through whose hands these
stores must pass are alike pure and honest. I have no hesitancy in
saying, however, that to my certain knowledge a vast majority of the

articles which you send arc properly used, and that the reports whic
have come to your ears to the effect that they are generally and syste¬
matically misappropriated by officers and hospital attendants, are either
gross exaggerations or unmitigated falsehoods. _

War is evidently an invention of the devil, with almost nothing goo
about it, but among its attendant evils wastefulness is conspicuous and
inevitable. In this waste we must share. Do what we can to proven
it some of our stores will be wasted and lost. It is our constant care,
however, to make that charge to “ profit and loss” as small as possible.
We all know how large an item this is in the expenses of the Uovern-
ment, and yet who thinks of giving up, on that account, the struggle
in which we are engaged ? The losses which we suffer, so much lighter,
even proportionally, than those which befal the Government stores,
since for the most part unavoidable, seem to me, therefore, only incen-
tives to greater effort.

With the use that we make, and the care that we take, of your sani¬
tary stores, you are personally well informed, and, if I mistake not,
well satisfied. For the benefit of those who have not had your oppor-
tunity of observation, permit me to suggest: .

1. That the inspectors and agents of the U. S. Sanitary Commission
in the Western Department are all men of established character, and o
a reputation above suspicion. The names of Drs. Read of Norwalk,
Ashmun, of Hudson; Warriner, of Yellow Springs; I rentice, Hop¬
kins, and Cleveland, of this city, are in themselves a guaranty that their

work will be done faithfully and well. ,

2. The system of distribution of sanitary stores which has cen
introduced into this department, is the result of much thought and
effort, and, so far as adopted, it seems to render all great abuses

impossible. ,

My aim and practice has been to establish at all important headquar¬
ters of the army, near the office of the Medical Purveyor, a depot of
sanitary stores, to which the surgeons of regiments and hospitals, when
coming for supplies, may have recourse for such things as the Govern¬
ment cannot furnish. These depots, under the care of competent per¬
sons, are managed with as much care and system as that of the Medical
Purveyor, a record being kept and receipts taken for all articles issued .
They are also under the general supervision of the inspectors, who arc
constantly employed in visiting the camps and hospitals in the vicim y,
drawing on the depot for the supply of real wants. _ Nor does the care
of the inspector over your bounty end here. On his rounds of inspec¬
tion he repeatedly visits every hospital, and sees with his own eyes that
his gifts are properly used ; and while he is instructed to err, it at all,

on the side of liberality, he is also enjoined to keep careful watch that
the stores he dispenses are not misused.

# Where this system has not been adopted, and stores are hurriedly
distributed by inexperienced persons, making but a single visit to a
locality— a course still pursued by some Aid Societies and Sanitary
Associations— errors and abuses are liable, even sure, to occur ; but
your stores have not been, and will not be, thus distributed, so long as
they are entrusted to the care of the agents of the U. S. Sanitary Com¬
mission.

Yours, very respectfully,

J. S. NEWBERRY,

Secretary Western Department.

LETTER OF DR. A. H. THURSTON, ON HOSPITAL CARS.

Assistant Medical Director’s Office,

Department of the Cumberland,
Nashville, Tenn. , April 11, 1863.

Dr. J. S. Newberry,

Secretary West. Dep't San. Com.

Dear Doctor I understand that it is your intention to organize
another “ sanitary train” for the transportation of the sick and wounded
from this post to Louisville. I sincerely hope that you may be success¬
ful in your efforts, for experience has shown me that the train which
has been running heretofore has been of the greatest benefit to the sick
and wounded. The rapid transportation, the care given them in their
transit by the competent attendants who accompany each train, have, I
am convinced, been the means of saving many lives.

I was forced to use steamboat transportation for many wounded imme¬
diately after the battle of Stone River, but the length of the voyage
and the necessary exposure, &c., compelled me to ask your co-operation,
in order that the men might be transported by railroad. I feel myself
(as well as the sick and wounded soldiers) to be under many obligations
to the Sanitary Commission, but, in my opinion, the “hospital train”
is one of the most useful and merciful provisions it has made for the
comfort of the sick. I sincerely hope, I repeat, that you will be suc¬
cessful in reorganizing the train ; and believe me ever to be,

Very respectfully,

A. H. THURSTON,

Assistant Medical Director , Department of the Cumberland.

LETTER OF REV. J. E. ROY.

Chicago, Jan. 22, 1863.

Editors Chicago Tribune— As I have just returned from a trip down
the Mississippi to the mouth of the White river, in charge of stores
from the Chicago Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, I desire to
say a few words to the ihany friends of this enterprise in the Northwest,
in regard to the disbursement of goods hy this patriotic and philan¬
thropic agency. As that of an outside observer, my testimony may
perhaps be of value. None would ever question the patriotism, the
unflagging zeal, and the integrity, of those gentlemen who gratuitously
manage the collecting operations at home. But an impression has
gained something of currency that these sacred benefactions are not
used as exclusively for the good of the soldiers as they ought to be. In
all commercial and benevolent schemes something of a percentage is
allowed for unavoidable loss ; but beyond this I do not believe that the
U. S. Sanitary Commission is at all chargeable.

As an arm of the Government, appointed by the President, and by
him entrusted with the important function of the inspection of hospitals
and camps as to their sanitary condition, and yet performing its service
independent of the national treasury, this Commission deserves profound
respect. The several branches at Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, and
Chicago, arc but correlative parts of the central organization at Wash¬
ington, of which Rev. Dr. Bellows is President, and Fred. Law Olm¬
sted Secretary. The appointees, as inspectors, general superintend¬
ents, and local disbursing agents, are all amenable to the one organic
body. Thus, in the Southwest, Dr. II. A. Warriner, a man of eminent
qualifications, is Sanitary Inspector of Camps and Hospitals, and Gen¬
eral Superintendent of Sanitary Agencies in General Grant s army.
These agencies are at Cairo, Columbus, Memphis, Corinth, and Jack-
son. lie also controls the movements of the steamboat Sir William
Wallace, chartered for the uses of the Commission in that region, a boat
which, paying one half of its surplus earnings to the chartering party,
does much towards the meeting of this expense, while enabling the
agents to carry their stores to such places and at such times as the exi¬
gencies of battle, or the uncertain movements of war, may demand.
This boat is in charge of Dr. R. G. McLean, who is also U. S.
Inspector of Hospitals, for which double responsibility his professional
and military experience (in Mexico) eminently qualify him. On her
last trip down this boat carried 1,027 packages, or one hundred tons of
stores, gathered up from the several branches.

The local agencies are usually in buildings confiscated by the Gov¬
ernment, and so costing nothing for rent, while the agents are held to a
strict account for the goods in their charge, giving and receiving
vouchers for the same. They, or the General Superintendent, if at
hand, make appropriations to camp or general hospitals as they need.
And then these goods are delivered into the possession of the head
female nurse of the hospital, who carries the keys of the rooms con¬
taining . sanitary clothing and delicacies. She administers upon written
requisition of the surgeon for each particular patient. Thus, at Mem¬
phis, the “ Overton Hospital,” in a new hotel equal to the Richmond
and the “Jefferson Hospital,” in a block equal to the Portland, and the
several others there, all confiscated property, are supplied by the agency
of the Commission, which occupies and fills a store equal to any on
Lake street, and in one of the above mentioned buildings.

Miss Babcock, of this city, is head female nurse for these hospitals,
and gives out from the goods appropriated to her department only upon
requisition of the surgeons, and that, too, by the hands of other nurses,
who take them to the needy patients, and all with that kind of economy
and Yankee “faculty” with which the frugal housewife disburses her
stores of linen and food by the hands of her servants.

^ The same course is pursued in the hospital at Cairo, where Rev. E.
Folsom is Sanitary Agent and Chaplain of the hospital. It did my
eyes and my heart good to go to the Sanitary rooms in those hos¬
pitals. In the linen room, sheets, towels, pillow-cases, shirts, socks,
&c., &c., were assorted and placed in great pigeon-holes, ready of
access ; while in the room for delicacies the good things were arranged
m perfect order and readiness for use; and the whole bearing that air
of home cleanliness that made me bless God that women’s taste, love,
and gentle services, were consecrated to this holy cause. Indeed, I was
not at all prepared to find such wisdom and economy in the disburse¬
ment of sanitary goods. At Helena, Mrs. Newcomb, also of this city,
stands in much the same relation to the sanitary business, the agency
there being under the care of the Western Sanitary Commission at St.
Louis, and the churches of the place being used for hospitals. In the
regimental camp hospitals the stores are disbursed through the Medical
Steward. Visiting the tent hospitals in the camp of the 3d Iowa cav¬
alry, at Helena, and expressing gratification at their appearance of
neatness and comfort, I was informed that nearly everything there, from
coats and bedding to delicacies, was from the Sanitary Commission.

. 0ne reason why soldiers, returned home from the hospitals, some¬
times say they never received anything from the Commission, is that the
articles furnished through the system described above seem to them to

come from the Government. A soldier from his cot, eating canned
peaches, made the same remark, when it was shown by the marks that
his peaches, and the shirt and bedding he had, were all from the Chicago
Commission ! And if the nurses do sometimes lay aside their stogies
and stiff jackets, and put on slippers and gowns from the sanitary goods,
it is all for the quiet and comfort of the suffering, to whom now heavy
foot-falls are louder than the cannon’s roar when in health and
soundness. * * * * * * *

As an illustration of the amount and accuracy of the disbursements,
let me report, from Dr. Warriner, the articles given out at Columbus
during the last six months : 225 lbs. arrow-root ; 97 boxes bandages,
2,346 bed ticks, 507 lbs. dried beef, 308 blankets, 3,946 lbs. butter,
626 lbs. cheese, 2,260 lbs. codfish, 2,263 comforts, 170 lbs. corn
starch, 8,558 pairs of drawers, 1,067 doz. eggs, 16,279 lbs. dried
fruit, 6,774 cans fruit, 4,960 pillows, 8,402 pillow cases, 7,387 sheets,
13,913 shirts, 260 pairs slippers, 3,003 bushels vegetables, 491 bottles
wine and cordials ; and so on through a list of 74 articles!

From personal observation, I am only impressed with the magnitude
and blessedness of the work to which so many men and women are con¬
secrating so much of time, service, and money. I am satisfied that the
disbursements are made with as much precision and economy as could
be expected in a work so extensive and complicated. I am also con¬
vinced that the only true and safe channel for such offerings is that
afforded by the U. S. Sanitary Commission and its branches. Indeed,
it is probable that most of the abuses in this respect that have been
bruited, have occurred in connection with efforts at private ministration,
and through irresponsible parties.

Let us not, then, be weary in well-doing. The 100,000 soldiers
lying in hospital sick and wounded, who have fought our battles for us,
have a claim upon our material sympathy. Our obligation to them is
not simply that of humanity, but that of debt.

J. E. HOY.

LETTER OF DR. A. N. READ,

On the Misappropriation of Sanitary Stores.

U. S. Sanitary Commission,
Louisville, Ky., November 5, 1862.

President Soldiers’ Aid Society , Cleveland , O.

Dear Madam — Dr Newberry has just called my attention to certain
passages in letters from your Society, in which it is stated that many
reports are reaching you from inmates of hospitals and returned soldiers

to the effect that the gifts of the Soldiers’ Aid Societies are not received
by those for whom they are intended, are misappropriated by surgeons,
nurses, &c. Now, after many months devoted to the examination of
camps and hospitals, in almost all parts of the Valley of the Mississippi,
constantly engaged in distributing the stores of the Sanitary Commission"
and carefully looking after their application, I do not hesitate to say,
decidedly and definitely, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the
gifts of the people transmitted through the agencies and agents of the
Sanitary Commission, are faithfully applied to the relief of real wants
among the sick and wounded of the army, and that they have accom¬
plished so great an amount of good, that no language of mine can express
it. Nowhere, but on the records of Heaven, will the true bearing and
benefit of this great work to suffering humanity, in which you and
thousands beside of the loyal and warm-hearted women of our country
are engaged, be fully and justly reported; but there they will form one
of the brightest pages in the history of our fallen world.

It has been, as you know, my special duty to look after and guard the
interests of the sick soldier in all my intercourse with the army, and I
certainly had every incentive to be faithful in that duty, jealous of the
rights and careful of the comfort of those of whom I have been elected
a representative and guardian. No one has had any better opportunity
than myself of knowing whether your efforts for the poor soldier have
been misdirected, your confidence abused, your bounty wasted. I say
it without boasting — simply as a matter of fact — that there is scarcely a
hospital in Kentucky or Tennessee, east of the Tennessee river, with the
management of which, and the condition of the patients, I am not
familiar, and I take pleasure in assuring you positively, and fearless of
contradiction, that in none of them is there prevalent any systematic or
considerable misappropriation of the stores which your Society, or other
auxiliaries of the Sanitary Commission, are furnishing. That all the
attendants of these hospitals are honest and faithful, I will not state, nor
do I believe ; for instances are known to have occurred where our stores
and those of the Government have been purloined, but these cases are
few and unimportant, and the opportunity for this kind of dishonesty is
very rare. This is my testimony. But you will ask, “If this is the
truth, how do these reports which are so current, so paralyzing to our
efforts, originate?” This question, to the best of my ability, I will
answer.

1st. A large portion of the bounty of the public has been distributed
by special agents sent on hasty visits to camps and hospitals, who have
not made use of our system, or any system, in the distribution of stores
under their charge ; nor have they remained to see that their bounty was

Doc. 64.

properly applied. As a natural consequence, a considerable percentage
of stores distributed in this way has gone where not really needed, and in
many cases they have been fraudulently diverted from their proper
destination. All these cases are wrongly charged to us and you.

2d. With all our efforts during the year past, not half the patients in
hospitals, though really needing our help, have received it, simply
because our supplies were inadequate in quantity. Many a poor fellow
has, therefore, failed to receive of o\ir stores, only because we had not
them to give him. Remember that half the number who have been sick
in hospital come into this category, and their testimony, if properly
understood, is the strongest possible argument in favor of increased
activity in furnishing supplies.

3d. Not half nor one fourth of those who received the bounty of the
people, in the form of hospital clothing and diet, are aware of the source
from which those supplies come. The want is supplied— the good is
done— but the Government gets the credit for it. The surgeons and
nurses who distribute your gifts to the patients in the hospital cannot be
depended upon nor expected to say to each one who receives a shirt, or
pair of drawers, socks, or slippers, “These are the gifts of the Sanitary
Commission, the work of the good women who are laboring for and
thinking of you at home.” In the press of our work, we can only say
this to here and there one, and so the great mass receive the gifts, but
only thank the Government. Many of the articles of clothing are now ,
and all should he marked, so that they may tell their own story ; but even
when this is the case, you would be surprised to hear how often the name
stamped on the article is never read by the wearer. Let me give you an
example of this: Once when going through a hospital in Paducah, with
Dr. T. B. Austen, the surgeon in charge, I noticed one man who was
wearing a shirt and a pair of drawers, both plainly marked, “ Chicago
Sanitary Commission.” He was then eating dinner, and had on his plate
a spoonful of canned peaches, an article never furnished by the Govern¬
ment I said to the man, “lam glad to see that the Sanitary Commission
is doing you some good.” He looked up with a blank expression, and
said, the Sanitary Commission had been no benefit to him; he had never
got ’anything from it. I asked him who supplied him with the clothes
he had on, the clean pillows and sheets on his bed, the fruit on his plate l
He “didn’t know — the Government, he supposed,” and “he was not
specially thankful to Government, for he thought he had lully earned all

he was receiving, and a little more.”

Articles of diet cannot be marked and thus identified, so that it very
rarely happens that the patient in hospital who is daily eating the food
you have sent him, is at all aware of it.

■4th. In a few instances these reports are wilful misrepresentations
originating in s0,ne grudge entertained against the Commission by some
old army officer or soldier, or derived from some personal pique from
^c.«st,gat,on as to the performance of duty. Generally,’ how-

T; m 6 COnscienti<)u%. but by persons ignorant of

he facts. I have been at the pains to ferret out a great number of these
stories, and have in each case found that they either wholly misrepre¬
sented or grossly exaggerated the facts in the case. ' f

My answer to all persons disposed to question the value of the services
you are rendering to the sick and wounded in the army, would be to ask
Uiem to go with me to the battle field of Perryville, or the hospitals of
, . ’ fromiwll,ch I have just returned, having assisted in the distri¬

bution among tnose wanting almost every comfort, not to say necessity of
life, over thirty tons of stores forwarded by the Sanitary Commission.

., y rep0rtS have glven y°u a description of the need at these points, and
he measures of relief afforded. I will not here report what I have there

’ " wdl only add that if any one, having seen what I have of the

wor is of the Sanitary Commission, and its auxiliaries, shall then and still
question the value of the organization to the army, or the propriety of
sus aining it earnestly, his eyes and mind and heart are not mine.

Yours, respectfully,

A. N. READ,

Inspector Sanitary Commission.

LETTER FROM E. D. HOWARD, ESQ.

Dr. J. S. Newberry:

Murfreesboro, Tenn., Feb. 12, 1863.

About a week since my attention was called to a communication, first
published in the Ohio State Journal , and copied into the Cincinnati
E2ulrer^ dated Murfreesboro, and over the anonymous signature of
“Mack,” in which statements are made respecting the hospital and
hospital officials in and about Murfreesboro, which I know to be grossly
untrue. That part of the communication which referred to the conduct
o the surgeons and assistants, charging them, luithout exception , with
gross and criminal neglect of the sick and wounded men, I replied to
immediately in a communication to the Journal, in which I stated, from
my personal knowledge, that in most, if not all the cases which have
come under my observation, the surgeons are honestly and faithfully
endeavoring to discharge their arduous and difficult duties to their
patients. This statement I felt constrained to make as a matter of justice
to the surgeons of the army in this department. With regard to the

authorship of the communication, I have since ascertained that it was
written by a discharged soldier, who acknowledged to a comrade, now
here, (and whose name can be given if necessary,) that he was drunk
when he wrote it, and regretted it. The letter, however, has gone widely
spread through the newspapers, and will be read by thousands who will
be ignorant alike of its source and its falsity.

Among the misstatements made, however, is one calculated to exert
an influence even more pernicious to the interests of the brave men now
lying sick and wounded in hospitals here, and which I have thought best
to meet in a different manner. In speaking of the sanitary stores sent
here, “Mack” makes the wholesale statement that they are all consumed
by the officers and hospital officials, and that the sick and wounded
soldiers do not get any of them. Knowing the effect which such statements
—made, I am sorry to say, by others of the “ same ilk ” with “ Mack”—
have had, and will continue to have upon the source of our supplies at
home, I determined at once to make the appeal to the soldiers in hospitals,
and endeavor to put the result in such shape as would settle the question,
so far as the hospitals here are concerned.

Accordingly I have circulated the following statement as I have passed
from one hospital to another in the performance of other duties, simply
stating the charges made by “ Mack” and his confreres, and asking them
to sign or not, according to their positive personal knowledge and
experience.

The names appended to this paper have been in every case put there
by the voluntary consent of the men, the signatures being actually made
by the individuals, except when wounds or sickness made it necessary
for another to write at their dictation ; and let me state that every patient
to whom this paper has been presented has not only signed it, but signed
it willingly and gladly. The list comprises all the patients now in
hospital here and on the battle field, with the exception of a few whom
I cannot, reach without delaying the publication, which is demanded now
I hope that every editor in the North, who has at heart the interest of
our brave men, sick and wounded in the common cause, as well as the
vindication of truth and justice, will publish this list, and thereby sustain
and stimulate the thousands whose philanthropic efforts are flagging
under the discouraging influence of statements made by irresponsible and
reckless men, who, like “Mack,” do not hesitate to vilify a holy cause
to gratify a petty spite, or the drunken humor of a disappointed

selfishness.

E. D. HOWARD,

Agent San . Com ,

LETTER OF REV. W. W. PATTON.

Chicago Sanitary Commission,

To the Editor of the Chicago Tribune: Cni0AG0’ APril 3’ 1863-

Having just returned from an expedition ou behalf of the Chicago
Sanitary Commission to the army before Vicksburg, I desire through
your paper to communicate to the public, without delay, an important
order respecting sanitary supplies and expeditions, just issued by Gen.
Grant. The natural desire of citizens at home to add to the comfort of
relations and friends in the army, of cities and counties to provide for
regiments raised in their localities, and of the benevolent public to send
stores for promiscuous distribution, has resulted in so many evils to the
army, when these operations have been, as heretofore, conducted by
persons not officially connected with the Sanitary Commission, that Gen.
Grant has felt compelled to apply a remedy. The Quartermasters’ and
Government boats are put to inconvenience; the hospitals are invaded
by a host of male and female visitors, some of whom are incompetent to
observe and report, and others have further selfish ends in view.

. The medical discipline of the army is weakened; false reports are
circulated as to the condition of the army, which discourage the troops
and prevent enlistments. Sutlers’ goods are smuggled in with forged
sanitary marks. The well are frequently made ill, and the ill made
worse by improper articles of diet; and certain favored regiments are
loaded and even encumbered with supplies, while otheys receive little or
nothing, who yet deserve equal treatment. The effect is absurdly and
injuriously to foster State and local feeling, at home and in the army, in
a war for the Union against rebellion, waged in the name of State rights,
or the benefit of local institutions, and under the inspiration of sectional
pride. This is all wrong. All Union soldiers should fare alike in the camps
and in the hospitals. The people should contribute to the relief of the
b ederal army as a whole, without distinction of States or sections. To
carry out this plan is the design of the United States Sanitary Commission,
with its several branches and numerous agents. Hence, General
Grant has determined that hereafter no special supplies shall have free
transportation, but those only intrusted for promiscuous use; and that
these latter shall be forwarded by the Sanitary Commission alone on their
boats, and shall be distributed only by their agents. This gives unity
and simplicity to this class of operations, and confines responsibility to
well known parties. Simply adding that General Rosecrans has adopted
somewhat similar measures in the department under his command, I
enclose a copy of the order referred to, and remain,

Yours, truly, W. W. PATTON.

p. S. _ The steamer New Dunleith has been set apart, by Government,

for the purpose mentioned in General Grant’s order, and will be despatched
from Cairo, by the Sanitary Commission, about once in two weeks,
stopping to land supplies at all points at which there are troops.

GEN. GRANT’S ORDERS.

Headquarters Department of Tenn.,
Young’s Point, La., March , 1863.

Special Order , No. 86.

1. The Quartermaster’s Department will provide and furnish a suitable
steamboat, to be called the “ United States Sanitary Store Boat,” and
put the same in charge of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, to be used by
it exclusively for the conveyance of goods calculated to prevent disease,
and supplemental to the Government supply of stores for the relief of

the sick and wounded. „

2. No person will be allowed to travel on said boat except officers ot

the army and navy, (and they only on permits from their proper com¬
manding officers,) discharged soldiers, and employees of said bamtary
Commission, (and no goods whatever for trading or commercial purposes
will be carried on said boat,) and no goods will be taken for individuals,
or with any conditions which will prevent them being delivered to those

most needing them in the army or navy. . >

3. The contents of all packages to be shipped on said U. bamtary
store boat, will be inspected before shipment, unless an invoice of their
contents has been received, the correctness of which is assured by the
signature of some person of known loyalty and integrity. . A statement,
showing what goods have been placed on board at each trip, will be sent
to the Medical Director of the department at these headquarters. .

4 A weekly statement will be made, by the said Sanitary Commission,
to the department of the Medical Director, showing what sanitary
supplies have been issued by said Commission, and to whom issued.

5. All orders authorizing the free transportation of sanitary stores
from Cairo south, on boats other than the one herein provided for are
hereby rescinded. By order MAJ. GEN. IT. S. GR i

John A. Rawlins,

Asst. Adjt. General.

Headquarters Department of the Tenn.,
Young’s Point, La., March 1863.

Special Order , No. 87 .

4 The Quartermaster’s Department will immediately provide and
furnish a sound and seaworthy barge, and fit the same up, furnishing the

necessary materials therefor, under the direction of Dr. G. L. Andrew
for the storage of U. S. Sanitary stores, and for the reception of and
providing accommodations for discharged soldiers while awaiting trans¬
portation, as well as quarters of the U. S. Sanitary agent.

The same to be under the management of the duly authorized agent
of the U. S. Sanitary Commission.

By order of MAJ. GEN. U. S. GRANT.

John A. Rawlins,

Asst. Adjt. General .

RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY OHIO LEGISLATURE, APRIL 13, 1863.

The Committee on Military Affairs having been requested to examine
into and report upon the manner in which the contributions of the people
for the comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers have been sent to the
army, made a thorough investigation of the matter, with a view to see if
any legislation was necessary to insure greater promptness and safety in
the transmission of these goods. The committee report that, though at
first there was delay, and some loss and misapplication of articles sent,
there is now no cause for attempting any change, the business being so
well done by the Sanitary Commission. The following preambles and
resolutions, drawn by Mr. Sprague, were unanimously adopted:

IT hereas, The assiduous and unremitting efforts of the ladies of this
State, in the preparation of clothing, hospital stores, and other comforts
for the army, have resulted most happily in relieving a vast amount of
suffering, and contributed largely to ameliorate the hardships to which
our brave soldiers are exposed while in arms, battling for the preserva¬
tion of the Government ; and

Whereas, The Sanitary Commission — an organization instituted and
designed as an agency for transmitting to the army, in a more efficient,
economical, and direct manner, such articles as may be contributed by the
benevolent for the comfort of our soldiers — has proven to be a valuable
auxiliary to the Government in the acccomplishment of this purpose ; and

11 hereas , These kind offices on the part of our people, either in their
individual or associate capacity, have been so important to the service as
to be altogether indispensable, and are performed voluntarily, generously,
and without recompense, other than that which flows from the conscious¬
ness of doing a kind action, and merit at the hands of this body a public
recognition ; therefore

Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the thanks
of this body are due, and are hereby tendered to the ladies of our State,

as individuals, or in their associate capacity as Soldiers’ Aid Societies or
otherwise, for their laudable and most praiseworthy efforts in relief of the
wants and necessities of our patriotic soldiers ; that the energy and self-
sacrificing devotion manifested by this class of our citizens are worthy of
and do receive our highest admiration; that the importance of this work
is such that we would sincerely deplore any decline in the zeal and
determination which have hitherto so eminently distinguished this move¬
ment, until the want that exists shall be fully met and satisfied ; and in
the name of thousands of noble and patriotic men who are exposed to
hardships, toils, and perils, in maintaining our cherished institutions, we
solicit continued exertions in their behalf.

Resolved , That in the Sanitary Commission we recognize an institution
eminently qualified to accomplish the object had in view in its organiza¬
tion, to wit: to be an auxiliary to the Government, supplementing its
efforts in providing for the comforts of the army, by procuring and trans¬
mitting delicacies and medical stores for the sick, clothing and provisions
for the needy, and whatever else is calculated to soothe, to comfort, and to
bless; which undertakes as a kind friend and companion to follow the
soldier in his marches, administering to him, in sickness or health, the
bounty of his friends or of a benevolent public; cheering, consoling, and
sustaining him when the shock of battle has left him wounded and faint¬
ing upon the field; as an angel of mercy appearing to remove him to a
place of shelter, where his wounds may* be dressed and remedies applied
for his recovery; or, if death at once should close his suffering and
existence, to insure him a decent and respectful burial ; if disabled in
battle or broken in health, requiring his discharge from the service, far
from friends and destitute of means, which volunteers to furnish him
advice and assistance, and to provide him in the Soldiers’ Home a resting
place until he can be safely conveyed to his family and friends. We can
but admire the humane and generous spirit which prompted and sustained
this movement, and deem it proper to extend to all who co-operate in this
noble undertaking the well-earned tribute of the thanks of this General
Assembly, for the zeal, energy, and good results which have attended its
prosecution in the past, and most cordially commend it to the kind
consideration and confidence of the public, in the hope that its good fruits
in the future may be even more abundant.

Resolved , That the Governor be requested to transmit copies of this
preamble and resolutions to the several Soldiers’ Aid Societies and
Branches of the Sanitary Commission in this State.

REMARKS OF GEN. BUTLER, AT LOWELL.

Gen. Butler, without further introduction, came forward and said :
“lam happy, my fellow-citizens, to bear testimony, from personal
knowledge, to the efficient, economical, charitable, and kindly aid received
by the soldiers in the Department of the Gulf from the Sanitary Com¬
mission ; and I am very glad to unite with you in aiding that most noble
charity, which, I believe, has been efficiently administered everywhere.
Certain it is, I do know, that it has alleviated much suffering in the
hospitals and among the sick in the Department of the Gulf. Its charities
there were of immense value to us ; and to it, for its many features worthy
of commendation, is to be awarded the praise of that Department, as well
as that of many others, I doubt not. But of this I speak from knowledge,
that no soldier wanted the proper medical attendance and comforts of the
hospital during my command there ; and therefore I say again, I am glad
that, from the patronage which this charity has received here, the Com¬
mission will obtain very material aid.”

KITCHEN GARDENS FOR THE HOSPITALS.

Lo meet the wants of vegetable food, present and prospective, in the
hospitals of the Army of the Cumberland, the Sanitary Commission has
secured the establishment of two kitchen gardens of twenty acres each,
one at Nashville and the other at Murfreesboro — has furnished seed to
stock them, and has obtained from the military and medical authorities
the requisite assistance to provide for their care and maintenance.

LETTER FROM I)R. WOODWARD.

Dr. J. S. Newberry :

Park Barracks, Louisville, Ky.,
December 31, 1862.

Dear Sir After the short interview with you this morning which it
was my pleasure to have, I have thought I could not more appro¬
priately close the year than by bearing a willing, grateful testimony to
the great good which has been done by the Sanitary Commission during
the past year, as it has come under my own knowledge.

Immediately after the battle ot Belmont, Missouri, in November, 1860,
was fi^t I knew much of the workings of the Sanitary Commission.
At that time, Dr. Aigner was in Cairo ; and learning of the great want
of sanitary stores, he caused a supply to be forwarded to the various
hospitals where our wounded were.

After the battle of Fort Donelson, there was great destitution among
the soldiers, and without the aid of the Sanitary Commission much
suffering must have ensued, and many lives been lost, which by the
aid of their supplies were saved. It was while our army lay before
Corinth that I was enabled to see the amount of good which the Com¬
mission was doing. The 22d regiment of Illinois took part in all the
fights and skirmishes on the left of the lines, at and near Farmington,
Mississippi. Here, on the 9th of May, our whole brigade lost their
knapsacks, and not only their extra clothing, but very many their over¬
coats, blankets, and coats, they having been left on the edge of a piece of
woods, just before entering the fight, and as we were driven back by
the greatly superior force of the enemy, were not able to recover them.

I had, at that time, five large tents crowded with sick and wounded, the
most of them without a change of shirts and drawers. Thus they lay
in the blood-soaked clothes in which they fell, and there were no quar¬
termaster’s stores available, as the whole transportation of the army was
required to bring forward rations, forage, and munitions of war. We
had nothing but army rations for our sick, and dysentery and diarrhoea
were very prevalent. At this juncture I learned that there was a supply
at Hamburg, and I immediately sent my hospital steward with an ambu¬
lance, over the worst roads possible to conceive of, with a letter to the
gentlenfen having the stores in charge, stating my wants. In three
days he returned with shirts, socks, and drawers, loaf sugar, tea, crack¬
ers, dried beef, oranges, canned and dried fruit, farina, pearl barley,
and indeed with every needed article. No moments of my life were
fraught with more pleasure than when these things were taken into the
hospitals and distributed. As the bloody, filthy clothing was replaced
by that which was clean and comfortable, the tears came to many an
eye, and “thank God” came from many a lip. Most of the articles
were from Ohio and Illinois, as indicated by the stamps “ Soldiers’ Aid
Soc. Northern Ohio,” “ Soldiers’ Aid Soc. Chicago,” &c., and one large
package from “Indianapolis, Indiana.”

Soon after I was assigned to these barracks, where we had the debris
of Buel’s army after the fight at Perryville, there was so much destitu¬
tion among them that I wrote to Judge Skinner, of Chicago, asking for
aid, and the response was seven large boxes and a barrel. I distributed
over 200 shirts, as many pairs of drawers, and 75 quilts. When I wrote
to him I was not aware that there was a branch of the United States
Commission in this city, but before the articles arrived I learned the
fact, and made application to you and received a good supply of shirts,
drawers, &c. I have thus been enabled to distribute from these and

other sources of supply, 90 quilts and blankets, over 400 shirts, 900
pairs of drawers, 108 pairs of socks, and various other articles, to men
who, from loss of descriptive rolls and other causes, could not be other¬
wise supplied. While our wards were full of sick, especially typhoid
cases and dysentery, the “ Soldiers’ Aid Society of Northern Ohio”
sent some boxes of fresh grapes.

Whether with the regiment in the field, or laboring in hospitals, I have
always found the agents of the Sanitary Commission the most efficient
friends of the surgeon and the soldier, and to none can I more warmly ten¬
der my thanks for encouragement and aid; and while I review the year just
past with all its incidents on the field, in the camp and hospital, I thank
God for all His goodness, and particularly that he put in the hearts of
the friends of humanity to establish the “Sanitary Commission;” and
pray that His blessing may rest upon and cheer them in their good work
through the coming new year,

I am, my dear sir, yours, very truly,

B. WOODWARD,

Surgeon 22 d Regiment III . Vols.

LETTER FROM DR. DUCACHET.

U. S. Army General Hospital,

Georgetown Seminary,
February 22, 1863.

Wm. H. Hadley, Esq.

Sir In reply to the interrogations contained in yours of the 11th
inst. , I would state that an experience of many months has proved to
me that State distinctions have done, and are still doing, much harm in
the army. Consequently, “individual visitors and dispensers,” who
observe these distributions do more harm than good.

The same objection holds good in regard to State agencies, when they
confine their bounties strictly to their own volunteers.

Any society, or agency, established for the relief of the sick of our
armies, should, in my opinion, cast their contributions into one common
stock, to be distributed to any suffering soldier who needs the articles
which may have been provided.

The Sanitary Commission, which is such a depository, from which
supplies and delicacies can be obtained simply by asking, is by far the
best channel through which supplies can be conveyed to the wounded and
suffering.

The evils of keeping up State distinctions are so glaring, and are
doing so much harm, that I cannot let this opportunity pass without
expressing myself freely on this subject. The Pennsylvania or Ohio
volunteers are not supposed to be fighting for the benefit of those
States alone, but belong to one grand army, whose object is to suppress
this unholy rebellion, and to restore to us peace and union ; and if suc¬
cessful, each State, from Maine to Georgia, will be alike benefited.

I have seen Ohio ladies go into a ward filled with wounded after the
last Bull Bun fight, for the purpose of distributing delicacies, and pick
out the soldiers from their own State, without even a kind word to those
of other States. Is this right? No, sir. Set your face against such
distributions, as I have, and ever will while this war lasts, and if you
have a loaf to give, let all share alike.

What would you think of a surgeon who would go into his wards
after a battle, and pick out the soldiers from his own State, and admin¬
ister first to their necessities ? Would you not say that such a man
should be instantly dismissed the service? Would such a thing be tol¬
erated for a moment ? In many cases nourishment and clothing are
more needed than medical and surgical aid, and if distinctions are wrong
in one case, they are equally so in the other; yet it has been done.

I entered the army to do my duty to the whole, and am a Pennsyl¬
vanian, yet I know no distinctions. All suffer alike, and all will ever
receive at my hands like attentions. Some patients are more attractive
in their manners than others, and it is hard sometimes to refrain from
showing preferences, yet I have always striven against it, and, I think,
succeeded. Your letter did not perhaps call for all I have said, but you
will forgive me if, in my enthusiasm to urge upon others what I believe
to be right, I have said anything out of place.

Respectfully,

H. W. PUCACHET,

Surgeon in Charge.

TO ALL WHO HAVE FRIENDS IN THE ARMY.

Soldiers’ Aid Societies, clergymen, editors and others, are respectfully
requested to aid in disseminating the following notice, which is of interest
to all who have friends in the army :

DIRECTORY OF THE HOSPITALS.

The Sanitary Commission has made arrangements for supplying
information gratuitously, with regard to patients in the United States
General Hospitals, at the following points, (others will be added :)

Eastern Department. —For information, address “Office Sanitary
Commission , Washington .”

Washington, D. C.
Georgetown, D. C.
Alexandria, Va.
Baltimore, Md.

Annapolis, Md. Frederick City, Md.

Annapolis Junction, Md. Fairfax, Va.
Cumberland, Md. Aquia Creek, Va.

Point Lookout, Md. York, Pa.

Philadelphia Department. — For information, address “ Office San¬
itary Commission, No. 1,307 Chesnut Street ”

Philadelphia, Pa. Germantown, Pa. Reading Pa.

Chester, Pa. Chesnut Hill, Pa. Harrisburg, Pa.

New York Department.— For information, address “Office Women's
Central Union, No. 10 Cooper Institute .”

New York, N. Y. New Haven, Conn. Burlington, Vt.

Albany, N. Y. Portsmouth Grove, R. I. Brattleboro, Vt.

Newark, N. J. Boston, Mass.

Western Department.— For information, address “Office Sanitary
Commission, Louisville, Ky .”

Clarksville, Tenn.

Jackson, Tenn.
Murfreesboro, Tenn.

La Grange, Tenn.

Gallatin, Tenn.

Nashville, Tenn.

Vicksburg, Miss.

Corinth, Miss.

Helena, Ark.

Grafton, Va.

Point Pleasant, Va.
Parkersburg, Va.
Clarksburg, Va.
Charlestown, Va.

Columbus, 0.
Cleveland, 0.
Camp Denison, 0.
Gallipolis, 0.
Cincinnati, 0.
Quincy, Ill.

Cairo, Ill.

Mound City, Ill.
Jeffersonville, Ind.
Evansville, Ind.
New Albany, Ind.
Saint Louis, Mo.
Ironton, Mo.

Rolla, Mo.
Springfield, Mo.

Keokuk, Iowa.
Davenport, Iowa.
Paducah, Ky.
Bardstown, Ky.
Lebanon, Ky.
Columbus, Ky.
Columbia, Ky.
Louisville, Ky.
Covington, Ky.
Lexington, Ky.
Danville, Ky.
Perryville, Ky.
Bowling Green, Ky.
Memphis, Tenn.

Information will, under ordinary circumstances, be given to any one
applying for it, in answer to any or all of the following inquiries. If the
application is by letter, the answer will be sent by return of mail ; if in
person it will be answered at once :

1. Is - [giving name and regiment, and state where and when

last heard of] at present in the hospitals of - ?

2. If so, what is his proper address?

3. What is the name of the surgeon or chaplain of the hospital ?

4. If not in hospital at present, has he recently been in hospital ?

5. If so, did lie die in hospital, and at what date?

0. If recently discharged from hospital, was he discharged from
service ?

7. If not, what were his orders on leaving?

More specific informatibn as to the condition of any patient in the
hospitals will be furnished in the shortest possible time after a request
to do so is received.

The office of the Directory will be open daily from 8 o’clock, a. m.,
to 8 o’clock, p. m., and in urgent cases, applicants ringing the door bell
will be received at any hour of the night.

The Sanitary Commission, under special authority from the President
of the United States, maintains an extensive system of agencies for
securing the safe conveyance to, and distribution of, goods put in its
charge for the sick and wounded, at points where they are most wanted.
It operates with equal care and generosity at all points — at New Orleans
and at Washington, before Vicksburg and at Nashville ; its distributions
being governed by a comparison of the wants of the [patients in all
cases. To ascertain the relative character of these wants in a trust¬
worthy manner, and to secure an equitable distribution and honest use
of the goods distributed, besides the unpaid services of the members of
the Commission, twenty physicians of high professional and moral char¬
acter, and more than fifty lay-agents, are employed, under pecuniary
securities for responsible and efficient service. The cost of these
arrangements has thus far been about 3 per centum of the value of the
goods distributed. The Commission has not been able to obtain
authentic evidence of losses, miscarriage, or misappropriations, to the
value of one dollar in ten thousand, of goods which have been once
received at its shipping depots. The following is a list of these depots,
to which auxiliary societies, and all disposed to aid the sick and wounded
without reference to States or localities, but simply to their relative
necessity for assistance, are invited to send their offerings :

SANITARY COMMISSION BRANCH DEPOTS.

No. 22 Summer street, Boston, Mass.
No. 10 Third Avenue, New York.

No. 1,30? Chesnut street, Philadelphia.
Cor. Vine and Sixth streets Cincinnati, 0.
No. 95 Bank street, Cleveland, 0.

Madison street, Chicago, 111.

No. 2 Adams’ Block, Buffalo, N. Y.
No. 59 Fourth street, Pittsburg, Pa.
Columbus, Ohio.

The Commission receives no pecuniary aid whatever from the Gov¬
ernment, and is wholly dependent on the voluntary contributions of the
public for the means of sustaining its operations. Contributions to the

treasury are solicited, and may be transmitted to George T. Strong
Lsq., Treasurer, 68 Wall street, New York.

The names of the following gentlemen, commissioners of the President
of the United States, are pledged to the public for the economy, integrity
and efficiency with which whatever is entrusted to the Sanitary Com-
mission will be administered :

H. W. BELLOWS, D. D.

A. E. SHIRAS, U. S. A.
WOLCOTT GIBBS, M. D.
ELISHA HARRIS. M. D.

Rt. Rev. T. M. CLARK, D. D.
Hon. MARK SKINNER,
Hon. SCHUYLER

A. D. BACHE, L. L. D.

R. C. WOOD, M. D., U. S. A.

S. G. HOWE, M. D.

GEO. T. STRONG, Esq.

G. W. CULLUM, U. S. A.

W. H. VAN BUREN, M. D.
C. R. AGNEW, M. D.
HORACE BINNEY, Jr., Esq
Hon. R. W. BURNETT,

Prof. FAIRMAN ROGERS,

-u-vjji. U WOXLiL XX JtLUJU l ,

Rev. JOHN HEYWOOD,

COLFAX, FRED. LAW OLMSTED, Esq. J. S. NEWBERRY, M. D.

Prof. J. W. Draper,
Dr. E. Krackowizer.
Prof. Alden March,.

Prof. A. Jacobi .

Dr. C. A. Terry .

Prof. Z. Pitciier .

Prof. S. G. Armor...

.Annapolis and Frederick.
.District of Philadelphia.

11 New York.

<c New England.
..Port Royal and Newberne.
.District of Memphis.

t i <<

Reports have been received from the following gentlemen,
viz.: On the hospitals at —

Louisville, by Dr. Joshua B. Flint.

Baltimore, Dr. Edmund Fowler.

Philadelphia, Drs. A. A. Gould and R. M. Hodges.

Fortress Monroe, etc., Drs. Minot and Abbot.

District of Louisville, Drs. Buckingham and Gay.

« Nashville, Dr. W. E. Coale.

« Columbia, Drs. Morland, Foster, and Ayer;

and they are herewith transmitted.

They exhibit the faithful industry and intelligence of the
Inspectors; and several of them, especially those from New
York, by Dr. Winslow Lewis; Philadelphia, by Drs. Hodges
and Gould; Nashville, by Dr. W. E. Coale; the District of
Louisville, by Drs. Gay and Buckingham; and Fortress
Monroe, by Drs. Minot and Abbot: an exactness of detail,
and an elaborate completeness, which leave nothing to he
desired. Considering the circumstances under which these
gentlemen have been called to serve, we may congratulate
the Commission certainly on its success in this. One of the
Inspectors, Dr. Buckingham, writes to the General Secretary
as follows: “The fact is, that both Gay and myself were
pretty well used up. The papers (reports) which we sent
can give no adequate account of the labor to one who is not
accustomed to the work.” This remark can be fully appre¬
ciated by many of our inspectors on this special service, who
have undertaken, amid the fatigues and inconveniences of
travel, at its close, to reduce to order and put into writing
the notes and various experiences and observations of the

day.

Although the Inspectors report great detects in some of
the hospitals of the Southwest, from the difficulty of obtain¬
ing suitable buildings in all cases ; from the too small number
of attendants, and from the embarrassments of transportation
in localities so near to the seat of hostilities, and where so
many of the inhabitants are disloyal, or lukewarm; their
testimony is uniform as to their very cordial reception by
the medical directors and the hospital surgeons, who seem
not to have lost their equanimity under many trying circum¬
stances, or to have been discouraged by the obstacles and
embarrassments abounding in a district in the very focus of
the war, and but just relieved from a state of siege, with a
very large number of sick and wounded suddenly thrust upon
them; and which would have appalled or paralyzed men who
were less devoted, less capable, or less courageous than they,
but which were proved to be only the stimuli needed to bring
into active operation all their best sentiments and energies.

A few extracts from these reports will best illustrate these
statements. They are taken from many others equally
pertinent. Dr. Minot says; “As the result of our tour of
inspection we are much gratified at being able to say, that
we have found, on the whole, the hospitals we have visited
in a most creditable condition.’’ “We were uniformly
received with courtesy, and the utmost freedom of inquiry
and examination was accorded to us. Feeling that our
inspection was, to some extent, a matter of suffrance, we
wish to put on record our acknowledgments of the gentle¬
manly and hospitable treatment that we met with every¬
where.”

Dr. Coale, speaking of one of the hospitals in his circuit,
says: “I must acknowledge how much I am indebted to the
surgeon-in-charge for his carefulness, fulness, and minute¬
ness in furnishing me with the required information, and his
genial courtesy in doing it;” and of several other medical
officers: “These gentlemen offered me every facility in their
power for prosecuting my enquiries, and my relations with
them were most pleasant and cordial.”

As to the difficulties to he encountered and overcome, the
following will give us some idea: “Water has to be brought
a mile and a half, from the river.” “The washing cannot
be done for the amount allowed by Government.” “The
medical men are much too few in number, and far too much
overworked.”

“The most urgent and instant want, not only of the places
I have officially visited, but of every military station in the
West where I have been, is— Hospitals. This want was
pressed upon me very forcibly, not only by my own observa¬
tions, but by officers and soldiers, and not less by civilians.
Many and bitter were the comparisons made by these several
classes of our people upon the different treatment of the
East and the West; and I could not deny the justice of their
complaints that, while hundreds of thousands of dollars had
been spent for hospitals, with all the best means and
appliances to boot, for ameliorating the condition of the
sick and wounded soldiers in the East, not one cent had
been distributed for a proper hospital West of the Allegheny
mountains.”* “In looking back at those pages devoted to
what I found at Bowling Green, it will be at once seen that
I have not described a single hospital, or a house which could
readily be converted into one.”

The most suitable building at Louisville, the State Blind
Asylum, is thus spoken of by Drs. Buckingham and Gay:
“This large four story building, with a high basement,
on high open ground by itself, and furnished with every
convenience for a hospital, the best adapted in every respect
of any building yet seen, has just been vacated by order of
the Secretary of War.” “ It seems wrong that this magnifi¬
cent building, with all the conveniences for at least four
hundred men, which the Government has already spent so
much money to protect, and for which damages to the amount
of $40,000 have already been claimed, should be abandoned,
when it is evident that no damage has been done. Fourteen

* Since this was written, orders have been issued for the construction of a very
large hospital at Nashville, on the plan of the “ Chestnut Hill,” at Philadelphia.

or fifteen persons, now elsewhere well accomnnvW. i
not to be permitted to exclude thousands whose comforTfnd
safety can no otherwise be provided for ”* nd

To show how bravely these discouraging circumst™
are met by the medical men, I extract the following pa “ e
from the previous report.-f “The surgeon t of Ho •* i S
2 and 3 (Ka.hviU.) had

in two college buildings, which, with the grounds, had until
within eight days been a camp for a brigade of cavalrv the

haTf8 7hlf been 6Ven Stabled in the buildings In
that time he had policed off 280 loads of manure from the

louses am grounds, and deposited them a half mile distant •

It to make all the soup for the two buildings; had built a

bedsnfilledVern riVy’ 100 f6et l0"S; had had a11 ^e 455
beds filled with hay: and all this without a requisition (for

I mcZa 7 beeU USeless>) ^raging for all the material-

Surelv I ne P “ C0Rditi°n °f Nasbville at that time.
y never saw more energy and ingenuity crowned by

a consummate amount of executive abilities, and all covered
No. 2, °aSe ^ H°Spital

cr rr n ^

imperfect mat ° "'T' T’* lnSenuit7> out of scant and

men The d I'9 7 meS8e8’ Puddin8s> &o., for the

house wl e t0r i?ad T6Cted by hlS convalescents a bake¬
house, where excellent bread was baked. The iron oven

used was made for field purposes, and struck me as beino-

very excellent. I saw nothing like it in the Army of thf

*MS. Reports, fol. XIII, No. 38.
t MS. Reports, fol. XV, No. 3.

ifnr‘5?lIy’ Assistant Surgeon, 1st Wisconsin.

II Dr. Selby.

Potomac. I ought to add, in justice to Dr. S., that he
personally retook this on the battle-field after it had been
captured by the Confederates, who had tried to render it
useless by firing shot through it. Where the Surgeon had
control of the grounds in the vicinity, they were thoroughly
policed, and the sinks were provided for, as regards hygiene
and decency.”*

Considering the West, especially the Southwest, a very
important field, and having received no report from Dr.
Flint, of Louisville, who had been there inspecting under
the appointment of the Committee, I detailed, on the first
of December, to that region, and to the Nashville district,
three very competent Inspectors ; and to their reports, from
which I have extracted above, I especially refer. I have
already arranged for another inspection at these points
during the ensuing month.

I have, in accordance with the announced policy of the
Committee, felt obliged to prefer Eastern Inspectors for this
purpose j and have also, for the same reason, invited oui
Western brethren to inspect at the Last. Experience, and
the information I have derived from these reports, and from
personal interviews with the writers, as well as from the note
of the Western Secretary, which your chairman was good
enough to transmit to me, have satisfied me fully of the
wisdom of this arrangement. I have, therefore, taken
great pains to send into this field, and shall continue to do
so, gentlemen from this part of the country, whose general
intelligence, weight of character and loyalty, ought to make
them anywhere and everywhere welcome.

We hope, therefore, that this mutual interchange of the
Special Inspectors of the General Hospitals of the Army
will not only prove mutually agreeable, but that it will tend
to foster that true spirit of national loyalty to the Govern¬
ment, which, laying aside personal and local prejudices,
should count all men as its friends who in this most effective
way have rallied to its support ; and that our brethren at the

*MS. Reports, fol. XV. No. 2.

West will not, on that account, receive with tha iflo , . .
those who, like the Magi of old Xu W ™ “rf“hty

with their good gifts and the frankincense of good fellowshS’

from the direction of the rising sun. ' lip'

The District of New Orleans is the only one which will not
be under inspection during the next two or three weeks
Th 0“lssion is less to he regretted from the fact that’
under the energetic administration of the general lately in
command of that department, its sanitary- condition has
been so well maintained that the number of sick there is not

vuy arge. I have the offer of an excellent Inspector for
that district m the month of April.

. Having fo“n,d that of the Inspectors prefer to visit

in company, I have, when I have been able to do so rnTde
that arrangement for them; and I am certain that the
conjoined observations of two Inspectors for a fortnight are
ten more satisfactory, for many reasons, than those of a
sing e Inspector, for a longer comparative period.

I am happy to he able to say that the knowledge of the

2tTa natT °f °Ur rep0rtS ; the certainty that any
I ounds of complaint stated in them will be made known

him to H ’ v, l6ad °f tlle medical department, and by
him to those whom they most concern ; that our whole desire

Ul and not t0 embarrass the surgeons in charge- to

”72 "7 ">• : t«™ been eulcte.i

make our path of duty so far, not only one of present
b“* ~

Respectfully submitted :

HENRY G. CLARK,

Inspector -in- Chief.

■

SAj^ itaky commission.

No. OG.

GENERAL REGULATIONS

FOR THE

?PLY OBPARTMCEin

i L o

1. Plan proposed for the organization of the Department
ot Supplementary Supply.

II. It's function defined.

III. To consist of four Sections and a Secretary.

1^ • Field of each Section defined.

A . Each Section to appoint a Superintendent.

A I. Duty of Superintendent defined.

A II. Duty of Sections with reference to distribution of
supplies defined.

A III. Duty ot Sections with reference to reserve of supplies
defined.

IX. Duty of Sections with reference to issue of goods on
occasions of emergency.

X. Duty ot sections with reference to popular battle-field
relief movements.

XI. Hov Sections may voluntarily reinforce one another.

XII. Duty of Superintendents with reference to Monthly
Accounts and A ouchers defined.

XIII. Duty ot Sections with reference to Monthly Accounts
and A ouchers defined.

XIA . Duty ot the Secretary of the Department defined.

XA . Special account of transfers provided for.

XA I. Duty ot Secretary with respect to the Accounts of
the Department defined.

XVII. Duty of the Secretary with respect to Semi-Annual
Reports defined.

XVIII. Associate members of Supply Sections.

XIX. No agent of the Commission to work for others.

XX. Inspectors of the Commission not to be employed m
the Supply Department.

XXI. No agent to be employed in Supply Department with
the Army, except under certain credentials and
engagements.

XXII. Duplicate of these to be deposited at Central Office,
triplicate at the Office of Section.

XXIII. Monthly roster of each section to be deposited at
Central Office.

XXIV. Evidence of loyalty and trustworthiness of Superin¬
tendent to be deposited at Central Office.

REGULATIONS.

Functions de- The business of the Supply Department shall be
fined' to provide, superintend, and recommend to the
people arrangements by which voluntary contri¬
butions intended to supplement the Government
provision for the sick and wounded, may be made
available without injury to the efficiency, of the
Government provision, or interference with the
requirements of discipline, or embarrassment to
military operations.

How com- The Department shall consist of a Secretary and
posed< of a body of Commissioners, to be hereafter named,
who shall be divided into four sections.

Atlantic Sec- One section to be named the “ Atlantic Supply
tion* Section,” shall collect goods in all parts of the
New England States, except those parts from which

goods will be more conveniently and economically
collected at New York than at Boston; and shall
transport and distribute goods to those portions of
the army, best reached by shipment on the Atlantic.

Another section, to be named the “ Eastern Eastern Cen-
Central Supply Section/’ shall collect goods in the tral Section-
region between New England and the Atlantic, on
the one side, and the Alleghenies on the other,
with that portion of the State of New York, from
which goods can conveniently and economically be
drawn to the city of New York, and shall transport
and distribute goods to those parts of the army
most conveniently reached by land transportation
east of the Allegheny Mountains, or through the
waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

A thiid section, to be named the uAYestern Western Cen-

Central Supply Section,” shall collect goods between tral Section-

the district last defined and that portion of the
country from which goods can be collected at Cairo
or Chicago more conveniently and economically
than at Louisville, and shall transport and distri¬
bute goods to those portions of the army most
conveniently reached from this district by land or
water conveyance east of the Tennessee River.

The fourth to be named the “ Mississippi Supply Mississippi
Section,” shall collect goods in the district west- Section-
ward of the last defined , and transport and distribute
goods to those portions of the army most con¬
veniently reached by the Tennessee River or by
routes of communication westward thereof.

Each Section shall appoint a Superintendent, Superintend-
who shall be responsible for the transportation and v?dedPfor"
distribution of all supplementary hospital supplies
coming under the control of the Section.

All persons to be employed in the transportation Their duties
or distribution of these hospital supplies, shall be defincd-
appointed directly by the Superintendent, or by the
Section, upon his nomination. He shall define

their duties ; they shall be responsible to him, and
he shall be responsible for them.

Authority of Each Section shall establish such rules for the
SUstiimitsnd distribution of hospital goods, for the supplementary
supply of the forces of the United States within
its own field, as it may deem best, provided that
no goods be issued, (except in cases of great
emergency, as after battles, or upon the order of
Vouchers for the Secretary of the Department,) without vouchers
lssueS; obtained for the same, testifying that a competent
surgeon has become responsible for an honest and
judicious distribution of them, and that in those
cases where goods are issued, and it is impracticable
Record of to obtain vouchers, a record shall be made and
1 vouched! furnished to the Section, of the circumstances
justifying the issue.

It shall be the duty of each Section to maintain

Reserve sup- reserves of such goods as are likely to be wanted
lilies ^ v

Battle-field immediately after battles, either within the field of

distribution. act*ve 0perati0ns, or as near thereto as will be safe.

In cases of battles, or unusual calamities, these
and other supplies may be distributed when neces¬
sary to save life, or relieve suffering, without the
vouchers ordinarily required, though this evidence
of judicious distribution shall not be neglected to
be obtained where it is possible to secure it without
inhumanity. It shall also be the duty of each
Sections to section on such occasions to lead in, and accom-
lKlar rdiefU" modate its operations to all popular movements of
movements, relief, so far as this can be done without disregard
of the known wishes of officers personally responsi¬
ble for the judicious care of those needing relief.
Such extraordinary action may be extended to other
departments than its own, care being taken to
harmonize and subordinate its operation as much
as possible, to those of the Section more directly
responsible in behalf of the Commission.

Monthly Ac- The Superintendent of Supplies for each Section
perintendent" shall render an account, monthly, to the Section,

of the goods which have come under his control
since his previous report ; the society or individuals
from whom they have been received, and the kinds
and quantities of each kind received from each.

He shall also, monthly, render a specific account
of all goods issued, and shall therewith exhibit
vouchers for the same, or a statement, showing
the circumstances which justified the issue of all
goods which have been issued for which he is unable
to present vouchers.

A Monthly Statement shall be made by each MonthiyState-
Section, signed or countersigned by its chairman ™0entofSe(>
and sent to the Central Office of the Commission’
showing the amount of each kind of goods issued’
for which examined and approved vouchers are
held, and for which satisfactory written explana¬
tions of special occasions for issue have been received
respectively, and the total amount issued from the
Section.

The Secretary of the Supply Department shall Power and
be ea? officio a member of each Section of that % 0£SecV
Department ; he shall meet and confer with the ° ™entPart
members of each section at frequent intervals, and
with the several Superintendents. He shall
examine their books and accounts, and instruct
those who keep them to adopt methods, so far as
he may think desirable, of a uniform character ;
and his instructions in this respect shall not he
overruled by the Sections. He shall also visit at
intervals the different stations of distribution, and
.secure information, which will enable him to judge
of thecomjiarative degrees of need for supplementary
supplies of all kinds in all parts of the army. He
shall endeavor to cause special deficiencies in any
part of the army to be met, by advising the proper
Section to stimulate the supply in the special
direction required.

But if this action will not, in his judgment, he
adequate to the duty of the Commission in the

case, as an equalizer of* the supplementary supply
of the whole country, with reference to the wants
of all parts of the army, he shall call upon any
other Section, whose supply of the article wanted
is known to he greater relatively to the demand
of the portion of the army immediately correspond¬
ing with that section.

Account of A special account shall he kept hy each section
Transfer. tpe g00qs s0 removed from or received into the

custody of its Superintendent.

Semi-Annual On the first of May and the first of November,

Stsaete“tanry?f of each year, the Secretary of the Department shall
supply to the Central Office of the Commission a
consolidated statement of all accounts which have
heen provided for in each section, for the half year
ending one month before these dates respectively.
This account shall exhibit a summary of the kinds
and the quantity of each kind of goods received,
issued, and remaining on hand in each Section.

Semi-Annual A General Report upon the affairs of the Depart-
SeecPretary°f ment shall he made at the same time hy the Secre¬
tary, which shall subsequently he presented to the
Commission. This report shall state wherein the
Department has fulfilled its assigned purpose, and
wherein it has failed to do so, and through what
fault of the system or through whose neglect or
mismanagement the failure has occurred. He shall
at the same time present in a distinct form for
action, a statement of the legislation of the Board
which he may deem to he required for this
Department.

Supply Agents No agent of the Sanitary Commission with the

to thdrTuti^ army, after the Sections shall have heen completely
organized, shall allow his time to he occupied, or
take any responsibilities about supplementary
supplies which have not heen entrusted unreserv¬
edly to the Commission’s agency of distribution.

Inspectors not From and after the first of August, proximo, no
Agents PPly Inspector of the Sanitary Commission shall he

employed in collecting, forwarding, storing, or
distributing supplies, nor in superintendence of
those so engaged.

No one except members of the Commission, and Credentials of
the Secretary and Superintendents of the Supply Supply Ag’ts-
Department of the Commission, shall he authorized
to visit the army or to act in any way with the
army in the name of the Commission, for the
conveyance, care of or distribution of supplies,
except he hears with him credentials after the
following form :

“ To all whom it may concern : The hearer [here
giving his name] with regard to whom I have
received the testimony of persons whom I know to
he honorable men and good and loyal citizens of
the United States, that he is and has been a thor¬
oughly loyal citizen of the United States, is
appointed in behalf of the Sanitary Commission
under authority from the Secretary of War [here
state nature of appointment, with the date and
signature of Superintendent].”

“ The above appointment is accepted by me, and
I hereby solemnly engage that while holding this
appointment, I will honor and sustain all require¬
ments of discipline in the Army and Navy of the
United States , that I will refrain from giving
information or repeating reports, or expressing
surmises, by letter or otherwise, to any persons
not connected with the Army or Navy, with regard
to any movements or operations of the Army or
Navy; the strength of posts or of bodies of the
Army and Navy; about sickness or mortality in
the Army or Navy, or about anything whatever
concerning the Army or Navy, which I do not
know to have been otherwise made generally
public , I also engage to refrain from giving
information or expressing ojnnions calculated to
create or confirm distrust of the arrangements of
the Government, or unfavorable to the character

of its officers and agents ; I also engage that I will
not write or communicate information for publica¬
tion in any newspaper, while I hold this appoint¬
ment; I also engage, that whenever I leave, or
am dismissed, from the service of the Sanitary
Commission, I will return the copy which I now
retain of this paper to the Superintendent from
whom I received it, or to his representative.

[date]

Signed with a full knowledge I
and understanding of the -
obligations assumed.

Attest —

Copy of Crc- Within one week of the appointment of any agent

dentials to be , i -.i , , xl A

sent to Cen- to he with, or to go to, the Army or Navy in the
trai Office. name 0f the Commission, on business of the Supply
Department, the Superintendent, by whom he is
appointed, shall send a duplicate copy of his cre¬
dentials, with his signature attached, to the Central
Office at Washington, and a triplicate to the office
of the Section under which he is employed.

Lists of'Agcnts Once a month each Superintendent of the Supply
Central Office! Department shall send to the Central Office of the
Commission a list of all persons employed by him,
or authorized by him to visit or act with the Army
or Navy, showing the character of the duties for,
and the stations at which each is employed.
Appointment Each Section shall, within one week of the
dentTo re- appointment of its Superintendent, advise the
For,te^i° Cen" Central Office of the Commission thereof, and shall
supply the Central Office with adequate testimony
of his loyalty, and qualifications as a discreet and
trustworthy man for the responsibilities imposed
upon him.

Adopted by the Commission, June 13 th, 1863.

FRED. LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary.

SANITARY COMMISSION,

ISTOi G’7’.

REPORT

ON THE

PENSION SYSTEMS,

AND

FRANCE, PRUSSIA, AUSTRIA, RUSSIA AND ITALY,

WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS UPON THE REST MEANS OF DISPOSING OF
OUR DISABLED SOLDIERS.

BY STEPHEN H. PERKINS.

NEW YORK :

Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Pkintees, 41 Nassau St., coe. JLi3ekty.

1863.

NOTE.

e attention of the Samtary Commission has been for a long while directed
to the subject of a timely provision for the soldiers disabled in the war after
peace shall be restored. The question is full of difficulties. Very little inform¬
ation or guidance is to be obtained from books. The Commission learning
during the past summer, that Mr. S. G. Perkins, of Boston, was about visiting
Europe, and being acquainted with his interest in similar questions, resolved
to avail Itself, if possible, of his talents and opportunities to collect information,
by personal visits, or otherwise, touching the administration of Invalid Hos¬
pitals, and the provision made for disabled soldiers, in Europe. Mr Perkins
accepted the appointment, and sailed soon after for France, where his investi¬
gations began. The annexed Eeport presented by him, embodies the results
of his observations in the various countries which he visited. It will be
found of interest to philanthropists and economists, and will also furnish us
with valuable practical suggestions to guide our legislation, in its ultimate
disposition of the future of our disabled soldiers.

New York, July 1st, 1863.

letter of instructions.

New Yoke, August 15tli, 1862.

Stephex G. Pekkixs, Esq. .

j)ear g;r_Xhe Sanitary Commission are much exeicis i
with the subject of the future of the disabled soldiers of this
war Thev calculate that, if it continue a year longer, not less
than a hundred thousand men, of impaired vigor, maimed or
broken in body and spirit, will be thrown on the country. Add
to this a tide of another hundred thousand men, demoralized
for civil life by military habits, and it is easy to see wnat a
trial to the order, industry, and security of society, and what a
burden to its already strained resources, there is m store for
us. It is, in our judgment, to the last degree important to
begin now, to create a public opinion which shall conduce to,
or compel the adoption of, the wisest policy on the part .of our
municipal and town governments, in respect of disaolea sol-
diers_s0 as to discourage all favor to mendicity-all allow¬
ance to any exceptional license to those who have been
soldiers — all disposition for invalids to throw themselves, any
further than is necessary, on the support and protection of
society You, who have paid so much attention to social
science, know how easily loose, indulgent and destructive
notions creep into communities, under the name and purpose of
humanity, and what temptations of a sentimental kind there
will be, to favor a policy which will undermine selt-respeet,
self-support, and the true American pride of personal mde-

pendence. , . ,1

Iu view of this, the Sanitary Commission is now studying

general subject of the proper method of dealing with our dis-

abled soldiers at the close of the war, and, as far as possible,
prior to that. The few guiding principles thus far excogitated,
appear to be these :

1. As little outside interference with natural laws and self-
help as possible.

2. As much moral and other encouragement and strengthen¬
ing of the natural reliances as possible.

3. The utmost endeavor to promote the healthy absorption of
the invalid class into the homes, and into the ordinary industry
of the country.

In opposition to these principles will be the rivalry and com¬
petition of States, in generosity to disabled soldiers — similar to
that which has appeared in running bounties to recruits up to
an excessive and injurious height; the attempt to make political
capital out of the sympathy of the public with the invalids
of the war — issuing in over-legislation and over action — with
much bad and demoralizing sentimentality — and, worst of all,
a public disposition to treat this whole class as a class with a
right to be idle, or to beg, or to claim exemption from the
ordinary rules of life.

upon. This is not a matter of mere pecuniary consideration.

It is not to save the State or National Treasury, but to encour¬
age and save the spirit of independence, to preserve the self-
respect, and the homely graces and virtues of the People on
which all the real dignity and strength of the Nation rest.

To accomplish this result — i. e., to restore the large ’propor¬
tion of all our invalids to their homes, there to live and labor
according to their strength, sustained and blessed by their own
kindred — we must have a sound, a generous, a wisely considered
pension law; and this pension law must be rid of all humiliat¬
ing or enslaving character. It must be considered as the pay¬
ment of what has been earned, and its payment should be made
regular, punctual, immediate, and with as little loss by agen¬
cies and obstructions as possible. Moreover, the right to a
pension should not rest exclusively on visible wounds. Broken
constitutions, or impaired vigor, traceable unmistakably to mili¬
tary service, should entitle to a pension.

To employ to the utmost the law of local sympathy, the dis¬
abled and invalid soldiers should be encouraged in every way
to settle in the neighborhoods from which they came, and be
thrown as much as possible on the fraternal responsibility of
their neighbors for employment and sympathetic aid. A sense
of local or communal responsibility to leave the light employ¬
ments in every village or hamlet to these invalids, should be
cherished. The emulations of towns could be depended upon
for this, were a proper start given to it by a judicious amount
of writing on the subject in the leading journals. In London,
by some recent law, one-legged or one-armed men have some
special privileges, as ticket-taker3, parcel-bearers, messengers,
&c. (I hope you will find out when abroad precisely what it
is.) I am confident that if we begin right we can induce a most
extensive and most wholesome re-absorption of the invalids of
the war into the civil life of the nation, to the actual advantage

of its affections, its patriotism, and its honest pride. But the
subject will need careful guidance.

After every thing has been done to discover and appropriate
all light forms of industry throughout the whole circle of
trades suited to maimed and invalid men, there will still re¬
main those whom the small support of a pension, eked out by
home protection or local sympathy and co-operation, will not
adequately care for. The large body of foreigners, the reckless
and unrelated, those who have hitherto been afloat, with such
as are most seriously disabled, or have least natural force to
provide for themselves— these must be collected in National
Institutions. We don’t want a vast net-work of soldiers’ poor-
houses scattered through the land, in which these brave fellows
will languish away dull and wretched lives. Nor do we want
petty State asylums, to be quarrelled about and made the sub¬
ject of party polities. We want to economize our battered
heroes, and take care of them in such a way as to maintain the
military spirit and the national pride ; to nurse the memories of
the war, and to keep in the eye of the Nation the price of its
liberties. After reducing to the smallest number this class, to
be kept in the hands of the State, how best to deal with it is
the chief problem connected with this topic ; and the principal »
sources of light are, first, general principles, and next, the ex¬
perience of other nations — for we have had next to none in our
own country.

Of the general principles, a few occur to me at once :

1. Justice and policy both demand that these Institutions
should be National, and not State Institutions. A war against
State pretensions should not end without strengthening in every
way Federal influence. This war is a struggle for National
existence. We have found a National heart, and life, and
body. Now, let us cherish it. I know that desperate efforts
will be made to build up State asylums for these invalids. Let
us judiciously discourage the idea from the start.

9. The Institutions should honor both military and civil life.
They should be military in their organization, control, dress,
drill, and maintain the antecedents of the war from which they
spring. The care of the trophies, arms, cannon, &c., might be
assigned to them. They should be made nurseries of our mili¬
tary glory, and should, in some way, be skillfully co-ordinated
with the popular heart, so as to feel, and to animate, the
national sentiment. At the same time they should be indus¬
trial — encouraging and allowing such an amount and variety
of labor as would discourage listlessness and monotony, and
prevent the feeling of utter dependence.

How these institutions are to grow up, is doubtful ; whether
l>y degrees, as ci necessity , or by bold legislation from the start.

We have thought, as a Commission, of asking the Govern¬
ment for the control and care of disabled soldiers from the time
they leave the Hospital as patients, and begin their convales¬
cence, to the period when they are finally discnarged ; say four
months on the average ; then to create special Hospitals (with
Government funds) for these convalescents, of a temporary char¬
acter ; to find out the homes, and favor the establishment in
their own local communities of all able to be thus provided tor;
having an eye, through our village affiliated associations, to
their well-being and future career, and aiding in every way the
success of the just principles laid down in the earlier part of
this letter.

Then, retaining, partly at our own expense, (that is, out of
t^e spontaneous bestowments of the people,) all those disabled
men wrho are the proper subjects for permanent asylums,
finally to inaugurate a great asylum, with branches, partly
under our own control and management, partly under that of
the Government, which by degrees should embrace and embody
every wise, humane, and patriotic idea suited to the case.
Our dependence for success in such a scheme very crude as

jet— would be the possession of more and earlier thought,
better and fuller information, a profounder and wiser plan-
such a plan as would recommend itself— and which on state-
ment would so engage the consent and affections of the people,
as to secure its adoption by Congress.

If this matter be left to politicians, or be hurried through
Congress bj busy men, it will want all profound merits. It
will be sure to violate our American principles, to wound poli¬
tical economy, and to botch the whole idea. If, on the other
hand, we can slowly mature a wise, ripe plan, it may become
a germ of the utmost beneficence to the soldiers and to the
nation.

We are very anxious to have a careful report on the subject
of the foreign institutions for the care of invalid soldiers, before
the next meeting of Congress. And at the meeting of the Ex¬
ecutive Committee of the Sanitary Commission recently held at
my house, the following resolution was offered by Mr. Olmsted,
and passed:

Resolved , That S. G. Perkins, Esq., ho requested to study
the- military pension and invalid system of the principal Euro-
pean nations, visiting the more important establishments in
which invalid soldiers are maintained, and to report his obser¬
vations to the Commission, with the conclusions of his judgment
in regard to an invalid and pension system for the disabled
soldiers of the present war.

I hope you will consent to do this work for us. I know no
man so well fitted, and i really think it can 'be laid upon you
as a clear call of Divine Providence. Nothing was said on the
subject of remuneration. We are all volunteers in this good
^oik. Lut I think there is no doubt that any necessary expen¬
ses, incurred in this service, extra to your natural expenses,
would be cheerfully reimbursed by this Commission ; and, if

this is a point of interest or importance, I will have action
taken upon it at the earliest moment.

I have not felt at liberty to with old this communication,
although, since the resolution was passed, instructing me to
make it, so serious a calamity has fallen upon you. If the
sympathy of numerous friends can alleviate your great trial,
you will not want much consolation in so profound a sorrow.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully and cordially,

Yours,

HENRY W, BELLOWS,
President of the Sanitary Commission .

't.

REPORT,

Florence, May 22, 1863.

Bev. Henry W. Bellows,

President of the XL S. Sanitary Commission :

Hear Sir,— —In accordance with a resolution passed by your
Board, and communicated to me on the 15th of August last,
requesting me “ to study the military pension and invalid
“ systems of the principal European nations, visiting the more
a important establishments in which invalid soldiers are main-
<c tained, and to report 6 my ’ observations to the Commission,
“with the conclusions of c my ’ judgment in regard to an in-
“ valid and pension system for the disabled soldiers of the
ct present war,” I beg leave now to report :

That immediately upon my arrival in France, in September
last, I began to make the inquiries indicated, by personal ap¬
plication in Paris, and by opening a correspondence in the
various capitals of Europe. After about seven weeks’ delay
in Paris, I proceeded to Berlin, whence I intended going to St.
Petersburgh, but finding the season too far advanced, I was
forced to depend entirely upon correspondence there, and went
from Berlin to Vienna, and thence came to Italy. I have
already forwarded to you from France and Germany, and from
this place, a number of documents, printed and manuscript,
containing the various pension laws and tariffs, and a number
of details relating to the invalid hospitals, especially of France
and Italy, all which, so far as they elucidate the subject, please
to consider as attached to this report.

I proposed to myself in beginning the inquiry, to obtain
answers as far as possible, to the following queries :

1. The nature of the service, or the injuries which entitle a
soldier to receive a pension.

2. The minimum and maximum rates of pension for the
common soldiers and principal officers.

3. The rates allowed to widows and orphans.

4. The whole number of military pensions, distinguishing
those of officers, soldiers, and widows.

5. The whole amount of pensions paid in 1861, distinguishing
the amounts paid to officers, soldiers, and their widows.

6. The nature of service or injury giving a right to enter in¬
valid hospitals or societies.

7. The terms on which such entry is accorded, especially as
relating to the continued receipt or the abandonment of the
pensions.

8. The number of invalid hospitals, and of their inmates,
their situation, &c.

9. Total cost of maintaining the hospitals, including every¬
thing excepting rent.

10. The occupation of the inmates, and such further details
as might seem useful.

11. What other provision (out of hospital and besides pension)
is made for invalids.

The annexed table shows, briefly stated, the answers to these
queries, as far as I have obtained them, and so arranged that a
comparison can be made between the different nations enumer¬
ated. It will be seen that in France and Italy, the provision
for the common soldier, as w~ell in regard to the terms on which

the pension and the right of admission to hospital are accorded,
as to rates of pension allowed, and to the care of their widows
and children, is far more just and humane than that existing in
Germany. Indeed, in Prussia and Austria, the minimum pen¬
sion of the common soldier is a mere pittance, which can go
but very little way towards supporting him, and only those
most severely injured gain admission to the hospitals. In
France, the pensions have been raised several times, and the
minimum now for the common soldier, is one franc a day. In
Italy, it is about fifty-five centimes; in Prussia, twelve thalers
a year ; and in Austria, five kreutzers (say two cents) a day.

The average of all the pensions of subalterns and soldiers in
Austria, appears to be only twenty-eight florins per annum, or
say between three and four cents a day.

Another striking contrast is shown by the table, in the treat¬
ment of officers and soldiers. In France, about one-fifth of the
pensions is paid to officers, and the amount so paid is about
fifteen thirty-thirds of the whole payment, whereas in Prussia,
only one-sixth of the pensions belongs to officers, hut it absorbs
twenty-eight thirty-thirds of the payment, while in Austria, the
pensions of the officers and their widows are one-fourth of the
whole number, and absorb about twenty-eight thirty thirds of
the whole payment. In contrasting France and Italy, we find
that although the rates of pensions are about the same (allowing
for the cost of living), and the terms of admission both into the
ranks of the pensioners and into the invalid establishments are
very similar, the practice of the pensioners is quite different.
While in France, the number in hospital is constantly diminish¬
ing, and the inmates and admissions consist almost entirely of
men over sixty years of age, and the whole number of in¬
valids is only about two thousand, with a pension list of over
fitty -seven thousand, in Italy there are over ten thousand men
in the hospitals, with a pension list of about thirty thousand. It

is true, that a certain number of these are men left in hospital
by the government lately expelled from Naples, but the con¬
trast is Highly honorable to the French character. The returns
from all these countries agree in one particular, and a very im¬
portant one for our consideration, viz., that, in consequence of
the laws establishing pensions and hospitals having been made at
different times, and without due regard to each other, there is
no just proportion between the cost of maintenance of the in¬
valids in hospital and the rates of pension allowed, even where
the latter are the most liberal. Either the former is too high,
or the latter is too low. Probably, the cost in hospital is
everywhere much too high.

Dr. Faure, Medical Director of the Invalides, states that in
the year 1861 there was an average number of 2,302 invalids
in the Hotel deslnvalides in Paris, and that the cost of maintain¬
ing them, including all salaries, and the charges for repairs
of the Hotel, but no rent, was frs. 2,313,744.41, equal to
frs. 1,005.10 per head.

On the 25tli of October, 1862, there remained in the estab¬

lishment 2,099 invalids, viz. :

1 chef de bataillon,

15 capitaines,

23 lieutenants,

23 sous-lieutenants,

33 chefs et adjts. de division,
12 adjts. sous-officiers,

58 caporaux sous-officiers,
33 sergent-majors,

351 sergents,

281 caporaux,

1,250 soldats,

16 tambours.

1,992

107

2,099 invalids.

The amount of pensions which would have been paid to these
persons, had they not entered the hospital, would have been, as

/'i

nearly as can be ascertained, frs. 1,150,890, or, say, frs. 548.30
average, per man. They cost the State, therefore, nearly twice
as much in hospital, as the amount of their pensions One
reason of this is, that the Hotel is fitted to accommodate about
double the present number of inmates, but there is, also, a
great deal of useless expense.

A similar result is found in Italy, where the hospitals are
crowded. I have not at hand the data for calculating the pensions
to which the invalids would be entitled, but the general figures
show the result. Thus, 10,759 persons in hospital cost frs.
6,388,593 per annum, while the amount of 30,229 pensions, in¬
cluding officers, is only frs. 15,748,328. The contrast is still
greater in Germany. The 480 invalids in hospital in Prussia
cost more in proportion to the average of pension than the
French invalids do ; and in Austria, where the average of all
the pensions of subalterns and soldiers is only florins 28 per
annum, the average cost of 200 officers, and 201 soldiers and
subalterns, in the six hospitals and Filialien, is florins 162 per
head per annum. The general conclusion is, that all laws es¬
tablishing pensions and invalid hospitals should be made with
reference to each other.

Although there may he no features in the European systems
above lefeired to, which are to be recommended as models to
be copied, still I think we may gain from the examination of
them, not only knowledge of what we ought to avoid, hut also
some ideas which we may apply in framing our law. The great
point to be avoided, and yet one which seems to have been almost
everywhere overlooked, is the failure to provide regular civil
occupation for the invalids. For want of this, it has been found
impossible at the Hotel des Invalides, in Paris, to prevent
drunkenness. Dr. Faure, the head physician of that establish¬
ment, told me that it was common for the invalids to sell their
rations of meat and bread, in order to obtain the means to buy

brandy, and that nearly all tlie punishments which they were
forced to inflict, arose from drunkenness. Other officers of that
establishment corroborated his statement, and all said, if you
establish an invalid hospital system, let regular occupation for

invalids be the corner-stone of it.

As regards the features which may be imitated with adaptations
to our peculiar condition, there are, perhaps, two. First, the
Prussian civibversorgung-scheins, of which there is a particular
account in the documents I sent you from Berlin ; and, secondly ,
the Prussian and Italian plan of dividing all the invalids into
two classes— one still fit for stationary military duty, and one
unfit for any military duty, from the former of which the garri¬
sons, in certain proportions, are recruited. By extending this
to all pensions, and allowing those fitted for service to volun¬
teer for garrison duty, perhaps a considerable number of pen¬
sioners might be saved, as it is presumable that the United
States Government will be obliged to maintain numerous gar¬
risons for many years after the present war shall have come to
an end. Probably, likewise, a number of men might volunteer,
especially among our naturalized citizens, for the sake of ex¬
changing their pensions for the full pay of a soldier, and with

light duties in garrison service.

As regards the civibversorgung-scheins, they may he de¬
scribed as warrants issued to military pensioners by govern¬
ment, securing them appointments to the first places vacant in
certain subordinate branches of civil service (such as the rail¬
roads, post-offices, custom-houses, &c.), for which they may be
found fit, to the exclusion of competitors from civil life. There
are said to be about fifteen hundred of these issued annually , and
and as fast as they are provided with places in the civil service,
they are stricken' off the pension list. This system is very econ¬
omical for the government, but in Prussia it works a great evil,
by building up a military caste among the lower orders of

society, analogous to the one which exists among the upper
classes. In the United States, I think we should have little tl
fear on tins score, and as onr Government is obliged to main
am a mnlthude °f subordinate officers in the custom-houses,
he post-offices, &c„ it might be no disadvantage to have half
ie number cons, st of men entitled to hold their places during
good behavior, and so removed from the corrupting influences
of political changes. The war must leave us a very large num¬
ber of young invalids to provide for, and it is very important
therefore, for economical and other reasons, that a variety of
occupations should be offered to them, so that the different
tas es and habits of the men may be suited, as far as possible
and the number of idle pensioners in the republic reduced to the
u most ; and no invalid ought to be left in the position to com¬
plain, taat with a pension less than sufficient to support him, he

18 °1Ced t0 COmPete in the °Pen labor market with able-bodied

n the following schedule of a pension and hospital law, which
mve concluded to submit to the consideration of the Board
ave endeavored to combine this variety with such features as’
appear to me to be important :

Proposed Schedule of Pension and Hospital Laws.

1- That every officer and soldier permanently disabled by
wounds or sickness during the present war, shall be entitled to
a pension from the United States Government.

That theie shall be three rates of pensions, viz: A max-

" rate’ Sufflcient t0 suPP01't the pensioner according to his
lank with due economy, to be accorded to those who have suf-
ered injuries equal to the loss of two limbs; a medium rate, to
be accorded to those who have received injuries equal to the

o one limb ; and a minimum rate for all minor injuries

3. That the widows and orphans of those who have died from
wounds, or disease, be allowed one- half the maximum rate , pay¬
able to the widows during life, if they remain unmarried ; to
the boys, until they reach 21 years of age; and to the girls,
until that age, or their previous marriage.

4. That all the pensioners be divided into two classes— one,
fit for garrison, or other stationary military service, and one,
unfit for such service, and that the garrisons be recruited to
the extent of one-half their number, from volunteers of the
former class, who shall receive full pay and rations, but aban¬
don their pensions while in service. On being honorably dis¬
charged, they shall have the right to resume their pensions.

5. That all pensioners shall have the right to be appointed
to certain subordinate employments in the civil service of the
United States, within the States to which they respectively
belong (Custom-ITouses, Post-Offices, &c.) in preference to
other competitors, on making proper application, and showing
fitness for the office asked for. That such persons, on getting
their appointment, shall abandon their pensions, without any
rffiht to resume them, but be entitled to hold their appointments
during good behavior.

6. That the U. S. Government shall establish in every State,
in some central and healthy situation, an invalid industrial vil¬
lage, to consist of buildings intended as boarding-houses for
unmanned men, to contain not over one hundred boarders in
any one house, and of small cottages, to be let to married in¬
valids, or such as prefer to keep house for themselves.

7. That these establishments shall be under strict military

o-overnment, and each be the residence of a pension agent for
& 7

the State in which it is situated, actiDg under the central
agency in Washington.

That occupations of various kinds, agricultural and manu¬
facturing, and suited, as far as possible, to the capabilities of
men disabled in various ways, be established in these villages,
and all invalids able to work, who may inhabit them, be obliged
to work, and he paid wages according to the value of their labor.

Said wages to be fixed by an officer or board appointed for the
purpose*

8. That all pensioners shall have the right of admission into
these hospitals (each within his own State), with an option be¬
tween two arrangements, viz. : either (a) to retain his pension
and pay all his own expenses, including board if he live in a
large house, or house-hire and his own provisions, if he prefer
to keep house, or, (b) to abandon his pension and be fed and
lodged by Government, merely clothing himself from his
wages ; with the right, however, to resume his pension and pay
his own expenses after he has attained skill in the new work
he may have to learn — say after one year’s apprenticeship.

9. That any pensioner in hospital shall have the right to
leave the hospital and resume his pension, if he had abandoned
it, after one year’s stay, and by giving three months’ notice,
but that in this case he shall not be entitled to return to it.

10. That the products shall belong to the United States, and
be applied, as far as possible, to the use of the invalid estab¬
lishments.

I remain, dear Sir,

Very respectfully,

Your obt. Servt.,

STEPHEN H. PERKINS.

IN D I

. Y.

FI erent COUNTRIES.

kussia.

Remarks.

r ranee.

"1 he details as to time of service
character of injuries, (fee , differ in each
country. See detailed laws.

kuin.

. j?5(]

tariffs— 'taMes' Pe"8i°nS' 666 detailed

when pensioner
One-quarter of
ier cause.

Unsuccessful attempts have been
made to increase the officers’ and
widows pensions in France.

.ions, 30,229.

The number in Prussia seems verv
vie?6’ Wheie S° “any S° infco civil ser-

. _

M PENSIONS.

••• 15,748,328 |

The proportion paid to officers in
| Germany is excessive.

prmanent kind, |
age.

Jfn Germany only a portion of those
totally disabled can find room in hos¬
pital.

he way of pay is I
P PaJ their own j

The terms in Austria are very favor¬
able to the severely wounded. See de¬
tailed report for the Italian particulars.

>,579 invalids. j

Another large hospital is to be opened
in Florence, to relieve the one in Naples.

8,593.

- - -

Including cost of the schools in Italy.

drafted into
, (fee.

tnar schools.

See detailed reports from France and
taly.

Details of the Prussian civil employ -
lent system given in report from
lerlin.

A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THE PENSION AND INVALID SYSTEMS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

FRANCE.

PRUSSIA.

AUSTRIA.

IT AL

RUSSIA.

REMARKS.

The nature of the Service or Injuries which
entitle a Soldier to a Pension .

Length of service, and injuries and
diseases of a permanent, kind.

Same as France.

Injuries precluding the possibility of
further military service.

Same as F

ranee.

The details as to time of service,
character of injuries, Ac., differ in each
country. See detailed laws.

The maximum and minimum rates of Pen¬
sions for the Common Soldier .

PER ANNUM.

Francs . 465

“ . 536

PER ANNUM.

Thalers . 84

“ . 12

PER DIEM.

Kreutzers . 25

. . 5

PER ANNUM.

Francs . 350

“ . 200

For officers’ pensions, see detailed
tariffs — tables.

Pensions of Widows and Orphans .

One quarter of the maximum, when
the soldier dies from injuries.

Nothing to widows of common
soldiers.

One-half maximum when pensioner
dies from wounds. One-quarter of
pension if from other cause.

Unsuccessful attempts have been
made to increase the officers’ and
widows’ pensions in France.

Whole number of Invalid Pensions .

PEN9IONS OF

Officers . 10,764

Soldiers and Subalterns . 46,602

57,36fi

PENSIONS OF

Officers . 4,000

Soldiers and Subalterns . 21,000

25,000

PENSION OF OFFICERS, <tC.

Non-combatants . 11,165

Officers’ Widows . 6,475

Soldiers and->Subalterns. . . 52,010

69^650"

All military pensions, 30,229.

The number in Prussia seems very
large, where so many go into civil ser¬
vice.

Amount of Pensions paid per Annum .

1861.

officers’ pensions.

Francs . 14,863,646

Soldiers and Subalterns.. 18,532,265

Francs . 33,395,911

1861.

officers' pensions.

Thalers . 2,788,611

Soldiers and Subalterns . . 570,125

Thalers . 3,368,736

1861. Florins.

Officers, Ac . 7,851,165

Widows of . 933,870

8,785,036

Soldiers and Subalterns.. 1,465,000
Florins . 10,250,036

1861.

TOTAL OF MILITARY PENSIONS.

Amount, Francs . 15,748,328

The proportion paid to officers in
Germany is excessive.

The nature of Service, or of Injury, giving
a right to enter Invalid Establishments . .

Sixty years of age and the receipt of
pension, or injuries equal to the
loss of one limb.

The severest kinds of injury, blind¬
ness, and insanity.

Same as in Prussia.

All injuries of a permanent kind,
and old age.

In Germany, only a portion of those
totally disabled can find room in hos¬
pital.

Terms of Entry, as regards Relinquishment
of Pensions .

Pensions cease on entering, but may
be reclaimed on leaving Hospital.

Pensions cease.

Pensions continue, and the invalids
are supported beside.

Special provision in t
made, and invalid
expenses.

be way of pay is
s pay their own

The terms in Austria are very favor¬
able to tbe severely wounded. See de¬
tailed report for the Italian particulars.

Number of the Invalid Establishments and
of Invalids .

One Hospital in Paris.

299 invalids.

Two hospitals, 480 inmates, seven
invalid companies, 651 members

Three hospitals, three “ Filialien,”
2,401 invalids.

Two hospitals ; 10,579 invalids.

Another large hospital is to be opened
in Florence, to relieve the one in R aples.

Total Annual Cost of Maintenance, exclu¬
sive of Rent .

1861.

Frs., 2,313,744 41.

1861.

Florins, 389,245.

1861,

Frs., 6,388,593.

Including cost of the schools in Italy.

Occupation of Inmates .

Some small offices in the Hotel.

“ Half Invalids ” are drafted for gar¬
rison duty. No employment in the
Hospital.

None.

Able-bodied men drafted into
garrisons, Ac.

Music and Grammar schools.

See detailed reports from France and
Italy.

Other provision for Invalids out of Hospital
and beside Pension .

None.

The seven invalided companies above
named, are quartered on the inhab¬
itants, in different parts of the king¬
dom, at government expense. The
, civil versongungschein system.

Three “Filialien,” similar to the
Prussian invalid companies.

Non.

Details of the Prussian civil employ¬
ment system given in report from
Berlin.

APPENDIX.

■

FRANCE.

Summary of the Pension and Hospital System of France for
the Relief of Permanent Military Invalids .

1st. Pensions. — The laws relating to military pensions, are
numerous and detailed.

2d. The progress has been towards raising the rates of the
various tariffs, applicable to pensioners for long service, for
wounds, widows, &c.

3d. The last law (of June, 1861) fixes the pension of the com¬

mon soldier, at minimum rate . frs. 365

Maximum , (excepting under an extraordinary com¬
bination of claims,) . . . 465

And, under certain possible circumstances, rarely

occurring, it can reach . 725

(all per annum.)

A General of Divisions has — minimum . 5,200

“ “ “ maximum . 7,800

Possible under certain combinations. . . 11,232

There is a great variety of rates for officers of inferior rank.
A Marshal of France may receive as much as frs. 20,000 pen¬
sion at the pleasure of the Emperor.

4th. Widows and orphans receive one quarter of the maxi-
m um.

5th. The number of new pensions granted in 1860, was, for

long service . 1,778

For injuries . 1,702

Under the “ Reforme” law . 12

To widows and orphans . 614

4,113

6th. The whole number of pensions granted from 1 January,

1855, to 1 October, 1862, was :

Long service .

For injuries . 8,669

, To widows and orphans . 6,174

Making for seven years and nine months. 14,843
pensions arising from loss by war.

7th. The whole number of military pensioners on the 1st

January, 1861, was . 57,366

Of these 10,764 received officers’ pensions.

46,602 “ soldiers’ or subalterns’.

57,366

8th. The whole amount of military pensions 1st January,

1861, was . frs. 33,395,911

Of which belonged to officers . “ 14,863,646

“ soldiers and subalterns “ 18,532,265

frs. 33,395,911

9th. Whole amount of the new pensions granted

the year 1860 . frs. 2,200,000

Average for 5 years , to 1st January, 1861, per

annum . “ 2,639,999

Average for 30 years to do. do . . . . “ 1,975,265

Hem arks.

1st. It appears from the above that the average rate of all
persons, is about frs. 550 per annum, including officers, soldiers,
and widows.

2d. The sum of frs. 33,000,000 does not include naval pen¬
sions, nor civil pensions. The latter, I suppose, amount to a
large sum.

3d. The number of military pensions has rapidly decreased
as the men of the first Empire have died off. In 1821 there
were 122,141 pensioners receiving frs. 46,784,628, as stated by
Cardinal Mathieu, who has made a study of the subject.

4th. The widow’s pension of £ the maximum, seems too small.
It is true that going to the orphan it is slowly extinguished.
Cardinal Mathieu calculates that it requires over 60 years to
extinguish such a list.

Invalid Hospitals.

1st. The French Government have been gradually diminish¬
ing the number of Hospitals. There were formerly several in
the Provinces, now there remains only the Hotel des Iuvalides
in Paris.

2d. The number of inmates in this hospital is gradually
piminishing. The deaths exceed in number the admissions
In 1854, there were 3,027 inmates; in October, 1862, only
2,099. ’ J

3d. The admissions consist of soldiers in receipt of a pen¬
sion, who have either attained the age of sixty years, or sus¬
tained an injury equal to the loss of one limb.

4th. On entering the hospital, the invalid must resign his
pension ; but he can leave the hospital, and resume it again, if
he choose. In such case, he cannot return.

5th. The* admissions consist chiefly of men over 60 years of
age, and the average age of the inmates is now about 70 years.
Since the }Tear 1855, only 283 men under 51 years of age have
entered, and only 527 men under 61 years of age.

6th. The cost, in 1861, of feeding, clothing, and governing
an average of 2,302 invalids, including all salaries and wages,
and the cost of repairs of the Hotel (exclusive of rent), was
frs. 2,313,744.41, equal to frs. 2.75 per head per diem !

7th. The amount of pensions surrendered by these invalids is
about frs. 1,150,890— equal to frs. 1.50 per head per day!

8th. Government provides no employment for the invalids.
They are allowed to find work for themselvse in the city, and
some do so ; a considerable number are, however, idlers and
drunkards.

Remarks.

1st. The number of invalids in hospital will probably diminish
for some years to come, as the young men who are entitled to
enter generally prefer to remain at home; and the increase of
frs. 165 per annum, made in 1861, to the soldiers’ pension, will
tend to confirm this habit. Therefore, the cost per head of main¬
taining the inmates will increase. As shown above, it now ex¬
ceeds the pensions to the amount of over a franc a head a day.
This shows the importance of having the pension and hospital
laws and arrangements such as not to throw a loss upon the gov¬
ernment ly giving an option to the pensioner,

2d. The fact that so few young men enter is highly creditable
to the French character, and shows, I think, that with a rate of
pensions considerably short of the cost of living, few young
men, with ns, would go to the hospital with a prospect ot a
bare maintenance.

3d. It is, therefore, desirable to leave them their pensions,
and their own charges, and find them work, giving them cer-
tain options, which shall leave the cost to the State as nearly as
possible the same, whichever choice the invalid may make.

Comparison of the Maximum Pensions , ( where two limbs are lost after
12 years active service ,) and the present cost of keeping the same men
and officers at the “ Invalides.”

At the Invalides, October, 1862.

Maximum

Pension.

Total

Cost.

Chief of Battalion, (Major) Frs.

3,730

each. Frs.

3,730

Captains, “

Lieutenants, “

3,053

it tt

45,795

2,419

a tt

55,637

Second Lieutenants, “

2,016

ti it

46,368

Chiefs and Adjutants of Division “

2,000

it it

66,000

Corporals, (acting lieutenants) “

788

it a

45,704

Adjutants, second officers, “

1,193

a tt

14,316

Sergeant Majors, “

1,037

tt a

34,221

354

Sergeants, “

881

a a

311,874

281

Corporals, “

788

it tt

221,428

1,250

Soldiers, “

725

it a

906,250

Drummers, “

725

a tt

11,600

2,099

Number of Men and officers.

( Cost in
( highest

francs of )
pensions f

1,762,923

This gives, say, frs. 840 per head per annum or frs. 2.30
•per head per day .

N. B. — Dr. Fauee’s statement shows a total expense
for 1861, including repairs of the Hotel des Invalides of
frs. 2,313,744.41.

If you divide this sum by 2,302 (the average number in the
hotel in 1861), you have : Frs. 1,005.10, as the cost per head
per annum = to, say, frs. 2.75 per head per diem , deducting
cost of repairs.

It gives frs. 951 per an. = frs. 2.60 per head per diem.

The expense in hospital is, therefore, from 30 to 45 centimes
more than the1 maximum pensions, and seems to be quite high.
This shows the disadvantage of a large establishment , not capable
of being suited to changing numbers. As the number of
invalids has diminished, the cost per head has been increasing.

The real difference between the pensions and the cost in hos¬
pital is more likely to be 75 centimes, or over, than less;
because only a limited number of the inmates would draw a
maximum pension if they remained outside.

The present rate of pensions (being for a General of Division
from frs. 5,200 to 11,200, according to circumstances, and for a

soldier from frs. 365 to 725), induces nearly all the younger in¬
valids to live at home, and get what work they can. The ad¬
missions to the “Invalides” since the war of the Crimea have
consisted mostly of men of 60 years of age and over — a consider¬
able number over 80 years old, and some over 90, have come
in. The qualification for admission is an injury equal to the
loss of one limb, or 25 years of active service ; in fact, the pre¬
requisite condition, in all cases, is the enjoyment of a pension,
which pension the applicant must resign if lie enter hospital.
If he leave the hospital he can claim his pension again, but he
cannot return to the hospital. Most of the present admissions
consist of old soldiers, who have got along on the old (lower)
rate of pensions until their strength or their friends failed, and
then came in, one after the other, never to go out again alive.
Under these circumstances the numbers in hospital necessarily
diminish, and must continue to do so rapidly for some years.
In 1851, there were 3,165 inmates, and in 1861, 2,430 only.
The deaths exceed the admissions, and as there may not be any
increase in the number of the admissions until the invalids of
the late wars grow old, Dr. Faure thinks the number may
diminish to 1,000, perhaps, which may cause some change in
the establishment. In 1851, at the time M. Bilco undertook
the administration, it was first put under the control of the Min¬
ister of War, and an economical reform took place; but it is
still fitted to lodge 4,000 invalids. Before 1851 it had an inde¬
pendent government, as originally planned by Louis XIV. The
great difficulty at the “ Invalides ” is, that there is no regular
employment for the men. They are allowed to find work and
wages for themselves, out of the house if they can, merely an¬
swering at morning and evening roll-call, and they can even
get permission to remain out by showing good cause; some do
this, but most of them, though able to work, either cannot find
it or prefer idleness. They sell their allowance of bread (three
loaves a day), and even of meat sometimes, and become loungers
and drunkards, to a considerable extent. All the officers whom
I have seen have said to me, at once, u If you have invalid hos¬
pitals, give the men employment.” This must be the funda¬
mental principle. Although the young French invalids show a
very creditable spirit of independence in getting along on their

TARIFF OF PENSIONS FOR OFFICERS AND EMPLOYES OF ASSIMILATED RANK, IN THE FRENCH ARMY.

Retiring Pension for length of
service. (Art. 9tb, Act
of April 11th, 1831.)

retiring PENSIONS,

On account of Wounds, or serious or incurable Infirmities. (a
17 of the Act of April 11, 1831.)

r tides 12, 13, 14;

> 15, 16,

Minimum and Maxi¬

Maximum

Pensions

"Widows.

Rank.

Increase for

Amputation of

Wounds, or serious diseases, oc¬
casioning absolute loss of use of
a limb, or something equiva¬
lent to it.

Wounds, oi
vent a pi
until he 1
1 obtain a

f a less serious character, which pre¬
p-son from remaining in the service
has fulfilled the 30 years required to
retiring pension.

mum increased
by one-fifth.

in case of
complete
blindness,
or the am¬
putation of

Annual
relief to ,
Orphans.

Minimum

§0 years’
service.

two limbs, or I

one limb, or total

(with one-
fifth ad¬
ded.)

service after
•SO years, and
for each year
resulting from
computation
of campaigns.

at 50 years
of service,
campaigns
included.

totalloss of sight, loss of use of two
Definite pension, [limbs, whatever
whatever the du-lthe length of ser¬
ration of the ser- vice,
vice.

Minimum.

Increase for
each year of
service, cam¬
paigns includ¬
ed.

Maximum
at 20 years’
service,
campaigns
included.

Minimum.

Increase for each
year of service be¬
yond 30, when cam¬
paigns added to ser¬
vices amount to 30
years.

Maximum after
50 years’ service,
campaigns in¬
cluded.

Minimum.

Maximum.

One quarter
of the
maximum
of the
retiring
pension.

Fr.

5,200

130

7,800

9,360

7,800

5,200

130

7,800

5,200

130

7,800

6,240

9,360

11,232

1,950

.3,900 1

5,200

6,240

5,200

3,900

5,200

3,900

5,200

4,680

6,240

7,488

1,30Q

3,120 i

3,900

4,680

•3,900

3,120

3,900

3,120

3,900

I 3,744

4,680

5,616

975

2,340

1,950

1,560

1,120

3,120

3,744

3,120

2,340

3,120

2,340

39.

3,120

2,808

3,744

4,493

780

2,590

3,108

2,590

1,950

2,590

1,950

2,590

I 2,340

3,108

3,730

648

2,120

2,544

2,120

1,660

2,1?0

1,560

2,120

1,872

2,544

■3,053

580

1,680

2,016

1,680

1,120

1,680

1,120

1,680

1,344

2,016

2,419

420

2d “ .

■ '840

1,400

1,680

1,400

840

1,400

840

1,400

1,008

1,680

2,016

350

5,200

130

7,800

9,360

7,800

5,200

130

7,800

5,200

130

7,800

6,240

9,360

11,232

7,488

1,950

1,300

3^900

3,120

5,200

6,240

5,200

3,900

5,200

3,900

5,200

4,680

6,240

3,900

4,680

3,900

3,120

3,900

3,120

3<900

3,744

4,680

3,744

5,616

975

2,340

1,950

1,560

3,900

3,120

3,744

3,120

2,340

3,120

2,340

3,120

2,808

4,493

780

Adjunct Sub-Intendant, Military, 1st class.. . .
“ “ “ 2d “ ....

f Inspector. . . . .

2,590 j

2,120

5,200

3,108

2,544

6,210

2,590

2,120

5,200

1,950

1,500

3,900

2,590

2,120

5,200

1,950

1,560

3,900

2,590

2,120

5,200

2,340

1,872

4,680

3,108

2,544

6,240

3,730

3,053

7,488

648

530

1,300

Chief Inspector of 1st class .

3.120
2,340
1,950
1,560

1.120

3,900 j

4,680

3,900

3,120

3,900

3,120

3,900

3,744

4,680

5,616

975

Medical Corps —
(Surgeons and -j
Apothecaries.)

“ “2d “ .

3.120
2,590 i

2.120
1,680 i
1,400 i
1,400
3,120
2,300
2,100
1,660
1,200
1,760

3,744

3,120

2,340

8,120

2,340

3,120

2,808

3,744

4,493

780

i Major “ “ 1st “ .

3,108

2,590

1,950

2,590

1,950

2,590

2,340

1,872

3,108

3,730

648

“ “ “2d ‘ .

2,544

2,016

2,120

1,560

2,120

1,560

2,120

2,544

3,053

530

Aide-Major 1st “ . .

1,680

1,120

1,680

1,120

1,680

1,344

2,016

2,419

420

“ 2d “ .

840

1,680

3,744

2,760

2,520

1,992

1,440

2,112

1,800

1,440

1,800

1,440

1,800

1,440

3,744

3,336

2,760

2,112

1,400

840

1,400

840

1,400

1,008

1,680

2,016

350

Asst. Aid .

840

1,400

3,120

840

1,400

840

1,400

1,008

1,680

2,016

■ 350

Pay Department, and

f Chief Officer of Administration .

2,340

1,700

2,340

3,120

2,340

3,120

2,808

3,744

4,493

780

Pav-Master, 1st class .

2,300

1,700

1,500

1,200

800

2,300

1,700

2,300

2,040

2,760

3,312

575

other assimilated
services connected j

“ 2d “ .

1,500

1,200

800

2,100

1,660

1,200

2,100

1,500

2,100

1,800

2,520

3,024

525

I Chief Adjutant .

1,660

1,200

1,660

1,440

1,992

2,390

416

4 with it.

1 Assistant “ . . . . .... .

1,200

800

1,200

1,760

960

R440

1,728

300

f Chief Guard and Director .

1,300
1,100
800 |
1,100

1,760

1,600

1,201)

1,500

1,200

1,500

1,300

1,100

800

1,100

1,760

1 1,300

1,560

2,112

2,534

440

Military Employees
of the Artillery, |
Engineers, and-{
Transport atiou

Guard, 1st Class ; and Director, 1st Class ....

“ 2d “ “ 2d “ _

, Chief State Mechanic .

1,500

1,200

1,500

1,200

1 600

1,500

1,200

1,500

1,200

1,500

1,200

3,120

1,100
| 800
1,100

1,500

1,200

1,500

1,320

960

1,320

1,800

1,440

1,800

2,160

1,728

2,160

375

300

375

Assistant “ .

800

*800

1,100

800

1,200

960

1,440

1,728

300

Trains.

1 Master-Mechanic . . .

1,100
800
2,340
2,000
1,700
1,300
1,100
800 |

i 1,100

1,500

1,320

1,800

2,160

375

L Master- Workman .

1 200

1*200

3,120

2,780

2,300

1,760

1 600

.30

800

1,200

960

1,440

1,728

300

f Chief Interpreter . |

3^120

2,780

2,300

1,760

1 ,500

2,340

2,000

1,700

1 300

2,340

3,120

2,808

3,744

4,493

1 780

Interpreter of 1st class . 1

2^780

2,300

1,760

2,000*

2,780

2,400

3,336

4,003

! 695

Corps of Interpret- ^

“ “2d “ . 1

1,700

2,300

2,040

2,760

3,312

575

ers.

“ “ 3d “ .

1,300

1,760

1,560

2,112

2,534

440

Assistant Interpreter, 1st class .

R500

1,200

1,100

1,500

1,320

1,800

2,160

375

2d “ .

E200

1 3 120

1 ,OUu

1,440

R200

3,120

2,300

1,900

**800

800

1,200

960

1,440

1,728

300

Chief Veterinary Surgeon .

2-, 340
1,700 ^
1,400
1,300 1
800
1,120

■ 30

j 23

3*120

2,300

1,900

1,760

2,340

3,120

2,808

3,744

4,493

780

1st “ “ .

2d “ “ .

Aid to “ “ .

2*300

J ,900
j 1 760 '

2/760
2,280
i 9 119

2 340
1*700
1,400

1*700

1,400

1,300

2,300

1,900

1,760

2,040

1,680

1,560

2,760

2,280

2,112

3,312

2,736

2,634

575

475

440

Cadet-Aid “ “ .

1 200

I 1 u

j 1’onrt

AiO

1*200

800

1,200

1,680

960

1,440

1,728

300

Band-Master .

After 10 vears’ sp.rvir.A .

1 ,200

oOO

1 680

1,120

1,344

1,008

2,016

1,680

2,419

2,016

420

“ . Before “ “

l'400

2,01 6

1,680

1,120

1*400

840

1,400

350

i 28 i

1,680

j 1,400

840

| 28

pensions, as well as they can, and the numbers in hospital are
diminishing, I think it would be a mistake to suppose that the
“ Invalides ” can be ever dispensed with. There is always a

certain number quite unable to get on elsewhere _ men badly

injured and without friends to help them. Then, again, those
who undertake to keep themselves know that when friends and
wages fail they can always resort, at last, to the “Invalides
and they exert themselves more cheerfully, and come into hos¬
pital gradually, as they grow old or weak. With us there are
several important reasons, not existing here, for the establish
ment of invalid hospitals, where work can be always found and"
fairly remunerated ; but even here a hospital of some kind will
be always needed, and one without work is better than none.

PENSIONS ANNUALLY GRANTED, UNDER THE ACT OF APRIL 11, 1831.

~~ —

retiring pensions.

widows’ pensions

AND ANNUAL RELIEF

For

Length of Service.

For

Wounds and Infirmities.

FOR ORPHANS.

Number.

Amount.

Number.

Amount.

Number.

Amount.

1831 .

1832 .

1833 .

1834 .

1835 .

1836 .

1837 .

1838 .

1839 .

1840 .

1841 .

1842 .

1843 .

1844 .

1845 .

1846 .

1847 . '

1848 .

1849 .

1850 _ ...

1851 .

1852 .

1853 .

1854 .

1855 .

1856 .

1857 .

1858 .

1859 .

1860 .

1,290

1,241

1,895

3,014

2,195

1,532

1,561

1,303

1,543

1,403

1,192

809

1,201

1,310

1,364

1,458

1,367

1.689

3,516

1,261

1,411

1,978

1,518

1,849

1,126

1,587

3,619

2,991

2,272

1,778

1,397,679

1,715,139

2,143,024

2,837,182

2,318,605

1,734,768

1,734,830

1,448,470

1,579,581

1,387,258

1,211,615

788,415

1,205,731

1,215,893

1,364,005

1,259,817

1,193,383

2.708,663

1,221,788

1,237,957

1,188,640

1.700,954

1,230,362

1,540,129

1,178,255

1,412,778

2,413,493

2,123,891

1,702.251

1,250,245

531

361

300
238
113
154
194
177
196
318
270
293
290
234
234

301
247
265
329
296
288
314
264
670

3,069

1,380

597

378

1,699

19,725

299,016

136,594

110,900

77,418

47,417

58,967

77,632

69,449

78,431

100,989

100,681

93,459

102,622

78,952

83,458

113,636

86,046

90,503

101,694

101,082

108,619

123,958

103,919

273,791

1,365,227

606,175

289,428

192,584

757,119

783

1,165

909

769
826
604
582
760

845

846
558
743
665
772
604
694

770
691
610
837
915
578
918
733
965
794
800
732
614

276.825

422.225

346.850
274,450
227,050

223.900

165.775
166,365'

235.225
246,875

252.650

168.775
206,800
192,375

232.900

176.775
201,275

239.825
208,400
185,600
235,750
289,950

170.650

267.850
256,581
341,910
210,633
227,189
219,933
192,579

Total .

Average for
each of the
30 years,

50,283
| 1,761

47,384,901

1,579,392

13,931

464

5,849,313

193,643

22,229

741

7,063,450

235,448

Extract from Moniteur of 25th June, 1861.

Whole amount of Pensions 1st Jan’y, . .

“ number of pensioners . 57,36C

Of these officers . 10,764, receiving pensions . frs.

“ soldiers and subalterns, 46,602, “ .

Average of pensions, 1860 . . . . . . . ^

“ amount of pensions granted for five years, per annum. . .

33,395,911

14,863,646

18,532,265

539

2,639,999

The first remark I make in reviewing the French laws and
establishment, is •the necessity of having the Pension and In¬
valid Hospital laws arranged in their details with reference to
each other.

Secondly, The importance of fixing such a scale of pensions
that the pensioners cannot live on them in idleness unless as¬
sisted by friends.

Thirdly, The advantage of giving invalids a choice , under
certain restrictions, between pension and hospital assistance ;
and,

Fourthly, The importance of having the pension laws and
regulations as simple as possible, consistently with exactness.
With us invalid hospitals for the mere purpose of finding work,
and taking the men out of the streets and bar-rooms, will be
needed. Let all those who can support themselves by labor at
home do so— the sooner the better— but let no man be sup¬
ported in idleness outside, and none inside the hospital who
can work; and further, let no man be able to say, “I cannot
live on my pension, and I cannot find work.”

PRUSSIA,

The result of the inquiry here is that Prussia has a volumin¬
ous and complicated system of pensions, but they are made
almost entirely in the interest of the officer or noble class, dhe
common soldier is turned aside with a very small pittance, or
provided for by putting him into civil service, to the exclusion
of civilians, by means of the system of “ Versorgungs-Scheins.”
The case contrasts very poorly with that of France.

Invalids are disposed of in five ways —

1st. They receive their pension and live at home.

2d. “ go into invalid hospitals.

3d. “ join invalid companies.

4th. “ are drafted into the reserve battalion.

5th. “ receive civil-versorgungs-scheins — that is, papers
authorizing them to claim vacant places, within their ability,
in post-offices, railroads, and other Government employments.
Of these some 1,500 are stated to be issued annually, and as
fast as the holders find places equal to their pensions, they are
struct off the list of pensioners, and so relieve Government, at
the expense of other candidates for the places. This must
reduce the list fast, and yet it seems quite large in proportion
to the army and the circumstances of the country.

The whole number of pensioners is 25,000 ; of these, 4,000
officers.

Whole amount spent yearly on pensions, thalers 3,35S,736,

of which officers receive . thalers 2,788,611

“ “ soldiers “ “ 570,125

A very striking contrast with France, where the officers con¬
stitute one-fith of the pensioners, and receive only °** tlie
fund.

The soldiers’ pension here is indeed nominal, viz., minimum

per annum . 12 thalers.

Mamimum (when blind or without arms) . 84 “

A thaler being, say 72 cents, in ordinary times. As Mr. Fay
explains the complications of the system, I will refer to his
letter for particulars.

The invalid hospitals are but two, and contain only 480 in¬
mates. Their cost is even greater here than in Paris, in pro¬
portion to the rate of pensions and of living.

The invalid companies appear to be intended to take the
place of hospitals. There are seven of them distributed about
the kingdom, containing 651 members who have resigned their
pensions, and are quartered on the inhabitants ; of these, 51 are
officers.

The reserved battalion consists of such men as are but little
injured, and are drafted for garrison service, and receive wages.
They come from the class of “half invalids.”

H. B. — Perhaps we might do something in this way ; of course,
leaving it voluntary. For we shall have need of large garrisons
for many years.

The civil-versorgungs-scheins constitute the peculiar fea¬
ture, however, of the Prussian system. They tend here to estab¬
lish a permanent military caste among the lower orders, just as
already exists among the upper, and are, I suppose, favored by
the latter for that reason.

The effect must, however, be very unfavorable for the
numerous poor applicants for places in the subordinate branches
of the civil service.

Extract from Letter of lion. Theodore S. Fay.

And first the system of military pensions :

Prussia maintains at this moment 200,000 effective men, at
the cost of 40 million thalers.

Until 1825, no law existed respecting pensions to officers.
3

34:

Pensions were granted as a matter of favor. Even after the
wars of Napoleon the expenditure amounted only to half a mil¬
lion tor officers and soldiers. No officer received any pension
without first giving his word that he had no other sufficient
means of livelihood.

On the 4th June, 1851, the law, at present in force, regu¬
lating pensions of common soldiers and under officers, was
published by the late king, with the consent of the Chambers.
It is entitled, “Law concerning the support of military
invalids from the Oberfeuerwerker (chief gunner), Eeld-
webel (sergeant), and Wachtmeister (sergeant in the cav¬
alry) down.” (Thus, not including superior officers.) It com¬
prehends persons who have become invalid in active service oi
in consequence of it. The same principle applies to all without
distinction of kind of weapons or of troops. The pensioners are
divided into half invalid and wholly invalid. By half invalid
is understood those entirely disabled for military service in the
field, although not for home military duty in garrison, towns,
fortresses, &c. The wholly invalid are disabled absolutely toi
every kind of military duty, both in the field and at home.

They are subdivided into four classes :

1. Those entirely disabled for every kind of work.

2. Those for the most part disabled.

3. Those partly disabled.

4. Those slightly disabled, but always in such a way as to
wholly disqualify him for military service. A man may be in
perfect health, and able to perform Work of various kinds, and
yet wholly disqualified for military service, by the loss of his
little finger.

Pensions are divided into four classes, and persons entitled
to pensions are divided into four grades.

Bemark. — I have, for the sake of clearness, used the word
grade to designate the four classes of persons entitled to pen¬
sions, and the word class to designate the four different amounts
of pensions. The law uses the word class for both.

The amount of the pensions is monthly :

1. Class.

2. Class.

3. Class.

4. Class.

Thlrs.

Sqr.

Thlrs.

Sqr.

Thlrs.

Sqr.

Thlrs. Sqr.

Grade 1. For Oberfeuerwerker

Feldwebel & Wachtmeister. . .

Grade 2. For Vicefeldwebel &

Sergeanten . ...

2 15

Grade 3. For Teuerwerker and

Unterofficiere .

2 |

Grade 4. For the other soldiers.

Each of these four grades, as is seen, thus receives a different
pension according as he is —

1. Entirely disabled for every kind of work.

2. For the most part disabled for every kind of work.

3. Partly disabled for every kind of work.

4. Slightly disabled for every kind of work, but always in
such a way as to wholly disqualify him for military service.

Pensions are given, however, not only to persons who have
been wounded, or become invalid in, or in consequence of, mili¬
tary duty, but to such as have become weakened and disquali¬
fied by the mere length of their service, without any absolute
malady.

A. Half Invalid.

The half invalid has a right to a pension after —

a. A service of twelve years, or

b. A possessor of a military order won in war, or

c. Wounded on the battle-field, or

d. Injury received in actual service, or

e. Attack of a contagious eye malady during active military
service.

These have the choice either to receive a wholly invalid pen¬
sion of the fourth grade, or to be placed, according to their
rank, in a garrison, or fortress, &c.

The term “ contagious eye malady” requires an explanation.
The French soldiers brought back from Egypt a strange affec¬
tion, the eyelids becoming inflamed and turning inside out. The
inflammation is increased by dusty marches, and loss of sight
often followed. The Prussian authorities declare it contagious.
It is probably unknown among us.

B. Wholly Invalid.

The wholly invalid has a right to the first-class pension.

a. After having served at least 21 years, or

b. Who have in time of war won a Prussian military order, or

c. Who have been wounded on the battle-field, or

d. Who have been injured in direct military service (exclud¬
ing all but direct service), or

e . Who have become entirely blind from contagious malady
in the eyes, during active military service.

Second-class pensions are given to wholly invalid persons in
a great degree unable to support themselves, after 15 years’ ser¬
vice, on the same conditions as preceding section.

Third-class pensions are given to the wholly invalid

a. After 12 years’ service, or

b. Possessing an order as before, or

c. Who have become partly unable to support themselves, in
consequence of certain causes designated in section 10 of the

law.

Fourth-class pensions as designated section II.

Mutilated, or quite blind, invalids are in every case counted
as entirely unable to support themselves.

Invalids receiving first-class pensions when mutilated or quite
blind, without distinction of grade, receive an additional pen¬
sion in the following cases and decrees :

Loss of two arms, thlr. 3.15 sgr. monthly.

“ u the right arm, thlrs. 2. — • “

“ “ the left arm, u 1. 15 sgr. “

“ “ two feet, “ 1- — “

Complete blindness of both eye3, thlrs. 2.15 sgur. monthly.

The 14th section of the law supposes the case of a person who
may claim one of the higher classes of pension by this length
of service, but who, notwithstanding, is not really disabled from
gaining his support, a lower pension will be accorded to such a
person according to the actual degree of his disablement. For
instance, the loss of a finger classes a man with the wholly in.
valid, and after a service of 21 years entitles him to the invalid
pension of the first class ; but if, in other respects, his health is

good enough to permit him to work at his profession, a lower
pension is substituted.

Oberfeuerwerker ( Feldwebel, ( ),

Wachtmeister, ( ), entitled to pensions of the first

class receive instead of the same, higher pensions, after

30 years’ service, 10 thlrs. monthly.

40 “ “ 12 “ “

50 “ “ 15 “

In the invalid houses,* and invalid companies, f the- wholly
invalid, who have claim to the first-class pensions, are received
by preference before the others ; the mutilated by the loss of an
arm or a foot, before such as are not mutilated ; and, of course,
those having lost two arms or two feet, or the entirely blind,
before the rest. Of those accepted, only a fourth part must be
married persons, and must not bring with them children over
fourteen years.

The claim of a soldier must be properly presented for examin¬
ation before released from the service.

Soldiers becoming invalid after quitting the service receive
pensions of the fourth class, when they have won an order in
war as above, or when their invalid state results from the causes

stipulated in the other sections.

Persons not military, but in military service, have, under cer¬
tain modifications and regulations, the same claim to pensions
as military persons; for instance, arsenal gunsmiths, &c. ^

I have given above a resume of the pension law of 1851, foi
common soldiers. The principle upon which it is founded,
perhaps cannot be understood, except by one acquainted with
the country itself. When I asked what regulated the amount
of the pension, the reply was: “The knowledge of the means

* There are two invalid houses in Prussia— one in Berlin with 400 inmates, and
one iu Stolpe with 80. Most injuries entitle invalids to admission, but on entering
they relinquish their pensions, which, however, on again coming out they resume.
In these houses they are supplied with everything gratuitously, but board an
drink. For this they pay out of their pension 1£ groschen per day.

\ Invalid companies are designed to take the place of the hospitals. There me
seven of them, containing 51 officers and 600 men. On entering them the mVc .
loses his pension, and is quartered on private families.

of subsistence.” It aims at supplying the disabled soldier, who
has conducted himself well, and, at the same time, performed
his military service, with 'his daily bread. The pensioner
wholly disabled from gaining his own livelihood, can live easily
and comfortably upon the sum allotted to him. Take, for
example, a common soldier, disabled by the loss of two arms,
thus totally unable even to turn a hand organ ; he receives 3
thlrs. 15 sgr. pension, and 3 thl. 15 sgr. additional for the loss
of his arms, in all 88 thlrs. per annum, which may be applied as
follows : A comfortable room for 10 thlrs., if unfurnished, a
a high estimate, leaving 74 thlrs. for clothing, food and fuel,
&c. I am assured, that all the necessaries of life thus lie
within reach of this sum, of course, not in cities, and, taking for
granted the absence of bad habits, and of every kind of super¬
fluity, except a little tobacco, and an occasional glass of beer.

To your question, as to what system of employment is estab¬
lished for the purpose of relieving the government from the
support of persons able to support themselves, I answer : Prussia
has such a system in her criminal prisons, but not in her military
hospitals, as the soldier would consider himself lowered by
being put to this kind of forced labor. But the government
accomplishes the same purpose in another way. Those
who are able to labor receive, what is called, u civil- versor-
gungs schein.” This is a certificate which entitles the possessor
to claim any vacant place in the public service for which he is
qualified. The government is thus not only relieved from the
charge of the principal part of disabled pensioners, able to
work, but secures the services of a large number of tried
servants, accustomed to obedience, and bound to it by ties
of interest and gratitude. About 1,500 of these certificates are
given annually, although the places are not always immediately
obtainable. Half invalid persons may choose between three
advantages :

1. Pension of the fourth class.

2. Place in a garrison or fortress.

3. Civil-versorgungs schein.

Kemark. — This certificate is never given to an epileptic, nor

to any one who has not been distinguished by a good conduct.
The old or invalid soldier is thus preferred for every possible
place. He is the porter of the public department and offices,
the keeper or overseer of the royal palaces and gardens, the
conductor and the watchman of the railroad, such as are
government property, and with such as are not, it is stipulated
on granting the concession that they receive this kind ot
employe. They compose the numerous personnel of the post-
office. They are the letter-carriers and the postillions, and
places are found for them in the administration of theatres,
operas, &c. The gendarme, the custom-house officer, the
constable, the police officer, all these are relieving the govern¬
ment of the weight of the pension system. Even the aged
pauper, who receives permission to turn the hand-organ in
public promenades, is an old soldier, who pays for his license.
I presume, it may be taken for granted, that no pensioner able
to work is long without an employment by which the govern¬
ment is relieved.

It is, however, of course, obvious that this great advantage
to the military class is at the expense of the civil population,
and that many deserving persons, not in the army or in
the civil employment of the government find the uniform
often before them in the principal paths of preferment, and
are thus placed on the footing of an inferior caste. This
would not probably be the case in our country, at least for
one or two generations, and as good conduct is, and ought to
be, a sine qua non , the innumerable places disposed of by our
government might well be committed to ^the faithful employe
qualified to perform his duties, instead, as has been often
hitherto the case, of being bestowed, without regard to charac¬
ter and qualification, as a reward for party political services.

But might not such a system be used as a party instrument
by unscrupulous politicians? Certainly, and the law should, as
far as possible, guard against such a danger. It is clear, how¬
ever, that the danger of rewarding unworthy party servants
with public places would not be increased by such a system,

* About one thousand 'pensions are thus provided for per annum They lose
their pensions only as they obtain places with the Scheins equal to the pension.

but rather narrowed in its operations, and it would be for the
wisdom of the legislative power to provide means of counteract¬
ing it as far as possible.

While the common soldier and subordinate officer are thus
secured from want, the family, after his death, has no legal
claim, but private benevolence, under the patronage of the
government, has done much for this class in the form of orphan
schools and asylum.

The number of pensioned soldiers in 1852 was 29,000, at
about the expense of 790,000 thalers. The number has dimin¬
ished in ten years to 21,000 ; the expenses to 570,000 thalers.

The law of 1851 does not refer to superior officers. These
are of course, in a higher degree, objects of public favor, and
the agffregate costs amount to about two millions of thalers.
30 years’ service entitles to a pension of half-pay. The highest
pension is the whole pay.

********

It may be added that an annual appropriation of 100,000
thalers is given for the relief of families of deceased officers.
Such items are accorded as 30 thalers a year for a boy’s school-
money, and 24 for a girl’s. The number of pensioned officers
amounts to 4,000, and the aggregate cost 2J million thalers.*

4S-- 4 f * * *

It might be added that the government is quite satisfied with

* Number of pensioned soldiers in 1862, 21,0Q0; aggregate amount of annual
pensions, Th. 570,125 ; average pension of soldier per annum, Tk. 27
(about $ ).

Number of pensioned officers in 1862,4,000; aggregate amount of pensions,
Th. 2,788,611 ; average pension of officers per annum, Tk. 697 (about $ ).

But the disparity in favor of rank will more fully appear by comparison with
France, where officers forming one-fifth of the pension list receive only 15-33 of the
pension fund, while in Prussia officers forming less than one-sixth of the pension
list, receive 25-30 of the fund, or seventy-five per cent. more.

Recapitulation.

Cost. Average Thalers per man.

No. of pensioned soldiers, 1862, 21,000 I Th. 570,125 I 27

“ “ officers, “ 4,000 | 2,788,611 | 697

Th. 3,358,736

the pension system, but the Chambers have attacked it as too
expensive.

Accompanied by Capt. Yon Boehn, I personally visited the
Prussian military invalid hospital in Berlin. We were very
courteously received by Lieutenant Yon Gersdorf, one of the
chief employes of the administration of this establishment,
which is under the care of Gen. MalizewskL Every informa¬
tion we required was carefully given. There are no printed
reports. The building is a spacious edifice, surrounded by an
extensive park; the whole founded and presented by Frederick
the Great, and possessing from him a rent of 150,000 thalers,
often increased by legacies, &c. There are 400 occupants, who
suffer no other control than the rule to be in every evening at
9 o’clock. The building and land to-day would probably cost
100,000 thalers. Another hospital for 400 sick, cost the build¬
ing alone 180,000 thalers. Special accounts could be obtained,
if required. The yearly expenses for food and salary are
42,000 thalers ; for keeping up the establishment, warming,
lighting, etc., 12,000 thalers ; for clothing, 3,000 thalers. Or¬
ganized as follows :

1 commandant.

8 chefs de compagnies.

8 first-lieutenants.

9 second-lieutenants.

400 men, of vdiom a hundred may be married. The pen¬
sioners receive gratuitously lodging, washing, cloth, light, fuel,
everything except board and drink. They pay for food out of
their pension one groschen and a quarter a day. They may
drink what, and as much as they like, of course paying tor it
themselves. The whole expense of the establishment for food,
salary, clothing, lighting, warming, etc., amounts to 57,000
Prussian thalers a year, exclusive of rent. Fete days, Christmas,
king’s birthday, etc., wine and other additions to the fare are
made.

* * * * * * *

I am, sir, with the greatest respect,

Your obedient servant,

Theo. S. Fat.

Berlin, November 21, 1862.

Stephen IT. Perkins, Esq.

Extract from second letter of Me. Fay, replying to certain

inquiries.

Hospitals.

1. There are but two in Prussia — one in Berlin, with 400 in¬
valids, one in Stolpe, with 80. Both organized in the same
way.

2. On entering, invalids lose their pensions. If they wish to
leave, they can receive their pensions again, but then they can
return no mere.

3. The estimate per head, of 16TJ thalers, for the 400 men,
is incorrect, as the 57,000 thalers, and 180,000 thalers for the
building, are not devoted to those 400 men alone. There are,
besides them, gratuitously lodged in the building, twenty-six
officers, four physicians, and the commandant, a general.. These
have lodging, fire, service. The officers, often married men,
have from three to seven of the best rooms apiece, so that a very
considerable deduction must be made.

4. The right to a pension of first class, is by preference ac¬
corded to the greatest cripples.

Of Invalid Companies.

5. The same institution as the invalid houses , except the ten¬
ants have somewhat more freedom. There are seven invalid
companies in Prussia, distributed through the provinces. It
Prussia had more invalid houses, these companies would not
exist. It is neither particularly advantageous nor disadvan¬
tageous to be stationed there. The men are quartered upon
private families, and make themselves useful, if they wish to
do so, and thus earn something. The pension of the first class
entitles them to entrance. Nothing is gained, nothing lost, by
entering, except they resign their pensions.

6. Without officers and physicians, 600 — with officers and
physicians, 651.

7. The members lose their pensions, as before stated, and they
are not counted among the 25,000 pensioners. The 25,000
comprise 4,000 officers and 21,000 soldiers. Among the offi¬
cers are counted pensioned physicians and administrative
officers.

Of the Reserved Battalion.

8. These questions are answered in my previous letter. The
members are soldiers disqualified for field service, but yet qual¬
ified for military service at home. They do not belong to the
25,000 pensioners, and receive no pension. They are stationed
in fortresses, large cities, etc. They are paid as other soldiers.
Their advantage is a lighter service. Each of the eight prov¬
inces has one reserved battalion, and each battalion about 500
men ; so the aggregate of 4,000 men.*

•

Of Invalids Provided with the Versorgungs-schein.

0. To your question Ho. 9, touching the versorgungs-schein,
you say that the number of French pensioners is 57,000, of
which 46,603 soldiers, and that the French army is twice as
large as that of Prussia, and constantly at war. You find,
therefore, a great disproportion in 25,000 Prussian pensioners,
of whom 21,000 soldiers, when you annually add 1,500 new
applicants, provided with versorgungs-schein.

Answer : This disproportion would really exist, if 1,590 ver¬
sorgungs-schein entitling to places were annually given to new
cases, continually added by the small Prussian army in time of
peace; which would raise, in ten years, the number of pension¬
ers from 25,000 to 40,000. But this is not the case. The whole
number of Prussian pensioners, officers and soldiers, are, with
one exception, included in the 25,000. The versorgungs-schein
is given to the oldest and most pressing cases among the 25,000
pensioners, and only to such as are entitled to the pension of
the first class. Any increase beyond the natural diminution in
tho number of pensioners, is therefore not to be interred trom
the annual issue of so many versorgungs-schein.

The pension is not abandoned on receiving the versorgungs-
schein, unless they receive a place equal in value to the pension.
In that case, as they receive no further pension, they aie not
any more counted among the 2o,000 pensioners. JCheie must
he, of course, a continual succession of individuals among the
class of pensioners. There will, as it is composed of the aged
and the invalid, be naturally more deaths tnan in other classes,
and the military service, often very severe even in time of
peace, will also constantly furnish new contributions. The
whole number has decreased.

Remark. — The versorgungs-schein is not a place— it is only a
promise of a place, when a vacancy shall occur. The 1,500
new cases must not annually be added, but undoubtedly to the
number of 25,000, as constituting the persons entitled to pen¬
sion, must be added such possessors of versorgungs-schein as
have received places, and thus abandon their pensions. The
question then arises: how many these are? The average is
about two-thirds.

10. The king advances whom he likes, without schein,
up to captains. The pensions of the higher officers are so high
as to render any ordinary office out of the question. The actual
sum paid annually by the Prussian government for pensions, is
3,358,136 thalers, of which 2,788,611 thalers for officers, and
the rest for common soldiers.

With regard to your closing query, pointing out how much
more equitable the government favor appears apportioned be¬
tween the officers and soldiers in France than in Prussia, it is
stated that the principal support extended to higher officers in
France, is drawn from the war budget, and not from the pen¬
sion fund. This, however, seems to me erroneous.

I am, my dear Mr. Perkins,

"Very sincerely yours.

Theo. S. Fay.

AUSTRIA.

1st. In the Austrian service pensions are not granted for
length of service, or of age, but only to those who, during ser¬
vice, have become by wounds, or otherwise, “ unfit for further
service”

fid. The pension to officers is one-tenth of full pay, if they
are pensioned during the first 5 or 10 years service (according
to rank) and increases to full pay, as the number of years of ac¬
tive service increases. Officers in hospital (i. e., those who
have lost a limb or are blind or epileptic) receive full pay.

3d. Common soldiers not entitled to enter hospital (constitut¬
ing the vast mass of invalids), receive five new lereutzers pen¬
sion per day, and must take care of themselves. If they have
lost a limb they get 10 new kreutzers additional / if they have
lost two limbs, or are quite blind, they receive an addition of 20
kreutzers a-day, in lieu of ten.

4th. Officers or soldiers are admitted into the Invalid hos¬
pitals and u Filialien” only when they have lost a limb, or the
use of one ; or have received such other wounds as entirely
incapacitate them to help themselves, and have no other re¬
source ; or when exceedingly old ; or blind, or deaf, or insane,
or epileptic.

5th. When they are admitted into hospital they retain their
pensions, and are fed and clpthed beside.

FT.B. — It follows from the above that the minimum of the
soldiers’ pension is 5 kreutzers per diem (say 2J cents), and
liberty to find work ; the maximum , 25 kreutzers per diem (11
cents), plus his board and and lodging. The subaltern receive
6 to 20 kreutzers minimum.

6th. The present number of Austrian
69,650, amounting last year

to the sum of. ,

military pensions is

. Florins 10,250,025

viz. :

8,690

2,375

Widows & orphans (officers’)

6,475

Soldiers .

49,809

67,249

Officers . 200

Soldiers . 2,201

In hospital or “ filialien”. . . .

2,401

Total number of pensions 69,650

Amount for officers and non-

combatants . 7,851,165

Widows and orphans . 933,8 <0

8,785,035

Amount for soldiers in and

out of hospital . 1,465,000

Pensions, . Florins 10,250,035

Cost of three hospitals and
three filialien . 389,245

Total cost of Invalids . 10,639,280

£T,B. _ An Austrian florin or guilder, contains one hundred

new kreutzers, and is equal to, say 45 cents.

7th. There are three invalid hospitals — one at Yienna, one at
Prague, one at Tyrnau, and three “filialien,”* one at Neuler-
chenfeldt, one at Ciridale, one atSkality — the whole containing
200 officers and 2,201 soldiers, and costing, including salaries of
78 administrative officers: Florins, 389,245 = 162 florins per
head.

It appears from this statement that the great part of the pen¬
sion fund is received here, as in Prussia, by the class of officeis,
and indeed the common soldier, unless his injuries are of a
kind to secure him a place in hospital, is worse off here than in
Prussia. The number of pensioned officers is large, being, with
the non-combatants and widows, one quarter of the whole
number of pensions. The average of officers and non-combat¬
ants set ms small, viz., about 700 florins a year, that of widows
about 144 florins, and that of alt the soldiers and subalterns , in
and out of hospital, 28 florins per annum or 7f kreutzers, a little
over three cents a day.

* The filialien I suppose to be companies analogous to the “ Invalid Companies
of Prussia.

■'j

In France the minimum is 1 franc a day, say 20 cts. per day.
“ Russia “ “ • “ 12 thlrs. per an., say 2i cts. “

“ Austria “ “ “ 5 krtzrs. per day, say 2J cts. “

In France j of pensions, being officers, receive if 0f funcp
“ Prussia £ “ “ “ “ « ll «

“ Austria * “ “ including widows u «

The demociatic piinciple has been applied to the subject in
France for some years, but has not yet reached Germany.

On the whole I do not see that we can find much to imitate
in the Austrian pension or hospital laws.

RUSSIA.

Pension System of Russia.*

The fundamental idea of this system, is, that, every one in
the employment of the State who lias served during a certain
length of time, (25 years in public schools, 30 years in the
medical staff, and 35 years in the military service, and other
branches of the Government,) retires with a pension equal
to the compensation of his last office.

After death, one-half ot this pension passes to his widow, who
enjoys it during life, or until her second marriage, the other half
is divided among his children during their minority. There
are cases in which a right to a pension arises before quitting
the service, which is equivalent to a double compensation.

Should the person retire from service after from 15 to 25
years, he receives a pension equal to one-half of the pay of his
last office. At his death one-half goes to his widow, the other
to his children. But if, during his term of service, the person is
attacked by any disease, however indirectly it may have been
produced by the labors or duties of his office, or if he has met
with an accident, occurring during such service, he has a right
to be retired with a pension of from 5 to 10 years in advance of

Extract from a letter of Baron Larrey to Mr. Perkins.

bis Wd u™. Tta* » >• pS

duties of the service, or occuir 1 geyeri by 5 or 10

diminishes, according to the cgr a pension,

years, the legal time required by ^ in advance of

Wounds, in soldiers, a so 8"e a ° there are three classes:
thc required term of service • <* ^ght of retiring with a

1st. Such as, at any moment, »

» —.a. .to Ugd •!">• "j “ r“™' “a

With the exception of these general . » f<mnded

in Russia a subordinate pension un the name of

by .to Emperor "..ante Id. ™ ” |>[ge „

'i- I”“-

S'°Diiring .to year 1862, .to .»»«». of pe»»»

inlaid, i. hospital varies from

35 to 75 copeks.

ITALY.

Pensions.

1st. The Italian Government grants military pensions “ de re -
traites ” (</) for length of servico, of thirty years to commissioned
officers, and of twenty-five years to subalterns and soldiers, ip)
for injuries and disease incurred in service.

^d. All those who receive pensions are stricken off the army
list, and re-enter civil life.

3d. Those pensioned for length of service receive the mini¬
mum rate ; but if they have served longer than the required
time, the rate rises with the excess of service till it reaches the
maximum.

4th. Those pensioned for injuries receive the pension what¬
ever the time of servico ; when they have become blind, or
lost two limbs, they receive the maximum increased 50 per
cent. If the injury is •equal to the loss of one limb, they re¬
ceive the maximum. For any lesser injury, the minimum.

5th. Widows and orphans left by thoso dying from injuries,
receive half the maximum. If the death occur while in receipt
of a pension, but not from injuries received in war, the widow,
Ac., gets one-quarter of the pension.

6th. The tariff allows- —

Max. Min.

For a General of Division . 8,000 6,000

“ Colonel . 3,600 2,700

Captain . 1,900 1,400

Soldier . 350 200

franca or liyrea per annum.

7th. j Total number of “militairea retrains” . 30,229

1863 I Total amount of pensions . Frs. 15,748,328

Proportion of officers and their pensions not given.

Hospitals for Veterans and Invalids.

1st. There are now two in Italy called Case Reale.

One at Asti containing inmates .

“ “ Naples .

10,579

each' under command of a major-general with a regular staff.

2d. Cost of both estimated for 1833, francs 6,388,593.

3d. They contain two distinct corps (a) veterans , viz., those
unfit for active but capable of garrison service, Ac., ( b ) Invalids
who are unfit for any service.

4th. Although only the first are armed, they are both classed
as soldiers, and as such do not receive pensions , but have
special allowances in money and rations, from which they pa#y
their own expenses. The Government, however, furnishes the
subalterns and soldiers with food, clothes, bed, and fire, to cover
which, certain sums are retained from the pay, as detailed in
the report, and the balance is paid them in cash. After being
so provided for, there seems to bo about three francs per month
paid to the common soldier — equal to about one week’s wages
for a common laborer.

5th. In these houses there are two kinds of schools with paid
teachers, viz., [a) one for boys learning music to join the army
bands, (b) one for children of the soldiers of both sexes, where
reading, writing, arithmetic, Ac., are taught. Special appro¬
priations are made for the expense of these schools, for the arms
of the veterans, hospital expenses, Ac., all being comprised in
the above aggregate.

6th. The veterans are drafted off into three kinds of service,
(a) into garrisons in the proportion of one-fifth of garrison, (b)
into the guards of the royal palaces, ( c ) into the gendarmerie
in the proportion of one-fourth of latter. The gendarme re¬
cruits are from subalterns. They are also employed as scribes,
porters, and servants.

7th. The allowance to veterans and invalids is higher to the
officers than the maximum, and higher to the soldier than the
minimum pensions, viz. :

To a colonel it is frs. 6,600, to a captain frs. 2,200, and to a
soldier 80 centimes per diem, say 292 frs. per annum.

8th. Total number of pensioners, invalids, and

veterans . 40,808

Total cost of military pensions and hospitals for

invalids and veterans . frs. 22,136,921

9th. Average per head per annum, together.. “ 542J

Do. “ u “ “ pensions _ u 521

Do. “ “ “ “ invalids, &c. “ 603

N. B. — The Government is about to establish a first class
invalid hospital in the Poggio Imperiale, near the Roman gate
of Florence.

I regret that the government did not furnish a statement of
the proportion of the pension money paid to officers and widows.
As regards the invalid hospitals, they appear to have been
established on an extravagant basis, as compared with the pen¬
sions.

This is so everywhere, for one reason or another, but nowhere
so much as in Italy. There seems to have been good feeling
shown in the construction of those laws, and there are some
great improvements on the French practice, such as the intro¬
duction of schools, the employment of those capable of labor
(the veterans), &c., but, on the other hand, there is great want
of judgment shown in making the condition of the common
soldier in hospital too attractive, and so stimulating the national
fault of lack of independence and energy. The consequence is,
that the number of those in hospital is one-third as large as the
whole number of pensioners, and the cost of maintaining them,
including the schools, over two-fiths of the pensions. In France,
where the right to enter the hospital is very much the same,
the number of pensioners is 57,366, and the number in hospital
only 2,099, which shows a difference very honorable to French
character. The cost per head, in hospital in France, is so high
because the hotel is fitted and officered for double the number
it contains, but here the hospitals are crowded (that of Naples
must be a monster establishment), and the great cost per head
is owing to an excessive allowance to the officers and soldiers

in hospital. This I consider one of the greatest faults which
can be made in establishing a hospital system, though its effect
in America or France would probably not be so apparent as in
Italy. The Italians will, however, probably rather increase
than diminish the faults in new establishments.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. OS.

PRELIMINARY REPORT

OF THE OPERATIONS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION WITH THE
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF
JUNE AND JULY, 1863.

Washington, July 23d, 1863.

To tiie Executive Committee

of the Sanitary Commission :

Gentlemen — In accordance with your request, a statement
of recent operations in the Department of the Potomac, is
herewith presented. No general reports having been received
from the Inspectors in the field, and the Secretary of the De¬
partment being still absent at Gettysburg, it will necessarily
be incomplete, but will suffice to show that the organization
of the Commission has accomplished its design in the premises,
notwithstanding misfortunes for which it was not to be
expected that provision should be made.

The Army of the Potomac broke camp on the Rappahannock
on the 12th of June, the effective forces moving northward by
forced marches, and the sick and wounded being removed by
rail to Aquia Creek, and thence by steamboats to Washington.
A small part of the Commission’s Potomac Relief Corps was
sent with the marching columns ; the stores and furniture of
the relief stations and depots at Falmouth, Potomac Creek,
and Brook’s Station were hastily but safely removed to Aquia
Creek, whence, as soon as the inmates of the hospitals had
been embarked, they were all shipped on a steamboat which
had been held there for that purpose.

The number of hospital patients to be removed was nearly
ten thousand. They were taken from Aquia Creek on such
boats as the Quartermaster’s Department was able to obtain

for the emergency at Washington. No provision having been
made on board of them for such service, and being crowded,
there was necessarily much hardship. The patients were
landed immediately on the arrival of the boats at the govern¬
ment wharf at Washington, where, owing to the necessarily
limited number of vehicles which could be commanded, they
accumulated in large numbers. The agents of the Commis¬
sion, with a considerable volunteer force engaged for the
occasion, labored night and day to provide for their wants,
and this with as much good judgment as zeal. A kitchen
having been previously established on the wharf, cauldrons
of hot beef soup and coffee, with bread by the wagon-load,
were kept constantly ready, and served to all as soon as they
arrived, and as often as needed while they remained. More
than eight thousand were fed in two days, and most of the
patients thus received the only nourishment they obtained
from the time they left the camps on the Eappahannock till
they reached their destination in the fixed hospitals. Those
going northward from Washington were a second time pro¬
vided for in a similar manner, at the railway station in
Washington. Many of the agents of the Commission labored
at this time two and three days and nights without rest.
The ordinary “ special relief ” business of the Commission at
Washington was at the same time much increased. Twenty
stragglers and discharged men died at its Home within the
fortnight.

The wagons of the Commission attending the army on its
march were frequently replenished with supplies sent out
from the depot at Washington, and daily rendered valuable
assistance to the surgeons having the care of the men wounded
in the skirmishes, in the cavalry engagements at the gaps of
the mountains, and those falling ill under the fatigues and
privations of the several forced marches, undertaken in the
heat of midsummer, in a dry and desolated region.

Immediately upon the retreat of General Milroy’s forces
from Winchester, it was ascertained that the supply of hos¬
pital stores at Harper's Ferry was very limited, and a relief
agent was sent in charge of a wagon-load of such stores, from

•A

the Commission’s depot at Frederick, as would supply the
more important deficiencies. This was got safely through,
but the wagon, on its return, with the teamster and horses,
was captured by Stuart’s cavalry. The relief agent, having
remained with the wounded at Harper’s Ferry, escaped. The
teamster is still missing.

The Commission’s stores at Frederick were safely concealed
during its occupation by the enemy, hut as soon as the Army
of the Potomac reached there, the depot was again opened
and the stock increased. The wagons moving with the army
have since received their supplies from this point.

When the enemy was known to have crossed the Potomac
in force, responsible and experienced officers of the Commission
were stationed at Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and
Frederick, and a systematic daily communication was estab¬
lished between them and the agents moving with the different
columns of the army. Supplies were accumulated and held
ready for movement at different points on the circumference
of the seat of war, and care was taken to have ample reserves
at the Branch offices ready for shipment. With the first
news of the battle of Gettysburg, Westminster, the nearest
point of railroad communication to the battle-field, was fixed
upon as the point of approach, and authority to run a car
daily with the government trains to that station was obtained.

Two wagon-loads of battle-field supplies had been distributed
to meet deficiencies in the stores of the surgeons, shortly
before the battle commenced. These wagons returned to
Frederick for loads, and two others, fully loaded, arrived
from Frederick at the moment of the assault of Longstreet
upon the left wing of the loyal army, and were pushed forward,
under fire, to reach the collections of wounded in its rear. As
one of them came to a point where several hundred sufferers
had been taken from the ambulances and laid upon the ground
behind a barn and in an orchard, less than five hundred yards
in the rear of our line of battle, on the left wing, then fiercely
engaged, a surgeon was seen to throw up his arms, exclaim¬
ing, u Thank God! here comes the Sanitary Commission.
Now we shall be able to do something.” He had exhausted

nearly all of his supplies ; and the brandy, beet soup, sponges,
chloroform, lint, and bandages, which were at once furnished
him, were undoubtedly the means of saving many lives. The
empty wagons which had gone back to Frederick, were
reloaded and ready to leave there on the 4th. Dr. McDonald,
who was acting Chief Inspector in the field, having arranged
for the further movement of supplies by Westminster, under¬
took to conduct one of the wagons to Gettysburg by Ernmits-
burg, the nearest route; the other was sent by the way of
Westminster. The latter got safely through to the hospitals
in the rear of the Army; the former, with Dr. McDonald
and the Eev. Mr. Scandlin, a relief agent, and the teamster,
fell into the hands of the enemy’s cavalry, and have since
been heard of, marching as prisoners with the rebels in their
retreat. Dr. McDonald having been charged with the chief
responsibility of the operations of the Commission upon the
battle-field, and especially with that of arranging communi¬
cations and methods of supply, his absence, the cause of which
was not for some days understood, caused some embarrass¬
ment. Supplies having, however, been sent to Westminster,
before the close of the battle, a school-house centrally situated
among the corps hospitals, was taken as a field depot, to
which they were as rapidly as possible brought by the three
remaining wagons then on the ground, and from which they
were rapidly distributed where most needed. Eleven wagon¬
loads of special supplies were here distributed to the corps
hospitals and to scattering groups of wounded found in the
field, before any supplies arrived by railroad. Additional
means of transportation were at length procured from the
country people, of whom, also, some stores were obtained, and
a station was opened in the town of Gettysburg. On the 6th,
the branch railroad to Gettysburg, which had been broken
up by the enemy, was so far repaired as to allow a train to
approach within a mile of the town. By the first train which
came over it after the battle, two car-loads of most valuable
goods were sent by the Commission, and two or more went
by each succeeding train for a week. The wounded now began
to be brought from the field to the railroad for removal to

fixed hospitals elsewhere. As they arrived much faster than
they could he taken away, they were laid on the ground
exposed to the rain, or to the direct rays of the July sun,
without food. This having been anticipated and provided for
by the Commission’s agents in Baltimore, on the second day
the Commission had a complete relief station, on a large
scale, in operation, at the temporary terminus of the railroad.
It consisted of several tents and awnings, with a kitchen and
other conveniences. From that time to the present, from one
to two thousand wounded men have been fed at this station
daily, and from one to two hundred furnished with beds at
night. With the completion of the road, the relief station
was removed to the town ; a new and larger depot for the
distribution of goods was also established in the town, and
additional horses and wagons to assist in this duty were got
up from Baltimore.

In the meantime, the movements of the army and the
prospects of another great battle on the Potomac, demanded
the attention of the Commission. Six new wagons, with
horses, were procured in Baltimore and Washington, and
sent to Frederick, to which point also supplies were forwarded
by rail, and thence transferred by wagons to Boonsboro,
where a house was taken and a depot established on the same
day that it was occupied by General Meade. A house for a
depot was also secured at Hagerstown as soon as the enemy
retired from it. Supplies were at the same time sent by rail
down the Cumberland Valley, with wagons and horses for
their further carriage, procured in Philadelphia.

The above is a very imperfect outline of the general plan
of measures taken to secure a prompt application of the means
of relief entrusted to the Commission, at the points where it
was likely to have the greatest value.

The following is an incomplete statement of the quantities
of the principle articles distributed by the Commission to the
wounded upon the field at Gettysburg, during the ten days
following the battle. The perishable articles (amounting to
over 60 tons) were taken to the ground in refrigerating cars.
A considerable quantity of the same articles purchased from

or contributed by the farmers about Gettysburg, is not included
under this statement :

Of drawers, shirts, and other hospital body-clothing, 39,884
pieces, being equal to full suits of clean bed-clothing for ten
thousand wounded men.

Of beds, sheets, blankets, comforts, pillows, cushions for
wounded limbs, and mosquito-nets, 11,700 pieces, being
equivalent to a complete bed equipment for eighteen hundred

men, severely wounded.

Of Bed utensils . 728

“ Towels and napkins . 10,000

“ Sponges . 2,300

“ Combs . 1,500

u Buckets . 200

“ Soap, Castile . 250 pounds.

“ Oil silk . 300 yards.

“ Tin basins, cups, etc . 7,000

“ Old linen, bandages, etc . 110 barrels.

“ Water tanks . . . 7

“ Water coolers . 46

u Bay rum and Cologne water . 100 bottles.

“ Fans . 3,500

e< Chloride of lime . 11 barrels.

“ Shoes and slippers . 4,000 pairs.

“ Crutches . 1,200 pairs.

“ Lanterns . 180

“ Candles . 350 pounds.

“ Canvas . 300 sq. yds.

Of Articles of Sustenance , viz :

Fresh poultry and mutton .

u Butter...., .

“ Eggs, (chiefly collected for the occa¬
sion at farm-houses in Pennsylvania

and New Jersey) .

££ Garden vegetables .

££ Berries .

4 ‘ Bread .

11,000 pounds.
6,100 “

8,500 dozens.
675 bushels.
48 u
10,300 loaves.

I°e . 20,000 pounds.

Concentrated beef soup . 3,800 “

“ milk . 12,500 “

Prepared farinaceous food . 7,000 u

Dried fruit . 3,500 “

Jellies and conserves . 2,000 jars.

Tamarinds . 750 gallons.

Lemons . 116 boxes.

Oranges . 46 u

Coffee . . 850 pounds.

Tea . 426 “

White sugar . 6,800 “

Syrups, (lemon, etc.) . 785 bottles.

Brandy . 1,250 “

Whiskey . 1,168 “

Wine . 1,148 “

Ale . 600 gallons.

Biscuit, crackers, and rusk . 134 barrels.

Preserved meats . 500 pounds.

Preserved fish . 3,600 “

Pickles . 400 gallons.

Tobacco . 100 pounds.

Tobacco pipes . 1,000

The service of the Commission has never been more honor¬
able to those engaged in it than in this campaign. The fact
that four agents of the Commission are now prisoners of war,
taken while endeavoring to push forward supplies ; that in
performing assigned duties several of them have placed their
lives in imminent jeopardy, while others have labored contin¬
uously during successive days and nights ; and that while
there have been many critical points in the arrangements of
the service, nothing of consequence has failed to be found at
the time and place demanded, testify to the courage, zeal,
and industry, no less than to the patience and good discipline
which has been exercised. More than double the usual
number of persons have been employed ; nearly all those
added to the force have been formerly in the service of the
Commission, however, and volunteered their aid for the

emergency; This accounts for the large amount of work
which has been clone on certain occasions with a comparatively
small display of force. The general superintendence has been
a very light and grateful duty.

Respectfully,

FRED. LAW OLMSTED,

General Secretary .

o^~i~ •

u. s. Sanitary commission.

3XTo. GS3>„

STATEMENT

the object and methods

OF TUB

SANITARY COMMISSION,

Appointed by the Government of the United States, June 18, 1861.

PUBLISHED BY ITS DIRECTION.

NEW YORK :

Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, corner of Liberty.

18 63.

At the last session of the Sanitary Commission, at Washington, a
resolution was adopted “That the subject of an appeal to the public
“ for funds be referred to a Committee consisting of the Standing Com-
“ mittee and the members of the Commission residing at Philadelphia and
tt Boston.” This Committee submits the following statement.

823 Broadway , New York , Bee. 7, 1863.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

I Njr<o>„ 69.

The Sanitary Commission was created by Government in
June, 1861.

Like every other organ of our National energies it has been
steadily gaining strength ever since that time. The resources
that have been put at its disposal, and the work it has been
enabled to do, far exceed the most sanguine hopes of its founders.
Its atotoi e^aie receipts (including the money value of supplies
sent to its depots) are believed to exceed the income of any other
benevolent organization, American or Foreign, during the same
period.

The objects of this paper are, first, to state what has been
done with these great public benefactions; and, secondly, to
enable the People to determine whether it will or will not pro¬
mote the National cause, by enabling the Commission to continue
and extend its efforts.

A large portion of its resources has been expended on measures
for the prevention of disease. Their result is necessarily nega¬
tive and cannot be stated with certainty. The low rate of
mortality from disease in our Armies has unquestionably been
due in some degree to the warnings and labors of the Commis¬
sion. But it is impossible to say how much other causes have
contributed to it, or to distinguish their effects from those due
to the work of the Commission.

It is certain that, in the summer of 1861, experienced Army
officers predicted that malaria, camp fever and dysentery would
within six months destroy fifty per cent, of the Volunteer Army

then assembling. What the Commission did to avert this
calamity, will be stated hereafter, and must have contributed
— under Divine favor — to save our Armies from the ravages of
pestilence.

But it has done much work beside— with positive results that
can be definitely stated. The value of this work is recognized
by the Medical staff of the Army, and in Orders published by
prominent General officers, East and West* Its direct and tan-

* Department of the South, Headquarters in the Field, )

Morris Island, S. C., Sept. 9, 1863. )

General Orders, No. 78.— Tha Brigadier-General commanding desires to make
this public acknowledgment of the benefits for which his command has been in¬
debted to the United States Sanitary Commission, and to express his thanks to the
gentlemen whose humane efforts in procuring and distributing much-needed articles
ci comfort have so materially alleviated the sufferings of the soldier.

Especial gratitude is due to Dr. M. M. Ma.su, Medical Inspector of the Com¬
mission, through whose efficiency, energy and zeal, the wants of the troops have
been promptly ascertained, and the resources of the Commission made available
for every portion of the army. By order of

Brigadier-General Q. A. Gillmore.

Ed W. Smith, Asst. Adjutant-General.

Official: Israel S. Sealy, Capt. Forty-seventh N. V. Volunteers, Acting Aset]
Adjutant-General.

Headquarters Department of the Cumberland, )
Murfreesboro, Feb. 2, 1863. f

The General commanding presents his warmest acknowledgments to the friends
of the soldiers of this army, whose generous sympathy with the suffering of the
eiek and wounded, has induced them to send for their comfort numerous sanitary
supplies which are continually arriving by the hands of individuals and charitable
societies. While he highly appreciates and does not undervalue the chanties
^vhich have been lavished on this army, experience has demonstrated the importance
of system and impartiality, as well as judgment and economy, m the forwarding
mid distribution of these supplies. In all these respects the United States Sanitary
Commission stands unrivaled. Its organization, experience, and large facilities for
the work, are such that the General does not hesitate to recommend, in the most
urgent manner, all those who desire to send sanitary supplies to confide them to
the care of this Commission.

They will thus insure the supplies reaching their destination without wastage or
expense of agents or transportation, and their being distributed in a judicious

gible results are many thousand lives saved, an incalculable
amount of suffering relieved or mitigated, smallpox and scurvy
checked in camps and hospitals by cargoes of vegetables, and by
timely supplies of vaccine — and succor, comfort and relief freely
given to hundreds of thousands when they could be obtained
from no other source. "What the People have thus done for their
soldiers will long be held in honorable remembrance as a magni¬
ficent National act, not only of humanity and charity, but of
Patriotism also, for by preventing disease and speeding conva.
lescence, it has materially strengthened the National forces,
contributed to the success of the National cause, and added
a certain number of thousand bayonets to the available strength
of the Army during every month of the past two years.

This is the great object for which the Commission exists. Its
work is, in the highest degree, humane and charitable, for it visits
and relieves the sick, destitute, and miserable. But its ultimate
end is neither humanity nor charity. It is to economise for the
National service the life and strength of the National soldier.
The Commission works in a spirit and on a system as practical
as that of the War Department, and it submits the value of its
system and its work to the practical common sense with which
the People decide on whatever concerns the public interest.

It asks the confidence and support of patriotic and far-sighted
men on two special grounds. One is the nationality and catho¬
licity of its work as compared with that of State and local or-

manner, without disorder or interference with the regulations and usages of the
army.

This Commission acts in full concert with the Medical Department of the Army,
and enjoys its confidence. It is thus enabled with a few agents to do a large
amount of good at the proper time. Ever since the Battle of Stones’ River, it has
distributed a surprisingly large amount of clothing, lint, bandages and bedding, as
well as milk, concentrated beef, fruit, and other sanitary stores, essential to the
recovery of the sick and wounded.

W. S. Rosecrans, Major-General Commanding Department.

ganizations. Not a word of censure or of disrespect should L©
spoken of these agencies. Many of them do great good within
their own sphere. But their sphere is provincial, not National,
and their object is the relief of some single class of National sol¬
diers, to the exclusion of all others. They assist men, not be¬
cause they now belong to the National army, but because they
formerly belonged to some particular State, county, or neighbor¬
hood. This distinction between their avowed object and that of
the United States Sanitary Commission should be clearly under¬
stood.

The Commission studiously ignores sections and State lines,
and knows soldiers from Missouri or from Massachusetts only as
in the National Service. It declines all contributions for
the exclusive benefit of a single class, and impartially applies
its resources, received from East or West, to the aid and relief of
the National Army East and West, asking only where they are
most sorely needed. It is thus daily teaching thousands a prac¬
tical lesson on the blessings of National Unity, which will not
be forgotten when they return to the duties of civil life. The
Maryland or Illinois volunteer who has been rescued from mis¬
ery and the prospect of death, by clothing, food, stimulants and
chloroform, that came to him on the field or in some ill-pro¬
vided hospital, through the Commission, from some remote cor¬
ner of New England or Pennsylvania, is likely for the rest of his
days to think of himself less as a Marylander or as a W estern
man, and more as a citizen of the United States ; and though he
will not value his State less, he will love his country more.
Even rebel prisoners, helped through their sickness and destitu¬
tion by the stores of the Sanitary Commission, carry back to
their Southern homes new and enlarged views as to the resources
and the generosity of the People against which they have fought
under coercion, or misled by systematic falsehood.

The Commission seeks to direct the overflowing sympathy of

the People with the Army into a National channel. It calls on
the women of New England to clothe soldiers at Alexandria and
Chattanooga, and on the West to aid the Army at New Orleans
or Port Eoyal, wherever supplies are most wanted or can he
most economically carried. Its influence on its contributors is
no less National than on its beneficiaries. That of local or
State agencies tends to foster, in contributor, agent and bene¬
ficiary alike, the very spirit of sectionalism and “ State-ish-ness ”
to which we owe all our troubles.

The Commission is, moreover, the only organization for Army
relief, local or general, that works on a system carefully con¬
formed and subordinated to that of the Army, and through
agents specially trained and permanently employed. The ob¬
jection that has been made to its employing permanent salaried
officers, instead of unpaid volunteers, giving a fortnight or a
month each, to the work of Army relief, is untenable and short
sighted. It has to distribute millions of dollars worth of
bulky stores over an area of many thousand square miles.
This is, in a merely business point of view, a work of seri¬
ous magnitude. It is, moreover, a work of special delicacy
and difficulty, because it must be so done as not to inter¬
fere wTith the machinery of the Army, or weaken the reliance of
the men upon their officers. Without a corps of agents who un¬
derstand their work, give their whole time to it, and are bound
to perform definite service during a definite period, loss, waste,
and misapplication of supplies are inevitable. This branch of
the Commission’s work may fairly be compared with that of our
largest railroads and express companies, and is at least as worthy
of being well and economically done. But how long would any
railroad corporation keep out of the hands of a Receiver, if
it confided its freight business to volunteers over whom it
could exercise no real control, and who felt themselves at full
liberty to leave its service whenever they tired of it, or when-

ever they thought themselves overworked or unfairly criticised,
instead of employing superintendents, clerks, and porters, en¬
gaged in the usual way and on the usual terms ? The poetry of
the Relief Agent’s work may be spoiled if he. receive a salary,
but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, its practical value to
the Army is doubled. It would be easy to name splendid ex¬
ceptions to this rule, but they are only exceptions.

The work of Army relief, like every other practical and seri¬
ous business, requires skill which can be got only by expe¬
rience, and men cannot, as a general rule, be secured for service
long enough to acquire experience and skill, unless they receive
moderate pay. But the difference between a skilled and an un¬
skilled agent is equal to a difference of at least fifty per cent, in
the amount of practical good each can do the soldier with the
stores entrusted to him, and it costs the Commission less- than
two per cent, on the estimated value of its supplies to distribute
them through skilled salaried agents, instead of unskilled volun¬
teers. This is not all. The volunteer is necessarily unacquaint¬
ed with the complex regulations under which Government sup¬
plies the wants of the Army, for thorough familiarity with their
practical working can be acquired only by months of actual con¬
tact and experience. He cannot tell, therefore, when called
upon to relieve a Regiment or a Hospital, whether its officers
have done or have neglected their duty, and whether they can
or cannot promptly obtain what is needed through regular offi¬
cial channels. His impulses prompt him of course instantly to
relieve the suffering he sees before him. He distributes his sup¬
plies at once, asking no questions, and goes home thankful that
he has been enabled to relieve so much destitution and dis¬
tress. But he has too often been merely covering up the
short-comings of some inefficient Officer paid by Government to
do precisely the same thing, and has thus shielded him from

exposure and dismissal, and done tlie Army in tlie long rim
more harm than good.

The Commission avoids this danger. It reserves its sup¬
plies for the cases of accidental failure, which must from time
to time occur in the working of every military system, and
especially of one newly organized on so vast a scale as ours, and
seeks rather to strengthen the official agencies through which
Government provides for the army, than to set itself up as a
rival source of supply, and thus weaken the confidence of the
men in their military superiors.

Finances of the Commission.

The Treasurer of the Commission has received in cash from
his appointment, in June, 1861, up to and including December
7th, 1863 :

From Maine . $17,720 33

u New Hampshire . 1,701 44

“ Vermont . 2,035 15

“ Massachusetts . 48,548 86

“ Connecticut . 5,181 35

“ Rhode Island . 8,068 30

“ FTew England (States not discriminated) . 6,683 75

“ New York . 160,042 58

“ New Jersey . 3,170 88

“ Pennsylvania . 11,699 18

“ Delaware . 765 00

“ Maryland . 1,733 00

“ Washington, D. C . 2,333 08

“ Ohio . 2,700 00

“ Michigan . 578 00

“ Illinois . 546 25

“ Kentucky . 6,166 45

From Indiana . 500 00

“ Minnesota . 45 00

“ Nevada Territory . 54,144 75

“ California . 526,909 61

“ Oregon . 26,450 78

“ Washington Territory . 7,258 97

“ Idaho . 2,110 46

“ Yancouvers and San Juan Islands . 2,552 68

“ Honolulu . 4,085 00

“ Santiago de Chili . 3,688 84

“ Peru . 2,002 00

“ Newfoundland . 150 00

“ Canada . 439 48

“ England and Scotland . 1,150 00

“ France . 2,750 00

“ Turkey . 50 00

“ China . 2,303 93

“ Cuba . 23 00

“ Unknown sources . 3,192 88

Making in the whole the sum of . $919,580 98

Large amounts have been raised by the Branches of the
Commission beside their contributions to its Central Treasury,
included in the foregoing statement. The money receipts of the
Philadelphia branch for instance, over and above what it has
contributed to the general Treasury, up to December 4th, 1863,
have been $117,097 75.

These local receipts have been expended chiefly in the pur¬
chase of supplies forwarded to the depots of the Commission at
Washington, Louisville, Morris Island, New Orleans, &c., or to
its relief agents in the field, and in the local work of Special
Belief.

To the large amounts thus raised at our principal cities, must
be added the aggregate of the smaller sums which innumerable
societies, “sewing circles,” snd other patriotic organizations
affiliated with the Commission or its various branches have
spent in the purchase of material to be converted into Hospi¬
tal clothing, and for other like purposes. This aggregate may
never be precisely ascertained, but it doubtless far exceeds what
has been received by the Branches and the Central Treasury
together.

There must also be taken into account the value of the trans¬
portation given the Commission for its bulky stores, either freely
or at greatly reduced rates, by Railroad and Express Companies,
and of the free use it enjoys of many of our Telegraph lines.
These are equivalent to so much money saved its treasury for
the benefit of the Army, through public confidence in its effi¬
ciency and Rational scope. This amount can only be estimated
at present, but it is immense. On two Western Railroads alone,
it is understood to exceed two hundred thousand dollars.

The money value of the material supplies dispensed by the
Commission will be considered hereafter. Leaving them out of
view, it is evident that the public bounty it has organized and
directed in aid of the Rational Army must bo estimated in terms
of millions.

But it enjoys the confidence also of the Military authorities.
Having been ever on its guard against the danger (inherent in all
attempts to aid the Army through outside unofficial agencies,)
of weakening the sense of responsibility among officers, and in¬
terfering with discipline among the rank and file, it is known to
Military and Medical officers as an auxiliary on which they can
call with entire safety. It has, therefore, as a general rule, the
benefit of their cordial co-operation. The economical value of
their assistance, especially in all field operations, is inestimable.
It often makes all the difference between life-saving success and

utter waste and failure. Quartermasters feel authorized to help
forward supplies entrusted to the recognized agents or the Com¬
mission when they decline giving facilities to unknown and
irresponsible relief agents. After a great battle such transpor¬
tation cannot be bought with money, though the lives of thou¬
sands may depend upon it, and the lives of many thousands
have been saved because help v/as sent them through the Sani¬
tary Commission, and because the system of the Commission
is known to harmonize with that of the Army.

The confidence thus reposed in the Commission economizes
its resources in many other ways, and enables it to use them
with special advantage and effect. For instance, Government
supplies ordinary rations to the hundreds of thousands of men
who are relieved in the a Homes ” of the Commission. It often
furnishes transportation, guards for depots and for wagon trains,
and details of men for special service in aid of the Commission.
Without this help the “ Special Relief” system, which has done
what no Government system could undertake, and what we
could not have endured to see left undone, would have cost four¬
fold what it has. The special advantages thus secured to the
Commission through the confidence reposed in it by the 1 ublic

* Head-Quari-hrs Departmenv of the Cumberland, £
Stevenson, Ala., August 19th, 1868, \

Sir, — The General commanding authorizes the use of half a car daily for the
shipment of sanitary stores by the United States Sanitary Commission, from Nash¬
ville to such points South as may be desired. This letter, if exhibited to the
Quarter-Master at Nashville, will procure you the transportation at all times, unless
the exigencies of the service should make it necessary temporarily to suspend the
permission. General directions to ship nothing but government stores, will not
affect this permit. Should it be necessary to suspend it, special direction will be
given.

I am, very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

0. Goddard,

Lieut . Col. and A. A. G.

Dr. A. N. Reed,

U. S. Sanitary Commission .

and by the Army, make every dollar contributed to its Treasury
do the work of two.

Though the resources controlled by the Commission have been
very large, its work has demanded them all. It has repeatedly
been obliged to purchase supplies, after its depots were ex¬
hausted, for tens of thousands of wounded men. This includes
rebel prisoners in our hands, for it has been found practically
impossible to pass by on the other side when any citizen of the
United States was suffering from the casualties of war.

The disbursements of the Central Treasury for the eight
months ending December 1st, 1863, have been as follows : —

April . .

. $29,142

May .

. . 36,315

June .

. 54,623

July .

. 92,020

August .

September .

. 28,470

October .

. 30,191

November .

. 49,845

$361,116

or' on an average a little over forty-five thousand dollars a month.

GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION.

The Commission meets at Washington quarterly, and holds
special sessions whenever they are required. During the inter¬
vals between its sessions its affairs are administered by its chief
executive officer, the General Secretary, and by a standing com¬
mittee of five of its members, which meets daily in Hew York.

Two “ Associate Secretaries ” are stationed one at Louisville
and a second at Washington. The former is charged with the
work of the Commission west of the Alleghanies, the latter east

. — including our positions on the Rebel Seaboard, and the city of
Re w Orleans. These Associate Secretaries have the supervision
of all Sanitary Inspectors, Relief Agents, &c., within their re¬
spective departments, receive constant reports from them, and
direct their labors wherever comparison of these reports indicates
that they are most wanted. Each is in communication also with
the Branches of the Commission, and through them with the
local Societies that send their stores to the branch and central
depots and makes requisitions for these stores from time to time
as they are needed. In case of pressing emergency he pur¬
chases supplies or calls by telegraph for their purchase at the
point from which they can be most speedily forwarded.

Each Associate Secretary is thus kept informed of the relative
wants, of every regiment within his department, and as to the
particular depots from wdiich supplies of any particular class
can be most promptly and economically forwarded. Ro State
Agent can thus view the whole national field. He may do great
service, but he can never be quite sure that he would not have
done the whole army and the whole country much more service
if he had worked somewhere else.

The subordinate agents of the Commission are employed on
duties which can mostly be classed under the heads of Sanitary
Inspection, Army Relief, and Special Relief. They all report
to one or the other of the two Associate Secretaries already men¬
tioned, except the Inspectors. These report to a third Associate
Secretary, who is also Chief of Sanitary Inspection.

There are several hundred “ Associate members ” of the Com¬
mission, selected as prominent and loyal citizens, or as experts in
Sanitary science. Many of them have attended its sittings, and
aided it with their counsel. Under their auspices the numerous
Branches of the Commission have been established in our prin¬
cipal cities. These admirable and efficient organizations pro¬
vide for the local work of Army relief, and raise funds and

secure supplies for the general objects of tlie Commission. Each
has its own Treasurer.*

The object of this paper is to state the work and the wants of
the Commission itself, but it is impossible to pass over, without
mention, the services rendered by its Branches. The final his¬
tory of the Commission, and of the great popular movement of
munificence and humanity that distinguishes this war from all
others, will show how much these organizations at Chicago,
Philadelphia, Cleveland, blew York,f Pittsburgh, Brooklyn,
Cincinnati, Boston, and elsewhere, have done in addition to the
work of the Central Commission. "Without them the Commis¬
sion would have been a comparative failure. The work of the
Commission and of its branches cannot be so analyzed as to
show exactly how much of the aggregate result should be cred¬
ited to either. To attempt such analysis would overload this
statement with details. But its readers must bear in mind, that
the results it sets forth as accomplished “by the Commission,”
are in many cases largely due to the energy of its branches,
the Commission itself acting merely as a balance-wheel to
secure the harmony and the impartial Nationality of their
work.

The financial centre of the Commission is at New York. Its
Treasurer acts under the supervision of the Standing Committee,
and makes no payments without its authority.

SANITAHY INSPECTION OF CAMPS, POSTS, AND HOSPITALS.

This was the chief object contemplated by the Commission
when it was created by Government. As has already been stated,
our Armies were during the summer of 1861, in serious danger
of destruction by epidemic disease. Modern Sanitary science wras

* See Appendix B.

f The "Women’s Central Association of Relief, New York.

liardly recognized in the ancient regulations of the Medical Bu¬
reau. Its officers could not he expected to go beyond the strict
line of official duty when that duty was more than quadrupled.
The first business of the Commission therefore was to awaken
general attention to the Sanitary interests of the Army, and to
do what it could to improve the Sanitary condition of camps,
quarters, hospitals, and men.

It sent out Medical Inspectors forthwith to warn inexperi¬
enced officers of the peril to which filth, bad ventilation and
bad food exposed their men and themselves. It brought
to bear upon Government the influence of the medical profes¬
sion throughout the country, effected the extension and invigo-
ration of the Medical Bureau, and secured the express recogni¬
tion of the prevention of disease, no less than its cure, as among
the functions of the Medical Staff. Government now employs
its own Sanitary Inspectors and does a certain portion of the
preventive work which the Commission did during the first year
of its existence. But the Commission still keeps up an Inspec¬
torial Corps auxiliary to that of Government, for the latter is
numerically unequal to its great work, and there are special
causes beside that have thus far interfered with its efficiency. .

Each Inspector on visiting a Camp or Post puts himself, m
the first place, in communication with its Military authorities
and asks their co-operation in his work. This being secured,
he proceeds to investigate the condition of the men in every
particular that bears on their liability to disease, and the suffi¬
ciency of the remedial agencies within their reach. He inquires
into the quality of their water-supply, food, cooking and clothing
—the ventilation and the cleanliness of their camp or quarters
the position of their latrines — the provision for the removal and
destruction of refuse and offal— the equipment of their field or
post hospital— their ambulance service— the competency of
their medical officers — the salubrity or insalubrity of their

camp-site or post — the sufficiency of their bedding and blankets,
the character of the diseases that have prevailed among them,
and the precautions thus indicated. On these points he advises
the medical and military authorities of the Corps as a Sanitary
expert. His inspection generally discloses something that can
be done to promote the health of the command. He finds, for
instance, that there are tendencies to malarious disease that
call for quinine as a prophylactic, or tendencies to scurvy,
that require supplies of fresh vegetables, or that there is
a deficiency of stimulants, bedding, articles of hospital diet, or
disinfecting material. If the want, whatever it is, can be
promptly supplied through the regular official channels, he sees
that this is done — but if it cannot, or if (as is often the case)
something is required which Government does not undertake to
supply, he calls on the Relief Department of the Commission
which supplies it according to its ability. If the officer who
should obtain it be inexperienced in requisitions and supply-
tables, the Inspector is able to assist him. If the defect arise
from corruption or incapacity, he reports the fact. It sometimes
happens that the health of a Camp is endangered by want, not
of supplies, but of some work for which authority cannot at
once be obtained. In this case money is appropriated by the
Standing Committee, or in case of emergency by the Associate
Secretary on the Inspector’s report. The Commission has done
much work of this class. It has improved the ventilation of
hospitals, dug wells to improve the water-supply of camps, built
temporary hospitals and quarters, to replace unwholesome and
dangerous buildings, furnished and fitted up Hospital Transports
and converted ordinary Railroad cars into Railroad Ambu¬
lances, with cooking apparatus and store rooms, and litters hung
on springs, in which thousands of men with fractured limbs
have travelled thousands of miles without suffering or injury.

The results of every Inspection are noted on blanks provided
2

for the purpose, and are severally reported. Each report covers
about two hundred distinct points affecting the sanitary condi¬
tion and wants of the force inspected. More than 1800 of these
reports have been accumulated. They are digested and tabu¬
lated, as received, by a competent actuary. It is believed that
the body of military and medical statistics thus collected is
among the largest and most valuable in existence. It can hardly
fail to furnish conclusions of the utmost importance to sanitary
science.

The Commission employs other agencies also for the preven¬
tion of disease. It urges measures of sanitary reform on the
attention of Government. It furnished material for the vaccina¬
tion of thousands of men at a time, now happily past, when the
Medical Bureau was unable to supply the tenth part of what
was needed, and issued what it had only after a fortnight’s delay.
It has thus stayed the ravages of smallpox in regiments crowded
on board transports, after that disease had actually begun to
spread among their men.

It has done much beside to protect our soldiers against this
peril. During the first year of the war, for instance, all cases of
« eruptive disease ” in one of our most important military depart¬
ments were consigned indiscriminately to a single Hospital, from
which men were “ discharged cured ” of mumps or measles, and
rejoined their regiments to sicken and die of smallpox con¬
tracted in this “hospital,” so called, and to infect and kill their
comrades. It was through the persevering remonstrance and
protest of the Commission that this murderous abuse was at
last corrected.*

The Commission has also circulated throughout the Army,
and especially among the Medical Staff, many hundred thousand
copies of its medical documents. This series now numbers

* It is hardly necessary to say that all this occurred before the appointment of
the present able and efficient Surgeon General, Dr. William A. Hammond.

eighteen publications, each devoted to some special point of
prevention or cure. Some of them are addressed to the indi¬
vidual soldier, hut the great majority are for the use of the Medical
Staff, and relate to the prevention or treatment of the diseases
to which camps are specially exposed, and to sundry operations
of Military Surgery with which it cannot be expected that Sur¬
geons recently appointed from civil life should be generally
familiar. These monographs have been prepared at the request
of the Commission, by some of the most eminent Physicians and
Surgeons of the country. Embodying, in a condensed form, the
latest results of science, they have been of great use to our Army
Surgeons, who often encounter cases for which their pre¬
vious practice has not specially prepared them, and who have
neither medical libraries nor opportunities for consultation.

The Commission institutes special Inspections also from time
to time, outside of its general Inspectorial system. It employs
medical agents to look into the condition of such Camps or Hos¬
pitals as seem to require special attention, and to ascertain and
report the wants of our armies during or immediately after a
trying campaign. Within the past year it has made a thorough
inspection of all General Military Hospitals, East and West,
employing for this purpose Medical practitioners of the highest
professional standing. Their recommendations of improvement
in our Hospital system and its administration have been sub¬
mitted to the proper authorities.

The Relief Agents of the Commission are not expressly charged
with the office of Sanitary inspection, but their reports and jour¬
nals, sent in at short intervals, help to keep the Commission in¬
formed of the condition of the Army, and of the measures required
to maintain it in health, at every point from Annapolis to Hew
Orleans.

As has been already stated, it is from the nature of the case
impossible accurately to estimate how many men have been saved

from death or disease, and how much efficiency has been econo¬
mized for the country by this preventive service, for though the
results of the treatment of disease can be more or less accurately
recorded, the result of measures for its prevention cannot he
stated with any kind of certainty. The only attainable data are
the percentage of disease among men to whom such preventive
measures have been applied, and among those to whom they
have not. Though inferences from a comparison of the two are
not absolutely to be relied on, (because we can never be quite
sure that the conditions of any two cases have been precisely the
same), a comparison of the mortality rates of our Army with
those of the British Armies in the Crimea and during the Pe¬
ninsular War will nevertheless throw some light on the ques-
tion.

The average annual loss of the whole British Army during
the Peninsular War was one hundred and sixty-five men out of
every thousand. Of these one hundred and thirteen died by
disease or accident.

From 1803 to 1812 the average annual death-rate of the whole
British Army “ abroad” was 80 per 1,000—71 by disease and
accident, and 9 by wounds in action.

In July, August and September, 1854, the British Army in the
Crimea lost at the rate of two hundred and ninety-three men out of
every thousand per annum. Ninety-six per cent, of this loss was
from disease. During the next three months, October, November
and December, 1854, their loss was at the annual rate of five hun¬
dred and eleven out of every thousand, seven-eighths of which
loss was by disease. In January, 1855, it was at the rate of 1174
per 1,000 per annum , 97 per cent, of this loss being due to dis¬
ease. During the first three months of that year it was at the
annual rate of 912 per 1,000, and ninety-eight per cent, of the
loss was due to disease.

Up to May 18, 1862, our armies had lost at the rate of fifty-

three per thousand per annum, and only forty-four per cent, of
that loss was by disease and accident.*

In estimating the value of these figures, it must he remembered
that the conditions under which our soldiers serve have been gen¬
erally unfavorable. Their field of operations includes large districts
quite as insalubrious as any part of Spain, Portugal or the Crimea.
There has at all times (and especially during the first year of the
War) been among them a large proportion of half-disciplined
recruits and of inexperienced officers, while the soldiers of
Great Britain in the Peninsula and the Crimea were regulars
under high discipline, and commanded by professional officers.
The Commissariat and the Medical Department of the British
Army were parts of a system long established and matured. In
May, 1862, ours were newly organized (for the purposes of this
War), and not yet in perfect working order. The Peninsular and
Crimean Armies had therefore material advantages over our own.
Yet we have lost far fewer men by disease. Even on Morris Island
and in the pestilential swamps of the lower Mississippi our loss
by disease has been smaller than that of any Army about which
we have authentic information. For this great fact — equivalent
to the addition of hundreds of millions to our National resources
— the Nation can never be sufficiently thankful. No human
agency could have ensured it. Though the average intelligence
and culture of our common soldiers are beyond those of any
army ever yet put into the field, and though the Medical Staff
and the Sanitary Commission have worked diligently in their
respective spheres, a blessing so great, exceptional and unhoped
for can be attributed to none but the Highest cause. f

* See Preliminary Report on the Mortality and Sickness of the Volunteer Forces,
by E. B. Elliott, Actuary.

f The last report of the Secretary of War, as just published in the daily papers,
states the number of patients in General Hospital, June 30, 1863, as 9.1 per cent.,
and in Field Hospital 4.4 per cent, of the whole national forces — and that of this

DEPARTMENT OF ARMY RELIEF.

This work was not at first contemplated by the Commission.
But the need of some central agency, to prevent the most dis¬
tressing waste of supplies, and the most mischievous interference
with Army discipline by irresponsible volunteer agents, was soon
apparent. Boxes and bales of life-saving stores were rotting and
perishing in railroad depots because wrongly directed, or because
the Regiment for which they were intended had changed its po¬
sition. Regiments were throwing .away superfluous delicacies,
while others were suffering for want of necessaries. The bounty
of the People was manifestly losing half its practical value be¬
cause unsystematically distributed, and system could be secured
only through some central and National organization.

The Commission therefore allied itself with Army Relief As¬
sociations and Societies already existing, promoted their forma¬
tion where they did not exist, and undertook the great work of
systematizing and economizing the public effort to aid the Army.
This was then and still is a work of the first necessity. For, though
no Government has ever provided for its Army so liberally as
ours, and no People has ever given so liberally to supplement
what Government does, both People and Government are still
unable to do all that should be done, and men are still dying
every day who could be saved from death at the cost of a
few dollars. System and economy in the application of the pub¬
lic bounty, munificent as it is, are therefore indispensable. It
must be applied so as not only to do good, but to do the greatest
good to the greatest number, and the Commission endeavors so
to apply it through its Army Relief Department.

The branches of the Commission daily receive supplies of

aggregate of 13-5 Per cent-» 11 were cases sickness and 2.5 of wounds or other
casualties. This is a most gratifying statement ; especially when contrasted with
the sickness-rates of foreign armies in the field and of our own during the Mexican

war.

almost every kind from the sewing societies, Soldiers’ Aid Socie¬
ties, and other patriotic organizations that exist under various
titles in almost every town and village of the North. The num¬
ber of these organizations is exceedingly great. During August
last more than one hundred and twenty contributed to the
Chicago branch alone. More than twelve hundred have sent
supplies to the New York branch. From the depots of these
branches the Commission draws the supplies that are distributed
through its relief agents.

The issues of these depots are not confined to goods received
from auxiliary societies. The branches also purchase supplies
on a large scale, especially in cases of emergency, as after a great
battle. They have thus expended several hundred thousand
dollars, the proceeds of which have gone directly to the relief of
the army. The cargoes of ice, for example, sent to the hospitals
of Morris Island and Hilton Head, by the Boston branch, at the
expense of the Central Treasury, have been of inestimable value,
not merely to the individual soldier, whose suffering they have
alleviated, but to the country in expediting his convalescence
and return to duty.

The general fund is used for like purposes. Up to De¬
ember 1, 1863, the central Treasury at New York has
expended more than a quarter of a million in the purchase of
hospital clothing, chloroform, medicines, stimulants,, beef stock,
farinaceous food, and other material for army relief. This is over
and above what it has spent in sending surgeons, medical dressers,
and skilled nurses to the field.

The methods adopted for the systematic distribution of these
stores have been carefully considered. They work well and
economically, and are cordially approved by the military and
medical authorities of the army.* Losses by miscarriage and by

* Surgeon-General’s Office,
Washington City, D. C., February 13th, 1863.

Sir, — In reply to your communication of the 11th inst., I am directed to inform

the casualties ot war (the capture of wTagons by the enemy, for
instance,) have been exceedingly small. Their estimated amount,
all told, is less than ten thousand dollars.

For each great division of the army the Commission provides
a chief sanitary inspector and a superintendent of field lelief.
If the force be stationary (as at Aquia Creek during the winter
of 1862-3, at Vicksburg, and now on Morris Island,) a permanent
lodge is established near its headquarters as a relief agency 01
semi-governmental hospital, and depot of supplies. If the force be
in motion, supplies are issued from wagon trains or from steam¬
boats, of which the commission has three, one in the Eastern
Department and two in the Western. Transportation is some¬
times paid for by the Commission, and sometimes put at its
disposal by the Quartermaster’s Department. There are now
(November, 1863,) five relief agents attached to the Army of
the Potomac, one for each army corps, each at the front m
charge of a wagon train moving with its own corps, and kept
constantly supplied from the Washington depot. Each is cer¬
tainly saving one man’s life every day, and probably more.

Lodges and depots are also established at every important
hospital centre and convalescent camp to do such works of mercy
as are not provided for by regulation, and cannot, therefore, be
officially done at all. Each of these lodges and depots is, m fact,
the office of a volunteer surgeon, quartermaster, and commissary,

you that the Sanitary Commission is believed to be the best repository, and
distributor of the people’s bounty; giving the greatest certainty of good to t e
soldier, with the least interference with the surgeons of the hospitals.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

By order of the Surgeon-General,

C. C. Bynnes,

Assistant-Surgeon,

U. S. Army.

Mr. W. 13. Hadley,

W ashiDgton, D. C.

sent there by the people, to provide for accidental failures in the
work of its government officials.

Pursuant to the settled policy of the Commission, its relief
agents are instructed to dispense supplies to camps and hospitals
through the regular military channels of supply whenever they
can possibly do so. If they have shirts and blankets for a ragged
regiment they distribute them, as a general rule, through its
officers, and thus make the supplies effective, not only to relieve
the soldier, but to maintain his confidence in his military
superiors.

It has been said that surgeons and other officers misappropriate
the stores thus put within their reach. Every great army must
include a certain per centage, larger or smaller, of dishonesty and
baseness, but such cases, if there have been any at all, are most
exceptional in ours. The Commission has diligently followed up
every rumor of the kind that has reached it, often employing
special detective agents for the purpose, but in no one case has
the report been confirmed. In most it has been conclusively dis¬
proved. Such stories originate in many ways. A soldier, for
instance, sells or loses a blanket issued by the Commission, and
marked with its stamp. The blanket finds its way to some second¬
hand shop in Washington or Cincinnati, and somebody who sees
it there sets afloat an “ authentic” report that goods sent the Com¬
mission for army relief are sold either by the Commission itself
or by army officers. Or a surgeon uses the hospital stores of the
Commission for his own relief when ill, thereby practically,
though indirectly, applying them to the benefit of his patients,
and thus creates a rumor that army surgeons generally live on
beef tea and brandy meant for hospital use. There is no proof
that a dollar’s worth of the people’s bounty has been thus per¬
verted. If any portion has been, it is less than the hundiedth
part of one per cent, on the value of the supplies sent the aimy
through the Commission. But if fifty dollars’ worth out of every

hundred were proven to be intercepted by official corruption,
it would not excuse our abandoning the work. It should
rather inspire us to provide more actively for this additional
source of deprivation and danger. What should we think of a
farmer who declined to make provision for his stock because he
suspected his servants of stealing part ot their feed?

There are, undoubtedly, intelligent people who take a different
view of the case, unconsciously influenced, perhaps, by that
readiness to believe anything to the disadvantage of anybody
holding publip office which seemsf one of our national weak¬
nesses. Some of them object on this ground to any organization
that works in concert with surgeons or hospital stewards, and
prefer the agency of volunteers who make unlawful inroads into
camps and hospitals, and help the individual soldier at the ex¬
pense of the system which must always be his main dependence.
The inevitable mischief this practice mnst produce has been
already pointed out. If one or two surgeons out of thousands
have appropriated a few hundred dollars’ worth of army stores
out of millions, the loss is insignificant when compared with the
slightest risk of impairing the morale and discipline of the army,
on which, under God, we depend for our national existence.

The service directly rendered to the^ Army by the Supply De¬
partment, through the Commission and its branches, has been
inestimable. A full statement of its results would require pages
of detail, setting forth the operations of Belief Agents and their
Assistants after every battle, in every general hospital, and in
the camps and quarters of every Corps. Steamboats chartered
by the Cincinnati Branch reached Fort Donelson laden with
medicines and supplies of every kind in time to supplement the
deficient stores of the Medical Staff, and save hundreds of men.
At Antietam there were literally no Government Medical stores.
The surgeons had used up their stock during General Pope’s
Campaign, in Virginia. Supplies sent them from AVashington

had been captured at Manassas. The Quartermaster’s Depart¬
ment, taxed to its utmost to forward ordinance and Commissary
stores, ammunition and food, had been obliged to leave all medi¬
cal supplies behind, miles away from the field. But the officem
of the Commission, at Washington, advised by authority of this
unfortunate deficiency, and of the impending battle, sent off by
independent routes, and in good season, wagon trains laden
with medical and surgical appliances, which reached the field
before the battle was over, and for forty-eight hours after that
hardly-won victory thousands of wounded men got all them
opiates, stimulants, chloroform, medicines, appropriate diet, and
hospital clothing and bedding, mainly from Agents of the Sanitary
Commission. So at Gettysburgh, the headquarters and supply
depots of the Commission were established and at work while
the battle was hottest. At Vicksburgli, Murfreesboro, Chan-
cellorsville, Chattanooga, Cliicamauga, Fredericksburg, its relief
agents dispensed many thousand dollars’ worth of life-saving
supplies. During our Peninsular Campaign, it did the Army
most signal service. The history of its work on the Peninsula
—at White House, Savage’s Station, and Harrison’s Landing—
is yet to be written. Its Eelief Depots and Hospital Transport
Service did more to relieve misery and save life than any other
voluntary organization has ever done within the same period.

After the second battle of Bull’s Bun the wagon trains of the
Commission moving from Washington, met our retreating forces
at Centreville, exhausted by hard fighting, and wholly without
restoratives or medicines. Their medical supplies had fallen
into Eebel hands. At this point, as at many others, the Com¬
mission’s proper work of supplementing accidental deficiencies
in the Army system saved hundreds from perishing by pros¬
tration and enabled them to return to their ranks and their duty. “

* Within ten clays after Chattanooga, four thousand packages of Sanitary stores
had gone to the field from Nashville, and two thousand more were on the way

This Department of the Commission’s work has cost, not
money alone, but health and life. Many of its Agents have
already died in the service, or have been obliged to leave it
broken down by overwork and exposure or poisoned by malaria.
Another name has just been added to its roll of martyrs to our
national cause — that of Dev. James Richardson, a gentleman of
education and high social position, who died at his post Novem¬
ber 10th, 1863, of disease contracted in the service of the Com¬
mission. Two of its Agents were captured near Gettysburgh,
while carrying supplies to the front. They have undergone
months of starvation and ill-treatment at Richmond, from the
effects of which it is probable they will never fully recover.

In our General Hospitals the Relief Department of the Com¬
mission is now a recognized institution, on which surgeons rely
for certain extra-governmental supplies, as fully as they depend
on Government for ordinary rations. Accidental failure of
Government supplies sometimes obliges them to rely on it for
everything. This work of the Commission is not confined to
Hospitals at or near the front. During the summer of 1862, for
example, a medical officer of the Commission learning that a
transport from the Peninsula had just landed several hundred
invalids on one of the Islands of an Atlantic harbor, thought
proper to make a personal inspection of their condition. He
found them mostly bad cases of malarious typhoid fever, recjuir-
ing vigilant nursing and stimulation from hour to hour, but with¬
out proper food or stimulants, or any attendance, save that of
one or two enlisted men detailed as nurses. The Post Surgeon
had gone to bed in a condition that forbade his doing more for

down the Mississippi. Up to 17th November last, 5,000 packages and boxes had
been forwarded for the relief of the wounded men at Chickamauga. The means of
classifying these supplies are not yet at hand. But a detailed statement is appended
of the supplies issued to the army of the Potomac after Gettysburgh. (See Ap
pendix A.)

his patients than to utter a cordial but semi-articulate consent
that the Sanitary Commission should take care of them. The
representative of the Commission forthwith sent a boat to the
city, which returned laden with beef, milk, and brandy bought
at the Hotels,* for it was late and all the shops were closed. He
extemporized a kitchen, and spent the whole night administering
beef tea and milk punch to these neglected men, most of whom
would have been dead or past recovery before morning but for
his intervention. Many of them were saved, and an unworthy
employe of the Medical Department was summarily dismissed
within forty-eight hours, upon report of the facts.

This is an extreme case. Instances of such misconduct are
most rare, for since the re-organization of the Medical Bureau,
our army surgeons have almost universally labored with a degree
of fidelity, energy, and self-devotion beyond all praise. But the
Commission has relieved many Hospitals suffering like destitu¬
tion, for which their officers were not to blame. As already
stated, the Medical Bureau has no independent transportation.
Military necessity sometimes requires that guns, ammunition and
provisions be forwarded with all possible despatch to the entire
exclusion of everything else. Supplies actually issued and con¬
signed to surgeons and urgently needed by them may thus often
be unavoidably detained on the road for days or weeks.

The machinery of the War Department is necessarily rigid
and wooden. A flexible organization like the Sanitary Com¬
mission, governed by principle rather than by rule, and, above
all, able to exercise discvetionctry jpowevs necessarily forbidden to
the officials of Government, can obviously render great service
in filling the gaps that must occur in its working, especially
on a field so vast as that of the present War.

* (And paid for at Hotel prices — an exceptional incident in the experience of the
Commission.)

The value of this Belief system is well understood by the
whole Army.* A circular letter was lately addressed to a
laro-e number of medical officers in charge of general hos-
pitals inquiring through what Agency, National, local or
individual, supplies sent their patients did most good. The
answer was almost unanimous, — u Through the Sanitary Com¬
mission, because it ministers impartially to all Nhtional soldiers,
East and West, and because it understands the paramount im¬
portance of subordination to Military system in all efforts for
Army relief.”f

* Headquarters Department of Tennessee.

Special Order , Wo. 86.

1. The Quartermaster’s Department will provide and furnish a suitable steam¬
boat, to be called the “ United States Sanitary Store Boat,” and put the same in
charge of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, to be used by it exclusively for the
conveyance of goods calculated to prevent disease, and supplemental to the Gov¬
ernment supply of stores for the relief of the sick and wounded.

2. No person will be allowed to travel on said boat except sick officers of the
army and navy, (and they only on permits from their proper commanding offi¬
cers,) discharged soldiers and employees of said Sanitary Commission, and no
goods whatever for trading or commercial purposes will be carried on said boat,)
and no goods will be taken for individnals or with any conditions which will pre¬
vent them being delivered to those most needing them in the army or navy.

8. The accounts of all packages to be shipped on said U. S. Sanitary Store
Boat will be inspected before shipment, unless an invoice of their contents has
been received, the correctness of which is assured by the signature of some per¬
son of known loyalty and integrity. A statement, showing what goods have been
placed on board at each trip will be sent to the Medical Director of the Depart¬
ment at these Headquarters.

4. A weekly statement will be made by the Sanitary Commission to the Depart¬
ment of the Medical Director, showing what Sanitary supplies have been issued
by said Commission, and to whom issued.

6. All orders authorizing the free transportation of Sanitary Stores from Cairo
south on boats other than the one herein provided for are hereby rescinded.

By order Major General U. S. Grant.

John A. Rawlings, Asst. Adt. General.

■J- This circular and all the letters in reply to it were published by the Women’s
Central Association of New York in a pamphlet entitled “ How can we best help
our Camps and Hospitals ?” New York : 1863.

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL RELIEF.

The necessity of this work became apparent as soon as onr
volunteer forces began to assemble. It was first undertaken at
Washington, in August, 1861, and its results there soon led to
the establishment of agencies for the same purpose at other
points. It is now in operation throughout the country.

The General Relief System, of which some account has just
been given, assists the soldier when in camp or in hospital, by
strengthening and supplementing the military system with which
he is then in close connexion, and on which it is his right and
his duty mainly to depend. The Department of Special Relief
deals mainly with the waifs and estrays of the Army, and
relieves the individual soldier when temporarily out of connexion
with the Military system. It gives him shelter, food, medical
treatment and transportation when it is impossible for him
to obtain them from Government. At points like Washing¬
ton or Nashville, for example, there may be daily found
scores or hundreds of men separated from their regiments
and anxious to rejoin them, but unable to obtain transportation,
and without legal title meanwhile to quarters or rations, or any
kind of recognition or aid from any Government officer within
reach. Some are returning after a furlough, but find that their
regiment has moved. Their little stock of money has given
out, and they must beg through the streets for aught that any
official has the power to do for them. Others are sick,
but no Hospital can admit them without a breach of regula¬
tions. Others are waiting to get their back pay, but there is
some technical defect in their papers for which they are not re¬
sponsible, and they must wait a week for a letter to reach their
regiment and be answered, before they can draw a dollar from
the Paymaster, and subsist as they can meanwhile.

These seem at first to be serious abuses, but they are, in fact,
merely inevitable incidents of the rigorous system of detail

that is essential to every army, and especially to armies so
large as ours. It is only through technical regulations, un¬
sparingly enforced, that the most mischievous irregularities can
he prevented, and the army as a whole kept in working condition.

But any such system, however necessary on the whole, must
produce cases of hardship, and in great armies such cases must
be numerous. When the subject matter of these regulations is
the provision of food, shelter, clothing and hospital treatment,
whatever hardship their inflexibility produces, must cost health,
efficiency and life. The Army has thus but the choice of
two evils. It must suffer as a whole, because regulations are
not rigidly enforced, or individuals must suffer because they are.
There can of course be no question which of these two evils is
the greater. However great may be the amount of suffering
thus caused, only a blind and reckless philanthropy would seek
to remedy it at the expense of discipline. A large portion
of the suffering in question arises, in fact, not so much from the
rigor of the system as from the want of accuracy on the part
of those who administer it, and seems due to a deficiency rather
than an excess of “ red tape.”

For this inevitable evil, the Commission seeks to provide
through its Special Belief Department. To the extent of its
means it keeps everywhere within the soldier’s reach establish¬
ments to supply him with food, shelter and medical care, when
he can get them nowhere else, and to supplement the inflexible
machinery of the Commissary Department, the Quartermaster’s
Department, the Paymaster’s Office, and the Medical Bureau.

This Department does much work also that can hardly be dis¬
tinguished from that of General Belief, except in this, that while
the latter provides for men in camp, in hospital, or on the march,
the former gives them especial attention and care while passing
from the condition of recruits to that of National soldiers, and
while still unfamiliar with the system through which they must
obtain subsistence, quarters and medical treatment.

For example, a newly-raised regiment reaches Louisville or
Washington late at night, after a weary, depressing day, spent
without food in cattle cars without seats. The men are exhaust¬
ed, and a dozen or twenty of them are ill. Sick and well, they
are deposited at the railroad terminus. The Kegimental Sur¬
geon’s medical stores are buried in the baggage cars, and cannot
be got out till morning. He is in a strange place, and does not
know where to go to get his patients into hospital. The Com¬
pany officers are equally inexperienced. It may take them half
the next day to ascertain how to get rations and quarters for
their men. Meanwhile, the men must stand in the street and
get on as best they may, without food, shelter, or medical at¬
tendance, the healthy sickening and the sick growing worse from
hour to hour.

This is a very moderate statement of what has occurred over
and over again. Many have died of fatigue and exposure under
these circumstances in the street or on the floor of a depot, be¬
fore their connection with the Government machinery could be
so established as to become available for their relief. A little
suitable food or stimulus, and a few hours rest, would probably
have saved most of them. But their officers cannot, under the
circumstances, be severely censured for the loss.

The Commission provides for cases of this class. Its agents
are kept informed by telegraph of the movements of newly-raised
regiments, and are prepared to receive them, with coffee and
soup for the well men, and with ambulances for the sick, who
are at once conveyed to a “ Home” of the Commission, where
they receive food, shelter, nursing, and medical care, till they
are able to join their regiment, or are duly transferred to Gen¬
eral Hospital. Many thousand men “ slightly ailing” have been
saved from illness that would have made them unserviceable for
weeks or months, and perhaps forever, by the few days or hours
of repose, comfort and medical care thus afforded them.

34:

The Homes of the Commission provide in like manner lor the
large class already mentioned of men separated from their regi¬
ments, unable to get transportation, and without money or
friends, and to whom no officer within their reach can supply
quarters or rations without personal liability and violation of
Army rules. Every such case is carefully scrutinized. II it be
genuine, the man receives subsistence and quarters at the
“ Home” until the position of his regiment is ascertained, and
he is furnished transportation to rejoin it.

A regiment carrying its sick with it in ambulances is often
detained in passing through a city. As the length of this deten¬
tion is uncertain, and the regiment may have to move at a mo¬
ment’s notice, these sick men cannot well be transferred to a
General Hospital. Their admission and their discharge would
each require too much time. But if a “ Home” of the Com¬
mission be within reach it provides for them during their deten¬
tion.

The work of the Special Belief Department is too various for
complete classification. Every day brings out some new case for
its intervention, differing from all that have preceded it. But its
chief objects are as follows :*

First. — To supply the sick of newly arrived regiments such
medicines, food, and care as their officers are, under the circum¬
stances, unable to give them. The men thus aided are chiefly
those not sick enough to have a claim on a general hospital, but
who nevertheless need immediate care to prevent serious illness.

Second.— To furnish suitable food, lodging, care, and assist¬
ance to men who are honorably discharged as unfit for further
service, but who are often obliged to wait for several days be-

See printed reports of Mr. F. N. Knapp, Superintendent of Special Relief.

fore they obtain their papers and pay, or to sell their claims to
speculators at a sacrifice.

Third . — To communicate with distant regiments in behalf of
men whose certificates of disability or descriptive lists on which
to draw their pay prove to be defective — the invalid soldiers
meantime being cared for, and not exposed to the fatigue and
risk of going in person to their regiments to have their papers
corrected.

Fourth. — To act as the unpaid agent or attorney of soldiers
who are too feeble or too utterly disabled to present their own
claim at the Paymaster’s office.

Fifth. — To look into the condition of discharged and fur¬
loughed men who seem without means to pay the expense of
going to their homes, and to furnish the necessary means where
the man is found to he true and the need real.

Sixth. — To secure to soldiers going home on sick leave rail¬
road tickets at reduced rates, and through an agent at the rail¬
road station to see that they are not robbed or imposed upon.

Seventh. — To see that all men who are discharged and paid
off do at once leave the city at which they receive their dis¬
charge, for their homes, or in cases where they have been induced
by evil companions to remain behind, to endeavor to rescue
them, and see them started homeward with through tickets.

Eighth. — To make men going home discharged, or on sick
leave, reasonably clean and comfortable before their departure.

Ninth. — To be prepared to meet, at once, wdth food or other
aid, such immediate necessities as arise when sick men arrive in
large numbers from battle fields or distant hospitals.

Tenth. — To keep a watchful eye upon all soldiers who are out
of hospitals, yet not in service ; and give information to the
proper authorities of such soldiers as seem endeavoring to avoid
duty or to desert from the ranks.

In all these arrangements the Commission and its branches
receive practical support and aid Irom the Quartermaster s
Department, which makes its beneficial work tenfold more ef¬
fective.

It must be understood, that the “ Homes 75 are administered
in no spirit of indiscriminate philantlirophy. Malingerers and de¬
serters who have found refuge within them under false pretences,
are promptly turned over to military authority, and no soldier is
permitted to enjoy their privileges for a single day after he is
pronounced fit for duty.

These Relief Stations are established at most of our Military
Centres. The “ Home” at Washington is a large three-story brick
building on North Capitol street, with temporary wooden build¬
ings around it, and with auxiliary “ lodges ” established near
the Paymaster’s office, and other centres around which soldiers
are obliged to congregate. Each has its provision of beds, and
of food, its housekeeper, nurses, and attending Physician, and its
staff of experts in Army relief. Before they were established
men actually died of weariness and exhaustion while waiting
their turn in the dense crowd and blazing sunshine around the
Paymaster’s Office. Soldiers physically unequal to this ordeal
are now provided with shelter and rations till they have secured
their pay.

The following extract from Mr. Knapp’s last report on the
“ Home” at Washington indicates the nature and value of the
Commission’s Special Relief work at that point :

“ ‘ The Home,’ 374 North Capitol street. — Increased accommo¬
dations for securing room and comfort have been obtained ; and

“ now, instead of 140 beds, we have at the Home 320, besides a
“ large baggage-room, a convenient wash-room, a batli-honse, &c.
“ Two of the additional buildings, one 16 feet by 60, the other 28
“ feet by 90, were put up by the Quartermaster’s Department.
“ The third building 30 feet by 50 (with an L 20 by 35) for a
“ ‘ Hospital,’ (this was at the expense of the Commission,) at a cost
“ of about $800. The necessity for this building, devoted exclu-
“ sively to Hospital purposes, is found in the fact, that although
u the men who came under the care of the Commission are
“ mostly on their way to their homes, and might therefore be
“ supposed to be not so very feeble as to need specially “ Hos-
“ pital ” treatment, yet, as a matter of fact many of them are
“ weakened to such a degree by disease, that by the time they
“ reach Washington, or the railway station from the front, or
u from the various hospitals, their strength is nearly exhausted,
“and they are only restored, if at all, by such care as hospital
“ treatment affords ; and frequently they are too far gone to
“ make that available, as is indicated by the record which shows
“ that from February 23d to October 1st, there were received at
“ the Home 665 men, very sick, who were placed in the new
“ Hospital, of which number thirty-eight died there. This was
“ from February 23d, when this new building was opened, but
“ dating back to December 15th, there has been under the
“ charge of the Commission, including those just named, some
“ 900 men who were very sick and feeble, of which number a
“ total of sixty-one (61) have died at the Home. These were
“ nearly all men having their discharge papers with them, and
“ they had consequently given up their claim upon the General
“ or Regimental Hospitals, and had taken the first stage of their
“ journey towards their homes. If they had not found the care
“ which the Commission thus offered to them, these same men
“ must have died in the cars along the way, or at some stopping
“ point on their journey. Of the remaining 840 of these very

u feeble men we have reason to believe that many, except for tbe
u care and rest secured to them by tbe provision of tbe Commis-
“ sion, could not liave lived through their journeys.

*******

“ At this office and lodge No. 4, from January 1st to October
“ 1st, 1863, the number of discharged soldiers whose accounts
“ against the Government have been settled through our assist-
<£ ance, men who were too feeble to attend to settling their own
“ accounts, or who were unable to obtain their pay because of
u some charge against them on the pay-rolls, or some enors in
“ their papers, amount to 2,130.”

“ Information and directions have been given relative to set-
“ tling pay accounts, collecting arrears of pay, extra duty pay,
u and commutation money to about 9,000 men.

u The aggregate value of the 2130 cases amounted to
“ $130,159 01. This amount was collected and paid to the
“ soldiers through this office.

“ But for the gratuitous aid thus afforded, these soldiers dis-
“ charged from the service, disabled by wounds, or worn down
“ by long marches and exposure in the field, or enfeebled by
“ disease, anxious to get home, would have applied to c Claim
“ Agents ’ for aid in obtaining speedily their dues from Gov-
“ ernment, submitting willingly to pay a commission ranging
“ from 10 to 40 per cent. These Agents, with some rare and
“ admirable exceptions, in four cases out of every five, impede
“ the settlement of accounts instead of facilitating them.

“ Taking 10 per cent, as an average, which is the lowest com-
u mission usually charged by Claim Agents, the amount saved
“ to the soldiers in adjusting the 2130 cases of which a xecord
“ has been kept, is shewn to be $13,015 90. Add to this 10 per
“ cent, of the probable aggregate value of the 9000 cases in
“ which information and directions have been given, (for in most
“ of these cases the soldiers would otherwise have gone to Claim

“ Agents) and the amount saved to the soldiers through the
“ Commission by this office, is shown to be at least $70,000
“ during nine months ending September 30th.”

“ The number of letters written in adjusting the above cases
“ of sufficient importance to make a copy necessary, 2,224.

“ Many of the cases have been very difficult to adjust, requir-
“ ing several weeks to complete them.

“ The £ Home 5 or 4 Lodge for Special Belief’ at Alexandria
“ is almost equally important with those at W ashington. Alexan-
“ dria is the gateway toward home for the sick and wounded of
“ the Potomac Army. During the first week after this Agency
“ was established, it provided meals for 1761 sick or wounded
“ men who could have got them nowhere else.

“ In January, 1863, a ‘ Nurse’s Home’ was opened at Washing-
“ ton. It has proved a source of immense relief to nurses arriving
“ in the city, and to those worn down by service at the hospitals,
“ and needing a few days of quiet and rest, and also to the wives,
“ mothers and daughters of soldiers who have come on seeking
“ their husbands, sons or fathers in hospital. During the past two
“ months many of this latter class have been cared for who, utterly
“ ignorant of the cost of their journey, and of obtaining board
“ and lodging, even for a day or two, in the city, were utterly
66 destitute and helpless. Hundreds of weary and almost broken
“ hearted women have been received as at a home. Many re-
“ fugees also — mothers and little children — have been received
“ here and warmed and clothed. This has proved in its working
“ one of the 'kindest charities of the Commission.”

Since the “Nurses’ Home” wTas opened in January, the total

number of nights’ lodging given has been . 1583

Meals furnished . 3040

Number of women sheltered and admitted . H90

Total cost to Commission, about . $2,300

The Homes of the Special Relief Department at Washington,
Louisville, Alexandria, Annapolis, and Hew Orleans, are sup¬
ported by the Central Treasury of the Commission ; at other
points mainly by its Branches.

Their work up to October 1st, 1863, has been as follows : —

“THE HOME,” WASHINGTON, D. C.

Humber of individuals received . 7,287

“ “ nights lodging furnished . 26,533

“ “ meals given . 65,621

LODGES NOS. 2, 3, 4 AND 5, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Humber of nights lodgings furnished . 23,590

“ “ meals given . 184,995

“home” IN CLEVELAND, OHIO.

Humber of nights lodgings furnished . 2,569

“ “ meals given . 12,227

LODGE AT MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.

Humber of nights lodgings furnished . 2,850

“ “ meals given . 14,780

LODGE AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.

Humber of nights lodgings furnished .

“ “ meals given .

“home” AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

Humber of nights lodgings furnished. . 17,785

“ “ meals given at the Home . 52,080

“ “ “ “ at Station House . 49,933

4,821

11,909

“ HOME ” AT CAIRO, ILLINOIS.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 79,550

“ “ meals given . 170,150

“home” AT CINCINNATI, OHIO.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 40,017

“ “ meals given (about) . 10,000

LODGE AT ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 604

“ “ meals given . 5,980

“ HOME ” AT BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 1,407

“ “ meals given . 4,129

“ HOME ” EOR NURSES AND FOR SOLDIERS WIVES AND MOTHERS AT
WASHINGTON, D. C.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 1,583

“ “ meals given . 3,640

“ HOME ” FOR NURSES AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 569

“ “ meals given . 2,847

“home” AT CHICAGO.

Number of nights lodgings furnished . 3,109

“ “ meals given . 11,325

The aggregate of nights’ lodgings furnished by the
Special Relief Department up to the 1st October
last, is therefore . . • • • 206,570

And of meals provided . 602,656

The total cost of the Special Relief Department at Wash¬
ington, Annapolis and Alexandria, from August, 1861, to 1st
October, 1863, has been $24,582 00.*

Among the modes in which this Department does its work of
relief are several that have not been mentioned.

For example, it corresponds on behalf of soldiers with their
friends. In special cases it sends Agents with officers and sol¬
diers suffering under severe disease to take care of them on their
journey home.f It attends to the claims of soldiers whose pay
is unjustly withheld through mistake or otherwise. It looks
into cases of punishment or disgrace alleged to be unjust, and
if they be found so on investigation, lays the evidence before the
proper military authorities.^; Such errors must occur in the
working of a military system so extensive as ours, and the Com¬
mission has thus saved many good and faithful soldiers from
undeserved punishment and disgrace. It employs detectives to
ferret out and bring to justice sharpers and gamblers who live
by preying on the soldiers. It looks out for men who set off for
hospital on foot, but break down by the way, and supplies them
with conveyances.

* The “Home” recently established at New Orleans has lodged and fed 2,162
men from October 16th to 22d November, 1863. From November 22d to 27th, its
daily average of cases relieved was more than 250.

f The expense of this service has been defrayed from a special fund raised for
the purpose. 1 hough a most humane and life saving office, it seems to involve too
large an outlay on individual cases, to be paid for out of the general Treasury
of the Commission.

\ Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1, 1863, thirty-four applications were made to the
Special Relief Agency at Washington alone, by men claiming to have been unjust¬
ly disgraced and deprived of their arrears of pay as “ deserters” or “ absent with¬
out leave.” The investigation of some of these claims required twenty letters to
Hospital Directors and Regimental officers, for it was necessary to ascertain and
to prove where the applicant had been during every day of the period of his
alleged absence from duty. Twenty-eight of these thirty-four claims were proved
to be valid, and were recognized as valid by the military authorities. The men
had not known how to state them, or how to obtain the necessary evidence.

In short, there is hardly a service within the whole range of
charity that has not been rendered onr soldiers by this agency.

And they must surely endure longer and fight better for
knowing that they are thus watched over and aided by the Peo¬
ple whose cause they maintain.

HOSPITAL DIRECTORY.

This branch of the Special Relief Department is of compara¬
tively recent date. Its offices are at Washington, Philadelphia,
Louisville and Hew York. Its necessity arises from the prac¬
tical difficulty of obtaining information about men in hospital
from official sources. It keeps a record of the name, regiment
and company of every man admitted into General Hospital, and
of the nature of his disease or injury, and also of every man
dying or discharged, and if discharged, whether it was to re¬
join his regiment, or as permanently disabled. These records are
corrected daily. Priends and relatives can thus readily ascertain
by letter whether any given man is in general hospital, and it
so, all particulars about him.

The names entered on the Hospital Directory books from

June 9th to Oct, 1st, 1863, were—

At the Washington office . 64,635

“ “ Hew York “ . 18,771

u a Philadelphia “ . . 12,213

u 66 Louisville a from May 9th . 96,433

Total . 192,052

Add number of names on record June 9th . 215,221

Total . 407,273

Recorded as follows :

Washington office to Oct. 1st, 1863 . 169,007

New York “ “ “ “ “ 27>320

Philadelphia “ “ “ “ “ 24>513

Louisville “ “ “ “ “ 186>433

The number of inquiries and of answers, from the organiza¬
tion of the Directory to Oct. 1, 1863, have been as follows. The
surplus of inquiries over answers is the number of cases in which
the subject of inquiry had not been in G-eneral Hospital since
the Directory System went into operation.

'Washington office,

inquiries .

... 6,712

Answers.. . .

....4,524

Hew York “

u u

.. 656

u u

. ... 474

Philadelphia “

u u

.. 547

(( u

. ... 348

Louisville “

u «

.. 5,852

a u

....4,016

Inquiries .

..13,767

Answers. . . .

. ...9,362

It may at first seem that this undertaking, however humane,
has no connection with the Sanitary interests of the Army, and
is therefore no legitimate work for the Sanitary Commission.
But it practically multiplies to a great extent the facilities for
correspondence and communication between men in hospital and
their friends at home, and such communications are often worth
more than any medicine to the sick and convalescent. They
promote health, bodily and mental, keep up the sick man’s
morale, and expedite his recovery and his return to duty.

OTHER WORK OF THE COMMISSION.

The Commission does much work beside that comes strictly
under none of the preceding heads. During and after a battle,
its medical officers act as volunteer aids to those of the
Army, while its Belief Agents add to their proper office of
dispensing medicines and supplies the functions of nurses, hospi¬
tal stewards, and ambulance drivers. Honorable instances are
recorded of the courage and devotion with which they have
brought off wounded men under fire.* The Commission retains

* We find the following in the Port Royal Free South of the 25th instant :

“The officers of the United States Sanitary Commission have won for them¬
selves a splendid reputation in this department. They have by their discretion and

no one in its service who shrinks from any work, hazardous,
menial, or mechanical, that comes in the course of his duty.

It has organized a system by which extra supplies are fur¬
nished our general hospitals at prime cost, thus effecting a very
large daily saving to their “ hospital funds.” Up to 1st Novem¬
ber last it had thus expended more than $70,000 on hospitals
around Washington, and in South Carolina.

It endeavors to keep the people, and especially the loyal wo¬
men of the North, informed of the wants of the Army, and
stimulates the production and forwarding of Army supplies.

It calls the attention of Government to the defects and abuses
that appear from time to time in the various branches of the
service and directly or indirectly affect the health of the Army,
and recommends to Government such improvements in the
Medical and Sanitary administration of the Army as seem enti¬
tled to its attention.

It relieves our men in rebel prisons wherever it is permitted
to do so, and is now sending to Richmond (at a cost of nearly a
thousand dollars a day) large consignments of food and other
supplies, appropriate for men broken down by confinement and
starvation.* *

zeal saved many valuable lives. Under the guns of Wagner, in the hottest of the
fire, their trained corps picked up and carried off the wounded almost as they fell.
As many of our men were struck while ascending the parapet and then rolled into
the moat, which at high tide contains six feet of water, they must inevitably have
perished bacl they been suffered to remain. But the men who were detailed for
the service with Dr. Marsh went about the work with intrepidity and coolness
worthy of all praise. The skill and experience of the members of the Commission
has, since the battle, been unremittingly employed to render comfortable the sick
and wounded. — W. Y. Evening Post , July 30, 1863.

* It has established on every flag-of-truce boat from Fortress Monroe for the re¬
ception of exchanged prisoners a depot of such medicines and restoratives as are
most suitable for men in the distressing condition in which they are generally found
when discharged from confinement at Richmond. From Nov. 17 to Dec. 3 it has
sent $28,000 worth of supplies beside to Richmond. There is every reason to
believe that these supplies are not intercepted or misappropriated, and that the
Rebel authorities do in good faith protect them from attack, and convey them to
their destination. [Dec. 10, 1863.]

Above all, it loses no opportunity of advocating every measure
calculated to increase the efficiency of the Military system itself
in all its relations with the sanitary interests of the Army ; and
it has in this way probably done the Army as much substantial
service as by all its other agencies together. More than two
years of experience and observation have shown it that the main
dependence of the soldier, sick or well, must be on the Military
system, and not on outside help. The reformation of the Medi¬
cal Bureau, and the appointment of an honest, energetic, ac¬
complished and fearless officer as Surgeon-General,* is mainly
due to the influence the Commission brought to bear on Gov¬
ernment. It has thus done more for the health of the Army
than could have been done for it in any other way whatever.

The Commission hopes to effect further reforms, still sorely
needed, and thus by still farther increasing the efficiency of the
Medical Bureau, to make its own existence less and less a neces¬
sity to the Army.

OBJECTIONS TO THE COMMISSION.

The Commission has from the first enjoyed a degree of public
favor and confidence greater than it had any right to expect.
Certain objections, however, are made to its system and methods
which require a brief notice, though they have for the most part
been already anticipated.

One is that the Commission employs paid agents, and that its
organization is expensive. It has already been shown that paid
and permanent Agents are in the long run cheaper than unpaid
volunteers, because the superiority of skilled labor over un¬
skilled, is much more than equivalent to the amount thus paid
to secure it.

The more general charge that the Commission’s system is a

* Dr. Wna. A. Hammond.

costly one, is believed to be wholly unfounded. Its salaries are
on a most moderate scale.* Thanks to the co-operation of Go¬
vernment ai\d the liberality of Railroad, Telegraph and Express
Companies, and other private agencies, its expenses for transpor¬
tation and telegraphing are not one-tenth of what they would
otherwise be. A reference to the statistics given above of the
cost of its special relief system at Washington, Alexandria and
Annapolis, show how much work it has done at comparatively
trifling expense. The value of the supplies it has actually
issued to the Army from its numerous depots, East and West,
can only be estimated, and these estimates vary largely, the
lowest estimate being about four millions of dollars, and the
highest exceeding seven.

These supplies have been carried all over the country, from
Maine to Texas, and from Washington to Vicksburg, in charge
of special agents, and deposited in Relief Stations where store¬
keepers are necessarily engaged to protect them, and Relief
Agents to distribute them ; yet this great mass of bulky stores
has been moved, stored at the depots, moved to the front, stored
again in temporary depots, and then distributed, at a total
expense to the Central Treasury of less than one and seven-
eighths per cent, on their lowest valuation.

Another objection to the Commission is generally expressed
somewhat as follows : —

“ It is a very benevolent organization, no doubt, and relieves

* It mav be proper here distinctly to state, that no member of the Commission
receives, or ever has received a dollar from its treasury, or from any other quarter,
in the shape of salary, or compensation for his services as Commissioner. Four of
its members hold office, viz. : its President, Vice-President, and Treasurer, and its
Associate Secretary at Louisville. Of these, the first three have been able to do
their official work without absolutely sacrificing all their other duties, and they
have done it without dreaming of “ pay” from any quarter. The Associate Secre¬
tary, who has removed his home from Cleveland to Louisville, abandoned his pro¬
fession, and devoted his whole time and energies to his official work, receives a
moderate salary.

“ a great deal of suffering. But it does harm in the long run,
“ because officers are tempted to lean upon it and neglect their
“ official duty of providing for their men. Without the Com-
“ mission there might have been more suffering at first ; but
“ this evil would have cured itself by this time. Officers would
“ have been obliged to become more active and vigilant, and
“ the Army would now be in perfect condition and need no help
“ from without.”

The principle on which this criticism rests underlies all the
policy of the Commission. It has already been shown that its
system is so framed and guarded, that no Army officer can take
advantage of it to escape duty or to cover up inefficiency. But
in the application of this principle by those who use it as an ob¬
jection to the Commission, there is a peculiar fallacy which it is
worth while to point out.

So far from endangering the military system by relief from
without, the Commission has from the first been the chief pro¬
tection of the Army against this very danger, and the only organi¬
zation, official or private, that has openly aided and encouraged
our Military authorities in their endeavor to avert it. Though
wholly dependent on popular sympathy for support, it has uni¬
formly maintained this position, though well aware that it is
peculiarly distasteful to many whose patriotism and human¬
ity are stronger than their judgment.

The Commission did not create the unprecedented popular
effort to furnish supplies for the sick and wounded, which will
distinguish the history of this War from that of all others,
That movement began before the Commission was in existence,
when the first Regiment of National Volunteers was mustered
into the National service. It was equally spontaneous and irre¬
sistible. Neither the Commission nor Government could have
checked it had .they felt disposed to try. It still continues, and
it will continue so long as a single regiment remains in the field.

The Commission when first appointed found the stream in full
flow, but guided by zeal rather than discretion. One regiment
out of every two, East and West, was waited on and followed up
by Agents and Relief Committees from its own town or county,
begging surgeons and quartermasters to take a few packages of
hospital stores off their hands, and surreptitiously administering
delicacies and medicaments wherever they could secure a re¬
cipient. Other regiments were suffering for want of necessary
subsistence, because recruited in some neighborhood less wealthy
or less liberal. Officers seemed as much disturbed by the de¬
moralizing interference of friends in the rear as by the demon¬
strations of the enemy in their front.

The Commission recognized the depth of the National imc
pulses that were at work, the immense mischief they might do
if allowed to run wild, and the good they might do if organized
and regulated, and it undertook the work of so guiding
.these efforts as to make them more effective and less
dangerous to discipline. It found the Army inundated by a
flood of public bounty, wasting itself where it was not wanted,
and threatening to undermine the foundations of official respon¬
sibility. Its endeavor has been and is to direct this stream into
measured channels, carrying it to the points at which it will do
most good, and applying its power to strengthen the working of
the military system.

It has thus to a great extent saved the Army from the mischief
this torrent of outside relief might have done it. If it has not
fully done so, it is because so many agencies and societies for
Army relief continue to work independently of the Commission
and by methods which it does not approve and cannot control.

The objection that “ Government ought to do the work the
Commission is doing” has no longer the foundation it had before
the Reform of the Medical Bureau. Government might un¬
doubtedly still farther invigorate that Bureau and thus still

farther diminish the necessity for the Commission. Let ns hope
that it soon will. But to refuse aid to the Army on this ground
would be mere inhumanity. ISTo Government, moreover, has
yet been able through its own proper machinery to do for its
soldiers what the Government and the Commission together do
for ours, and the objection above quoted, though undeniable as
an abstract proposition concerning the functions of an ideal
Government, is not applicable to our Government, or to any
other that exists, or has ever existed. The provision Govern¬
ment makes for the physical wants of the soldier in sickness and
in health is profuse when compared with that made by France
or England, or by any other power. But it cannot permanently
maintain a medical and surgical staff large enough to provide
with promptness (or rather without such delay as would seem
shocking and criminal if it occurred in connection with some
casualty of civil life) for the casualties of battle even on the
smallest scale.

A regiment, for instance, of a thousand strong, after a day’s
fighting, leaves, say one hundred men wounded on the field, and
scattered over an area of one or two square miles. To hunt them
up and provide for them there are one surgeon and one assistant,
with a small detail of enlisted men. The next day the regiment
moves twenty miles farther, fights again, and leaves as many
more wounded men on this second battle ground. The surgeon
and his assistant cannot possibly give thorough attention to
every case in these two widely separated field hospitals. Twenty
surgeons would be hardly enough to care for both during the
first few days, as patients are cared for in private practice.
Public sympathy with our wounded men demands that each
receive the full benefit of all that vigilance and science can do
for each of them. But government cannot provide this measure
of relief. There are not in the country thoroughly educated
surgeons enough to permanently supply every regiment with

even five competent medical officers instead of two. But twenty
to each would be too few to give full attention and care to
all the sufferers after a great battle.

Government may be theoretically bound to supply this de¬
ficiency, but it is practically beyond the resources of govern¬
ment. The gap has been filled up during the last two years, in
some degree at least, by the creative energies of the people
exerted through the Sanitary Commission. The people thus
maintains a supplementary Medical Bureau of its own for the
purpose, among others, of sending forward civil surgeons of the
first professional rank to reinforce the army medical staff in
emergency. When a battle is in progress, or at hand, the relief
agents of the Commission on the spot telegraph to Louisville,
Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, or some other
point, and its agency there engages the best medical talent within
reach for temporary service during the next week or fortnight.

It has already been shown that our military system is, and
must be, founded on a rigorous system of regulations and official
responsibility, and that any such system must sometimes break
down by unavoidable accident or otherwise. Public opinion
makes too little allowance for this. It condemns the Medical
Bureau because its stores arrive too late at one point, and gives
it no credit for the energy and prevision that carried them in
good season to ninety-nine others.

Government must depend for its transportation on railroads
and steamboats. Its trains and transports are just as liable
as any others to accident and detention, and often much more so.
Such accidents and detentions often cause suffering and death,
for which neither the Medical Bureau nor any official is justly
accountable. In every such case our camps and hospitals have
the relief agencies of the Commission to fall back upon, and
though in supplying their wants the Commission is literally
“doing what Government ought to do,” it nevertheless does

wliat Government cannot do at that particular time and place,
and what the people w'ould not willingly see left undone.

The Commission was at one time accused of desiring to usurp
the functions of the Medical Bureau, and of putting itself forward
as a rival of the Medical staff, hut it must he evident from what
has been already stated, that all the policy and efforts of the
Commission have tended, from the first, in a precisely opposite
direction. It has labored untiringly, and not without re¬
sults, to uphold the Medical Bureau, and to obtain it addi¬
tional powers. Just so far as these efforts have succeeded,
have they diminished the prominence and importance of the
Commission. Its members have good reason to desire that Gov¬
ernment should assume all that part of its work which Govern¬
ment can do, for their duties have proved far more onerous than
was anticipated when they were undertaken ; they often require
the sacrifice of professional and private interests, and at any
time less critical than the present they would much exceed the
amount of voluntary public service that can reasonably be ex¬
pected of private citizens.

Other criticisms on the work of the Commission, relating
mostly to points of detail, do not require special notice. They
are generally founded on some mistake about facts. We all
know what swarms of “ authentic statements,” " reliable reports,”
and pieces of “ direct information” arc daily engendered concern¬
ing the army, and everybody and everything connected with
it, and how utterly untrustworthy they are apt to be. The
Commission is the permanent subject of a due proportion of
these legends, both commendatory and disparaging.

In estimating the value of the latter, it should be remem¬
bered that the work of the Commission necessarily makes it
enemies. Medical and other officers who know that their inca-

pacity or indolence lias been detected and noted by a relief
agent or inspector, naturally think it a meddlesome and mischie¬
vous organization, and are always ready to report, and sometimes
to embellish and magnify, every case of failure in its work.
Officers of the Medical Staff who stood high on the list, and
were expecting speedy promotion and additional rank and
emoluments, when Government was prevailed on to fill the
liigher offices of the Medical Bureau according to ability and
not, as before, according to seniority (or, in other words, by
selecting the best man instead of the oldest), cannot be expected
to admire the Sanitary Commission. Some of them think (very
naturally) that it has “ ruined the service,” and are not disin¬
clined to believe and to endorse any story that tells against it.
Many of our most thoughtful and far-sighted people, misin¬
formed as to its aim and policy, suppose it to seek merely the
immediate relief of the sick or wounded soldier, at any cost to
military self-reliance and discipline, and distrust it accord¬
ingly. Thousands of warm-hearted and energetic men and
women, diligently laboring for portions of the army through
State agencies and local societies, find the Sanitary Commis¬
sion throwing cold water on their work, because it is not con¬
formed to the system which the Commission holds to be the
most economical, the most National, and altogether the best.
They cannot help becoming more or less prejudiced against the
Commission, which seems thus to discourage and discredit what
they rightly feel to be the most unselfish and the most important
work of their lives, and they are thus unconsciously predisposed
to believe anything they may hear against it.

For a year past the Commission has been under no necessity
of appealing to the public for support. It has been sustained
during that period mainly by the splendid and spontaneous con¬
tributions it received from beyond the Kocky Mountains. These

enabled it to breathe freely, to lay out large and liberal plans,
to work for tbe future as well as for the present, and to expand
its system both of prevention and of relief to dimensions com¬
mensurate with tbe wants of tbe whole Army.

But these great contributions are now nearly exhausted. The
Commission receives no money from Government, and has no
income from any quarter on which it can rely. The con¬
tinuance of voluntary public contributions is necessarily too
uncertain to justify it in forming or continuing permanent
engagements or in undertaking any work that requires con¬
siderable time for its execution* It’s ordinary expenditure is
nearly fifty thousand dollars a month. During last July it was
more than ninety thousand. It’s operations cannot be main¬
tained on their present scale without a reserve fund of at least
one hundred thousand. The balance in its treasury has now
fallen much below that point, and unless it he speedily and

* Our daily papers are full of paragraphs and advertisements about subscrip¬
tions and undertakings in aid of the “ Sanitary Commission,” which often do not id
fact aid the Commission at all. The proceeds of the Fairs, Lectures, and other
entertainments announced as “ for the benefit of tbe Sanitary Commission, are
seldom received by its treasurer. They generally go to the treasury of some one
of its branches, and are applied to local expenses, to local “ special relief/’ and to
the purchase of supplies and material. They thus relieve the general treasury of
the Commission, to some extent, from the necessity of purchasing supplies, but
they contribute nothing to any other department of its work. For instance, the
great “Sanitary Commission Fair" recently got up with such unprecedented and
admirable talent and energy by tbe loyal people of Chicago, has produced not less
than sixty -nine thousand dollars. But it is not expected that any portion of this
amount will be received by the central treasury of the Commission. The pro¬
posed “Metropolitan Fair,” in New York, will be for the benefit of the Com¬
mission itself, but months must elapse before its proceeds are received, and the
Commission require large sums to sustain it in operation meanwhile.

The distinction between a “ Commission ” and a “ Committee ” seems not gene¬
rally recognised. Committees of patriotic and humane citizens, anxious to do
something to promote the sanitary condition of the army, style themselves the

“Sanitary Commission of - ” and report their receipts as contributed to

“the Sanitary Commission.” People are thus led to over-estimate the receipts
and under estimate the wants of the U. S. Sanitary Commission— the only or¬
ganization for army relief commissioned by Government and entitled to that name.

abundantly replenished, it must at once begin winding up its
affairs, closing its “ homes” and depots, dismissing its agents, and
preparing to retire from the field. dSTo reduction of its work to a
smaller and less expensive scale is practicable. It must continue
to do all it now does, or cease attempting to do anything. For
should it be obliged to abandon any part of the ground it now
covers, the diminution of its efficiency would be at once per¬
ceived, and the public support at once farther diminished. Each
successive contraction of its work would produce corresponding
contraction of its means, and it would rapidly dwarf and dwindle,
inch by inch, till it ceased to be worth sustaining at all. It would
be unseemly that a work so noble and so new in history as that
which the people has done through the Commission should ter¬
minate in lingering decay, and pass through successive stages of
weakness to insignificance and extinction. It should rather stop
short while still in full vigor, for its existence in decrepitude and
with failing energies would bring discredit on the people, and
do little to help the Army.

The Commission now asks the country to decide, and that
promptly, whether it shall or shall not continue its work. It
makes no appeal to public humanity and sympathy, for they are
already enlisted in its favor. It declines to stimulate those feel¬
ings as it might, most effectively, by dwelling on the pathetic
and touching incidents of its work, on the cases of heroic suffer¬
ing it has relieved, and the brave men who have thanked it for
saving them to do further service to the country. It addresses
itself not to the sentiment, but to the practical good sense of the
-community, and asks no support except from those who are
satisfied that the country receives a full return in money value
for all the country gives to support it. It submits to every man
the question whether it has or has not saved the country ten
times its cost by what it has done to economize the life, health,
and efficiency of the army — whether the continuance of this

work will or will not tend appreciably to diminish the cost and
the duration of the war • and whether he will or will not promote
his own material interests by doing what he can to sustain it.

In considering these questions, it must be remembered that in
all campaigns three or four men die of preventive disease for
every one destroyed by the enemy ; and also that the death
of every soldier is a considerable pecuniary loss to the country,
and to each and every one of its citizens.

The amount of this loss is made up of many items— the cost
of his enlistment, his pay and his rations, while he wTas an in¬
efficient recruit, the bounties that must be paid to replace him,
and the pension which his death or disability charges on the
public ; and to these must be added his worth to the nation as
a producer, had he survived the war, and returned to the indus¬
trial pursuits of civil life. The average money value to the
people of each soldier in the service is certainly not less than
one thousand dollars.

Men are not among the commodities we buy and sell ; but
they are bought and sold elsewhere, or have been ; and an able-
bodied male adult has never been held worth much less than
that sum to his owner. A Northern mechanic or farmer is cer¬
tainly worth as much to the country. The loss of a single
soldier by death or disability adds at least that amount to the
expenses of the war, and to the burthen it necessarily imposes
on every member of the community.

Rigorous economy of the life and health of our soldiers is
practically most important, therefore, to every tax-payer, and to
every holder of Government Securities. Whether the Sanitary
Commission does enough toward this great object to make it
worth the people’s while to sustain it (at the cost of nearly
fifty thousand dollars a month), is the question the people is now
asked to consider and decide.

Leaving out of view all its other work, the Commission cer-

tainly saved not less than one thousand lives within forty-eight
hours after Antietam. If each of these was worth as much to
the country as the average South Carolina field hand to his
owner, then the Commission, by its wrork at this one point,
returned to the country more than an equivalent, in money
value, for the nine, hundred thousand dollars the country has
given its Central Treasury during the last two years. But this
is only a single incident of one branch of the work it has been
doing ever since the wrar began.

In view of facts like this, the Commission submits the case,
without misgiving, to the intelligence of the People. The
value of all property throughout the country depends on the
success of the National cause, and every property-holder has a
personal interest in whatever promotes it. In no way can it
he more surely promoted than by retrenchment of the cost of
war ; and the Commission claims that its efforts to this end
have thus far saved the People at least two dollars for every
dollar it has been enabled to expend.

It will make no attempt to raise the sum required to keep it
in operation through the instrumentalities usually employed for
like purposes. If means he freely supplied, as heretofore, the
work of the Commission will he kept up, but, if not, it will he
abandoned ; and, to keep it up, not less than two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars must he raised before the 1st of February,
1864.

For the purpose of ascertaining what the People is disposed
to give, it is recommended that the several branches of the Com-
mission proceed at once to ascertain, by public meetings, or
otherwise, what sum their respective cities will contribute for
the general purposes of the Commission, and report the result
to its General Secretary Dr. J. Foster Jenkins, No. 823 Broad¬
way, New York.

Those who are satisfied that the work of the Commission is

one not only of mercy and humanity, but of substantial service
to the country, and who are able and willing to aid it, will send
their contributions to its Treasurer, Geo. T. Strong, Ho. 68 Wall
Street, or 823 Broadway, Hew York.

By order of the Commission.

ITeney W. Bellows, v

¥m. IT. Yan Buren, j

Wolcott Gibbs, I

C. B. Agnew, f

Saml. G. Howe, \ Committee.

Horace Binney, Jr., 1

J. Huntington Wolcott, I

Fairman Bogers, j

Geo. T. Strong, J

appendix a.

SUPPLIES DISTRIBUTED DURING AND IMMEDIATELY
AFTER THE BATTLES AT GETTYSBURG,

JUI/iT 1st, 2(1 and 3d, 1863.

Of Articles of Clothing , etc., viz. :

Of Drawers, (woolen) 5,310 pairs . 50

“ « (cotton) 1,833 pairs . 1>883 00

“ Shirts, (woolen) 7,158 . ’ . 14’316 00

“ “ (cotton) 3,266 . 3’266 00

“ Pillows, 2,114 . 1’268 40

“ Pillow Cases, 264 . 105

“ Bed Sacks, 1,630 . 3’463 75

« Blankets, . . 3’021 00

“ Sheets, . . 274 00

“ Wrappers, 508 . - 1’498 60

“ Handkerchiefs, 2,659 . 319 08

“ Stockings, (woolen) 3,560 pairs . 1>780 00

“ “ (cotton) 2,258 pairs . 451 60

“ Bed Utensils, 728 . 182 00

“ Towels and Napkins, 10,000.. . . . 00

“ Sponges, 2,300 . 230 00

“ Combs, 1,500 . 75 00

“ Buckets, 200 . 60 00

“ Soap, (Castile) 250 pounds . 50 00

“ Oil Silk, 300 yards . 225 00

“ Tin Basins, Cups, etc., 7,000 . *700 00

“ Old Linen, Bandages, etc., 110 barrels . 1,100 00

“ Water Tanks, . . 70 00

“ Water Coolers, 46 . ^238

“ Bay Rum and Cologne Water, 225 bottles. . ^42

Carried forward

$45,624 03

Brought forward . 845,624 03

Of Fans, 3,500 . 145 00

“ Chloride of Lime, 11 barrels . 99 00

11 Shoes and Slippers, 4,000 pairs . *2,400 00

“ Crutches, 1,200 . 480 00

“ Lanthorns, 180 . 90 00

“ Candles, 350 pounds . 70 00

u Canvas, 300 square yards . 360 00

“ Musquito Netting, 648 pieces . 810 00

“ Paper, 237 quires . - . 23 70

“ Pants, Coats, Hats, 189 pieces . *96 75

“ Plaster, 16 rolls . - . 4 90

Of Articles of Sustenance , viz. :

Of Fresh Poultry and Mutton, 11,000 pounds . 1,540 00

“ “ Butter, 6,430 pounds . 1,286 00

u u Eggs, (chiefly collected for the occasion at farm¬

houses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,) 8,500

dozens . 1,700 00

u u Garden Vegetables, 675 bushels . 337 50

“ “ Berries, 48 bushels . 72 00

M u Bread, 12,900 loaves . 945 00

“ Ice, 20,000 pounds . 190 00

“ Concentrated Beef Soup, 3,800 pounds . 3,800 00

** “ Milk, 12,500 pounds . 3,125 00

“ Prepared Farinaceous Food, 7,000 pounds . 700 00

“ Dried Fruit, 3,500 pounds . 350 00

“ Jellies and Conserves, 2,000 jars . 1,000 00

“ Tamarinds, 750 gallons . 990 00

u Lemons, 116 boxes . 580 00

“ Oranges, 46 boxes . 230 00

u Coffee, 850 pounds . 272 00

u Chocolate, 831 pounds . 249 30

44 Tea, 426 pounds . 383 40

u White Sugar, 6,800 pounds . 1,156 00

44 Syrups, (Lemon, etc.) 785 bottles . - . 596 25

u Brandy, 1,250 bottles . 1,250 00

44 Whiskey, 1,168 bottles . 700 80

u Wine, 1,148 bottles . 861 00

Carried forward . $71,736 73

Brought forward . $7 1,736 73

Of Ale, 600 gallons . 180 00

“ Biscuit, Crackers, and Rusk, 134 barrels . *070 00

“ Preserved Meats, 500 pounds . 125 00

“ Preserved Fish, 3,600 pounds . 720 00

“ Pickles, 400 gallons . 120 00

“ Tobacco, 1( 0 pounds . 70 00

“ Tobacco Pipes, 1,000 . 5 60

“ Indian Meal, 1,021 pounds . 40 50

“ Starch, 1,074 pounds . . . Id

“ Codfish, 3,848 pounds . 269 36

“ Canned Fruit, 582 cans . 436 50

“ “ Oysters, 72 cans . . . 36 00

“ Brandy Peaches, 303 jars . 303 00

“ Catsup, 43 jars . 11 60

« Vinegar, 24 bottles..,. . 3 00

“ Jamaica Ginger, 43 jars . . . 37 25

Total . $74,838 52

* Estimated value.

APPENDIX B.

While this paper is passing through the press, information is received
that a Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission has just been organized
at Paris, and is entering with energy on its legitimate work of col¬
lecting money and supplies from loyal Americans abroad, and fiom all
others who sympathize with us in our National struggle.

The following is an abstract of the official report of its proceedings up
to 4th December, instant, transmitted to the Standing Committee in New
York ;

A meeting of American gentlemen was held at the American Consulate,
Paris, November 30th, 1863, for the purpose of organizing a Paris Branch
of the United States Sanitary Commission.

The Rev. John McClintock, D.D., was duly appointed President, and
Mr. James \Y. Brooks, Vice-Consul of the United States, Secretary pro
tern.

An Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of the following
named gentlemen :

Rev. John McClintock, D.D., (Pastor of the American Chapel, Paris.)

Mr. John Bigelow, U. S. Consul.

Mr. Chas. S. P. Bowles, Boston.

Mr. Edward Brooks, do.

Dr. T. W. Evans, Paris.

Mr. Robt. M. Mason, Boston.

Mr. Geo. T. Richards, Paris.

Mr. J. Phalen, New York.

Mr. Wm. H. Thomson, New York.

Mr. Henry Wood, Boston.

Such Committee to have general supervision of the action of the Paris
Branch, subject to the approval of the Central Board of the Commission,
with power to fill its own vacancies.

Mr. Geo. T. Richards was appointed Treasurer, and Mr. Win. B. Bowles
Secretary, such appointments to be subject to the approval of the Central
Board.

The Secretary was instructed to provide boohs of subscription, prefaced
with a statement of the character and objects of the organization.

The meeting then adjourned.

A meeting of the Executive Committee was held at the office of Messrs.
J, Munroe & Co., No. Rue de la Paix, Palis.

Present— Rev. John McClintock, D.D., and Messrs. Robt. M. Mason,
Wm. S. Thompson, Edward Brooks, Geo. S. Richards. Henry Woods,
Charles S. P. Bowles and WTm. Bowles, General Secretary of the Paris
Branch of the TJ. S. Sanitary Commission.

Dr. McClintock was, on motion, duly elected Chairman of the Com¬
mittee, and Mr. Wm. B. Bowles Secretary.

The minutes of the preliminary meeting was read and approved.

A list of names of gentlemen on whom it was thought best to wait for
subscriptions, was submitted and approved.

It was resolved that the Secretary open a correspondence with American
Consuls, and with prominent American citizens residing in Europe, with a
view to the extension and increased efficiency of this Branch of the Com¬
mission.

Resolved— That the title of the Branch be “The European Branch
of the United States Sanitary Commission.”

Mr. Wm. S. Thompson offered his name as one of ten to subscribe five
thousand francs each for the objects of the European Branch.

Adjourned to meet at the same place 6th December instant, at 3 P. M.

The European Branch appears to have established its permanent head¬
quarters at No. 2 Rue Martel, Paris, and to have already raised a con¬
siderable amount which it holds subject to the orders of the Commission,
and which can be used abroad to very great advantage in the purchase of
certain articles of hospital supply.

This creation of a Branch of the Commission among loyal Americans
on the other side of the Atlantic is especially gratifying, because it has
been wholly spontaneous. It shows that this new work, invented by the
American People, and by them practically applied for the first time m

history, through the Sanitary Commission — of supplying an army with
an additional staff of Volunteer Commissaries, Quartermasters and Sur¬
geons, working in harmony with its military authorities, and vested with
discretionary powers that enable them to do whatever the necessary in¬
flexibility of military regulations obliges Government officials to leave un¬
does— commends itself to the heads and to the hearts of loyal Americans

wherever they may be. ...

This extension of the influence and agencies of the Commission into
Europe suggests the mention of another fact of like interest, which
may be due to the example the Commission has set, and may prove a
material step in the progress of mankind toward the mitigation of the
evils incident to war. An “International Conference” of representatives
of the several European States met at Geneva last October, and has
published a voluminous report of its deliberations and transactions.
Its object is to establish a Sanitary Commission for the army of
every European Power. It proposes that, in case of war, each army—
French, Austrian, Russian, or as the case may be— shall have its staff
of Sanitary and Relief Agents, representing an International organiza¬
tion, whose duty it shall be impartially to succor and relieve all the sick
and wounded among friends and enemies alike, and whose office shall
make their persons sacred and inviolable, and secure them against cap¬
ture, injury, or interference.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

Supplement to No, 69,

Your attention is respectfully invited to Document No. 69 ot
the U. S. Sanitary Commission, of which a copy is sent you
herewith.

Its object is to give an outline of the work the Commission
nas done, and to call on the People at large for a speedy deci¬
sion whether it will enable the Commission to continue its
operations.

Since that paper went to press, the demands on the central
Treasury have been unexpectedly great, and the balance at its
disposal has been largely and alarmingly reduced. It has been
obliged within a week, in addition to current expenses, to ex¬
pend ten thousand dollars on the work of its Western centre at
Louisville, growing out of the battles of Chattanooga and
Knoxville, and a like sum at the East, to meet imperative de¬
mands for Hospital supplies. Nearly five thousand dollars has,
during the same period, been applied to the relief of the torces
at New Orleans, and under General Banks. This includes the
freight (about $2,500) on a cargo of fresh vegetables just sent
them from Maine as a protection against scurvy, which threatens
to make its appearance at certain points.

These and other absolutely necessary expenditures have
within the past few days reduced the already depleted treasury
of the Commission to a point of danger and distress.

Hence, it is thought desirable to issue this paper in connec¬
tion with, and as supplementary to, Document No. 69, for
the purpose of asking all who may receive the latter to read
and consider its statements at their earliest convenience, and
to decide what they will do towards sustaining the Sanitary
Commission.

The receipts of the Central Treasury have for some time past
been unusually small. This is due to a fact referred to in the
foot-note of Document G9, which ought (from the urgency of
the case) to be more conspicuously stated here. For the last
two months the papers have been full of paragraphs about cer¬
tain noble systematic efforts to raise funds for army relief, by
“ Fairs” and subscriptions, and the magnificent money results
of these undertakings have all been reported and wondered at
as so much contributed to “ the Sanitary Commission.” People
have most naturally doubted whether they need send the San¬
itary Commission any money, after reading in the newspapers
that Chicago had raised §69,000, and that Boston had raised
§120,000, and that Cincinnati was in the act of raising §250,000,
by Fairs in its aid.

But the fact is, that the great sums thus raised for Army
Relief do not come into the Treasury of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion . The proceeds of the Chicago fair, the Boston fair, and
the Cincinnati fair, have gone, or will, doubtless, go into the
Treasuries of the Chicago, Boston, and Cincinnati branches of
the Commission. For a definition of the relations of these
branches to the Commission itself, appointed by Government, and
watching the whole army, readers are referred to the accompany¬
ing Document, Ho. 69. These sums will be used by these sev¬
eral branches in the local work of “Special Belief,” and mainly
in the purchase of material that will be worked up into Hos¬
pital clothing and bedding by tens of thousands of busy warm¬
hearted loyal women East and AYest, and sent to the depots of
the U. S. Sanitary Commission, or held subject to the requisi¬
tion of its Secretaries and Belief Agents. But the money
thus collected at Chicago, Cincinnati, and Boston helps the
U. S. Sanitary Commission, only in that it may furnish stores
on which the Belief Agents of the Commission can draw,
and thus relieve the Central Treasury partially from the neces¬
sity of buying. But it contributes nothing to the general work

of the Commission. It does nothing to support Sanitary In¬
spection, Hospital directories, systematic economical distribu¬
tion of supplies, the maintenance on the field of several Corps
of medical and other experts in Army Relief, distribution of
medical monographs among Army Surgeons, Hospital Inspec¬
tion, or “ Special Relief5’ at Washington, Alexandria, Annapo¬
lis, Louisville, and Hew Orleans. It contributes nothing toward
keeping up tire organized force that dragged wounded men out
of the wet ditch of Fort Wagner last July, and organized
Relief Depots under fire at Gettysburg!!, Antietam, and Chat¬
tanooga. These great Fairs have not, strictly speaking, been
conducted in the interest of the Sanitary Commission of the
United States , though they have contributed on an unprece¬
dented scale to sustain its branches in their legitimate functions
of collecting supplies to be distributed throughout the whole
Army, by the agents or the Commission, and in that of Special
Relief.

You are earnestly requested, at your earliest convenience, to
examine the statement herewith submitted to you, and to decide
whether the work done by the Commission is such as to make
its continuance desirable, and whether you feel called upon to
contribute to its support.

Should you feel uncertain as to any point connected with its
management, full information in regard to it will be given you
on application to Mr. B. Collins, the Assistant Secretary
for How York, at Ho. 823 Broadway, Hew York.

828 Broadway , New York ,

December 28th, 1863.

Henry W. Bellows,
William II. Yan Bueen,
Wolcott Gibbs,

C. R. Agnew,

Geo. T. Strong,

Standing Committee .

SANITARY COMMISSION.

isr<o. vOi

OF TEE

OPERATIONS OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION

IN CONNECTION WITH THE

Engagement in the Harbor of Charleston, South Carolina,
July to 20 th, 1863.

To meet inquiries, the following statement has been com¬
piled from hastily -written letters and memoranda received from
Dr. M. M. Marsh, the Chief Inspector of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion in South Carolina, who accompanied the attacking force
in the recent movement upon Morris Island, and from Mrs.
Marsh, who is acting as his Secretary at Beaufort, at which
point the fixed depot of the Commission is established. The
Commission has a good-sized brig employed as a floating depot,
with the fleet in the harbor of Charleston. From this such
supplies as are found to be wanted in the medical and sanitary
care of the troops on shore, are daily sent for distribution.

Mrs. Marsh writes on the 15th: The brig sailed from here
on the 8th, with stores which would gladden the hearts of those
who have friends exposed. The effect of these home offerings
brings tears to the eyes and encouragement to the hearts of

test of the fire, their trained corps picked up and carried off the
wounded almost as they fell. As many of our men were struck
while ascending the parapet and then rolled into the moat,
which at high tide contains six feet of water, they must in¬
evitably have perished had they been suffered to remain. But
the men who were detailed for service with Dr. Marsh went
about their work with intrepidity and coolness worthy of all
praise. The skill and experience of the members of the Com¬
mission has, since the battle, been unremittingly employed to
render comfortable the sick and wounded.”

The following is a statement of the supplies sent to the depot
of the Sanitary Commission in South Carolinay for the summer
campaign , 1863 :

Articles of hospital body clothing .

Towels and napkins . . . . .

Bedding and cushions for wounded limbs. . .

Lint, bandages, and old linen .

Fans .

Cologne water .

Bay rum . . .

Concentrated beef soup .

“ milk .

Brandy .

Whiskey . . .

Wine .

Egg FTogg, concentrated .

Farinaceous food . - .

Tea . . .

Defined sugar .

Eggs .

Butter .

Lemons .

Lemonade, concentrated .

Dried fruit .

Fresh vegetables .

Boston crackers .

Apple butter. . * .

10,000

8,000

6,753

100 barrels.
2,100

2 gallons.

60 bottles.
1,000 1 lb. cans-
1,000 “

216 bottles.

336

384 “

24 cans.

1,000 lbs.

156 “

300 “

79 doz.

181 lbs.

2 boxes.

322 “

35 bbls.

26 “

20 “

120 cans.

with a quantity of quick-lime, chloride of lime, soap, sponges,
combs, hospital utensils, cooking utensils, chloroform, morphine,
alcohol, salt, mustard, pepper, surgical instruments, etc., etc.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 71.

R E I3 O R T

0|)cnttions af fk Sitnitarn (fommisMit

DURING AND

AFTER THE BATTLES AT GETTYSBURG.

July 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1863.

F. Law Olmsted, Esq.,

General Secretary, Sanitary Commission:

Sir — When the Army of the Potomac broke camp at Falmouth, to
commence the campaign which terminated in the battle of Gettysburg,
the operations of the Commission in connection with this army again
assumed a most active and laborious character. The evacuation of Aquia,
necessitated the withdrawal of its large stock of stores, accumulated at
that place and at Falmouth; and the instantaneous removal of the
thousands of sick and wounded from the Corps Hospital at Potomac
Creek, called for an unusual amount of labor from its Relief Corps.

I have already reported, in a communication to the Executive
Committee, dated June 17, that all our stores had been safely removed
to this city from Aquia, by means of our transport, the steamer Elizabeth,
and that we had furnished substantial food to over 8,000 sick and
wounded soldiers, at Lodge No. 5 of the Commission, situated at Sixth
Street Wharf, where all of the transports brought the inmates of the
Corps Hospitals on their way to the General Hospitals of this District.
This work of transportation began Saturday, June 13, and continued
unceasingly until Monday night, the 15th. Coffee, bread, hot beef
soup, lemonade, were provided in quantities to meet the demands of all,
and on the arrival of the boats, each invalid was questioned as to his
wants, and his wishes complied with. The continuous labor of these
two days severely taxed the strength of those engaged in it.

While a portion of our force was thus occupied in removing the stores,
and another portion in dispensing refreshments to the arriving thousands,
a third party was engaged in following the marching columns, leady to
lend assistance whenever it might he needed.

The short halt made by the army in the vicinity of Fairfax Court-
House permitted us to accumulate stores at that point. When the
march was again resumed, our wagons, with a replenished stock, continued
to follow in the rear of the column.

Dr. Alex. McDonald, who was temporarily in charge of our station at
Aquia, as soon as he had reported the removal of our stores from that
point, rejoined the corps in the field. I quote from his report a resume
of our operations with the army, until it crossed the Potomac at Edward s
Ferry :

“ On Monday, the 22dinst., (June,) two wagons loaded with hospital
stores, in care of Messrs. Bush and Scandlin, and accompanied by Mr.
Bellows, were sent to Fairfax Court-House; on Tuesday another load,
accompaied by Messrs. Hoag, Paige, Holbrook, and myself, proceeded
to the same point, arriving at 4 r. m., and on Wednesday, a mule train
with forage was sent in charge of Mr. Clampitt.

“Our intention was to leave one wagon with relief agent and
storekeeper at Fairfax, to send a similar force to Centreville and Thor¬
oughfare Gap, and another to Gum Springs and Aldie; but on arriving
at Fairfax we were advised by General Sedgwick to remain where we
then were, as the roads were not safe without an escort. Acting on this
advice, we remained at Fairfax, issuing stores to the hospitals of the
Sixth and Cavalry Corps, which were much in need of such supplies as
we then had.

“Found the Cavalry Hospital located on a slightly elevated hill, well
shaded, with good water, though not in large quantity, well drained,
clean, raised beds, and the men in a very comfortable condition ; but
few severe cases ; camp was well policed and neatly laid out ; surgeons
active and efficient ; good nurses ; clean, well ventilated tents ; everything
in good order, but in want of supplies.

‘ ‘ The hospital of the Sixth Corps was established on a new plan — the
men being kept in the ambulances, ready for immediate transportation.
This plan was still an experiment, and had not been fully tested, but so
far as one could judge from observation and the experience and statements
of sugeons in charge, should deem it a good one and well worthy a more
extended trial. Ambulances were well parked on a gently sloping piece
of ground, kept in good order, and the men seemed to be very com¬
fortably situated, except that they needed more blankets.

“We supplied each of these and some of the regimental hospitals
from our stock, and at a time when there were no other means of
their obtaining the much needed articles. The issues at Fairfax were
to such an extent as to enable us to pack nearly all the remaining stock
in two wagons and send one nearly empty with the mule train to
Washington to be reloaded.

“Thursday morning visited Headquarters, and was there advised to
send empty wagons and mules to Washington, to start with loaded
wagons and follow in the train of the Reserve Artillery. * * *

Moved with train and camped at night on top of a hill this side of
Edwards’ Ferry, placed a guard over our stores and horses, and laid
down to rest, most of us having been on the road thirty-one hours
without food or sleep, except such as we could catch during the halts.

“ Saturday, moved on to Poolesville, where we arrived at 10 A. M.
This point having been designated as a good one for an issue-station, a
room was engaged, and before the wagons were unloaded two requisitions
came in, the surgeons being very glad to get something for their men.
All stores in the town were closed by order of the General Commanding,
and the Commission was the only source from which they could obtain
anything.”

For the purpose of keeping our stock up, another wagon load was
sent up from Washington Friday afternoon, to intercept our train at
Poolesville, Dr. McDonald having informed us from Fairfax that he
should make that point. This wagon succeeded in getting through
safely, although the road was very insecure, a long Government train
being seized a few hours after our wagon had passed a certain point in
the road by a body of Stuart’s cavalry. It reached Poolesville, accom¬
panied by Major Bush and Mr. Clampitt, Saturday afternoon. One
wagon was then returned to Washington for repairs. Sunday morning,
the army and trains moving on rapidly, our stores were again packed,
and the wagons proceeded together to Frederick, arriving there the same
evening.

It will be remembered that just previous to this time, before our forces
had crossed the Potomac, the enemy had attacked and routed General
Milroy’s command at Winchester, and the forces at Harper’s Ferry and
vicinity had been withdrawn into the entrenchments on Maryland
Heights, where they were in some respects beleagured.

“On the 18th of June,” writes Dr. L. H. Steiner, our Chief
Inspector with the Army of the Potomac, “I received a telegram from
Dr. C. F. H. Campbell, Surgeon U. S. Vols., Medical Director, Gen.
Kelly’s command, stating that he needed ‘ lint, stimulants, and band-

ages.’ This telegram was sent in answer to an inquiry made by me,
whether I could aid him. Securing the use of a wagon and mule team
from Alfred F. Brengle, of Frederick, I dispatched, June 19, quite a
large quantity of brandy, sherry, whiskey, chocolate, condensed milk,
tea, lint, and bandages, to Maryland Heights. James Gall, Jr., relief
agent, accompanied the stores, and Mr. Brengle drove the team, iliey
reached their destination safely. Mr. Gall remained on the Heights
with his stores. Mr. Brengle was seized by some of the enemy’s
cavalry on his return, his team and wagons were confiscated, and himself
seized as a prisoner, and sent to Richmond. He still remains a prisoner.

The menacing attitude of the enemy, pointing toward another invasion
of Maryland, and possibly of Pennsylvania, necessitated a rapid concen¬
tration of an opposing force in its front. The President called for 100,000
militia for this purpose. The first troops under this call left New York on the
17th June. In anticipation of the accumulation of a large body of troops
in the neighborhood of Harrisburg, I dispatched, on the 17th, Dr. Win.
F. Swalm, Inspector of the Sanitary Commission, with Mr. Isaac Harris,
Belief Agent, to that point. They arrived at Harrisburg before any
troops, and made diligent preparation to lend such assistance as might
be required. They remained on the ground till the enemy had recrossed
the Potomac into Virginia, and the militia had been recalled to their
several States. They advanced with our advancing columns to Carlisle,
Shippensburg, Chambersburg, and Boonsborough, visiting camps and
hospitals, and pushing forward such extra Government supplies as were
found wanting. The accompanying reports exhibit the activity, and the
relief afforded by Dr. Swalm and Mr. Harris to the hurriedly constructed
hospital organizations of the militia forces.

The main body of the enemy having crossed the Potomac near
Williamsport, about the 27th of the month, the design and direction of
the movement began to be apparent. Our own army was at this time in
the vicinity of Frederick city, Md., and was moving northward, as
rapidly as possible, to meet the equally rapid advance of the opposing
forces.

Our Chief Inspector, Dr. Lewis H. Steiner, was at Frederick. Dr.
Alexander McDonald had joined him. The wagons of the Commission,
which had followed in the train of the army, had reached Frederick and
reported to Dr. Steiner. It was still doubtful where the collision between
the opposing forces would take place. We were prepared to do our
work in the front and in the rear, but the emergency might arise in an
unexpected point, and we wished to be prepared.

A demonstration of the enemy upon the Northern Central Railroad,
(Baltimore and Harrisburg,) determined me to send out a relief agent in
that direction. Accordingly, Mr. James Gall, who had returned from
Maryland Heights, was, on the 27th June, ordered to proceed along the
line of that road, to push forward in whatever direction he should learn
that a conflict was impending, to acquaint himself with the position of
affairs, and to keep the Central Office informed of the necessity of
forwarding supplies and agents.

Mr. Gall was enabled to proceed only to Parkton by rail, from thence
he walked to York, a distance of twenty-eight miles. Upon entering
the town, he found it, to his surprise, in possession of the enemy.
The following observations, made by Mr. Gall, upon the condition and
appearance of the soldiers composing the division of the rebel troops
occupying York, I quote from his report:

“Believing that a battle would take place at or near York, I
determinened — as there was no other means of getting there — to push
forward on foot. I started from Parkton at nine o’clock on Sunday
morning, and reached York at four o’clock in the afternoon, and found,
to my surprise and regret, that the city was already in the possession of
rebel troops. The force occupying York was Gen. Early’s division of
Ewell’s corps, consisting of five brigades of infantry, three batteries of
artillery, and part of two regiments of cavalry — in all about 9,000 men
and 18 pieces of artillery. Gordon’s brigade, accompanied by a battery
of artillery, and part of a regiment of cavalry, passed through the city,
and pushed on in the direction of Wrightsville. Post’s brigade, com¬
posed chiefly of North Carolina men, was quartered near the barracks,
and did guard duty near the city. Two batteries of artillery were
parked in a field called the ‘Fair Grounds.’ The other three brigades
were camped outside the city, and commanding the various roads leading
to it. * * * * * *

“ On entering the town General Early made a levy upon the citizens,
promising in the event of its being complied with promptly, to spare all
private property in the city; otherwise he would allow his men to take
such things as they needed, and would not be responsible for the conduct
of his men while they remained in the city. The beef, flour, and other
articles, and $28,000 in money were speedily collected, and handed over
to the rebels. The General expressed himself satisfied with what he had
received, and scrupulously kept his word in regard to the safety of
private property. Nothing belonging to any citizen was touched, no
one was molested in the streets ; all was as quiet and orderly as if there
were no soldiers there. I am satisfied that the behavior of North

Carolina troops who did guard duty in York during the rebel occupation
was better than that of the majority of our own troops when quartered in
our own cities.

“ On Monday the rebels were busy in carting off the levied articles.
About 4 P. M., Gordon’s brigade returned from Wrightsville, bringing
with them some horses and cattle which they had picked up on the way.
They had about eight supply and ammunition wagons, and twelve
ambulances with them. Many of the latter were marked U. S. The
ambulances were all filled with men, who had apparently given out on
the way. Physically, the men looked about equal to the generality of
our own troops, and there were fewer boys among them. Their dress
was a wretched mixture of all cuts and colors. There was not the
slightest attempt at uniformity in this respect. Every man seemed to
have put on whatever he could get hold of, without regard to shape or
color. I noticed a pretty large sprinkling of blue pants among them,
some of those, doubtless, that were left by Milroy at Winchester. Their
shoes, as a general thing, were poor ; some of the men were entirely
barefooted. Their equipments were light as compared with those of our
men. They consisted of a thin woollen blanket, coiled up and slung
from the shoulder in the form of a sash, a haversack slung from the
opposite shoulder, and a cartridge box. The whole cannot weigh more
than twelve or fourteen pounds. Is it strange, then, that with such
light loads they should be able to make longer and more rapid marches
than our men? The marching of the men was irregular and careless;
their arms were rusty and ill-kept. Their whole appearance was greatly
inferior to that of our soldiers.

“During Monday I visited the ‘Fair Grounds,’ as also the camp of
a Louisiana Brigade, situated about a mile from the city. The supply
wagons were drawn up in a sort of straggling hollow square, in the
centre of which the men stacked their arms in company lines, and
in this way formed their camp. There were no tents for the men, and
but very few for the officers. The men were busy cooking their dinner,
which consisted of fresh beef, (part of the York levy,) wheat griddle
cakes raised with soda, and cold water. No coffee or sugar had been
issued to the men for a long time. The meat was mostly prepared by
frying, and was generally very plentifully salted. The cooking is
generally done in squads, or messes of five or six, and on the march
the labor of carrying the cooking utensils is equally divided among them.
The men expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with this kind of food,
and said they greatly preferred the bread prepared in the way they do
it, to the crackers issued to the Union soldier. I question if their

bread is as healthy and nourishing as the army biscuit. I asked one
of the men how he got along without a shelter tent. His answer was,

‘ first rate.’ ‘ In the first place,’ said he, ‘ I wouldn’t tote one, and in
the second place, I feel just as well, if not better, without it.’ ‘But
how do you manage when it rains?’ I inquired. ‘Wall,’ said he,

‘ me and this other man has a gum blanket atween us; when it rains
we spread one of our woollen blankets on the ground to lie on, then we
spread the other woollen blanket over us, and the gum blanket over that,
and the rain can’t tech us.’ And this is the way the rebel army (with
the exception of a few of the most important officers) sleeps. Every¬
thing that will trammel or impede the movement of the army is
discarded, no matter what the consequences may be to the men. In
conversation with one of the officers, I mentioned about the want of tents
in his army, and asked whether any bad effects were apparent from it.
He said he thought not. On the contrary, he considered the army in
better condition now than ever before. Granting the truth of what the
officer said about the condition of the rebel army, I very much doubt
the correctness of his conclusions. The present good condition of the
rebel army is more likely to be due to the following circumstances :
First, the army has been lying still all winter, under good shelter ; has
been tolerably well fed and clothed, and in this way has had a chance
to recuperate after the fatiguing campaigns off last summer. Second,
most of the weakly men, who could not stand a day’s march without
being sent to the rear, have been either discharged or have died, thus
leaving a smaller portion of those remaining liable to disease. Third,
since that portion of the rebel army (Ewell’s corps) moved from behind
Fredericksburg, on the 4th of June last, it has been favored with
remarkably fine weather; has been stimulated with almost uninterrupted
success in its movements ; has been marching through a rich and fertile
country, and, by levying on the inhabitants of which, the soldiers
have been able to procure an abundance of good wholesome food, better,
perhaps, than they had for many months. These, and not the want of
tents, are probably the causes which give to the rebel army its present
healthy tone. Under ordinary circumstances, I have no doubt the
want of shelter would prove rather a detriment to the army than
otherwise.

“In further conversation with the Louisiana officer, I ascertained
that this was the corps which moved down through the Shenandoah
Valley, surprised Milroy at Winchester, and was the first to cross the
Potomac at Shepardstown into Maryland. He informed me that his
own and the North Carolina brigade were armed entirely with Enfield

rifles taken at Winchester after Milroy’s retreat. In speaking of our
soldiers, the same officer remarked : 4 They are too well fed, too well
clothed, and have far too much to carry.’ That our men are too well
fed I do not believe, neither that they are too well clothed ; that they
have too much to carry I can very well believe, after witnessing the
march of the Army of the Potomac to Chancellorsville. Each man
had eight days rations to carry, besides sixty rounds of ammunition,
musket, woollen blanket, rubber blanket, overcoat, extra shirt, drawers,
socks, and shelter tent, amounting in all to about sixty pounds. Think
of men (and boys too) staggering along under such a load, at the rate of
fifteen to twenty miles a day.

44 About nine o’clock Monday night, the guards were withdrawn from
the hotels and liquor shops, and the whole of the North Carolina
brigade shortly after left the city in the same direction as Gordon’s
brigade. On Tuesday morning, about four o’clock, the last remaining
brigade passed through the city with flags flying and band playing, and
took the road to Carlisle. The other two brigades, it was supposed, had
gone off in the direction of Gettysburg.

u The city was now clear of rebels, except some stragglers who
purposely staid behind, or were too drunk to go with their commands.

“While General Early scrupulously kept his agreement with the
citizens of York, as to the protection of private property in the city,
he did not prevent his troopers from visiting the farms outside the city,
and taking such horses and mules as they required. The rebel cavalry,
as a general thing, are splendidly mounted, better, I think, than the
Union cavalry, and their free and easy manner of procuring fresh horses
explains it.”

Mr. Gall not being able to communicate with us by telegraph, except
from Baltimore, reported in person, and was immediately ordered to join
Dr. Steiner at Frederick.

The anticipated battle was now near at hand. Supplies were accumu¬
lated at New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Mr.
Knapp was at Philadelphia, and Mr. 0. C. Bullard at Baltimore, both
with efficient assistants ready to respond to all demands.

The supply train following the army had reached Frederick city, and
was under the orders of Dr. Steiner. Its subsequent operations during
the battle week I give in the words of Dr. Steiner from his report already
referred to.

“ June 28. — The supply train, with stores from Washington, reported
to me during the day, being in charge of Messrs. Bush, Hoag, and

Clampitt. Desiring to retain Clampitt to assist me in my work in
Frederick, I detached him from the train, which then started off, accom¬
panied by Messrs. Hoag and Bush. The benefits afforded by these
supplies to the wounded, to whom they were distributed under fire,
during the battles of Gettysburg, July 2d and 3d, by Mr. Hoag, cannot
be expressed in words, and the receipted requisitions of the surgeons
who employed these stores on that occasion, are sufficient evidence of the
utility of being prepared for such emergencies.

“ On Saturday, July 4, two wagons reported to me from Washington,
being accompanied by Dr. Alex. McDonald, (sanitary inspector,) and
Mr. James Gall, Jr., and Rev. Mr. Scandlin, (relief agents.) Having
been informed that a car load of supplies had been forwarded to
Westminster, Md., I ordered one wagon, under the direction of
Mr. Gall, to that place, with the view of having it then filled with
supplies and thence to proceed to Gettysburg. The second wagon was
loaded from the Frederick storehouse, and dispatched under the charge
of Dr. McDonald, via Emmittsburg, to Gettysburg. Dr. McDonald
was provided with instructions to take charge of our operations in
the field, and was supplied with discretionary powers. Rev. Mr.
Scandlin accompanied the second wagon. The first wagon safely reached
Gettysburg, the second was seized by a party of the enemy’s cavalry, in
or near Emmittsburg, its stores and the horses of the party confiscated,
and Dr. McDonald, Mr. Scandlin, Leonard Brink, (the teamster,) with a
colored boy, Moses Gardner, were taken to Richmond, where they are
held as prisoners.”

The report of the first pitched engagement of the contending forces,
on the 1st of July, reached us the following morning. A freight car
(No. 816) was immediately loaded and dispatched to Westminster,
leaving Washington in the night, in charge of Mr. S. Bacon. Mr.
Hovey followed the next morning in passenger train, and reached
Westminster about noon July 3d. Owing to a delay at Baltimore of the
Government freight train, the car was thirty hours en route.

On Sunday, the 5th July, another car, (No. 1499,) loaded with
assorted supplies, was sent to Westminster, in charge of Mr. George
G. Edgerly, and a third car load to Frederick, to the care of Dr.
Steiner.

These were the supplies which reached the army immediately subse¬
quent to the battle, before the railway leading direct to Gettysburg was
put in repair, and before any communication was open, except through
the long and tedious process of hauling by wagons.

What was done by our force in the field, during and immediately
after the battle, up to the time when I arrived at Gettysburg, I shall
give in the words of those who performed the labor

Mr. Hoag, who was in charge of the wagons sent out by Hr. Steiner
from Frederick, gives the following account:

“I left Frederick city in charge of two wagons, well loaded, June 29.
We fell in with the 12th army corps supply train, but owing to its
moving slowly, did not get more than six miles before we were obliged
to put up for the night.

“Tuesday we moved more rapidly, passed through Taneytown, and
out on the road to Emmittsburg, overtook the 3d corps in camp, on
the banks of the Monocacy. Next morning, Wednesday, I obtained
permission to bring my wagons in just behind the headquarters’ teams f
and kept with them to or near Gettysburg, where we arrived about nine
o’clock P. M. All was quiet until four o’clock P. M., Thursday,
when a heavy firing commenced on our left, where the ‘rebs’ were trying
a flank movement. As soon as the wounded began to come in, I started
out with the wagons to distribute the stores. We reached five different
hospitals, which were all we were able to find that night, and early in the
morning three others, which exhausted our stores. We were just in time
to do the most good possible, as the Government wagons had been sent
back ten miles, and many of the hospitals were not supplied with material
sufficient for immediate use. (The hospitals supplied were division
hospitals of the 1st, 2d, 3d, 5th, 11th, and 12th corps.)

“ On telling the surgeons that I was on hand with sanitary stores, I
was almost invariably greeted with expressions like the following : ‘ You
could never have come at a better time,’ and once on mentioning sanitary
stores, I received two hearty welcome slaps on the shoulder, one from the
medical director of the corps, and the other the surgeon of the division.”

Major Bush, who accompanied Mr. Hoag, gives his account in the
following words :

“Monday morning, June 29, Mr. Hoag and myself left Frederick
with two wagon loads, in connection with the train of the 12th corps, by
order of General Williams to Hr. Steiner. Beached Taneytown, Md.,
Tuesday P. M., June 30.

“Wednesday morning, July 1, and first day of the battle, I was
informed, while at General Meade’s headquarters, by an orderly just
arrived from this place, (Gettysburg,) that an attack and a battle was
expected here that day, as the cavalry with the 1st and 11th corps had
already reached this place. I left Mr. Hoag and our wagons in the
train of headquarters, (to which they had been transferred from that of

the 12th army corps,) and rode to Littlestown, Pa., thence to this place,
arriving at ‘Cemetery Hill,’ where a portion of our batteries were
situated, about 11 P. M., just as the rebel prisoners who were captured
by our cavalry and the 11th corps, in the first engagement of that day,
were approaching said hill. The battle soon commenced between the
first corps and General Hill’s (rebel) southwest of the Seminary, which
was fought steadily and bravely by the first corps, until it finally retreated
with severe loss betweeu two and three P. M. Its commander, General
Reynolds, was among the killed.

“The rebels then rallied in the rear of the Seminary and College
Hill, during which time the 11th corps formed aline between the college
and the town, making the fences their line of defence. The rebel forces
advanced over this hill in mass about four P. M. , formed in line of battle,
when they marched firmly towards the eleventh corps, which retired into
the town without making any formidable resistance, and the rebel troops
took possession of Gettysburg, when the fighting of the first day ceased.
I now made search for our wagons, but in the vast concourse I was
unable to find them that night. (Most of the wounded of this day’s
fight were carried into the churches and public buildings of the town,
under the organization of the first and cavalry corps, and were prisoners
at the close of the day.)

“The 3d and 12th corps arrived during the afternoon, but too late
to enter into battle.

“Thursday, July 2d, and second day of the battle. The 2d corps
arrived by the Taneytown road, below Cemetery Hill, at daybreak. The
5th corps arrived two miles from town, on the Baltimore pike, about
ten A. M. One division of the 6th corps, on the same pike, from
Westminster, at two P. M.

“The battle opened about 4 P. M. Found our wagons early in the
afternoon. As soon as the surgeons had decided upon the different
points where the Corps Hospitals were to be formed, Mr. Hoag moved
the wagons to them at once, and commenced to issue our stores, which
consisted chiefly of concentrated beef soup, stimulants, crackers,
condensed milk, concentrated coffee, corn starch, farina, shirts, drawers,
stockings, towels, blankets, quilts, bandages, and lint. We hastened
from one hospital to another, as rapidly as possible, issuing to each a
proportion of our stores, until the supply was nearly exhausted, when,
upon consultation with Mr. Hoag, it was decided that I should start for
the nearest point from which a telegram could be sent to Washington,
ordering up more supplies. Frederick was spoken of, but upon inquiry
at different points, it was considered unsafe to go there, as the rebel

cavalry were in possession of the roads in that direction. I then decided
to go to Westminster, learning that several of the New York newspaper
reporters were about starting for the same place, and learning that the
telegraph was in operation from that place to Baltimore. I left the
battle-field late in the evening, arrived in Westminster early in the
morning of Friday, and soon learned, to our disappointment, that no
telegraph was there, and the first train did not leave for Baltimore till
12 M. Arrived in Baltimore just in time to take the express train to
Washington. Found that a car had already been loaded with stores
and started for Westminster, under the direction of Messrs. Hovey and
Bacon.

“This car arrived at Westminster, Saturday, July 4, when Mr.
Hovey procured three Government wagons, and that evening started
with three full loads of stores, arriving early next morning (Sunday) at
the 1st, 2d, and 3d Corps Hospitals. By your orders, I left Wash¬
ington by the 11 A. M. train, July 4, arriving at Relay in time for the
2 P. M. train for Westminster. Owing to a misunderstanding between
the two conductors on the road, the trains waited for each other at either
end of the road, so that we did not get started from the Relay until 8
o’clock Sunday morning, arriving at Westminster at 10 A. M., where I
found Mr. Bacon in charge of the remainder of the car load of stores.
About noon our four-mule team came in from Frederick, in charge of
Mr. Gall. It was immediately loaded, and early in the morning I left
with it, in company of Mr. Gall, Mr. Bacon still remaining in charge
at Westminster.

“A school-house was taken on the Baltimore pike, near the different
Corps Hospitals, and about three miles out from Gettysburg, and from
it our stores were thereafter issued, until the opening of the railroad
permitted our reaching the field by that route, when, on Tuesday
morning, July 7, a storehouse was taken in town, and the school-house
closed.”

In the meantime, Mr. Hoag had been to Frederick with the two
wagons, and had returned with full loads to the school-house, where
the stores brought by him were issued.

Mr. Hovey, after delivering his loads to the three Corps Hospitals,
returned to Westminster and took three more loads, and Mr. Gall made
a second trip with the four-mule team, which took the remainder of the
first car load sent from Washington.

Twelve wagon loads of extra governmental supplies were therefore
taken on to the battle-field, previous to the opening of the railroad to
Gettysburg, and before they could reach the wounded from any other

direction. Of these, eight wagon loads were taken from Westminster,
and four from Frederick, including the two which were on the field
during the battle, and the supplies from which were issued under fire,
and to the hospitals the nearest to the line of battle. The last of these
stores were given to a hospital to the left of our line, just in the rear of
Weed’s Hill, where General Weed fell.

The second car load sent up in care of Mr. Edgerly, was by him
transferred to Mr. Bacon, who, after unloading it, had it re-loaded, and
by the advice of Major Painter, Post Quartermaster, sent around by
rail to Gettysburg.

On Monday, July 6, 1 left Washington for Baltimore to meet yourself
and Mr. Knapp. Upon consultation, it was deemed advisable that I
should proceed at once to Gettysburg. In company, therefore, with Mr.
Bullard, Mr. Murray, Mr. Barton, and two Germans, sent to our aid
by Mr. Hitz, of Washington, I left Baltimore on Monday evening, upon
a freight train, containing two loaded cars for the Commission.

Heavy trains, heavy grades, delays of all kinds, prevented us from
reaching Gettysburg before late Tuesday afternoon. The temporary
terminus of the railway was then over a mile from the town, and to this
terminus crowds of slightly wounded men came., limping, dragging
themselves along, silent, weary, worn. The moment the cars stopped,
the crowd of weary and wounded soldiers accumulated there indicated
that point as a place for a Belief Lodge. I immediately had two of our
largest tents, together capable of sheltering seventy-five men, pitched,
stoves erected, and a lodge established. The wise foresight of Mr.
Knapp had included these articles among the first invoice. The two
Germans, whose names I have unfortunately lost, volunteered as cooks.
That night our tents were full, and we had the great satisfaction of not
only affording shelter and attention to the wounded, but also supplying
good nutritious food to those within our tents, and those who had taken
refuge on the cars.

While our tents were being raised, Mr. E. B. Fairchild rode down
from the village to ascertain if there had been any arrivals by the train,
and found us in the midst of our preparations. He reported the arrival
of Hr. Bellows and Dr. Agnew from Harrisburg, the position of our
field station at the school-house, and the presence of Messrs. Johnson,
Biddle, Edgerly, Hoag, Gall, Paige, and Hovey (relief agents) at our
storehouse in the town. The lodge established, I left it in charge of
Mr. 0. C. Bullard, who was assisted by Mr. Murray and Mr. Barton,
and the Germans from Washington, and reported to Dr. Bellows.

The next day our storehouse was given up to the Provost Marshal,
and another room on Baltimore street was by his permission taken.
The latter place — the store of Messrs. Fahnestock & Co., the largest in
the town — became the centre of the busiest scene which I have ever
witnessed in connection with the Commission. Car load after car load
of supplies were brought to this place, till shelves and counter and floor
up to the ceiling were filled, till there was barely a passage-way between
the piles of boxes and barrels, till the sidewalk was monopolized and
even the street encroached upon. These supplies were the outpourings
of a grateful people. This abundant overflow of the generous remem¬
brance of those at home to those in the army was distributed in the same
generous manner as it was contributed. Each morning the supply
wagons of the division and corps hospitals were before the door, and
each day they went away laden with such articles as were desired to
meet their wants. If the articles needed one day were not in our
possession at the time, they were immediately telegraphed for, and by
the next train of cars thereafter they were ready to be delivered.
Thus, tons of ice, mutton, poultry, fish, vegetables, soft bread, eggs,
butter, and a variety of other articles of substantial and delicate food
were provided for the wounded, with thousands of suits of clothing of all
kinds and hospital furniture in quantity to meet the emergency. It was
a grand sight to see this exhibition of the tender care of the people for
the people’s braves. It was a bit of home feeling, of home bounty,
brought to the tent, put into the hand of the wounded soldier. I feel
grateful that I was permitted to participate in this work.

Mr. H. P. Dechert was placed in charge of this storehouse, and was
assisted permanently by Messrs. Edgerly, Bacon, Murray and Bowers,
with a detail of four soldiers. To this force at first were added Messrs.
Johnson, Biddle, Gall and Paige. These latter gentlemen were after¬
wards hospital visitors, for a few days, when they left to join the Army
of the Potomac in its advance as relief agents.

The accompanying tabulated statement of the issues to the different
hospitals, as prepared by Mr. Dechert, will exhibit the amount and
character of the articles supplied.

The lodge, which was established at the temporary terminus of the
railway on Tuesday, was continued there until Friday, when the burned
bridge which had prevented the cars from running into town was
replaced by a new structure, and the cars resumed their regular runnings
to the station. On Thursday I had a tent and fly erected near the
depot in preparation for the change in the terminus of the road, and on
Saturday the lodge out of town was discontinued and the tents used there

added to those near the depot. This second lodge was in successful opera¬
tion on Friday, though it was not generally made use of till Saturday.

Between Tuesday and Saturday noon we provided at our first lodge,
good beef soup, coffee, and fresh bread, for over 3,000 slightly wounded
soldiers whose injuries did not prevent them from walking to this point,
while we sheltered each night about fifty more serious cases, which had
been brought down by ambulance, and whose wounds required the
attention of a surgeon. We were furtunate in having during these
days the volunteer aid of Dr. Hooper, from Boston, who devoted
himself to this latter work. Mr. Clark, from New Hampshire, Mr.
Hawkins, from Media, Pa., and Mr. Shippen, from Pittsburg, also
lent their assistance, and all these gentlemen materially aided us at this
and at the second lodge until it was fully organized.

With the transfer of our material to town, the irregular organization
was changed to a permanent working basis. Dr. W. F. Cheney, who
arrived on the 10th, was placed in charge of the camp. He brought
with him seven assistants, Messrs. Latz, Cooley, McGuinness, Chesebro,
Blakeley, Sherwin, Freshoner, from Canandaigua, N. Y. To these
were added Messrs, lleisinger and Hall, from Baltimore, and four
detailed soldiers. Cooks had arrived, a large shed for a kitchen had
been erected, and full preparations were made for feeding any number.
Every facility was granted us by the medical officers of the post and by
the commissary. Additional tents were erected, drains made, straw
procured, and shelter prepared for 150 men. A store tent was placed
near the hospital tents, and given into the charge of two New York
ladies, whose long experience on the Commission’s transports during the
Peninsular campaign of last summer, had made them familiar with all
of the requirements of this camp. The cars stopped immediately in
front of our camp, and distant but a few feet from it.

During the ten days subsequent to the establishment of this lodge,
over 5,000 soldiers (Union and rebel) received food either in our tents or on
the cars, and an average of over 100 remained in our tents each night and
had their wounds dressed and more or less clothing distributed to them.

This lodge was continued until all the wounded capable of being
removed were transferred from the Corps Hospitals to the General
Hospitals of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Harrisburg, and York.

When the General Field Hospital was decided upon for the reception
of all those whose serious wounds prevented them from being removed,
I asked for a place to be assigned us in the plan, and before leaving
Gettysburg saw two of our tents erected in the camp, one for our stores,
the other for the ladies who would be in charge. This design has been
effectually carried out.

Our plan of operation and our labors were in Gettysburg as they
have been elsewhere, divided into those of inquiry and relief. The
latter, from our experience, was subdivided into general and special
relief. The first of these was to be extended by issues from our store¬
house directly to Corps Hospitals, in bulk, according to the ascertained
necessities, and the latter took the direction of attending to those of the
wounded — by far the greater number — who, capable of being transported
from the field of battle, were daily removed, until only the more serious
cases remained. I have already given the history of the store-house
and lodge. The tabulated statement of the issues from the former, and
the number assisted and relieved at the latter, will tell how well the
organization worked. Few left the region of Gettysburg without
receiving some material aid from us, either in food or clothing.

Our trained permanent corps rendered this work easy and immediate.
This would not have been possible, in the same time, with a body of
men unaccustomed to and ignorant of the work. The large number of
volunteers who came to our assistance, under the direction of those
already familiar with the work, fell readily into the line of duty, and
soon became efficient co-workers.

The labor of inquiry required the daily visitation of the hospitals,
consultation with the medical officers as to the most efficient manner in
which we could aid them, the character and quantity of the supplies
most needed, the daily movement in the population of the hospitals under
their command, with the character and severity of the injuries, and all
such information in relation to the disposition of the wounded as would
assist us in making our preparations.

Beside the visits of inquiry to the hospitals, a list of the names and
wounds of all the inmates of each hospital was taken and forwarded to
the office of the Hospital Directory in Washington, and we held ourselves
in readiness to attend to messages of inquiry sent to us from any
direction, in regard to any wounded man in these hospitals. This work
was performed by Mr. Dooley, from the Directory Office. Messrs.
Stille, Struthers, Ilazlehurst, Dullus, Beitler, and Tracey, from Phila¬
delphia, and Messrs. Hosford, Myers, and Braman, from New York,
assisted in this labor as well as at the lodge, and in attending to special
cases.

The duty of visiting the Confederate Hospitals was assigned to Dr.
Gordon Winslow, who reported to me soon after I arrived. The
following communication, addressed by him to me, will give briefly the
result of his inquiries :

“ Gettysburg, July 22, 1863.

“ Sir — Agreeably to your instructions, I have inspected the several
Confederate Hospitals in the vicinity of Gettysburg, and have indicated,
on the accompanying map, the locality, division, general who was in
command, surgeon in charge, and number of wounded.

“ It appears that the aggregate of wounded, at the time of my visits,
was 5,452, occupying some twenty-four (24) separate camps, over an
area of some twelve miles. The wounds, in a large proportion of cases,
are severe.

“ Amputations and resections are frequent. The corps of Confederate
Surgeons are, as a body, intelligent and attentive. The hospitals are
generally in barns, outhouses, and dilapidated tents. Some few cases
are in dwellings. I cannot speak favorably of their camp police. Often
there is a deplorable want of cleanliness. Especially in barns and
outhouses, vermin and putrid matter are disgustingly offensive. As fast
as means of transportation can be had, those who are capable of being
removed will be placed in more comfortable quarters. Some hundreds
are being removed daily. Every provision is made by the Sanitary
Commission for their comfort during their stay at the Depot Lodge, and
those who are placed directly in the cars are furnished wholesome food.
I am pleased to report that the surgeons have in every instance spoken
in the highest terms of praise of the efforts made for their relief and
comfort.”*

In this connection, I may state that subsequent to these visits, Dr.
Winslow procured the signature of every Confederate Surgeon to a
petition to Gen. Lee for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr.
McDonald, Mr. Scandlin, Mr. Brengle, Leonard Brink, and Moses

* The hospitals visited by Dr. Winslow were situated as below, and contained
the number of wounded as indicated in the following table:

Location.

Division.

Surgeon.

No.

Cashtown .

, Gen’l Parine’s .

. m

On Chambersburg Road.,

. 11 Porcher’s .

On Mummasburg “

“ Rhode’s .

. 800

In Penn. College .

“ Heath’s .

■t-

Ilunterstown Road . .

, “ Johnson’s .

. 311

Fairfield .

. 50

Fairfield Road . Part of Gen’l Johnson’s .

U U

“ Early’s? .

. Dr. Potts .

U (C

11 Anderson’s? .

. Dr. Mines . .

. Ill

ti l (

11 MeJ jaw’s .

. Dr. Patterson .

<< ((

. “ Hood’s .

Total,

5,452

Doc. 71.

Gardner, who had been taken prisoners while acting in their humane
office, as non-combatants, and ready to extend assistance to all wounded
alike. This petition has been forwarded through the proper authorities,
with the advice and consent of our own officers for the exchange of
prisoners. A month has elapsed, but so far no notice has been taken
by the Confederate officers of the wishes of their surgeons in our hands.

The hospitals containing our own wounded were visited by Messrs. J ohn-
son, Biddle, Murray, Paige, Gall, Fairchild, and myself. Some of them
were also visited by yourself and Mr. Knapp, who separately came to
Gettysburg, and accompanied me in my rounds.

The hospital organizations were mostly in tents, taking some farmer’s
house and barn as a nucleus.* For several days immediately succeeding
the battle, there was a great deficiency in tents, and a sad want of most
of the necessities of a hospital both in food and furniture. This latter
we attempted to fill so far as our limited resources would go. The want
was incident to the campaign, and not the result of neglect. Another
difficulty, inseparable from the campaign, was the small number of
medical officers left upon the ground to take charge of the large number
of wounded. The battle ended, and the enemy on the retreat, the

* The First Corps Hospital was divided. A portion was in the town, occupying
several churches and the court-house. These buildings contained the wounded of
the battle of July 1. The number estimated, including those in private houses,
was 400 to 450. The second portion was about 2\ miles from the town on the
Baltimore pike. The First Division was in and about the White Church and
Lightner’s house ; the Second Division in and about Peter Conover’s house ; and
the Third Division had Jonathan Young’s house for its centre. There were in
these divisions 2,319 wounded, of whom 260 were confederates. Dr. Ward was
the Surgeon in charge.

The Second Corps Hospital was situated on the banks of Rock Creek, in tents,
about 80 rods north of the house indicated on the map as that of Isaac Schriever,
It contained about 4,500 wounded, of whom 1,000 were rebels. Dr. Justin
Dwindle was the Surgeon in charge. There were three divisions consolidated.

The Third Corps Hospital was on high ground south of Schwartz’s house,
about 100 rods above the junction of White’s Creek with Rock Creek, on
Schwietzel’s farm. It contained 2,550 wounded ; of these 259 were rebels. Dr.
Hildreth was Surgeon in charge. There were two divisious only, under separate
organization, but remote from each other only by a narrow ravine.

The Fifth Corps Hospital was in three divisions. The First Division was on
Mr. Little’s farm, north of the house, and south of White’s Creek, and about 100
rods east of Third Corps. The Second Division was south of Mrs. Jesse Clap-
saddle’s house, across Lousy Run, about 100 rods south of White’s Creek. The
Third Division was about half a mile west of Two Taverns, on Jesse Werley’s
farm. This Division Hospital was the most remote of all the Union hospitals from
the town of Gettysburg. They contained together 1,400 wounded, including 15
rebels. Dr. Clark, Surgeon in charge.

advance of our forces required the presence of a large proportion of the
medical officers to meet the demands of another battle which seemed
imminent. Those left behind had to divide their attention among our
own wounded and those of the enemy who had fallen into our hands,
the number of Confederate surgeons left behind being inadequate to
their care. In previous battles there has always been a full quota, if
not the entire medical corps of the army, to attend to the wounded.

The labor, the anxiety, the responsibility imposed upon the surgeons
after the battle of Gettysburg were, from the position of affairs, greater
than after any other battle of the war. The devotion, the solicitude,
the unceasing efforts to remedy the defects of the situation, the untiring
attentions to the wounded upon their part, were so marked as to be
apparent to all who visited the hospitals. It must be remembered that
these same officers had endured the privations and fatigues of the long
forced marches with the rest of the army; that they had shared its
dangers, for one medical officer from each regiment follows it into battle,
and is liable to the accidents of war, as has been repeatedly and fatally
the case ; that its field hospitals are often from the changes of the line
of battle, brought under the fire of the enemy, and that while in this

The three divisions of the Sixth Corps Hospital were, the First, about the house
of John Frastle, near Peach Orchard, and the Second and Third Divisions in tents
near by. There were 300 inmates. Dr. Chamberlain, Surgeon in charge.

The Eleventh Corps Hospital occupied the house and farm of George Spangler.
The divisions were consolidated under the charge of Dr. Armstrong. It contained
1,900 wounded, of whom 100 were said to be confederates.

The Twclth Corps Hospital was under the charge of Dr. Ernest Goodman. Its three
divisions, under separate organizations, were together around the house of Geo.
Bushman. It contained 1,131 wounded, including 125 rebels.

The Cavalry Corps Hospital was in town, and occupied the Presbyterian Church,
on Baltimore street, and the two school-houses in the immediate vicinity. It was
under the charge of Dr. Rulison, and the three buildings contained 300 of our
wounded.

These figures are approximative only, as that was all we sought for at the time.
The number of wounded whose wants — beyond those that a beneficent Government
cared for — we were anxious to supply, can be stated briefly as follows :

First Corps, (2 portions,) 2,519 Union, 260 Confederates . 2,'7,79

Second “ 3,500 “ 1,000 “ 4,500

Third “ 2,300 “ 250 “ 2,550

Fifth “ 1,325 “ 75 “ 1,400

Sixth “ 300 “ . 300

Eleventh “ 1,800 “ 100 “ 1,900

Twelfth “ 1,006 “ 125 “ 1,131

Cavalry “ 300 “ . 300

Total . 13,050 “ 1,810 “ . 14,860

situation, these surgeons are called upon to exercise the calmest judg¬
ment, to perform the most critical and serious operations, and this
quickly and continuously. The battle ceasing, their labors continue. W hilc
other officers are sleeping, renewing their strength for further efforts,
the medical are still toiling. They have to improvise hospitals from
the rudest materials, are obliged to make “bricks without straw, to
surmount seeming impossibilities. The work is unending, both by day
and night, the anxiety is constant, the strain upon both the physical
and mental faculties, unceasing. Thus, after this battle, operators
had to be held up while performing the operations, and fainted from
exhaustion, the operation finished. One completed his labors to be
seized with partial paralysis, the penalty of Ins over-exertion.

While his duties are as arduous, his exposure as great, and the mortality
from disease and injury as large as among staff officers of similar rank,
the surgeon has no prospect of promotion, of a brevet, or an honorable
mention, to stimulate him. His duties are performed quietly, unos¬
tentatiously. He does his duty for his country’s sake, for the sake of
humanity. The consciousness of having nobly performed this great
duty is well nigh his only, as it must ever be his highest reward. The
Medical Corps of the Army is well deserving of this slight tribute.

Respectfully,

J. H. DOUGLAS,
Associate Secretary San. Com.

Washington, D. C., Aug. 15, 186b.

TABULATED STATEMENT OF ISSUES.

The following is a statement of the quantities of the principal articles distributed
by the Commission to the wounded upon the field at Gettysburg, subsequent
to the battle. The perishable articles (amounting to over 60 tons) were taken
to the ground in refrigerating cars :

Of Articles of Clothing, etc., viz.:

Of Drawers, (woollen) .

“ (cotton) .

Shirts, (woollen) .

“ (cotton) .

Pillows . .

Pillow Cases .

Bed Sacks . .

Blankets .

Sheets .

Wrappers .

Handkerchiefs .

Stockings, (woollen) .

“ (cotton) .

Bed Utensils .

Towels and Napkins .

Sponges .

Combs .

Buckets .

Soap, (Castile) .

Oil Silk . . .

Tin Basins, Cups, etc .

Old Linen, Bandages, etc .

Water Tanks .

Water Coolers .

Bay Rum and Cologne Water.... .

Fans . .

Chloride of Lime . .

Shoes and Slippers .

Crutches . ”**

Lanterns . .

Candles .

Canvas .

Mosquito Netting .

Paper .

Pants, Coats, Hats .

Plaster .

5,310 pairs.
1,833 “

*7,158
3,266
2,114
264
1,630
1,00*7
2*74
508

2,659

3,560 pairs.
2,258 “

728
10,000
2,300
1,500
, 200

250 pounds.
300 yards.

, 7,000

, 110 barrels.

7
46

225 bottles.

, 3,500

. 11 barrels.

. 4,000 pairs
. 1,200
. 180

. 350 pounds.

. 300 sq. yds.

648 pieces.

. 237 quires.

189 pieces.
16 rolls.

Of Articles of Sustenance, viz.:

Of Fresh Poultry and Mutton . 11,000 pounds.

“ Butter . 6,430 “

“ Eggs, (chiefly collected for the occasion at farm-houses

in Pennsylvania and New Jersey) . 8,500 dozen.

“ Garden Vegetables . 615 bushels.

“ Berries . 48 “

“ Bread . 12,900 loaves.

Ice . 20,000 pounds.

Concentrated Beef Soup . 3,800 “

“ Milk . 12,500 “

Prepared Farinaceous Food . 1,000 “

Dried Fruit . 3,500 “

Jellies and Conserves. . 2,000 jars.

Tamarinds . 150 gallons.

Lemons . 116 boxes.

Oranges . 46 “

Coffee . . 850 pounds.

Chocolate . 831 “

Tea . 426 “

White Sugar . 6,800 “

Syrups, (Lemon, etc.) . 185 bottles.

Brandy . . 1,250 “

Whiskey . ’. . 1,168 “

Wine . 1,148 “

Ale . 600 gallons.

Biscuit, Crackers, and Rusk . 134 barrels.

Preserved Meats . 500 pounds.

Preserved Fish . 3,600 “

Pickles . 400 gallons

Tobacco . 100 pounds.

Tobacco Pipes . 1,000

Indian Meal . 1,621 pounds.

Starch . 1,014 “

Codfish . 3,848 “

Canned Fruit . . . 582 cans.

Canned Oysters . 12 “

Brandy Peaches . 303 jars.

Catsup . 43 “

Vinegar . 24 bottles.

Jamaica Ginger . 43 jars.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 7a.

ACCOUNT OF THE FIELD RELIEF CORPS

OF THE

UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION

IN THE

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

By LEWIS H. STEINER, M. D.} Chief Inspector.

Washington, September 19, 1863.

To the Executive Committee, Sanitary Commission :

Gentlemen — Thinking that the present organization of the Field
Relief Corps of the Army of the Potomac would be a subject of special
interest to your Board, I propose to make a short report on the subject.
The outlines of the plan were prepared by Mr. Olmsted, July IT, 1863,
and an effort was made to organize the corps immediately. The army
was then resting at or near Berlin, Maryland, and it was thought that
our corps could be put in such form as to move with it on its entrance
into Virginia. Mr. Johnson, of Philadelphia, consented to act as Field
Superintendent, and labored most assiduously in perfecting arrange¬
ments. After considerable trouble, we succeeded in starting off from
Boonsborough, on Sunday, July 18th, four wagons under charge of as
many relief agents — Mr. Johnson himself accompanying the train.
On Monday, they crossed the Potomac, and proceeded to join the army.
Since that time, many alterations have been made in the original plan,
the spring wagons originally employed have been removed, and
substantial four-horse army wagons introduced. Indeed, the plan of
this corps has shaped itself from circumstances, until it has acquired its
present form.

There is a Field Superintendent and an Assistant. These offices are
filled by Mr. J. Warner Johnson, of Philadelphia, and Captain Isaac
Harris, of Brooklyn. These gentlemen have had much experience in
this kind of work, and bring with them an honesty of purpose, a quiet
enthusiasm and maturity of judgment which make me feel confident of
the best possible results under their management of the corps.

In each of six corps of the army, we have a substantial army wagon,

which is kept filled with an assortment of such supplies as are likely to
be needed by the sick or wounded in the field, This wagon is in charge
of a Relief Agent, who has his tent, and lives in the corps to which he
is attached. For convenience, his headquarters and stores are usually
with the Ambulance Corps. The agent makes himself acquainted with
the wants of the different division, brigade, and regimental hospitals,
and endeavors to supply their wants from the contents of his wagon.
He becomes one of the family, and makes common cause with its
interests. It was believed, that, in this way, an agent would become
more interested in his work. Sharing the toils and the perils (to a
certain extent also) of his corps, he would find himself thoroughly
identified with it. Thus there would he superadded to his general
desire to aid the army at large, the anxious feeling to aid those who
had become his friends through a community of feelings and daily
intercourse. This idea has been fully sustained by the results of nearly
two months’ active operations.

The agents at present on duty, are W. A. Hovey, (of Boston) 1st
Corps; N. Murray, (of Elizabethtown, N. J.,) 2nd Corps; Colonel
Clemens Soest, (formerly 29th N. Y. Vols.,) 3d Corps; E. M. Barton,
(Worcester, Mass.,) 5th Corps; David S. Pope, (Baltimore, Md.,) 6th
Corps ; and Rev. Jno. A. Anderson, (California,) 12th Corps. They are
educated gentlemen, who have accepted their respective positions with
full reference to the responsibility resting upon them, and are animated
with an anxious spirit to aid the medical officers of the army as far as
may be in their power.

Now, as to the mode of distributing stores, some may say, why not
give at once to patients, instead of issuing through the medical officers?
To this I answer, that of the two modes of distribution, the latter is
preferable, because it prevents interference with hospital discipline ; and
the danger of private appropriation on the part of medical officers, is,
by no means, so great as is supposed by the public. The constant
supervision really exercised over hospital officers, by medical directors
and the public, would make the matter of misappropriation of stores, a
source of constant disgrace, and would peril their own reputation and
position in the army. That such misappropriation has taken place in
some cases I would not dare deny ; but let not these be put in the
balance against the multitude of cases where honest patriotism and
professional pride have stimulated the officers to use all means to advance
the interests of the sufferers, and to hasten their convalescence. One
of our field relief corps speaks on this point as follows: “In every
instance of my dealing with the surgeons of this corps I have found
them gentlemen, and must reiterate my belief, that ninety-nine one-

hundredths of all the supplies drawn from my wagon have been honorably
used by them. I have talked to patients in twTo hospitals, and they
told me they had received both the brandy and wine that I had sent to
these hospitals. In Dr. Ohlenschlager’s Art. Brig. Hospital, one of
the patients who was just recovering from an attack of intermittent fever
and required stimulants, told me that he had had every drop of the
wine sent over, and that ‘ it did him a power of good!’” Another
agent writing of his visit to a hospital, says, that “the Doctor
was loud in his praises of the Commission, and the men, who had
evidently been informed of the source from which many of the delicacies
had been received, seemed very grateful.” I might multiply quotations
of this kind, since every agent has felt it his duty to look into the
subject of the alleged misappropriation. I have reason to conclude,
therefore, that such cases are rare, and I come to this conclusion, although
a letter has reached us this morning, containing the statement that a
wounded officer of a Massachusetts regiment, has declared that “the
surgeons and officers were bountifully supplied with delicacies” from
our stores, that “ the surgeon of his regiment, or one in his brigade,
boarded the entire winter from sanitary stores,” and that “ the officers
were well supplied” last winter “ with patchwork bed quilts bearing the
Sanitary Commission stamp.” If this statement be correct in the
individual case of this regiment, whose shame is thus proclaimed by
one of its officers, (I say its shame , because the finger of scorn will find
out the men who may have done this, and will superadd to the reproaches
of conscience the denunciations of a people, liberal and zealous for
good, but with no sympathy for those who pluck succor, when extended
by the hand of benevolence to the sick, and use it for their own luxurious
comfort,) if this report be correct as to this one regiment, thank God!
we have thousands of cases where honest men are not guilty of such
conduct, and tens of thousands of gallant sufferers are willing so to
testify. I introduce this statement although it refers in the main to a
period in the history of the campaign, when the Army of the Potomac
was not under my charge, and although the report has beeen fully met
and refuted by the facts of the case.

The depot of stores for renewing the supplies was established at
Bealton, Va., by Charles S. Clampitt, under orders from the Chief
Inspector, and has since been transferred to the charge of Sanford Hoag.
It is kept supplied from the Washington receiving storehouse, the goods
being forwarded tri-weekly in charge of reliable messengers. Major
J. C. Bush has been assigned to duty at this storehouse, acting in
conjunction with Mr. Hoag in issuing thence to the cavalry hospitals,
and those regiments on duty as railway-guard .

In its present form, our work proves to be of decided acceptability to
the medical officers. Our agents are received kindly, courteously,
gladly, wherever they may go ; and are now acknowledged to be real
helpers to the medical department of the army. One agent writes, on
his entrance into a corps, “The morning after my arrival, I introduced
myself to the Medical Director of the Corps, and to the Division,
Brigade, and Regimental Surgeons I was everywhere received in the
kindest manner, and all the surgeons were glad to learn that a permanent
agent of the Sanitary Commission had been assigned to the corps;
expressing themselves, at the same time, in the highest terms about the
assistance of the Sanitary Commission to the sick and wounded during
the Pennsylvania campaign.” A Division General in speaking to
another agent, said “the Sanitary Commission had done great good;
that every facility in his power should be given, and that if at any time
an obstacle was met with he would remove it if possible.”

Others have borne like testimony to the good works which the
Commission is doing throughout the army. From the very inception of
this work, it has asked only to be allowed the privilege of working
along with the medical officers, supplementing their work and bringing
such succor to the needy of our great army as a liberal public is desirous
should be extended. The field is great, but with trained laborers an
earnest effort is made to cover the whole !

The Field Relief Corps has distributed during August, shirts,
drawers, handkerchiefs, bed sacks, pillows, pillow cases, blankets, quilts,
sheets, socks, brandy, whiskey, wine, crackers, chocolate, tin-cups,
lemons, tamarinds, pickles, condensed milk, beef stock, farinaceous
food, &c., &c.*

* When the Field Relief Corps started from Boonsborough, their wagons, four
in number, were well filled with the usual assortment of sanitary stores. Of these
no record was kept ; they have, however, all been issued, and, in addition, the
following articles, up to date of this report, (September 19):

881 quilts and blankets,

887 sheets,

702 pillows,

1,088 pillow cases and ticks,
800 bed sacks,

2,445 shirts,

1,834 pairs drawers,

1,456 pairs socks,

341 pairs slippers,

2,186 towels,

2,374 lbs. condensed milk,
350 jars jelty,

100 lbs. tea,

Ik, 100 gallons tamarinds,

754 bottles whiskey and brandy,

776 bottles foreign and domestic wine,
2,509 lbs. farinaceous food,

1,640 lbs. beef stock,

43 lbs. crackers,

50 lbs. chloroform,

480 bottles extract ginger,

804 tin cups,

568 lbs. chocolate,

250 gallons pickles,

144 cans tomatoes, &c., &c., &c.

500 lbs. sugar,

13^ bbls. dried fruit.

The service in the field is becoming popular, and numerous applications
are being made for admission as relief agents. On the whole I regard
the Field Relief Corps of the Army of the Potomac a perfect success,
and find no cause to regret the amount of labor which has been expended
on it, or the expense incurred in bringing it to perfection.

Through its agency we will be able quietly to execute our charitable
mission with agents, carried to the field, not by any sudden spasmodic
fit of patriotic sentimentalism, but urged on by strong abiding impulses
to do whatever their hands may find to do, laboring through sunshine
and shade, fair weather and foul, to aid the poor soldier who has
shouldered his musket at his country’s call. Not glory, not notoriety,
but patriotic benevolence, is the motto of the Field Relief Corps.

Very truly,

Your obedient servant,

LEWIS H. STEINER.

Chief Inspector San. Commission,
Army of Potomac.

LETTER FROM CHAPLAIN QUINT.

( From the Congregationalist.)

The following letter from Chaplain Quint, 2d Mass. Vols., is appended
as the testimony of one who has had abundant opportunities for judging
of the work of the Commission since the beginning of the war, having
been attached to a gallant regiment, with which he has labored
professionally, from its first organization :

City Hall Park, Xew York, Sept. 5, 1863.

A few days ago one of our men (a faithful man, too, one who is detailed for
special duty, but always takes his gun, and shares the dangers of his comrades
when there is a fight) was told that his wife and child were just outside of the
guard, and went to bring them in. As soon as he was in sight, his little boy,
who had not seen his father since the war opened, rushed past the guard and
over the tent ropes, and climbed up to his father’s neck and hung there, while
his father could not help the tears of delight. Wasn't it soldierly? Well, some
of the guard themselves put on a very soldierly air — but they wiped their eyes.
They are no worse soldiers for the memory of the little boys and girls at home,
and much better men for it.

Camp-life has, indeed, been a good deal variegated (in the city) by the presence
of wives and children. It is astonishing how much the dull mess-room, which
has been made a kind of general parlor, has been brightened up by family groups.
While I write, two active youngsters are daring to play marbles in the sacre
precincts of camp; but the bayonet glistens still on the sentry posts.

The great feature which seems to distinguish this war from all others, is the great
system of home help to the army. What other army ever had such benevolence
poured out? What one, even, ever had such a mail system as ours so wise as it
is in its effects on the men ? What other ever had the sick, the wounded, and the
dying so ministered unto? The Government has done wonderfully in this
direction, itself. But such outside helps were never before witnessed. They are
o-ood They do the army good. Every child that helps sew, on a garment for a
soldier, is doing what our Lord approves. Every stitch is a work of love. The
old man who, poor, learned to knit so as to do something, in his chimney corner,

for the soldiers, was a hero. .

The chief among the links to home as an agency for relief is the bamtary
Commission. The more I see and hear of this institution, I am amazed at its
wonderful efficiency. I regard it as chief, not as exclusive. But chief it is, I
lately saw and heard more of its doings. Perhaps your readers do not know its
plan beyond Washington, and you will allow me to outline it as it is in our
army — -merely for furnishing supplies.

The central agency is, of course, at Washington. Here supplies are accumulated,
and large deposits are necessary for any emergency.

In the army, each corps is supplied with a Relief Agent, who lives in the corps.
He moves with it. He has a four-horse wagon, supplied with sanitary stores—
articles additional to those furnished by Government. These wagons are generally
with the ambulance train, and the Relief Agent has discretionary power to dispose
of his articles. He issues them to Field Hospitals on requisitions from the medical
officers there. New supplies are constantly sent, so as to have plenty on hand.

The whole arrangement is under the care (I have asked for the names) of J.
Warner Johnson, (firm of T. & J. W. Johnson & Co., Law Book Publishers,
Phila.,) and Captain Isaac Harris of New York. The Relief Agents are— 1st
Corps,7 W. A. Hovey of Boston; 2d, N. Murray of New Jersey ; 3d, Col. Clemens
Soest, ’ formerly commander of 29th New York ; 5th, E. M. Barton of Worcester,
Mass.— a son, I think, of Judge Barton; 6th, D. S. Pope of Baltimore; 12th,
Rev. J. A. Anderson of California. Dr. W. S. Swalm acts as Inspector in the
Field, while Dr. Steiner of Frederick, Md., has general charge at Washington for
this army— a man of ripe experience and qualities for the post. These names are
guaranty for efficiency. These men work for little or no pay, but they are
' permanent agents.

That this system ensures success there can be no doubt. I think I wrote you
that at Chancellorsville the hospitals were well supplied with even luxuries, by
the Commission, while the battle was still in progress. I am now told, on most
reliable authority, (that of the surgeons,) that on the Thursday and Friday, the
great days of the Gettysburg battles, the Sanitary Commission were distributing
their stores under fire. In two corps (one is ours) that this was done, clear
evidence also exists in the receipts given by the surgeons at the battle ground. I
was somewhat astonished at this, as, while at home, I had read statements that
some other agency was three days in advance of all others with supplies at Gettys-

burg. But as the Sanitary Commission was there while the battle was still in
progress, this latter statement is evidently a mistake.

One great reason why the Sanitary Commission works so well is, that it works
in and by means of the regular authorities. It does not set itself up as independent
of the medical officers. It distributes through the surgeons. The wisdom of this
plan is evident at a glance. The surgeons know what is needed, and how to use it.
An indiscriminate administering of relief by independent helps, is subversive of all
order. A case just in point happened — no matter wffiere, but I know. A soldier
had turned the critical point of disease, and was doing well. A benevolent
individual, distributing supplies out of a basket, gave this soldier some pickles —
and I know not what else — -which he ate. The surgeon discovered it, and informed
the philanthropist that the charity had probably ensured the death of the patient.
In fact, it did — within forty-eight hours.

The independent method is bad. The medical authorities are the only ones who
ought to be, in general, entrusted with supplies. It sounds pretty to say, “We
place the article in the hands of the soldier himself5 ' — very pretty, but very
ridiculous. While this course could do good occasionally, as a system it would
be bad. The surgeon knows what the sick man should eat, and what he should
wear. And an institution which furnishes things at the time needed is invaluable.

The independent system showed itself in hospital at Gettysburg. In one corps
hospital (I have the best authority for this) some five or six men were discovered
drunk. Inquiry was made, and it was found that certain individuals who had
corneas volunteer laborers, or what that excellent book Hospital Transports calls
“an indiscriminate holiday scramble of general philantrophy,” (I quote from
memory, ) had been giving away liquor at random to whomsoever wanted it, with
the result here mentioned. Difficulties also ensued from the great trouble with
which needed articles could be obtained from these agents. And when certain other
irregularities occurred, (which I do not wish to mention,) the whole band was
ordered out of the lines, — the second occasion on which the same agency had met
that fate in the same corps. The whole trouble arose from the impossibility of
harmonizing an independent, outside management, with the methods which
government has established. The Sanitary Commission avoids all such compli¬
cations. Another agency or agent has just written, (as I read,) “ The Chaplains,
what few there are, work with us.” It would be equally cool for the Sanitary
Commission to say, “ The surgeons work with us,” instead of taking the sensible
ground which they do, that they work with the surgeons.

While the Commission was thus harmoniously acting with the authorities in
relieving the suffering, several Chaplains were, as I have learned from others,
working night and day in corps hospitals at Gettysburg. I am informed that
they were invaluable. They ministered to the wounded and dying like brothers.
I know how it was, for I know these men. Such men are not praised in news¬
papers. Other agencies turn up their eyes in sanctimonious mourning over them.
But while disgusting puffs employ mail and telegraph over holiday laborers, these
men do the steady, every-day, heavy work. When others at Chancellorsville ran
away- — -being asked again and again, “Chaplain, is this a safe place?” these
men risked shot and shell, and some found captivity in doing their duty. No
letter-writer tells about somebody “bending over a dying man in prayer,’ as
being a nobler sight than a “mitered archbishop” doing something or other,
because it is the regular business of those men.

The Sanitary Commission has shown true wisdom, also, in its plan ot employing
reoular and permanent agents. Sudden spasms of work do little. 1 he Commission
knows that. It takes time for men to learn their business. When taught, one
man is worth twenty temporary volunteers. The work which the Tract-
are doing in the army is effective becanse they employ permanent managers and

work in harmony with the recognized religious workers of the army Mi. >

for example, (I refer to him because I know his work,) accomplished tenders
because he used all existing facilities. Finding a Chaplain, or (m case > there were
nonel some other religious man in each of (say) a hundred regiments, he had
hundred permanent agents all his owl, for Christ’ s sake. Gathering them together,
and thus exciting new fervor, holding meetings for prayer o ^se hundred
laborers, each of whom had his own field, in which none could do the work that
laborer could, a life was sent through the whole, when outside workers could only
have made a slight impression on the circumference. . „

The Sanitary Commission works through the proper channels. There is therefore
no outside work which in the matter of supplies can rival the Commission in
cheapness, directness, or usefulness. It does a work which fathers and mothe s
and wives at home ought to be thankful for. It ministers to the helpless,
succors where suffering and death would often be the result of absence of succor.

Letter to the President of the United States —

Removal of the Surgeon General.

4 pp.

Standing Committee.

U S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

2XTo. 74.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS

OF TS E

U. s. SANITARY COMMISSION.

March lothj 1864.

Samuel L. Abbot, M. D.,
Rev. W. Adams, D. D.,
•Jolm T. Agnew.,

A. MeL. Agnew,

D. II. Agnew, M. D.,
Jacob Alburger,

Bradford R. Alden,

Prof. J. H. Alexander,
Prof. Stephen Alexander,
George F. Allen,*

Hon. Joseph Allison,
Francis Allyn,

P. Ambos,

Charles Ames,

Lars Anderson,

Hon. John A. Andrew,
Rev. J. L. Andrews, H. D.,
Col. E. B. Andrews,

J. W. Andrews,

Geo. C. Anthon,

Hon. Henry B. Anthony,
Daniel Applegate,

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

Hew York
Hew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Hew York.

Baltimore, Md.
Princeton, Hew Jersey.
Hew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Hew London, Conn.
Columbus, Ohio.
Washington, D. C„
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Boston, Mass.

Marietta, Ohio.
Marietta, Ohio.
Columbus, Ohio.

Hew York.

Providence, R. I.
Zanesville, Ohio.

* Deceased.

Hon. Isaac FT. Arnold,

Lewis E. Ashhurst,

Vm. H. Ashhurst,

William II. Aspinwall,

John J. Astor, Jr.,

Walter F. Atlee,

Abraliam Anb,

W. M. Awl, M. D.,

E. F. Babcock,

Samuel D. Babcock,

John Bacon, M. D.,

Micajah Bailey,

B. F. Baker,

Dr. Baker,

William Baker,

Thos. Bakewell,

Thos. Balcli,

Eli C. Baldwin,

Matthew W. Baldwin,

Major Gen. FT. P. Banks,

C. B. Barclay,

Eev. Charles Barnard,

Jas. M. Barnard,

Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, L.L.D.
Eev. Albert Barnes, D.D.,
Hiram Barney,

John Barstow,

Eev. C. A. Bartol, D.D.,

Gen. J. H. Bates,

Joshua Bates,

H. M. Beckwith,

James M. Beebe,

Hon. James W. Beekman,

Chicago, Ill.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Flew York.

Flew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Columbus, Ohio.
Liverpool, Eng.

Hew York.

Boston, Mass.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Horwalk, Ohio.
Toledo, Ohio.
Pittfcburg, Penn.
Paris, France.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
TJ. S. A.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.
Boston, Mass.
Washington, D. C.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Hew York.
Providence, E. I.
Boston, Mass.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
London, Eng.

Paris, France.
Boston, Mass.

Flew York.

W. B. Belknap,

John Bell, M.D.,

T. S. Bell, M.D.,

Hon. Henry A. Bellows,

W. Dwight Bell,

L. B. Benchley,

E. L. S. Benzon,

Cyrus Bentley,

Ed. Beylard, M.D.,

Henry J. Bigelow, M.D.,
Jacob Bigelow, M.D.,

John Bigelow,

¥m. Bingham,

Horace Binney, Jr.,

William Binney,

Hon. Francis P. Blair, Jr.,

D. J. B. Black,

Jas. Blake,

J. Y. Z. Blaney, M. D„ U. S.

E. W. Blatchford,

John S. Blatchford,

Atherton Blight,

Rev. H. A. Boardman, D. D,
Rev. Dr. Boardman,

John Bonner,

William A. Booth,

Adolph E. Borie,

John Helson Borland, M. D.
Henry I. Bowditch, M. D.,
Jesse D. Bowen, M. D.,

Tully Bowen,

Samuel Bowles,

C. S. P. Bowles,

Louisville, Ivy.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Louisville, Ky.
Concord, H. H.
Philadelphia, Penn.
San Francisco, Cal.
London, Eng.

Chicago, Ill.

Paris, France.

Boston, Mass.

Paris, France.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Providence, R. I.

St. Louis, Mo.

London, Eng.
Indianapolis, Ind.

A., Chicago, Ill.

Chicago, Ill.

Boston, Mass.
Philadelphia, Penn.

, Philadelphia, Penn.
Rochester, Hew York.
Hew York.

Hew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

Boston, Mass.

Iowa City, Iowa.
Providence, R. I.
Springfield, Mass.
Paris, France.

W. B. Bowles,

Charles L. Brace,

William Y. Brady,

David Brainerd, M. D.,

Kev. Thomas Brainerd, D. D.,

J. Carson Brevoort,

Kev. D. K. Brewer,

James Brewster,

T. C. Brinsmade, M. D.,

S. J. Broadwell,

Theodore B. Bronson,

M. D. Brooke,

E. S. Brooks,

James Brooks,

Ed. Brooks,

Hon. Jno. Brongh,

Alexander Brown,

John A. Brown,

B. F. Brown,

Stewart Brown,

Stewart Brown, Jr.,

S. C. Brown,

A. C. Brownell,

H. Tudor Brownell,

F. Brnnot,

Daniel Brash,

Henry Bryant, M. D., TJ. S. A.,
William Cullen Bryant,

Gurdon Buck, M. D.,

J. P. Buckley,

Freeman J. Bumstead, M. D.,
Hon. Walter S. Burgess,

K. W. Burnett,

Paris, France.

Hew York.

Chicago, Illinois.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Bedford, Hew York.
Yonkers, Hew York.

Hew Haven, Conn.

Troy, Hew York.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hew York.

Washington, D. C.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hew Albany, Ind.

Paris, France.

Cleveland, Ohio.
Philade',phia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
London, Eng.

Hew York.

Liverpool, Eng.

Paris, France.

Peru, Indiana.

Hartford, Conn.
Pittsburgh, Penn.
Zanesville, Ohio.

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

Providence, K. I.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

A. G. Burt,

S. H. Burton,

Bev. Horace Buslmell, D. D.,
Maj.-Gen. B. F. Butler,
Charles Butler,

Charles E. Butler,

John A. Butler,

Samuel Cabot, Jr., M. D.,

C. C. Calvert,

Wm. Camack, M. D.,

Henry C. Carey,

Joseph Carson, M. D.,
Artemas Carter,

Francis Carter, M. H.,
William F. Cary,

Eugene Casserly,

Prof. Alexis Caswell,

Geo. R. Cathcart,

W. S. Charnley,

Henry Chauncey, Jr.,

W. S. Chipley, M. E>.,

John J. Cisco,

Clias. E. Cist,

L. A. Civill,

Everett Clapp,

Alonzo Clark, M. D.,

Dr. Charles Clark,

Henry G. Clark, M. D.,

J. G. Clark,

Hehemiah Cleveland,

Cyrus Cleveland,

J. C. Coates,

Arthur G. Coffin,

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hartford, Connecticut.

U. S. Y.

Franklin, Warren Co., O.
Stockbridge, Mass.
Hartford, Conn.

Boston, Mass.
Washington, D. C.
Philadelphia, Pa.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Chicago, Ill.

Columbus, Ohio.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Providence, R. I.

London, Eng.

Hew Haven, Conn.

Hew York.

Lexington, Ky.

Hew York.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Louisville, Ky.

Yonkers, H. Y.

Hew York.

Fairfield, Iowa.

Boston, Mass.

San Francisco, California.
Westport, Conn.

Yonkers, H. Y.

London, Eng.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Mason F. Cogswell, M. B.,
Robert L. Collier,

Rev. E. T. Collins,

Francis Collins,

Joseph B. Collins,

Rev. Robt. Collyer,

Stephen Colwell,

George M. Connaroe,

Charles M. Connolly,

G. Cook,

H. P. Coon,

Peter Cooper,

Caleb Cope,

Janies M. Corse, M. D.,

Rev. A. C. Coxe, B. B.,
Benjamin F. Craig, M. B.,

R. Crawford,

Brig.-Gen. S. W. Crawford,
John C. Cresson,

Rev. J eremiahW. Cummings, 13
Geo. W. Curtis,

Josiah Curtis, M. B.,

J. B. B. Curtis,

Wm. E. Curtis,

E. Cushing, M. B.,

John M. Cuyler, M. D., TJ. S.
Rev. O. E. Bagget, B. B.,

W. J. Bale, M. B.,

John C. Balton, M. B., XT. S. i
lion. Charles P. Baly,

Charles A. Bana,

Hugh Bavids,

Horace Bavis,

Albany, H. Y.

Iowa City, Iowa.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Columbus, Ohio.

Hew York.

Chicago, Ill.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Chicago, Ill.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

"Washington, B. C.

Hew Albany, Ind.

H. S. Y.

Philadelphia, Penn.

.B., Hew York.

Hew York.

TJ. S. A.

Paris, France.

Hew York.

Cleveland, Ohio.

A., Fortress Monroe, Ya.
Canandaigua, H. Y.
Boston, Mass.

V., Hew York.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.

San Francisco, California.

John Davis, M. D.,

Win. Henry Davis,

Mordecai L. Dawson,

W. Wheeler De Forest,

Col. Delafield, U. S. A.,

Joseph C. Delano,

E. Hasket Derby,

Charles F. Dennet,

Hasket Derby, M. D.,

Col. Jno. H. Devereux,
Major-Gen. John A. Dix, U. S. A
II. L. Dodge,

Wm. E. Dodge,

William E. Dodge, jr.,

Peter Donahue,

J. H. Douglas, M. D.,

John W. Draper, M. D.,

Rev. II. W. Ducachet, D. D.,
Right Rev. James Duggan, D. I
Alexander Duncan,

Jas. Dundas,

lion. William Dwight,

W. H. Dwinelle, M. D.,

J. O. Earl,

Maj. A. B. Eaton, H. S. A.,

Mr. Ehrimger,

John B. Elbert, M. D.,

Samuel Eliot, Trinity College,
Rev. W. G. Eliot, D. D.,

Geo. Elliot,

Calvin Ellis, M. D.,

Wm. S. Ely, M. D.,

W. C. Emmett,

George Engelman, M. D.,

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Albany, Hew York.

Hew Bedford, Mass.
Boston, Mass.

London, Eng.

Boston, Mass.

U. S. A.

,, Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

Hew York
Philadelphia, Penn.
Chicago.

London, Eng.

Paris, France.

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

London, Eng.

Keokuk, Iowa.

Hartford, Conn.

St. Louis, Mo.

London, Eng.

Boston, Mass.

Rochester, Hew York.
Paris, France.

St. Louis, Missouri,

Thos. W. Evans, M. D.,
Hon. Tlios. Ewing,

Thomas H. Faile,

Thomas H. Faile, jr.,

Hon. F. B. Fay,

Hon. Henry P. Fessenden,
Benjamin H. Field,

Cyras W. Field,

Osgood Field,

E. E. Fillmore,

Dr. Finley,

Hon. Hamilton Fishy
E. C. Fisher,

Bev. M. Fitzgeraldi,

Calvin Fletcher,

Bev. M. Fletcher,

Austin Flint, M. DJ.,

E. S. Flint,

J. B. Flint, M. D.,

John M.Forhesy
S. 0. Ford,

C. B. Fosdick,

J. P. Girand Foster,

Col. J. W. Foster,

Hon. Lafayette S. Foster;

P. H. Fowler, D. D.,.
Frederick Fraley,

Prof. J. F. Frazer,

Hon. A. C. Fuller,

Horace Howard Furness,
Bev. W. H. Furness, D. D:,
Jno. L. Gardner,

Brig. Gen. J. A. Garfield,

Paris, France.,
Lancaster, Ohio*.

Hew York.

He w York.

Chelsea, Mass.
Portland, Maine;

Hew York.

London, Eng.
Zanesville, Ohicv
Dubuque, Iowa.

Hew York.

London, Eng..
Columbus, Ohio-.
Indianapolis, Inch
Hew Albany, Indl
Hew York.

Cleveland, Ohio;
Louisville, Ky.

Boston, Mass.
Philadelphia, Penn..
Cincinnati, Ohio;

Hew York.

Chicago, Ill.

Horwich, Connecticut^
Utica, H. Y.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Springfield, Ill.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Paris, France.

U. & A.

G. H. Gray, M. D.,

George Geddes,

B. Gerhard,

R. P. Getty,

George Gibbs,

George W. Gibbs,

S. D. Gilbert,

Brig.-Gen. Q. A. Gillmore,

C. B. Goddard,

Thos. P. I. Goddard,

Hr. Goddard,

A. A. Gould, M. D.,
Lieut-Gen. TJ. S. Grant,

J. P. Gray, H. D.,

C. S. Greeley,

Hon. Horace Greeley,
John C. Greene,

Francis C. Griggs,

J. G. Griggs,

Cornelius Grinnell,

George Griswold,

John H. Griscom, M. L>.,
Samuel D. Gross, M. D.,

S. B. Guion,

Rev. Edward E. Hale,
Andrew T. Hall,
Benjamin II. Hall,

George Hall,

J. C. Hall, M. E>.,

Levi W. Hall,

W. C. Hall,

Boston, Hass.

Fairmount, Hew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Yonkers, H. Y.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.

IJ. S. Y.

Zanesville, Ohio.
Providence, R. I.
Birmingham, Eng.
Boston, Hass.

H. S. A.

Utica, H. Y.

St. Louis, Ho.

Hew York.

Walnut Hills, Ohio.
Center Rutland, Yt.
London, Eng.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Liverpool, Eng.

Boston, Hass.

Troy, Hew York.
Brooklyn, Hew York.
Washington, D. C.
Syracuse, H. Y.

Hew York.

Hewark, H. J.

Col. H. C. Halstead,

Frank II. Hamilton, H.D., U.S.A.,Hew York.

W. A. Iiammond, M.D., U.S.A.
T. P. Handy,

W. Harding,*

J. R. Ilowdenbergh,

Hon. J. I. Clark Hare,

Robert M. Hartley,

Jacob Plarsen, M. D.,*

Charles Hartsliorne,

Edward Hartsliorne, M. D.,
Franklin Haven,

Henry W. Havens,

Isaac Hays, M. H.,

George Hayward, M. P>.,
Major-Gen. Heintzelman,

Uriah Hendricks,

Hon. Alexander Henry,

Prof. Joseph Henry,

Rev. M. Henisticker,

R. C. Hewett, M. D.,

Rev. D. P. Henderson,

Rev. James II. Hey wood,

Rev. Grosvenor Hickok, H. H.,
Laur. P. Hickok, H.D., Union Col.
Rev. Tlios. Hill, D. H.,

Hon. George S. Hillard,

Prof. Edward Hitchcock,

Prof. R. D. Hitchcock, D. D.,
David Hoadley,

Hon. Geo. Hoadley,

R. M. Hoe,

II. Lenox Hodge, M. D.,

Maryland.

Cleveland, Ohio.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

Hewr London, Conn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

U. S. A.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Washington, D. C.
Columbus, Ohio.
Louisville, Ky.

Louisville, Ky.

Buffalo, Hew York.

, Schenectady, H. Y.
Cambridge, Mass.

Boston, Mass.

Amherst Coll., Mass.
Hew York.

Hew York.

Cincinnati, Ohio.

Paris, France.
Philadelphia, Penn.

* Deceased.

E. M. Hodges, M. D.,
Wickham Hoffman,

Amory Holbrook, Esq.,

J. G. Holland, M. D.,

II. A. Holman,

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D.
Worthington Hooker, M. H.,
Hon. Samuel Hooper,

Thomas Hornbrooke,

Hon. Y. B. Horton,

Prof. E. H. Ilorsford,

Eobert Hosea,

Eev. Dr. Hosmer,

John Hough,

Meredith Howland,

Edwin Hoyt,

Most Eev. John Hughes, D. D
Eev. Y. M. Hulbert,

Thomas Hun, M. D.,

Sandford B. Hunt, M. D.,

J. D. Hunter,

Eobert Hunting,

Ed. Huntington,

Eev. E. Hutter,

Hiram Hutchinson,

Eev. Geo. Irvine,

Ealph H. Isliam, M. D.,

John B. S. Jackson, M. D.,
Adrien Iselin,

Prof. J. W. Jackson, Union C
Mr. James,

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

Portland, Oregon.
Springfield, Ohio.

San Francisco, California,
Boston, Mass.

Hew Haven, Conn.
Boston, Mass.

Wheeling, Y a.

Pomeroy, Ohio.

East Providence, E. I.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Buffalo, H. Y.

Port Wayne, Ind.

Hew York.

Yonkers, Hew York.
Albany, H. Y.

Buffalo, Hew York.
Pittsburg, Penn.

London, Eng.

Borne, H. Y.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Paris, France.

Fort Wayne, Ind.
Chicago, Ill.

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

, Schenectady, H. Y.
Liverpool, Eng.

* Deceased.

Edward Jarvis, M. D.,

John Jay,

Rev. John Jenkins,

C. C. Jennings,

Leonard W. Jerome,

Wilson Jewell, M. D.,

Hon. A. S. Johnson,*

Prof. C. A. Joy, Columbia Coll.,
H. A. Johnson, M. D.,

J. B. Johnson, M. D.,

James M. Johnston,

J. Warner Johnson,

John D. Jones,

David Judkins, M. D.,

Hon. Wm. D. Kelley,

Robert Lenox Kennedy,

Most Rev. F. P. Kenrick, D. D.,*
Morris Ketchum,

Gen. E. D. Keyes,

Thomas Kimber, Jr.,

Edward King,

Charles King,

Rev. T. Starr King,*

Chas. P. Kirkland,

J. G. Kittle,

Shepherd Knapp,

J. M. Knox,

Ernest Krackowitzer, M. D.,

C. M. Lampson,

E. S. Lane, M. D.,

Russell M. Larned,

Dorchester, Mass.

New York.

Philadelphia, Penn.

San Francisco, California.
New York.

Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

Chicago, Ill.

St. Louis, Mo.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Albany, New York.
Baltimore, Md.

New York.

U. S. A.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Newport, R. I.

New York.

San Francisco, California.
New York.

Yonkers, New York.

New York.

London, Eng.

Sandusky, Ohio.
Providence, R. I.

* Deceased.

C. L. ‘Latimer,

Joseph Lawrence,

John L. LeConte, M. L).,

W. Lee,

Joseph Leidy, M. D.,

James Lenox,

W. M. Lent,

Robert M. Lewis,

F. W. Lewis, M. D.,

Samnel Lewis, M. D.,

Sami. L’Hommedieu, M. D.
Prof. H. W. Longfellow,
Starling Loving, M. D.,

A. A. Low,

Geo. T. Lyman, M. D., U. S. A.
Alex. G. Mable,

Rev. Chas. Machin,

Prof. Alden March,

Charles H. Marshall,

J. Sella Martin,

Rev. Chas. Mason, D. D.,

Robt. M. Mason,

C. W. May,

Rev. S. F. May,

Edward Matthews,

Sam. Maxwell,

Alleyn Maynard, M. D.,

John McCall, M. D.,

Benj. W. McCready, M. D.,
Rev. Dr. McClintock,

Norwalk, Ohio.

New York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
London, Eng.
Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cambridge, Mass.
Columbus, Ohio.

New York.

Boston, Mass.

Cambridge, Mass.

New York.

Boston, Mass.

San Francisco, California.
Riga, Monroe Co., N. Y.
Albany, N. Y.

New York.

London, Eng.

Boston, Mass.

Paris, France.

Syracuse, N. Y.
Zanesville, Ohio.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Cleveland, Ohio.

Utica, N. Y.

New York.

Paris, France.

lion. Francis C. Lowell,

Prof. Jas. Russell Lowell, L. L. D.,
Nicholas Ludlum,

J. H. B. McClellan, M. D.,
J. R. McCormick,

¥ra. McCrary,

Robert H. McCurdy,

John McDonald,

Gen. Irvin McDowell,

Maj. Malcolm McDowell,
James McHenry,

Right Rev. C. P. Mcllvaine,
Morton McMichael,

Maj. Gen. Meade,

Rev. C. Mees,

J. Forsyth Meigs, M. D.,

R. E. Menesse,

John C. Merriam,

Geo. B. Merrill,

S. Y. Merrick,

John T. Metcalfe, M. D.,
Albert Miller,

E. Spencer Miller,

Francis Minot, M. D.,
Robert B. Minturn,

Hon. E. D. Morgan,

J. S. Morgan,

Mr. Morgan,

Prof. James Monroe,

Thos. Moodie,

Caspar Morris, M. D.,

Rev. J. G. Morris,

Hon. A. II. Morrison,

Rev. H. J. Morton, D. D.,
Sketchly Morton,

Gratz Moses, M. D.

Philadelphia, Penn.
London, Eng.

Pittsburg, Penn.

Hew York.

Hew Albany, Ind.

U. S. A.

London, Eng.

D.D., Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.

U. S. Y.

Columbus, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Louisville, Ky.
Logansport, Ind.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

Washington, D. C.
London, Eng.

London, Eng.

Oberlin, Ohio.

Columbus, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Baltimore, Maryland.

St. J oseph, Mich.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

St. Louis, Mo.

Valentine Mott, M. D.,

Rev. ¥m, A. Muhlenberg, D. 1
Rev. M. Mulford,

John Mnnroe,

Robert Murray, M. D., U. S. A.,
W. II. Mussey, M. D.,

Robert Neil,

Rev. II. A. Nelson, D. D.,

G. W. Norris, M. D.,

Chas. Eliot Norton,

Rt. Rev. W. II. Odenheimer, D.l
Thomas G. Odiorne,

John Olmstead,

George Opdyke,

Prof. John Ordronaux,

J. R. Osborn,

William H. Osborn,

Rev. Samuel Osgood, D. D.,
James Otis,

John II. Packard, M. D.,
William P. Palmer,

J. T. Pancoast,

E. H. Parker, M. D.,

H. T. Parker,

Willard Parker, M. D.,

George D. Parrish,

Joseph Parrish, M. D.,

George Partridge,

William Paton,

Brig. Gen. M. D. Patrick,

Rev. W. W. Patton,

Geo. Peabody,

Henry Pearce,

New York.

,, New York.

Orange, N. J.

Paris, France.

Kentucky.

Cincinnati, Ohio.
Columbus, Ohio.

St. Louis, Mo.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

,, Burlington, N. J.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hartford, Conn.,

New York.

Toledo, Ohio.

Chicago, Ill.

New York.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

Baltimore, Md.
Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
London, Eng.

New York.

Philadelphia. Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York.

H. S. V.

Chicago, Ill,

London, Eng.

Cincinnati, Ohio,

Edmund E. Peaslee, M. D.,

Prof. H. E. Peck,

Prof. B. Pierce,

Duncan C. Pell,

George S. Pepper,

Dr. G. Perin,

Judge Perley,

J. Newton Perkins,

Joseph Perkins,

Arthur Peter,

John C. Peters, M. D.,

Jas. Phalen,

Eoyal Phelps,

Eichard W. Phillips,

Hon. Willard Phillips,

Henry E. Pierrepont,

Hon. Edwards Pierrepont,

Wm. S. Pierson,

Zina Pitcher, M. D.,

S. Poliak, M. D.,

Alfred C. Post, M. D.,

Eev. G. H. Post, M.D., U. S. A.,
W. E. Post,

Et. Eev. Alonzo Potter, D. D.,
Et. Eev. Horatio Potter, D. D.,
Howard Potter,

C. W. Potwin,

Samuel Powel,

Geo. D. Prentice,

John Y. L. Pruyn,

Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr.,

W. C. Ealston,

C. S. Eandall,

New York.

Oberlin, Ohio.

Cambridge, Mass.

Newport, E. I.
Philadelphia, Penn.

U. S. A.

Concord, N. H.

Oberlin, Ohio.

Cleveland, Ohio.

Louisville, Ky.

New York.

Paris, France.

New York.

Dayton, Ohio.

Boston, Mass.

Brooklyn, New York.
Brooklyn, New York.
Sandusky, Ohio.

Detroit, Mich.

St. Louis, Mo.

New York.

Paris, France.
Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

Zanesville, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Louisville, Ky.

Albany, New York.
Boston, Mass.

San Francisco, California.
New Bedford, Mass.

Philip P. Randolph,

J ames M. Raj,

J. H. Redington,*

Mark E. Reeves,

William L. Rehn,

D. B. Reid, M. D.,

J. H. Reilj,

• Wm. B. Reynolds,

Hon. Alexander H. Rice,

J erome Rice,

A. C. Richards,

Geo. T. Richards,

Rev. H. A. Ried,

J. H. Risdon,

E. Y. Robbins,

Christopher R. Robert,

Jas. B. Roberts,

Hon. Lucins Robinson,

David Robinson, Jr.,

M. M. Rockwell,

Lewis Rodman, M. D.,

Evans Rogers,

Fairman Rogers,

Hon. Henry B. Rogers,

Prof. Henry Rogers,

Rev. Eber M. Rollo,

Prof. Ogden A Rood, Col. Coll,
Theodore Roosevelt,

Maj.-Gen. Rosecrans,

Benjamin Rouse,

Col. D. H. Rucker,

Samuel B. Ruggles,

Le Baron Russell, M. D.,

Philadelphia, Penn.
Indianapolis, Ind.

San Francisco, California.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Madison, Wisconsin.
Columbus, Ohio.

Boston, Mass.

San Francisco, California.
Hew York.

Paris, France.

Madison, Wis.

San Francisco, California.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Albany, H. Y.

Wooster, Ohio.

San Francisco, California.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

Glasgow, Scotland.

Oneida, H. Y.

Hew York.

U. S. Y.

Cleveland, Ohio.

IT. S. A,

Hew York.

Boston, Mass.

Lewis M. Rutherford,

Joseph Sampson,

R. S. Satterlee, M. D., U. S, A.
W. W. Scarborough,

C. R. Schaller,

Maj.-Gen. Schenck,

W. W. Seaton,

H. E. Seelye,

J. M. Seligman,

F. C. Sessions,

Rev. 33. M. Seward, 33. 33.,
Col. Geo. II. Sharp,

New York.

Cincinnati, Ohio,

London, Eng.

U. S. Y.

Washington, D. C.
Chicago, Ill.

San Francisco, California,
Columbus, Ohio.

Yonkers, N. Y.

U. S. Y.

George C. Shattuck, M. 33.,
Benjamin S. Shaw, M. 33.,
Joseph E. Sheffield,

Hon. John Sherman,

Wm. Sherman,

Thomas C. Shipley,

G. IL Shoenberger,

Prof. Benjamin Silliman, jr.,

J. Sime,

D. D. Slade, M. 33.,

A. Marshall Slocum, M. 33.,
F. Gurney Smith, Jr., M. 13.,
Joseph M. Smith, M. 33.,
Rev. J. Cotton Smith, D. D.,
Stephen Smith, M. D.,

S. M. Smith, M. 13.,

R. G. Sneath,

Rev. W. A. Snively,

E. M. Snow, M. 13.,

H. G. Somerby,

James R. Spaulding,

Boston, Mass.

New Haven, Conn.
Mansfield, Ohio.

San Francisco, California.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.

;.D.,New Haven, Conn.

San Francisco, California.
Boston, Mass.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

New York.

Columbus, Ohio.

San Francisco, California.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Providence, R. I.

London, Eng.

New York.

J. F. Speed,

Hon. Francis E. Spinner,
Hon. William Sprague,

Hon. J. B. Stallo,

Henry Starr,

Alexander H. Stevens, M. D.
B. F. Stevens,

Edwin A. Stevens,

Henry Stevens,

J ohn Austin Stevens,

John Steward,

Alexander T. Stewart,

Alfred Stille, M. D.,

Charles J. Stille,

Mr. Stoddard,

A. G. B. Stokes,

A. Stone, Jr.,

Hon. Bellamy Storer,

Bev. Dr. Storrs,

Bev. M. E. Strieby,

Charles E. Strong:,

Hon. William Strong,

George H. Stuart,

Bobert L. Stuart,

Jonathan Sturges,

H. Sturg is,

Bussell Sturgis,

George H. Suckley, M. D.,

E. L. Sullivan,

Joseph Sullivant,

Wilson C. Swann, M. D.,

B. B. Swain,

Henry W, Tappan, D. D.,

Louisville, Ky.
Washington, D. C.
Bhode Island,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
London, Eng.

Hew York.

London, Eng.

Hoboken, H. J.

London, Eng.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Glasgow, Scotland.
Liverpool, Eng.
Cleveland, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Brooklyn, Hew York.
Syracuse, Hew York.
Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Zanesville, Ohio.

London, Eng.

XL S. A.

San Francisco, California,
Columbus, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.

San Francisco, California.
Ann Arbor, Mich.

Thomas T. Tasker,

Moses Taylor,

Hon. M. Russell Thayer,

Jas. B. Thomas,

J. B. Thomson, M. D.,

Rev. M. L. B. Thompson, D. D.
John Edgar Thompson,

W. S. Thompson,

A. G. Throop,

Rev. O. H. Tiffany, D. D.,
Thomas Tileston,

William M. Tilghman,

E. G. Tinker,

E. S. Tobey,

Hon. David Tod,

John Torrey, M. D.,

John IT. Towne,

J. M. Townsend,

Solomon D. Towmsend, M. D.,

B. T. Tredick,

Rev. Dr. Trimble,

George T. Trimble,

A. L. Tnbbs,

C. S. Tripler, M. D.,

George Trott,

Genery Twichell,

J. B. Upham, M. D.,

G. P. Upham, M. D.,

S. Oakley Yanderpool, M. D.,
Mr. Yan Wort,

Hon. Gulian C. Yerplanck,
Rev. Alexander
Rev. Francis Yinton, D. D.,

Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.

San Francisco, California.
Columbus, Ohio.
Cincinnati, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Paris, France.

Chicago, Ills.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
London, Eng.

Boston, Mass.

Columbus, Ohio.

Hew York.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Indianapolis, Ind.

Boston, Mass.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Columbus, Ohio.

Hew York.

San Francisco, California,
U. S. A.

Philadelphia, Penn.
Boston, Mass.

Boston, Mass.

Yonkers, H. Y.

Albany, Hew York.
Birmingham, Eng.

Hew York.
H. Yinton, D. D., Hew York.

Hew York.

.'j

Gen. Jas S. Wadsworth, U.S.
Wm. R. Wadsworth,

Joseph Walker,

R. J. Walker,

Wm. Wallace,

Hon. Samuel H. Walley,
Lewis Wain,*

James Ward,

Charles E. Ware, M. D.,

John Ware, M. D.,

Rev. J. F. W. Ware,

George W. Warren,

J. Mason Warren, M. D.,
Samuel M. Warren,

Prof. Emory Washburne,

John Watson, M. D.,

David A. Wells,

John Welsh,

William Welsh,

R. W. Weston,

Rev. Sullivan H. Weston, D.
Seth H. Wetherber,

E. A. Wetinore,

Prosper M. Wetmore,

M. D. Wheeler,

Edwin P. Whipple,

Richard Grant White,

Rt. Rev. W. R.Whittingham, D
A. Y. Williams, M. D.,

Rev. Francis W. Williams,
Hon. James Williams,

L,* Hew York.

Paris, France.

Hew York.

London, Eng.
Indianapolis, Ind.

Boston, Mass.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Chicago, Ill.

Boston, Mass.

Boston, Mass.
Cambridgeport, Mass.
Liverpool, Eng.

Boston, Mass.

London, Eng.

Cambridge, Mass.

Hew York.

Troy, Hew York.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.
London, Eng.

D., Hew York.

San Francisco, California.
Utica, Hew York.

Hew York.

Zanesville, Ohio.

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

.D., Baltimore, Md.

Hew York.

Brattleboro’, Yt.
Springfield, Ill.

* Deceased.

John E. Williams,

William Williams, Jr.,

Hon. Henry Wilson,

Chas. F. Wilstacli,

Hey. Gordon Winslow, H. D.,
Frederick S. Winston,

Jndge Winter,

Benjamin B. Wintlirop,
Stillman Witt,

Caspar Wistar, M. D.,

Wm. Botch Wister,

B. A. Witthaus,

E. B. Wolcott, M. D.,

J. Huntington Wolcott,

John David Wolfe,

Bev. Augustus Woodbury,
Henry Woods,

B. B. Woodward,

San. L. Wool worth, LL. D.,
Prof. T. G. Wormley,

Morrill Wyman, M. D.,

Ellis Yarn all,

Jas. E. Yeatman,

M. C. Younglove,

Hew York.

Horwich, Conn.

’ 0

Hatick, Mass.

Cincinnati, Ohio.

Staten Island, Hew York.
Hew York.

London, Eng.

Hew York.

Cleveland, Ohio.
Philadelphia, Penn.
Philadelphia, Penn.

Hew York.

Milwaukee, Wis.

Boston, Mass.

Hew York.

Providence, B. I.

Paris, France.

San Francisco, California.
Albany, Hew York.
Columbus, Ohio.
Cambridge, Mass.
Philadelphia, Penn.

St. Louis, Mo.

Cleveland, Ohio.

•V

NO.

APPENDIX TO DOCUMENT 74.

Embracing additional List of Associate Members, and List of Corre¬
sponding Members. May 15, 1866.

ASSOCIATE M E M B E R S.

G. L. Andrew, M. D . La Porte, Ind.

Prof. Henry James Anderson, LL. D . New York.

Aleert Bierstadt, Esq . «

I rof. Francis Bacon, M. D . New Haven, Conn.

Pi of. S. F. Baird . Washington, D. C.

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher . . Brooklyn, N. Y.

Wm. T. Blodgett, Esq . New York.

Charles Bradford, Esq . Roxbury. Mass.

Major-General Ambrose E. Burnside, U. S. V . Providence, R. I.

Rev. Leonard Bacon, Jr . Orange, N. J

Rev. Phillips Brooks . Philadelphia, Penn.

Rev. W. J. Buddington, D. D . Brooklyn, N. Y.

Rev. James Freeman Clarke . Boston, Mass.

Major-General G. A. Custer, U. S. Y

Rev. Wm. H. Channing . Washington, D. C.

E. A. Crane, M. D . Providence, R. I.

Judge Jos. Y. Campbell . Detroit, Mich.

Joseph M. Choate, Esq . . New York.

H. M. Chapin, Esq . Cleveland. Ohio.

Cyrus Curtis, Esq . New York.

Benj. Collins, Esq . «

Hon. Schuyler Colfax, M. C . .South Bend. Ind.

Rev. Morgan Dix, D. D . . New York.

Edward Delafield, M. I)

1'. E. Demill, Esq . Detroit, Mich.

Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, LL. D . New York.

Hon. Sidney Edgerton . Idaho.

Prof Thomas Egleston. Jr . . New York.

Hon. Edward Everett . Boston, Mass.

Col. Oliver Edwards, U. S. Y . Springfield, Mass.

E. B. Elliott, Esq . Washington, D. C.

B. F. French, Rsq . Washington, D. C.

Major-General John G. Foster, U. S. V . New Hampshire.

Rev. J M. Finnatti . Brookline. Mass.

Rev. George Putnam, D. D .

John Pierce, Surveyor-General

J. J. Phelps, M. D .

Hon. A. Frank, M. C .

S. M. Felton, Esq .

B. A. Gould, P1l D .

Rev. Daniel R. Goodwin, D. D .

John H. Gourlie, Esq .

Rev. Horatio B. Backett, D. D .

Rev. Sam'l H. Gridley, D. D .

H. Hubby, Esq . . .

D. Huntingdon, Esq .

Rev. Frederick Hedge, D. D .

Wm. J. Hoppin, Esq .

Col. Joseph Howland, U. S. V .

D. W. Hand, M. D., Surgeon U. S. V .

Judge Ogden Hoffman .

Hon. Murray Hoffman . . .

Col. T. Wentworth Higginson, U. S. V . .

Philetus H. Holt, Esq .

Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D .

Major-General Joseph Hooker, U. S. V. . .

Charles E. Habicht, Esq .

J. E. Hilgard, Esq .

George W. Hunter, Esq .

Richard M. Hunt, Esq .

Rev. Thomas S. Hastings .

Rev. J. P. T. Ingraham .

Dwight Johnson, Esq .

Prof. J. P. Kirtland .

His Excellency Governor Low .

His Excellency Caleb Lyon .

Francis Lieber, LL. D .

S. Weir Mitchell, M. D .

Hon. Horace Maynard .

Hon. George P. Marsh .

Prof. Dennis Mahan .

Rev. A. T. McGill, D. D .

John May, Esq . .

Henry Nicoll, Esq. .

Judge North .

Prof. Edward North .

John Owen, Esq. . . .

Prof. A. P. Peabody .

Capt. P. P. Pitkin, Q. M., U. S. A .

Walton H. Peckham, M. D

.Roxbury, Mass.
.Denver City, Colorado.
.Brattleboro, Vt.
.Warsaw, N. Y.

. Philadelphia, Penn.
.Cambridge, Mass.
.Philadelphia, Penn.

. New York.

. Newton Centre, Mass.

. Waterloo, N. Y.
.Cleveland, Ohio.

.New York.
.Cambridge, Mass.

.New York.

San Francisco, Cal.
New Yrork.
Worcester, Mass.
New York.

. Williamstown, Mass.

New l"ork.
Washington, 1). C.
Philadelphia, Penn.
New York.

.Indianapolis, Ind.
.Brooklyn, N. Y.
.Cleveland, Ohio.
.California.

. Lewistown, Idaho.

.New York.
.Philadelphia, Penn.
.Tennessee^

. Vermont.

.West Point, N. Y.

. Princeton, N. J.
.Boston, Mass.

.New York.

, .Washoe City, Nevada.
.Ham’n Col., Clintou, N.
. Detroit, Mich.
.Cambridge, Mass.

. .New York.

Edward Philbrick, Esq . Boston, Mass.

Almarin B. Paul. Esq . Gold Hill, Nevada.

A. D. F. Randolph, Esq . New York.

Rev. T. L. Starkey . Cleveland, Ohio.

F. W. Sargent, M. D .

Major-General Philip H. Sheridan, U. S. V .

Hon. Henry G. Stebbins . New York.

Hon. - Stanford . California.

Otis D. Swan, Esq . New York.

Rev. Matthew Simpson, 1). D . Philadelphia, Penn.

Major-General W. T. Sherman, U. S. Y .

Rev. W. H. Shailer . Portland, Me.

George L. Schuyler, Esq . New York.

Lewis H. Steiner, M. D . Frederick City, Md.

Prof. Wm. F. Tyler . Amherst, Mass.

Rev. J. P. Thompson, D. D . New York.

IS. P. Ihayer, Esq . Boston, Mass.

Col. Benj. C. Tilgman . Philadelphia, Penn.

N. S. Xownsend, Medical Inspector, U. S. A .

Rev. Augustus Thompson, D. D . Roxbury, Mass.

Major-General George II. Thomas, II. S. Y .

Major-General E. Upton, U. S. Y .

B. A. Yan Der Kieft, Surgeon U. S. Y . Annapolis, Md.

Benj. Yernor, Esq . Detroit, Mich.

Rev. Samuel Walcott, D. D . Cleveland, Ohio.

LI. A. Warriner, M. D . Louisville, Ky.

Peter B. Wight, Esq . New York.

Rev. John Weiss . Watertown, Mass.

Rev. Theo. D. W oolsey . New Haven, Conn.

Gouverneur M. Wilkins, Esq . New York.

Ellkrslie Wallace, M. D . Philadelphia.

Rev. Treadwell Walden . Philadelphia.

Lion. George Walker . Springfield, Mass.

Rev. Wm. Whitney .

Gouv. M. Wilkins, Esq . New York.

CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.

John Bright, M. . . London-

F. A. Brockhaus, Esq . Leipsig,

Edwin Chadwick, C. B . London.

Richard Cordex, M. . . England.

Right Hon. Sir John T. Coleridge . England.

General Dufour, Commander-in-Chief of Swiss Army

Doctor E. Engel . Berlin.

Wm. Farr, M. D., F. R. S . London.

M. Comte de Gasparin . Paris;

Nicasio Lander, M. P., Surgeon-in-Chief Spanish Army . .Madrid.

M. Edward Laboulaye . PariS-

John Stuart Mill . London.

Lieut-General Milutan . St. Petersburg.

Baron Robert Osten Sacken, Consul . New 1 ork.

A. Pirogoff, Surgeon-in-Chief Russian Army . St. Petersburgh.

Robert Rawlinson, C. E . England.

M. Elisee Reclus . Pans-

Prof. Goldwin Smith . Oxford.

T. Mason Jones . LondoD*

Rev. Newman Hall, LL. B . London.

Gustave Moynier, M. D . Geneva.

William Evans, M. D . . . Paris.

H. S. H. Henry XIII., Prince de Reuss .

Dr. F. P. Abbott . f erll°'

Jno. H. Estcourt . Manchester, England.

Count F. de Rohan .

Theodore Vernes .

Theodore Maunoir, M. D

Dr. Appia .

J. Henry Dunant .

Geneva.

. Geneva.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 75.

REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS

OF THE

S. SANITARY COMMISSION

IN THE

VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

Made September 1st, 1863,

DR. -J. S. NEWBERRY,

Sec’y Western Department.

F. L. Olmsted, Esq.,

Louisville, Ky., September 1, 1863.

Genl. Secretary Sanitary Commission.

Dear Sir : — I herewith inclose our usual monthly financial
report and roster of the Department ; also, reports of receipts-
and disbursements of stores from the various receiving and
distributing depots for the month of August, as well as a tab¬
ulated statement of our entire transactions in the Supply De¬
partment for the two years ending September 1st, during
which time I have had the supervision of the operations of the
Sanitary Commission at the West. I also inclose a report of
the Hospital Directory at this office. In addition to all these,
I now propose what I have frequently before attempted of late,
but from the pressure of duties have not achieved, a brief re¬
sume of the present condition of our operations in all parts of
the Western Department.

Having recently returned from a visit to all the important.

foci of our work in the Home Field, I can give you fresh and
interesting information, from my own observation, of the zeal
and success of the thousands of our co-workers who, through¬
out the Northwestern States, are devoting themselves to the
preparation of supplies for the sick and wounded of our army.
From the different military departments I am in receipt of so
Tecent and full reports from our agents, that I can also give
you a fair representation of our late operations in the army.
In order that this may be the more readily comprehended, per¬
mit me to take up the different departments in succession.

DEPARTMENT OF THE TENNESSEE.

A general quiet has prevailed on the Mississippi since the
•capture of Vicksburg, and we have of late been compelled
to do nothing for wounded men. Yet our means have been
fully and steadily employed in supplying the wants of the
large and constantly increasing number of sick, multiplied by
the advance of the season, in all the corps of Gen. Grant’s
-army- From this cause the demand upon our efforts and re¬
sources has been no less than at any previous time ; and, in¬
deed, I may say that our operations in that Department have
been, by an irresistible influence, gradually but constantly
expanding. The many and great privileges accorded us by
-the General commanding and by others in authority have
opened new and wide doors of usefulness, and by accepting
the responsibilities thus laid upon us, our duties have neces¬
sarily been increased. All the facilities accorded us by Gen.
Grant at your solicitation have been continued to the present
’time, and such additional favors as we have since felt compell¬
ed to ask have been cheerfully granted. By reference to the
schedule of disbursements in that Department, it will be seen
that our expenditures there are now much greater than ever
before. The ability of our agents to meet so fully the de¬
mands upon them is owing, in a great measure, to the vastly
increased efficiency of the Chicago Branch, to which I shall
have occasion to call your attention again.

Dr. Warriner still continues at the head of our force on the

Mississippi, ably seconded by Dr.Fithian, Mr. Way, Mr. Tone
&c., and I need scarcely say that every day’s experience has
given me a higher appreciation of the value of his services.
I regret to state that all our employees in that district have
sooner or later been prostrated by disease, and have been fur¬
loughed home for a longer or shorter time to recuperate.
There is no one of them who is not now performing his duty
at the peril of life and health, braving the dangers of his posi¬
tion with a degree of devotion for which be should be duly
honored.

After the opening of the Mississippi, one of our agents was
despatched to Port Hudson to respond to any demand that
might be made upon us at that point. But, from the assu¬
rance that a large amount of supplies were to be sent up by
the agents of the Commission at Hew Orleans, no effort has
yet been made to carry stores below Hatchez, where there are
many sick not likely to be supplied from other sources, and
where we have, in consequence, established a depot.

The sickness among the troops at Vicksburg has been, as I
have said, increasing of late, both in the number and severity
of the cases ; the prevailing forms of disease being malarious
levers and dysentery. Cases of the former have occurred so
malignant in character that they have been considered yellow
fever, even by some of the surgeons. Yet I think the testi¬
mony is conclusive that no true yellow fever has occurred
there.

To meet this wide-spread and severe malarious disease, the
supply of quinine being inadequate, I have sent down with
other stores over 200 ounces in 500 gallons of whisky, all
bottled and properly labeled, to be distributed and used both
as a curative and prophylactic. Ice is another article so much
needed at "V ickshurg that the resources of the Commission
have been freely used to supplement liberally the supply de¬
rived from Governmental sources. Aside from the ten tons
taken, each trip, in the ice-box of theDunleith, one barge car-
rying one hundred tons has been sent down, and another will
be dispatched as soon as the barge can be procured.

In addition to the demands for the supply of our troops at
Vicksburg, urgent appeals have been made for the reliet ot
the five thousand rebel sick left in our hands ; appeals which
we have not felt at liberty wholly to disregard, as you will have
learned from documents already in your hands.

At Helena we have maintained a depot of greater or less
importance, as the troops stationed there have varied m num¬
bers. Thishas been generally under the charge of Dr. Fithian,
whose reports have from time to time been sent you.

At Memphis we have, at present, no Inspector, Di. Esta
brook having been compelled by illness to return to his home
in Iowa. Mr. Christy is there in charge of the Lodge and the
Relief Department, Mr. Tone of the Department of Supplies,
and everything is going on smoothly under their supervision.
The Rev. J. P. T. Ingraham, of Milwaukie, Wisconsin, has
been appointed to act as Hospital Visitor at this place, and

will soon enter upon his duties.

At Cairo, one of the most important points in the West,
from a variety of causes, as you are well aware, our work has
never been quite satisfactorily done. I am happy to say,
however, that the evils from which we have suffered are in a
fair way to be remedied. Mr. C. H. Shipman, of Chicago, an
exceedingly competent and excellent man, has been engaged
to superintend all sanitary work at this point, has entered upon
his duties, and has already effected marked changes and im¬
provements. The old Home was always crowded with soldiers
undeserving of its charities, thrust into it by the military au¬
thorities, who soon converted it into barracks, having all the dis¬
agreeable features common to institutions of that kind. The
new Home, partly from the same cause, and partly from faults
in its situation and construction, failed to accomplish all we
had hoped from it. Hedged about by difficulties otherwise
insurmountable, I applied to Gen. Grant for assistance in the
matter, and by him orders were issued, which, with the expen¬
diture of a moderate sum on our part, will enable us to place
both the Relief and Supply Department in a condition highly
satisfactory.

DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND.

Our work in this Department is now, as it has long been,
under the immediate supervision of Dr. A. N. Read our
veteran Inspector, wTho has continued to exhibit in its man¬
agement the same energy and wisdom which have character¬
ized his efiorts in our behalf for months and years past. He
has been ably seconded by Drs. Castleman and Parker as In¬
spectors, M. 0. Read and L. Crane in the Relief Department,
and Mr. Robinson, Mr. Butler, Mr. Crary, and others, in the
Department of Supplies. I think I am justified in saying that
there is no part of the whole army where our work is more
systematically, thoroughly, and well done. The credit of this
desirable result is not, however, due wholly to the corps of
agents who have represented us so faithfully there, but should
be equally shared by the military and medical authorities, all
of whom have been at all times most cordially co-operative;
not only granting cheerfully every reasonable request we have
made, but even anticipating our wants ; often spontaneously
proffering the aid we were about to need. The catalogue
of the officers of this army, who have manifested towards "the
Sanitary Commission cordial and appreciative co-operation, is
so long that I have not room to give it, but I may say, in gen¬
eral, that our relations are of the pleasantest character with
every one. The evidences of hearty sympathy with us in our
work, given by Gen. Roseerans, Gen. Garfield, his chief of
staff, Dr. Perm, the Medical Director, and Dr. Hamilton, Med¬
ical Inspector, have been frequently exhibited in the docu¬
ments forwarded to you. All of the regiments comprising
this aimy, I believe, without exception, have received careful
special inspections; the inspection returns having been for¬
warded from time to time to the Central Office. I am happy
to be able to say, that their Sanitary condition is now and
has long been remarkably good. The percentage of sick is
as low, if not lower, than in any other army, and protective
measures, such as the policing of camps, &c., are so thorough¬
ly observed that little is left to desire in that respect.

By reference to the accompanying schedule of disburse¬
ments, it will he seen that the amount of supplies furnished
to the Army of the Cumberland has been very large, (over
20,000 bushels of vegetables alone since January 1st), yet since
the battle of Stone River no great and unusual emergency has
called for extra efforts on our part.

HOSPITAL GARDENS.

The Hospital Gardens established in this Department have
more than justified all our anticipations. That at Murfrees¬
boro had, up to August 80th, furnished to the hospitals 248
barrels of assorted vegetables, and the gardener estimates that
it will produce during the balance of the season 800 bushels
of tomatoes, 1,200 of Irish potatoes, 1,200 of sweet potatoes,
25,000 heads of cabbage, besides large quantities of beans,
melons, turnips, &c.

HOSPITAL CARS.

From time to time reports have been made to you of the
value of the service rendered by the Hospital Cars on the Chat¬
tanooga and Louisville & Nashville Railroads. Time has
only served to increase our estimate of their importance, and
as the army has advanced farther and farther from its base ot
supplies, they have been made more and more useful, until
they are now recognized as an indispensable institution. By
one and another casualty, the cars forming the first hospital
train having been destroyed, the Government authorized the
purchase of three new ones to take their places. These are
now being fitted up at Columbus, Ohio, on the plan of the Rail¬
road ambulances constructed by the Sanitary Commission in
the East, and will be equally complete with those. It is sup¬
posed that they will be ready for use about the 15th of Septem¬
ber. The Hospital Cars have been constantly under the su¬
pervision of Dr. Barnum as surgeon, and Mr. Mallory as stew¬
ard.

The Home at Nashville, under the wise management of Mr.
Crane, has been a complete success, and has proved of mesti-

mable value to several thousands of the poor fellows for whose
benefit it was established. The number of inmates of the
Home, the services rendered them, the amount of money col¬
lected for them, &c., are given in the detailed report of this
institution which accompanies this. Rev. Mr. Hoblit still con¬
tinues his labors as Hospital Visitor at Nashville, Mr. Robin¬
son in charge of the Department of supplies ; the ’latter assist¬
ed by Mrs. Hopkins, widow of Dr. R. C. Hopkins, who died
while acting as Inspector for the Commission. I regret to say
that our corps of agents in attendance upon Gen. Rosecrans’
army have suffered greatly from sickness, every one of them
having passed through serious attacks of chill-fever or chronic-
diarrhea, by which they have been for a longer or shorter time
unfitted for duty. All are, however, or soon will be, at their
posts again, with the exception of Mr. Atwater, whose health
is, I fear, permanently impaired.

DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO.

Such portion of General Burnside’s forces as have been sta¬
tioned in Eastern Kentucky have been carefully inspected by
Dr. W. M. Prentice, and their wants supplied from our depot
at Lexington in charge of Mr. Butler. Important changes
have, however, lately taken place in that Department: Dr.
Prentice having resigned to take a position in the army, and
Mr. Butler having been transferred to Murfreesboro, where his
services were more urgently demanded. To supply the places
of these gentlemen, Mr. S. II. Prentice has been appointed
Storekeeper and Mr. R. N. Strong Relief Agent, to follow the
advancing column.

From General Burnside we have received, as might have
been expected, every required facility. He has issued special
orders in our behalf, similar in import to those of Gen. Rose¬
crans and Gen. Grant.

WEST VIRGINIA.

The number of troops in this Department has, of late, been
so small, their duties so light, and their casualties so few, that

tliere has been comparatively little to clo in a sanitary way
among them; so little, indeed, that three months since I trans¬
ferred Dr. Parker to the Army of the Cumberland, leaving Mr.
Fracker, Storekeeper at Wheeling, now well known to all the
surgeons and officers in the Department, to supply any want
that might arise there, and I have reason to believe that his
duty has been well and faithfully done. During the month
of August, Dr. Theodore Sterling, temporarily employed for
that duty, made a complete round of inspection among the
troops stationed in West Virginia, giving me the result ot his
observation in a report which has already been furnished you.

KANSAS.

The troops stationed at Leavenworth, Fort Scott, and other
places in Kansas and the Indian Territory, though they have
never been very numerous, have been so situated as to he
beyond the reach of many of the governmental supplies, liber¬
ally furnished to those more favorably located. As a conse-
cpience, appeals so earnest and urgent have been made to us
in their behalf that I have felt compelled to make somewhat
liberal appropriations for their relief. Mr. Brown is now, as
he has been for several months, acting as our agent, and has
been indefatigable in his efforts to reach even the most distant
frontier post with his stores. He is now assisted in his labors
by Dr. C. C. Slocum, and liberal shipments have recently been
made him from Chicago and Cleveland. Mr. Brown’s letters
have from time to time been sent you.

WESTERN CENTRAL OFFICE.

Since the time of your visit, the work of our office has
greatly expanded, and has been brought to a degree of system
which I think would meet with your approbation. Our office
corps consists of the following gentlemen, in addition to my¬
self, all of whom, by their faithfulness in the discharge of
their duties, and by their earnestness and unity of purpose,
have not only won my personal esteem, but merit all honor
and respect from the Commission and its friends.

R. T. Thorne, Assistant Secretary.

Dr. George L. Andrew, Medical Inspector and Editor of Tiie
Reporter.

H. S. Holbrook, Superintendent of Hospital Directory.

Dr. H. E. Soule, Chief Clerk.

C. S. Sill, Accountant.

W. S. Hanford, Superintendent of Transportation.

Rev. F. II. Bushnell, Hospital Visitor and Relief Agent.

We have also in service a carefully selected and well trained
corps of clerical assistants, whose names are enumerated in
the roster which accompanies this.

By an examination of the special reports of the different
departments of our work, which I now send or have hereto¬
fore forwarded, you will be able to judge something of the
merits, as to efficiency and accuracy, of those who have them
under their immediate supervision.

I he Hospital Directory has grown greatly in importance
since the time of your visit. The number of names of sick
and wounded on our books is at this date 186,433, represent¬
ing T37 regiments. The number of inquiries that have
been made is 5,852; in answer to which the information
required has been given in 4,016 cases. The number of hos¬
pitals now reporting regularly to us is 102 ; number which
have reported, 184.

The Sanitary Reporter, which has reached its eighth num¬
ber, is accomplishing far more for the cause than I had hoped
in its establishment. Its issue has been increased to 6,000,
and it is not yet sufficient to meet the urgent demands that are
made upon us for it. Though in no sense the official organ
of the Commission, and created to supply what was felt to be
a pressing want in this Department, we have aimed to make it •
as catholic and national as possible, and have published all
the information in regard to the general operations of the Com¬
mission that we have been able to procure. The testimonials
wdiich it has elicited Trom our friends and co-laborers, both
East and West, are numerous and most flattering.

HOME FIELD.

As I have before remarked, I have recently visited nearly
all parts of the Home Field in this Department, and have had
the pleasure of personal interviews with the noble hand of
loyal and humane men and women who are devoting themselves
to the great work in which we are engaged. I cannot express
to you the gratification that this round of visits has afforded
me, nor my admiration of the devotion and efficiency which
characterizes the great corps of our fellow-laborers to whom
I have alluded.

You are already, in general, familiar with the thorough
system that pervades most of our branch societies in the
North-west, and know with what energy and success they
have canvassed their respective fields of labor, and have united
in perfect concert of action the Soldier s Aid Societies which
have sprung up spontaneously, or as the result of their efforts,
in every town and hamlet throughout the land. And ^oualso
know something of the admirable forms now generally adopt¬
ed for recording and reporting their business. I can assure you,
however, that great progress has been made within a few months
past, and that whatever you may have found to approve in the
workings of the Supply Department of the West at the time
of your visit, its present condition would still further merit
your approbation. Transportation of stores is everywhere
gratuitous * messages relating to our business are sent over the
telegraph lines free, and the whole work of collecting and foi-
warding supplies, while it has all the soul and enthusiasm of
a labor of love, is as thoroughly disciplined and systematized
as any of the great enterprizes of purely mercenary business.

As comparisons are confessedly invidious, and it is necessa¬
ry that some examples should be given, I shall take the liberty
of referring to the work of each of our branches in succession.

CHICAGO.

Since the first of January, the work of the Chicago Branch
has been completely revolutionized, and so greatly expanded

that it has become the first in importance in the list of our
auxiliaries at the "West. -Always loyal and earnest in spirit,
and working with a degree of energy and success highly cred¬
itable to the small number who took an active part in its ope¬
rations, yet its efficiency has been many times multiplied
during the present year. This you will perceive at a glance,
when I tell you that on the 1st of January the whole number
of packages of stores forwarded to the army was 4,500, while
the present number is 16,315. This splendid result is due, in
a great degree, to the intelligence and industry of the two ad¬
mirable ladies, Mrs. Livermore and Mrs. Iloge, who have insti¬
tuted a system of correspondence and canvassing, by which
the interest of the whole North-west has been greatly stimu¬
lated, as well as drawn to this one focus. Contributions are
now made to Chicago from all Northern Illinois, from parts of
Iowa, all of Wisconsin, Western Michigan, and Northern In¬
diana. So that the work of this Society contains the embodi¬
ment of the interest in our cause of an immense area. The
shipments from Chicago have been, for many reasons, mainly
directed down the Mississippi, and have constituted two-thirds
of all our contributions to the army of General Grant. The
Chicago Branch, like that of Cincinnati, now publishes regu¬
larly a Monthly Bulletin of its operations, for distribution
among its auxiliaries.

In Central and Southern Illinois, the contributions of sani¬
tary stores mainly pass through the hands of the Illinois State
Sanitary Bureau, but are almost all forwarded to our agents
for distribution. With this Bureau our relations have always
been cordial and pleasant, and a spirit of co-operation has been
manifested by its officers which has contributed to the success
of their efforts and ours.

IOWA.

The patriotism and benevolence of the people of Iowa flow
toward the army in two channels : the one represented by the
Bev. A. J. Kynett, and the other associate members of our
Commission who are working in unity with us, and con¬
stitute a branch of our organization; and the other repre-

son ted by Mrs. "Witteniney or, liolding an independent position,
or in alliance with the Western Sanitary Commission at St.
Louis. The contributions made by those who are working with
and for us in Iowa, are forwarded to Chicago for shipment to the
army.

WISCONSIN.

A wide-spread and active interest in our work has been for
a long time exhibited in this State, and there are scattered over
all parts of it Aid Societies, whose contributions, forming a
laree asrsregate, pass through Chicago. In tact, all these socie-
ties are united in a State organization, of which, liowmver, the
extent and the efiorts are bounded by no State lines. It is but
just that I should also mention that the State officers ot Wis¬
consin, especially the Governor and Surgeon General, have
from the first worked in harmony with us and have manifest¬
ed a broad and generous spirit, in striking contrast with that
which has actuated the officers of some other Western States.
Among those to whom we are indebted for the important part
that Wisconsin has taken in our enterprize, I should not fail
to mention the name of Mrs. II. L. Colt, Corresponding Sec¬
retary of the Milwaukee Society, a lady who has been herself
repeatedly to the army to look after the wants of our soldiers,
and by her untiring efforts in the home-field in their behalf
has most richly deserved their gratitude. Our co -laborers in
the North' -west are planning a grand Fair, to he held in Chi¬
cago in October, for the benefit of our cause. N o efforts will
be spared to make it what it can hardly fail to be, a complete
success.

MICHIGAN.

The people of Michigan, as you are aware, have not been
behind the inhabitants of other portions of the North-west in
their interest or activity in the present war, and they have con¬
tributed largely in the aggregate to our resources. But from
the want of a general effort to excite interest and concentrate
action, many parts of the State have, until recently, done com¬
paratively little for the cause in which w7e are engaged. The
Western and Southern portions, however, have been forward-

mg supplies to Chicago for a year or more, and the South¬
eastern portion has sent something like a thousand boxes to
the Soldier’s Aid Society of Detroit since the period of its or¬
ganization, November 1st, 1861. Feeling the importance of a
more thorough exploitation of the State of Michigan, about
the 1st of August I visited Detroit in company with Professor
Andrews, of Marietta College, for two years Colonel of the
36th Ohio, who was engaged to act during his vacation as can¬
vassing agent for the Commission. On consultation with the
managers of the Aid Society, among whom Miss Valeria
Campbell deserves special mention for her unwearied efforts
in behalf of the sick soldier, a thorough re-organization of this
Society was effected, by which it became formally auxiliary to
the Sanitary Commission, and instituted measures for inter¬
esting all parts of the State in its work. Since that time it has
greatly increased in efficiency, and is now sending us large
quantities of the most desirable varieties of stores. Of the
Detroit Society, Mrs. Bela Hubbard is President, and Miss Va¬
leria Campbell, Secretary.

INDIANA.

The contributions of the people of Indiana to the sick and
wounded in the army, have mainly passed through the hands
of the Governor and a State Sanitary Bureau, acting under
his directions. Yet several hundred packages of stores have
been forwarded to Chicago from the Northern portion of
of the State, and perhaps an equal number from the Southern
portion to the Commission of our auxiliaries organized at New
Albany. This latter Society, during the first year of the war,
nobly sustained the responsibility thrown upon them in the
care of the sick in the hospitals of their own city.

The accompanying report of the material aid which they
extended to these hospitals, will give you some idea of their
activity in our cause, but n either here nor in any other human
history is record made of the zeal and sympathy with suffer¬
ing which led them to sacrifice months of their time in inces¬
sant efforts for the welfare of the great number of sick and
wounded who were crowded in upon them.

OHIO.

As you are aware, tlie State of Ohio occupies a conspicuous
and enviable position among the noble sisterhood who have
given so freely of their treasures and their blood to save our
country from ruin, and to maintain, in purity and permanence,
all our free institutions. Among the forms in which her patri¬
otism has exhibited itself, not the least worthy of mention is
her general and earnest support of our philanthropic organi¬
zation. As I have before stated, aside from all that has been
done by individuals, other organizations, or the State Govern¬
ment, Ohio has now furnished to the army, through the agen¬
cies of the Sanitary Commission, over thirty thousand packa¬
ges of supplies; in other words, half of all that has been con¬
tributed to the Sanitary Commission in the Missippi Valley.
This great efficiency which Ohio has manifested in our work
is unquestionably due, for the most part, to the early organi¬
zation of three Branch Commissions within her limits, each of
which has been most earnest and untiring ; and two, that of
Cincinnati and Cleveland, managed with wonderful energy and
skill, have been pre-eminently successful and useful. That of
Columbus, though accomplishing less than the others named,
has done a noble work, which will compare favorably with that
of any other similarly situated in the land. With the working
of the branches at Cincinnati and Cleveland you are already
considerably familiar, as you have visited them, have witness¬
ed the perfection of their methods, aud have seen abundant
evidence of the great good which they have accomplished.

CINCINNATI.

The Branch Commission at Cincinnati has now distributed
over twelve thousand packages of stores, and is still as active and
prosperous as at any former period of its history. In addition to
the contribution of materials to which I have referred, the Cin¬
cinnati Commission has expended large sums of money and a
vast amount of labor, of thought, of sympathy, and kindness
in the care of the sick in the hospitals of that city ; in the
equipment and management of hospital steamers ; in the care

of1 troops passing through or quartered in the city ; and in
sustaining its admirable “Home,” which has now accommo¬
dated forty thousand soldiers. So great and varied are the
charities which it has dispensed, that I can do no more here
than allude, in a general way, to that which it would take vol¬
umes to describe, that which has served to make the Cincinnati
Branch of the Sanitary Commission known and blessed in
every department and division of our Western armies.

COLUMBUS.

Prom the inland position of this city, and her remoteness
from the seat of war, the inhabitants of Columbus have not
felt, to so great a degree, the varied and pressing demands to
which Cincinnati has so nobly responded ; but our representa¬
tives there have not been regardless of the responsibilities
which have fallen to their lot. They have answered promptly
and efficiently all appeals which I have made, and have
forwarded an aggregate of supplies in the highest degree
creditable to them. The territory tributary to Columbus never
being thoroughly canvassed, I have authorized the employment
of an excellent man to act, for a limited period, as canvassing
Agent in this district. In addition to its other work, the
Columbus Branch has built, from its own funds, a very com¬
plete and tasteful “ Home ” for the accommodation of the sick
and discharged soldiers passing through that city, and need¬
ing, as they have done sadly, the aid that has been there ren¬
dered them.

CLEVELAND.

Of the work of our branch at Cleveland I shall say little, as
it is already well known to you, and a free expression of my
admiration for its methods and successes might seem to you
not altogether in good taste. The merest justice, however, to
the Soldiers Aid Society of Northern Ohio, requires that I should
at least allude to the energy which has already furnished us,
from a limited district, 10,000 packages of stores ; to a skill and
wisdom which, with simple, though nicely adjusted, machinery,
has accomplished so quietly and peacefully this great result ;

and to a loyalty to us and our national platform, pure and un¬
qualified from the first. In addition to tlie work which. Cleve¬
land has done in the Supply Department, she has also per¬
formed her part in the work of special relief. She has, foi
many months past, kept up a Home and Hospital for sick and
discharged soldiers passing through, at which have been lodged
over 2,000; and 10,000 have been fed.

PITTSBURGH.

Owing to a series of unfortunate circumstances, which it is
not necessary that I should now enumerate, among which,
however, is not to be reckoned any want of patriotism or
benevolence on the part of the citizens of Pittsburgh, this
large and wealthy city has only lately become actively inter¬
ested in our work. Up to the spring of the present year
the Sanitary Commission had there no resident representa¬
tive. Much had been done, however, by the inhabitants of
Pittsburgh in behalf of the sick and wounded in the army,
.or they had sent delegations to the scenes of several of our
earlier battles, had chartered and freighted two steamers
for the relief of the wounded at Shiloh, and had brought
home and carefully nursed in their midst a large numbei ot
those who, at that time, could be but imperfectly accommo¬
dated in the military hospitals at the West. In addition to
this, a “ Subsistence Committee ” had been organized for the
purpose of supplying food to the troops passing through the
city, and at the date which I have given, they had ministered
to the wants of nearly 100,000 men. After the battle of Stone
Hiver, Mr. Sliippen, who had been sent West by Gov. Curtin
to look after the wants of Pennsylvania soldiers, and who, m
the prosecution of his mission, had become intimately ac¬
quainted with, and very much interested in, our national
method, was engaged to canvass Western Pennsylvania in
our behalf. At Pittsburgh, he was received most cordially,
and, in response to his appeals, a local Commission was organ¬
ized, consisting of some of the best known and most estimable

men and women of the city. From that time to the present
our Pittsburgh associates have exhibited a devotion to the cause
m which they are interested which has elicited my warmest
admiration, and has been the means of contributing largely
to our resources. Nowhere, indeed, so far as I know, sfnce
the war commenced, has any similar society accomplished so
much in so short a time after its organization. It has already
expended several thousand dollars in the purchase of sanitary
stores, and has forwarded to us some three thousand packages,
including a large proportion of the choicest and most valuable
articles which we distribute, all prepared with care and skill,
which reflects the highest credit on those who have its busi-
ness in charge.

Of the Pittsburgh Branch, Mr. Thomas Bakewell is Presi¬
dent, and Mr. J. P. Hunter, Secretary of the Gentlemen’s
Committee; Miss Pachel McFadden, President, and Miss
Mary Bissell, Secretary of the Committee of Ladies.

BUFFALO.

Although in defining the limits of my department, Buffalo
was excluded from it and attached to that of the East, the
logic of events has proved stronger than our classification,
and whatever may have been her theoretical relations, Buffalo
has become practically a most important auxiliary in our ef¬
forts in behalf of the armies of the West. It is true that most
oi the troops from the State of New York have been in service
m some of the Eastern or Southern Departments, yet with a
noble generosity and catholic spirit, the Army Aid Society
of Buffalo has overlooked all selfish considerations, and has
ever manifested a desire to extend her aid to such soldiers of
our National Army, as most needed help and could be most
readily reached.

Acting on this plan, she has sent to us over three thousand
packages of stores, which have been distributed in the Depart¬
ments of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, and I have
learned to rely with confidence upon receiving a prompt and
vigorous response to any appeal which I might be led by any

present emergency to make. When 1 consider how small a
territory is tributary to the Buffalo Society, I cannot refrain
from awarding high praise to those who have drawn from it so
much to comfort and bless those for whom we are laboring.

KENTUCKY BRANCH.

During the first year of the war, Louisville was at or so near
the front, that the earnest and able men who compose the
Branch Commission at this point, were occupied and engross¬
ed in the work of distributing stores, and in various ways
meeting the wants of the sick and wounded in their own
midst, and in the hospitals scattered at various points through
Kentucky and Tennessee. At this time all stores intended
for the army of the Cumberland were forwarded through their
agency, and their depository here had the double character of
a contributing and distributing depot. I look back with a
kind of horror to those dark days in the history of this rebel¬
lion, when the theatre of war was at the very doors of the
citizens of Louisville ; when camps were in her suburbs and
troops thronged her streets ; when the hastily improvized hos¬
pitals, including all the public school edifices, were crowded
with sick, so imperfectly supplied with care and comforts that
every loyal family felt impelled to contribute the tithe of its
domestic treasures and send its delicately reared ladies to min¬
ister, by their own personal efforts, to the suffering and des¬
titute in the hospitals of the wards in which they lived. No
similar scenes had been witnessed in our previous history, un¬
less in the epidemics of yellow fever at Norfolk and Phila¬
delphia, in which the same paralyzing gloom pervaded these
cities, on which dark back-ground were illuminated similar
bright examples of Christian charity. In the works ot love
and mercy of those days, our Louisville associates bore a con¬
spicuous part; and from that period to the present they have
never ceased to devote a large part of their time and thought
to the care of the great number of objects of pity and charity
which merciless war has thrown upon their hands. When
the armies were further removed, and the central office was

transferred to this point, all the general business of the Sani¬
tary Commission was relinquished to this office, while the
members of the Kentucky Branch, by a division of labor,
assumed the responsibility of all the local work, the care
of the city hospitals, twenty-two in number, and address¬
ed themselves to devise new measures of relief for soldiers
Passing through the city, who were the proper objects of our
charity. The “Home,” with all its cares, was entrusted to
their management; was largely extended, at an expense of
several thousand dollars, paid from the local treasury, and was
made capable of accommodating one thousand men at a time*
It is now the most extensive and complete establishment of
the kind which exists in the country. Since January 1st, the
“ Home ” has lodged seventeen thousand of those for whom it
was especially designed, while a much larger number of pas¬
sing troops have been fed at the “ Soldier’s Best” attached to
it.

Since the State of Kentucky has felt, in all its severity, the
iron hand of war, its power to contribute to any benevolent
fund has been almost entirely destroyed ; so that while we have
ample evidence of a deep and wide-spread spirit of loyalty among
its people, they have not been able to express their interest
in our work by the liberal donations received in former
months. The amount of stores sent to the Kentucky Branch
from the interior of the State is now very small; but as you
will see by the accompanying tables, since its organization, it
has issued over six thousand packages*

Before leaving this subject, I cannot refrain from expressing
to you my conviction that one of the most important results
attained by the Sanitary Commission is to be found in the
home field; but one in all our reports to the present time en¬
tirely over-looked. I allude to its influence in inspiring the
people in every farm-house and cottage, wherever a good
grand-mother is knitting a pair of socks, or a child making a

pin-cushion, with a wider, deeper, higher, and purer patriot¬
ism*

I need not dwell upon this topic, for I am convinced its truth
will be universally acknowledged. And yet it is due that this
truth he recognized and put on record. From all parts of the
country we have the testimony of our contributors that they
are driven by the spirit which pervades their work, to open
and desperate antagonism with disloyalty in every form ; and
that unwittingly they are everywhere doing missionary work
for the national cause. While our Government has one great
armv in the field, of those who are pouring out their life-blood
in its defense, the Sanitary Commission has in the home field
another great army, composed of the mothers and sisters,
wives and sweethearts of our brave soldiers, working scarcely
less earnestly and efficiently for the same great end.

Very respectfully,

J. S. NEWBERRY,

Secy West Dept. U. S. San. Com'

APPENDIX.

ABSTRACT OF FINANCIAL REPORT.

The amount of money expended in the Western Department from the gen¬
eral fund of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, to Sept. 1st, 1863, is $114,187 67,
the entire cash expenditure of the Sanitary Commission for the same period
being $700,114 85. Of this fund the Western States have contributed in

cash, as follows:

Ohio, . . . , . . $2,200

Michigan, . 592

Illinois, . 545

Indiana, . 555

Minnesota, . 45

Kentucky, . 500

The remainder has been donated by the Middle and Eastern States, For^
sign Countries, and our Pacific States and Territories, which last have
given as follows :

California, . .$501,101 90

Nevada,... . . . . . . . . 53,683 95

Oregon, . 26,33 18

Washington, . 6,308 97

During the same period the differen Western Branches of the U. S. Sani¬
tary Commission have expended $160,000 in cash, mostly in the purchase of
materials and supplies.

SOLDIER’S HOMES.

From the Organization of these Institutions to September 1st, 1863, there
have been admitted into six of the principal ones in the West 167,090 sol¬
diers. The Home at Cincinnati has furnished food, rest, and other needed
assistance to 42,673; that at Cleveland, to 11,704; that at Cairo, to 51,170;
that at Louisville to 50,325; that at Nashville, during five months, to 2,542;
and the Lodge at Memphis, during two months, to 3,067 soldiers who were
not otherwise provided for. These figures do not include those passing
in companies, regiments, and brigades, whose names were not entered on the
books. The data are incomplete in most of the Homes during the earlier months
of their existence, so that we can only give approximative numbers; but we
can safely say that these Institutions have furnished, since their organization,
over 500,000 meals and over 250,000 lodgings, besides all the other services
rendered in the correction of pay and discharge papers; procuring half fare
tickets on railroads; collecting pay, and, above all, shielding them from swind¬
lers of every name and degree.

gtfPRURS DISTRIBUTED BY THE tt. S. SANITARY COMMISSION
IN THE WESTERN DEPARTMENT TO SEPT. 1st, 1863.

BEDDING AND CLOTHING.

Blankets, 13,402

Bedticks, 25,377

Boots and Shoes, pairs, 682

Comforts and Quilts, 40,159

Coats, Pants, and Vests, 9,382

Drawers, pairs, 113,329

Dressing-gowns, 12,610

Havelocks, 1,864

Hats and Caps, 591

Mattresses, 716

Mittens, pairs, 9,764

Mosquito Bars, 1,410

Neck Ties, 554

Night Caps, 4,817

Pillows, 84,106

Pillow Cases, 161,072

Sheets, 92,067

Shirts, 201,603

Slippers, pairs, 16,172

Socks, “ 90,528

Straw, bales, 131

Towels and Handkerchiefs, 297,960

HOSPITAL FURNITURE AND SURGEONS* SUPPLIES.

Adhesive Plaster, yards, 1,298

Arm Rests, 1,249

Bags, 1863

Bathing Tubs, 11

Band’gs and Comp. Lint, lbs., 229,948

Bedsteads, 835

Beds, Feather, 9

Bed Pans, 389

Books and Pamphlets, 233,000

Brooms, 355

Buckets, 539

Candles, lbs, 2,306

Candlesticks, 170

Carpeting, yards, 246

Chairs, 429

Clocks, 6

Combs and Brushes, 2,683

Cooking Stoves and furn. 10

Ranges, 2

Coffins, 73

CoffeePots, 118

Cots, 442

Chambers, 765

Cups and Saucers, 791

Cushions and Pads, 53,142

Crutches, prs, 3,321

Desks, 25

Dippers, 81

Drinking Tubes, 108

Envelopes, 76,000

Eye Shades, 3,360

Fans, 12,500

Furnaces, 9

Hatchets, 41

Lamps, 48

Lanterns, 309

Lamp Oils, gals, 130

Lumber, feet, ' 118,000

Kettles, # 20

Knives and Forks, pairs, 1,833

Matches, gross, 18

Matts, Door, 43

Matting Cocoa, yds, 190

Mops, 153

Oakum, bales, 6

Paper, reams, 360

Pens, 5,000

Pincushions, 27,851

Pitchers, 119

Spittoons, 641

Spit Cups, 1,825

Sauce Pans, 100

Scissors 48

Soap, lbs, 4,602

Splints, 120

Spoons, 2,504

Sponges, lbs, 230

Stoves, 8

Tables,

Table Cloths,

822

Tin Cups,

6,352

Tin Plates,

4,016

Tumblers,

862

Urinals,

Wash Basins,

Wash Tubs,

Wash Boards,
Washing Machines,

313

1,100

ARTICLES OF

Ale and Cider, gals, 11,584

Apples, bush, 1,386

Apple Butter, gals, 2,160

Arrowroot, lbs, 3,551

Barley, lbs, 10,204

Beef, Dried, lbs, 18,710

Beef, Concentrated, lbs, 33,873

Beans, bush., 21J

Bread, lbs, 10,304

Broma, lbs, 200

Butter, lbs, 41,197

Crackers, lbs, 102,014

Cocoa, lbs, 455

Chocolate, lbs, 98

Chickens, 4,114

Chicken, cans, 905

Coffee, lbs, 2,009

Coffee, Concentrated, lbs, 105

Corn Meal, lbs, 23,119

Cheese, lbs, 12,113

Corn Starch, lbs, 3,253

Corn Dried, lbs, 644-

Cakes and Cookies, lbs, 4,204

Cranberries, bush, 5J

Catsup, bot, 1,339

Codfish, lbs, 52,862

Eggs, doz, 37,638

Farina, lbs, 8,344

Flour, bbls, 37

Fruit, Preserved, cans, 103,330

Fruit, Dried, lbs, 497,365

Groceries, miscellaneous, lbs, 51,614
Grapes, lbs, 1,650

Hops, lbs, 395

Herbs, lbs. 1,502

Herring, bxs, 25

Halibut, bxs, 40

Honey, lbs, 532

MISCELl

Bromine, oz, 200

Quinine, oz, 290

Twine, balls, 58

Cabbage Plants, 25,000

Tomato Plants, 25,000

Chloroform, lbs, 110

Flaxseed, lbs, 329

AND DELICACIES.

Hominy, lbs, 640

Horse Kaddish, bot, 574

Hams, lbs, 9,314

Ice, tons, 270

Lemons, bxs, 337

Lemon Syrup, bot, 2698

Milk, concentrated, lbs, 46,807

Mustard, lbs, 1,866

Macaroni, lbs, 100

Mackerel, lbs, 50

Oat Meal, lbs, 1.878

Oranges, bxs, *98^

Oysters, cans, 1,094

Onions, bush, 3,835

Pepper, Ground, lbs, 768

Pepper Sauce, bot, 2,076

Pie Plant, bxs, 61

Porter, bot, 1,008

Potatoes, bush, 49,141

Pickles, galls, 28,573

Rice, lbs, 3,872

Sago, lbs, 2,608

Salt, lbs, 1,170

Sardines, boxes, 44

Sausages, lbs, 427

Sour-krout, gals, 3,780

Shoulders, lbs, 4,160

Spice, lbs, 568

Strawberries, qts, 896

Sugar, lbs, , 26,066

Syrup and Molasses, galls, 688

Tapioca, lbs, ] ,409

Tea, lbs, 8,007

Toast, bxs, 76

Tobacco, lbs, 1,304

Tongues, lbs, 238

Vinegar, gals, 1,514

Wines and Spirits, bot, 36,399

Charcoal, ground, lbs, 227

Lime, bbls, 10

Chlor. Lime, bbls, 39

Disinfecting Powder, bbls, 10

Copperas, lbs, 300

Tin-ware, asst, bxs, 26

Graters, 323

The foregoing list does not by any means comprise all the stores distrib¬
uted by the agents of the Sanitary Commission, but only the leading articles
of such as are recorded on our books. Many thousand miscellaneous have
not been enumerated, as they would swell the list to an inconvenient length ;
and the records of our work for the first six months of the war are necessarily
very imperfect; much having been done, and great quantities of supplies
given from the abundance of the enthusiastic people, of which no human his¬
tory exists.

A careful estimate of the cash value of the stores known to have been dis¬
tributed by our agents in the Western Department during the past two years,
fixes it at TWO MILLION TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND
DOLLARS. The expenses attending their distribution have been thirty-
five thousand dollars, or one and one-half per cent, upon their valuation.

IT. S. SANITARY COMMISSION

3XTo. 76.

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE OPERATIONS
OF THE COMMISSION DURING THE PRES¬
ENT CAMPAIGN IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA.

New York, Tuesday , May 24, 1864.
Dr. J. Foster Jenkins,

General Secretary , U. S. Sanitary Commission:

My Dear Sir, — Pursuant to tlie request of the Standing Com¬
mittee, I beg leave to present the following informal report,
(necessarily imperfect, from the haste with which it has been
prepared,) of the organization and operations of the relief sys¬
tem of the Commission in Northeastern Virginia since the open¬
ing of the present campaign :

I left New York on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 10, for
the purpose of making a personal examination of the working of
the Commission for the aid and relief of the wounded by the
battles of the 'Wilderness and Spottsylvania. At Washington,
I learned that the wounded had collected in immense numbers
at Fredericksburgh, and wrere already being transported to Belle
Plain, on their way, by hospital transports, to Washington and
Alexandria. Up to Monday, the 9th, it was expected that the
wounded would be sent to the rear, via Rappahannock Station,
and the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, and to this end great

preparations had been made by the Quartermaster’s Department,
under advice from the Medical Bureau. Immense trains of cars,
with a full corps of Surgeons, were sent out to the Rappahannock
Station on Sunday, 8th inst.

There they waited until the next day, when, it having been
ascertained that the wounded wTere already in very large num¬
bers at Fredericksburgh, the trains were ordered back to Alex¬
andria.

I make this introductory statement wTith some precision, since
it furnishes a key to the difficulties which attended the care of
the wounded at Fredericksburgh, during the period from May
8 to Thursday, May 12.

Fredericksburgh is about ten miles from Belle Plain, and as
the railroad from Acquia Creek had been thoroughly destroyed,
the most direct and available access to the thousands of
wounded already gathered at the former place, was via Potomac
Creek and Belle Plain Landing. The rebels had destroyed
the wharves at Belle Plain, but during the 8tli and 9th of
May, most vigorous efforts were made by the Quartermaster’s
Department to prepare a temporary landing. To this landing,
on Monday and Tuesday, (9th and 10th of May,) came a fleet of
transports conveying ordnance stores, fighting rations, hospital
appliances, and means of shelter for the incoming wounded.
The dock, a most creditable structure, considering the time
within which it was built, but perhaps hardly large enough for
the demands made upon its capacity, presented a fearful scene
when I arrived at Belle Plain on Wednesday afternoon.

I found one of our supply barges, the Kennedy , at the dock,
and Dr. Steiner directing the operations of the Commission.
Down the right-hand side of the TJ-shaped dock, slowly moved
a single file of army wagons filled with wounded men ; at the
end or corner of the dock, by the gangway of a large Govern¬
ment transport, stood that most efficient and admirable offi¬
cer, Dr. Cuyler, Acting Medical Inspector-General, U. S. A.,

receiving tlie wounded and superintending their removal from the
wagons to the deck of the transport, preparatory to their trans¬
fer to the hospital steamboats that lay in the offing. After each
wagon had deposited its living freight, it passed around the end
of the dock to the left-hand side, and there took in ammunition
or fighting rations, the orders being imperative to return to the
Front only with full loads of these indispensable supplies.
Crowding along the narrow margin of the dock, were continuous
lines of men carrying litters and stretchers on which wore such
of the more severely wounded as had been removed from the
wagons at the hospital tents, on the hillside above the plain.
Hour after hour, for several days, was this fearful procession
kept up. It would .not be proper for me to state how many
thousands thus passed under Dr. Cutler’s inspection, but I can¬
not forbear mentioning the most distinguished zeal, energy and
self-devotion with which his arduous duties were performed.
His administrative skill, his cpiick and ready humanity, his
almost ubiquitous presence, his self-denying exposure to the
pelting ram, while laboring to secure prompt shelter to the
wounded, his night work and day work, his personal attentions
to the pressing wants and minor discomforts of each individual
sufferer, were the subjects of universal admiration. Dr. Brinton,
(Medical Purveyor ot the Army of the Potomac,) was also there,
working with efficiency in the difficult undertaking of forward¬
ing medical supplies promptly to Fredericksburgh and to the
Front.

By the end of the pier lay the barge Kennedy, the storeboat
and headquarters of the Commission. Here, as elsewhere, every¬
thing was astir. Gen. Abercrombie, Commandant of the post,
was making it his temporary headquarters. Out in the stream,
amid a promiscuous collection of transports, lay the steamboat
Hapley , loaded with stores from the Washington storehouses of
the Commission. Hear her, lay the barge Washington, with a
load of army wagons and horses for the Commission’s service.

After great difficulty, and tlie exercise of no little ingenuity,
the stores from the Rapley were put ashore, half a mile up the
creek in small boats, and the wagons loaded and sent to Fred-
erickshurgh. Capt. J. W. Clarke, of the Quartermaster's De¬
partment, and Capt. Lubey, Fifteenth Eegiment New York
Engineer Corps, gave us most cheerful and essential aid in
this work. Indeed, from all the officers at the post the Com¬
mission received nothing hut kind services and expressions
of the heartiest good-will. Capts. Pitkins and Lacey, of the
Quartermaster’s Department, provided every facility in tlieir
power, and from Gen. Abercrombie and Col. Ccyi.ee down,
everybody seemed to take pleasure in aiding us. 1 1 om Mon
day the 9tli, until this time, incessant exertions have been made
by the officers of the Medical, Quartermaster’s, Commissary’s and
Ordnance Departments, to remove the wounded from the rear
of the army, and replenish the trains for forward movements.
Ko one at home can form any idea of the labors of the officers
in these departments, day after day, and night after night, often¬
times living, meanwhile, on the scantiest subsistence, such as
coffee and crackers, and these hurriedly taken. We arc often¬
times loud in our praises of military commanders, for achieving
victory, but seldom give due credit for the result to the Quarter¬
masters, who work with almost superhuman energy at some base
of supplies, and on whose talent, energy, and fertility in resources,
the very existence of the army depends. The agents of the L.
S. Sanitary Commission formed no mean feature in the scene ot
enero-y and successful labor. Up to May 21, the Commission
sent”by its own wagons, nearly 200 tons of sanitary stores, in¬
cluding stimulants, farinaceous food, beef stock, condensed milk,
bandages, &c.,from Belle Plain to Fredericksburgli. It will be
interesting to note the fact here, that the relief service of the
Commission has involved, since Gen. Grant crossed the Eapidan,
and Gen. Butler went up the James Diver, the use of four
steamboats, three barges, and two schooners, for the transporta-

tion of its stores from Washington to Belle Plain, and from Balti¬
more to Norfolk, the latter being the Commission’s base of sup-
plies for Butleb’s army.

At Belle Plain, in addition to a relief station on the barge by
the wharf, the Commission has had a corps of relief agents
at a feeding station near the hospital depot, providing food
for thousands of weary and hungry men who arrive there in
ambulances and wagons, and another at White Oak Church,
half way from Belle Plain to Fredericksburgli, where hot coffee,
soft crackers, and beef soup, have been issued to wounded and
disabled men on their way to hospital, many of whom have not
tasted food or received attention for forty-eight hours. Did
space permit, I would make mention of every person engaged
in this most exhaustive and beneficent labor.

The operations of the Commission at Belle Plain, including
the movements of trains of supply wagons, have been conducted
by Mr. F. H. Knapp, whose experience in every branch of relief
service has made his name the synonym for energy and benefi¬
cence wherever the Commission is known.

At Fredericksburgli, the Commission’s work, under the able
direction of Dr. Douglas, Chief Inspector, is three fold. First,
there is a large storehouse on Commercial street, under the care
of Mr. Johnson, from which, since the 9tli of May, about 200
tons of Sanitary stores have been issued to hospitals upon the
requisitions of surgeons. Secondly, a corps of relief agents,
numbering from 160 to 225, under the leadership of Mr. Fat,
divided into squads, and assigned to the various division hospitals.
These relief agents report the wants of the hospitals to Mr. Fay,
perform the duties of nurses, and seize every opportunity to min¬
ister to the complicated and various wants of the wounded, as
indicated by the advice or orders of the surgeons in charge.
Thirdly, special diet kitchens, under the administration of
Miss Woolsey, Mrs. Gen. Bablow, and Miss Gilson, while
Mrs. Gibbons and daughter, and Mrs. Husband, lend their ex-

pert services to the hospitals. The special diet kitchens are
tents, with ample cooking arrangements, pitched on the roads
from the front to Fredericksburgh or Belle Plain. From these,
soup, coffee, stimulants, soft bread, and other food, are issued to
thousands of passing wounded. With the army, seven four-
horse wagons carrying food, stimulants, under-clothing, and sur¬
gical dressings constantly move under the direction of Dr.
Steiner, the Commission Inspector for the Army of the Poto¬
mac, and Mr. Johnson, whose services at Gettysburgh, and now
at Fredericksburgh, form a bright page in the special relief
work of the Commission. I should say here that these wagons
moved with the army from Brandy Station, dispensing stores
during the battles of the Wilderness, and then, passing with
the wounded to Fredericksburgh, went on to Belle Plain to re¬
load.

The Commission has now forty odd four-horse wagons of its
own, carrying sanitary stores from Belle Plain to Fredericks¬
burgh. On Monday, May 23d, thirty-one of these wagons, car¬
rying nearly forty thousand pounds of sanitary stores, went in
one train from Belle Plain to Fredericksburgh. On the same
day, our steamboat the Rapley , in charge of Mr. Anderson,
with the barge Kennedy in tow, cleared from Belle Plain and
went up the Rappahannock to Fredericksburgh, to add still
more largely to our supplies. Our work, then, for the sick and
wounded of the army of General Meade may be summed up
briefly as follows : Two steamboats and two barges for convey¬
ing sanitary stores from W ashington to Belle Plain ; forty-four
four-horse wagons for conveying sanitary stores from Belle
Plain to Fredericksburgh and the Front— over two hundred
tons of sanitary stores sent to Belle Plain and Fredericksburgh ;
more than 200 expert relief agents working at Belle Plain,
White Oak Church, and Fredericksburgh; and more than
25,000 weary or wounded men fed in hospital or by the way.
The outlay for the month of May, so far, has been over two

• T

hundred thousand dollars for the Army of the Potomac alone.
You will remember that all these operations are in addition to
what is being done, by the Commission at Washington, for
General Sherman’s army, at New Orleans, on the Red River,
and elsewhere.

I should say that at Fredericksburgh, the medical affairs were
under the able management of Dr. Dalton, Medical Director,
while large numbers of medical men from Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and elsewhere, served day and night in the lios*
pitals, aiding those devoted men, the army surgeons, in their
exhaustive and most serious and self denying duties. Who can
sum up the value of the services of the army surgeons ?
Who can describe, in becoming phrases, a tithe of what they do
for the thousands of suffering men thrown upon their care and
skill by the fearful casualties of an active campaign % I never
witness their conduct without a sense of the profoundest admir¬
ation, and a renewed conviction that the best work of our Com¬
mission is that by which we endeavor, even in a humble way,
to strengthen their hands by supplementary assistance.

Sincerely, yours,

C. R. AGNEW.

APPENDIX A.

Central Office, 244 F Street,

fan , *^0, j ^yltne

Dr J. Foster Jenkins,

General Secretary TJ. S. Sanitary Commission :

Sir, — The following statement shows the issues made by the
IT. S. Sanitary Commission to the armies of Virginia, in the
field, during the month of May, 1SG4.

Air Cushions . 130

Air Beds . 10

Bed Ticks . 3,541

Bed Pans . . . 265

Blankets . 2,932

Chambers . 271

Candlesticks . 312

Combs, coarse . 2,508

Combs, fine . 1,720

Cushions . 5,817

Ilead-rests . 110

Lanterns . 376

Medicine cups . 315

Medicine tubes . 288

Netting, mosquito, pcs . 268

Oil Silk, rolls . 162

Pillows . 3,394

Pillow cases . 1,424

Pillow ticks . 3,300

Quilts . 1,203

Ring Cushions. ......

Sheets .

Spittoons .

Spit cups .

Towels .

Tin cups .

Tin wash-basins .

Tin plates .

Urinals .

Mattrasses . .

Knives and forks .

Spoons .

Stretchers .

Dippers .

Cotton Drawers, pairs . .
Woolen “ “ ..

Handkerchiefs .

Forage (oats), bushels.

Hay, lbs .

Salt beef, bbls . . .

654
. 1,416
. 265

494
, 7,798
7,406
1,235
1,893
262
. 144

1,114
2,905
45

. 100
3,427
12,304
14,991
2,950
15,000
6

Dessicated veg., cases . 6

Hams, lbs . 1,857

Shaving Brushes . 12

Razors . 12

Lard, lbs . 127

Pants, cotton, prs . 67

Shirts, cotton . 6.403

Wool Shirts . 19,507

Shoes . 472

Slippers . 2,909

Socks, cotton . . . 3,208

“ wool . 9,451

Wrappers . 648

Pails . 695

Canes . 67

Pocket flasks . 6

Cots . . . . 30

Ales (see Porter), bbls . 39

Ale, bots . 144

Dried Apples, bbls . 181

Arrow Root, lbs . 100

Beef stock, lbs . 8,165

Brandy, bots . 2,514

Canned Meat, lbs . 4,532

Canned Fruit, lbs . 2,254

Canned Vegetables, lbs. . . . 4,252

Cherry Rum, bots . 312

Cocoa, lbs . 326

Chocolate, sweet, lbs . 8,584

Coffee Ext. (see Coffee), lbs. 1,266

Dried Beef, lbs . 949

Hammers . 22

Axes . . 40

Handsaws . 18

Hatchets . . . . 44

Nails, lbs . 405

Shovels . 38

Spades . 9

Coffee, ground, lbs . 3,106

Condensed Milk, lbs . 18,912

Crackers, bbls . 353

Corn Starch, lbs . 3,582

Corn Meal, bbls . 13

Dried Peaches, bbls . 2

Ext. Ginger, bots . . 2,628

Farina, lbs . 6,480

Gelatine, pcks . 24

Gin, bots . 48

Jellies and Preserves, bot. . . 62

Lemons, boxes . 408

Lemon Syrup, bot . 600

Maizena, lbs . 1,854

Mustard, lbs . 350

Nutmegs, lbs . 20

Oat meal, lbs . 2,344

Pickles, gals . 942

Porter, bbls . 70

Potatoes, bbls . 60

Rice, lbs . 400

New England Rum, bot. ... 12

Jamaica “ “ .... 1,068

Sugar, lbs . 1 1,868

Spices, lbs . 119

Tamarinds, gals . 5 1 1 -J-

Tea, black, lbs . 1,488

Tea, green, lbs . 1,200

Tobacco, lbs . 3,306

Vinegar, gals . 258

Vinegar, Raspberry, bots. . . 24

Wine, foreign, bots . 3,960

Coffee Pots . 119

Flour, bbls . 2

Wrapping paper, reams. ... 13

Molasses, gals . 182

Kerosene Oil, gals . 17-2-

Chisel . 1

Screwdriver . 1

Gimblets . 12

Domestic Wine, bot . 975

Whiskey, bot . 3,520

“ gals . 23

Alcohol, bot . 280

Bandages, bbls . 38

Bay Rum, bots . 699

Body Bands . 1,047

Books, boxes . 5

Cologne, bots . 620

Crutches . 2,843

Fans . 7,750

Games . 51

Lint, bbls . 21

Old Linen, bbls . 129

Slings . 2,266

Soap, lbs . 953

Sponges, lbs . 3091-

Candles, lbs . 1,9-15

Butter, lbs .... . . 3,858

Cheese, lbs . 1,645

Eggs, doz . 2,619

Bread, loaves . 5,387

Pins, papers . 735

Envelopes . 21,325

Ink, bots . . 320

Paper, writing, rm (1,392 qr) 58

Pencils . 5,328

Penholders . 1,288

Pens . 1,288

Oakum, lbs . 1,300

Pipes . 4,000

Chloroform, lbs . 540

Spirits Camphor, bots . 45

Cook Stoves and fixtures. ... 12

Wall Tents, &c . 17

Sand Paper, quire . 1

Can Openers. . . 9

Twine, lbs . 49|-

Corkscrews . 40

Scissors, prs . 242

Pepper Boxes . 6

Saleratus, lbs . 10

Pepper, lbs . 70

Tin Pans, for washing dishes. 22

Salt, lbs . 1,483

Oranges, boxes . 54

Camp Kettles . 100

Frying Pans . 17

Adhesive Plaster, rolls . 44

Nutmeg Graters . 4

Camp Stools . 30

Baskets . 12

Lumber, ft . G,000

Straw, lbs . 10,000

China Plates . 24

Oil Cloth, yds . 20

Cathartic Pills . 200

Opium “ . 6,000

“ and Camp. Pills _ 2,000

Smoked tongues . 00

Rubber Blankets . 221

Open Links . 252

Feed Troughs . 14

Splints, boxes . 9

Matches, gross . 30

Rubber Cloth, yds . 082

Morphine, oz . 17

White Flannel, yds . 20

Chloride of Lime, lbs. .

1,870

Ligature Silk, lbs .

Si-

Haversacks .

150

Blouses .

Hospital Car Loops . . .

100

Water Coolers .

Bromine, lbs .

Patent Lint, lbs .

Dressing Forceps .

Tacks, papers .

Wire, yds .

100

Door Mats .

Needles, gross .

Mutton Tallow, lbs. . . .

Sheeting, piece .

Refrigerator .

Stove Boilers .

Chlorinium, boxes. . . .

Clothing, boxes .

Rocking Chairs .

Cider, bots .

Faucets .

k Augurs .

Pump .

Canteens .

224

Blacking, boxes .

Sardines, “ .

362

Paper Bags .

300

Washing Machines...

Blank Books .

Ice, tons .

97T

Copperas, bots .

Chloride Soda, bots...

Medicine Chests .

Stove Brushes .

Salt Pork, bbl .

Stew Pans .

Broilers .

Frying Pans .

Fresh Beef, lbs .

2,200

“Four-horse Wagons,
harness, whips, extra
fletree, &c., complete

with

wliif-

“ Two horso Wagons,”

do.

Horses .

150

The following named stores were sent from New York, and
stored in Baltimore. About one-third of these were loaded on
board the Ridley , and taken to Norfolk, in tow of the Kent.

4,291 galls. Pickled Tomatoes.

51,812 lbs. Canned Tomatoes.

1,106 galls. Curried Cabbage.

671 bbls. Dried Apples.

15,168 galls. Sour Kraut.

4,162 “ Pickles.

3,580 “ Pickled Onions.

12,060 lbs. Apple Pulp.

2,400 boxes Portable Lemonade.

1 tub Apple Butter.

1 doz. Ginger Wine.

Yery respectfully,

Your ob’t servant,

Wm. A. IIovey,

Assistant to Associate Secretary,

Eastern Department.

APPENDIX B.

Statement of Disbursements , during the month of May , 1864,
for the national forces in Virginia.

Supplies — Amount paid for purchases —

At New York...., . $57,942 38

At Washington . 28,758 58

At Baltimore . 43,404 64

- _ $130,105 60

Distribution — Expenses of, including subsistence, trans¬
portation, and compensation of over two
hundred relief agents, forage for horses,
materials necessary for the work of

agents .

Horses, Wagons, and Harness— Amount paid for...
Transportation — Amount paid for charter —

Steamer “Kent,” 20 days,

to June 1st . $4,500 00

Steamer “ J. B. Thompson,”

27 days, to June 1st. . . 3,375 00

Steamer “ Mary Rapley,”

24 days, to June 1st. . . 2,400 00

Steamer “ Phoenix,” 7f

days, to June 1st . 690 00

Steamer “ Gov. Curtin,” 8

days, to June 1st . 800 00

Schooner “Ridley ,” 15 days,

to June 1st . 300 00

Barge “ Washington,” do. 420 00

“ “ Hoboken,” 10 days,

to June 1st . 275 00

Coal, labor, &c . 2,373 21

Special Relief — Amount during the month .

Estimated value of additional supplies contributed to the
Commission and issued to the army in Southern Virginia.

17,150 17
31,755 43

15,133 21
4,206 80

130,000 00

■v

$328,351 21

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 77,

FIFTH REPORT

CONCERNING THE

anb Comfort gibnt Bg % Stanifarg Commission

SICK AND INVALID SOLDIERS.

By FREDERICK N. KNAPP,

SPECIAL BELIEF AGENT.

Central Office, U. S. Sanitary Com’n,

Washington, D. C., Oct 1, 1863.

Dr. J. Foster Jenkins,

General Secretary :

Sir: My last report upon Special Relief was dated Decem¬
ber 15th, 1862. The present report furnishes the statistics
of the work from that time to the present date, October 1st,
1863, a period of nine and a half months.

The main purpose kept in view in this work of Special
Relief has been the same as for the pa&t two years, viz.
this — as indicated by previous reports : —

First. To supply to the sick men of the newly arrived
regiments such medicines, food, and care, as it is impossible
for them to receive in the midst of the confusion, and with
the unavoidable lack of facilities, from their own officers.
The men to be thus aided are those who are not so sick as
to have a claim upon a general hospital, and yet need im- -
mediate care to guard them against serious sickness.

Second. To furnish suitable food, lodging, care, and
assistance, to men who are honorably discharged from scr-

vice, sent from general hospitals, or from their regiments ;
hut who are often delayed a day or more in the city—
sometimes many days-hefore they obtain their papers

Third. To communicate with distant regiments in belia
of discharged men whose certificates of disability or descrip¬
tive lists on which to draw their pay, prove to be defective ;
the invalid soldiers meantime being cared for, and not ex¬
posed to the fatigue and risk of going in person to then-
regiments to have their papers corrected.

Fourth. To act as the unpaid agent or attorney of dis¬
charged soldiers who are too feeble, or to utterly disabled
to present their own claim at the paymaster’s office.

Fifth. To look into the condition of discharged men who
assume to be without means to pay the expense of going to
their homes ; and to furnish the necessary means where we
find the mail is true, and the need real.

Sixth. To secure to disabled soldiers railroad tickets at
reduced rates, and, through an agent at the railroad station,
see that these men are not robbed or imposed upon by

sharpers. _

Seventh. To see that all men who are discharged and

paid off do at once leave the city for their homes ; or, in
cases where they have been induced by evil companions to
remain behind, to endeavor to rescue them, and see them
started with through-tickets to their own towns.

Eighth. To make reasonably clean and comfortable befoie
they have the city, such discharged men as are deficient in
* cleanliness and clothes.

hTiuth. To be prepared to meet at once with food or other
aid, such immediate necessities as arise when sick men arrive
in the city in large numbers from battle fields or distant

hospitals.

Tenth. To keep a watchful eye upon all soldiers who are
out of hospitals, yet not in service ; and give information to
the proper authorities of such soldiers as seem endeavoring
to avoid duty, or to desert from the ranks.

On this basis of objects aimed at, I report concerning the
work during the past nine months in general terms :

1. Most of these old methods of relief have been com
tinued with satisfactory success.

2. Some new methods of relief have been resorted to,
which, in their practical working, have justified their intro¬
duction.

3. The class of men rightfully claiming this Special Re¬
lief assistance of the Commission has enlarged, embracing
with those to whom help was previously given, others whose
newly developed or increasing needs naturally brought them
under our care.

4. The arrangements which are made by the Commission

in this direction (Special Relief) has evidently become still
more generally known, and applied for, and appreciated
throughout the Army. *

5. The co-operation of the Medical Department of the
Army, as also of the Quartermaster’s, Commissary’s, and
Paymaster’s Departments, has been still more ready and cor¬
dial even than before.

6. The cost of maintaining this branch of the Commis¬
sion’s work during the past nine (9) months has somewhat
diminished relatively to the number of men who have been
assisted, and the amount of assistance rendered to them;
although the total amount is about one half larger than in
an equal term of time before.

7. While nine (9) months ago the direct call upon the
Commission for help from disabled discharged soldiers, after

they had returned to their homes, was but infrequent, it has
now so largely increased (through applications made to the
Special Relief Office) as to justify me in presenting to you
in detail, appended to this report, some of the facts of the
case, as also some statistics which I have collected bearing
upon the subject ; and to call your attention to the urgent
necessity which evidently exists for having, from some source
as early as possible, a comprehensive and practical system
matured and instituted, which will provide for this class of
men ; unless we would have throughout the community a
host of mendicants who, pointing to their honorable wounds
and disabled bodies, will have established their necessity
and right to live upon the charity of the people.

Having: made these general statements I will now report,

. in detail, but briefly as may be, upon the several branches
of Relief ; and first at Washington :

1st. “ The Home, ”*374 ■. North Capitol Street. Increased
accommodations for securing room and comfort at the
Home, referred to in my last report, have been obtained ;
and now, instead of 140 beds, we have at the Home 820, be¬
sides a large baggage room, a covenient washroom, a bath¬
house, &c. Two of the additional buildings, one 16 feet by
60, the other 28 feet by 90, were put up by the Quartermas¬
ter’s Department. The third building, 80 feet by 50, (with
an L 20 by 35) for a “ Hospital,” was at the expense of
the Commission, at a cost of about $800.

The necessity for this building, devoted exclusively to Hos¬
pital purposes, is found in the fact, that although the men who
come under the care of the Commission arc mostly on their
way to their homes, and might therefore be supposed to be not,
so very feeble as to need specially “Hospital” treatment, yet,
as a matter of fact, many of them are weakened to such a de-

* See ground plan of “The Home at end of Report.

gree by disease, that by the time they reach Washington, or
the railway station from the front, or from the various liospi.
tals, their strength is nearly exhausted, and they are only re.
stored, if at all, by such care as hospital treatment affords ;
and frequently they are too far gone to make even that avail¬
able, as is indicated by the record, which shows that from Feb¬
ruary 23d to October 1st, there were received at the Home 665
men, very sick, who were placed in the new Hospital, of which
number thirty-eight died there. This was from February 23d,
when this new building was opened ; but dating back to De¬
cember 15th, there has been under the charge of the Commis¬
sion, including those just named, some 900 men who were very
sick and feeble, of which number a total of sixty-one (61) have
died at the Home. These were nearly all men having their dis¬
charge papers with them, and they had, consequently, given up
their claim upon the General or Regimental Hospitals, and had
taken the first stage of their journey towards their homes. It
they had not found the care which the Commission thus offered
to them, many of these same men must have died in the cars
along the way, or at some stopping point on their journey.
Of the remaining 840 of these very feeble men, we have reason
to believe that many, except for the care and rest secured to
them by the provision of the Commission, could not have
lived through their journeys.

This unusually large proportion of very sick or dying men
who came into our hands, is accounted for by the fact, that
at the time of the advance movement of the army in the
spring, and the breaking up of the corps hospitals near Aquia
Creek, discharge papers were granted to many soldiers who,
in their earnest desire once more to reach their homes,
counted upon more strength than was left to them, and so
they came to us, and waited there till, with straining eyes,

and one hand reached out towards the friends they had
hoped and longed to see, they died. And allow me here to
record this fact, that although these men died thus waiting,
hoping, watching to catch the light which almost fell upon
them from their firesides at home, yet from the lips of no
one of those sixt}7 dying men has a murmur or complaint
been heard; tender messages did they leave to be sent on,
but not one word of repining at their fate ; no syllable of
regret that they had joined the ranks — discharged from the
service they were, but soldiers still — they died in their coun¬
try’s cause.

In charge of this “Home Hospital ” is an experienced and
kindly nurse as matron, Miss Charlotte Bradford, who served
faithfully last summer upon the-**4 Hospital Transports;” —
there are day and night watchers, and all facilities for giving
cheerfulness and comfort to these men detained by the uay.

The surgeon now in charge of the Home is Dr. T. B.
Smith, whose report accompanies this-; his labors are suc¬
cessful. Dr. Smith is also Medical Examiner for Pensions,
for the Commission. The former surgeon in charge, Dr
Grymes, who for nearly a year and a half had given his
whole soul and strength to the work, died in January last.
He was at his post almost till the hour of his death, though
too feeble to walk without support. He had a loyal and a
loving heart, and the Commission as well as the soldiers
certainly have cause to remember him with the deepest, ten-
derest gratitude.

In order to show more in detail the work of the “Home,”
I make the following extracts from the Report of Dr. Smith,
included in the report of Mr. J. B. Clark, the Superinten¬
dent :

« On many occasions, either during my visits to the sick.

■■■?

or just previous to their departure for home or their regi¬
ments, have soldiers spontaneously, and with emotions of
gratitude, exclaimed, ‘Doctor, this is very unexpected kind¬
ness, ‘ X have seen no such care and comfort since leaving
my home.’ One recently said to me, while sitting in the
Hospital and looking upon the completion of arrangements
for his departure, ‘Doctor, I have been so kindly treated
lieie, and been helped so much more than at any time be¬
fore, since my sickness, that I am almost afraid to go beyond
that door.’ These are a few of many grateful expressions
which the comfort they have enjoyed has called forth from
the soldiers under treatment in this Hospital ; and not from
these only ; for we keep at the Home constantly a supply of
beds, stretchers, and comforts of all kinds, to be placed on
board the cars when needed there— articles which are daily
sent for from the railroad station, where notice is given that
all these aids are ready, near by, for any sick soldier who
needs them on his journey.”

“That the community at large are only partially informed
of the character and amount of good work done in this in¬
stitution, I am w7ell satisfied, judging from the expressions
ot favorable surprise made by citizens, visitors and relatives
of soldiers who come in from abroad, and thus see and judge
for themselves. The procuring of pay, pensions, and trans¬
portation for the men while they lie comfortably in the hos¬
pital under treatment, would alone be accomplishing much,
the omission of which wrould cause indescribable suffering,
and loss and anxiety to the disabled soldier.”

“Many within the past four months have reached the
‘ Home ’ in a dying condition. Such have invariably, I be¬
lieve, been carefully watched, their own names, and parents’
or friends’ names and residences obtained and recorded ;

their effects secured, labeled, and stowed away safely. When
thought wise, on account of time requisite to reach this city,
their friends have been informed of all these circumstances
by telegraph. The dead are in all instances afforded a
proper burial in the Government grounds, and each grave
properly designated ; or, if so requested by friends, the
bodies are forwarded.”

“ In June last many of the two years’ regiments went
home, and on their way through this city, their wounded
and sick who were too feeble to go forward with the regi¬
ments, entered our little Hospital. Over 120 have in this
way either stopped, to be subsequently properly disposed of
in General Hospitals, or simply to have their wounds dressed
and eat a meal, to invigorate them for the tiresome railroad
journey before them.” * * * * *

The doors of the Glome’ are open night and day; yet
vigilant watch is kept, not to harbor any man who ought to
be with his regiment, or reporting to some medical officer.
Otherwise, the ‘ Horae ’ would quickly become what of
course there is, as we are ready to acknowledge, apparent
and real danger of its becoming, unless wisely managed,
viz., a philanthropic interference with Army discipline , plead¬
ing its humanity as an excuse for its intrusion. To unite
tender kindness and cordial welcome with the exercise of a
discriminating judgment, and often stern authority, is not
easy ; but I believe that in our Special Relief work the
presence of the one does not exclude the working of the
other, and that not the soldier only, but the army, is the
stronger because of the ‘ Home.’ The name of every man
who enters there is recorded, his papers examined, and how
he came there, found out. Whenever there is a doubt
about the man, a thorough investigation of his case is at

■■j

once made, which sometimes results in turning over to the
military authorities deserters, and men who think that
within the walls of a charitable institution they can find a
ready shelter for a mean shirking of duty.

I enter this record because it is needed to answer the
honest objection which, on the ground of its “tendency to
weaken military discipline,” might he made to the funda¬
mental principle on which the Special Eelief work of the
Sanitary Commission is based, and on which the “Homes”
and Lodges, scattered now all over the East and West, are
founded. The authority and importance of military disci¬
pline are not set aside or lost sight of; on the contrary, they
are always rigidly insisted upon. In this work the Sanitary
Commission, as the representative of the people at home,
seeks to do precisely what it believes would gladly be done
— were it right or possible to enter into this kind of work —
by the military and medical authorities themselves, under
the administration which the people all so cordially desire
to support.

To turn again to the records of the Home:

Humber of different individuals received there from

December 15, 1862, to October 1, 1863 _ 7,187

Humber of nights’ lodging furnished _ 26,523

Humber of meals furnished _ _ 65,621

Almost all the men received here have been men dis¬
charged from the service on account of disability — wounds,
or continued sickness. Of these, one-half at least were de¬
layed in the city on account of imperfections in some of
their discharge papers, the final statements, on which to
chaw their pay, requiring’ often a number of days for their
correction.

735

21,325

242

Pins, papers .

Envelopes .

Ink, bots . 320

Paper, writing, rm (1,392 qr) 58

Pencils . 5,328

Penholders . 1,288

Pens . B288

Oakum, lbs . 1,300

Pipes . 4,000

Chloroform, lbs . 540

Spirits Camphor, bots . 45

Cook Stoves and fixtures .... 12

Wall Tents, &c . 17

Sand Paper, quire . 1

Can Openers . 9

Twine, lbs . 492

Corkscrews . 40

Scissors, prs .

Pepper Boxes .

Saleratus, lbs .

Pepper, lbs .

Tin Pans, for washing dishes.

Salt, lbs . ]>48^

Oranges, boxes .

Camp Kettles . ^

Frying Pans .

Adhesive Plaster, rolls . 44

Nutmeg Graters . 4

Camp Stools .

Baskets .

Lumber, ft .

Straw, lbs . 16>°°°

China Plates . f *

Oil Cloth, yds . f“

Cathartic Pills . 20C

°prandcamP:piii;:::::Soo

Smoked tongues .

Eubber Blankets . 22 *

Open Links . 2'^

Feed Troughs .

Splints, boxes . jj

Matches, gross .

Eubber Cloth, yds . bb2

Morphine, . .

White Flannel, yds .

Chloride of Lime, lbs . L

Ligature Silk, lbs .

Haversacks .

Blouses .

Hospital Car Loops .

Water Coolers .

Bromine, lbs .

Patent Lint, lbs .

Dressing Forceps .

Tacks, papers .

Wire, yds .

Door Mats .

Needles, gross .

Mutton Tallow, lbs .

Sheeting, piece .

Eefrigerator .

Stove Boilers .

Chlorinium, boxes .

Clothing, boxes .

Locking Chairs .

Cider, bots .

Faucets .

1 Augurs .

Pump .

Canteens .

Blacking, boxes .

Sardines, “ .

Paper Bags .

Washing Machines .

Blank Books .

Ice, tons .

Copperas, bots . .

Chloride Soda, bots .

Medicine Chests .

Siove Brushes .

Salt Pork, bbl .

Stew Pans .

Broilers .

Frying Pans. . .

Fresh Beef, lbs .

“Four- horse Wagons, with
harness, whips, extra wliif-

fletree, &c., complete .

“ Two horse Wagons,” do.
Horses . . .

870

150

100

224

362

300

12
9 i\
12
3
2
6
1

2,200

156

The following named stores were sent from New York, and
stored in Baltimore. About one-third of these were loaded on
board the Ridley , and taken to Norfolk, in tow of the Kent.

4,291 galls. Pickled Tomatoes.

51,812 lbs. Canned Tomatoes.

1,106 galls. Curried Cabbage.

671 bbls. Dried Apples.

15,168 galls. Sour Kraut.

4,162 “ Pickles.

3,580 “ Pickled Onions.

12,060 lbs. Apple Pulp.

2,400 boxes Portable Lemonade.

1 tub Apple Butter.

1 doz. Ginger Wine.

Yery respectfully,

Your ob’t servant,

Wm. A. PIoyey,

Assistant to Associate Secretary,

Eastern Department.

buildings, and giving such army rations at this Lodge as we
can use for these men advantageously with our other sup¬
plies.

The object of the whole thing at this Lodge is this, viz :
so to supply to the discharged soldier close at his hand and
without a cent of cost, all that he needs food, lodging,
assistance in correcting his papers, aid in looking up his
claims, help in obtaining his pension and his bounty such
that there can be no excuse or opportunity for the soldier
to put himself or be put into the hands of claim agents and
sharpers, or to go out and expose himself to the temptations
of the city.

To secure this end, every man who comes to the pay¬
master with his discharge, at once receives a ticket insuring
him care and a helping hand ; and by an arrangement with
the paymaster, whenever a man appears there with defective
papers, he is at once referred to the Relief Office for assist¬
ance or advice. The work at this offi.ce occupies tlnee pei-
sons constantly, besides those who go with cases that have
to be looked up personally at the hospitals or with the regi¬
mental officers in the field, and cannot be arranged by cor¬
respondence.

To indicate something of the kind of work done here, I
make the following extract from the report of Mr. J. B.
Abbott, who has served most faithfully and efficiently as
Assistant Special Relief Agent, with his office at Lodge Ro.
4. and upon whom almost the entire responsibility in this
department for the past year has rested :

“ At this office, from January 1st to October 1st, 1863,
the number of discharged soldiers whose accounts against
the Government have been settled through our assistance,
men who were too feeble to attend to settling their own ac-

counts, or who were unable to obtain their pay, because of
some charge against them on the pay-rolls, or some errors
in their papers, 2,130.”

Information and directions have been given relative to
settling pay accounts, collecting arrears of pay, extra duty
pay, commutation money to about 9,000 men.

The aggregate , value of the 2,130 cases amounted to
$130,159.01. This amount was collected and paid to the
soldiers through this office.

But for the gratuitous aid thus afforded these soldiers dis¬
charged from the service, disabled by wounds or worn down
by long marches and exposure in the field, or enfeebled by
disease, anxious to get home, would have applied to “ Claim
Agents” for aid in obtaining speedily their dues from the
Government, submitting willingly to pay a commission
ranging from ten to forty per cent. These agents, with
some rare and admirable exceptions, in four cases out of
every five, impede the settlement of accounts instead of
facilitating them.

Taking ten per cent, as an average, which is the lowest
commission usually charged by Claim Agents, the amount
saved to the soldiers in adjusting the 2,130 cases of which
a record has been kept, is shown to be $13,015.90. Add to
this ten per cent, of the probable aggregate value of the
9,000 cases in which information and directions have been
given, (for in most of these cases the soldiers would other¬
wise have gone to Claim Agents,) and the amount saved to
the soldiers through the Commission by this office is shown
to be at least $70,000 during nine months ending Septem¬
ber 30th.

The number of letters written in adjusting the above

cases of sufficient importance to make a copy necessary,

9 904

Many of tlie cases have been very difficult to adjust, re-
quiring several weeks to complete them. Below X add
extracts of two or tliree cases from a clay’s record of the
Journal, which will show in detail the character of the
cases we adjust, and the difficulties met with in completing
them.

“ Sergeant Edward W. M. Passage, Company F, 16 th Reg’t
Mich. Vols. Enrolled at Plymouth, Mich., m July, lfebl, to
serve three years or during the war. ‘ Discharged by reason
of a Surgeon’s Certificate of disability, given at Convalescent
Camp, April 80th, 1863.’ The Commander of the Post being
unable to obtain from his Company Commander his descriptive
list, the date of last payment could not be given 111 Ins 1 final
statements, nor his clothing account, except the amount ($3.60)
of extra clothing drawn at Convalescent Camp. Left ins reg-
iment in June, ’62, just previous to the battles before Richmond,
bavin" fallen a victim to the malarial fever ; was put into one
of the corps hospitals for a few days, and then sent to Fortress
Monroe, where he remained a short time. He was then tians-
ferred to General Hospital in Philadelphia. In this Hospital
he received a furlough for thirty clays, and went home to De¬
troit Michigan. At the expiration of his furlough, being
unable to report back to Philadelphia, he imported, as soon as
lie was able, to the nearest military post, bt. Mary s General
Hospital, Detroit, Michigan ; but not aware of the proper form,
did not notify the surgeon in charge of the Hospital m i hiladtl-
phia, where he received his furlough ; consequently he was
marked ‘ deserter’ and so reported to his Company Commander,
who has borne him as a ‘deserter’ upon the suosequent pay-

“ While in St. Mary’s Hospital, having partially recovered
his health, he received papers from Michigan authorizing him
to recruit men for the service, at the same time receiving a
furlough for twenty days, which was twice extended twenty
days ° At the expiration of his furlough extensions he reported
to the commander of the Military Barracks at Detroit, who
reported him for duty and forwarded him to Washington.
From Washington he was sent to Convalescent Camp, and
there pronounced unfit for military duty and discharged horn
the service.”

“ This man was not aware that he was marked a * deserter ’
till he applied to the Paymaster General to get indorsed upon
his final statements the date of his last payment. Then lie
was informed that he was entitled to no pay, being borne ‘a
deserter ’ upon the pay-roll. He denied the charge, and was
referred by the Chief Clerk to this office for assistance in get¬
ting the eharge removed.

“ We obtained a certificate from the surgeon or physician
who attended him after the expiration of his" furlough until lie
reported to St. Mary’s Hospital, stating that during this time
he was unable to report because of disability. This certificate
was given under oath before a Notary Public. Certificates
were also obtained, one by one, from the several military posts
where he had been, covering his time from the date he was
marked a deserter to the date of his discharge. Upon these
certificates we got the charge removed and secured his pay.”

“Wm. Benty, private, Company F, 16th Regiment U. S. In¬
fantry, enlisted at Clayton, Iowa, November 6th, 1861. ‘Dis¬
charged on a surgeon’s certificate of disability,’ given at Camp
Parole, Annapolis, Md., April 7th, 1868, ‘because of a gun-shot
wound, the ball never having been extracted.’ The wound has
not healed, and it troubles him very much ; he is anxious to get
home ; says he ‘ cares' very little about his pay, if he can only
get home.’ He was wounded at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee,
sent to Hospital, Newport, Kentucky, where he remained nearly
three months. The surgeon considered him unfit for military
duty, and was willing to give him a discharge, but could not,
as he could not obtain his descriptive list. At his own request,
the commander of the post gave him a pass to go to his regi¬
ment, then in Northern Alabama, to get his descriptive list.
On his way back he was taken prisoner by guerrillas, (this was
about the 22d of August, 1862,) his money and effects taken
from him, and his papers destroyed. He was sent to Chatta¬
nooga, thence to Macon, Georgia, and after nearly two months’
confinement, was sent to Richmond and paroled on the 18th of
October, 1862. At the expiration of his pass, given by the
commander of the post at Newport, Kentucky, he had been
marked a ‘ deserter,’ (as nothing had been heard of him,) and so
reported to his commanning officer, who marked him a ‘ desert¬
er ’ upon the regimental pay-rolls.

“We obtained a certificate from the Commissary General of
paroled prisoners, giving the date of his capture and parole,
gathered up one by one all the important facts of the case, and
forwarded them to his company commander, so that at length
we obtained a certificate certifying that the man had been

wrongly marked a ‘ deserter.’ Upon tins evidence, the charge
,vas removed, and his pay secured, amounting to nearly one

hundred and fifty dollars. . » Af

“ This man we furnished transportation home, from money of
the ‘ Ware Fund/ and when his account was settled, we tor-
warded him a draft for his money.’

“ George Poole, Company K, 3d Maryland Yols., enrolled in
Company C, Baltimore Light Infantry, in Dec., 1861 ; he was
subsequently transferred to Company L. In June, 186^, the
Baltimore Light Infantry was consolidated with the 3d Indiana
Yols Ho was put into Company K, a new company formed at
the time of consolidation. Discharged on a surgeon s. certifi¬
cate of disability, given at Convalescent Camp ; claims pay
from the 28th of Feb., 1862, to the date of his discharge, ex¬
cept for the months of January, February March and April
1863 for which months he was paid, except from the -9th ot
January to the 19th of February ; for this period his pay was
deducted, he being marked a ‘ deserter. I obtained an official
certificate showing that he was not a deserter for this penod,
and got the charge removed, which entitles him to the amount
deducted from liis pay. To secure his back pay or get it en¬
dorsed upon his final statements, we were obliged to get state¬
ments from rolls in the 2d Comptrollers office, 2d Auditor s
office and offices of two regimental paymasters, besides exam¬
ining several rolls in different accounts on hie at the Paymaster-
General’s office, to verify his statement, or to obtain evidence
that lie was really entitled to the pay which he claimed.

<< Having shown satisfactory evidence to the Pay Department
that lie was entitled to the pay which he claimed, it was en-
dorsed upon Ids final statement, and liis money secured, amount-

ing to $186.85.”

“ IVc are daily adjusting sucli cases as the above, and some
more complicated, which, except for the aid afforded by the
Commission, would have been placed in the hands of claim
ao-ents before referred to, tv-bo usually charge m such cases from
050 • or the soldiers would have disposed of tlieu claims
to some sharper for a passage home, as many of these men are
vorv willing to do, after having been confined in hospitals loi
months, and anxious to reach their friends ; and in such, cases
the man leaves with the word 1 deserter affixed to him.

r. vJq arc o-rcatly indebted to tlic uniform kindness, consider¬
ation, and co-operation that lias invariably been extended to
>is bv the officers and clerks of the various Government offices

with whom wc have had business to perform. T desire espe¬
cially to mention the names of E. Id. Brooks, Esq., Chief Clerk
Paymastei Ccneial s office, and Major D. Taylor, Paymaster of
discharged soldiers.”

/’In submitting this. report, I desire to bear testimony to the
faithfulness of my assistants, and their constant interest in the
work.” * * * # * * * * *

Lodcje iVo. 5, near Gth St. Wharf. This was a small build¬
ing, but it has rendered valuable service, giving food and shel¬
ter to sick and wounded men arriving on the boats from Aquia
Creek, and furnishing food to be carried into such boats as,
loaded with wounded, had no adequate provision for feeding
the men on board.

An ambulance was stationed at this Lodge to take men to
the Home, or to Hospitals : the Superintendent of the Lodge
visited every boat immediately on its arrival at the wharf, und
rendered all assistance and gave all needed information to the
sick or wounded, taking those unable to walk in ambulances,
and guiding the others to the horse cars, and furnishing them
with tickets to go to the Paymaster’s Office, or to the Home, or
elsewhere, as the case might be.

There was one week, at the time of the breaking up of the
Corps Hospitals near Aquia Creek, when we gave coffee and
food to over five thousand (5,000) men on board the boats which
arrived at the wharf.

The boats came up in such rapid succession, that with all the
efficiency of the Medical Director, (and surely no man in the
whole Medical Department — I am safe in saying — docs or can
more fully and admirably unite wise and energetic efficiency
with kind and generous humanity, than does Dr. Abbott, the
Medical Director at Washington,) with all his promptness in
having his entire train of ambulances at the wharf waiting
nigh t and day, it was simply impossible but that many of these
men, numbered by thousands, should be detained often some

hours before their turn would come to be removed. Mean¬
time they needed just the care we were ready to give to

them.

This necessity existed, as is seen, from no oversight in hav¬
ing all reasonable Government provisions made.

And in this connection I may fitly refer, both for the sake of
•justice to the Medical Department, and as an apology foi oui
own existence, to the frequent inquiry uttered, often in a tone of
censure, how it is possible, if the Medical Officers do their duty,
that there can be any opportunity even for this supplementary
work of relief.

The question shows utter ignorance of the terrific weight of
work of the most complicated and delicate character, which the
officers of the Medical Department have upon their hands, and
of their constant liability to be called upon at any moment to
meet great and unexpected emergencies. The fact is simply
this : that while the Medical Department has made a larger
and wiser provision for the comfort of the sick and the
wounded than the world ever before saw, there is not, and can¬
not be, a minuteness of detail and a waiting at every corner to
give to a fainting soldier a cup of water, such as friends at
home in their anxious love ask for. Yet this work needs to be
done, and therefore we, who are simply the hands to the peo¬
ple’s heart and bounty, do the work. But if the Medical De¬
partment were to attempt it in all its minutiae of detail, their
power for their own hundred-fold greater work would be weak-
ened in a way that would find no justification.

But to return from this digression : this Lodge, No. 5, was
removed a month since to Maryland Avenue, near the R. R.
Station, where it is doing the same work for the sick or
wounded arriving by cars from the army, which was formerly
done on the wharf, for those arriving by boats.

The H1l0h,n,Tber<-0fnif'ltS’ lodging furnished at

Meals b ldlng’ from Jan- lst t0 Oct. 1st . l620

Closely connected with the work at the Relief Station in
Maryland Avenue, is the Lodge at Alexandria, located within
the stockade, near the railway track and junction, where all
the cars to and from the army stop. Here there is a Lodo-o
10 feet by 90, with an L 24x32, furnished with all conveniences
of gas and water, and admirably arranged and conducted by
Mr. James Richardson, Special Relief Agent. Alexandria is
now the “ Gateway of the Army of the Potomac,” and whenever
a train of sick or wounded is coming in, a telegram is sent in
advance from the front, and when the train arrives at this point,
food is ready for them and distributed among them while the
train is waiting. Here, too, are often gathered at night sick
men who arrive too late to go on to Washington, or who are
unexpectedly delayed. A sign upon the office of Col. Devereux
reads, “ All sick, wounded, and invalid soldiers are requested
to report to the Sanitary Commission Lodge.”

The necessity for the existence of this Relief Station is indi¬
cated by the fact that during the first week after it was opened.
ir761 meals were given here.

In January last “The Nurses’ Home” was opened, under the

care of Mrs. Dr. Caldwell, in Washington, near the Special
Relief Office.

The Nurses’ Home has proved a source of immense relief to
nurses arriving in the city, and to those worn down by service
at the hospitals and needing a few days of quiet and rest, and
also to the wives and mothers, and sometimes daughters, of
soldiers, who have come on seeking their husbands, or sons, or
fathers, in the various hospitals. Wc have had a very large num¬
ber, during the past two months, of this latter class to care for,
who utterly ignorant of the cost of the journey, and of obtain-

ing board and lodging, even for a day or two, in tlie city, were
utterly destitute and helpless. A number who were weary and
almost broken-hearted have been received here at a home. A
number of refugees, also— mothers and little children— have
been received here and warmed and clothed. This has pro\ ed
in its working one of the kindest charities of the Commission.

Since the “ Nurses’ Home” was opened, in January, the total
number of nights’ lodging given here has been .

Meals furnished . . •••••••• . lion

Number of different women sheltered . to "no

Total cost to Commission . }j’oUU

In regard to the Tree Pension Agency, I make the following
extract from the Report of Mr. Bascom, the Director :

“The Pension Agency of the Sanitary Commission com¬
menced its work on the 10th of February, 1868, and up to this
date (Oct 1st) 985 applications for invalid pensions have been
made from this office, and the necessary papers filed in the
Government Pension Bureau.’'*

The Agency has proved a beneficent one to the soldiers m
many ways.

1 “ It has saved to them already an aggregate expense of
more than six thousand dollars, ($6,000,) and at the same rate
will save in a year over ten thousand ($10,000.)

2. “It has rescued them from imposition, annoyance, and a
great amount of trouble, in ascertaining in what way to procure

their pensions. on. , 1 , •

3 “ It has aided a considerable number of soldiers to obtain

complete testimony to sustain their claims after their regularly
appointed and paid attorneys have refused, unless with addi¬
tional fees, to procure essential evidence.

4. “ It lias also come to the relief of several who had em¬
ployed and paid attorneys whom the Pension Office has refused,
on account of some misconduct, to recognize as attorneys in

it Finally, the Agency has been of no small service^ to the
Government, in procuring and forwarding all the testimoney
bearin'*’ upon the claim— that which makes against a case, as
well as that which makes for it. In this way it will undoubt-

.'J

edly save many hundreds of dollars to the Government in a
moderate length of time.”

Agency for getting Back Pay for Soldiers in Hospitals. —It
was found that very many soldiers in hospitals had various
amounts of back pay due them, which their families sorely
needed, but which was so tied up, that it could not be collected
without an amount of investigation and labor which the pay¬
masters had no right to bestow upon undividuals.

An agent of the Commission, authorized by the Paymaster
General’s Chief Clerk, has entered upon the work of obtaining
the necessary information in each case, so as to enable the
Chief Clerk to furnish to the man a certificate of the pay due to
him, that he may draw his money upon it.

The report of Mr. Neal, the agent of the Commission, shows
that in Stanton Hospital alone, during the first week of his
work, the back pay of fifty-six men was thus collected. Some
of it had been due six or eight months, and the men had been
mustered and paid for intermediate months, leaving this which
was due in the position of an old debt. The total amount of
money thus put into the hands of these fifty-six men (almost
every dollar of which, as I learned, was sent to their homes by
the chaplain,) was over $3,000. The detail of this work in¬
volves much painstaking labor, but its results amply repay for
the time, expense, and care.

Another agency connected with the Special Relief Office has
been the work of seeking to guard the discharged soldiers
while scattered through the city from being robbed or foully
dealt with. For this purpose during the past six months we
have employed, besides a relief agent, a “ detective,” who visits
the railroad station and all the places of resort, and whose
duty it has been to watch for and bring to justice all persons
who were imposing upon the soldiers, detaining them, leading
them astray, or committing fraud upon them ; and the city is

fall of men wlio are thus lying in wait for the soldier. This
detective, by means which need not be specified, has rendered
great service — and his work is not ended.

The Relief Station and branch of the “ Home77 at “ Conva¬
lescent Camp,77 Alexandria, near Fort Albany, is still under
the care of Miss Amy M. Bradley, formerly matron of the
“ Home.77

The whole work is managed efficiently and with great suc¬
cess. She has the confidence and co-operation of all the offi¬
cers in charge of the camp, and daily she comes with ambu¬
lances into Washington, to the Paymaster's Office, and to the
“ Home77 and railway station, bringing the sick and discharged
men who have been receiving her care.

Miss Bradley 7s report of the past nine months7 labor in this
camp of some five thousand men, shows what an amount of
work can be done, relief afforded, influence exerted, by one
individual thoroughly in earnest, and with resources at

hand.

Tickets directing the bearer to call at the Sanitary Commis-
sion Lo dge, for such articles as the surgeon may specify, are
put into the hands of all the surgeons and officers m the camp,
and as occasion calls these tickets are filled out and given to
the invalids who need supplies. In this way, since June 1st,
(four months,) Miss Bradley has distributed from the stock kept
constantly on hand, some four thousand of shirts, drawers,
socks, &c., besides some 10,000 smaller articles, such as towels,
liankerchiefs, slippers, and the like. Previous to April, at
which time regular hospitals were first established here, Miss
Bradley, in hospital tents attached to the Lodge, attended to
the very ill, receiving there during that time one hundred and
twenty-five sick men.

She accompanied to Washington to the Paymaster’s Office
during four months, and assisted many of the more feeble in

getting their pay, discharged soldiers whose united pay
amounted to over $100,000.

In the camp she visits and writes letters for the sick, and in
all ways practicable ministers “ special relief.”

It has been a good work, and I may fitly mention, that under
the wise executive management of Lieut. Col. McKclvev, the
name “ Convalescent Camp” no longeris associated with suffer¬
ing, but is synonymous with care, comfort, and kind and liberal
provision for all that the convalescent soldier needs.

The cost to the Commission of maintaining Special Relief
work in Washington and vicinity, from Dec. 25th, 1862,
to Oct. 1st, 1863, has been about $24,585. This does not in¬
clude nine hundred and eighty dollars used from the “ Ware
Fund,” so called, money placed in my hands for purposes which
do not so legitimately come within the original work of the
Commission, but which yet have an earnest claim. Thus with
that money we have sent to their homes discharged soldiers
who were destitute, or almost entirely destitute, of means : —
many fathers, mothers, and wives of soldiers ; — some families
of refugees who come to us in the saddest condition of want,
and army nurses from the front, sick or worked down by de¬
voted labor.

Could I give a simple picture — in one group, as they pass
before me — of all the porsons who have been helped by the few
hundred dollars, entering with their anxious faces, their camp-
worn or travel-worn garments, some in mourning, some very
aged and bowed down, and some as little children, it would be
a picture that with warm breath would breathe a blessing,
which could be felt by the very heart of all those who have
furnished the means for these additional charities.

Leaving Washington, we come next to Annapolis; here,
in July last, a “Ilorne for nurses, mothers, wives, and rela¬
tives of sick soldiers” was established, similar in its objects

and methods to the “Nurses’ Home” in Washington. It
has met an evident need, and given to many wives and
mothers, who came among strangers seeking their sick
husbands and sons, the shelter and welcome of a home.
During the past two months the number of meals furnished
there has been 2,847 ; the number of nights’ lodging 569.
There have been as many as twenty-five women who found
their rest here in a single night. The “Home” is conve¬
niently located, with an experienced matron in charge, and
is performing a kind mission.

At Baltimore there has been a Special Relief Agent, who
has taken in hand the defective papers of discharged men,
aided in collecting their pay, obtained transportation for
those without means, and in general given “aid and com¬
fort” to those needing it. His assistant, with great faith¬
fulness, has visited every boat which has arrived from
Fortress Monroe since the 1st of June last, and every train
of cars from Washington or from the West, looking after,
protecting, directing any soldiers who seem to need assist¬
ance. Ilis record book shows that he has thus given aid,
more or less, to 4,627 from June 1 to October 1, of whom
he has taken over 2,000 to the “ Union Relief Rooms” of
Baltimore, where they have received meals and lodgings
with kindly care.

In Philadelphia there has been much done by the “Wo¬
man’s Pennsylvania Branch U. S. Sanitary Commission” in
the way of Special Relief, although the admirable local
organizations of the city left comparatively a small amount
to be done in that direction, excepting the work of helping
the families of soldiers. The “Free Pension Agency” of
the Philadelphia Branch cf the U. S. Sanitary Commission,
under the efficient management of Mr. Ashman, has been

doing a most valuable service. Up to the present date Mr.
Ashman has made out the pension papers for over one
thousand applicants, and with painstaking care investigated
and successfully followed out many peculiarly complicated
cases. lie also, without cost, collects all “ claims” for dis¬
charged soldiers. Hotices of this office and its aid aro
posted in the hospitals in that vicinity, and endeavors are
made to secure its benefits to all discharged soldiers need¬
ing such assistance as it renders.

In Hew York whatever Special Relief work has fallen
upon the Commission has been attended to by the “ Wo¬
man s Central Association of Relief.” With occasional ex¬
ceptions, this work has consisted in judiciously assigning
the applicant for aid to such existing Relief Association in
the city as his case pointed to ; or if more immediate as¬
sistance was needed, as clothes and transportation, such
have been furnished. The local provisions in Hew York
for assisting disabled soldiers are large, embracing the
“ Hew England Rooms,” and the State Institution — “ The
Hew York Relief Association.”

The following report from Boston will show the methods
adopted there, and the results which have followed.

It is to be considered that this Relief work in Boston was
not started until March last, its need until then hardly
being acknowledged, yet the absolute necessity for its ex¬
istence has been asserted by its results every day since. 1
make mention of this fact and insert the report in full, in
order to set an example and give the suggestion to the va¬
rious large cities throughout the land, and I would ask
whether the associate members of the Sanitary Commission
in such cities and large sea-coast or inland towns might not
wisely and humanely establish uIIomes” on a smaller or
4

broader scale, as the case may be. At least they should, 1
am sure, carefully inform themselves of the nature of the
needs in their midst, and the methods in detail by which
those needs are to be met.

F. 1ST. Ivnafp, Special Relief Agent

U. S. Sanitary Commission , Washington, D. C. :

My Dear Sir: I submit herewith a brief Deport relating
to the Special Kelief service of the Sanitary Commission in
Boston.

This service was organized in the month of March, 1863,
under the direction of an executive committee, appointed
for the purpose by the resident associate members. The
establishment, which is located at No. 76 Kingston street,
is in charge of a superintendent and assistants, and has
been administered with the following results :

From the date of its organization to October 1, 1863, a
period of about six months, aid has been rendered to 3,050
soldiers, classified as follows :

Furnished with transportation at Government rates-- 1,091
« “ “ paid by Commission-- 142

“ “ by Quartermaster - 450

“ carriage within the city - 875

u special attendance to their homes - 71

“ lodging - — - 1,407

“ meals — (No. of meals, 4,129) - 1,938

44 clothing — (No. of garments, 489) - 260

“ aid in arranging papers - 96

“ “ obtaining pay - 91

Ci medical advice - 322

Wounds dressed - - - - - 155

Procured commutation of rations - - - 73

Loaned money— (amount, $10 02) - - - 19

Gave money — (amount, $9 08) - - - 28

Sent to Hospital - - - 60

Deferred to local Delief Association - 25

Ft i listed -

Obtained Pension
Procured Coffins -

Total - - - - 3;050

The recipients are thus classified in the order of States :
Massachusetts, 1,480; Maine, 926; New Hampshire, 210;
Vermont, 31; New York, 54; Pennsylvania, 12 ; Ohio, 41;
Bhode Island, 9; Maryland, 2; District Columbia, 7; Lou¬
isiana, 2; Illinois, 5; Iowa, 4; Minnesota, 5; California, 1 ;
Connecticut, 6; U. S. Army, 70; U. S. Navy, 26; Invalid
Corps, 45; Kansas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, Dela¬
ware, Alabama, and Bobel army, 1 each.

The following articles, drawn from the Supply Depart¬
ment of the N. E. Woman’s Auxiliary Association, have
been used in furnishing the rooms and for distribution:

Bedquilts, 13 ; blankets, 13 ; sheets, 124 ; pillows, 56 ,
pillow-cases, 63 ; bed-sacks, 12 ; flannel shirts, 70 ; cotton
shirts, 48 ; socks, 218 prs. ; towels, 78 ; slippers, 62 prs. ;
old shirts, 51; cotton drawers, 106; dressing-gowns, 1;
flannel drawers, 42; handkerchiefs, 60; slings, 16; flannel
shirts, 24; one lot bandages and old pants; six tin cups
and 2 water-pails.

I am unable to furnish you at present with an exact state¬
ment of the cost of the service for the last three months,
ending October 1, but hand you herewith a full statement
of expense account for the three months ending July 1,
1863, which period includes the first outlay for furnishing
rooms, &c.

For the three months ending July 1, 1863, the total ex¬
penditure, covering the whole cost of the service, was

$1,962 17, classified as follows :

For furnishing Rooms - $464 51

“ Hospital - - - - 254 82

For Rent and Taxes -

u Salaries - -

“ Advertising - • - - -

a Printing -

“ Stationery - -

Traveling Expenses -

Postage -

Superintendent’s Current Expense Account -

Miscellaneous - - - -

118 50
863 59
185 00
49 00
70 71
45 00
8 00
820 03
83 01

Total _ $1,902 17

Eor this period of three months the number of soldicis
who received the aid of the Commission was 837.

Deducting from the total expenditure the first necessary
outlay for furnishing rooms, $719 33, as shown in above
statement of account, and as distinguished from the ordi¬
nary current expenses, the cost per soldier is shown to be as
837 to 1,342.84, or about $1 45 each.

Permit me to add that abundant evidence has been
afforded that this service of the Commission, as already
administered in Boston, has been attended with the most
beneficent and gratifying results.

I am, my dear sir,

Very sincerely yours,

JOHN S. BLATCIIFORD,
gec'y of Boston Ex. Com. Sanitary Com.
Boston, October 1, 1863.

I pass now from the North to the West. The Special
Relief work at the West, at three or four points, was estab¬
lished a year and more ago by the Branches of the Sanitary
Commission; while at other points this work had not until
vffthin six or eight months its special place assigned to it,

but it came in connection with the General Relief work
of the Commission. I have not the reports in full which
would enable me to give the details of all these Lodges and
Homes at the West I will speak of their methods and
their work in general terms, giving the gross results of their
labors, with such extracts as are at hand.

In general terms, then, the same Special Relief work is
done at the West by the Commission and its Branches
which has been described in detail at Washington; modified,
of course, at each point, by the circumstances of the case.
Thus, at one point there is no occasion for the correction of
papers, but the largest occasion for shelter and care; at one
station there is no call for clothing and nursing, but the
loudest call for nutritious food; at one section a Home or
Lodge has no place, in another section its open doors are
like open arms to those ready to perish.

And thus, according to the needs which were to be met,
have been the methods and amount of Special Relief
throughout the entire West. And while I cannot furnish the
full detail of this work, I can with great confidence assert,
that throughout the region an immense amount of relief
has thus been given to thousands and thousands of soldiers;
and at all the several points of relief after Lodges have been
established the aid has been given promptly, wisely, and
abundantly. Could the records of these several Lodges and
Homes have been copied, they would, I am sure, make a
living history, telling how much soldiers have to bear,
and yet what kindly helps are at hand to aid in making
their burdens light; how much, with all alleviations, soldiers
have to suffer, yet how nobly and patiently the suffering is
borne ; of weak limbs bound in with strong hearts; of eyes
looking towards home, yet with feet firmly set towards the
camp or battle-field.

I can, however, give in figures the numbers cared for at
these Homes, as indicated by the number of lodgings and
of meals furnished there to October 1st. Part of these
Homes, as I said, have been opened only seven or eight
months— others from nearly the beginning of the war.

The following are some of the figures furnished by Dr.
Newberry, Associate Secretary in charge of the Western
Department of the U. S. Sanitary Commission at Cleveland,
Ohio :

Nights’ lodging furnished
Meals given - - -

2,569

12,227

Home at Chicago, Ill., (opened in July last.)

Nights’ lodging furnished - - -

Meals given - - - -

Heme in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nights’ lodging (about) - - - - -

Meals given -

Home at Louisville, Ky.

Nights’ lodging - - - - -

Meals given (at the Home) - - -

“ " “ (at the Station House) - - -

3,109

11,325

10,000

40,017

17,765

52,080

49,933

Lodge at Nashville, Tcnn.

Nights’ lodging -

Meals given -

4,821

11,909

Home at Cairo, Ill.

Nights’ lodging - - —

Meals given- - -

Lodge at Memphis, Tenn.

Nights’ lodging -

Meals given - -

. 79,550
190,150

2,850

14,780

■-j

This note should be here made : that at Cinci nnati, Loin
isville, and C.dro, many besides invalid soldiers are included
in the numbers of those fed and cared for. At these points
the Home of the Commission drawing rations from Govern¬
ment for the purpose, has at times provided for detached
companies, or parts of regiments, or even whole regiments;
thus meeting the needs which in Wasliigton and elsewhere
are provided for at the “ Soldiers’ Rests,” which are under
the exclusive care of Government. This fact, in part, ac¬
counts for tlie numbers attached to the record of the Homes
at those places, which might seem unaccountably large, if
limited strictly to invalid soldiers receiving care.

The following extracts of reports bearing various dates
will give an idea of the methods and spirit of the work in
the “ Homes ” at the West :

Cleveland, August 15, 1863.

“ At the close of a busy and wearisome day, I have time
for only a word before the mail closes. We have had our
hearts and our hands full in the last tw'enty-four hours, and
many of our ladies have had their first sight of the dreadful
effects of war.

“ Yesterday afternoon at 4 o’clock, the long expected regi¬
ment (4th Massachusetts) arrived. There were nearly a
hundred sick, and all in a very worn condition. The
preparations so long made proved ample, and after two
hours’ merciful work among the hospital cars, and a full
feast set out for the well, the ladies had the satisfaction
of sending the brave boys on their way in a much better
condition than that in which they came to us.

“ Another regiment was telegraphed to be herein two
hours from the departure of the first, and so, at 8 o’clock,
when the 28th Maine came in, there was an abundant meal

spread for tliom, and a fully organized committee of ladie.s
to attend the sick. The hospital cars, five in number, were
crowded with bad cases. All our ladies were down there
and worked like heroines.

“At 10 o’clock at night we left the depot, only to go home
to make fresh arrangements to meet a third regiment at o
o’clock this morning.

“This last regiment, the 47th Massachusetts, has occupied
us all the morning of this beautiful Sabbath, and our hearts
have been sorely tried by the state in which the men were
found. We had very good provision for their reception, and
the well men were abundantly fed. Meantime, the ladies car¬
ried hand basins and towels into the hospital cars. Each sick
man was refreshed by having his face and hands bathed, and
then the tea, coffee, warm gruel, bread and jelly, dried beef,
sponge cake, egg and wine, and stimulants, were dispensed
with lavish hand. One very badly wounded man and the
surgeon, who was veryTll indeed, were carried at once into
our little hospital and carefully tended. Four sick men
wer sent into Camp Cleveland hospital, four also of the
Maine regiment last night.

“ A sad scene, indeed, was the death of one poor fellow
this morning in our little hospital. He was sinking l’ast
when the train came in. Everything was done for him that
kindness or experience could suggest, but he was too far
gone with the exhaustion following a lung fever, and died
almost within sight of his home and family.

“Poor fellow! how hard he tried to speak and to send
some word home. He was a splendid soldier they said, and
when the men of his company filed sadly in to look at his
dead face, and some even kissed his forehead and dropped
their tears upon it, we knew that they felt it hard to leave

their comrade, and harder yet it seemed to frame the sad
story into words that his waiting friends at home might hear.
We have taken every care of the body, and it is to he for¬
warded to-morrow by express.

“I that you would be quite satisfied with the part

our Soldiers’ Aid Society has- taken in the care of the regi¬
ments, and surely it has been a blessed work. It would be
well for the Union cause in Cleveland if we had such calls
made upon our sympathies and our benevolence every week.
You have no idea how nobly our ladies came out to this
duty, nor how richly they were rewarded by the bright faces
of those Yew England boys, as they left the depot, cheered
and refreshed by the care they had received. This last regi¬
ment was peculiarly needy. It had passed every important
point in the night till now, and this half day in Cleveland
was such a blessing to the poor fellows. They numbered
about 700, with 100 at least seriously sick, and nearly all,
indeed, ailing somewhat, and just from the trenches at Port
Hudson. ********

“Yext day the 49th Massachusetts came in, tired, dusty,
and 50 hungry, but there was enough for all, and the sick
were attended in the cars as before.

“ The surgeon was exceedingly careful of his men; knew
at once who was to stay, and we had beds carried out of
our little room to the side of the car. Seven men were
thus brought into the home. The ladies supplied them
with stimulants, and at 8 o’clock they were ready to go over
to the hospital. One poor fellow fainted before the omnibus
left. He was very sick. They brought him back appar¬
ently dying, but thanks to the motherly care that he re¬
ceived, animation was restored. The Dr. was called, and
pronounced it a bad case — partial paralysis of the throat,

caused by great exhaustion. This morning we found him
well enough to he carried over to the hospital. Our ^u*'ieS
with this regiment were not over till near midnight.

Soldier’s Home, Supt.’s Office,

Cincinnati, Sept. 21, lobo.

“ Dr. J. S. Newberry,

Sec'y West’n Dep’t U. S. Sanitary Commission , Louisville :
Dear Sir : Agreeably to your request, I send you a brief
report of wliat you denominate “ the workings” of the institu¬
tion from its opening May 15, 18(52, to September 1st, 1803.

The number of arrivals have been 40,017, comprising sol¬
diers from every loyal State, varying from one to a regiment
at a time. Some have eaten a single meal and taken then-
departure; others have staid a day, two days, a week; and
of late, whole companies on special duty in this city for

even months.

In addition to the food and shelter here furnished to 1 10
soldier, articles of clothing are given him, from a pair of
shoes to a whole suit. He gets his stationery here, his letter
franked 'when he finds himself without stamps; he gets
various kinds of military information, which saves him
many steps and much inconvenience and vexation.

Discharged soldiers have been greatly benefited and be¬
friended in many ways. Erroneous papers have been re¬
turned to be corrected for them; and when Paymasters
were without funds, their final statements have been cashed
to the full amount and they sent on their way home to their

needy families. . ,

The sick soldier lias been taken here, and Ins immediate

wants and necessities provided for, till he could be better
attended in hospital.

The Committee of the Commission to whom has been
entrusted the management of the Home, have been unceasing
in their efforts to have it come promptly up to every reasonable
expectation ; and there will be no labor done, no sacrifice
made of time and money and personal comfort that will be
looked back upon with more honest pride and satisfaction
than that which has been bestowed on the Soldiers’ Home
of the Cincinnati Branch of the Bnited States Sanitary
Commission.

Very respectfully yours,

G. W. D. ANDREWS, Supt.”

The following extracts from reports of Mr. Morton will snow
the character of work in the Home at Louisville :*

* “Louisville, June 11, 1863.

Dr. J. S. Newberry,

Sec’y West’n Dep’t U. S. Sanitary Commission :

11 Sir : Since the 1st of February, 1863, the number
of men received and cared for at the Home has

been . 10,189

Average number weekly . 599

do do daily . 85

Since the 24th of March I have given attention to the

claims of . . . . . o . . 310

Collected for discharged soldiers in the aggregate. ,$25,064.93
A weekly average of 31 men, and amount of . $2,506.49

‘ I have had frequently to return defective papers for correc¬
tion, and take pleasure in stating that the officers to whom they

* See ground plan of “ The Home,” at end of Report.

have been sent have been 'obliging and prompt in perfecting
and returning them, that the soldier might receive his pay and

resume liis journey homeward.

“When it has been necessary, in the case of defective papers
or otherwise, that the soldier should go on without detention, I
have made advances to facilitate them, and remitted balances
after collections for their account.

“Whole number of deaths since the 1st of February, 12.

“On the arrival of very sick men, friends abroad are notified
promptly, and every attention is given to make them comfort¬
able. Dr. Burch, of Hospital No. 1, has been very kind and
prompt in giving attention to the sick at the Home. In case
of death, all the effects and money of deceased soldiers are pre¬
served and delivered to the properly authorized party or par¬
ties. The dead are decently buried in Cave Hill Cemetery,
-where many of our noble dead sleep side by side. 1 he graves
are numbered, so that friends can find their remains.

“The Home now receives passing troops going to the field, by
brigades, regiments, companies, or parts of companies. We are
making additional improvements, which will be completed in a
few days. The new building is 300 feet long and 25 feet wide,
and when completed, the capacity of the Home will be sufficient
to accommodate a thousand men daily.” *

Soldieh’s Home, Louisville, )
September , 1863. [

“ The Home is now complete in buildings and all arrange-
ments necessary to provide for and take care of all discharged
and furloughed soldiers arriving in the city, who may desire or
require a resting place, attention, or assistance in any way.

“In the Home proper, we have capacity, with bedding and

furniture, to accommodate two hundred, and the station house
attached, furnishes comfortable lodging room for eight hundred
m0re _ and is frequently occupied by regiments and detach¬

ments passing through the city.

For July the whole number of meals given was . 24,907

For August . . . . * • • • f ® . . . 14,319

\Vhole No. of lodgings furnished at the Home, for July, 1,2G0
For August ........ . . . 1,395

“ No record of those lodging in the station house has been
kept.

“ our collections for feeble and disabled soldiers have amounted
to $3,396.73.

“For the comfort and convenience of discharged soldiers arri¬
ving at the Home, and those from other places in the city who
are feeble and require rest while waiting for their pay, rooms
have been prepared in one of its buildings, as an office for a
Paymaster and the accommodation of his clerks, which are oc¬
cupied by Major Camp, Paymaster U. S. A., who is prompt
and obliging in his attention to those having business with
.him.”

« This arrangement has diminished the calls upon us to
make collections for discharged soldiers generally, it being
necessary only to collect for such as are absent, or too feeble
to call directly on the Paymaster and receive payment in
person.

a We continue to give attention to defective discharge pa¬
pers, and have daily calls for assistance in the way of advice.
I am grateful to state that all the employees at the Home
are attentive and prompt in the discharge of their duties,
and so far as I know, universal satisfaction has been given
to those who have enjoyed its hospitalities. *

“From its geographical position, the Home at Louisville

is one of the most important in the United States. Mr.
Morton has furnished us the following report of its work for
the month of October, from which it will be seen that its
sphere is greatly and rapidly enlarging :

Soldiers’ Home,

Louisville, Ky.

Dr. J. S. Newberry, Sec’y Wcst’n Deft U. S. Sanitary Com¬
mission, Louisville :

Dear Sir: I give you below the number of Lodgings and
Meals furnished at the “ Home ” for one month.

Whole number of lodgings -

Meals given at Home -

Meals given at Station House - - - —

Total number of meals given at Home and Station
House - -

4,142

11,926

24,114

86,040

“No account was kept of lodgings in the Station House,
which was filled several nights during the month.”

« Special Eelief Agency, U. S. Sanitary Commission,

Nashville, July 1, 1863,

Dr. J. S. Newrerry,

Serfy West’n Deft U. S. Sanitary Commission , Louisville :
“ Dear Sir : I have the honor to submit the following report
of the operations of this agency, for the quarter ending June
30th.

“ About the middle of March last I was assigned to the
charge of this work. In connection with Dr. Ecad, I at once set
about making arrangements to establish a Soldiers’ Home at
this point. Our effort were kindly seconded by Major General
Eosecrans, who fully apprehended and appreciated all that the
good people of the loyal States, through the agency of the U.
S. Sanitary Commission, are doing to mitigate the privations

and sufferings of the brave men who are carrying their coun¬
try’s flag into the very heart of the bogus Confederacy.

“ Through the kindness of the General, we succeeded' in
having assigned to us a splendid suite of large, airy, well-
ventilated rooms over the passenger depot of the Nashville
and Chattanooga Railroad, and here, on the 26th of March,
1863, we formally opened the “Home.” The objects kept
in view at this agency are the same as those which have
accomplished so much in the Special Relief agencies at
Washington, Cincinnati, Louisville, &c., viz : to furnish to
discharged, sick and furloughed soldiers a resting place and
food ; also, all needed assistance in correcting defective
papers, obtaining pay and pensions, and to see them all
safely on their way to their homes, without charge. In
short, to do all for this class of men that their parents and
brothers could do were they here in person, with abundance
of means and thoroughly acquainted with the work of the
various offices. Thus with a small force, aided by a thorough
system, the Commission is enabled to do for these men what
a great multitude of their personal friends would be utterly
unable to accomplish, were they7 to put themselves to the
expense of a journey and sojourn here.

“By request of General Rosecrans, we have admitted to
the Home only discharged and furloughed soldiers. All
others passing through Nashville, and not under charge of
an officer, are ordered to report to Exchange Barracks,
where they are provided with rations and comfortable lodg¬
ings, and furnished with transportation to their respective
commands. But, although we have not formally admitted
to the Home these detached parties of soldiers, and their
names do not appear upon our books, yet, on arriving at
the depot after a long ride, tired and hungry, we have fre-

quently furnished them with refreshments and a temporary
resting place, and then directed them to the barracks.

“ The following statement exhibits such part of the work
of the agency at this point as can be expressed in tabular
form :

“ There have been admitted to the Home during the

quarter —

Discharged soldiers - 1,050

Furloughed “ - - --.486

Total _ 1,534

“ Distributed among the States as follows : Ohio, 352 ;
Indiana, 388; Illinois, 421; Michigan, 91; Wisconsin, 74;
Tennessee, 31; Kentucky, 109; Pennsylvania, 30; Missouri,,
14; Minnesota, 6; New York, 4; regular army, 3; Ehode
Island, 4; Massachusetts, 1.

Largest number cared for any one day - 127

Average number cared for per day - 46

Number of deaths - 8

Whole number of meals furnished - - 7,457

Whole number of lodgings furnished - 3,064

Defective papers corrected - 79

Number too feeble to go to pay office for whom

I have drawn pay - 211

Amount of money received and paid over -- $12,867 62
Entire cost to the Commision in furniture, fix¬
tures, and current expenses up to July 1--—. $407 72

“We have guides to visit the depots on the arrival of
trains to conduct the men to the Home, where their baggage
is checked, and their names, number of company and regi¬
ment, condition, destination, &c., properly recorded. After
which their papers are carefully examined, and such as are
defective retained for correction. I lose no time in writing
out the necessary corrections to be made and forwarding
them to our agents at Murfreesboro or other points, who

receive them on the arrival of the mail, and at once set out
to the regiments and companies to have the corrections
made. Sets of papers are frequently returned to me from
Murfreesboro corrected on the day they are sent out from
here.

After a soldier has been a long time sick in hospital, and
is at last informed that he is discharged, and his papers are
made out, and he actually starts for home, hut few can ap¬
preciate his sufferings of mind if, through the carelessness
of his captain, or from some other cause, he is compelled to
wait while his papers are sent back to be corrected. Every¬
thing in him is absorbed in the one idea of home. No
pains or labor have, therefore, been spared to enable those
arriving here from the front to go on with as little delay as
possible. In manjr cases of defective papers, when the
necessity was peculiarly urgent, I have made advances of
money to facilitate their homeward passage, and remitted
balances after collecting their accounts. For these favors
I have reaped a rich harvest of reward in witnessing the
evident happiness it afforded the soldiers, and in their grati¬
tude expressed on leaving the Home, and in letters ac¬
knowledging the receipt of amounts forwarded. I enclose
herewith a copy of one such letter just received from a dis¬
charged soldier from Indiana. * * *

Many applications are made for assistance by soldiers and
their friends who are able to attend to their own business,
hut are strangers in the city, and do not know where to
commence or how to go to work.

Many letters of inquiries are received and answered, and
much time is spent in various other ways in the legitimate
labors of the agency, a record of which is not kept, and
which cannot be exhibited in a report of this kind.

The question has often occurred to me, 44 What would
these men have done had it not been for the care taken of
them at the Soldiers’ Home?” It would have cost those
who had defective papers as much to get them corrected a3
the corrections would have amounted to on the aveiage
when made, and then their board while waiting would, in
many instances, have absorbed the balance due them on
their papers.

I believe this agency have saved these men more than
four times as much money in this way as the entire cost to
the Commission in establishing the Home and its current
expenses during the quarter. And then who can compute
in dollars and cents the amount of anxiety and suffering
that we have thus been instrumental in saving.

* * * * * *

Those who have died at the Home have been buried at
the expense of the Government in the Cemetery heie, where
so many of our noble dead who have laid down their lives
in their country’s service sleep side by side, and their
money and effects are sent to the heirs as soon as we can
fret into communication with them.

The thanks of the Commission are due to all the officcis
of the Government through whom this agency has had
business to transact in this city for the cordial good will
with which they have aided us in carrying on the good

work.

Very respectfully,

L. CRANE,

K^pr-inl Volirf Anent, . 77. S. San. CovrCn .

“ The establishment of the Soldiers’ Home at Nashville has
thrown upon us a new branch of work. Almost every day dis¬
charged soldiers reach the Home from this point with papers
so defective that they cannot draw their pay upon them ; some
with papers which would enable them to draw a part only of
that which is justly their due. When this occurs the soldier
remains at the Home and his papers are returned for correction
here. I make it a point, upon the arrival of the train, to have
my horse ready saddled, and my other business so arranged
that I can ride promptly to the regiment or regiments and se¬
cure the correction of the papers in time to return them, if pos¬
sible, by the afternoon train — always by the next day. In
doing this I cannot cease to think of the loss, anxiety, and delay
the soldier discharged from the service must have experi¬
enced at Nashville before this work was assumed and system¬
atized by the Commission, of the sickness of heart which would
well nigh crush out the little life remaining in the sick and
crippled soldier, without money and among strangers, anxious
to reach his home, with the thought, perhaps, that it was only
to die there, when he found his papers were worthless and he
had no one to go to for help. The importance of this work
could never have been fully known, except through the experi¬
ence of doing it.”

11 The answer of letters and telegrams of inquiry from the
Hospital Directory at Louisville, and from friends at home who
communicate directly with this office, has become an important
part of the work here — a work always interesting, often sad
in the information to be communicated. If the hospital records
and the long list of casualties at the battle of Stone River
and subsequent skirmishes afford no positive data for answering
the inquiry or finding the soldier, recourse is had to the officers
of the regiment. At first, reliance was placed upon letters to

the regiments, but the results were far from satisfactory ; and
now, if the regiment is accessible, personal inquiry of the
officers of the company, and an inspection of the company rolls,
is always resorted to if the man cannot otherwise be found.
This work and the correction of discharge papers is doing much
to endear the Commission to the hearts of the soldiery. Here¬
tofore, dealing almost exclusively with the sick and wounded,
the able-bodied soldiery in the field, who really mould the
public sentiment of the army and communicate it to the people
at home, knew but little of the work of the Commission, and
the receipt of one box of stale pound cake and mouldy ginger¬
bread for the well men of the regiment, although calculated to
fill. the hospitals rather than relieve the sick, would occasion
more cordial letters of thanks to the donors than the receipt of
car-loads of purely hospital stores. But now as you visit the
regiments to get the discharge papers corrected, and point out
to the soldier how he ci his comrades can secure all needed
assistance on his way home if discharged, or call around you the
comrades of a missing soldier to gather up all the information
possible and secure any clue which will determine Ins fate, the
constant expression you hear is decided and heart-felt : “ Thank
God that somebody is doing this work for the soldier.”

a A few incidents will illustrate the difficulties and the
interesting character of this part of the work.

“ Eli Gleason, Co. C, 21st Michigan V.I., is inquired for.
ITo satisfactory information being attain a ole here, the iegi-
ment is visited. It is found that he is accounted for on the
muster rolls of his company up to the 31st of December,
from which time his name is dropped and no explanation
given ; but on inquiry among his comrades it is ascertained
that he was wounded in the battle of Stone Diver, taken to
a hospital which was subsequently captured by the rebels,
when he was taken four miles to the rebel rear by a comrade

who was also a prisoner, and is now at Camp Chase, paroled.
There all positive information ends. His wound ought not
to have been fatal, for, although shot in the hip, another
comrade saw him walk without help some twenty rods to
the rear, indicating that it was merely a flesh wound. It is
also stated in the regiment that after the occupation of Mur¬
freesboro by our forces, the name of the soldier, company,
and regiment, was found cut in the wall of a building, but
where they know not. His comrades promise to find its
location, if possible, and report here, when that clue will be
followed up till it fails or leads to a definite knowledge of
the soldier’s fate. Should that simple record, traced by his
own hand, but point to the location of his grave, the friends
at home could hardly refrain from making a pilgrimagp to
the spot. Should it lead to his discovery, yet alive, who
shall give expression to their gratitude ?”

“ An inquiry is made for Henry Hass, Company C, 5th
Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. It is ascertained that Henry
IIoos of that company wTas killed in. the battle of Stone
River, and his body left upon the field occupied by the reb¬
els — that Henry Hess of the same company is with his regi¬
ment, well, and that no Henry Hass was ever a member of
the company. This information is communicated with such
descriptions as will insure identification, carrying joy or
sorrow to the mother who makes the inquiry, according as
it shall be found to have been her son or another’s son,
probably equally beloved, who has fallen.”

Soldiers’ Lodge, Memphis, Tenn.,

'* August 4, 1863.

* * * * “ During the month of July, the

arrivals at the Lodge have been 617. Of these 234 were
discharged, and 218 furloughed soldiers ; number of meals
furnished, 2,011.

« The arrival of a matron about the middle of July has
enabled us to add greatly to the comforts of all, and espe¬
cially of the sick and convalescent. We have also con¬
structed during the month 24 additional bunks, giving us
42 iu all.

“ I am constrained to mention again the amazing ignor¬
ance and carelessness shown in making out the final state¬
ments of discharged soldiers.

The plea that the soldier can return his papers if wrong,
and have them corrected, is often of little practical value. In
this depart ment discharged men are paid at this place. On
his arrival here the soldier learns that his papers are wrong.
If he is able to travel and has money enough to get home,
where ho can wait patiently and safely the return of his pa¬
pers for correction, he suffers only from the annoyance- of
going home with unsettled papers, and possibly from a feeling
of resistance in finding himself under such ignorance and
carelessness that even pecuniary justice is not done him.
But the cases of discharged men with any money in their
pockets are exceptional ones; as a rule the men being both
penniless and sick, or so debiliated that a return to Vicks¬
burg, or the delay here necessary for the return and correc¬
tion of their papers, is at the serious risk [of life. Already
a number have died while waiting for corrected papers—
men, too, who, without doubt, would be living now had
their papers been correct.

“Here are notes of one day’s experience with discharged
soldiers :

“Three men discharged from - ; papers of one wrong;

of two others so made out as to subject them to a loss of
$25 advance bounty, and two months and three days’
clothing allowance ; but three dollars among them, and
regiment left Vicksburg a number of days ago in the expe¬
dition (supposed) against Mobile ; so no chance of getting
papers corrected for weeks ; got Government transportation
for them to St. Louis endorsed on discharge papers.

“ Two other discharged men, same regiment, without a
cent ; papers so made out that they lose $22 advance
bounty, and about one and one half months’ clothing
allowance. Poor fellows, both sick and debilitated, took what
was coming to them and started home. One discharged
man from — — certificate of discharge not dated and state¬
ments altered. I sent papers back and he remains here till
their, return. Found three other discharged men at pay
office ; no money, and papers all wrong. Two discharged
men of the - , from Corinth; one just gone with con¬

sumption, going home to die ; the other sick. Both in
charge of a man from same regiment, furloughed expressly
to go home with them, and under written instructions from
their surgeon to get them home as soon as possible. Both
sets of discharge papers wrong, and not a cent in the party.
Had paid out their last eighty-five cents for food, coming in
from Corinth.

Got Government transportation for all, and gave them a
little money to go home.

“In all, eleven discharged men ; papers wrong, three dol¬
lars in the party, and not one able to carry his knapsack to
the boat, about twenty-five rods.

“I may be pardoned for enumerating some points in which
papers prove wrong.

“ 1. The omission of date of enlistment or enrollment,
which should appear in Final Statements, as well as in cer¬
tificate of discharge.

“2. Omitting to say that the disease or disability for
which the man is discharged was incurred since enlistment,
if such be the fact; or the contrary, if the contrary be the
fact.

“ 3. Neglect to state whether or not the clothing account
was ever settled.

“ 4. Alteration or erasure of dates, day and month, and
of amounts of money.

“ 5. Omitting to state time of discharge, to date certificate
of discharge and Final Statements. ”

* * * * Ht

Soldier’s Lodge, Memphis, Tenn.,

“ Report for one week:

No. of furloughed men admitted this week - 39ts

discharged men admitted this week - i

convalescents going to regiments - 62

recruits going to regiments - 11

paroled men going to regiments - -- - 39

all other classes going to regiments - 42

Total - * - - 559

“ From the States as follows: Illinois, 234; Indiana, 86;
Ohio, 66; Iowa, 55; Wisconsin, 33: Missouri, 29; Michi¬
gan, 15; Kentucky, 18; Minnesota, 6; Regular Army, 4;
Musicians, 3; Kansas, 2; Marine Brigade, 2; Alabama,

Tennessee, Virginia, Signal Corps and Pioneer Corps 1

.Number going from regiments, 39 ; going to regiments,

433; number on detached service, 30; to join Invalid
Corps, 5.

No. of meals furnished during the week _ 3 OQr

lodgings furnished during the week- *4S2

-Largest number cared for in one day _ ” oaq

Average number cared for per day _ 100

No. of deaths _ _ _

sent to the hospital _ r

we procured transportation for _ ~~~ ^

of defective papers we corrected _ 4

aided in drawing pay _ 0

Very respectfully, yours,

C. W. CHRISTY,

Superintendent and Belief Agent

*********

CAIRO.

Reports of a portion of the relief afforded by the Home
at Cairo to 15,345 soldiers of the Union, represent the
States as follows: Illinois, 5,907; Wisconsin, 1,090; Min¬
nesota, 109; Iowa, 1,183; Kansas, 61; Nebraska, 5; Mis¬
souri, 793; Michigan, 835; Indiana, 1,919; Ohio, 2,300-
Pennsylvania, 12; Maine, 2; Kentucky, 315; Tennessee’
58 ; U. S. Regulars, 71 ; not known, 595.

*********

In Dr. Andrew’s report concerning the operations of the
Sanitary Commission, in connection with the battles of
Chickamauga on the 19th and 20th of September, we find
reference to the establishment of the “Mountain Lodge,”
where thousands of sick, aud hundreds of almost dying men,

have since been refreshed in their wearisome way over those

rough mountain roads. He says :

“ On the 28tli ult. I laid the plan for the establishment of
a resting and feeding place on the ambulance route, for the
benefit of the wounded in transitu midway between Chatta-
noooga and Stevenson, before Surgeon Perin, Medical Di¬
rector of the Department. It at once received his hearty
approbation and the promise of every necessary aid. I
readily procured the consent of Rev. O. Kennedy, Chaplain
of the 101st Ohio, an excellent man, with a head, a heart,
and a hand always ready for any good work, to take charge
of the Lodge, and have taken the liberty to appoint him an
agent of the Commission for that purpose. After much
delay and many disappointments lie started with the tents,
stores, and furniture, and we can say with as much certainty
as of any future event, that it will be in complete running
order in time for the next train of wounded men. The de-
% privations and sufferings of those on thb two trains which
have already come over that dreaded passage, have convinced
every one of the necessity of the “ Lodge,” and there is no
room for fear for the future in this regard. It is expected
that each ambulance train will so arrange its movements
as to stop at that point, (where there is an abundance of
wood and water, and where there will be abundance of
wholesome, palatable food, and of kind attention,) for a
good night’s rest.”

Again, in the Sanitary Reporter is the following :

Yrom the “ Mountain Lodge,” near Chattanooga, we have

as yet received no detailed report, and in lieu thereof append
the following from the Cincinnati Gazette :

“ Cincinnati.

“Eds. Gazette: It is not unfrequently stated that the

contributions made by on benevolent citizens to the United
States Commission seldom roach those for whom the dona
tions were really intended. Such statements have a ten'
dency to diminish public confidence, and retard the opera
tions of the Commission. I desire in a public manner to
tcs ,ty to one act of the Sanitary Commission, done at a time
mid place to fully testify to the indispensible benefits that
institution has done to our suffering men.

On the 24th inst. I came over the cheerless and horribly
muddy road leading down the valley of Sequatchie, from
Chattanooga to Stevenson. Major Welsh of the 18th was
with me, and in an ambulance we had Lieut. D B Carlin
a brave aud valuable officer of the 18th, who was slowly re-
covenng from a severe wound received at Chiekamauga.
lhis officer was yet totally helpless, and bad been sent out
from the field hospital with less than a day’s rations to ac¬
complish a march of four days. The country on this route
affords nothing for the subsistence of either man or beast
In this emergency I knew not what to do. The officer as
well as the driver of the ambulance and the officer’s attend-
aut, were likely to suffer severely.

^ At a point just eight miles above Jasper we espied, on the
river bank, three or four hospital tents, and near by a few
smaller tents ; and riding up to one of these, we discovered a
small placard, with the words “ Soldiers’ Home” on it, and we
rejoiced to discover the jolly countenance of the kind-hearted
chaplain of the 101st Ohio Volunteers, now doing detached
duty as agent of the Sanitary Commission in this isolated spot
lor the benefit of the sick and wounded soldiers being: sent to
the rear. °

We stated our case, and were liberally supplied with fruit
crackers, tea, &c., with agood bottle of the best of ale, (Walker’s
best,) and were kindly urged to remain and partake of a warm
supper, lias invitation we were reluctantly compelled to de¬
cline, on account of the lateness of the hour, and the necessity
existing to reach Jasper. This is only one of a thousand sim¬
ilar instances occurring daily everywhere along this line,
i lie fact that this aid, so much needed, reached us when so un¬
expected, made an impression on my mind.

* * ^

Yours,

C. H. GROSVENOR,
Lieut. Col. 18th 0. V. L

5*2

SPECIAL BELIEF WOEK ON THE ATLANTIC COAST.

Ui'til recently, this has not been made there a distinct branch
the work, but has been carried on in connection with the
General Eelief work of the agencies of the Sanitary Commis¬
sion, established at various points on the coast. At Newburn,
Dr. Pagi\ at Port Eoyal and Folly Island, Dr. Marsh, at New
Orleans, Dr. Blake and Dr. Crane have thus had charge of this
service. Eeccntly arrangements have been made for establish¬
ing “ Homes” at all the important points on the coast, including
St. Augustine, to which the sick are now carried in large num¬
bers. Special Eelief agents have gone out, taking with them
all the furniture and material which may be needed ; and in
connection with these “Homes” will be free agencies for
obtaining pay and correcting papers wherever such agencies
can be of service.

The following incident is from the journal of Special Eelief;
it has been printed in a little tract entitled “ The Lord will
Provide,” out is inserted here to illustrate the work we do and
the men whom we sometimes meet with :

Philadelphia, July 1st , 1863.

(Wednesday night. 10 o’clock.)

I want to note down before I forget it, the case of a man
whom I have just been helping on his way home.

I was in the Commission’s Eooms here in Philadelphia, this
afternoon, on my way from Washington, when a soldier came
in with an intelligent but very anxious face, saying that he was

m trouble, and had come to see if he could get advice or assist¬
ance. His case was simply this : Ho was an inmate of a Gen¬
eral Hospital, Washington, (wounded in foot, still very lame,)
had obtained from the surgeon a furlough for thirty days, to
visit his home in Maine, in order to see his wife who, according
to a telegram which he had received, was sick, lying very low°.
With his furlough and transportation paper (an order from the
Government to the railroads along the way from city to city,
to furnish him transportation at expense of Government, but to
be charged in final settlement to the man,) he had left Wash¬
ington and nearly reached Philadelphia, when he discovered
that both his furlough and transportation papers were gone—
probably stolen from his pocket. He had nothing to show in
proof that he was not a deserter, and no means of continuing on
his way to his home. He said the adjutant general at Philadel¬
phia had listened to his case kindly, and had telegraphed to
Washington to get assurance that a furlough had been granted
him. I also telegraphed to our Relief Office to have a messen¬
ger sent out to the hospital, and get assurance that the man had
received a leave of absence, so that the military authorities
here could be authorized in furnishing him with a paper which
would protect him against arrest.

I told the man to come to see me this evening, at the hotel
here, to see if an answer was received to my telegram. He
came in a little while ago, (with a young man who helped him
along), bringing the needed military pass from the authorities
here— based on the answer which had just been received by
the adjutant general to his telegram. (I also, at the same timo,
received an answer at our office, attesting to his furlough.)

As the man was entirely without money, and could not get
another order for transportation, I relieved his anxiety by tell¬
ing him that I would arrange some way for him to get home,
so that he could go by the first train in the morning ; so I

Landed liim ten dollars, and gave to him one of our tickets,
which would show to the railroads and steamboats that he was
entitled to travel at reduced rates of fare, also cards and di¬
rections to the Relief Station in New York, and to the “ Home”
of the Commission, in Boston, where he would be taken care of
kindly on his way without cost. He wished to give me an or¬
der upon his paymaster, at Washington, so that the ten dollars
might be returned, and insisted resolutely upon my receiving
his note of hand for the amount.

After talking a while with him, I found that he was a fellow
of fine, manly spirit, a hard-working man, with no means of
support but his labor, and just now his wife sick, and an aged
mother dependent upon him, and some little children to be
cared for, so I said to him, “ No, I shan’t let you pay that back
again, you have got to receive that as a present from the Sani¬
tary Commission — it is out of some money entrusted to me as
a discretionary fund, so that I can give a helping hand to those
who need a lift on the way home.”

He was much moved by the kindness, and with a look of real
thought and feeling, and with a slow, deep tone of voice, after
some hesitation, looking me full in the eye, he said : “ Now I
will tell you something! and I will tell you just how I take
this. When we got out of the cars last night, after I had lost
my papers, and was so exercised about it, and was almost bro¬
ken down with the idea that I had got to turn back again to
the hospital, at Washington, with no chance of getting to see
my wife at home,— when we got out of the cars, I picked up a
wrapper, which had in it the furlough and transpoi tation pa*
pers of another man ; and, come to look at them, they belonged
to a man whom I knew by sight, as he had been in the sami
hospital with me. I didn’t exactly, at first, know what to d >
with them. I saw that I could use them just as well as not t >
carry me straight home, and no one would be the wiser for i I ;

as they didn’t know my name along the railroads ; and two
acquaintances who were along with me advised mo to do so,
and said that I would bo a fool if I didn’t do it, that. I had
found them, and might never see the owner of them even if I
were to hunt all night after him, and that it was the only chance
' in t,ie world for me to get home for one year at any rate, and
the probabilities were, that unless I went now, my wife might
be gone before ever I reached there.

‘ ^ was a hard trial to me, the toughest time I ever had in
my life, and at first I didn’t know what to do ; but when I
thought about seeing my wife, if I should find her alive, and
having to feel, when I looked at her, that I hadn’t come home in
exactly an honest way, I felt as if she would somehow know it
all, and would tell me she wished I hadn’t come! For one of
the last things she said to me was this: she said, “ You may go!—
I am willing you should go, if you only won’t lose your princi¬
ples! Let me hear that you are killed, or that you have died
in any way, only don’t let me hear that you have ever done what
was wrong !” That’s what my wife said, and my mother said
just the same, and she is a praying woman, and I know that
they both pray for me every day, and have done so every single
day since I went out to the war, ’most two years ago.

“When I thought of that I couldn't keep and use that
man’s furlough and transportation any more than I could
* have died ! and I went and hunted till I found the man, and
gave them to him ; and then I had a feeling somehow come
right over me, that the Lord had got some way ready that
he would provide for me to get home and see my wife ; and
that s just the way that I take this help that you’ve been
giving me; I take it of the Lord’s providing; not but what
I m just as grateful to you, you know, as if I didn’t take it
this way, for I am; but I can’t but look upon it so. You

don't know, yoa never can know what a kindness you have
done me. And now when I come to see my wife, I can feel
that I have a right to have her glad to see me again, for I’m
going to carry back to her, in me, all the principle I had
before I left to go to the war, for honestly I tell you, if I do
say it, who ought not to say it, that I have held on to my
principles just as I would have hung on to my musket if
one of the rebels had undertaken to twist it out of my
hands ; that’s just the way I have hung on to my principles,
more times than one, too, for I’ve had some pretty sharp
temptations come along across my track, first and last, in
these two years. I don’t say I did this always so much for
the sake of doing right, and because I was so dead-set
against doing anything wrong (though I have some ideas of
my own about that), but because, somehow, the sight of my
wife and my children and my mother would always keep
coming up before me, and I couldn’t bear the idea of dis¬
appointing them, and wronging them, and breaking their
hearts, for I know as well as I want to that it would do just
that if I were to go home broken down in my principles,
and with the mean kind of look and way that men always
have when they’ve been doing wrong, and been acting out
of sight of home as they wouldn’t have done if their wfife
and folks had been round.

“I guess I have talked about enough, but now that I’m
on it, I am just going to tell you one thing more, seeing
that you are willing to listen to me so, and that is that what
my wife said to me there when I left home actually made
me dream twice of getting a furlough and going home ;
and the first time they were all as glad as could be to see
me, and my wife was as proud of me as could be, though,
as it seemed in my dream, I had lost one of my legs and

had to go on crutches, and had my face awfully scarred, so
that I had been afraid the children wouldn’t want to come
to me ; but they did, and hung around me all day long,
and the neighbors, too, all came in. But the other time
when I dreamed about getting home, and I thought this
time that the war was all through, I found that my wife
and the children and all looked somehow sad and disap¬
pointed, and though they were very kind to me, and looked
as if they pitied me, it didn’t seem as if they cared as much
for me one half as they used to, or cared to have me with
them, and my wife didn’t seem to want to walk out with
me, though I had got to be a captain, and knew that I
looked like a real soldier; and finally1', when I asked my
wife why this was so, she looked me right in the face, but
didn’t say a word, when it came all over me, how for a
while, the last four months in the army, I had gone off on
a wrong track with some men who hadn’t much principle,
and hadn’t written home as much, or cared as much about
my wife as I used to. And while she was looking at me
this way, and I was trying to hide my face, I all of a sudden
waked up, and I guess that time, after I found it all was a
dream, I guess I was happier than I ever expect to be again
in this world, unless it be next day after to-morrow, if I get
home and find that my wife is still alive. ISTow I hope you
won’t think strange of me for talking so about myself,
’tisn’t my usual way, but somehow you were so kind to me,
and asked so about my wife, that I kept talking on. I’m
not going to thank you again, only I hope sometime or
other to meet you again. I should like so much, when I
get back, to tell you how I found things at home.”

EXTRACT OF ONE DAY’S RECORD FROM THE
JOURNAL OF THE “NURSES’ HOME,” AT WASH¬
INGTON.

Seven women and ten children received to-day. First, a
mother of a soldier; next, a soldier’s wife; three hospital
nurses ; then two wives of refugees, with their children.

The soldier’s mother showed me this telegram to explain
to me who she was, and why she was in the city ; it was
from her son: “Mitchel’s Station, Ya. — lam to be shot
on Friday next — can you do anything for me ?” With this
telegram in her hand she had hastened on from her distant
home by the first train to Washington, to appeal to the
President to save her son. She gathered up and brought
with her such testimonials as she could obtain ; also evi¬
dence of the circumstances connected with her son’s enlist¬
ment. She was a poor woman, but neatly clad, and with
an honest and earnest face, about fifty years old. Her hus¬
band, it seems, was so much shocked by the telegram that
he could not act, so she had to come on. As she came to
the Nurses’ Home, almost utterly exhausted, she looked
like one who had been through a terrible night of darkness,
watching by what seemed a death-bed, but had suddenly
caught sight of a bright gleam of light, for she had already
laid her case before the President, with such testimony as
palliated the act of “desertion” on the part of her boy, and
the sentence of death had been revoked. It seems that some
months ago her son had run away from home to enlist, (he
was but 17 or 18 years old, and his parents had gained no
intelligence of him until a letter came in his handwriting

announcing to his mother that he was in the army and was
to be tried as a “deserter,” hut that there was no danger
but what he should get off. His mother had then written,
asking him to tell her all the circumstances of his enlist¬
ment. The letter which he sent in return his mother
brought on to Washington with her, and as she allowed me
to copy it, I insert it here :

“Dear Father and Mother. — I now take the oppor¬
tunity of writing you a few lines, hoping to find you in
good health. I had got your letter and I read it ; then I
gave it to the Colonel, and I do not know what he will do
with it, but I hope he will not go hard on me. He is a
very severe man when he gets angry, and a very good one
when he ain’t angry. I have been very sick with fever and
a<rue, and I am out in the rain here ever since I have been
caught, without even a tent. All the house we have is a few
limbs of trees. I have the shakes every other day. Where we
are in camp, is a very sickly place, and very lousy. The
lice is taking away our clothes. It ain’t safe to put down
our crackers without we put a stone on them, as the lice
would run away with it. I am now getting along first-rate.
I just now got your letter from home. While I was writing
this letter I received your letter, dear mother, and read it.
And now I will tell you how and where I enlisted. The
day that I left home I was made acquainted with a fellow
named, as he called himself, Captain Cody, and he agreed
to take me to Pennsylvania and get me three hundred dol¬
lars, and I asked him how, and he told me when I got there
I would see. When I got there lie took mo to some house
in South 2d street, as he called it, in Philadelphia, and we
stayed there that night, and in the morning we got our
breakfast ; then he gave me some liquor to drink, and I did

not know where I was till I found myself in Morristown,
Pennsylvania, in the Marshal’s office, talking to the doctor.
I was asleep. When I awoke the doctor told me that I was
an enlisted man, and I said I was not, and he showed me
some papers that I signed when I was drunk; hut I do not
believe I ever signed a paper ; then I asked him where was
the money, and he told me that the boarding-master took
two hundred dollars, and said I owed him twenty-five more.
The boarding-master was Captain Cody. He swore that I
owed him the money, and that is all I know about it. And
there was a lieutenant who said he would get me clear for
twenty-five dollars, and I gave it to him ; but I did not see
him any more. The place I enlisted was Morristown, Pa.
That is all at present.

“ I send my best love and respects to you all. Good bye.

“If you have got one of John Peterson’s pictures, send
it in the letter. That is all.

“ Direct to - - ,

Such was the letter which was followed by the brief mes¬
sage sent to his mother, “I am to be shot next Friday; can
you do something for me?” As she handed me the tele¬
gram, although her son was now safe, her whole frame
shook. She had two other sons, she said; one a little fellow
of ten, and the third at home, disabled from wounds received
in the battle at Chancellorville. Her journey and expenses
had used all the money she had been able to bring from
home with her, and it was a real joy to us to be able to give
her a resting place and kind care ; and then to-morrow we
shall furnish her with a ticket to her home.

2d. The soldier’s wife — very young and frail — she has

journeyed aione over 500 miles in the last two days, to see,
if possible, her husband alive.

She found him in the hospital nearby; has been with
him all day, and has now come into t the “nurses’ home”
full of hope that he will recover, and delighted to find the
admirable and kind care which is bestowed by the general
hospitals upon those who are sick, and of which she had
heard such terrible reports of neglect. She is grateful, very,
for the shelter and the hand of sympathy which the Home
offers to her.

3d. The Wives or the Refugees.- — One of these, with
the four children, was brought to the office of the Sanitary
Commission, by the provost guard, early this morning.
She was miserably poor and destitute, and with her children
sadly in need of warm garments. According to the papers
which she carried with her, and her own story, she had
come on all the way from Tennessee in order to find in
Alexandria some relatives of her husband who were said to
live there. Her husband had been shot by guerrillas near
his own house, where he had gone on a six days’ furlough
from the army, not very distant. As she had nothing to
live on, and feared for her own life, she had fled and came
on here. In Alexandria she had searched in vain for her
husband’s relatives. She brought all her goods with her ;
namely, a bed, blankets, and some clothes, in four dirty
bundles. She now wants to get back as far as Kentucky.
She says she can’t feel at home “way north;” that she had
rather starve “down south” than stay up here. She and
her children will be made comfortable, and then sent on
their way. She is not entirely satisfied with her treatment
at the Home. She thinks that she is not “ waited upon” as
a soldier’s wife from so far off ought to be, and that she has

received very little attention ; and that, if this house pre¬
tends to be a kind of hotel — only where they don’t take any
pay — they ought to look a little more after the folks they
entertain ; that at any rate a black girl might be sent to
take care of her children ; and that surely it is a great place
where a body has to help to sew upon the garments which
are going to be a present to her ! But still, upon the whole,
she is glad of the shelter and the garments, though her pride
is a little wounded; and most certainly the poor little chil¬
dren are warmer for the flannels and shoes. It is strange
how these “poor whites,” who havn’t energy enough appa¬
rently to harvest the crop which is to keep them alive, can
overcome all the difficulties of such a journey as this, with
baggage and children, travelling a thousand miles.

The other woman, wife of a refugee — she came from Cul¬
pepper with her six children, her husband is with her.
They were simply “ starved out.” At one time the place
was in the hands of the rebels and they couldn’t get away ;
at another time in the hands of the Federate, and they hoped
not to be obliged to go away — and so for two years they had
lived on — until at last, as the husband told me, they had but
“ half a gallon” of meal left. So they had to give up their
home ; they succeeded in escaping the guerrillas, and after
a long and terribly wearisome journey on foot with these six
children they reached a place of protection. They had been
at the Sanitary Lodge in Alexandria, resting for a day ot
two before they came on to Washington. They were Meth¬
odists, and persons with deep religious faith. Under all
their labor and sorrow (for they buried a little child shortly
before they left their home in Virginia) they were quiet and
cheerful, apparently having perfect confidence that God
would yet give them a home and all the happiness which

was best for them. The children, too, in their gentleness
and expression of face, bore mark of the daily prayer which
bad never failed, as the mother told me, to be offered at the
poor man’s altar. This family had seen better days, but
there was no complaint at their lot. They are grateful for
the kindness we are able to show to them, though they are
somewhat closely packed together in two rooms. Arrange*
ments are made to ticket the whole family through to their
old home in Western Pennsylvania.

4th. The Hospital Nurses. — Two of these are from the
General Hospital, one worn down by excessive labor, need-*
ing a few day’s rest; the other has just returned from a
visit to her home, and is unable to go over to Alexandria
to-night. The third is from a Regimental Hospital, where
she has served devotedly for nearly two years — and she is
ordered in by the Surgeon of the regiment, whether she will
or no, to rest for at least one week ; but it seems as if rest¬
ing were to her the hardest form of labor. She will soon bo
really sick if she cannot go to work.

These extracts from records, give some idea, though neces¬
sarily imperfect, of one part of the Special Relief work of
the Commission.

(The statistics concerning disabled discharged soldiers,
with reference to the provision to be made for them in
coming years, will be hereafter added.)

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRED. N. KNAPP,

Special Relief Agent .

THE “ HOME ” AT LOUISVILLE, KY.

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Sanitary Commission.

No. 77.

SANITARY" COMMISSION.

^N o. 78.

-v IV ANS W E R

TO THE QUESTION,

“WHY HOES THE SANITARY COMMISSION
NEED SO MUCH MONEY?”

-A. RECORD AYl^ID AY 1ST APPEAL

If the people furnish supplies liberally without cost, and if the store¬
houses and treasuries of the various Branches of supply are full, how
is it that the Central Treasury of the Sanitary Commission calls for and
disposes of so much money? This is a plain question, honestly asked ;
and there is a plain and honest answer. It is this : a large amount of
money is needed because the present machinery of the commission which
is supported by the Central Treasury cannot be kept in motion without
a very large cash expenditure; and the judgment of sagacious, humane,
and carefully calculating men, to whom the whole matter has been sub¬
mitted, decides, without qualification, that all this machinery must be
kept a-going, that large as its cost is, the results for good which depend
upon it are so much larger, that the Commission, as the trustees of the
people’s bounty, the representatives of their benevolence, and the execu¬
tors of their will, could not find a justification in allowing the expen¬
siveness of the system to cause its discontinuance until a fair statement
of their intention to discontinue it, and the reason why they intended to
do so, should have been laid before the people, and the question put —
shall the Sanitary Commission or shall they not go on with this work in
all its breadth, involving this annual expenditure? — Shall they drop all
other branches of their work, and limit themselves to the charge of
merely “distributing the supplies” which are sent to them, or shall they
keep up their entire system, embracing, with this distribution of supplies,

Sanitary Inspection by medical men, of camps and of field hospitals ; San¬
itary Inspection by medical men, of general hospitals; Special Relief,
with all its agencies, and in all its various departments ; the Hospital
Directory, with its register and its 500,000 names.

The fact of the case is this, that the work of distributing supplies to
the sick and wounded, while of course it involves much expense, is but
one of five directions in which the Sanitary Commission are laboring to
ward off disease and death from the soldier, to ensure speedy recovery, to
relieve the anxiety of relatives at home, and to make the dear bought
experience of regiments already long in the war available to regiments
just entering the field. Part of this work suggested itself and grew up
as the Commission went on, while part of it entered into the original plan
of the Commission, which was based upon the idea that what the army
needed from outside itself was not merely additional clothes, and food,
and care in times of emergency, but a better understanding of the con¬
ditions for securing health, and more urgent inducements with more con¬
stant constraints and influences to lead to an obedience to every possible
law which would guard against or check disease. Hence the whole de¬
partment of “ Sanitary Inspection” was established in field and hospital,
involving large expense, and to the casual observer producing no very
important results— in the whole of its work making less show of relief
or aid to the soldier than would be made by the distribution of one
wagon load of supplies to wounded or dying men — yet in its actual effects
probably saving more lives to the army and to friends at home than has
ever been done by the distribution of any five hundred wagon loads of
these same supplies.

The “ Special Relief” department, also involving now in its constant
enlargement a heavy and increasing outlay, is one of the branches of the
Commission’s work which has very little to do with supply distribution,
and was not, indeed, embraced in the original plan of organization. Yet
this same Special Relief work, with its “Lodges” and “Homes” all
along the Atlantic coast, on the shores of the Mississippi, and inland,
wherever an army is found, could not be given up to-day without to¬
morrow and each following day exposing to manifold evils at least three
thousand men who noware protected.

So of the “ Hospital Directory,” with its agencies for giving prompt
and accurate information to those at home concerning the sick and
wounded throughout the army. This involves large expense ; so much
so that a few months since those who hold themselves responsible for the
right use of the money put into their hands by the people, almost decided

that they had no right to continue this branch of the Commission’s
work, which after all was not for the aid of the soldiers so much as for
the relief of the anxious solicitude of friends ; but when the proposal to
give it up was discussed, it was found that there was an immense pres¬
sure from £‘ the people,” demanding the continuance of this servant, and
friend, and comforter of theirs. This too had grown up, not as part of
the original plan of the commission, and surely in no wise connected
with the distribution of needed supplies, but it had come out of an ur¬
gent call of the people that those who in their name were helping the
soldiers in the field, should now also help them at home — the fathers
wives, and mothers — by answering their inquiries about the sick and
wounded. Thus it was that this Hospital Directory, with all its aids for
securing and transmitting information, had sprung up out of the demands
of the people, and the people have asked to be and are called upon to
defray the expense of its continuance.

Such is the history, brought down to the present time, of those four
departments of the Commission’s labor additional to the work of “Supply
Distribution.” The cost of maintaining these four departments with
the largeness which the interests of half a million enlisted men and half
a million homes ask for, and with the thoroughness which wise economy
unites with medical science in demanding, cannot be less than thirty
thousand dollars each month. And it is with the express understanding
that to such use this much of the money will be appropriated that funds
are solicited and contributed to carry on “ the work of the Commission,”
The detail of these expenditures in each one of these departments is open
for examination, and the result of such examination by careful business
men, who have themselves contributed largely to the very money thus
used, and who measure also the results accomplished, is this — those men
say, the Sanitary Commission would be false to duties assumed, and to
duties providentially laid upon them ; false also to the people, whose
work this really is; false likewise to the age which gives the opportunity
for this special duty of filling up generously a great page of a nation’s
history, an opportunity given just at this time, the one year out of a
century — false to all this, they say, would the Commission be if it did
not persevere and carry on all these agencies for good, confidently and
unhesitatingly asking the people for whatever money is really needed,
with fit economy, for the work.

Thus it is that the “ Central Treasury,” from which all these depart¬
ments of the Commission draw their support, needs constant renewal,
although the Branches of supply (lately so amply furnished by the

proceeds of the “ Sanitary Fairs” held in various sections of the country)
may be stored to overflowing with goods and money.

But the whole ground is not covered by this statement. All persons
employed by the Commission in every part of the vast field draw their
pay from the Central Treasury. Moreover it has become the settled
policy of the commission to employjxmZ agents. A large experience
with a jealous regard to a right and economical use of funds entrusted to
their care, has convinced the Commission beyond question that in a
work continuing thus for years, the only wise method is to employ the
best men that can be obtained, with compensating pay; that thus only
can be secured continued and experienced labor, (one of the most im¬
portant of all things in this work,) systematic effort, a sense of responsi¬
bility to those in authority, entire surrender of time and strength to the
service, and a right on the part of the officers of the Commission at once
to remove any person who may prove to be incompetent or ill suited to
the work. Under the volunteer system of agency, which may perhaps
answer well where a comparatively narrow field is covered, and for a
work which is limited to weeks or months, none of these absolutely
essential ends can be secured. And although this work of the Sanitary
Commission is a benevolent work, and its benefits are gratuitous to those
who receive them, yet it has to be conducted in its large labors with
thorough business method. This, too, is to be borne in mind, that the
system of paid agents does not exclude the advantage of haviug in the
work disinterestedness and religious earnestness. On the contrary,
many men of just those characteristics, and who because of the spirit
which was in them entered into the work, are now retained among the
paid agents: they were men who could give, without compensation, a
few months to the cause, but were not justified in giving years. And
in selecting persons additional to be employed, the aim of the Commis¬
sion is always to get men whose hearts are there before their hands are
called to take hold.

But once more, the Central Treasury is drawn upon, not only for
maintaining the various departments already named, and for the pay of
all these persons employed by the Commission, east and west — some two
hundred men, including its corps of Medical Inspectors — but also for
the purchase of such supplies as are needed in emergencies where there
is no time to send to distant Branches and storehouses. Thus after a
single battle, sometimes fifteen, sometimes twenty thousand dollars have
been used, every single dollar of which probably met some real want or
helped to save a life. From the Central Treasury also comes the money
which maintains in the field with each Army Corps independent means

of transportation for carryin;
there, sanitary supplies. rJ

ig with the army as it moves, and distributing
This is the system now adopted by the Com¬

mission. There is also the expense incurred in purchasing horses and
wagons with which to transport supplies from the nearest depots to battle
fields. This expense is often very large, but it has more than once
proved of incalculable benefit, enabling us to reach the wounded with
our stores on the field, much in advance of the Government stores. For,
as is well known, according to existing laws, the Medical Department
can draw supplies, but is utterly powerless as to ordering them forward
t° tlie there being no independent transportation at the control of
that Department. The Medical officer is obliged to make over his sup¬
plies to the Quartermaster’s Department for transportation, where, with
the immense burden which is heaped up there, there is often an
unavoidable delay which is death to the wounded who are waiting upon the
field. So long as this law continues, by which the hands of the Medical
Department are thus tied, “ so long,”— as one of the Medical Bureau
recently said, a member of the Regular Army, — “is there an absolute
necessity that the Sanitary Commission stand ready with its independent
transportation to carry forward at the earliest moment supplies to the
battle-field.”

^ Such is an enumeration of some of the principal demands which the
Central Treasury of the Sanitary Commission must always be prepared
to meet. In their aggregate, these demands call for a monthly deposit
in the Treasury of forty thousand dollars.

Such is the record, and the record is the appeal. It asks whether the
people wish this agency in behalf of the soldiers in tent and in hospital,
and on the battle-field — at the east, and at the west, and at the south — -
to cease ; or whether it is their will to have it continue in its largeness
of plan, its scientific exactness, its thoroughness of detail, its prompt¬
ness in meeting emergencies, its ability to do all that the friends at home
would themselves desire to do for our soldiers. If the people say, it
must still go on with its work, then must they contribute liberally not
only to the Branches,” and to the local sources of supply, but also to
the Central Treasury” of the Commission ; and as long as the war con¬
tinues shall a full record be furnished to them.

By order of the Standing Committee :

Central Office U. S. Sanitary Commission,
Washington. T). C., Jan. 1, 1864.

■->

^ d^0ntnttssi0n*

3NTo. 78,

DEPARTMENT OF THE

SPECIAL INSPECTION

OF THE

GENERAL HOSPITALS,

U. S. A.,

THIRD (PRELIMINARY)

REPORT TO THE COMMITTEE,

MAT, 1863.

BY HENRY G. CLARK, M. D.,

I38PBCT0R-IX-CHIKF.

NEW YORK:

Wit 0. BRYANT A CO., PRINTERS, 41 NASSAU STREET, CORNER OF LIBERTY.

1804

INDEX.

PAGE

Report . 5

Appendix . . . 15

A. — Schedule of the Districts of Inspection, and the Locations of

the General Hospitals . 17

B. — List of the Special Inspectors . 18

O. — Notes on Spotted Fever, &c. . . . . . . . . 20

D. — Prof. Post’s Report on Bromine . 23

E. — Letter to the Military Governor on the Sanitary condition of

Washington City. .......... . ♦ . . 39

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! . . . .

CM . . .

\ : •• s / e :i < ; i i •

• • • . • •

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL INSPECTION OF THE
GENERAL HOSPITALS OF THE ARMY.

Washington, May, 1863.

To Wm. H. Yan Buken, M. D.,

C. B. Agnew, M. D.,

Wolcott Gibbs, M. D.,

Medical Committee ,

U. S. Sanitary Commission •

The undersigned respectfully reports :

That since January 1st, 1863, the following gentlemen have
served the Commission as Inspectors in this Department, in the
Districts* severally set against their names, as follows :

Dr. Charles Y. Bemis, District of Columbia.

Prof. J. B. S. Jackson, “ “

Prof. Geo. Mendenhall, “ (C

Dr. John Bell, “ Baltimore.

Dr. D. D. Slade, “ “

Prof. Abram Sager, u “

Dr. S. L. Abbott,
Prof. Chas. A. Lee,
Prof. H. A. Johnson,

Frederick.
Fortress Monroe.
Port Royal.

Drs. Cabot and Gould, Districts of Port Royal and Newbern.

Dr. John Homans,
Dr. E. M. Snow,

Dr. H. W. Williams,
Prof. Theod. S. Bell,
Dr. C. G. Comegys,
Dr. David Judkins,

District of Philadelphia.

Harrisburg.
New York.

* For a Schedule of the Districts, and the distribution of the Hospitals in
them, see Appendix A.

Dr. ‘William Hunt,

Dr. David B. Beid,

Dr. Thos. Hun,

Dr. M. F. Cogswell,
Dr. C. A. Walker,

Dr. Edwd. Jarvis,

Dr. T. C. Brinsmade,
Dr. F. B. Leonard,
Prof. Alfred C. Post,
Prof MoSes Gunn,
Prof T. F. Rochester,
Prof James P. White,
Prof Geo. C. Shattuck,

t£

Louisville.

Hashville.

Louisville, Hashville,
Murfreesboro’, Ac.

Cairo.

Hew Orleans.

District of Hew England.
“ St. Louis, Ac.

C£ U

. a
a
«
u
u
u
u
u

District of Columbia,

Baltimore,

The following reports have been received, viz. : On the Hos¬
pitals in the —

by Dr. S. O. Yanderpool.
by Dr. C. Y. Bemis.
by Prof J. B. S. J ackson.
by Prof. G. Mendenhall,
by Dr. D. D. Slade.

“ “ by Dr. John Bell.

“ “ by Prof Abram Sager.

“ Frederick, Ac., by Dr. S. L. Abbott.

“ u byProf.J.W. Draper.

“ Fortress Monroe, by Prof. C. A. Lee.

“ Hewbern, by Dr. C. A. Terry.

District of Hewbern and

Port Royal, by Drs. Cabot and Gould.

District of Port Royal, by Prof. H. A. Johnson.

by Dr. J ohn Homans,
by Dr. S. W. Mitchell,
by Dr. G. R. Morehouse,
by Dr. H. W. Williams,
by Prof. Alden March,
by Drs. Comegys & Judkins,
by Dr. S. Poliak,
by Drs. Hun and Cogswell.

Philadelphia,

Harrisburg,

Hew York,

St. Louis,

District of Nashville, by Drs. Brinsmade and Leonard.

“ “ &c., &c., by Profs. Post and Gnnn.

“ Cairo, by Profs. Armor and Pitcher.

“ “ by Profs. Rochester and White.

“ New Orleans, by Prof. G. C. Shattuck.

Partial reports from Drs. Krackowizer and Jacobi have been
received. Drs. Walker, T. S. Bell, Jarvis, and Snow have not
yet reported.*

In addition to the ordinary routine of examination, several of
the inspectors have been requested to investigate special sub¬
jects, as follows:

Dr. Reid — Ventilation — St. Louis, Louisville, and Nashville.

Dr. Slade — Hospital Gangrene— at Annapolis.

Prof. Jackson — Morbid Anatomy, &c. — Washington.

Prof. Post — Bromine as a prophylactic, &c. — Tennessee, &c.

Prof. Gunn — The Surgery of the Hospitals — Department
of Tennessee, &c.

Dr. Cabot — The Surgery of the Hospitals — Port Royal
and Newbern.

Dr. Gould — Medical Diseases — Port Royal and Newbern.

Dr. J. Bell — Hygiene of the Hospitals — Baltimore.

Dr. Snow — Statistics u “ at Philadelphia.

Dr. Jarvis — Hygiene “ “ at Louisville.

Prof. Shattuck — The Sanitary Condition of New Orleans.

I have also brief accounts, by letter, from two distinguished
gentlemen of Philadelphia, on the subject of the so-called
“ spotted fever,” for which I have to express to them my thanks,
and especially as they were not in the service of the Commis¬
sion. The letters accompany this report.

Some apprehensions in regard to this disease having been ex¬
cited in the minds of many persons who were interested in the
military hospitals, or in the people living in their vicinity, at
the suggestion of your General Secretary, I addressed several

* For a complete list of the Inspectors, see Appendix B.

notes of inquiry on the subject, and obtained in reply the ac¬
counts referred to. Although informally written, they give a
very clear and comprehensive description of the nature and his¬
tory of the disease, and are quite sufficient to allay any public
anxiety in regard to its having been originated by the presence
of the hospitals, or that their inmates have been in any way en¬
dangered by its prevalence in their neighborhood.*

Five or six cases occurred in Eleventh street, in this city, at
about the same period, answering precisely to the descriptions
of Drs. Gross and Jewell. The family was subjected to un¬
favorable hygienic and sanitary conditions ; its members being
badly fed, and living in an overcrowded, small, underground,
wooden tenement. Only one case recovered. Two cases of the
same disease, so far as I can judge from a non-professional account,
and both terminating fatally, were reported to me from Concord,
New Hampshire, the following week. Numerous cases are al¬
ready, and others will be, I understand, reported from the army
hospitals at and about Newbern and the Peninsula.

Upon the whole, the outbreak of this curious disease at so
many distinct and distant points, having no possible connection
with each other, indicates clearly enough the mysterious presence
of what the older writers used to call the “ epidemic constitu¬
tion” of the atmosphere — a condition which is yet wholly beyond
the comprehension of finite science; and the very names of
“ spotted fever,” “ cerebro-spinal meningitis,” which have been
applied to the disease, seem to be misnomers, except so far as
they prove that certain internal or external congestions usually
take place during its progress, while at the same time they do
not advance us one step toward a knowledge of its essence.

On the 27th of February, Dr. C. A. Walker addressed me,
from Louisville, in the following terms : * * * *

“I desire to call your attention to the use of Bromine as a
prophylactic and remedial agent in erysipelas, hospital gangrene,
pyemia, diptheria, and all diseases consequent upon animal
poison. I have seen such remarkable results here, and hear
such reports of its efficacy in the above diseases from men of
established professional reputation, who do not state facts loosely,

* See Appendix C.

that in my judgment the matter demands the most careful and
thorough scientific investigation for the sake of the army, and
the advancement of medical science everywhere.”

“ is through the influence of Dr. M. Goldsmith, acting
medical director, that the experiments have been made in the
face of determined opposition.”

The attention of the Surgeon-General was early called to the
Subject, and subsequently Surgeon Brinton, U. S. Y., was sent
to investigate it. At the suggestion of the committee, Professors
Post, of New York, and Gunn, of Detroit, visited the district of
the Tennessee together. Dr. Post has made a very full report,
all the parts of which relating to this subject, I have had copied
and append herewith.* Dr. Gunn, who was requested to inves¬
tigate another matter, gives his opinion of its value as follows :

“ Without discussing the merits of his (Dr. Goldsmith’s)
theory , and certainly without being prepared to endorse it, I
propose to simply state my observations of the treatment
adopted in that one of the conditions which falls usually within
the range of a strictly surgical report. As a remedy in hos¬
pital gangrene, the testimony in its favor, in the hospitals of
Louisville, is quite unanimous. In Nashville and in Murfrees¬
boro’ it is conflicting. It also appeared evident, that wdien a
want of confidence in the potency of the agent was felt its ap¬
plication was not thorough. I witnessed its application in
several instances, in three of which, for three successive days,
we watched the impression made by the agent. Judging from
these cases alone, in which, by the treatment, the disease was
completely arrested, I should accord to it all that has been
claimed. In other instances, however, for reasons that seemed
obvious, and which do not detract from the merit of the agent,
its effect was less satisfactory. As the report of Prof. Post will
minutely detail all these observations, I propose to give evidence
simply to four points :

“ 1. Without being highly escharotic in its effect on the living

* Appendix D.

tissue, when applied to the gangrenous mass, and made to com¬
pletely saturate it, a thoroughly disinfectant effect is at once
produced ; and whenever it penetrates through the mass, and
comes in contact with living tissue, it produces intense pain, the
severity of which is not, however, of long duration,

“ 2. The gangrenous mass, when thus thoroughly disinfected,
ceases to exert its deadly influence upon the adjacent and sub¬
jacent living tissues, and in these tissues there commences at once
the ulcerative process by which the dead mass is thrown off.

“ 3. When the gangrenous condition is once arrested, the con¬
stitutional symptoms disappear with wonderful rapidity.

“ 4. When the atmosphere of the ward is disinfected by the
vapor of bromine, the tendency of the disease to spread is, at
least, greatly lessened, if not wholly overcome.”

To these judicious observations of Professor Gunn upon the
bromine treatment, I must add the “ closing judgment ” of his
report : “ Viewing the surgical history of the army of the Cum¬
berland, during the late campaign as a whole and with critical
intention, I am constrained to say that, considering the season
of the year, the exposure of the wounded men, the scanty sup¬
plies at the time of the battle, the great number of the wounded,
and the constitutional condition of the men previous to the
injuries received, the surgeons have fully sustained the character
of American surgery. If, at the battle of Murfreesboro’, and in
a few other instances, i conservative surgery J has not exerted its
full influence, it is but justice to say that none are more keenly
sensible of the fact than the surgeons who there gained experi¬
ence, and who now officiate in the army of the Cumberland.
Should another general engagement occur, I predict that the
record these gentlemen will make will be alike honorable to
themselves, and conservative of life and limb.”*

I have now on file a large mass of valuable manuscript mate¬
rial— the reports of our special inspectors already received cover-

* MSS. Reports, fol. XXX., Prof. Moses Gunn.

ing more than 2,500 folio pages, and this to be further increased
by reports not yet received. They contain full, accurate and
intelligent descriptions of all the general hospitals of the army,
and are replete with the evidence of the acute observations, the
sound opinions, and the practical suggestions we should have
expected from such a corps of inspectors as ours, nearly all of
them being active members of a profession which they all honor
and adorn. I have endeavored always so to assign them as to con¬
sult their convenience, and, at the same time, by detailing some
of them to special duty out of the ordinary inspection routine, to
secure to the Commission the advantages of their peculiar
talents as experts, in the various departments to which they
were known to have especially devoted themselves.

With this end in view, I had requested the distinguished ven¬
tilator, the late Dr. D. B. Keid, of Scotland, who had made this
country his home, to visit, examine and report upon, the army
hospitals of the Western Department of the Army, in regard to
their systems of ventilation.

This work, in part accomplished, was suddenly interrupted by
his untimely death.

He had labored with great zeal and interest up to the last
hour of his life, although suffering extremely, at times, from the
heart affection, of which he died. He had, in compliance with
my request, given much useful advice, and made many valuable
suggestions, to the surgeons of the hospitals at the West, most
of which he had visited, while there ; and although he was
never able to write out his notes, yet I hope to avail myself of
some of the manuscript material which his son has placed in
my hands.

As a lecturer, Dr. Beid united, to the most thorough knowl¬
edge of any man living of the science of ventilation, a manner
which was dignified, instructive and pleasing ; and, with the
regrets which so properly follow his death, it is a satisfaction to
feel that his last labors were given to that great cause which
had his earnest sympathies, and that he was able in so congenial
a way to return, with almost youthful enthusiasm, to studies,
from the pursuit of which he had been, by various “ adverse
fates,” so long separated.

It was originally proposed by the medical committee to con-

tinue their special inspection of the general hospitals of the army
until the first of May.

It has been actively thus continued, with the aid of the
able corps of inspectors whose services have been at our disposal,
in a most thorough manner ; and, so far as I can judge, it has
accomplished perhaps all that could have reasonably been ex¬
pected of it. The inspection has given to the Commission, to the
inspectors themselves, and, through both, to the friends of the
numerous inmates of the hospitals, the materials for a complete
knowledge of this department of the army, with the assurance,
to them and to us, as far as this knowledge extends, of entire
confidence in its general good conduct.

I hope at another time, and after I shall have made myself,
by personal inspection, familiar with the hospitals them¬
selves, to embody, in a more formal and general report to you,
with my own observations, the substance of those contained in
the extensive reports of the special inspectors. I am afraid
that even then, save by an entire reproduction of very large
portions of them, I shall fail to do them more than partial
justice.

There are important subjects connected with the hospitals,
which will need for their sati^ictory determination still further
investigation, such as : 1. The expediency of delaying or hasten¬
ing the removal u en masse ” of large numbers of sick and
wounded men from the field to the general hospitals, and es¬
pecially what are the circumstances of season or situation which
are favorable or otherwise to such detention or removal.

2. The best modes of administering or “ running ” general
hospitals, whether by the combination, or otherwise, of military
and medical authority.

3. The best mode of constructing general hospitals, and a
general discussion of all matters connected with the form,
size, materials, and organization, of temporary or permanent
structures.

I am now engaged in making a collection, as I can obtain

them of the plans and elevations of the army hospitals, and
have the prospect, with the aid of Mr. Richards, my clerk
who is an excellent draughtsman, and by the politeness of thorn
who have the originals in charge, of making it sufficiently com¬
plete to give the data for the plans , of one or more which
Shan unite their known good qualities with an avoidance of
their known defects. So many of the principles which enter
into the construction of hospitals are now definitely settled
that if the desired result is difficult of attainment, its accom¬
plishment may be, nevertheless, hopefully essayed.

During my residence^ in Washington, the subject of its
sanitary condition, especially in connection with its large hos¬
pital population, was in many ways forced upon my attention;
and on this account I was glad of the opportunity offered me, in
February last, to bring it distinctly to the attention of the
authorities, in a note addressed to the military governor.*

I am happy to say that some interest has been taken in the
subject by the War Department, and that initiatory steps have
been taken, under the direction of a competent medical officer,
to improve the sanitary condition of this city, and that there is’
therefore, a fair prospect that the discreditable and dangerous
neglect m which it has so long suffered, will now be changed
to an intelligent activity in the right direction.

I now propose, with the approbation of the committee, as
I understand it to be their desire, to continue the inspection
in a way which, while it can be carried on with a small staff of
inspectors, and without implying the constant residence of the
Inspector-m-Chief at Washington, will keep the Commission
well advised of the general status of the hospitals, and of the
changes that will follow thfem in the ebbings and flowings of
the tide of war ; of the difficulties they may continue to
encounter ; of the improvements with which they are favored ;
and in fact of all matters which concern their condition, that
of t :eir inmate*, and of the advancement of medical science as
connected with them.

In adding my sincere regrets that I have not been able, in
the conduct of this inspection so far, to have attained to the

* See Appendix E.

requirements of the standard I had proposed to myself, you will
allow me to express my most grateful thanks for the confidence
so cordially reposed in me, and for the uniform support of the
members and officers of the Commission, during these past
months of pleasant labor.

Very respectfully,

Henry G. Clark,
Inspector-in-Chief.

(A.)

Inspection Districts , with the Location of the Hospitals .

Districts.

I. Columbia . . . t . .Washington, Georgetown, Alexandria.

II. Baltimore . Baltimore, Annapolis, A. Junction.

III. Frederick . Frederick City, Harper’s Ferry, Antietam.

IV. Fortress Montroe . Yorktown, Norfolk, Suffolk.

V. Newbern . . .Newbern, Beaufort, Portsmouth.

VI. Port Royal . Hilton Head, Beaufort.

VII. Philadelphia . Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Chester,

Wilmington.

VIII. Harrisburg . Cumberland, Harrisburg, York, Reading,

Clarysville.

IX. New York . New York City and Islands, Newark, Albany.

X. New England - New Haven, Newport, Boston, Burlington,

Brattleboro’.

XI. St. Louis . Quincy, Springfield, Keokuk, Chicago.

XII. Louisville . . . ...Cincinnati, Covington, New Albany.

XIII. Nashville . Lexington, Bowling Green, Danville.

XIV. Cairo . Evansville, Paducah, Mound City, Memphis.

XV. New Orleans . Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Carrolton.

XVI. California . . . Hurabolt, San Francisco.

(B.)

LIST OF THE SPECIAL INSPECTORS

OF THB

GENERAL HOSPITALS OE THE ARMY,

From September 1, 1862, to May 1, 1863.

Henry G. Clark, M.D., Surgeon of Mass. Gen. Hospital, Boston, Inspector-in-Chief.

Abbott, Samuel L.,
Armor S. G.,

Ayer, James,

Bell, John,

Bell, Theod. S.,
Bemiss, Charles Y.,
Bowditch, Henry I,
Brinsmade, T. C.,
Buck, Gurdon,
Buckingham, C. E.,
Cabot, Samuel, Jr.,
Coale, Wjr. Edw.,
Cogswell, M. F.,
Comegys, C. G.,
Draper, John W.,
Ellis, Calvin,

Flint, Joshua B.,
Foster, S. Conant,
Fowler, Edmond,
Gay, George H.,
Gould, Aug. A.,
Gunn, Moses,
Hodges, Rich’d M.,
Homans, John,

Hun, Thomas,

Hunt, William,
Jackson, J. B S.,
Jacobi, A.,

Jarvis, Edward,
Johnson, H. A.,

M.D., Mass. General Hospital . Boston.

« prof. Univ. Michigan . Ann Arbor.

« Boston.

" Philadelphia.

« Prof. Theor. and Pract. Univ . Louisville .

« . * . . Medford , Mass.

“ Physician Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

« . Troy, N. Y.

" Surgeon N. Y. Hospital . . . . New York.

" Cons. Physician City of Boston . Boston.

“ Surgeon Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

« Boston.

« Albany.

« . \ . Cincinnati.

“ Prof. Chemistry, Univ. N. Y. . . . . New York.

“ Pathologist, <fec., Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

“ Prof. Clin. Surgery, University . Louisville.

11 . . . . . New York.

“ . . . . . . Montgomery, Ala.

“ Surgeon Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

“ Physician Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

“ Prof. Surgery, Univ., Michigan . . . .Detroit.

** Surgeon Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

“ Ex-President Mass. Medical Society . Boston.

“ Albany.

“ Philadelphia.

Prof. Morbid Anat., Mass. Med. College, &c. . Boston .
Prof. Infantile Pathology, <fcc. Med. Col.. .New York .
Member of American Statistical Society. . . . Boston.
Prof. Physiology and Histology, Univ. Lind. Chicago.

Judkins, David,
Krackowizer, E.,
Lee, Charles A.,
Leonard, F. B.,

Lewis Winslow,
March, Alden,
Mendenhall, G.,
Minot, Francis,
Mitchell, S. Weir,
Morehouse, G. R.,
Morland, Wm. W.,
Pitcher, Z.,

Pollak, S.,

Post, Alfred C.,
Reid, David B.,
Rochester, T. F.,
Sager, Abram,

Shaw, Benj. S ,
Siiattuck, G. C.,
Slade, Daniel D.,
Smith, Stephen,
Snow, Edwin M.,
Terry, Charles A.,
Vanderpool, S. 0.,

W alker, Clement, A.,
Ware, Charles E.,
White, James P.,
Williams, H. W.,

W yman, Morrill,

M.D.,

. Cincinnati.

. . . New York.

Prof. Mat. Med., Med. School of Maine. . . .PeekskiU

. * . Lansingburg.

Consulting Surgeon Mass. Gen’l Hospital _ Boston.

Prof. Surgery Medical College . Albany;

* . Cincinnati .

Physician Mass. General Hospital . Boston.

. i.... . Philadelphia.

. . Philadelphia.

. Boston.

Emer. Prof. University, Mich . Beeroit.

Surgeon Eye and Ear Infirmary . St. Louis.

Prof. Surg. Univ., N. Y., Ac., Ac . New York.

. . . . St. Paul’s.

Prof. Clin. Medicine, University . Buffalo.

Prof. Obstetrics, Univ., Michigan . Ann Arbor,.

Supt. Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

Prof. Theor. and Prac. Med. College, Ac . Boston.

. Boston.

Prof. Surg. and Surg., Bellevue Hospital, New York.

Health Officer, Ac . Providence , R . I.

. Cleveland.

Late Surgeon-General, 1ST. Y . Albany.

Supt. Lunatic Asylum . Boston.

Physician Mass. Gen’l Hospital . Boston.

Prof. Obstet., University of . Buffalo.

. * . Boston.

. . . Cambridge.

(C.)

NOTES ON SPOTTED FEYER.

Notes from Prof. S. D. Gross and Dr. Wilson Jewell, of
Philadelphia, on the subject of the so-called “ spotted fever,”
or “ cerebrospinal meningitis .”

Philadelphia, April 28fh, 1863.

Dear Sir, — I regret it is not in ray power to give you any¬
thing like a satisfactory account of the singular disease which
has prevailed for some time past at Manayunk, Norristown, and
Prankford. The first cases, so far as I have been able to learn,
broke out at the former place a little upwards of a month ago,
and most of them rapidly proved fatal. Since then a number
of other cases lia\e parched* At Norristown it appeared nearly
at the same time, and has also been quite fatal. The cases at
Prankford appeared at a somewhat later period. Some cases
have also been noticed in this city, but their number has been
comparatively fewer than at the other places. Of the entire
number of cases that have occurred at these different points, I
am unable to give you any information.

What the nature of this malady is, has not been ascertained.
In many respects, if not in all, it strongly resembles the
a spotted fever,” of Vermont, and other New England States,
so- well described by Gallup, and other writers of the early part
of the present century. The seizure is usually very sudden, and
without any decided premonition, the victims being apparently
perfectly well in the morning, and fatally ill in the afternoon or
evening. Death, in some of the cases, has occurred as early as
the twelfth hour, and few survive beyond the second or third
day.

The most prominent symptoms of the disease are, excessive
prostration, livid spot& upon the body, intense distress in the
head and extremities, great jactitation, violent thirst and
delirium, speedily followed by coma. Gastric irritability has
also k$en noticed, as a prominent phenomenon in quite a num-

ber of cases. The bowels in general are costive, or but slightly
affected. The hands and feet are constantly cold from the
beginning of the attack.

No very satisfactory post-mortem examinations have been
made. In general, the most prominent phenomena have been
those simply of profound congestion of the principal viscera
with evidences of a dissolved state of the blood. In a case, the
particulars of which were briefly communicated to the Philadel¬
phia County Medical Society, at its last meeting, by Dr. Lamb,
of Frankford, there was not only great congestion of the brain,
but more or less deposit of serum and lymph.

The subjects of this disease have hitherto, for the most part,
been persons in the lower walks of life, of both sexes, and of
different ages. I do not learn that the disease manifests any
special tendency to spread. In most of the cases hitherto wit¬
nessed, it has occurred in several members of the same family.

With kind regards, I am, very truly, your friend,

S. D. Gross.

Dr. IIeney G. Clark,

Sanitary Commission.

420 Horth Sixth street, )

Philadelphia, April 29th, 1863. j
Henry G. Clark, M. D. :

My Dear Doctor, — T' our note of the 27th was received in due
course of mail.

I wish it was in my power to furnish you information, satis¬
factory to myself, as to the true character of the anomalous
fever which has been prevailing in several neighborhoods of our
city and vicinity, during the last and present months.

The cases have been numerous and fatal, equal to fifty per
cent., speaking within bounds. The deaths have been certified
to under various names ; as, malignant typhus, malignant scar¬
let, ^spotted and congestive fevers ; while the most frequent tittle
given it has been congestion of the brain. This arises from the
fact that all the cases are accompanied with cerebral symptoms,
and all the autopsies that have been made, present intense con¬
gestion of the brain.

Drs. LaRoche, Gerhard, Stewardson, Packard and myself,
have seen and carefully examined many of these cases, in differ¬
ent stages of the disease, without being able to identify it with
any of the known forms of idiopathic or exanthematous fevers.
It bears some resemblance to several, but cannot be classified
with either, in form, grade, or type. It may be said, however,
to be asthenic or adynamic in character, and presents a malig¬
nant type. None of us believe it to be contagious, and I have
heard no physician call it “ plague.”

It has appeared in several neighborhoods remote from each
other, and in rural and healthy districts of our city. At first
it attracted notice at the falls of Schuylkill ; then at Morristown,
8 or 9 miles north of it, in Montgomery county ; next, it was
found at Frankford, 4 miles east of the falls ; then we hear of it
at Manayunk, between the falls and Norristown ; next at Rich¬
mond, on the Delaware, and now in an adjoining district, called
Kensington. All these points are north of our city centre,
while here and there to the south of the centre, we hear of a
few cases and deaths occasionally.

Nearly all the cases are accompanied with an eruption, from
a few isolated patches in some, to a more diffused redness in
others. They are not petechia, nor vibices, nor the rash of
scarlatina or rubeola, or the eruption of variola.

The eruption resembles more the appearance presented by
measles when it first comes out, but soon loses the florid color
and inclines to a purplish hue. After death, I have seen in some
of them the eruption looking like blood-bruises, while in others
it is scarcely perceptible.

The deaths that have occurred have all been within four days
from the first attack, while many have died within 16, 24 and 48
hours from the commencement of the disease. It spares neither
sex nor age.

Our college transactions will contain some account of it, and
if I can spare a few hours I will give you a more particular ac¬
count of the symptoms and appearances, pathological, that have
been observed in the post-mortems, if you desire it.

Excuse the haste of this letter, pardoning all inaccuracies,
and believe me,

Yours truly,

Wilson Jewell.

EXTRACTS FROM PROF. POST’S REPORT

ON THE

f)08|)ita(s of ITottisfoille, ft Htiu*frees(ioro',

CONTAINING HIS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE

Note. — Prof. Alfred C. Post having been detailed to visit the General Hos¬
pitals of the army, and some of the hospitals in the field, in the towns of Louisville,
Nashville and Murfreesboro’, made a full report of his inspection at those places.
From this report are extracted the notes and observations which follow upon the
use of Bromine, and its compounds, in the prevention and treatment of various
diseases, of which Hospital Gangrene is the chief. It is the most complete
resume of the facts we have yet had, and his judgment thereon is most clearly
and candidly stated.

H. G. 0.

• V;:; • :':'r0 :■

... : ' a ; . .. ..

. ’ • : i . I, i - • .< , • i „ •, ■

(DO

SPECIAL REPORT ON BROMINE.

By Prof. Alfred C. Post, M. D., of New York.*

At Louisville, Hospital No. 19,

Under tlie charge of Dr. Keifer, Surgeon 50th Eegt. Ohio Yols.

It is situated in the open country, about two miles S. E. of
Louisville, on a hill which is elevated about a hundred feet
above the surface of the Ohio Piver.

This Hospital is devoted exclusively to the treatment of ery¬
sipelas, cases- of that disease being sent to it from different hos¬
pitals in and around Louisville.

There wTere twenty-nine patients under treatment at the time
of our visit. Most of the ca§es were idiopathic, not being
connected with any wounds in the vicinity of the affected parts.
The greater part of the cases were examples of simple erysipe¬
las of the head and face. No fatal case has occurred within
two months. All the cases of erysipelas in this hospital had
been treated by the topical application of the compound solu¬
tion of bromine, lint moistened with the solution being placed
over the surface, and then covered with oil-silk. The internal
treatment was tonic and stimulating, except during the stage of
active excitement. The tincture of the muriate of iron, and
sulphate of quinine, were chiefly employed, together with whis¬
key and porter, in moderate doses. Bromine is the only
deodorizing agent employed within the building, the nurse of
each ward holding an open bottle of pure bromine in his hand,
and walking around the ward twice a day, occupying about five
minutes in each fumigation.

* MSS. Report*, Fol. XXXIX.

Louisville, Hospital Ho. 20.

Hospital Ho. 20, under charge of Dr. Helson E. Morris, U. S.

Contracting Surgeon.

The present number of patients is 23.

This Hospital, like Ho. 19, is designed exclusively for the
treatment of erysipelas. Most of the cases are idiopathic, the
disease occurring chiefly about the scalps and face ; about one-
quarter of the cases are traumatic, occurring chiefly in the
limbs. All the cases now under treatment are convalescent.
All the cases of erysipelas in this hospital, as in Ho. 19, are
treated by the local application of compound solution of
bromine.

Mode of application, same as in Ho. 19. Internal treatment
—quinine and iron, brandy, whiskey, and wine— diet, milk,
eggs, chocolate,, fresh beef, Ac. Ho use made of beef-tea. The
erysipelatous inflammation has ceased to spread, on an average,
within twenty -four hours. Dr. M. says that in no case has it
continued to spread beyond thirty-six hours. From the first of
March to the ninth of April, there were six deaths in this hospi¬
tal. Some of the fatal were nearly moribund when received
and all of them were in a state of great exhaustion.

There was one ease of alleged hospital gangrene, but the
diagnosis was to me entirely unsatisfactory. It appeared to me
to be a ease of phlegmonous erysipelas, with sloughing of the
areola tissue. It appeared to Dr. M. to be more benefitted by
the use of liquor soda chlorinata than by that of bromine. The
whole number of patients under treatment during the month of
March, was 32. Four were discharged cured during the month.

Louisville, Hospital Ho. 7.

This is a large establishment, in charge of Dr. W. W. Gold¬
smith.

There have been treated in this hospital about 30 cases of
hospital gangrene, in all of which there have been topical appli¬
cations of bromine, and none of which have been followed by a
fatal result. There have been treated at this hospital 20 cases

■ •J

of hospital gangrene, in all of which bromine has been em¬
ployed. I saw several of the 'cases : among these was a recent
one, situated upon the posterior part of the thorax, a little to
the right of the medium line. The sore was of a circular form,
about four inches in diameter, and covered with a very thick
mass of soft slough. The integument around the sore was of a
livid red color, and the edges were undermined to the extent of
one- third of an inch. Bromine was first applied to this sore the
day before my visit. The effect seems to have been salutary.
At the time of my visit, there was very little foetor, and the
slough seemed to be loosening. # Dr. Goldsmith then took hold
of the slough with forceps, and dissected it out with scissors,
leaving the surface nearly clean. He applied pure bromine
beneath the undermined edges, by means of a very small
syringe, and then filled up the cavity with lint, moistened with
a weak solution of bromine.

My first visit to this patient was on the 11th of April. I saw
him again on the 21st April, when I made the following note :
“ The sore has doubled in size, and the mortification is still
spreading.” After my return to Hew York, I received a letter
from Dr. Goldsmith, informing me that on the 22 d, the day
succeeding my last visit, every part of the sore was covered with
healthy granulations.

Among the twenty cases of hospital gangrene treated in this
institution, two have died. One was a case of gunshot wound
of the knee joint, in which there was disorganizing inflamma¬
tion of the joint. The other was a case of gunshot wound of
the thigh, followed by the formation of an enormous abscess.
Doctors Irish and Octerlong say that they have had under
treatment a considerable number of cases of erysipelas of the
head and face, all of which have been treated by the topical ap¬
plication of bromine, and none of which have been followed by
a fatal result. They also say that recovery has been more rapid
on an average than under other treatment. They also speak of
large abscesses with fetid discharge, where benefit has been de¬
rived from injections of a solution of bromine.

Hospital Ho. 11.

The building was crowded, and badly ventilated. Two or three
hundred cases of erysipelas have occurred — and many of them
were fatal. After the bromine treatment was introduced, the
disease soon ceased to prevail, and no fatal cases occurred.

Dr. Strew has had under treatment in this hospital four
cases of hospital gangrene. Of this number, three have recov¬
ered. The fourth is now in the house. The sore is situated
upon the upper third of the right leg. The sloughs came away
two weeks since. The surface is now covered with exburant
granulations. It is about four inches in diameter. The cases
have all been treated by the use of bromine. Hr. Strew is well
satisfied that, in all the cases, the bromine had a happy effect.
IJe has used chiefly the compound solution. Hr. Strew also
bears testimony to the benefit resulting from bromine in the
treatment of erysipelas.

Hr. W. W. Goldsmith informed me that he had charge of the
hospital for eruptive diseases more than a year ago, when erysip¬
elas broke out among the men to a considerable extent. After
about fifty cases had occurred, bromine vapor was used in the
wards as a prophylactic, and no new cases occurred after that
time. It is proper to remark that the floors were cleansed, and
the ceilings whitewashed at the same time.

I made a cursory visit to Hospital Ho. 12, where I saw four
cases hospital gangrene, one of them affecting the stump of a leg,
one, the stump of a thigh, and two, the dorsum of the foot. All
had been treated with bromine. That on the stump of the thigh,
and one of those on the dorsum of the foot, were advanced towards
recovery. In the one affecting the stump of the leg, the prog¬
ress of the disease had been nearly arrested, but the patient
seemed likely to die from exhaustion, an immense suppurating
surface being exposed. The other case on the dorsum of the
foot was still extending by phagedemic ulceration at the margin,
and the result seemed very doubtful.

On my return to Louisville from Murfreesboro’ and Hasli-
ville, I visited this hospital again. The sore on the stump of
the leg was granulating throughout, and the condition of the

patient appeared quite hopeful. In the case of gangrene upon
the dorsum of the foot, I found that the disease had spread con¬
siderably beyond its former hounds, and a new gangrenous spot
had broken out upon the leg. I regarded the prognosis as
decidedly unfavorable.

Doctor Stamford, the surgeon-in -charge of this hospital, has
treated cases of hospital gangrene with bromine, and with the
exception of the foot case above alluded to, the disease has in
all of them been promptly arrested. He attributes his- bad
success in this case to the want of pure bromine, which he could
not obtain for several days.

I also made a cursory visit to Hospital Ho. 1, where I saw a
case of hospital gangrene on the leg, where bromine had been
imperfectly applied by an unskillful assistant, by means of a
wooden spatula. Directions were given to make a more
thorough and efficient application. On the 21st of April, I saw
this case again, and found that the sore was free from sloughs,
and in full granulation, except at a point about as large as a
thumb nail, at the lower part, where the slough was not yet
detached. Dr. Worthington, the surgeon-in-charge, has treated
12 cases of hospital gangrene with bromine, and has been suc¬
cessful in all of them. He ipakes the application twice a day
to such cases as require it.

There are no -wounds more recent than those which were
inflicted at the battle of Stone’s river, on 31st December, 1862.
There have been five cases of hospital gangrene, of which none
have died. All have been treated by the use of bromine ap¬
plied to the part. The compound solution, pure or diluted, has
been ejected under the skin, and the sore filled with picked lint
moistened with the bromine solution.

hen the solution was weak, it did not seem to produce
much effect. When the compound solution was of full strength,
the effect was prompt and marked.

Several cases of pyaemia, some of them with thoracic wounds,
the bromine solution was ejected, it corrected the factor, and
was followed by some improvement in the general symptoms.
These cases died. The inference which Dr. Goldsmith drew
from .these cases was, that the bromine exerted a controlling
influence over the proper pyaemia or septaemia symptoms, and

that it would have been followed by recovery, but for the
thrombi, and the . metastatic abscesses which had already
formed. He did not, however, furnish any evidence on this
point which was satisfactory to me.

About fifteen cases of hospital gangrene have been treated in
this hospital. Several of them are still under treatment. The
sores are all granulating, and some of them nearly cicatrized.
From the reports and appearances, I suppose that they have
been genuine cases. Bromine has been used in all the cases.
Only one has died, and his death was attributed to chronic
diarrhoea. In all cases, in which the application reaches
throughout the sloughy parts, the foetor ceases at once. In
some cases, several days elapse, before the spread of the gan¬
grene is arrested. In most cases, the gangrene ceases to spread
very soon after the application is made, and within three or four
days, the sloughs are usually thrown off. The constitutional
treatment is supporting ; ale being the stimulant chiefly used.
The diet is generally solid, consisting of beef, chickens, eggs,
&c. During the spreading stage of the gangrene, some of the
patients suffered considerable pain ; others, not. Opium was
given in moderate doses for the relief of pain ; e. g., half a grain
of sulph. morphine at bed-time.

Park Barracks,

How used as a convalescent hospital, having about 170 beds.
Before Dr. Keefer went there, erysipelas was very prevalent,
and very fatal. He commenced the use of bromine solution
as a disinfectant, and from that time no cases occurred, except
in one room where the disinfectant was not employed.

Dr. Cummings, Demonstrator of Anatomy in the Kentucky
School of Medicine, in the early part of March had a patient,
thirty years of age, a blacksmith, who was affected with dip-
tlieria. There was a thick deposit on the velum, tonsils, and
posterior wall of the pharynx, complicated with inflammatory
swelling of the tongue. He could not swallow, and his respira¬
tion was difficult. Dr. Cummings dissolved forty drops of
bromine in an ounce of alcohol, and put it into a quinine bottle ;
he inserted a bent tube into the cork, and caused the patient to

inhale the vapor frequently, for an hour or two at a time.
There was a marked improvement at once; the patient was
able to swallow within twelve hours, and he rapidly recov-
ered.

Dr. Branders, a German practitioner, in Louisville, informed
me that he had treated two very severe cases of scarlatina ma¬
ligna by the vapor of bromine diffused through the room.
He dropped pure bromine on the floor, a number of times in the
course of the day. Great improvement was observed within
twelve hours, and speedy recovery followed. Dr. Branders also
informed me, that he had treated four cases of diptheria in
patients of the age of four, nine, eleven, and fifteen years ; they
were all bad cases. Twenty drops of the compound solution of
bromine was diluted with an ounce of water, and the liquid
applied by means of swabs three times a day. There was well
marked and immediate improvement in all the cases, followed
by rapid recovery.

On the 21st of April, I visited the Hospital Prison, Ho. 2,
at Louisville. I saw there a confederate soldier, who was
wounded on the 31st December, 1862, at Stone’s Biver. Pri¬
mary amputation of the right leg was performed on the battle¬
field. He was admitted in the hospital on the 14th March, at
which time his stump was nearly healed. Hospital gangrene
attacked the stump on the 12th April. Hemorrhage occurred .
on the 16th, and Dr. Weeks tied the posterior tibial artery
which was exposed at the bottom of the sloughy surface. Bro¬
mine wras applied immediately afterwards, and since that time
the application has been repeated three times a day. Pure
bromine was applied during the first two days, and after that
time, the compound solution. The sloughing is arrested
throughout nearly the whole surface; it continues at one of two
points. The ligature came away on the 20th April, and there
has been no hemorrhage since it was applied.

Dr. Goldsmith informed me, that this was the fourth case in
which arteries had been tied, in the midst of parts affected with
gangrene, and in which bromine had subsequently been ap¬
plied. He stated that complete success had followed the
application in all these cases.

Dr. Kyle, one of the assistant surgeons who accompanied me

in my visit to the wards of this hospital, showed me a very
formidable case of what had been hospital gangrene, involving
the anterior part of the shoulder and chest, where he had used
bromine during the sloughing stage, and the sloughs had been
thrown off very speedily. He had applied lint wet with the
compound solution of bromine. lie also showed another case,
on the leg, which he had treated successfully by means of nitric
acid. Dr. Kyle is not prepared to express an opinion as to the
relative merits of bromine and nitric acid. He thinks that
the inhalation of bromine vapor is very irritating to the lungs ;
he has found it so in his own case, and Dr. Seymour was very
unpleasantly affected by it.

I saw in this hospital four cases of hospital gangrene. The
first case was in connection with a gunshot fracture of the thigh.
The gangrene began to show itself day before yesterday. Bro¬
mine has been applied three times a day. The swelling has
began to subside ; a line of demarcation is forming ; the fcetor is
corrected, and evidently a favorable change is taking place. The
second case is one involving the stump of the right thigh ; am¬
putation was performed oh the 3d March, and the patient was
doing well until the 2d April, when the stump was attacked
with hospital gangrene, and was opened throughout nearly its
whole extent. Under the application of bromine, the slough
was speedily separated, and the sore began rapidly to granulate.
The third case involved the stump of the left thigh. Amputa¬
tion was performed on the 21st March, and the stump was
attacked by hospital gangrene, five days afterward. Bromine
was applied, and the gangrenous process was at once arrested.
The fourth case was on the site of a gunshot wound of the neck.
Secondary hemorrhage occurred, and was arrested by ttlie appli¬
cation of persulphate of iron ; two weeks afterwards, hospital
gaiigrene occurred, and was promptly arrested by bromine.
There is now a granulating surface, about three inches in diam¬
eter, over the lower part of the neck, the upper part of the
sternum and the inner part of the left clavicle.

Dr. Bacon, one of the assistant surgeons, has been in the
hospital two months, and has treated fifteen cases of hospital
gangrene ; he considers bromine as the remedy par excellence.

There have been in this hospital ten cases of hospital gangrene,
some of them of great severity ; they have all been treated with

bromine. Dr. Bill and bis assistants have regarded bromine as
preferable to all other applications. I saw one of the cases, pre¬
senting a very large chasm, exposing four or five inches of the
tibia, whose surface was in a state of necrosis. In that case, the
patient was convalescent from pneumonia, and had had no wound
of the leg, but a small vesicle formed on the surface, and gan¬
grene rapidly made its appearance, although, at the time, there
were no cases of gangrene in the ward. The bromine was ap¬
plied as soon as it could be obtained, viz., after the lapse of three
or four days, and it promptly arrested the extension of the gan¬
grene. Dr. B. has had no experience in the treatment of
erysipelas with bromine.

The surgeon has had, in all, six or eight cases of hospital gan¬
grene, of which three have been treated with bromine, and the
remainder with nitric acid. He thinks that nitric acid has been
more efficacious than bromine. Dr. W. has had twelve or fifteen
cases of erysipelas, of which none have been treated with bro¬
mine.

There have been but three cases of hospital gangrene, and one
of pyaemia.

I saw, also, at my visit to the hospital, a case in which there had
been hospital gangrene ; the sore is now in a state of granula¬
tion. It is situated on the inner side of the left thigh, below its
middle. On the first January, the patient received a flesh
wound, and, about the 10th February, a gangrenous spot ap¬
peared, and was treated with bromine until the 20th March, the
disease not being fully arrested during all that time. The pa¬
tient was then put under the influence of chloroform ; the leg
was covered with adhesive plaster, except immediately over the
sore, a quantity of simple cerate was placed around the edges of
the sore, the edge thoroughly scarified, and concentrated nitric
acid applied to the surface of the sore, and injected with a glass
syringe under its margin in all directions. A solution of bicar¬
bonate of soda was then poured upon the sore, and an alkaline
poultice applied for twenty-four hours. In three days, the whole
of the diseased part sloughed out, and from that time there has
been no recurrence of sloughing, and steady progress has been
made towards recovery.

Dr. Gunn and myself were both of the opinion that the appli¬
cation of bromine had not been made with as much care and
3

thoroughness as that of the nitric acid. We stated that opinion
to the surgeon, and he acknowledged that it was as we rep¬
resented it. There have been two other cases of hospital gan¬
grene treated in this hospital ; in both of these, the bromine
treatment was ineffectual, and in both, amputation was resorted
to, and was followed by a fatal result. Within three months
there have been forty-three cases of erysipelas, of which one
case proved fatal. Many of the cases were treated with bromine,
and many without it, and with equal success. Whether bromine
was used or not, the muriated tincture of iron was given inter¬
nally, and great importance was attached to it as a remedy.
Chlorine was chiefly used as a disinfectant. Bromine was em¬
ployed, to some extent, for the same purpose.

Since my return from New York, I have received a letter
from Dr. Ewing, dated April 26th, informing me that he had
been led to review the unfavorable opinion which he had formed
as to the efficiency of bromine in the case of hospital gangrene.
He had, within the preceding week, employed the remedy in a
bad case, applying it carefully, by means of a syringe, to every
part of the diseased surface, and renewing the application morn¬
ing and evening. Within two days, healthy granulations ap¬
peared, and then he made the application only to those parts
which were not granulating. He concludes his account of this
case by saying, “ the sore— a very extensive one — is rapidly fill¬
ing up, and I have no doubt of a speedy recovery.” Dr. Ewing
mentions that he had seen and heard of other cases, during the
week, treated successfully with bromine.

There had been, in this hospital, six well-marked cases of
hospital gangrene. In two cases the patients have recovered,
two died, and in the remaining two cases, amputation was per¬
formed. Bromine has been applied in all the cases, but no benefit
seems to have been derived from its use. There have been a
number of cases of erysipelas. Idiopathic and traumatic cases
have been about equally numerous. The bromine solution has
been applied in some cases, but it has not been regarded as of
any special utility. There have been no cases of pyaemia.

The surgeon-in-charge has seen bromine used in the treat¬
ment of hospital gangrene and erysipelas. As a local applica¬
tion in hospital gangrene, he thinks that it has been beneficial,

but less so than Maunsell’s solution of persulpliatic of iron,
which has removed all the sloughs by three applications. lie is
of the opinion that bromine is of no service in erysipelas,
lie is satisfied that it does not prevent the spread of erysipelas
in the wards, and that it overtakes the bronchial mucous mem¬
brane. The surgeon has had but one case of hospital gangrene ;
it was successfully treated by the local application of nitric acid,
and by the internal use of tonics and stimulants. He has had
no experience of the bromine treatment.

There have been three cases of erysipelas, of which two
were idiopathic and one traumatic. They all did well, being
treated with tonics and stimulants. He attaches no importance
to local applications.

Dr. Woodward, the surgeon, has been in charge since March
7th. At that time, there were thirteen cases of hospital
gangrene, in most of which the sloughs had begun to separate.
There have since been introduced eight cases which were in an
active state, viz. : 1 on March 20th, 1 March 24th, 3 April 1st,
and 3 April 12th. The three which were admitted on the 12th
April I saw to-day (April 15th).

One of them presented two large gangrenous sores near the
upper part of the thigh, viz., one on the anterior surface, and
the other on the outer and posterior surface, with a bridge of
skin from two to three inches wide between them. The gan¬
grene, in this case, had attacked the orifices of a gun-shot wound,
penetrating the fleshy part of the thigh.

In the second case there were two gangrenous sores near the
upper part of the leg, in connection with compound fracture of
the tibia, occasioned by a bullet passing through the limb. The
two gangrenous sores were connected with each other by a deep
sinus passing through the fractured bone.

The third case was one of gangrene, involving the outer part
of the stump, in a case of amputation below the knee.

These were all well marked and severe cases of hospital gan¬
grene. When I saw these cases on Wednesday, the base of the
Sore in each case was nearly free from, slough, but the edges were
undermined, and presented a sloughy and undermined appear¬
ance. They had all been treated by the surgeon with the
bromine solution since their admission on the preceding Sunday.

On Wednesday I saw his manner of dressing them. He first
cleansed the sores by allowing water from a sponge to trickle
over them. He then injected water beneath the margin, so as to
wash away all the offensive fluids from the surface of the sore.
Then he filled a small glass syringe with the compound solution
of bromine, and carefully injected it beneath the margin in all
directions, and into all the sinuses communicating with the sores.
The patients complained of a severe burning pain, which, after
a few minutes, diminished ; but they informed me that, on
former occasions, they had suffered more or less all night. The
surgeon states that in all cases which he has treated with bromine,
the sloughing process has been checked within two or three
days, and that, within a week, in every instance, the sore has
been in full granulation. After the application, he uses a poul¬
tice of flaxseed, mixed with tartaric acid and bicarbonate of soda,
so as to secure the evolution of carbonic acid ; he also adds yeast
when it can be obtained. Dr. W. also gives bromine internally,
until the constitutional symptons begin to amend. He gives one
to one and a half drops of pure bromine with a drachm of gly¬
cerine, once 4, 5, or 6, hours. He also attends to the details of
the treatment himself, and does not trust to assistants. He has
compared the bromine treatment with that by nitric acid and
other means, and is satisfied that the bromine treatment is by far
the most effectual. On Thursday, April 16tli, I saw again the
three cases hospital gangrene. There was an improvement in all
of them since the previous day. But in the second case, the one
connected with compound fracture of the tibia, .there was an of¬
fensive odor, evidently proceeding from the sinus passing through
the fractured bone. Dr. Gunn passed an eye probe through this
sinus, and then Dr. Woodward drew through the sinus a narrow
strip of bandage, whose extremity had been dipped in the bromine
solution.

On Friday I saw these three cases for the last time. In the
second case, the offensive odor which had been observed on the
previous day, had entirely ceased, and this, as well as the case,
appeared entirely free from gangrenous and phagedenic action.
There was then applied to their margins a mixture of one part of
compound solution of bromine with parts of glycerine. The first
case was also greatly improved, but some parts of the margin

were still somewhat undermined and sloughy. There seemed to
me to be a good prospect that the disease would rapidly yield to
the treatment.

The surgeon of this hospital has used bromine as an applica¬
tion in erysipelas, both in its pure state and in the form of com¬
pound solution. He is well satisfied that it stays the progress of
the disease, hastens its cure, and diminishes its mortality ; also,
that it arrests the progress of the disease in the wards of a hos¬
pital. lie has treated six cases of diptheria in an aggravated
form by the use of bromine, and with entire success. One of
these cases was attended with extreme dyspsena, and with
absolute inability to swallow, the patient being threatened with
instant death. In that case he thrust into the throat a whale¬
bone probang, the sponge of which was moistened with pure
bromine. The immediate effect was to produce terrible spas¬
modic coughing, speedily followed by separation of the deposit,
and great relief of the symptoms. Within half an hour he was
in a pleasant sleep, and he was soon convalescent. He inhaled
the vapor of bromine, and took the remedy internally for two or
three days. The other five cases were treated by the inhalation
of bromine vapor, and swabbing the throat with the compound
solution. I regret to hear that the surgeon of this hospital has
been removed from the charge of the hospital, and ordered back
to his regiment, as there are scarcely any of the surgeons in
charge of our military hospitals who understand the use of
bromine as well as he does/and who take as much interest in
investigating its effects.

I have recently received a letter from him, dated April 30th,
in which he informs me that there had been no return of the
sloughing process, in either of the three cases of hospital gan¬
grene which I have above alluded to, and that the two worst
cases, viz., that involving a flesh wound of the thigh, and the
one connected with a compound fracture of the tibia, were both
rapidly healing. The other cases, involving a stump of limbs ampu¬
tated below the knee, had become complicated with hemorrhage,
by which the patient’s strength had been much reduced.

Before closing this report, I beg leave to present a brief sum¬
mary of the facts and opinions which I was able to collect with
regard to the efficacy of bromine and its compounds as a pro-

phylactic therapeutic agent, in the treatment of hospital gan¬
grene, erysipelas, and pyaemia. As far as my personal observa¬
tion went, hospital gangrene was the only one of these diseases,
in which I was able to subject the alleged virtues of this reme¬
dial agent to the scrutiny of my own senses. I had ample op¬
portunity of satisfying myself that the disease denominated
hospital gangrene in the hospitals which I inspected, was fully
entitled to that appellation, possessing all the leading characters
which are everywhere recognized as belonging to that disease.
I had also abundant evidence from my own observations, that
bromine exerted a prompt and well-marked curative influence.
As far as the testimony of others on this subject is concerned, I
found a remarkable discrepancy of opinion. But I was satisfied,
from the investigations which I made, that those surgeons who
were most skeptical as to the curative power of bromine, had
had a very limited experience in its use, or had not properly
learned the mode of employing it. I am not prepared to say
with absolute confidence, that bromine will more promptly, more
safely, and more certainly arrest mthe progress of hospital gan¬
grene, than any other remedy. But I do express the confident
opinion, that it is an agent of great power ; and if I were suffering
myself from hospital gangrene, my present impression of the
virtues of bromine is such, that I would prefer the employment
of bromine to that of any other application with which I am
acquainted.

With regard to the use of bromine in erysipelas, I have had
scarcely any opportunity of observing for myself its prophylac¬
tic or curative power. But the weight of testimony which I
have collected is decidedly in its favor.

The power of bromine as a deodorizer is very obvious. I am
inclined to think that it exceeds that of any other known agent.

I have had no opportunity of observing the effects of bromine
in the treatment of pyaemia and of diptheria. The testimony
of others on this point, which I have been able to collect, is also
very limited. There are, however, a few facts stated in the
report, which lead me to believe that the remedy is worthy of
further trial.”

A. 0. R

(E.)

LETTER TO THE MILITARY GOVERNOR

ON THE

SANITARY CONDITION OF WASHINGTON.

SANITARY COMMISSION,

Department of Special Inspection of the General Hospitals of the Army .

Washington, February 16, 1863.
Brigadier-General Jno. II. Maktindale, U. S. Army, Governor
of the Military District of Washington.

General,— By request of your Adjutant-General, Oapt. Ed¬
ward G. Parker, I respectfully submit to you some suggestions
in regard to the sanitary condition of this district, and of the
danger that the approaching season may develope to the detri-
ment'of the very large civil, military, and hospital population
now accumulated in it, not only the diseases incident to the
climate and season, but also those which ordinarily follow a ne¬
glect of the well known laws of health. The principal sources
of danger are the folio wine; :

1st. The accumulation of large numbers of men and animals
in confined locations.

2d. The accumulations of filth, such as vegetable and animal
offal, consequent on the above.

3d. The entire neglect of cleansing operations in the yards,
lanes, and streets ot the city, especially the very deficient
drainage.

4tff The nuisance of a shallow, and neglected, and filthy
canal in the heart of the city, a receptacle of the sewers, and a
place of deposit for dead horses, &c.

5tli. Tlie marshy and stagnant water in many vacant lots,
some of them— as in North Capitol street— near large hospitals,
the want of drainage of which have rendered many parts of the
city, as that near the President’s house, malarious spots, pro¬
ducing intermittent, remittent fevers, and jaundice.

6th. The accumulation of the sick in large numbers is a very
powerful means, unless proper sanitary measures are taken, of
intensifying all 'the ordinary and extraordinary causes of disease.

As most, if not all of these sources of disease may be either
removed, or their power of mischief materially curtailed, by
efficient sanitary measures intelligently and persistently en¬
forced, I respectfully suggest the adoption to that end of any or
all of the following, viz. :

1st. To establish, lay out, and construct, by competent en¬
gineers, a complete and thorough system of underground drain¬
age, capable of being flushed by the water of the aqueduct or
by the rains ; beginning with every house and terminating only
in the deep water of the Potomac.

2d. That the yards, lanes, courts and streets of the city
should be effectively cleansed, and the debris carted away ; this
operation to be repeated often enough to keep all its parts
clean.

3d. The canal should be no longer used as a great drain or
cesspool, and should be discontinued, and filled up so far as is
not necessary to the uses of commerce ; the rest should be
deeply dredged, fitted up with tide gates, and kept as a full
basin.

4th. The unpaved streets and swampy lots should be filled up
to a proper drainage level by some dry material, such as sand,
ashes, or gravel ; and the streets, when practicable, should be
paved with stone.

5th. The vicinage of the great hospitals should be well
« policed,” the drains especially cared for, and no accumulation
of filth allowed upon the neighboring grounds..

6th. The knackers yards, stables and barracks, common lodg¬
ing houses and hotels, should be frequently inspected, and no
accumulations of offal or overcrowding permitted in them.

•v

7th. The civil and military patrolmen, or police, should be
made responsible for the cleanly condition of their respective
precincts.

8th. These regulations should be enforced by a competent
health officer, who should also have power to abate, summarily,
any nuisance j and to call upon the appropriate departments to
aid him in the execution of the same.

Yery respectfully,

Henry G. Clark.

•

♦ *

XT. S. SANITARY COMMISSION, No. 80.

LETTERS

FROM THE

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

WRITTEN DURING THE MONTH OF MAY, 1864,

TO SEVERAL OF THE

SUPPLY CORRESPONDENTS

OF THE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

ALFEED JY BLOOE,

ASSISTANT SECRETARY.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :

McGILL L WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.

1864.

ferent campaigns of the war. A couple of rudely constructed
wharves, a mile or so apart, jut out into the placid waters
of the broad creek, and lying against these, four or five
deep, are steamers and barges of all kinds and sizes, loading
and unloading so busily that you might imagine yourself on
the docks of Boston, .ISTew York, or Philadelphia. Boxes,
barrels, and bales pass from the holds and decks of the ves¬
sels, on the shoulders of long strings of contrabands, or on
trucks, along the crazy wharf to the beach, and are there
transferred to army wagons, which, after being filled, join
the procession of similar vehicles, each drawn by four stout
horses that, with few gaps in the long road up the ascent
and along its crest, wind slowly and toilsomely, as far as
the eye can reach, towards Fredericksburg, and the interja¬
cent camps. So far as the vessels and wharf are concerned,
the scene resembles the unloading of vessels in a seaport
town ; but in a seaport town, one does not — in peace times,
at least — see hosts of uniformed and armed men tramp from
the decks along the wharves to join the hosts preceding
them; nor does one see regiments of troopers tugging at
the reins of unmanageable horses, that plunge fiercely among
the swaying masses of humanity and the unflinching masses
of merchandise that line their way. But what can there be
to load vessels with in an out-of-the-way creek, running up
into a country from the hill of which one may look all
round to the horizon without one’s eyes resting on a
human habitation ? — a permanent habitation, I should say, for
every strip of land in sight that is not covered with trees is
dotted with tents and bivouacs and army wagons, beneath
the canvas and boughs of which are sheltered, as much as
may be in the fast-falling rain, such multitudes of weary
men as, if collected into houses and streets, would fill many
villages, and turn the wilderness into a “ populous Yo.”
Thank goodness, when the spectator next watches the load¬
ing of a vessel in a commercial town, he will see nothing of
what he now sees at this warfaring port of Belle Plain. All
day long, and the day before, and several days before that,

the ascending procession of wagons filled with rations and
of infantry and cavalry that have gone to reinforce Grant
has been met by a parallel line, a little way off— for the im¬
promptu roads are too narrow to admit of vehicles passing
each other — of ambulances filled with wounded men; and it
is with these men, carried on stretchers from the’ ambu¬
lances, that the “ outward bound” vessels are loaded.

It is indeed a sad sight ; but there is a great satisfaction
in reflecting that one is standing in the midst of all kinds of
comforts and delicacies, to reinforce the stock which has
already been provided for these very men, and in recog¬
nizing within hailing distance a handsome flag, inscribed
with the words “IT. S. Sanitary Commission,” streaming
from its staff, on the deck of a portly barge, comfortably
lined with numberless good things for wear and diet, at that
very moment— we can imagine with a strength equal to
conviction, for not even “with the aid of a powerful glass”
can our point of sight enable us to discern behind the inter¬
vening boxes and barrels — -under process of distribution to
the poor fellows, as they are carried past to the boats that
are about to convey them to Washington.

It is now dark. The rain has somewhat abated, but even
if it poured as much as ever, it would not be possible to
restiain the ladies from entering at once on their self-
imposed duties. So I help them into a boat, and we are
rowed to the dock, and are soon on board our barge, or
stoi e-boat as it is called. But the procession of wounded
men is over for the night, and those that have come before
are on their way to Washington, while those in transitu from
the battle-field are resting in wayside stations, or in the
ambulances conveying them — a poor way for wounded and
soie men to pass the night, but such as the cruel necessities
of war render unavoidable. Dr. Steiner tells us that the
nearest of the Commission’s feeding lodges is some half
mile up the hill, and that its capacity will not admit of any
more attendance than that with which it is already supplied.
As the ladies come to render aid where it is needed, not to

supplant that which is previously provided, they think it
advisable not to wade up to the lodge knee-deep in Vir¬
ginia mud, nor do they consider that the cause of humanity
demands the waking up of some poor fellows who are wait¬
ing the next boat, and the administering to them of pound¬
cake, pics, and surreptitious draughts of bad whisky ; so we
presently get into the row-boat again, and the ladies are
before long occupying the pilot house — thepoliteand ejected
captain seeking other quarters — while the men dispose them¬
selves for the night upon the decks, those that have rubber
coats or blankets to keep off the rain, now descending faster
than ever, feeling their great advantage over those who,
rubberless, vainly seek dry spots whereover there are no
leaking places in the ceiled roof.

The next morning — very early indeed, the sleeping accom¬
modations offering few inducements to people of sybaritic
tendencies — the Relief Agents fire almost all started forFred-
ericksburg, and our small party enter the lists as Relief
Agents on the spot. The scene of yesterday is renewed in
all its details, and as the wounded men are borne in, hour
after hour, in one long string, the pale and often blood¬
stained occupant of every stretcher is furnished, according
to his needs, by one or other of the party, with crackers,
beef-tea, coffee, wine, water, or lemonade. The wine and
lemonade are given only on the advice of a medical man,
and sometimes the one is intensified into brandy, and the
other into the unmixed juice of the lemon. But for men
exhausted with lying on the battle-field for many hours,
sometimes for a day or two, without food or drink, thence
passed to the operating table, and thence to the ambulance,
the other things may be given, in most instances, in such
quantities as they crave. Poor fellows, they clutch at
them— but always with a “ thank you as if they thought
they could swallow the basket or bottles along with the con¬
tents, but a few mouthfuls is generally all they have strength
to manngo. It is best for each one of such a relief party to
coniine oneself to the distribution of a single article— the

cracker man never trenching on the lady’s coffee pail, and
the coffee lady leaving the beef-tea religiously to another.
Infinitely more may be done by systematically pursuing
this plan of speciality. If, when the beef-tea is bein^
carried round, some poor fellow shakes his head, and im¬
ploringly asks for water or stimulant, one must not set
down the beef-tea to be kicked over before one gets back,
and rush off to spend half an hour in searching for water or
stimulant, so depriving a hundred men of beef-tea, for the
sake of trying to get one man something which will probably
be furnished him by the allotted water or whisky bearer in
three minutes after. One must humanely harden one’s
heart, and say with stern tenderness, “Yes, my boy, all
right, a lady will be along with some delicious iced water in
a minute or two and he will probably smile and say,
“ Thank you, sir, all right, I can wait. Say, mister, there’s
a fellow right acrost there — that one with his leg off and his
head bound up, he belongs to my company — he ain’t had
nothing to eat since the day before yesterday. I guess he’d
like some o’ that ’ere stuff. Won’t you please give him
some ?”

But the giving of sustenance is not all the work. One
man complains of his head being too low, and his overcoat
has to be rolled up — or, failing that, the straw around him
has to be gathered up — so as to form a pillow for him. (The
pallets and bedding have given out, though the first boat
loads sent off* were as comfortably provided for as if in the
wards of a general hospital, and the men we are tending
are lying on the docks on straw; but this they count luxury
after the battle-field and ambulance.) Another wants a
handkerchief, and another a pair of socks. This man’s shirt
is all torn and bloody, and must be replaced by another.
One man complains of the intolerable heat, and some of his
clothing must be removed ; another is shivering with cold,
and more clothing, or an extra blanket, must be provided
for him. Here is one who feels the hand of death upon
him, and the head of that one of our party who is tending

liim is bent down to catch from his white lips his last mes'^
sage to his friends. Five minutes after, the blanket drawn
smoothly over the face, arid the quiet of the lately restless
limbs, show that the weary soldier has fought his last battle
and entered into his rest.

Continually through the day our party has met others en¬
gaged in a like work, but all too busy and preoccupied to
notice each other, unless to render some necessary act of
joint assistance to a sufferer, till one is met who labored
with some of the party at Gettysburg, and perhaps else¬
where. He joins us in our rounds, and when at night I ask
him if he knows what has been done with the bodies of those
I have seen die through the day on the boats and on the
wharf, he tells me that he has helped that day to bury, and
has read the funeral service over— die is, or is going to be,
a clergyman — the bodies of over sixty soldiers.

We k&ve, thus administering to the poor fellows’ needs,
traversed the decks $nd cabins and every foot of superfices
available for the outstretched or partially recumbent form
of a man, of four vessels \ and now, f°r some cause, there
is a lull in the arrivals and the turmoil. ThiS gives us time
to look at our watches, and to our amsz epaept, we it
is five o’clock instead of eleven or twelve, as we fancied*
Thereupon we apprehend that it is no wonder we are faint*
considering we have been working so hard all day on our
six o’clock breakfast of crackers and ham. A sumptuous
repast of crackers — not indeed the magnificent Boston edi¬
ble, but a softer and inferior sort — and coffee is forth¬
with disposed of, and during the repast we discover that
there is a suspension of ambulances and stretchers to allow
the passage of some thousands of rebel prisoners from Dixie
to the land of the free in Fort Delaware and elsewhere, the
freedom of such strongholds being the kind they seem most
to appreciate. Pretty soon there marched along, under
guard, three men dressed in rebel gray, and unarmed. Except
for the black feather, cavalier fashion, across the front of the
hat, and for the three stars on the upturned collar of one of

them, they might have been taken, so far as dress was con¬
cerned, for privates; but these insignia showed the rank of
a brigadier general in the Confederate service. This was
General Stuart, a handsome fellow, some thirty-five years
old, I should judge; and who endeavored to conceal his
feelings beneath a jaunty and somewhat defiant manner.
His older companion, wrapped up in a gray overcoat, with¬
out any insignia of rank visible, and whose grizzly hair
showed through sundry rents the most “ shocking bad hat”
I ever saw, is Major General Johnson; and the third pris¬
oner is his adjutant general. Being brought to a halt they
sit down on some boxes, and Johnson draws from his pocket
a copy of the Washington “ Morning Chronicle,” and,
picking out the war news, reads something in a low tone to
Stuart, who answers by a nervous laugh. hTot placing im¬
plicit confidence myself in the war news of most of our
newspapers, I fancy they may have discovered some slight
mistake, and therefore feel no inclination to resent their
raillery, but the crowd around are not so lenient, probably
thinking strongly on the subject of Belle Isle and Fort Pil¬
low', and the murmurs increase until there is, for a minute,
danger of violence being offered to the prisoners ; but a few7
stern words from the captain of the guard and the ringing
of the bayonets of the latter soon restore order, and the
generals and adjutant are marched quietly off to the boat
that is to convey them to Fort Delaware, or wherever else.
In a little w7hile they are followed by a multitude of rebel
pfficers----four hundred in number it id said— of every rank
from colonel to second lieutenant, but none with any marks
of rank detectable^ except in the few cases w7here the coat
collar w7as turned up, or where one or two, more dandyfied
than the rest, had decorated the lapels of their coats with
their insignia. At first I thought they were privates, for
even apart from their dress, they presented,, in the mass,
little evidence of superiority to the rank and file of oi?r men,
but I was told that the large body of their fellow-prisoners
pf the rank and file who followed them — they came shortly

after, but I was too busy to look at them— were decidedly
inferior to them in all respects. One of them, almost a boy,
entered into a political argument with one of his guards,
an old sergeant from New York, who stood by me, embra¬
cing the questions of slavery, the constitutional right of
secession, &c., and which, notwithstanding my suggestion
that if verbal argument had proved of any avail to settle
the differences between the North and South they who were
now disputing would not have been called upon to fight
each other, finally grew general and warm, and was only
finished by the party being marched off to their quarters.

The arrival of the prisoners had brought a new set of
claimants on the stores of the Commission, not wounded
nor sick, but very hungry men, who had been guarding the
prisoners since the evening before, and many of whom had
had nothing to eat during that time. Considering that the
mission of the Commission, like that of quinine, is not only
cuiative, but rather and mainly prophylactic, I dispensed
to them of crackers, according to their needs, but they made
no demands, of course, on the delicacies.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party had renewed on another
boat, which was preparing to leave, and was fast being filled up
with fresh arrivals of wounded, their labors of the forepart
of the day. It was in my programme to start for Freder¬
icksburg the next morning, but Dr. Agnew, one of the
Doard of the Commission, who had been at Belle Plain
since our first boat got there, thought it best that I should
get back at once to Washington to show Mr. Knapp, of
large experience in the relief work of the Commission du¬
ring the Peninsular campaign, the abundant reasons for his
immediately leaving the ofiice for this field ; and so I re¬
turned hither with a boat load of wounded, leaving Belle
Plain between ten and eleven, p. m., and getting to Wash¬
ington in the early morning.

When I left it was quite dark, and after helping my last
case on board, (a handsome boy who told me he would be
“seventeen come next birthday,”) and changing the shirt

he had not changed for three weeks — after washing away
from a wound in his side the blood that soiled the skin look¬
ing so fair and white beneath the sun-burnt face and neck _

I watched for a few minutes the scene spread out before me
as the vessel receded from the dock. All over the water
twinkled the lights from the many vessels, some stationary
and some steaming to and fro, while far up the hill-sides
gleamed the lights through the canvas of the tents, giving
the appearance of a large city illuminated for some festival,
the effect being heightened by the broad blaze and high
flickering flames of innumerable camp fires, like so many
feux dejoie. So we steamed up the quiet river, passing, by
and by, the house of the great man, who sotoilfully won for
his national children the rich heritage some of them would
now rend asunder ; — the moon — struggling every now and
then through the clouds which still sailed across the sky —
looking down on the white faces and ghastly wounds of those
whom their brothers had stricken down. The night watch
was but a repetition of the work of the day, and during its
weary hours the same wonderful fortitude amid their
wounds and sufferings was observable — hardly a groan or
a sigh to be heard, except from two or three who were de¬
lirious ; and even as I sat by the driver on the ambulance
which conveyed some of them from the Washington wharf
to the hospital to which they were assigned, I heard only a
low moan now and then, as the horses struggled through
the pitfalls of the city of magnificent distances.

My next letter will be written to you, I think, from Fred¬
ericksburg, and I will finish this very hastily written one by
calling your attention to the care with which I have kept
my promise of not asking for “more.” Nevertheless, after
premising that the medico-military authorities caution us
not to be too profuse at the beginning, for that the real fight¬
ing has not yet begun, I cannot do less than point my story
with a moral — but what the moral is I will leave to your own
application.

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

No. II.

U. S. Sanitary Commission,

Store Barge uW. Kennedy,” Belle Plain,

Wednesday , 5J A. fff., May 18, 1864.

Dear Miss - : Yesterday morning I left Washington in

company with the Bev. Mr. C * * * and another gentleman,
and after many hours’ delay, occasioned by taking on a load
of Government cavalry horses at Geeseborough Point, (de¬
riving its name, I apprehend, from its having been in old
times a borough infested by people who made a point of
showing what geese they were in respect to the constitu¬
tional right of secession, slavery, &c.,) I got here this
afternoon, finding Mr. Knapp in charge, and things going
on just as I described in the letter of which I sent you a
copy while I was in Washington.

Mrs. G * * * and Mrs. E * * * of New York, joined us
at the Point ; and on reaching Belle Plain (waiting a long
time outside the dock to allow the taking on board of some
hundreds of rebel prisoners, almost all, I noticed, sufficiently
well shod and clothed, notwithstanding what I have heard
to the contrary) wTe immediately relieved some of the Com¬
mission’s regular Belief Agents, and set to work in their
places.

The scene presented on the arrival of the wounded at
the Belle Plain dock after their twenty miles ride from the
battle-field over the corduroy roads and pitfalls of mud in
Virginia is heartrending, and appears under present circum¬
stances to be unavoidable. If the railroad from Fredericks¬
burg were in operation the major part of this suffering in

transitu might be saved, for not only could the patients he
carried then to Belle Plain in as many minutes as it now
takes half hours, but by having the base of supplies within
an hour’s reach, as it would be if the railroad worked, the
inconvenience and suffering arising from the long delays
caused by occasional oversights in sending articles neces¬
sary for the restoration of wounded men in critical condition
would be avoided, and they would commence the journey
better prepared for fatigue.

Fredericksburg, P. M.

Whilst I was writing, the order came to move to this
place, and our party set out, one alongside each driver of
as many ambulances, the same— empty— that brought the
wounded yesterday from the held. The reason for this
partitioning of our party was to save the poor horses, worn
out with their hard labor of the last fortnight; but, besides
us, they had to carry a couple bags of grain for forage
for the army. So we passed through the usual melee of
wounded men on litters— rebel prisoners outward bound,
reinforcements inland bound — army wagons, horses, boxes,
bales, contrabands, &c., and through the two ranges of hos¬
pital tents “on the hill,” where the night before I had helped
at the dressing of the wounds of so many poor fellows, and
had had the satisfaction of leaving most of them some hour
or so after midnight comfortably sleeping; for the surgeons
had done everything that was possible, and the kitchen and
feeding lodge of the Commission were conveniently located
at one end of them.

This ambulance journey of ten miles gave us some faint
conception of the horrors that accumulate with every rod
to the unfortunates, who, with nerves that shrink from a
feather s touch, are jolted, hour after weary hour, over the
alternate corduroy and quagmires of these horrible tracks;
for they cannot be called roads. In frequent danger of being
upset, we jolted along, getting bruised at every step; and I
could not help being gratified in reflecting that the proces-

sion of maimed and wounded men we met winding up and
down the slopes — for the whole country is a succession of
hills from which the trees have been cleared for army pur¬
poses, leaving, however, the stumps for the practice of the
teamsters in ambulance navigation — I could but feel gratified
in the reflection that the poor fellows, who, with white con¬
tracted brows and quivering fingers, held up their bloody
stumps, often undressed for several days, and crawling with
corruption, to avoid the concussions caused by the jolting
of their vehicles during the locomotary Pandemonium, were
at least sure, on reaching the dock at Belle Plain, of nourish¬
ing beef soup, or stimulating wines and liquors and coffee,
or cooling lemonade and iced water, to drink, or of fresh
water, at least, to cool their wounds, in failure of time and
opportunity to dress them before reaching'Washington, and,
I was going to say, of kind words and tender treatment from
our people, but that they have had all through their suffer¬
ings. For here let me say, in opposition I believe to the
general theory at home, that all who deal with them, the
roughest men whose every second word is an oath without
their knowing it, and who between their battles with the en¬
emy, knock each other down in play to keep their hands in,
all are as kind and tender with the wounded men as they
are with their little two-years-old girls at home, in the few
days’ furlough they get through the war. The stretcher-
bearers speak soothingly as they dislocate their own arms
in lifting them up from the battle-field, and break their own
backs in trying to hoist them gently up into the ambu¬
lances, or down from them into the surgeons’ tents,— (I am
finishing this on the 19th, at Spottsylvania, and have just
come in with the ambulance people from the hospitals and
from the field on which perhaps some five hundred of our
men fell to-day) — the surgeons worn down with overwork,
and the responsibilities resting on the conscientious man, in
whose hands, under Providence, are the issues of life and
death, use only so much firmness with their kind words as
is necessary to make them submit to take chloroform, which

some of them seem to dread, before being operated on ; the
ambulance drivers, worn down with sleepless nights, return
only the gentlest words and most conciliatory (and false) as¬
surances of a short journey and a “ bully ” road round the
next corner, to all their reproaches for carelessness in driv¬
ing ; the contrabands, who carry them along the dock, are as
amiable and unctuous as it is possible for negroes to be,
which is saying much, and when they are stretched out on
the decks like a flock of sheep, the detailed nurses — some of
them a little sick or slightly wounded themselves — step
among them as gingerly as if they were treading on eggs.

Time, tide, and the mail bag wait for no man. I close
therefore in haste.

Yours in the good work,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

No. Ill,

U. S. Sanitary Commission,

Camp near Spottsyl vania, Va.,
Friday, May 20, 1864.

Dear Mrs. - : You have, I suppose, by this time re¬

ceived the duplicate of a letter I wrote some days ago to one
of the Commission’s supply correspondents, giving an
account of a trip I had just made to Belle Plain with refer¬
ence to the relief work of the Commission in the field.

I left Washington again on Tuesday morning, and get¬
ting to Belle Plain in company with Mrs. Gr * * *, of army
hospital fame, and of Kev. Mr. C * * *, of Washington,
and others and there, in their company, feeding and min¬
istering to the ghastly crowds that were lifted out of the
constantly-arriving ambulance trains into the boats assigned
to convey them to the hospitals in Washington — I passed
to the hospital tents “on the hill,” a little way from the
dock, two long parallel rows of them, commencing on one
side with the kitchen and feeding lodge of the Commission,
whence they were without trouble constantly supplied with
hot coffee and beef-tea, iced water and lemonade, milk
punch, wines, and stimulants, farina, and whatever else in
the way of prepared sustenance was needed. Bedding,
clothing, sponges, toweling, bandages, lint, utensils of all
kinds, ^ and whatever else is required in a sick tent were
bountifully dispensed by Mr. Knapp, of long experience in
the Peninsular campaign and elsewhere in similar work,
and his assistants, from the store barge a few yards off,
alongside the dock, which barge is continually replenished

by steamers from Washington to the amount of some fifty
tons a day. The steamer on which our people principally
relied during the Peninsular campaign — the Elizabeth — has
become a household word among sanitarians, and I may
therefore mention that (true to all the experience of the
Commission, whether as regards the intelligent collectors
and forwarders or the inanimate vehicles of supplies, that
the feminine element is their main support) the name of our
new boat is the “Mary F. liapley.”

It was an hour or two after midnight before I had gone
the rounds of the hospitals, and then I had the satisfaction
of leaving most of them comfortably sleeping, after the re¬
freshment of having their hunger and thirst assuaged, their
wounds dressed, and above all, perhaps, the cessation from
their horrible journey over the rutty hills and interlying
quagmires between the battle-fields and their present place
of rest. By six o’clock the next morning (after a night
mainly occupied, so far as I was concerned, in strenuous
efforts to go to sleep in the midst of the hubbub, and in in¬
voluntary listening to the extraordinary remarks of the
contrabands, who kept up a constant stream of boxes, bar¬
rels, conversation, and guffaws past the place where I lay on
deck) we began the journey to Fredericksburg ourselves in
empty returning ambulances, and as the hours and our
bruises increased, we had an opportunity of testing the
probable feelings of wounded men undergoing such an
ordeal. But the fault is in the roads, not the vehicles. I
think the four-wheeled ambulances as good a compromise
as possible between the conditions desirable for wounded
men, and the impossibility of using lighter springed wagons
over army roads.

Arriving at Fredericksburg in the middle of the day we
found it one vast hospital. Its principal street is some mile
or more in length, with several parallel and a number of
cross streets, and nine out of ten of the houses and shops,
and all the churches and public buildings that are not de¬
molished by shell or riddled by bullets, are filled with

■>

wounded men. Even the store occupied by the “ cmbalmers
of the dead,” has many living subjects among the dead ones;
though accustomed, as they are, to death on every side, the
Patients do not perhaps consider the proximity in such an
unfavorable light as civilians would. A few doors from the
house in which Washington’s early days were passed, (and
the garden of which was, I presume, the scene of the cut¬
ting of the fruit tree by his juvenile hatchet,) Dr. Douglas,
chief of inspection of the Commission, and the volunteer
ladies and gentlemen who so zealously assist in the good
work, have their quarters, and thither, on the day i°was
there, a number of patients requiring the constant super¬
vision of some of them had been removed. Through the
open windows of the rear rooms float the odors of the flow¬
ers of early summer to the patients within, and those whose
cool pallets are in the wide hall, with its old-fashioned pan¬
elling of wood meeting the wooden block cornice of the
ceiling, look out through the open back-door upon a wilder¬
ness of roses, a large basket full of which has just been dis¬
tributed to the poor fellow’s throughout the town — most of
them grasping at them more eagerly than at the milk punch—
by one of the kind-hearted gentlemen of our party. If their
time were not so much more valuable by the side of the im¬
promptu cooking affairs and couches they have evoked from
chaos, the roses should of course have been presented by the
ladies; but at all events they came originally from a lady,
not one of “our” women, but the owner of the house, a
widowed gentlewoman who sighs that such evil days should
have fallen on the close of her eighty years’ pilgrimage, and,
like Washington’s mother, thinks that it may perhaps be a
grand thing to be a great general, but that for her part she
thinks that Lee and Grant had both much better be at home
attending to their farms than engaged in such dreadful do¬
ings. The Xorth and South have lived in peace all these
years, and why can’t they continue to do so ? What dreadful
things she could tell me of the division of families caused
by this wucked war. So and so has two sons in the Confed-

erate army, and two in the Federal. Such a happy family
they were once, and now trying to take each other’s life ;
and for her part she has been stripped of almost everything
the houses and stores in the town from which she derived
her income, have been destroyed or are appropriated to
their own uses, without payment, now by one army and
now by the other. I heard similar talk in Culpepper while
our army held it, and one hears it everywhere throughout
the border States ; and it is only here that the full horrors
of this “cruel war” can be appreciated. It is impossible— as I
think it would be unnatural— for the majority of the old peo¬
ple either South or Forth to take the partizan view which is
necessarily, for the purposes of Providence, taken by the
young and middle-aged in the two contending sections.

Found the corner from the poor old lady’s house is the
storehouse of the Commission, besieged every day on the
arrival of our wagon loads of supplies — generally some
twenty — from the base, with such crowds as compel an officer
of the Commission to enter by the back way, if he wants to
get in without waiting for an hour or two. Next door to
this is a large store used as a hospital by one of our volun¬
teer ladies, and at the back of both, conveniently accessible
to both supplies and patients, is the tent she uses as a cook
house. A door or two off is a shop used as an office by the
relief force, of which there are at present distributed
throughout the army of the Potomac some two hundred
members, under the superintendence of Mr. Fay, of Massa¬
chusetts, a volunteer throughout the war in such work.
Several other ladies and a number of physicians from civil
life have charge of hospitals in different parts of the town,
under the auspices of the Commission, and the relief agents
zealously assist them in their labors, which are Herculean, as
each fresh train of ambulances arrives from the field ; and in
those hospitals where the Government supply of surgeons
is generally equal to the demand on their skill, they — the
relief agents — still continue such ministrations as may be
carried on without medical co-operation— and these are
many.

We are in one of the church hospitals, we will suppose.
The pews are set two together, and the hacks taken off
when necessary, to form couches for the patients. The ves¬
try is turned into an operating room. In one corner of the
church is a good woman who has not quitted the half-deli¬
rious patient, whose brow she is bathing with bay-water,
for one hour in the last twenty. The altar is put to one
side, and in its place two pews cradle a young boy who
does not seem to be over fifteen years old. He was brought
in, it was supposed, in a dying condition ; but the good
Samaritan, who is just directing to the Far West a letter he
has written to the boy’s mother at his dictation, has, with
his good things and better words, brought such a light into
the boy’s eyes that he expresses the utmost confidence that
he will be able to write to his mother himself the next day,
and tell her that he is safe from the effects of this wound,
and ask her to pray that he may be spared in future battles,
and rejoin her and his sisters and brothers in their happy
Wisconsin home “when his time is out.”

Further down the town, and not far from the unfinished
tomb of Washington’s mother, standing ostensibly as a
monument to her worth, but practically as a monument to
the genius of the universal Yankee nation for chipping and
whittling, is a large, old-fashioned mansion, rich in paneled
wainscoting, carved wooden chimneys, plaster arabesqued
ceilings and tablets, and landscaped wall-paper, and in one
of its rooms lies a gray-haired man, looking dreamily out
through the open window, by which his pallet is set, on a
beautiful lawn, thickly shaded with fine old trees, that
slope down to the swampy meadow and heights beyond,
which drank up so much precious blood in the terrible
charge of December, 1862. Perhaps the fair scene before
him is like that on which he has so often looked from the
porch of his quiet home, on his far-off little Vermont farm.
But he will never look on it again, at least with his earthly
e}Tes. He will never again look at the rising of the sun,
which is now with its setting beams gilding the tree tops,

and falling through them, checkered with waving shadows,
on the lawn beneath. The wound from which most of his
life-blood has flowed has left him white and weak, but it
does not pain him; so he looks quietly round, thanking
one for having written his last letter to his “folks,” another
for shading his eyes from the sun with the fan which, until
complaining of the cold creeping over him, has been used
to cool him; and another for offering the further assistance
which he does not need. He is only a sergeant, but “ had
just as lief be a private in such a cause.” He was a deacon
in hi& town, and “done the biggest part in getting up a
comp’ny ” from it, the captaincy of which was offered him;
but he thought he hadn't “ edication ” enough to do the
“writin* part of the business,” and declined. But, thank
God, he had “ edicated ” his sons, and one of them, who had
entered the company with himself, had been promoted,
grade after grade, from the corporalship to the captaincy.
His wife had dissuaded him from “j’ining” the army at
that time, but after the Peninsular campaign “he couldn’t
stand it no longer,” had helped to get up another regiment
in his township, and now here he was. Well, he was satis¬
fied ; he was in the Lord’s hands, and he would die in the
faith that the Lord would stand by the Union and the stars
and stripes to the end. He “hadn’t a speck o’ doubt about
it.” He’d like to know if his son, the captain, whose regi¬
ment had been in the fight with his own, was still alive, but
he couldn’t find out ; and he would give all he was worth to
see his wife and daughter once more. But he had always
told them to prepare for this, and hoped the Lord would
give them strength to bear the news.

I had intended to tell you of many other incidents which
would interest you, but time fails. A mail carrier is about
to take his chance of rebel scouts and guerrillas and this will
go with him. If you get it, I will ask you to return me
a copy, when I let you know that I have got back to
Washington.

I left Fredericksburg yesterday morning by day-break,

• j

and am now seated a few rods from the headquarters of
Grant and Meade, in front of the tent of a hospitable young
officer from your city. At this time yesterday the woods
around reverberated with the cannonading and musketry
of the fight on the right of our line between General Tyler’s
division and the enemy, and to-day the surgeons have been
busy with several hundred wounded men. Another letter
either to yourself or in copy, when I get back to Washing¬
ton will tell you something more of what I have seen.

Very truly and respectfully, yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

Mo. IV.

Camp near Spottsylvania Court House, Va.,

5tii Corps, Army of the Potomac,
May 20, 1864.

Dear Miss - : You have no doubt by this time

received the copy of a letter I wrote to one of my corres¬
pondents, as the first of a series which I design to send
them from the field, in a short campaign I propose to make
with the Army of the Potomac en route for Richmond ;
having made up my mind that I can in no other w7ay so
well collect the information in regard to the operations of
the Medical Department and its satellite, the Sanitary Com¬
mission, in the field, for which I have been and am —
notwithstanding Reporter and Bulletin — so constantly asked
by those to whom the Commission is so largely indebted
for its continued existence; and which, in the informal and
individualistic shape that alone is satisfactory to most un¬
professional persons — and especially to women — has so long
been a desideratum. Whether I am in the least competent
to supply this desideratum is very questionable, hut at all
events I have set out with the intention of “ doing my
endeavors.”

A letter I began this morning, a copy of which I will
send you, along with any others I v7rite on the w7ay, wThen
I get back to Washington, will give you an idea of what I
saw in Fredericksburg.

What I see at this moment, as I look up from the box-lid
on w7hich I am writing — the empty box itself forming my

seat — is an undulating field, skirted on one side by a forest,
through the branches of the front trees of which gleams
the tent occupied as headquarters by Generals Grant and
Meade, while those of lesser dignitaries are scattered around
them. A cluster of tents, the yellow flags floating over
which indicate that they are used for hospital purposes,
stands near them ; and around that by which I am sitting
are ranged a hundred or more of ambulances and army
wagons, the horses and mules attached to which are tethered
to the poles or to the wheels. The dignity of a separate
stake driven into the ground, and of a greater length of
rope than usual, is assigned to one of the mares; and the
favoritism is accounted for by the presence of a young colt
frisking around her, which is the pet and plaything of all
the soldiers and teamsters in the neighborhood. In the
absence of the little sons and daughters, and brothers and
sisters they have left at home, they are much addicted to
pets. One sees them pass on a march with pet dogs follow¬
ing them, or with pet squirrels and rabbits, and even kittens
on their shoulders, or peeping out from under their jackets.
A little squirrel picked up in the Wilderness, where it was
cowering on the battle-field, terrified at the sound of the
artillery, belongs to one of the officers with whom I mess,
and divides attention with the colt.

A mile or two off towards the west, a large house, sur¬
rounded by a fine plantation, is burning slowly away. It
has been burning most of the day; but except that the
dome of fire formed by the flames meeting round and lap¬
ping over the cupola has been occasionally admired, the
destruction of the home of some once happy family has ex¬
cited no remark. It is only one of the daily bonfires with
which an army lights its way wherever it moves. A couple
of miles southward, on a lower and flatter plateau of land
than that on which is our encampment, stands a city of
tents, from which, last evening, as the sun sunk in the west
and the full moon rose in the east, both red and large and
dim, amid the smoke that circles the horizon like a rising

cloud when the evening camp-fires are lighted, emerged a
host of armed men, some on horse but most on foot, and
swept in two living lines, perhaps a mile long, past us, a
few hundred yards off, pushing along the level places and
the slopes to the northward-lying strip of wood, above
which rose the thick smoke of our artillery planted on this
side of it. And right past our tent, touching his hat in
return to our salute, rode General Hancock, the leader of
these men, with his staff* doubtless leaving the direct line
taken by his command, to stop at army headquarters on his
way to the field. In retaliation of an attempt made the
night before, by our people, to turn the enemy’s flank at one
end of the line, they were making a desperate attempt to
turn ours at the other end, hut were repulsed, with the loss
of several hundred men on both sides. It had been my de¬
sire to go on the field with the ambulances sent thither to
fetch away the wounded, intending to aid them in such
small ways as I might ; but, owing to some wrong informa¬
tion given me, I had no opportunity to go till after the first
load of wounded had arrived and been deposited in the hos¬
pitals. Then, jumping up by the side of one of the ambu¬
lance drivers — a youth of eighteen, and yet a “ veteran,”
like one of his comrades — now detailed as a stretcher-bearer
— who informed me that he had enlisted in the West, when
he was fifteen years old, in a two years’ regiment — had
served his time in Texas, and enlisted again, getting a bounty
of six hundred dollars, which, with the money he had saved
from his pay, enabled him to buy a house and lot and put
something away in bank; — jumping up alongside of these
specimens of military Young America, I was carried along
past camp-fires around which stood or sat the sleepless guard,
in every possible attitude of unconscious picturesqueness —
however hot the day, the nights are always cold in the fields
of Virginia ; — among sleeping men, stretched in their blan¬
kets on the ground, with or without the little strips of shel¬
ter tents over them ; over fields, ploughed or unploughed ;
across bridged or unbridged streams; through the under-

brush and tree-stumps of so-called roads in the woods, till
we came to an upland field, where the white rays of the full
moon fell on the greensward, reddened here and there with
the stains that told where the sandy soil beneath had sucked
up the blood of the brave ; and on clumps of bushes — parti¬
cularly where they grew in little dips and depressions of the
soil, ottering some security from missiles — among which the
mortally wounded had crawled to die, and where they now
lay, the death-clamps mingling with the dews of the evening
on the livid features — some placid and serene, with the eyes
closed as if in quiet sleep, and some distorted, as if in agony —
one clutching, with stiff*, immovable fingers, at his beard,
and staring with wide-distehded, glassy eyes at the moon,
as if in mute appeal to Heaven against the horrors which
had left him there to die. But the wounded had all been
carried away before we got there — some two dozen ambu¬
lances, I suppose, accompanied us — and so we started to
return, the rough teamsters stepping softly past the dead,
and now and then quietly straightening some distorted limb
or covering their faces with their hats — one, however, sub¬
stituting his own worse for the dead man’s better — but ran¬
sacking the knapsacks and overcoats, &c., which lay scat¬
tered among the bullets and pieces of shell. On our way
back we overtook numbers of the wounded who were able
to walk, as we had also met them on our way out. To-day,
in company with an officer who was in the engagement, I
have ridden over its whole line, what I saw last night being
but a small portion. The fight took place just outside our
breastworks, in strengthening which I saw hundreds of
our men busy. During the night, and early this morning,
the dead were buried. In one field I counted thirty-two
graves in a row, with three separate ones ; and in the next
field I counted a row of twenty-seven. Carefully shaped,
smooth-spaded mounds they all were, with a head-board
legibly inscribed with name, company, and regiment to
each. On the slope of a hill near by, from which the
enemy’s tents could be plainly seen through a glass, were

fourteen graves, side by side, as neatly made as the others,
but without head- boards, for they were those of rebels, and
our men who had buried them did not know the names of
the strangers. So we left those who had taken each other’s
lives lying quietly within a few paces of each other.

To-day I have seen some of the wounded of last night in
the hospital tents, as well as others who were wounded a
week ago or more in the Wilderness. Stretched on the yield¬
ing, sweet-scented pine boughs which the delightful grove,
in which the hospitals are situated, yields in abundance, I
found a couple of young brothers lying side by side, one
wounded in the arm ten or twelve days ago in one of the
fights in the Wilderness, and the other, the elder one, pros¬
trate with fever, brought on, I verily believe, from anxiety
about his younger brother. They had enlisted together in
the same company, with their widowed mother’s consent,
they said, and the senior by two years had been charged by
her to watch over his younger brother; “for, you see he’s
always been kind o’ delicate, and him and me’s always been
fond of each other, and she knowedl was strong and hearty,
and so she gin me charge of him like; and I promised to
take him back safe to her if we was both spared; and when
he was wounded I tell you I felt bad, for we had to be sep¬
arated — he was took to the hospital, and I had to stay in the
fight— and what with more fighting and marching, and one
thing and another, I did not see him again for three days,
and I did’nt durst to write to mother, for I did’nt know as
he was going to live, and couldn’t git no certain news of
him, and when I did see him he looked so awful bad and
was fretting so much because he could not git word to me,
that I come very near crying. Well, then I had to leave
him and wrote to mother the best way I could — for she’d
made us promise to write her always the bad news as well
as the good. Well, I worried and fretted, and at last I was
took with a fever, but I’m glad I was, for I got the doctor to
let me be in the same place with my brother, and he says
we’re gitting along right smart, and he’ll let us out at the

same time. So I wrote to mother, and I guess she’ll be
easy now in her mind.” I asked them if they knew where
the clean shirts they had on came from. “0 yes!” and
they pointed to the stamp— “it was printed on them; they
come from the Sanitary.” They got some “bully” things
from the Sanitary, and thought it must be a “ big thing.”
They, the Sanitary, always had houses, and tents, and wag¬
ons and stores wherever they, my interlocutors, had been
with the army in Virgin ny. Could’nt I tell them something
about it ? Which I did.

In another of the tents was a man belonging to one of
the Union Maryland regiments. He was wounded in an en¬
gagement with a rebel Maryland regiment, in which were
two of his cousins, “ the same as brothers to him — they had
all gone to school together, and lived on the next farm to
each other all their lives, till the war broke out.” I asked
him if it would not have been very disagreeable to him if
he had learnt that either of them had been shot by a bullet
from him. “Ho,” he answered savagely, “he was on the
look out for them all the time, so that he might aim at them.
He was hoping and praying all the time that his shot might
by chance reach them. He would ask for nothing better
than to shoot them, or to stick them with his bayonet-
curse the traitors.” This is but one of many instances I
have seen. When thrown together on picket or in hospital,
the Yankee boys from Massachusetts or Ohio, and the
Johnnys from Alabama and Mississippi are the best of
friends ; but the loyal Virginian scowls darkly on the rebel
Virginian, and the rebel Tennesseean has only a curse for
the loyal Tennesseean, and so of all the border States.

When you will get this depends upon the army mail-bag,
the guerrillas, the movements of Generals Grant and Lee,
and on Providence. Perhaps I may write you again before
I ojet “out of the Wilderness.”

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

Ho. V.

United States Sanitary Commission,

On the march from Spottsylyania towards the North
Anna River, Va.,

Sunday, May 22, 1864.

Dear Miss - : I have been bewailing the loss of a

saddle horse I bad expected to ride, on this march ; but
(besides the honor of occupying the same seat as that from
which Mrs. Lincoln saw Hooker’s grand review) a staff
wagon presents advantages for purposes of correspondence
quite above those to be derived from the back of a restive
animal ; and a halt, which promises to be a long one, being
ordered by the officer in command of the ambulance train,
the fortunes of which 1 am now sharing, bringing my
vehicle to a little eminence, under the thick shade of a large
tree, through the branches of which sweeps a delicious
breeze unknown to the torrid temperature a dozen feet off,
each side of me, I improve the opportunity to give you a
word or two from the field, presuming that you have received
a copy of a letter I wrote from Washington, before starting
a second time for Fredericksburg.

Most of the wounded of Thursday’s fight had been carried
to Fredericksburg, to go thence to Belle Plain, and thence
to Washington, when, yesterday morning, on rising with
the sun, I found the city of tents on the left of the army had
disappeared, and shortly afterwards orders were received by
the officers whose mess I am sharing, to be ready to march

in an hour and a half. The interval allowed I employed in
visiting the hospital tents a few rods off. They were set in
a charming grove of trees, opening on an open space, cov¬
ered with grass and herbs, across which, and through the
open leaves of the larg-e airy tents, floated every breath of
air. Under the canvas, upon pliant beds of fragrant pine
boughs, \&y stretched the victims of the late fights in the
Wilderness. The surgeon in charge, followed by steward
and nurses, was going his rounds, speaking cheerfully to
the men, most of whom looked comfortable enough in their
cool, clean shirts and drawers, marked with the omnipresent
words, “U. S. Sanitary Commission,” and generally the
name of the contributing branch or society in addition. By
the way, one of the surgeons — worn, haggard, and dirty the
night before, after the labors of the day, eighteen hours
long, upon the poor fellows who had been mangled in the
fight of Thursday evening, but now looking refreshed and
strong again, after a few hours’ sleep and a good bath —
laughingly showed me the mark on his own shirt, and asked
if I would report him for misappropriating our stores. His
only shirt was being washed of the filth and blood of ten
days’ marching and operating, and he had borrowed a “San.
Com.” one till it should be dried. What better use could
be made of it than this temporary “ misappropriation ?”
Would any woman, if she reflects that, during the alternate
marching and fighting of a campaign, during which every
ounce of transportation, even for clothing, food, or medical
stores — for anything except for what deals death — is grudged,
even to a general; during which men and officers alike are
frequently reduced to the condition of gypsies or wandering
Arabs — -would any such woman grudge the shirt she has
made for a wounded soldier, to the temporary use of the
man who is to save that wounded soldier’s life, if his own
be secured to him ? A clean shirt on the surgeon’s back,
in place of one stiffened with blood, filth, and vermin, may
go far towards saving the life of both doctor and patient.

In one of the wards is a young boy seventeen years old,

he says, supported against a pillow of pine boughs, with his
overcoat for a pillow-case, holding in his single hand,
browned and freckled with the sun, but small and finely-
formed, a small photograph hanging by a piece of string—
the ribbon that first held it has “ played out,” he says, and
he has not succeeded in getting another piece — from his
neck. As I speak to him he lifts up a very handsome face,

and as I pass my hand over his smooth white brow _ for the

vizor of his cap has saved it from the sun, that has burnt
the rest of his face— and through his soft curly hair, his
white lips quiver, and tears fill his blue suffering eyes. It is
not his sweetheart’s likeness, he says sadly, he was not old
enough to “ keep company ” when he left home — it is his
mother’s. He would not care if it were only his left hand ;
and as he lifts up the stump of his young delicate arm I
notice, alas ! that it is his right one. He has sent “ most all”
his pay to his mother and “ reckoned on” supporting her
when he should get back from the war, for his mother is a
widow, and he is the oldest of the family. She is not fit for
work — “ she had everything comfortable while father lived,”
and now — — . He is nearly breaking down, but conquers
himself as he looks down on the others around him, and goes
on nervously. He can’t even write to his mother now to tell
her what has happened, and he has always written to her
twice a week, and she will think he is dead, and — and — -.
He nearly breaks down again. I tell him I will write his
first letter for him, and that he will find plenty of kind wo¬
men and men in the comfortable hospital to which he will
be assigned as soon as he can bear removal, who will be only
too glad to write as often as he likes to his mother, and
that Hncle Sam, and San. Com., and other kind friends
will take good care of him, and that people soon learn to
use their left hands when their right ones are gone, and
their feet when both are gone — that I have seen a man
without arms, write, and cut watch papers, and sew, and
do many other things with his feet — and that the good
people in the Pennsylvania town where he came from will
3 L

find something for the left hand of a good son of a good
mother to do, &c., &c. So I leave him quite happy, and dis¬
posed to consider a duality of hands, and particularly the
right side of the duality, as rather an anomoly and incum¬
brance than otherwise.

It is a little after nine when “our division” of the 5th
corps begins to move, but according to military usage, we
only move a few rods and then rest for an hour, for no cause
perceptible to the outsider, but doubtless well considered in
the sacred precincts of headquarters. While we wait, Gen¬
erals Grant and Meade ride past with their staffs, accompa¬
nied by “ Headquarters” Guard, partly cavalry (or “calvary,”
as with unconscious irreverance it is called in the rank and
file,) and partly infantry, the latter a detachment of Zouaves
in redtrowsers and fez caps, and otherwise very showy and
picturesque uniform; and very fine it all is, with flags and
guidons streaming, and music sounding. We begin fairly to
move at last, and slowly we move along for several hours,

I do not know in how long a procession, but certainly as far
as my eye can reach both before and behind. Our road is
on the skirt of woods most of the way, and sometimes
through them rough clearings have been made in advance
by an engineering party, to save long distances by the turn¬
pike ; and for the same reason, or because the bridges have
been burned by the enemy, there are temporary bridges of
logs over runs and streams. Corduroy roads also abound.
The country is not so hilly as that I have heretofore passed
over in Virginia, and in some places w7here the arm}7 has not
yet been, the well-fenced fields ripening with corn and
grain of all kinds remind one of the thrifty farms of the
northern States. But one is soon recalled in looking at
them, from one’s visions of peace, by the booming of can¬
non every now and then, w7here some distant portion of our
force is contesting the ground with the enemy, or by the
smoke and flame ascending from some burning farm-house,
or by the rattle of musketry where the skirmishing lines of
ourselves and the enemy have met. There are frequent

halts of five, ten, or fifteen minutes in the long train of wag¬
ons and ambulances, to allow time, I suppose, for some re¬
arrangement in front, or for the passage of a regiment or
brigade across our line, and in these pauses I watch the pro¬
cession of equestrians and pedestrians on each side of me.
How bravely the poor fellows, with their knapsacks on their
backs and their muskets slung across their shoulders, com¬
mence the march, and how they droop and wilt in an’ hour
or two beneath their heavy burdens, in the fierce sun-rays,
when they cannot get into the shelter of the woods. How
often the canteen of water is applied to the mouth, and how
invariably, when they come to any sort of aqueous manifes¬
tation, no matter how muddy, they stoop down to see if the
water is drinkable, and cooler than that they already have in
their canteens. If so, they go at once through the process
of emptying and re-filling. Here comes an oflicer on horse¬
back, holding the reins loosely with one hand, and wiping
the perspiration from his forehead with the other. Behind
him is his orderly, a young porker confiscated at the last
past farm-house squeaking on one side of his saddle, and
two or three confiscated chickens cackling on the other.
A confiscated bunch of Virginia tobacco is under his arm,
a confiscated peacock feather waves from his hat, and a
huge bunch of confiscated roses adorns his button-hole.
Here comes a couple of young soldiers — brothers evidently,
for they look so much alike, that is in features. Otherwise
they differ very much. The elder is strongly built and ro¬
bust; the younger looks weak and delicate. I have passed
them, or they have passed me a dozen times during the
march, and every time they have been together, and the
elder has been carrying the knapsack, and sometimes the
musket of his younger brother. There they are at this mo¬
ment , the younger one is lying down by the fence under
the shade of the large tree on the rubber blanket which his
brother has spread for him, and is waiting for the draught
of fiesh spring water with which his brother is filling his
canteen at the foot of yonder little hillock. Here conies a

donkey led by a soldier, and laden with the box, the sack,
the frying-pan, the kettle, and the etceteras which comprise
the establishment of the officers’ mess, to which he is cook ;
and here is a small drummer boy, his red-covered lagged
little legs bestriding at right angles to its broad back the
huge ox which is to be converted into beef for his regiment,
and which he guides with admirable dexterity by a rope
fastened to each of its horns, and a switch he carries in his
hand. Now there gallops by in hot haste, with some mes¬
sage from headquarters, a young staff officer, followed by
his orderly, proudly conscious that all have to stand aside
to let him pass. Close behind him follows a dilapidated
steed, evidently under the impression that its broken-
winded shamble is nothing less than the stately gallop of
its former days, and as his accoutrements— amid the wrecks
of chickens, leeks, and tobacco leaves— rebound from the
pommel and back of his riderless saddle against his
flanks, I fancy I recognize among them the coffee-pot and
frying-pan, on which my gastronomic destiny has lately
hung. Sure enough, I soon recognize a well-known voice
behind me— “ Stop dat boss— lorra-gorry ! stop dat dar boss.”
A glance round the corner of the wagon now reveals the
unsaddled rider, despair on his sable countenance, and his
grizzly wool upright with terror. But the frantic charger
is caught, and the bow-legged rider limps up, obsequious
explanations of the accident addressed to the military pub¬
lic at large, mingling with objurgatory remarks to the
horse, and tugging at the rope bridle ; and amid the accla¬
mations, ironical or otherwise, of his fellow-contrabands, is
with much labor hoisted up to his former place in the sad¬
dle. And so we move on again, between two rows of
skirmishers — soldiers in single file, five or six feet between
each man — in the wToods or fields at our side ; and under
the shade of every tree or bush, in every angle of the snake
fence, or out of it, almost in the middle of the road, lie
groups of weary men, their heads pillowed on their knap¬
sacks or their muskets, many of them asleep, and all resting

for a little while before recommencing the tramp of their
exhausting march.

Our march yesterday continued till the afternoon, and
then we halted for several hours in a beautiful open
grassy space opposite Massaponax Church, running into
the woods like a bay into the land. And then the stretch¬
ing out beneath the trees and wagons, the cooking of coffee
and munching of hard tack, the search for spring water in
the forest, the musket shots startling us at first, as we thought
them a surprise of the enemy, and turning out to be but the
death-stroke to certain pigs and goslings in a grotesque chase
after them for fresh food, the hurried burial of the blanket-
ceremented and uncoffined body of the soldier who had died
on the way in one of the ambulances ; what was all this
in our little camp-world in the wilderness but a repetition
of the game of life in the great world ? Starting again be¬
tween four and five, p. m., we journeyed on between our
skirmish lines and the noise of cannon seldom out of our ears
for fifteen minutes at a time, till one o’clock in the morning
brought us to a halt, with orders to move again at four, a. m.
Many preferred sleep to food, and flung themselves down on
the ground in their blankets, among the hoofs of the horses
and mules. But for those who preferred food first a hun¬
dred camp fires, made of the rails from around the ploughed
field in which we were packed, sent up their flames in the
twinkling of an eye ; and the mules welcomed with dis¬
cordant melancholy cry, their half rations of grain. The
next morning at day-break all was ready for the march, but
there we waited, no one knew why, the fierce rays of the
sun reflected from the sandy field and almost blinding us,
till past one, p. m. And now here we are, not many miles
from the North Anna river, where it is expected the enemy
will make a determined stand against the further progress of
the 5th corps. In the wide field to our left, so near that I
can almost see their features, a large body of our men, a
division I suppose, is drawn up in line of battle, and what
the day may bring forth God only knows.

This will be in readiness for any courier that may leave
for the rear, but perhaps I may be in Washington (or Rich¬
mond) long before you get it, and perhaps you will not get
it at all.

Very truly and respectfully, yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

3STo. VI.

United States Sanitary Commission,

In Bivouac near Jericho Ford, North Anna Fiver, Va.,

Tuesday , May 24, 1864.

Dear Miss - : Leaving, yesterday morning, our pleas¬

ant bivouac in the pine grove near St. Margaret’s Church, a
quaint, hundred-year-old building, with a wing jutting out
for the use of the negroes while worshipping — our weary
march, under the burning sun and over the dusty roads of
Virginia, had brought us to the close of the third day, when,
last evening, about five o’clock, we halted in a ploughed
field, (“as usual,” the drivers angrily remarked,) and I had
just made myself as comfortable as possible on the seat of
the staff-wagon I had been riding, and had begun a letter to
you, when I observed that the intermittent cannonading:
which had accompanied us throughout our march was suc¬
ceeded by a steady booming, accompanied by an unceasing
fire of musketry, and on looking up 1 perceived an unusual
stir and excitement around me. Speedily discovering what
was the state of the case, I made my way through a strip of
woods into a field beyond, where I found a large body of
reserve troops waiting the word of command to advance
towards the scene of action. This was presently given ; and
as they filed off to the right, I joined them, and found myself
in the road from which my wagon had a short time before
turned aside. The fields on the right side of this road were
filled with large bodies of troops, screened from the enemy

by two intervening hills. As the fight progressed, this
reserve was led off to the field by regiments, as they were
needed. Ascending the slope, I found myself on the crest
of a hill which I afterwards discovered to be the best position
for observing the conflict ; but, anxious to get as near to it
as possible, I went on, keeping on the field side of the fence
so as to be out of the wTay of the hurly-burly in the road.
In my descent I met many wounded men, those who were
unable to assist themselves being carried in stretchers on the
shoulders of six men, and those who were able to do so
walking by themselves or by the assistance of each other.
Some of the cavalrymen were still able to bestride their
horses. Pointing out to them where to find a surgeon on
the top of the hill, and occasionally refreshing those who
were ready to faint with water from a borrowed canteen, I
pushed on, stopping every now and then to watch the quick
fire flashing and the thick smoke rolling up from the bat¬
teries on the hill before me across the river, or to wonder
what thoughts were passing through the brains of those
who, with compressed lips and fixed onward gaze, tramped
forward with heavy, steady tread to their doom. By their
side I reached the foot of the hill, and after wading through
a lane of mud, turned suddenly to the right, along the course
of the river, and so, through a covered way by the side of an
old mill, gained the pontoon-bridge — planks laid on canvas,
stretched over wooden frames shaped like boats — with which,
in their crude condition on a couple of frame carts, the march
had rendered me repeatedly familiar. Scrambling over the
bridge, another steep lane of mud presented itself, and this
achieved, found us on the top of a sort of bluff, stretching
back on the level to where the woods skirted it, some distance
off. Between the top of the eminence and the woods was
planted the battery — perhaps there was more than one — of
cannons, the operations of which I had watched from the hill
across the river ; a considerable way off within the woods
themselves the rebels glanced and dodged among the trees like
so many gray squirrels ; and a short distance within them — as

nearly in line of battle, I suppose, as the trees would permit —
were our men, loading and firing so quickly that, though
many dropped dead or wounded to the ground — several I
saw leaping high up into the air before reaching it — the
rattling of musketry broke sharply on the air, not in a series
of concussions, but in one prolonged roll that mingled with
the far heavier booming of the cannon, almost as incessant,
and with the less frequent, rocket-like whiz of the shells
that burst in the air with a flash and small thick cloud of
smoke that slowly diffused itself in space, or fell to the
ground and exploded, with an outbreak of flame and smoke
and fragments and earth, first ploughing up the ground and
tossing up the soil to each side as if they were huge moles.
But, beneath all these sounds and the “Ha! ha! of the war-
horses as they smelt the battle and pawed in the valley, swal¬
lowing the ground with fierceness and rage, and rejoiced in
their strength and in the glory of their nostrils, which was
terrible” — and beneath the dull measured tramp of the de¬
tachment I had accompanied, as it filed oft' into the woods,
the impression left on my mind was not one of noise and
tumult, but rather of intense stillness. The soldiers, as
they marched past, held their breath; the few orders of the
officers were given in undertones, but they sounded, never¬
theless, as clear and distinct as if uttered at the top of the
voice — the few groups of officers scattered about (I saw no
one in civilian’s clothes but myself) spoke in whispers if at
all — the gunners worked as noiselessly as swiftly at their
posts — the wounded men who emerged from the wood and
straggled off, limping and holding their hands, when their
use was left to them, against their wounds, in broken irregu¬
lar file, towards the shed, where, as I afterwards found, the
first surgical operations were performed, spoke no word
and uttered no sound — even the many birds that stunned
by the reverberations among the woods and along the hill,
and driven downward by the thick smoke above, swept in
long circles close to the ground, did so without chirp or
twitter, only their wide opened eyes expressing their terror.

Neither did the sense of danger impress me, except when
there was really none— when I started for the field. The
nearer I advanced the less I thought of it, except to reflect
now and then that as long as I kept out of the range of the
enemy’s musketry I was tolerably safe from musket shot,
and that the chances were many to one against my being
hit by a cannon ball or shell. But others did not seem
to think so, for while I was still intent on observation a
staff officer stepped out from a group surrounding a gen¬
eral, and premising that, perhaps, as a civilian and unaccus¬
tomed to “ this sort of thing,” I was not aware of the great
risk I was running, advised me to get back at least as far
as a certain range he indicated and trust to a glass to see the
rest of the affair. Thanking him for the caution, but de¬
termined, now that my curiosity was satisfied, not to lose
sight, which in the excitement I had done, of my principal
object, viz. : to test how far, without foolhardiness, I could,
in a small way, carry the succors of the Commission into an
engagement— I retreated, but presently struck off a little to
one side, and crossing a fence, found myself in a pretty safe
position, in a depression, almost a ditch, behind it. Here,
after startling away several rabbits and squirrels which had
sought the same shelter, the first thing that struck my eyes
was a figure lying face downwards near a clump of bushes,
among which it had evidently intended to crawl. Going
forward to it and turning the face up I found it to be that
of a young soldier, dead. A small orifice in the forehead,
with scarcely a trace of blood around it, was all the wound
visible. The letters on his hat lying beside him indicated
that he belonged to a Wisconsin regiment, but I searched
him in vain for any clue as to his further identity ; and,
unless afterwards recognized by some of his living com¬
rades, he doubtless lies buried in the same trench with the
other “ unnamed demigods,” (as Kossuth called the rank
and file of the Hungarian patriots with whom he fought,)
who gave their lives for their country on this battle field by
the North Anna river. Giving up the fruitless search I
stretched his arms by his side and covered his upturned face

with his hat, weighting it with a stone; and had just risen
from my stooping posture beside him when I caught the eye
of a man, who sitting against the stump of a tree, had been
watching me, and patiently waiting till I had got through
with the dead. Going up to him I found he had tied, with
the help of a comrade whom he had left in the ranks, a
piece of his overcoat and a very dirty rag which he called
his handkerchief, round the fleshy part of his arm, and he
showed me a minie ball which he said had passed through it.
He complained of being “kinder faint,” and wished to pull
the stauncher off* his arm “it hurt him so bad” — but I dis¬
suaded him from doing this, although sorely tempted to replace
the abominable rag by one of your clean handkerchiefs, a
small stock of which I had in my pocket; and a little color re¬
placed the lividness of his cheeks and lips after I had emptied
into them some precious drops from a small flask which
I had secretly borne in the bottom of a capacious pocket
throughout my campaign, in anticipation of just such a use
as this. Another pocket contained soft crackers, and a few
mouthfuls of this and some sweet chocolate-cake as a relish,
together with a draught of water, so completely “ set him
up,” as he termed it, that with my assistance, in giving him
one shoulder to lean upon and carrying his knapsack on my
other, I speedily got him into the file of rearward- straggling
wounded, and consigned him to the sympathy — if not to the
efficient care, the other being nearly as badly wounded — of
a comrade, by whose side he had been fighting, and whom
he hailed with infinite and mutual delight ; but not before
his comrade had shared in the strength of my pockets, and
in my promise to hunt them up in the hospitals that night
or next morning, which I did, and found one with his right
arm off, and the other with his left, but both very jolly at
finding their lives were not in danger and at being permitted
to stay together. Before they left me, and almost before I
had finished “setting up ” the last one, they were both, as
they expressed it, completely “taken down” by the gift of
one of your handkerchiefs between them; for, knowing

what great demands there would be on my small stock, I
could afford them only one, and they marched off to the
hospital, or operating shed I should call it — the locality of
which I had by this time found — with many one-handed
flourishes of the clean handkerchief, the like of which they
had probably not seen since their last furlough, and numer¬
ous applications of it to their foreheads and noses.

I had by this time given up my intention of going quite
up to the line of battle, for I found that my work was really
where I was, and I desired, moreover, to leave myself time
to get back to bivouac before it should be quite dark, lest in
my citizen’s clothes I should have trouble with the guards
and sentries. Accordingly I made the best of my way back
across the pontoon bridge, helping the wounded along with
cheerful words and the contents of my flask and pockets;
and partly by bribery and partly by assuming the exercise
of a military authority to which I had no right, I impressed
a number of idlers, (it is astonishing how many idlers collect
around any scene of excitement, even a far-away battle field,)
chiefly negroes, belonging to the country round or the ser¬
vants of otficers, into the service of the exhausted men, by
getting them to carry the knapsacks and muskets — though
most of the muskets had been thrown away — and lend the
aid of their arms and shoulders to the clinging grasp of the
poor fellows. I thought of a similar experience I had had
two years ago, when the trains brought in the wounded from
Fair Oaks to White House ; but I must do the negroes and
what few whites there were the justice to say that in both
instances there were large numbers, perhaps most, who
required neither money nor threats, but only a little direc¬
tion, to give their help heartily to the wounded men.

Getting back to the top of the eminence from which I had
first witnessed the fight, I found it occupied by a number of
general and staff officers, with field-glasses in their hands
and cigars in their mouths; their horses, held by a crowd of
orderlies, tossing their manes and pawing the ground as
they smelt the battle afar off, and trembled with the excite-

ment produced by tlie reverberations of the artillery, which
sounded even more terrific than when I was close to the
cannons, while the sulphurous smoke rolled across the val¬
ley and floated up, growing thinner and thinner, till it met
and mingled with the dense, compact little clouds emitted
from the bursting shells. Across the fields was stretched a
line of mounted men, with drawn sabres, to turn back run¬
aways and stragglers from the infantry, and on talking to
several of them I found that the duty assigned to them was
exceedingly distasteful to them. Large detachments of men
continued to pour forth along the road, from the reserve
stationed behind the hill on its right side, but the shades of
evening were now beginning to close in and they were
probably too late to share in the engagement that night.
On the crest of the hill on the right side of the wood, and
but a few yards from it, was an old house, so broken down
and full of holes that any amount of shells, if they had
reached it, could certainly have made but little difference in
its appearance. On its broken door-step sat an old woman —
rejoicing, I found, in a name so picturesque that I am greatly
tempted to intrude on her privacy by repeat! ng it— who rocked
herself to and fro as she bemoaned the probable loss of her
tenement by shell and fire. She was a widow, she told me,
and had not seen her son for “ four years a’most — did not
know where he was ” — which in the Confederate vernacular,
means that all the men of the family are in the rebel army.
I had discovered a little in the rear of the house, under a
tree by the fence, the surgeon who, in himself, formed the
half way hospital between that on the field and the tent hos¬
pitals that, as I learned, were being established in a field
some half mile to the rear, and had replenished the ex¬
hausted supply of old linen in his saddle bags with the single
roll of bandage I had left, and which Iliad brought with me all
the way from Belle Plain. But seeing the look of disappoint¬
ment that overspread his face — notwithstanding the cheerful,
kind, and encouraging words with which he always spoke to

his patients of their wounds— at their invariable negative
answer to his question as to whether they had any water left in
their canteen for him to sponge and dress their wounds, I deter-

mined to see whether this want could not be supplied. So a ter

setting a couple of negroes to the work of pointing out the
surgeon’s nook to the wounded men, I ingratiated myse
with the old woman, and entered into business relations so
satisfactory to her that she not only showed me the spring a
few paces off, where she drew her water, and placed her
water pail and gourd in the hands of the two boys whom I
engaged to supply the doctor, as well as the wounded men s
canteens for their refreshment, but offered me the hospita 1-
ties of her home and furniture on similar terms. 1 ie
whole of the latter consisted of one ncketty table with some
tin pans and broken crockery on it, the bench on
which stood her water pail, the inevitable spinning
wheel, a bed with the inevitable check coverlid, and two or
three broken chairs. On the chairs I installed as many men,
who said they could not walk to the rear hospitals without
resting first, and they sank to sleep with their heads leaning
against the wall, in a moment. On the bed we laid a ; young
sergeant from a Pennsylvania regiment, who said he had
not had any sleep for thirty-six hours, and his head did not
touch the pillow before he was sleeping profoundly, but
still mechanically holding up the finger and thumb which
the surgeon had just dressed. Having got things into this
satisfactory train, I accepted the old lady’s invitation to go
up to the top of the house to “see the fight,” and ascending
a ricketty staircase and ladder, and threading several rooms
containing only cobwebs and the corn-cobs with which I
observed her making a fire on the hearth of the big
chimney below, I passed through an upper floor into a cock¬
loft, from the unglazed window in the gable end of which
I watched through my glass the last of the engagement
for in a little while, after a prolonged cheering, or rather
yelling, which I took to be that of the Confederates, but (as I

am told that the Yankee boys have lately got into the habit
of mocking the peculiar cry of the rebels) may have been
uttered by our men, or perhaps by both, just as the last
shadows of twilight melted into night, the artillery and
musketry fire suddenly ceased— that is the prolonged fire
for occasionally the roll of a cannon or a discharge of mus¬
ketry continued to be heard. So I turned my face towards
my quarters, intending first to see the tent hospitals that, I
heard, were being put up— but what with being stopped by
wounded soldiers for various purposes, and guiding ambulance
drivers with loads of wounded through a pieee of woods,
the rough cleared path across which, having gone over it
’when I started for the field, I knew better than they did
who had been over it only in the dark, and trying to find
surgeons for several who seemed to be dying, and pur-
suading soldiers to rise from their sleep in the dust or mud—
both at once are common in Virginia roads — to put their
shoulders to the wheels of ambulances stuck in pitfalls, and
finally with finding my quarters, which had been moved
back a mile since I left them ; what with all this, it was too
near midnight, and I was too much worn and sleepy to get to
the hospitals — so, after a supper of hard-tack and unlactified
coffee, and exchanging notes with the messmates who for so
many perilous hours had been “ all scattered in fight,” I laid
my blanket down in a spot where my head at least would
be safe from the hoofs of the horses and mules, and wonder¬
ing how many such scenes of carnage, on the same field, the
stars that twinkled down on me had looked upon in the past
ages, when the red man and his predecessors occupied the
soil, I fell asleep.

I have made the round of the hospitals this morning, and
witnessed many interesting incidents; but I must reserve
them for another letter, not only because I am afraid I have
already bored you with this long one, but because I can no
longer have the use of the single bottle of ink; and after
the enjoyment of such a dignity I cannot immediately
descend to pencil. It would perhaps be wiser for me to keep

it in my pocket till I get to Washington, but I think I will
risk it in the Army mail-hag; and if you do not get it for
five or six weeks, I hope you will at least have the satisfac¬
tion of finding it post-marked “Richmond, 4th of July.”

Very truly and respectfully, yours,

ALFRED J. RLOOR.

Ho. VII.

In Bivouac near The North Anna River, Va.5

May 24, 1864.

Dear Mrs. - - : My last letter (a copy of which I wul

send you, along with the others I have written from the
field to my several correspondents, when I return to Wash-
ton) gave an account of the way in which I “assisted,” as
the French would say, at the fight between the forces of
General Warren of the 5th corps with the help of part
of the 6th, and the rebel General Hill, on the evening
of yesterday, the 23d inst. After our day-break breakfast
this morning I made my way to the hospitals, which
had been established while the engagement was going on,
in an open grassy space interspersed with bushes and young
trees, and skirting the road which crossed the North Anna
River about a mile and a quarter (I should think) ahead.
They consisted of a number of good sized tents spread with
pine boughs, and scattered about the grounds were the oper¬
ating tables, portable dispensaries, &c. I met a number of
the wounded men I had helped along the night before, and
was glad to hear many of them express their appreciation
of the kindness and care with which they had been attended
to by the surgeons. These latter had been up all night, but
there was as yet no relaxation to their labors, for the ambu¬
lances were still coming in with the wounded. I do not
know that I shall have a better opportunity than the pres¬
ent, and I desire therefore to record here my conviction —
in opposition, I think, to the general impression in the
4 L

community, and particularly the female portion of it that
there is nowhere to be found a body of men who, as a class,
are more untiring, devoted, and self-sacrificing in the dis¬
charge of their duties — the most responsible, exacting, and
exhausting— than army surgeons. There are exceptions, too
many of which I have encountered in an official intercourse
with them of three years’ standing ; but during that time
my estimate of them as a body has steadily increased, and
this my last experience with them in the field has con¬
firmed and heightened all my previous good impressions. I
take pleasure, as a non-medical man, in expressing emphat¬
ically mv opinion as to the high standard of mental and
moral qualities they apply to their professional duties,
(without being competent to judge of their professional
qualities pure and simple,) the more so because my official
correspondence has shown me how much they have been
suspected and undervalued by the home-staying commu¬
nity ; while in general culture they compare most favorably
with any class of officers in the army.

Thanks to the untiring zeal of the surgeons and their as¬
sistants, and to their being well stocked in the field with
Governmental medical supplies, those of the patients who
had been already operated upon were lying on the fresh,
soft, fragrant, pine boughs, with which the tents were
thickly strewn, in a condition of tolerable comfort, those at
least whose wounds admit of any comfort, and fortunately
where well cared for, these are the majority. 'Well washed
and dressed in clean shirt and drawers— every one marked
with the “TJ. S. Sanitary Commission” stamp, for the lack
of these was one of the gaps we had bridged over — and
many of them enjoying their pipes or cigars, and chatting
over their experience in the “ eminent deadly breach” of the
evening before, the scene of the whole, however terrible,
was not altogether unrelieved in parts. It is amusing to
see the affection they bear for their pipes. One man I saw
grievously wounded in most of his limbs, lifted out of one
of the ambulances that had just arrived. His first thought

was for his pipe, but he had no hand in which to carry it, so
he desired it to be put in his mouth ; and, carrying it between
his lips, was himself borne to the operating table.

One young lad I found reading a hymn-book, which he
said had probably saved his life the night before. It was in
his waistcoat pocket during the engagement, and a minie
ball, which would otherwise have gone into his breast, had
glanced against its cover and fallen to the bottom of his
pocket. He showed me the ball with much satisfaction,
and told me he hoped he should live to get back to Wiscon¬
sin and show it to his mother, who had given him the hymn-
book. He had, however, a few minutes afterwards been shot
in the leg. A man lying, with one of his arms off, next the
narrator, was very anxious that I should provide him also
with a hymn-book; but whether he was influenced most by
piety or by prudence I shall not pretend to say. There was
one young fellow from your section of country, though I
cannot recall the name of the town or village he mentioned —
he was severely but not painfully wounded — who, seeing
some clean linen rag which one of the doctors had left on the
ground a little distance off, asked me to tear him off a piece
that would serve him as a pocket handkerchief. Thinking
the surgeon might have set apart the linen for some special
purpose, and preferring in any case to give him a bona fide
handkerchief if I had one left, I felt in my pocket, and there
at its bottom was the last of my small store. It was rather
a nice affair ; the cambric not of the finest, but with quite a
stylish border round its edge, and he pronounced it “bully”
as I handed it to him. The outside fold had, as usual, the
Commission’s stamp, but it soon appeared that there was still
another mark on it, for he had scarcely unfolded it and held
it out for an admiring inspection, before he uttered quite a
shriek of delight, and asked me if I knew his folks at home,
and if they had given me the handkerchief to hand to him.
It appeared that besides our mark there was worked in
thread the name of the relief society in his native place, and
he gave sundry reasons for his positive assertion that the

marking must liave been done by none other than bis little
sister Lizzie. Without, perhaps, fully appreciating his
arguments, I saw no good reason for disturbing his impres¬
sion, and left him quite happy in its indulgence.

Passing from one tent to another, I found a chaplain
standing by two stretchers, the occupant of each lying with
stiff out-stretched limbs, and the quiet, upturned face cov¬
ered witff the blanket which was now to serve as a winding
sheet. Another chaplain appeared in a moment, with two
men bearing another stretcher, the corpse covered with the old
gray overcoat which had shielded its wearer from so many
storms and served him so often for blanket or pillow. The
bearers pick up the stretcher, and they, the two chaplains
and myself are all that follow the warriors to their grave.
A few paces off in a little space between two clumps of
bushes and saplings, the wide grave is being dug— there is
but one for the three comrades in battle and death — by three
men who take their turn in digging and resting beneath the
burning rays of the unclouded overpowering sun. It is
evidently a matter of pride and conscience with them to dig
deep, and make, as one terms it, “ a handsome grave.” Their
oaths and rough talk are silenced. The youngest of them,
rather a smart young sergeant, is obviously bent on making
a good impression on the chaplains, and talks somewhat
learnedly and sentimentally on the way in which they must
have received their wounds, and on our all having to come
to this, on the field or in our beds, he does not see that it
makes much difference ; but he talks quietly and soon stops,
working steadily with the others, who have nothing to say
except to interchange some undertoned remark as to the
earth being loose in this spot, or a stone being in the way
there. Just as they are giving the finishing strokes, some
one hurries up, claims one of the bodies to be sent home to
friends, and the two men with him carry it off. The diggers
agree to leave a third of the space unfilled with soil, for some
other body -“there will be a many graves wanted through
the day” — they leap up from the grave and tell the chaplains

■j

it is ready, then lean on their spades and uncover their
heads. We also uncover, and one of the chaplains reads
aloud from his little pocket Bible, “ low is Christ risen
from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept
—for since by man came death, by man came also the res¬
urrection of the dead,” and the rest of the chapter. He is
followed by the other chaplain in a short address, followed
by a prayer ; then the uncoffined forms are lowered, the fresh
earth covers them more closely (and more kindly it seems to
me) than a wooden box would — the empty space left by their
side for whoever shall come next — wooden boards inscribed
with their names, companies, and regiments, are placed at
their heads, and there we leave them to their long rest, one
wrapped in his blanket, while the other—

- lay like a warrior taking his rest,

With his martial cloak around him.”

Coming out of the enclosure, I stopped to talk to several
of a crowd, some three hundred, of rebel prisoners, who
stood or sat in two groups under guard, some of them in
great trepidation lest the shells sent by their own people
should reach them. (The shelling and musketry, but more
especially the cannonading, goes on more or less all the
time.) One of them was a South Carolina Colonel — named
Brown, I am told — who sat on the ground whittling a piece
of stick with his penknife, which induced a fat officer who
stood over him, and probably resented the cutting down
from its maximum proportions of even a piece of wood, to
inform him that he would certainly be taken for a Yankee
it he persisted in whittling. The Colonel only grinned,
however, and went on paring; perhaps beginning to enter¬
tain the idea that worse things might befall him than to be
taken for a Yankee. One of them, an innocent-looking,
mild-eyed young lad — as many of them are — is the son of the
woman who lives in the log cabin by the side of which I
am now writing, and is now therefore a prisoner within a

few yards of his mother’s house. The poor woman has been
to see him, and declares, with many tears, that he was led
away by his neighbors against her entreaties. Her trouble
is shared by the boy’s grandfather and by several young sis¬
ters, very pretty and delicate looking, notwithstanding that
they have no shoes, and wear such uncrinolined gowns of
striped home-made stuff as a biddy would scorn to use for a
scrubbing cloth in the North, and live in a cabin of two rooms,
loo’-ceiled, and log-walled inside as well as outside, and with
hardly anything in it but an old wardrobe, a ricketty table,
a couple of beds with the inevitable counterpane of check¬
ered stuff, and the equally inevitable spinning-wheel.

An ambulance train, loaded with wounded, leaves here
probably this afternoon for Fredericksburg or Port Royal,
whichever way is most free from guerrillas, and by this, if it
goes, I shall seek an outlet from the field ; but I shall trust
this to headquarters’ mail bag rather than carry it myself
to Washington, for I think it likely it will thus pass through
there on its way to you sooner than I shall reach the place.

Very respectfully and truly, yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

Mo. VIII,

United States Sanitary Commission,

Central Office, 244 F Street,
Washington, D. C., 31ay 30, 1864.

Dear Mrs. - : The hills and woods along the North

Anna river, some distance to the left of the place where the
engagement of the previous evening took place, every now
and then gave back the echoes of the cannonading that
indicated how General Hancock was fighting his way to¬
wards Richmond, when early in the afternoon of Tuesday,
the 24th of May, in company with an officer who, in charge
of some men that represented a regiment twelve hundred
strong three years before, and now reduced to little over
a hundred, was on his way to Washington to be mus¬
tered out, and thence North to return to civil life, I
started from the front for the base, with a train of some
thirty ambulances and some wagons filled with the wounded
from yesterday’s field, in charge of one of the officers with
whose mess I had been on the march. The fiercest rays of
the sun mingled with the hot breath that floated across the
fields from a burning mansion some little distance off, as we
slowly moved oft*, under the escort of a body of cavalry, to
our unknown destination, for it depended upon the move¬
ments of the enemy, and upon the conditions of the respec¬
tive routes as to guerrillas, whether we should journey to
the old base of Fredericksburg or the proposed new one of
Port Royal, the latter place some thirty miles lower down
the Rappahannock river than the former. We moved on

therefore, only so far as our road led to both points, and
then waited for further orders. Then came a short military
delay of only a couple of hours or so, during which my
companion and myself, desiring to leave as much accommo¬
dation as possible for the wounded men, shifted our quarters
from the seats of an ambulance to the hay and bags of grain
of an army wagon, to the manifest delight of the little squir¬
rel, heretofore mentioned as picked up from the field during
one of the engagements in the Wilderness, which he was
carrying to Philadelphia as a gift and pet from its owner to
some young fair one, and which evidently considered the
wide and moreover edible range of the wagon’s hay and
grain a great improvement over the narrow, barren, and in¬
hospitable, however dignified and shining, black leather of
the ambulance. Finally the word came for an advance to
Port Royal, and we recommenced our slow progress., extend¬
ing the hospitalities of our vehicle shortly afterwards to a
gentleman belonging to the Christian Commission and to a
soldier — not wounded, but not well — -who would otherwise
have been obliged to join the pedestrian throng of stragglers
of all kinds who, as usual, were taking advantage of an
escort to traverse the dangerous roads. So we went slowly
on, the scorching day in an hour or two yielding to the
cooler shadows of the evening, and those to night, when we
took such snatches of sleep as we could for the jolting and
nouncing (with occasionally around among the ambulances,
to see if the inmates were properly supplied with water to
drink and pour over their wounds by the men detailed to
fill their canteens from the springs and streams on our way)
until the stoppage of our wagon, after some uneasier lurches
than usual, the scraping of wheels, the cracking of whips,
the strong language of teamsters and drivers, the stamping
of hoofs, the shaking and jingling of harness, and above all,
“ the quartermaster’s call,” — that is, the many-keyed, gro-
tesquely-sad cries emitted by the mules when the end of a
journey and the beginning of their feed-troughs are reached
— all these Babel-like sounds, and many other indescribable

ones, startled us from our troubled slumbers, and proclaimed
that we had come to a halt. It seemed to me that, as I was
waking up, I beard the voice of a driver, in answer to a re¬
quest for tobacco, say, “ I don’t use tobaccy, Ned, in no
shape. Didn’t you know that ?” but, reasoning with myself,
with as much self-severity as a due indulgence towards my
semi-somnolent state would allow, I decided that such an
anomaty as that of a man in the army, guiltless of tobacco
in any shape, could not by possibilty exist; and when,
through the day, I occasionally recurred to ni}^ impression,
I rejected it as the hallucination of an un waked, wagon-
jarred brain. The next night, however, as I sat with my
party round our camp-fire at Port Royal, I gave loud ex¬
pression to my astonishment at discovering that no less than
three persons round it repudiated tobacco in any form, when
from a group of teamsters about the next fire came the voice
of my supposed dream, crying, “Here’s another man that
don’t use tobaccy iu no shape.” If ten righteous men
sufficed to save a city full of wicked ones, shall not four es-
chewers of tobacco in the 5th corps of the Army of the
Potomac avail to save the chewers from reproach ?

When the sun rose we found our train parked on a large
field skirted on one side by the road and sloping down on
the other to a ravine from a brackish spring at one end of
which tolerable drinking entertainment was procurable for
man and beast, while several very fair sized houses stood
not far oft* and scattered among them were the tents of
the remnants of several homeward-bound regiments whose
time was out.

One of the wounded men had died through the night,
and there in a corner of the field where it began to slope
towards the little valley, before the first rays of the rising
sun had had time to dry up the heavy dew-drops that lay
thickly on the sod as the delvers marked it out with their
spades, the grave of the soldier was dug, while the young
officer in command of the party sat on a log by its side, and
carved his name, regiment &c., with penknife, on a piece of

plank. Some officers from the neighboring tents stood un¬
covered among the group of men from our train while fitting
services were said by our Christian Commission friend — a
clergyman ; — then, wrapped in his blanket, the soldier was
covered with fresh cut branches of pine and various bushes,
the earth was thrown over them, the head-board put in place,
and we turned from the dead that knew no more pain in
the body, to the living that lay in every form of corporeal
anguish around us.

Crackers and coffee, I was told by some of the detailed
attendants, had already been carried round to the wounded
men ; but the round I made revealed the fact that there had
been an insufficiency of the first, and that the latter had
not been fit to drink — “ dirty water,” one man told me,
“with some grounds at the bottom.” An examination and
tasting of the rejected remains >of the coffee showed that
this definition was hardly an exaggerated one.

There was some grumbling when the blame of this neg¬
lect was impliedly brought home to those who deserved it,
and a half drunken stream of invective was noisily poured
out on the wounded men — several of whom were dying.
They were discontented and exacting, it was said, and so
conceited that they were not satisfied with what pleased
their betters — just as if a well general might not, when
hungry, eat or drink, without repugnance, what the deli¬
cate, morbid stomach of a sick private would reject. But
I let these criticisms go for what they were worth, knowing
that charges of discontent are generally brought without
reference to its manifestation or retention, against those
who are known to have abundant cause for it, and that they
are always repeated with most virulence, by the very ones
who feel most guilty in giving cause for its just indulgence ;
and knowing too that accusations of egotism are, quite as
often as otherwise, mere attempts to cover the counter

egotism and superadded jealousy of the accuser. “ By - ,

it’s enough to make a fellow turn disloyal,” was one of the
remarks I overheard, “ to see how they fool with these

wounded men, and don’t care a curse whether we go starv¬
ing or not. I guess I’ll stick myself, and come in for a
share of the petting.”

Without heeding anything of this, however, we proceeded
in the work of feeding — that is, our friend of the Christian
Commission, the attendants who preferred working for the
sick to idling and grumbling at them (who were very grate¬
ful for our aid) and myself. While he made coffee after
his own recipe, and the attendants cut up some meat, I went
round with the cracker-pail and promises of the approaching
other things. As a delicacy, some soup made of beef-stock
was prepared for the very sick, who refused the other nour¬
ishment ; but either they were too sick to relish anything,
or there was some fault in its components, for it was not
generally acceptable. With many of the men I had become
acquainted in the hospital’tents, and with some I had still
stronger ties, dating from the battle-field, and these latter
■were especially glad to see me whenever I made my appear¬
ance by their ambulances. One of them, a poor fellow shot
through the windpipe, was evidently dying; and when in
the course of the evening he died, I was glad that I had
been instrumental in acceding to his wishes at this time.
Seeming to be pretty strong and comfortable when he left
the hospital, he had been placed in one of tire wagons, and
had now written on a slip of paper, which was handed to
me, these words: “ I can neither eat nor talk. The jolting
of the wagon makes me feel very bad. Please move me to
one of the ambulances,” signed with his name and, as al¬
ways with soldiers, his regiment and company. So I made
the necessary arrangements with the surgeon who was in
medical charge of the train, and, with the aid of a stretcher,
had him moved to an ambulance driven by an old Irish¬
man, whose favor I had propitiated during a ten mile drive
with him the first day of my entrance into the army.

It takes a long time to attend to a mass of wounded men,
but at last all had been fed, and the surgeon had ceased his
visitations ; so we renewed our journey about 9, a. m., our

train swelled by the addition of several wagon loads of con¬
trabands, who sought freedom with an eye on onr cavalry
escort, and took into their sable protection, before we had
gone many miles on our journey, two more— -a small boy of
seven, with a little stick and a bundle of the smallest dimen¬
sions, and a youth of fifteen, his “ guide, philosopher, and
friend,” a mentor of highly senior-fraternal air, but who in¬
formed me that the small boy, of inky features, white¬
rolling eyes, and snowy, grinning teeth, was not his brother,
“ wasn’t of no account to him as a relation, but that he had
known him ebber since he was done born, and that they
come from the same plantation.”

The turnpike we traveled on all day, with but one short
corduroy exception, was a very good one, for which, on be¬
half of the occupants of the ambulances, I blessed Provi¬
dence. It was lined on each side by good fences, enclosing
rich fields of grain, now trampled down where the hoofs of
the horses of our escort made a narrow track on each side,
or the equestrians, not on guard, shot across the intervening
space to the flocks of sheep, the herds of swine, and the
poultry-yards, that tempted their powers of appropriation.
About 1 o’clock we passed through Bowling Green, between
two files of female unsympathizers, and as it was beginning
to get dark, we entered Port Royal. The enemy had evac¬
uated the place, I was told, in the middle of the day, and an
hour or two after there steamed up to the wharf the little
fleet of the Sanitary Commission, consisting of two steamers
and several barges and tugs, loaded with supplies of every
kind, in charge of Mr. Anderson, with some seventy or
eighty Relief Agents to prepare and distribute them to the
wounded men as fast as they should arrive. Our train was
the first to get there, and the ambulances and wagons were
scarcely parked before the agents were swarming about
them with pails full of soft crackers, coffee, farina, milk-
punch, beef-tea, &c. With the help of a lady, these things
were being prepared in an old house at the other end of the
field where the train was parked. The clapboards from the

whole of one side of the building had been torn down to
light the fire that blazed on its wide hearth, and its ruddy
gleam fell on the kind woman’s face that bent over the
kettles that hung over it, and on the agents that assisted
her or bustled about from barrel to box as they filled their
pails, and on way-worn or wounded soldiers, who sat with
their backs braced against the wall, and their legs — some¬
times only one to a man — stretched out on the floor, while
with heads thrown back they slept the blissful, unjoggled
sleep of those who slumber not in wagons on the move ; or
eyed the preparations for supper with the happy conscious¬
ness that their turn for the good things would come in due
time, and their patience be rewarded. All this showed like
a picture through the wide-spread joists, stripped of inside
and outside covering ; and through them the light from the
hearth flickered out into the damp night, and fell on the
motley scene outside, and where a little apart lay the three
heaped- up blankets, whose dim rough lines suggested, rather
than shaped themselves to, the still, stiff forms of those who
had died on the way since the morning.

The next morning I rose from the ground and thankfully
“ assisted” at a breakfast of chicken, confiscated and cack¬
ling the day before, and therefore fresh, if tough and still
feathery ; and of fresh milk — not the condensed article, but
genuine cow-milk not ten minutes old, and honestly pur¬
chased of a friendly negro whose cottage stood by the field
where we were posted. I “ assisted ” the more thankfully
because under the fond delusion — derived from information
received the night before — that I should find a boat for
Washington at an early hour; so, after going the round of
the ambulances and finding that our people had been up all
night with the wounded, including those brought by other
traius which had arrived during the night, I made my way
to the provost marshal, who had established himself in a
tumble-down, once-nice house, (like most of the houses in
the place,) standing, with others, well separated, at each side
of it, on a beautiful natural terrace of the greenest sward,

overlooking the river and sentinelled at its edge with a long
row of the decayed trunks of what had once been poplar
trees. Like my convoys, the Christian Commissioner and the
military man, I got a pass for Washington easily enough;
but the possession was like having a saddle with never a
horse to put it on, for the early boat turned out to be the
merest myth, and there was not the faintest prospect of one
before the middle of the day. Neither could I, for some
hours, get aboard the “ Mary F. Lapley,” our headquarters’
boat, which lay out in the stream. The interval I employed in
“taking a look” at the town or village, whichever it calls itself;
— the larger houses, deserted of all save the negroes, telling
of ancient opulence, or at least great comfort, and of present
decay, like most in the small towns and villages of eastern
Virginia. Lut a tremendous fall of rain put a stop to my
antiquarian investigations, and I sought the provost mar¬
shal’s again, where I watched and talked with some seven
or eight score of contrabands, who had followed the various
fragments of the army, from different points, that now tilled
the town. Some of the rooms in the house had been
allotted to the women and children, but numbers of both
sexes and all ages had collected under a large shed a little
way off. There were many staid-looking matrons, wTith the
decorous colored handkerchief wrapped round their heads ;
but the girls and younger women — without exception, I
think — had topped their often shoeless feet and their tight-
fitting ragged dresses of dirty, striped homespun (though
here and there one wore silk and lace- throughout) with the
most elegant bonnets and round hats of silk, and velvet, and
straw, streaming with ribbons, laces, and feathers. Seeing
an old man habited in an overcoat that descended to his
heels and remained demurely buttoned up after the sun
shone out again with renewed and intensified fierceness,
solemnly relieved at the neck by a white cravat and sur¬
mounted by the only stove-pipe hat I had seen since leaving
"Washington, supporting himself on the huge umbrella — also
unique in the Army of the Potomac, and which had been

kept carefully closed, so that it should not be spoilt by use,
I presume, during the heavy rain — and gazing gravely from
beneath the spectacles perched on his sable nose, which
gave the finishing touch of dignity to a deportment sugges¬
tive of decorum in every fibre of the body, and to a visage
unctuous in every line, with such a perfection of respecta¬
bility as no white man could by possibility attain to — seeing
him gaze gravely at these bonneted young women, I asked
him if he approved of such vanities ? He answered with
asperity that “sich frolickin’s and cuttin’s-up ” were highly
obnoxious to him ; and he was particularly severe on two
girls who had come from the same plantation as himself,
pathetically lamenting the “ unconvenience” to which his
two late young ladies wrould be subjected for want of the
bonnets the former wTere sporting. He furthermore informed
me that though his late “mas’r” was a “tol’ble easy man —
not a Christ’ n — did’nt go to church scursly never — though
sometimes he listened to his (the speaker’s) preachin’- — he
felt a call to preach sometimes to the colored brethren and sis¬
ters — though mas’r was tol’ble easy, he nevertheless thought
it no more nor right to come away when he had a chance
ter; the Scripters told us to be cunning as a sarpent as well
as harmless as a dove, but he should keep on prayin’,
mornin’ an’ night, that his mas’r might be brought to be a
Christ’n, an’ he should continny, as long as he was with ’em,
his spirit’al ministrations to the foolish chil’en who had took
their young missus’s hats,” and he wiped his oily forehead
with a cambric handkerchief which had evidently belonged
to his master, and concluded by offering to sell me some
more of the Confederate money which he had seen me pur¬
chasing from the other contrabands. When he had taken
himself off, which he soon after did, with others who were
carried down to a Government boat, and with a very pretty
yellow girl — with not only a silk bonnet but a silk dress pen¬
dant from it — leaning confidentially on the arm he extended
to her, with an air of mingled sanctimoniousness and gal¬
lantry, I was quite prepared to find that he had “sold” me,

in a double sense, as regarded tlie Confederate currency I
liad taken from him.

Afraid to lose sight of the shipping, lest my opportunity
for returning to Washington should slip through my lingers ;
(in the army a movement is as likely to be made three hours
before the time anticipated as three days after,) I could not
go back to the place where the ambulance trains were con¬
tinuing, as I heard, to arrive, to help our people with the
wounded; and in the exhaustion of my writing paper, was
reduced to studying the likenesses of public buildings in
the city of Hew York, with which the whole house was im¬
partially wall-papered — not cuttings from “ illustrated week¬
lies,” but bona fide paper-hanger’s repetitions, as gorgeously
colored as the subjects would admit of — Trinity, St. Paul’s,
and Grace church, the Exchange, Custom House, City Hall
and Stewart’s marble palace, the latter painfully suggestive
of Delmonico’s opposite, for it . was now high noon, and our
five o’clock breakfast had been tough, hurried and meagre.
But now, as kind fortune would have it, an opportunity pre¬
sented itself for gaining the Mary F. Rapley, and hurrying
down to the wharf and into a row boat, we — my traveling com¬
panions and myself — were soon on board, and at the board
of the welcoming commander, in company with officers, sol¬
diers, newspaper reporters and other hangers-on of the army.
And were they fed luxuriously on crackers, tough beef, ham
and coffee from the stores of the Commission, furnished by
the liberality of the public ? Certainly. Would the public
have them starve ? Ho, but had they not money in their
pockets? — could they not buy? In the village? Ho, be¬
cause it is a deserted one; there are neither sellers nor goods
in it, and one’s money is of as little use as if one were in an
uninhabited island. From the Commission’s agents? Ho,
because the Commission has nothing to sell ; it has only to
give. Besides, in the army, and especially in the van of the
army, before the supplies have come up, the law of meum
and tuum is necessarily almost abrogated, by common con¬
sent, otherwise those who have not food with them would

starve, and those who give to-day know that their turn for
asking may come to-morrow. The agents of the Commission
away from their stores, are as often obliged to live on others,
as others are on them when with their stores. Before leaving this
subject, I will revert to two other points of a like nature, both
affording examples of the ease with which stories are got about
affecting the reputation of the Commission’s agents for honesty,
sobriety, and rectitude of appropriation.
r 1 1 Wl11 first Premise that we succeeded, in the middle of
Thursday, May 26, in getting on board a Government steamer,
loaded with some four hundred wounded men from Fredericks-
buig ; that Dr. Harris, one of the Sanitary Commission, stored
it well with supplies, which, however, owing to the want of
sufficient stove accommodation on board, were cooked— those
that required cooking— slowly and with much extra trouble ;
that instead of hurrying on to Washington, as the condition
of the wounded demanded, we lay in the stream, owing to
some conflict of authority between the captain and the medical
officials on shore, all that day and the following night, when
it rained heavily ; that after sending ashore to be buried,
under charge of a chaplain, the bodies of five men from our own
vessel and from another one alongside, we steamed off abouteight
o’clock on the morning of Friday, in consort with the other ves¬
sel, passing several fine houses and estates, especially one with a
large and elegant modern structure on a fine lawn and two or
three dozen comfortable two-story houses — negro quarters, I
presume — ranged along the river’s bank; steamed through Ches¬
apeake Bay in the twilight; passed the bar in the Potomac about
nine o’clock, (during which I had to put out the lights carried
by the attendants, to prevent their constant collision with the
irascible captain, whose eyes were dazzled by the shifting glare
from the lanterns as he was sounding, and who rightly, tf petu¬
lantly, opined that it was better the patients should be clumsily
waited on in the dark for half an hour than that they should
be subjected to the risk of going to the bottom,) and finally
reached Washington about two o’clock in the morning of Sat¬
urday, the 28th, where I found our people on the dock in
leadiness to receive the wounded, and supplement the excel-
5 L

lent arrangements as to feeding and carrying provided for by
Government, and where I bade good bye to the German sur¬
geon in charge — a civilian and volunteer — with the highest
respect for the untiring and sleepless devotion with which he
had fulfilled his terrible duties, and in which with one excep¬
tion, (but that one enough perhaps to give a bad impression of
all to a casual or careless observer,) his assistants had borne a
most creditable part — duties involving immense mental, moral,
and physical labor, with little reward in thanks or reputation,
“and are as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be
gathered up again.”

What I was going to say is this : One of our lady agents,
after living on crackers and dirty lukewarm river water for a
couple of sleepless, hard-working days and nights among the
wounded on board this boat, owing to her conscientious scru¬
ples against appropriating to her own use anything that might
be acceptable to the sick, came to me and confided the fact
that she had become so weak and faint for want of nourish¬
ment that she at last felt it to be her duty to take a hearty
meal of substantial food. I recommended her to continue the
practice every few hours, and I could but think that it would
have been much better, both for herself and those she waited
on, if she had arrived at this sense of duty before allowing
herself to become exhausted, and perhaps lay the foundation
of illness which might prevent her pursuing her self-imposed
duties in the future. There Was also on board a gentleman
connected with a benevolent organization for the behoof of
the army, who was for the greater part of the trip very indig¬
nant that the nurses were allowed to partake of the stock of
the Commission, and expressed his determination to report to
the public the misappropriation, as he termed it, of their stores,
but his zeal abated, and his charity (towards himself at least)
increased as the hours waxed and his haversack became
depleted, and before we reached the end of our voyage he sat
meekly among the “pampered ” agents of the Commission,* and
was fain to eat in silence, and 1 hope in gratitude, the soup
and beef and crackers with which they broke their long
half-fast. Mayhap he eyed wistfully the farina, and milk punch,

and canned peaches which he saw prepared — but if he did he
was disappointed, for they were only for the sick.

One other kindred instance. I had been down stairs, while
we were steaming down the Rappahannock, initiating the prep¬
aration of sundry gallons of tea for the sick, when, on reas-
scending to the upper deck, I found several of the men drink¬
ing the beverage out of their tin cups. Wondering where
they had got it, I made inquiries, and found they had bought
their portions for ten cents from the hands of the cook-house
on board the boat. I therefore explained to them that every¬
thing distributed by the Sanitary Commission was absolutely
free, but that its agents had no more power to prevent the
boat hands from selling of their own stock than they had to
prevent the soldiers from buying. Yet I do not doubt that
the careless, the gossiping, and the malicious, among those men,
have circulated the report that the Sanitary Commission sells
its tea to sick and wounded soldiers at ten cents a cup.

Taking into consideration the acknowledgments I have al¬
ready received of the previous letters of this series, T am
certainly not without encouragement to commence future
ones from other portions of the field, worked by the Commis¬
sion, and perhaps opportunities may serve for my doing so.

Meanwhile, I am, as always, very truly and respectfully,
yours,

ALFRED J. BLOOR.

TJ. S.

Sanitary Commission.

No. 80.

APPENDIX

The following statement, extracted from the sixteenth num¬
ber of the Sanitary Commission Bulletin for June 15,1864,
shows the issues made by the United States Sanitary Commis¬
sion to the armies operating before Richmond during the month

of May, 1864, the same in which the foregoing letters were
written :

130 air cushions

1 0 air beds

3,541 bed ticks

265 bed pans

2,932 blankets

271 chambers

312 candlesticks

2,508 combs, coarse

1,720 “ fine

5,817 cushions

110 head rests

376 lanterns

315 medicine cups

288 “ tubes

268 pcs. mosquito netting

162 rolls oil silk

3,394 pillows

1,424 pillow cases

3,300 pillow ticks

1,203 quilts

654 ring cushions

1,416 sheets

265 spittoons

494 spit cups

7,798 towels i

7,406 tin cups

1,225 tin wash basins

1,893 tin plates

262 urinals

144 mattresses

1,114 knives and forks j

2,905 spittoons

45 stretchers

100 dippers

3,427 prs. cotton drawers
12,304 pairs woolen
drawers.

14,991 handkerchiefs
2,950 forage, (oats) bush¬
els

15,000 lbs. hay
6 bbls. salt beef
6 cases dessicated veg.
1,857 lbs. ham

j 12 shaving brushes
{ 1 2 razors
j 127 lbs. lard
I 07 prs. cotton pants
j 6,403 cotton shirts
19,507 woolen shirts
472 shoes
J 2,909 slippers
j 3,208 cotton socks
9,451 woolen socks
648 wrappers
695 pails
67 canes
6 pocket flasks
30 cots

39 bbls. ale [See por¬
ter]

144 bottles ale
181 bbls. dried apples
! 100 lbs. arrow root
8,165 lbs. beef stock
2,514 bottles brandy
4,532 lbs. canned meat
| 2,254 lbs. canned fruit
| 4,252 lbs. canned vegeta¬
bles

I 312 bottles cherry rum I
j 326 lbs. cocoa
8,584 lbs. sweet choco- ;
late

1,266 lbs. extract coffee !

[See Coffee.]

949 lbs. dried beef
22 hammers
40 axes
18 hand saws
44 hatchets
405 lbs. nails
38 shovels

9 spades j

3, 106 lbs. ground coffee j
18,912 lbs. condensed!
milk

353 bbls. crackers

j 3,582 lbs. corn starch

1 13 bbls corn meal

2 bbls. dried peaches
| 2,628 bottles ext. ginger
j 6,480 lbs. farina
! 24 packages gelatine
j 48 bottles gin
! G2 bottles jellies and pre¬
serves

408 boxes lemons
j 600 bottles lemon syrup
' 1,854 lbs. maizena
| 350 lbs. mustard
20 lbs. nutmegs
2,344 lbs. oat meal
942 gals, pickles
J 70 bbls. porter
GO “ potatoes
| 400 lbs. rice
I 12 bottles N. E. rum
j 1,068 “ Jamaica rum
! 11,868 lbs. sugar
| 119 lbs. spices
i 5 11 A gals, tamarinds
j 1,488 lbs. black tea
! 1,200 lbs. green tea
[ 3,306 lbs. tobacco
258 gals, vinegar
24 bots. raspberrv vine¬
gar

3,960 bots. foreign wine
119 coffee pots

2 bbls. flour

13 reams wrapping paper
182 gals, molasses
17-A gals, kerosene oil
1 chisel
1 screw-driver
12 gimblets

975 bottles domestic wine
3,520 bottles whiskv
23 gals, whisky
280 bottles alcohol
38 bbls. bandages

APPENDIX.

699 bottles bay rum
1,047 body bands
5 boxes books
620 bottles cologne
2,843 crutches
7,750 fans
51 games
21 bbls. lint
29 bbls. old linen
2,266 slings
953 lbs. soap
309 & lbs. sponges
1,945 lbs. candles
3,858 lbs. butter
1,645 lbs. cheese
2,619 doz. eggs
5,387 loaves bread
735 papers pins
21,325 envelopes
320 bottles ink
58 reams writing paper
5,328 pencils
1,288 pen holders
1 ,288 pens
1,300 lbs. oakum
4,000 pipes
540 lbs. chloroform
45 bottles spirits catnpho
12 cook stoves and fix
tures

17 wall tents
1 quire sand paper

9 can openers
49£ lbs. twine
40 corkscrews
242 pairs scissors
8 pepper boxes

10 lbs. saleratus

! 70 lbs. pepper
! 22 tin pans, for washing
dishes

! 1,483 lbs. salt
! 54 boxes oranges
100 camp kettles
17 frying pans
44 rolls adhesive plaster
4 nutmeg graters
| 30 camp stools
j 12 baskets
! 6.000 feet lumber
1 16,000 lbs. straw
24 china plates
20 yards oil cloth
200 cathartic pills
| 6,000 opium pills
2,000 opium and camph,
pills

60 smoked tongues
221 rubber blankets
252 open links
14 feed troughs
9 boxes splints
36 gross matches
682 yards rubber cloth
17 oz. morphine
20 yards white flannel
1,870 lbs. chloride of
lime

31 lbs. ligature silk
150 haversacks
; 84 blowers

100 hospital car loops j
8 water coolers
2 lbs. bromine
50 lbs. patent lint

24 dressing faucepa
16 papers tacks
100 yards wire
6 door mats
1 gross needles
55 lbs. mutton tkllow
l piece sheeting

1 refrigerator

2 stove boilers

20 boxes chlorinium
6 boxes clothing
6 rocking chairs
57 bottles cider
12 faucets

2 faucet augers

1 pump

224 canteerls
72 boxes blacking
362 boxes sardines
300 paper bags

3 washing machines
12 blank books

97i> tons ice
12 bottles copperas
3 bottles chloride soda

2 medicine chests
6 stove brushes

1 bbl. salt pork
12 stew pans
12 frying pans
2,200 lbs. fresh beef
36 four-horse wagons,
with harness, whips,
extra whiffletrees, &c.,
complete

156 two-horse wagons,
do.

The following anti-scorbutic stores were sent from New
York and stored in Baltimore : One-third of these were loaded
on board the Ridley, and taken to Norfolk in tow of the Kent.

4,291 galls, pickled tomatoes.

51,812 lbs. canned tomatoes.

1,106 galls, curried cabbage.

671 bbls. dried apples.

15,168 galls, saur kraut.

4,162 galls, pickles.

3,580 galls, pickled onions.

12,060 lbs. apple pulp.

2,400 boxes portable lemonade.

1 tub apple butter.

1 doz. ginger wine.

■

TT. S.

Sanitary Commission,

No. 80.

SANITARY COMMISSION,

No. 81.

At a Meeting of tlie Standing Committee of the
United States Sanitary Commission, held at
]STo. 823 Broadway, on the 8th day of
July, 1864:

Ordered , That Dr. Douglas cause a daily ration of quinine
to be issued to each member of the Relief Corps, and to every
officer, agent, and servant of the Commission on duty with the
Army of the Potomac, and that he take such measures as will
secure the actual use of such ration, and enable him to report
that it has been actually used. And that all persons of the
classes above indicated be required so to use such daily ration,
unless it appear by the written certificate of a competent phy¬
sician that its use would be injurious.

II.

It being important not only to the health, but to the effi¬
ciency of every Relief Agent that his dress and his equipments
be kept in perfect order, and that any defects therein be at once
corrected, it shall be the duty of Dr. Douglas, to assemble the
Relief Corps of the forces operating before Richmond, at least
once in each week, for a minute inspection of their clothing,
shoes, blankets, havresacks, &c. He shall cause such articles as
are found deficient to be at once repaired or replaced.

It shall be his duty, moreover, to advise all Relief Agents of
the importance of personal neatness, and to require of them
such attention to their dress and equipments as may set an
example of good order and military precision to those with
whom their duties bring them into contact. If the outfit ot
any Relief Agent be defective or wTorn out, requisition should
be made for whatever may be required to supply the deficiency.

III.

The General Secretary shall provide books, containing printed

forms, substantially as follows : “ No. — . - is engaged

“ by the United States Sanitary Commission by the - , or

“ during the pleasure of the Commission, at the rate of -

“ dollars per - , as - , and also for such other or further

“ duties as may from time to time he assigned him. Dated

“ the — day of - - , 1S6 .” This memorandum shall he signed

hy the General Secretary, or hy one of the Associate Secretaries ;
and hy the person so employed or engaged. It shall be sub¬
scribed hy every officer, agent, or servant now or hereafter en¬
gaged hy the Commission for a stated term of service.

IY.

Dr. Douglas will cause the wagon train to he daily inspected,
and will require a daily report in writing of the condition of
every wagon, which shall he at the base at each inspection, and
of its team and harness. Blanks for such reports shall be fur¬
nished hy the General Secretary. Every wagon shall he num¬
bered. The Inspector will examine and report on the condition
of the wagons, and of the horses, and will see that their harness
and their shoes are in order, and that each team is provided with
whip, feed box, wrench, water bucket, etc., and with forage, if
necessary.

A wagon clearance book shall he kept at City Point, contain¬
ing the following entries, in columns, headed accordingly, viz. :
I. Date of entry. 2. No. of wagon. 3. Name of teamster.
4. General description of load. 5. To whom, or to what corps
or division consigned. 6. Date of return of wagon. 7. Pe¬
rn arks.

It being most desirable that every lodge, home, depot, or other
establishment of the Commission should set an example to the
Army of cleanliness, good order, and conformity to sanitary laws,,
and there being reason to fear that Agents of the Commission, in
their zeal to relieve our national soldiers and to promote their
health and efficiency, are sometimes led to overlook the sanitary

conditions required to keep themselves in good health and fit for
their work : it is further ordered that every officer of the Com¬
mission in charge of any of its posts, be responsible for the
maintenance thereof in the utmost attainable degree of neatness

and purity, and for the prompt correction — so far as may be _

of whatever endangers his own health and that of members of
his corps. He will see that their quarters furnish each ample
airspace; that their supply of water is uncontaminated ; that
they have, if possible, facilities for bathing, and are required to
use them at least once in each week; that the neighborhood of
each station is kept free from refuse and rubbish, and daily
policed ; that water closets or sinks are daily disinfected, and
that his servants, contrabands or others, are provided with
cleanly and wholesome clothing and quarters. Should special
difficulties prevent this being done at once, and always, they
must be promptly reported to the General Secretary, with a
requisition for whatever may be necessary to give agents and
servants of the Commission the same aid and relief which the
Commission seeks to give the Army.

Ho Agent of the Commission is allowed to sell anything
whatever, even though his own private property, to officers or
soldiers of the National Army, or to other persons in Govern¬
ment employ. Any Agent of the Commission violating this
rule, directly or indirectly, thereby terminates his relations with
Hie Commission.

VII.

It is recommended by the Executive Committee, that at all
belief Stations, Homes, and Lodges of the Commission, such
provision be made for the observance of Sunday, as a day of rest
and religious observance, as the military situation may render
possible.

VIII.

A certified copy of these Resolutions shall be at once for¬
warded to Dr. Douglas, with printed copies for distribution
among Agents of the Commission serving in the Army near
Richmond, and to Mr. F. K Knapp, Associate Secretary of
the Department of the East.

Copies shall likewise be sent to the Associate Secretary for
the Department of the West, with instructions to conform
thereto as nearly as circumstances will permit.

Each Associate Secretary, will report to the General Secretary
on or before the 1st of August next, how far these orders have
been carried into effect.

[Extract from the minutes.]

J. Foster Jenkins,

General Secretary .

SANITARY COMMISSION.
No. 82.

RULES

FOR THE

EXECUTIVE SERVICE

OF THE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

Adopted by the Commission , July 14 th, 1864.

Tlie Standing Committee will meet daily, at tlie Central
Office, No. 823 Broadway, New York, at half-past three, p. m.,
or at such other hour and place as it shall appoint. It will
also hold evening sessions at least once in each week. One
member of the Committee, with the General Secretary, shall
be a quorum tor the transaction of ordinary business. All
action by the Committee is subject to the approval of the
Commission.

II.

The General Secretary shall record all action of the Com¬
mittee in its minutes ; which minutes shall be reported by him
to the Commission at every meeting.

III.

The Treasurer shall make no payments without authority
from the Committee.

IY.

At each weekly meeting of the Committee the Secretary
shall report, in writing, on the current business of the past
week, which report shall be entered at length in a book to be
provided for that purpose. He shall also lay before the Com¬
mittee such reports and correspondence as he may consider of
importance, or as calling for action, with a memorandum or
abstract in writing of their substance, and shall read such por¬
tions of them as may be material.

The order of business at meetings of the Committee shall be —

(1.) The examination of bills and motions by the Treasurer;

(2.) Motions and reports by the General Secretary ;

(3.) Miscellaneous business.

At each meeting of the Standing Committee the Treasurer
shall submit his bank and check books ; and between the first
and tenth days of each month, he shall produce a certificate
from the bank or banks in which funds of the Commission are
deposited, showing the balance then standing to his credit as
such Treasurer.

YI.

No person in the employ of the Commission is permitted to
criticise or censure the conduct, or the measures of any mili¬
tary officer, or of Government, by word or writing, except
only, that if such conduct or such measures seem to him inju¬
rious to the sanitary interests of the national forces, he shall
report his opinion and the facts on which it is founded, to the
Commission through the General Secretary.

Every officer and agent of the Commission is expected and
required to uphold and maintain the authority and the policy
of Government, and of its officers, civil and military, by every
means in his power, and if unable conscientiously to do so, to
refrain from all comments thereon, except when his official
duty makes it necessary.

VII.

No agent of the Commission is permitted to furnish informa¬
tion to the newspaper press, of military movements with which
he may have become acquainted in the course of his official
work. Chiefs of the Field Relief Department, will studiously
discourage all newspaper correspondence by their subordinates.

VIII.

At each session of the Commission, the General and Asso¬
ciate Secretaries will severally report a summary of their
work since the last preceding session ; such report shall, in all
cases, be in writing, and in proper form for publication. Each
report will be accompanied by a written abstract of the re¬
ports of Inspectors, Relief Agents, Ac., and of the other docu¬
ments submitted with it ; the material portions of such last
mentioned reports and documents being previously marked as
to be read, and only such portions thereof being read, unless
the whole be called for.

IX.

At each session of the Commission the minutes of the
Standing Committee shall be reported by the General Secre¬
tary, who shall read such portion ot them as may contain the
record of any action of importance, and the whole if called for.

From and after the 6th day of August next, every person
in the service of the Board, above the grade of ordinary
clerk, laborer, or teamster, shall make a weekly report in writ¬
ing to his immediate official superior, unless he shall present a
written sxcuse which shall be satisfactory to the Commission, or
to the Standing Committee when the Commission is not in
session.

XI.

From and after the 6th day of August next, no pay-

ments shall be made on account of the salary of any person
in the service of the Commission, above the rank of ordinary
clerk, laborer or teamster, who shall have failed to comply with
the provisions of the foregoing resolution.

XII.

All bills for services or supplies ordered by any member,
officer, or agent of the Commission, shall be certified by him in
writing as correct, before presentation to the Standing Com¬
mittee, which may, however, in special cases, dispense with
such written certificate.

XIII.

All bills for services or supplies must be presented within
five days after they are payable. It is the duty of every mem¬
ber and agent of the Commission who shall engage services,
or purchase supplies on its behalf, to notify the person with
whom he is dealing of this rule, and distinctly to inform him
that the presentation of his bill within that space of time, is a
condition of its payment. Xo open accounts with the Com¬
mission can be kept by any person in its employ, or with whom
it deals.

XIY.

All vouchers for the expenditure of money shall be certified
in writing before they are paid by the chief officer in charge
of the office from which such expenditure is made or by some
person to be designated by such officer.

Vouchers shall particularly designate for what purpose the
money has been paid, and shall include a detailed statement
of items and the receipt of the parties who have received the
money.

XV.

Persons entering the service of the Commission as volun¬
teers, will not, under any circumstances, be allowed compen-

sation for such service, or for any loss they may have sustained
in the performance of their duties.

XVI.

No appointment of an agent or servant, by any member,
officer, or agent of the Commission, shall be valid or binding,
until approved by the Commission or the Standing Committee.

XVII.

No officer or agent of the Commission is allowed to expend
any portion of its funds for any purpose, however humane,
charitable, or meritorious ; or for the aid, relief, or benefit of
soldiers in the National service, in any way, or through any
method, direct or indirect, which has not been approved and
sanctioned by the Commission, or by the Standing Committee.
The duties and functions assigned to the Commission, being
distinct and well defined, any application of its funds to other
objects, however strongly they may appeal to the sympathies
of its officers, is a breach of trust.

XVIII.

Whenever there shall appear to be danger of malarious dis¬
ease at any Relief Station or other Agency of the Commission,
it shall be the duty of the Chief Officer at such Station or
Agency, to cause a daily ration of quinine to be issued to each
member of the Relief Corps, and to every officer, agent, and
servant of the Commission under his authority, and to take
such measures as will secure the actual use of such ration, and
enable him to report that it has been actually used. And all
persons of the classes above indicated are required to use such
daily ration, unless it appear by the written certificate of a
competent physician that its use would be injurious.

XIX.

It being important not only to the health, but to the effi¬
ciency of every Relief Agent, that his dress and his equipments

be kept in perfect order, and that any defects therein be at once
corrected, it shall be the duty of the Chief Officer of the Com¬
mission at every Relief Station, to assemble his Corps at least
once in each week, for a minute inspection of their clothing,
shoes, blankets, haversacks, &c. He shall cause such articles as
are found deficient to be at once repaired or replaced.

It shall be his duty, moreover, to advise all Relief Agents of
the importance of personal neatness, and to require of them
such attention to their dress and equipments as may set an
example of good order and military precision to those with
whom their duties bring them into contact. If the outfit of
any Relief Agent be defective or worn out, requisition should
be made for whatever may be required to supply the deficiency.

XX.

The General Secretary shall provide books, containing printed

forms, substantially as follows : “ Ho. — . - is engaged

“ by the United States Sanitary Commission, by the - , or

u during the pleasure of the Commission, at the rate of -

“ dollars per - , as - , and also for such other or further

“ duties as may from time to time be assigned him. Dated

“ the - day of - , 186 .” This memorandum shall be signed

by the General Secretary, or by one of the Associate Secretaries ;
and by the person so employed or engaged. It shall be sub¬
scribed by every officer, agent, or servant now or hereafter en-
craged bv the Commission for a stated term of service.

o <D ~ 'J

XXI.

The Chief Officer of the Commission at every Relief Station
or other Agency which employs a wagon train, will cause such
train to be daily inspected, and will require a daily report in
writing of the condition of every wagon, which shall be at the
base at each inspection, and of its team and harness. Blanks
for such reports shall be furnished by the General Secretary.
Every wagon shall be numbered. The Inspector will examine
and report on the condition of the wagons, and of the horses,

and will see that their harness and their shoes are in order,
and that eacli team is provided with whip, feed box, wrench,
water buckets, etc., and with forage if necessary.

Tie shall also keep a wagon clearance book, containing the
following entries, in columns, headed accordingly, viz.: 1.
Date of entry. 2. No. of wagon. 3. Name of teamster. 4.
General description of load. 5. To whom, or to what corps
or division consigned. 6. Date of return of wagon. 7. Re¬
marks.

XXII.

It being most desirable that every lodge, home, depot, or
other establishment of the Commission should set an example
to the army of cleanliness, good order, and conformity to san¬
itary laws, and there being reason to fear that agents of the
Commission, in their zeal to relieve our national soldiers and
to promote their health and efficiency, are sometimes led to
overlook the sanitary conditions required to keep themselves
in good health and tit for their work : it is further ordered
that every officer of the Commission in charge of any of its posts,
be responsible for the maintenance thereof in the utmost at¬
tainable degree of neatness and purity, and for the prompt cor¬
rection — so far as may be — of whatever endangers his own
health and that of members of his corps. lie will see that
their quarters furnish each ample air space; that their supply
of water is uncontaminated; that they have, if possible, facili¬
ties for bathing, and are required to use them at least once in
each week ; that the neighborhood of each station is kept free
from refuse and rubbish, and daily policed ; that water-closets
or sinks are daily disinfected, and that his servants, contra¬
bands or others, are provided with cleanly and wholesome
clothing and quarters. Should special difficulties prevent this
being done at once, and always, they must be promptly re¬
ported to the Associate Secretary, of the District, with a
requisition for whatever may be necessary to give agents and
servants of the Commission the same aid and relief which
the Commission seeks to give the army.

XXIII.

Xo agent of tire Commission is allowed to sell anything
whatever, even though his own private property, to officers or
soldiers of the national army, or to other persons in govern¬
ment employ. Any agent of the Commission violating this
rule, directly or indirectly, thereby terminates his relations
with the Commission.

XXIY.

It is recommended by the Executive Committee, that at all
Relief Stations, Homes, and Lodges of the Commission, such
provision be made for the observance of Sunday, as a day of
rest and religious observance, as the military situation may
render possible.

XXV.

All letters addressed to any principal office of the Commission
shall be at once referred, on their receipt, to the officer in
charge of the special department having supervision of the
subject.

It is the duty of each officer to whom such letters are re¬
ferred, immediately to acknowledge their receipt, and, if pos¬
sible, to transmit at once the information sought for.

TVo. 533.

Financial Report- — with Supplement. 12 pp.

Finance Committee.

(Deo. 1, 1864.)

To be included in final Financial Report.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

NO.

REPORT OR THE OPERATIONS

OF TEE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION

IN THE

VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI,

For the Quarter ending Oct. 1st, 1864-

Dr. J. S. NEWBERRY,

Secretary Western Department.

Louisville, Ky., Oct. 22, 1864.

Dr. J. Foster Jenkins,

Gen. Sec. San. Com.:

Dear Sir

I herewith submit detailed Reports of the different
departments of our work for the three months ending October
1st, which will, I trust, give full and clear information of what
has been accomplished, and how it has been done, in all parts-
of the field under my supervision.

These reports I will preface by a general summary, present¬
ing in a condensed view all the information derived from
this and other sources, which will be of interest, and have a
practical hearing on the administration of the Commission.

1 ou are so well informed from my weekly reports, and
from the public journals, in regard to the progress of military
events in this department, that no detailed history of them
will now he necessary or proper at my hands.

Suffice it to say that our attention, as well as that of the

(public, has been in a great degree centered in that great move
on the military chess-board, the advance of Sherman’s army
into the heart of Georgia, and the succession of battles and
victories culminating in the capture of Atlanta. Most of the
events connected with that campaign occurred in a previous
.quarter, and, so far as they had a bearing on our work, have
been previously reported to you.

Although, to a greater or less degree, embarrassed by the in¬
terruption of communication with the front, and by the want
of transportation, which we shared with every branch of the
service, up to the time of the capture of Atlanta we were able
to keep with the army so large a working force provided with
so generous a supply of stores that we were at all times pre¬
pared to furnish to those needing it such an amount of mate¬
rial and manual aid as to considerably soften the hardships
of an arduous campaign, and fully sustain the reputation and
responsibilities of the Commission.

The number of our agents paralyzed or removed by sick¬
ness rendered it necessary to send so large reinforcements to
the field, that our corps presented a more formidable array of
names than ever before; compelling us to draw more largely
on our privileges of passes and transportation than has ever
before been necessary. In addition to this, a host of civilians,
representing other benevolent organizations, or pursuing indi¬
vidual aims of a philanthropic or mercenary nature, reckoned
themselves, or were reckoned by the military authorities — who,
since the recall of Gen. Uosecrans, have never been careful to
discriminate between the good and bad, the true and the
false — in the category of “sanitary agents,” of whom, at one
time, eighty per week were receiving passes and transporta¬
tion from Chattanooga to the front. Impelled by a desire to
abate this clear and formidable abuse, a step rendered neces¬
sary by the difficulties surrounding the transportation of sup¬
plies to the army, Gen. Sherman issued a peremptory order pro¬
hibiting, with a few rare exceptions, the access of all civilians
to the forces at the front, and limiting the number of our agents
in the field. Under this order we were permitted to keep but two

resident agents at Atlanta— a smaller number than was desir¬
able to sustain all the departments of our work, and yet, with
the detailed help and other facilities cheerfully furnished us,
sufficient to prevent serious embarrassment. The interests of
the Commission with Sherman’s army, and all along the line
of communication with that army, are now in the hands of
our most experienced and efficient agents, all important absen¬
tees having returned to duty ; and I have entire confidence
that we shall enjoy in the future, as we have done for three
years past, all facilities and privileges necessary for the
thorough performance of our work.

Dr. Read having recovered from the serious illness which
compelled him to withdraw, has returned to take the super¬
vision of the field work in Gen. Sherman’s army. We may
be sure that, guided by his wisdom, it will not languish, nor
be badly done.

At Chattanooga, the agency is again under the care of M.
C. Read, who, with Mr. Ilosford, has recently returned from
sick furlough. The absence of both these gentlemen has been
seriously felt, and I congratulate myself that they are again at
their posts, in the enjoyment of full physical vigor, and the
exercise of the rare faculties which they possess.

The garden at Chattanooga, under the management of Mr.
Wills, has more than accomplished our anticipations of its
usefulness. The entire issues from it during the season to
October 1st, have been 10,023 bushels of potatoes, tomatoes,
beans, &c., and 1,784 dozen of corn, melons, squashes, cab¬
bage, with a large store of fall crops still remaining.

At Knoxville, we have suffered serious loss in the death of
Mr. J. II. Milliken, a most estimable and efficient man, who
had the superintendency of the agency after the departure of
Dr. Seymour. His place has since been filled by Mr. T. Y. *
Gardner, who is no less worthy of our respect and esteem.
The hospital garden, in charge of Mr. Culbertson, although
less extensive than that at Chattanooga, has played a no less
important part in the supply of the hospitals there. During
the month of September, Mr. Culbertson distributed from the
garden 277 bushels of tomatoes, 264 bushels of beans, 6,347

dozens cucumbers (mostly pickles), 1,929 heads of cab¬
bage, etc.

The “ feeding stations” at Kingston, Dalton, Decherd, &c.,
have formed a most important, indeed, indispensable portion
of our work, during the last quarter. Under the general
supervision of Mr. Eno, and individually managed by Mr.
Brundrett, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Sutliffe, and Ur. Hillman, they
have supplied food, and all needed care, to nearly every sick
or wounded man transported from the front to the rear, ex¬
tending their benefits to many thousands, and performing a
service of incalculable value.

The agency at Nashville has continued under the supervi¬
sion of Judge Boot, and has been most wisely conducted, and
highly prosperous. "With its business offices, its warehouse,
its Soldiers’ Home, and agents’ quarters, each occupying a
distinct building, the Sanitary Commission at Nashville is a
very conspicuous and noticeable institution, yet I am sure uses
to excellent purpose the wide space which it covers. Indeed,
the work it is accomplishing has already outgrown its accom¬
modations.

The “Soldiers’ Home,” under the efficient management of
Capt. Brayton, has become an institution so popular as to be
constantly filled to overflowing, and has proved so inadequate
in capacity to the demand upon it, that the military authori¬
ties have promised to give us, in exchange for the building
now occupied, one of the largest hospital buildings in the city.

At Louisville no changes have occurred in our work or our
corps of agents requiring special mention. Each department
is moving on smoothly, and, as you will see from the accom¬
panying detailed reports, with steadily increasing importance.

The Home has never accommodated near so many as
within the past three months, having been daily crowded to
its utmost capacity. And such has been the throng of fur¬
loughed and discharged men passing through the city, that
the necessity has been laid upon us for the establishment of a
similar institution on the opposite side of the river, of which
mention will be made in the notice of the department of Special

Relief. The warehouse has never been so much crowded with
stores as of late, nor the amount of goods received and shipped
daily near so large.

The condition of the Hospital Directory will be learned
from the accompanying report of its Superintendent, and
I will only say in regard to it that the value of its reg¬
ister, now so immense, is receiving constant and increasing
illustration. Reports from all the hospitals in this depart¬
ment come in with regularity, and I have reason to believe
that the great importance of this branch of our work is now
fully recognized, as well by the military and medical authori¬
ties as by the people.

The demand for the Reporter has been gradually increas¬
ing, and we are now compelled to print an edition of about
7,500 copies. We have satisfactory evidence that we are far
more than compensated for the expenditure by the influence
it exerts, in spreading a knowledge of, and fostering an interest
in, our work.

The Pension Agency, as you are aware, but recently estab¬
lished here, has been rapidly gaining in importance, and has
already secured the presentation and acceptance of the claims
of very many deserving persons, too ignorant or too poor to
prosecute them without its assistance.

district of the MISSISSIPPI.

The work of the Commission on the Mississippi, so greatly
reduced by the withdrawal of the Army of the Tennessee, has
of late claimed more of our attention, from the activity of
military movements in that quarter. The agencies of the
Commission at Cairo, Memphis, and Vicksburg, have been
constantly maintained, it is true, and the first of these has
grown rather than diminished in importance, but the garrisons
of the posts along the river have been comparatively small,
requiring only a limited amount of assistance from us; and
the army in Arkansas, mostly composed of troops from the
Department of the Gulf, has been considered still within the
sanitary jurisdiction of Dr. Blake, of Hew Orleans, and has

been followed by his representatives, who have, as a general
role, looked to him for supplies.

The prevalence of a scorbutie taint in this army has, how¬
ever, created a demand for such a quantity, and such kinds of
stores, as could not be readily supplied from the Atlantic
States. In these circumstances, Dr. Blake appealed to me for
vegetables, and other anti- scorbutics, and in answer to this,
the Dunleith was fully freighted and sent down the Mississippi,
delivering half her cargo at Hew Orleans, distributing the
other half at way stations along the route. This shipment
was most timely, and was welcomed with enthusiasm by Dr.
Blake and the military authorities. As, however, it furnished
but a temporary relief from the wants it was intended to meet,
it has seemed to me necessary to forward further supplies by
the same means, and the Dunhith has been reloaded and again
despatched on the same route. It is scarcely possible that
the troops on the lower Mississippi and its tributaries can
receive an adequate supply of anti-scorbutics from any other
source than the Western States; and should the difficulties
now existing of procuring adequate transportation through
the Quartermaster’s Department continue, it may be desirable
to make further shipments by steamers chartered for that
purpose.

The business of the agency at Cairo, as I have intimated,
has of late been greater than ever, and I cannot speak too
highly of the zeal and wisdom with which it L/is been man¬
aged by Mr. Shipman. The Home at this point has been, for
weeks and months past, literally inundated with the tide of
soldiers that has flowed through it, and there are few who see
the crowds fed and sheltered there who fail to ask themselves
what would be the fate of these poor fellows were no such
asylum provided for them.

In compliance with the request of the Medical Director,
Dr. D. W. K Dan forth, approved by Lieut. Colonel Allen,
Medical Inspector, I have recently established a uHome” at
Paducah, under the supervision of Mr. Edward D. Way. A
commodious building, and all other needed facilities, have

been provided by the military authorities, and I have reason
to believe that the “ Home” at this point, though not large,
will be complete in its appointments, well managed, and a
great blessing to those who may become inmates of it.

DISTRICT OF KANSAS.

During the past quarter, our work in Kansas has been
thoroughly reorganized, and freed from some incumbrances by
which it was formerly somewhat clogged. Our efficient agent
there, Mr. J. B. Brown, embraced in his wide-spread sympathy
every object of compassion or charity in any way consequent
upon the war, so that the refugees and contrabands, as well as
the sick and wounded of our soldiery, found in him a most
earnest and devoted friend.

So untiring and successful was he in his efforts, that he
became recognized by both the people and the military autho¬
rities as the great, if not the sole, medium through which all
cases of want and suffering . were to be relieved. As a natural
consequence, he found himself rapidly involved in duties and
responsibilities which made drafts on his strength and re-
sources he was utterly unable to meet. After strup-p-lino*
bravely with accumulating difficulties, finally overburdened
and discouraged, he applied to me for counsel and assis¬
tance. At my suggestion he accompanied me to Yew York,
and presented the claims of the refugees to the officers of
the societies formed for their care. As I hoped, his appeal
was answered at once, and such provisions made for the sup¬
port of both white and black refugees, that Mr. Brown has
relieved himself of all but a general supervision of their in¬
terests, and has thus been able to give a more undivided
attention to our work. The present invasion of Missouri, and
threatened invasion of Kansas, have given great activity to
military operations in this quarter, and I have authorized Mr.
Brown to employ additional assistance, if necessary, to meet
the increased demand upon him.

WEST VIRGINIA.

The concentration of troops in the Valley of the Shenan¬
doah has withdrawn from ^Vestern Virginia the larger portion
of those for whose care we have been in some degree respon¬
sible. Our work has therefore materially decreased in this
district, and X have directed Mr. Tracker to break np the
agency at Marietta and transfer any stores to Wlieeling, trust¬
ing to be able to meet the demands arising in this district
from that one station. All parts of this field have been re¬
cently inspected by Dr. Parker, and the change I have desig¬
nated has been made in accordance with his recommendation.

SUPPLY DEPARTMENT.

A marked change has taken place in our work in this de¬
partment since the beginning of the Avar. Then everything
Avas needed, of diet, clothing, or medicine, by well men or
sick, that we could furnish. Now, the number and variety of
cases of disease in the veteran regiments is comparativelv
small. The heads of the hydra which formerly devoured at
such a fearful rate our newly recruited forces, have been by
various influences scotched, until but two formidable ones
remain — Scurvy and Chronic Diarrhea.

The resources and methods of the Medical Department have
been so far improved, and its officers are now so thoroughly
trained in their duties, that comparatively little is needed from
us of clothing, medicine, and delicacies, of which we form¬
erly supplied such large quantities.

Our efforts, therefore, of late, have been mainly directed to
the supply of the universal and pressing demand for vegetables
and other anti-scorbutics, Avhich are not, and cannot be, fur¬
nished in sufficient quantities through the regular channel.

During the year past, the quantity of potatoes, onions, and
cabbages, fresh and canned tomatoes, krout, pickles, dried
apples, &c., Avhich Ave have forwarded to the army, has been, as
you Avill see by our tabulated reports, unprecedentedly large.
To procure these, our friends all over the Northern States have

been actively engaged, and our agents have not only visited
all our own markets, but also those of Canada.

The season for the production and distribution of these
articles had, at the 1st ot October, but just commenced; but
our shipments of onions, for example, had, up to that time and
since the last report, exceeded twenty thousand bushels.

In addition to the supplies just enumerated, soft crackers
and codfish, not furnished in any considerable quantities by the
Commissary Department, have formed an important part of
our shipments. Of stimulants, since they are freely supplied
through the regular channel, and are, of all stores, most liable
to misappropriation, we have forwarded as few as possible.
Concentrated beef and concentrated milk have been in such

constant demand, and are articles so generally and decidedly
useful, that we have been in the past, and shall be in the
futuie, compelled to make them prominent items in our sup¬
ply table.

From the statements I have made, it will be seen that we
have now relieved ourselves from the most fruitful cause of
anxiety and reproach in the administration of our Supply De¬
partment ; and any one who will examine the invoices of our
shipments to the army will soon discover that canned fruits,
wines, and other domestic delicacies, in regard to the use of
which our contributors have had so much concern, form a
very insignificant part of them ; and we may hereafter effectu¬
ally silence the criticisms of those who question the purity of
our work in this department, by the assertion that scarcely
one per cent, ot our stores are such as are susceptible of mis¬
appropriation or unworthy use.

In the transportation of supplies, we have had no other
difficulties than such as were incident to the interruption of
communication with the front, and the crowded state of the
road when open. On the contrary, we have enjoyed every
facility which we could ask at all points, and from the officers
in every branch of the service. The recent break in the road
has occasioned the accumulation of twelve car-loads of onions
at Chattanooga, and six at Nashville, all of which were

intended for Atlanta. But since there is now a large force on
this side of Tunnel Hill, where the break begins, there is
ample demand for all we have to issue.

On the Mississippi, the interruption of trade has so far
diminished the opportunities for shipment, that it has been
necessary, as I have before stated, to charter a steamer for the
supply of our stations in that district. As soon as adequate
transportation can he otherwise procured, this source of ex¬
penditure will, of course, he removed.

In our constituency of the Home Field a cordial and harmo¬
nious spirit of co-operation prevails. Where large funds
have been collected by Sanitary Fairs, a disposition has been
manifested to rest upon the unusual exertion made in connec¬
tion with them ; there has been a relaxation in the efforts to
collect supplies, and, as a consequence, a diminution in the
quantity received. In every field, however, the produce has
been precisely proportionate to the thoroughness of the tillage,
and there is scarcely a portion of the country from which we
derive stores that could not be made doubly productive by
a more vigorous and systematic canvass.

INSPECTORIAL DEPARTMENT.

As the work of Sanitary Inspection is in charge of another
officer, he alone is capable of reporting fully upon it. I may
say, however, in passing, that in this department the work
has been entirely suspended, and the surgeons who were en¬
gaged in it have been withdrawn from the field, or have gone
into the service of the Government.

0£ the chief Inspectors of Departments, whose duties are
administrative and general, but two are now in the field — Dr.
A. A. Bead, some time absent on sick leave, has just returned
to the supervision of our work with the army of Gen. Sher¬
man, and Dr. Benjamin Woodward, who has lately been ap¬
pointed to the superintendency of the Mississippi district — an
office formerly filled with so much credit to himself and the
Commission by Dr. H. A.Warriner. Dr. M. M. Seymour, Chief
Inspector of the Department of the Ohio, has been compelled

by the demands of his private affairs to withdraw from the
service of the Commission, and the position which he held is
now vacant, hiet as its importance has been greatly dimin¬
ished by the changes in the location of Gen. Schofield’s com¬
mand, it will not be necessary for the present that it should
be filled.

DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL RELIEF.

Our work in this department has so far increased as to be
inferior to no other in magnitude and importance, and there
scarcely seems to be a linjit to the work of mercy which may
be done by the different offices and institutions which ft in¬
cludes. The number of “Soldiers’ Homes” under the super¬
intendence of the Sanitary Commission in this department
was, at the date of my last report, eleven, namely, those at
Nashville, Louisville, Camp Nelson, Memphis, Cairo, Cincin¬
nati, Columbus, Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, and New Albany.
To these I have recently added one at Paducah, and another
at Jeffersonville, Indiana. In the accompanying report will
be found an enumeration of the lodgings and meals furnished
to the inmates of these homes, during the past quarter, form¬
ing an aggregate of 93,555 lodgings, and 321,076 meals. While
these large numbers will impress any one with the magnitude
of the work accomplished by the “Homes,” they form but an
imperfect exponent of the many and varied good offices which
they perform to the objects of their charities. I must refer
you t.o the detailed reports from their superintendents for
anything like a fair presentation of a subject to which space
will not now permit me to do anything like justice.

HOSPITAL TRAINS-.

The transportation of sick and wounded, at one time a con¬
spicuous' portion of our work and expenditure, lias now become
so far self-sustaining as to require little intervention on our
part. The hospital trains organized by the Sanitary Commis¬
sion, and for eighteen months manned and sustained by it,
weie turned over to the medical authorities as soon as they

APPENDIX.

(-i)

FINANCES.

The cash expenditures in this department have been almost
entirely made from funds collected in the East and in the far
West The contributions made to the Sanitary Commission by
the loyal States of the Mississippi Valley have equalled, both in
gross amount and m proportion to the population, those derived
rom any and all other portions of the Union ; but they have
been, for obvious reasons, mostly made in kind, and not in cash.
I he great West is still comparatively poor in money, but rich
m the vast though unconverted capital of her fertile plains and
exhaustless mines, and richer still in the conspicuous patriot-
ism of her warm-hearted people.

That which she has had— the fruits of the field, the treas¬
ures of the earth, the products of the loom and anvil— she has
given without measure.

The East, richer in capital, has given most freely of that;
while the extreme West, too distant to send her less valuable
products, has made her contributions in silver and gold.

Thus it happens, that the cash expended through my hands
has been drawn directly from the treasury of the Commission
in New York, while the contributions of the Western States,
as they have reached me, have been altogether in stores ; the
cash collected by cities, towns, and villages, for the Sanitary
Commission, by fairs or otherwise, having been kept by each,
*° be expended for such things as could be better bought at
such points then elsewhere.

The money expended by the Western Secretary is deposited
to his credit in New York, and drawn upon as wanted. All

such money is accounted for with rigid exactness. A statement
of account, with vouchers, is forwarded at the close of each
month, at which time the accounts of the Western Department,
like all others, are balanced and closed. In addition to the
careful examination of our accounts at the central office, at each
quarterly meeting they are audited by such men as Prof. Bache,
Horace Binney, C. J. Stille, J. Huntington Wolcott, &c., whose
high character for intelligence, conscientiousness, and great
business experience, are a sufficient guaranty that they have
been accurately kept.

A summary of the cash account of the Western Department
tor 1861, 1862, 1863, and 1864, to July 1st, has already been
published in the Sanitary Reporter. Bringing this down to
Oct. 1st, it stands as follows —

Summary of the cash account of the Louisville Office , U. S. Salu¬
tary Commission, from Sept. 1st , 1861. to Oct. 1st , 1864:

ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Office Expenses in all Agencies, viz: Stationery
and Office Printing, Postage, Telegrams, Bent,

Fuel, Lights, Compensation of Officers whose

duties are general, Office Furniture, &c., - $38,049 74

INSPECTORIAL DEPARTMENT.

Salaries and Expenses of Inspectors of Camps and
Hospitals, . 27,638 59

SPECIAL RELIEF DEPARTMENT.

Expenses of Homes and Lodges, Feeding Stations,
money paid destitute soldiers and soldiers’ rela¬
tives, Pension and Pay Agencies, Salaries of
Belief Agents, &c., ------ 58,591 73

Hospital Boats, )

“ Cars, J . - - 17,040 39 .

Hospital Directory, . 20,186 06

Carried forward, -

$156,456 51

Brought forward, .... $156,456 51

SUPPLY DEPARTMENT.*

Purchase of Supplies, - $139,119 38

Transportation, - 45,404 12

Canvassing, - - - 11,122 79

Distributing - 62,718 70

- 258,364 99

PUBLICATION DEPARTMENT.

Sanitary Reporter, Monographs and Reports, 7,022 25

Total, - - $421,843 75

* The items here enumerated represent all the cash expenditure involved
in the collection, transportation, and distribution of hospital stores of the
value of $3,176,250 01 in the home market ; and of the value of over four mil¬
lions at the water bases of the armies— Louisville, Nashville, and Memphis.
If there had been no Sanitary Commission, and the articles it has furnished
to the armies of the West had been purchased by or for the soldiers and de¬
livered to camps and hospitals as they have been, this could not have been
done through any channel of trade left open for less than twice the last men¬
tioned sum.

(*)

SUPPLY DEPARTMENT.

The Hospital stores, distributed by the Sanitary Commis¬
sion in the armies of the West, have been mostly contributed
in kind from the several branches of the Commission in the
Western Department. In addition to such contributions,
purchases of stores have been made from this office to the
amount of $139,119 38; and others, of the value of $23,471 55,
purchased in New York, and sent to Louisville. A statement
of the kinds and quantities of stores distributed in this depart¬
ment, during the quarter ending Sept. 30th, 1864, and an¬
other showing the aggregate of distributions, from Sept. 1st,
1861, to the same date, are herewith given. The value of the
supplies distributed by the Sanitary Commission in this De¬
partment, to July 1st, 1864, giving each article its value in the
home market, was $2,790,811 01.

During the quarter ending Sept. 30th, supplies of the value
of $385,439 00 were distributed : adding these sums we have,
as the value of supplies distributed in this Department to Oct.
1st, 1864, $3,176,250 01.

The expense account of the Supply Department, for this
period, is as follows :

Canvassing, . $11,122 79

Freight paid on Stores, - - - 45,404 12

Distribution of Supplies, - 62,718 70

$119,245 61

To this should be added one-third of the expenses of gen¬
eral administration, viz., $11,016 58 — making the gross ex¬
pense account of the Supply Department $130,262 19, or
about four per cent, on the value of supplies distributed.

It should be remembered, however, that the expense at¬
tending the employment of Lecturers and Canvassers in the

Home Field — an item of $11,122 79 — in the preceding account,
has inured to the benefit of the Aid Societies and Branches in
all their interests, and is therefore not all chargeable to the
Supply Department, and no part of it to he reckoned as the
expense of distributing stores.

The Freight Account, too, amounting to $45,404 12 — since
it was altogether incurred in the transportation of stores to
the water bases of the different armies, Louisville, Cairo, Mem¬
phis, &c., conferred at least an equivalent value on the stores
transported, and should therefore he reckoned with donated
transportation, as an addition to the valuation of stores as
before given. The distribution of stores of the value of
$3,176,250 01 in the home market has been accomplished at a
cost of less than 2 per cent, upon their valuation. Adding the
cost of transportation to the value of the stores, and the cost of
distribution would be If per cent, of that value. Giving the
stores distributed their cash value at the water bases of the ar¬
mies supplied, and the cost of distribution would be 1| per cent,
of their value; and the whole expense account of the Supply
Department would equal less than 3 per cent, of such
valuation.

The manner in which the records of the Supply Department
are kept, and the credibility of the results given above, can
hardly be learned without an inspection of our books and
methods ; yet I think I can safely say, that all the many ex¬
perienced men who have carefully examined our system have
been satisfied that the methods pursued were economical of
labor and money, and the results reported worthy of confi¬
dence.

To those who cannot in person examine the manner in
which the stores they entrust to us are handled and used, I
may say briefly, that the raising of supplies is especially the
work of the members of our Branch and Auxiliary Societies.
In the Home Field the methods pursued are theirs, and the re-
sponsiblity of the entire work is theirs. I have assumed no
control over it, and have taken no part in it, further than to

burnish by manuscript or printed reports, or by lecturers,
fresh a'nd full information in regard to the condition and wants
of the Western armies, the means taken to meet such wants,
and such other matters as have a practical bearing on the
home work.

From time to time assistance has been needed by the differ¬
ent Branch Societies, and it has been liberally afforded. Can¬
vassing agents, lecturers, messengers, and various assistants,
in the work of the Supply Department, have been placed at
their disposal, .and money paid them from the general fund
of the Commission to the amount of more than $60,000.

As soon as stores are shipped to me or my representatives,
from the various contributing depots, I become responsible
for their proper use, and am vested with the control of them.
The stores passing through Ohio and Illinois are transported
free by the splendid liberality of the officers of the railroads ter¬
minating in Cincinnati and Cairo. On those coming through
; Indian a we are compelled to pay freight. Arriving here or at
Cairo, stores are carefully checked off from cars and boats
into the warehouses. All missing packages are at once looked
up, and necessary repairs and cooperage done. From these
points stores are forwarded as rapidly as possible, on the the-
, ory that any accumulation of stores should be near the army.

With all important divisions of the army, and in every hos-
ipital centre, depots are established in care of competent busi¬
ness men, by whom stores are received and issued to those
needing them, on personal application, or on the requisition
of agents of the Commission, or the Surgeons of hospitals
and regiments ; for all of which receipts are given and record
made. Weekly and monthly reports are sent to the Louisville
office of all issues from all the depots, and from these reports
the tabular statements, now or heretofore given, of our aggre¬
gate issues, are compiled.

REPORT OF DISBURSEMENTS

Of the XI. S. Sanitary Commission , Western Department , from its Organiza¬
tion to October ls£, 1864.

BEDDING AND CLOTHING.

Blankets,

Bedticks,

Boots and Shoes, pairs,
Buttons, shirt, gross,
Comforts and Quilts,

Coats, Pants, and Vests,
Drawers, cotton, j
Drawers, flannel, j Pairs>
Dressing-gowns,
Havelocks,

Haversacks,

Hats and Caps,

Mittens, pairs,

Mosquito Bars,

Napkins,

Neck Ties,

14,305

1 Night Caps,

4,901

28,786

1 Overalls,

1,301

Pillows,

104,311

1 Pillow-cases,

205,126

50,177

Shawls,

15,204

Sheets,

108,947

175,157

Shirts, cotton, 1

Shirts, woolen, J

306,390

16,415

Slippers, pairs,

20,876

2,051

Socks,

121, 34S

Straw, bales,

175

908

Suspenders, pairs,

13,613

Towels and Handkerchiefs,

390,655

3,645

Rubber Blankets,

178

1,080

Rubber Capes,

HOSPITAL FURNITURE AND SURGEONS’ SUPPLIES.

Adhesive Plaster, yards,
Alcohol, gallons,

Arm Rests, ,

Alum, lbs.,

Bags,

Bandages and Rags, lbs.,
Bath Tubs,

Baskets,

Batting, lbs.,

Beds, Feather,

Bedsteads,

Bed Pans,

Bladders,

Books and Pamphlets,
Bowls,

Bread Knives,

Brooms,

Brushes, Scrub,

Brushes, Whitewash,
Brushes, Blacking,
Buckets,

Butcher’s Steels,

Candles, lbs.,

Candlesticks,

Canes,

Camp Chests,

Canteens,

Cauldrons, Iron,

Carpet and Matting, yards,
Castors,

Chairs,

Charcoal, lbs,

Chlor. Lime, lbs.,
Chloroform, lbs.,

Cleavers,

Clocks,

1,328

6,765

103

1,863

302,097

109

3,000

1,101

459

198

304,014

4,070

820

342

1,832

272

144

647

557

227

24,670

125

Clothes Wringers,

Clothes Pins, gross,

Clothes Lines,

Combs and Brushes,
Camphor, lbs.,

Copperas, lbs.,

Corkscrews,

Cologne and Bay Rum, bots..
Coffins,

Coffee Mills,

Coffee Pots,

Cots,

Chambers,

Cooking Ranges,

Cups and Saucers,

Cushions and Pads,

Crutches, pairs,

Desks,

Dippers,

Disinfecting Powders, bbls.,
Door Mats,

Drinking Tubes,

Envelopes,

E ve Shades,

Fans,

Feeders,

Faucets,

Finger Stalls,

Flat Irons,

Fly Nets,

Fffy Brushes,

Foot Warmers,

Furnaces,

Games,

Graters,

Platchets,

5,769

300

169

130

342

831

2,275

79.128

4,202

217

108

434,125

2,223

28,331

180

768

167

580

329

Coffee Mugs, 425

Fruit Cans, 1,100

Ink, bots., 480

India Rubber Cloth, yards, 25

Lamps and Chimneys, 230

Lanterns, 373

Lamp Oil, galls., 406

Lime, bbls., 14

Lint, lbs., 6

Liquorice, lbs., 26

Looking Glasses, ~ 21

Lumber, ft., 176,000

Kettles, Iron, 14

Kettles, Camp, 87

Kettles, Tea, 53

Knives and Forks, 9,055

Knives, Butcher, 6

Mattresses, 723

Matches, gross, 30

Mutton Tallow, lbs., 198

Mess Pans, 41

Mops, 267

Kails, lbs., 2,820

Needles, papers, 110

Oakum, bales, 6

Oil Silk, yards, 16

Pans, Baking, 56

Patent Medicine, bot., 509

Pens, gross, 180

Pencils, doz. 27

Pincushions and Housewives, 39,259
Pins, papers, 21

Pitchers, 97

Quinine, oz., 300

Razors and strops, 24

Saws, ' 18

Slates, 40

Spit Cups, 2,500

ARTICLES OF DIE!

Ale and Cider, galls., 29,119

Apples, bush., 2,818

Apple Butter, galls., 4,683

Arrowroot, lbs., 3,399

Barley, lbs., 24,200

Beef, Dried, lbs., 22, 1 Q2

Beef, Concent’d, lbs., 96,784

Beets, bush., 2,951

Beans, bush., 680

Brandy, galls., 84

Bread, lbs., 12,216

Broma, lbs., 201

Butter, lbs., 101,331

Cabbage, bush., 740

Crackers, lbs., 405,418

Carrots, bush., 258

Cocoa, lbs., 944

Chocolate, lbs., 788

Chickens, 6,801

Cigars, boxes, 10

Cinnamon, lbs., i 25

Citric Acid, lbs., 40

Cloves, lbs., 25

Coffee, lbs., 5,107

Coffee, Extract, lbs., 375

Spittoons,

Spools Thread,

833

1,311

Stretchers,

Sauce Pans,

163

Scissors,

Sconces,

144

Stone J ugs,

612

Soap, lbs.,

7,956

Splints, doz.,

Spoons,

6,928

Sponges,

2,528

Stoves, Cooking,

Stoves, Fire,

Shovels,

1,935

Stationery, reams,

Tables,

Table Cloths,

907

Tea Pots,

Tin Cups,

10,754

Tin Pans,

150

Tin Pails,

Tin Plates,

8,923

Tumblers,

1,176

Twine, lbs.,

135

Urinals,

319

Wash Basins,

1,143

Wash Boilers, Copper,

Wash Boards,

Wash Machines,

Washstands,

100

Wash Tubs,

White lead, lbs.,

Lye Cone., lbs.,

Sage, lbs.,

891

Tin Ware, boxes,

Water Coolers,

Glass, boxes,

Medicine Wafers,

5,500

1 AND DELICACIES.

Corn Meal, lbs.,

46,699

Cheese, lbs.,

16,908

Corn, Dried, lbs.,

1,236

Corn, Parched, lbs.,

639

Cakes and Cookies, lbs.,

5,296

Cranberries, bush.,

Catsup, bot.,

3,902

Codfish, lbs.,

119,783

Eggs, doz.,

52.635

Farina and Corn Starch, lbs.,

53,583

Figs, lbs.,

Flavoring Extracts, bot.,

180

Flaxseed, lbs.,

634

Flour, bbls.,

Fruit, Preserved, cans,

145,739

Fruit, Dried, lbs.,

881,718

Gelatine, lbs.,

Ginger, lbs.,

Ginger Extract, bot.,

467

Gooseberries, qts.,

369

Groceries, lbs.,

9,478

Groats, lbs.,

176

Grapes, lbs.,

3,217

Halibut, lbs.,

Herrings, boxes,

Hops, lbs.,

970

Herbs, lbs.,

2,661

Honey, lbs.,

785

Hominy, lbs.,

1,788

Horse Radish, bot.,

3,418

Hams, lbs.,

11,934

Ice, tons,

375

Jelly and Shrubs, qts.,

1,320

Soup, Chicken, lbs..

1,007

Hickory Nuts, bush.,

R. Vinegar, bot.,

1,111

Lime Juice,

1,320

Almonds, lbs..

Lemons, boxes,

664

Lemon Extract, bot.,

732

Lemon Syrup, bot.,

6,375

Lobsters, cans,

Melons,

1,834

Milk, Fresh, qts..

339

Milk, Concentrated, lbs.,

170,813

Mackerel, lbs.,

470

Mustard, lbs., •

1,769

Macaroni, lbs.,

160

Nutmegs, oz.,

Oatmeal, lbs.,

2,595

Oranges, boxes,

193

Oysters, cans,

4,816

Onions, bush.,

52,388

Parsnips, bush.,

548

Peaches, bush.,

Pepper, Black, )

Pepper, Red, j 1DS*’

Pepper Sauce, bot.,

768

2,187

Pie Plant, boxes,

Porter, bot.,

1,440

Potatoes, bush.,

143,832

Pickles, galls.,

139,298

Prunes, lbs.,

1,900

P.ice, lbs.,

5,024

Raisins, lbs.,

500

Sago, lbs.,

3,855

Saleratus, lbs.,

Salt, bbls..,

Ploughs,

Cultivators,

Hoes,

126

Rakes,

Spades,

Trucks, Warehouse

Sardines, boxes, 54

Sausages, lbs., 494

Sourkrout, galls., 78,198

Split Peas, bbls., 2

Starch, lbs., 1,822

Shoulders, lbs., 556

Spices, lbs., 641

Strawberries, qts., 464

Sugar, lbs., 64,701

Syrup and Molasses, qts., 789

Tamarinds, lbs., 336

Tapioca, lbs., 2,660

Tea, Green, lbs., 21,558

Tea, Black, 530

Toast, lbs., 5,887

Tobacco, lbs., 7,602

Tomatoes, bush., 1,396

Tongues, 238

Turkeys, 129

Vermicelli, lbs., 70

Vinegar, galls., 1,888

!b°tS-’ 96>640

White Fish, bbls., 4

Clams, Concentrated, cans, 554

Tomatoes, cans, 6,600

Dessicated Eggs, lbs., 26

Lettuce, bush., 1,417

Mustard, “ 1,645

Radishes, “ 786

Peas, “ 486

Sweet Potatoes, bush., 442

Spinach, “ 146

Radishes, Winter, “ 8

Cucumbers, doz., 2,962

Squashes, Summer, 6,078

Table Corn, ears, 118,318

Okra, doz., 1,888

Peppers, doz., 1,054

Squashes, Winter, 343

Pumpkins, 1,276

Flower Seeds, papers, 6,357

Plants, Cabbage, 35,000

Plants, Tomato, 35,000

Plants, Sweet Potato, 25,000

Ambulances, 6

Hospital Car-Loops, 450

Sundries, boxes, 4,264

REPORT OF DISBURSEMENTS

Of the XJ. S. Sanitary Commission , Western Department , from July 1st , 1864,

to October 1st, 1864.

BEDDING AND CLOTHING.

Blankets,

Bedticks,

Boots and Shoes, pairs,
Comforts and Quilts,
Coats, Pants, and Vests
Drawers, cotton, pairs,
Drawers, flannel, “
Dressing-gowns,
Havelocks,

Haversacks,

Hats and Caps,

Mittens, pairs,

Mosquito Bars,
Napkins,

621

1,039

201

13,66;'

714

187

121

1,015

178

Neck Ties,

Night Caps,

Overalls,

Pillows,

Pillow Cases,

Sheets,

Shirts, cotton, 1
Shirts, woolen, J
Slippers, pairs,

Socks, pairs,

Straw, bales,

Suspenders, pairs,

Towels and Handkerchiefs,

5,309

7,793

2,552

26,820

712

2,338

20,167

HOSPITAL FURNITURE AND SURGEONS’ SUPPLIES.

Arm Rests, 2,928

Bandages and Rags, lbs., 30,178

Bath Tubs, 7

Baskets, 13

Batting, bales, 5

Bedsteads, 220

Bed Pans, 60

Books apd Pamphlets, boxes, 170
Bowls, 220

Bread Knives, 6

Brooms, 79

Brushes, Scrub, 13

Brushes, Whitewash, 6

Buckets, 30

Candles, lbs., # 135

Candlesticks, 2

Canteens, 3

Castors, 36

Chairs, 14

Chlor. Lime, lbs., 70

Clocks, 4

Clothes Wringers, pairs, 8

Clothes Pins, gross, 2

Clothes Lines, 14

Combs and Brushes, 390

Camphor, bots, 20

Corkscrews, 6

Cologne, bots., 33

Coflee Mills, 9

Coffee Pots., 6

Chambers, 30

Cooking Ranges, 1

Cups and Saucers, 120

Cushions and Pads, 6,285

Crutches, pairs, 396

Desks, 4

Dippers, 6

Disinfecting Powders, lbs., 7

Envelopes, 345,000

Eye Shades, 266

Fans, 4,300

Finger Stalls, 246

Flat Irons, 3

Fly Brushes, 167

Games, 230

Graters, 6

Hatchets, 6

Housewives, 67

Ink, bottles, 208

Lamp Chimneys, 60

Lamps, 20

Lanterns, 40

Lamp Oil, galls., . 50

Looking Glasses, 11

Lumber, ft., 55,000

Kettles, Iron, 8

Kettles, Camp, 6

Knives and Forks, 4,731

Knives, Butcher, 6

Mattresses, 7

Matches, gross, 6

Matting, yds., 65

Mess Pans, 13

Mops, 30

Nails, lbs., 220

Needles, papers, 110

Oil Silk, yds., 6

Pans, Baking, 6

Patent Medicine, bots., 165

Pens, gross, 30

Pencils, doz. 20

Pincushions, 800

Pins, Papers, doz., 2

Pitchers, 1

Saws, 6

Spittoons, 20

Spools Thread, 55

Sauce Pans, 3

Scissors, pairs, 15

Soap, lbs., 702

Spoons, 1,320

Sponges, lbs., 37

Stoves, Cooking, 4

Shovels, 6

Stationery, reams, 735

Table Cloths, 55

Tea Pots, 6

Tin Cups, 3,121

Tin Pails, 20

Tin Plates, 3,000

Tumblers, 26

Twine, lbs.,

Urinals,

Wash Basins,

Wash Boilers, Copper,

Wash Boards,

Wash Machines,

Wash Tubs,

Water Coolers,

Fruit Cans,

1,100

Glass, box,

Medicine Wafers,

5,500

ARTICLES OF

Ale and Cider, galls.,

2,855

Apples, bush.,

Apple Butter, galls.,

. 326

Btef, Dried, lbs.,

Beef, Concentrated, lbs.,

2,065

12,265

Beets, bush.,

1,722

Beans, bush.,

637

Bread, lbs.,

1,535

Butter, lbs.,

Cabbage, Heads,

2,926

11,837

Crackers, lbs.,

111,398

Chocolate, lbs.,

381

Chickens,

196

Citric Acid, lbs.,

Cotfee, lbs.,

1,982

Cone. Clams, cans,

554

Corn Meal, lbs.,

5,992

Cheese, lbs.,

263

Corn Starch, lbs.,

12,214

Cakes and Cookies, lbs.,

352

Catsup, bot.,

843

Codfish, lbs.,

20,243

Cucumbers, doz.,

2,962

Dessicated Eggs, cans,

Eggs, doz.,

1,107

Flaxseed, lbs.,

275

Fruit, Preserved, cans.,

8,790

Fruit, Dried, lbs.,

86,370

Gooseberries, qts.,

369

Groceries, lbs.,

6,063

Groats, lbs.,

176

Hops, lbs.,

Herbs, lbs.,

550

Horse Radish, bots.,

244

Hams, lbs.,

900

Ice, tons,

168*

Lime Juice, bots.,

1,320

Almonds, lbs.,

Miscellaneous articles )
not enumerated, j

3,693

Lemons, box.,

105

Flower Seeds, papers,

MISCELL
6,356 1

Mule Ambulances,

6 1

AND DELICACIES.

Lemon Extract, bot., 321

Lemon Syrup and Cordial, bot., 2,707
Lettuce, bush., 1,417

Melons, 1,837

Milk, Concentrated, lbs., 42,236

Mackerel, lbs., 220

Mustard, lbs., 275

Mustard, bush., 1,645

Nutmegs, lbs., 2

Okra, doz., 1,888

Oysters, cans, 816

Onions, bush., 22,600

Peas, bush., 486

Peppers, doz., 1,054

Pie Plant, lbs., 33

Potatoes, bush., 6,524

Pickles, galls., 26,237

Prunes, lbs., 650

Pumpkins, 4 1,267

Radishes, bush., 786

Radishes, Winter, bush., 8

Salt, lbs., 280

Sour-krout, galls., 8,763

Starch, lbs., 1,822

Spices, lbs., 573

Spinach, bush., 146

Squashes, Summer, 6,078

Squashes, Winter, 343

Sugar, lbs., 4,781

Sweet Potatoes, bush., 442

Syrup and Molasses, qts., 176

Table Corn, Ears, 118,318

Tamarinds, lbs., 36

Tapioca, lbs., 72

Tea, Green, lbs., 2,065

Tea, Black, lbs., 530

Toast, lbs., 220

Tobacco, lbs., 2,431

Tomatoes, bush., 1,396

Tomatoes, cans, 6,600

Wine, bots., 16,239

ANEOUS.

Rubber Loops, Hosp’l Cars, 451

Boxes sundries, 500

(0)

HOMES.

Number of Meals and Lodgings furnished at nine Homes during the months
of July , August , and September.

CAIRO, ILLS.

For the month of July, . .

“ “ “ August, .

41 “ “ September, .

Total, . . .

NASHVILLE, TENN.

For the month of July, . .

“ “ “ August, .....

“ “ “ September,

Total,

MEMPHIS, TENN.

For the month of July, .

44 “ 44 August, .

44 44 44 September, .

Total, .

LOUISVILLE, KY.

For the month of July .

“ 44 “ August, . .

44 44 44 September, .

Total, .

CAMP NELSON, KY.

For the month of July, . .

“ “ “ August, .

44 “ 44 September, . .

* Total, .

NEW ALBANY, IND.

For the month of July, .

“ 44 “ August, .

44 “ “ September, .

Meals. Lodgings.

....15,284

4,374

4,593

7,712

16,679

....14,552

4,540

5,731

....25,820

9,518

....57,328

19,795

. 4,176

913

1,214

. 4,501

1,335

. 13,864

3,462

. 15,929

8,427

10,761

19,188

. 37,179

13,470

. 5,173

1,385

5,995

20,850

762

1,010

674

2,440

Total,

Detroit, Michigan. Meals. Lodging s.

For the month of July . 1,914 1,149

“ “ “ August, . 3,462 1,638

Total, . . . 5,376 2,787

CINCINNATI, o.

For the month of July, . 13,894 1,573

« “ “ August, . 18,146 3,135

“ “ “ September, . 44,282 8,451

Total, . . . .76,3^2 13,159

CLEVELAND, 0.

For the month of July . 1,485 242

“ “ “ August, . 2,610 619

“ “ September, . 1,608 333

Total, . . . - . 5,703 1,194

♦

HOSPITAL DIRECTORY.

Summary of Report of Hospital Directory, Western
Ky., October ls£, 1864.

No- °f Hospitals which have reported .

Ho. of Hospitals now reporting .

Ho. of Regiments reported .

Ho. of names on record .

Whole number of Inquiries .

Whole number of Inquiries answered .

Ho. of Personal Inquiries .

Ho. of Personal Inquiries answered .

Ho. of Inquiries by letter .

Ho. of Inquiries by letter answered .

Ho. of letters written regarding Inquiries .

Department, Louisville. ,

310

108

1,195

519,254

15,908

11,171

12,575

8,991

3,333

2,180

7,537

ITEMS.

¥o. of Regiments reported .

Ho. of Hames on Record .

Ho. of Inquiries .

Ho. of Inquiries answered .

Ho. of Personal Inquiries .

Ho. of Personal Inquiries answered

Ho. of Inquiries by letter .

Ho. of Inquiries by letter answered..
Ho. of letters written .

July 1, ’64.

1,138
... 436,255
... 13,037

9.050
... 10,358

7,284
2,679
1,766
6,042

Oct. 1, ’64.
1,195
519,254
15,908
11,171
12,575
8,991
3,3,3
2,180
7,537

Increase.

82,999

2,871

2,121

2,217

1,707

654

414

1,495

List of States and Number of Regiments and Names on the Records of the
Hospital Directory, Western Department, Louisville, Ky., Oct. 1st, 1864.

STATES. NO. REG# NO. NAMES.

Ohio .

11 K QHQ

Illinois .

llOjOUo

1 AA KK7

Indiana .

77 7Q1

Iowa .

/ / , ( cTl

Kentucky .

OUjOOD

O A C4A

Carried over, .

351,052

STATES.

Brought oyer,....

Michigan .

Wisconsin .

Missouri .

Tennessee . .*. .

U. S. Regulars . .

Pennsylvania .

New York .

Kansas .

Minnesota .

New Jersey .

Massachusetts .

Virginia .

Alabama . . .

New Hampshire .

Connecticut .

Arkansas .

Colorado .

Rhode Island .

Maine, .

Nebraska .

Maryland .

Mississippi . .

Louisiana .

Vermont .

North Carolina .

Delaware .

Veteran Reserve Corps

Pioneers .

Miscellaneous .

Artillery . .

Navy . .

Rebels..... .

, REG=
554
32
40
50

19
57
68

144

6
9

20
1

4
1

5
3
5
l

NO. NAMES.

351,052

24,513

24,417

24,198

16,843

15,238

12,480

10,894

4,274

3,741

3,006

2,125

1,567

1,051

946

942

751

472

274

215

200

142

133

4,820

364

8,131

624

1,920

3,802

Whole No. of Regiments,
Whole No. of Names .

1,195

519,254

HOSPITAL GARDENS.

Summary of Issues from the Hospital Gardens of the V. 8. Sandary Commis¬
sion, at Chattanooga , April 15 th to November 14 th, 1864.

Lettuce, bushels,
Beets, bush.,

Onions, bush.,
Mustard, bush.,

Irish Potatoes, bush.,
Radishes, bush.,

Peas, bush.,

Snap Beans, bush.,
Lima Beans, bush.,
Tomatoes, bush.,
Swe£t Potatoes, bush.,
Spinach, bush.,

1,289

1,563

1,407

1,496

904|

715

442

431

148

1,269

384

133

Turnips and Winter Radishes, bus. 74

Cucumbers, dozens, 2,633

Summer Squashes, 5,526

Cabbage, heads, 10,761

Table Corn, ears, 107,562

Okra, dozens, 177

Peppers, dozens, 958

Melons, 1,668

Winter Squash, 312

Pumpkins, 1,152

Flower Seeds, papers, 5,779

Estimated value at Chattanooga, $66,375 70, The crop of winter radishes

and turnips remains to be issued.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 85.

THEODORE W. DWIGHT, LL. D.,

Professor of Municipal Law in tlie Law School of Columbia College,

AS TO THE TRUSTS ON WHICH THE FUNDS OF THE U. S.
SANITARY COMMISSION ARE HELD, AND THE OBJECTS
TO WHICH THEY CAN PROPERLY BE
APPLIED.

SANFORD, IIARROUN & CO., STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 644 BROADWAY.

1864.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 85.

CASE

1. The U. S. Sanitary Commission is an organization, ap¬
pointed by the President and the Secretary of War, by an
order dated June 13th, 1861, and is styled in the order : “ A
Commission of Inquiry and Advice in respect of the Sanitary
Interests of the United States Forces.” (See document marked
A (being Sanitary Commission document No. 2), as to the
nature and character of the organization.)

2. The work of the Sanitary Commission has been wholly
sustained by the voluntary contributions of the public. It has
received no pecuniary aid from Government. These volun¬
tary contributions have been large ; more than two millions
and a half have been contributed in money to its central
treasury, independently of very large sums received by the
treasuries of its “Branches;” and the money value of the sup¬
plies and stores sent to its various depots, is estimated at eight
millions of dollars and upwards.

These contributions of money and or supplies have been
made in response to the calls published by the Commission

m varlous forms for funds and for material to be used in the
several departments of its work.

•3. The work originally contemplated by the Commission
was of “ Inquiry and Advice in respect of the Sanitary inter*

ests of the “ United States Forces or, in other words, that of a
scientific advisory organization auxiliary to the Medical Bureau,
which was not yet reorganized on a scale adequate to the de¬
mands of a great war.

The business of organizing and economizing the spontane¬
ous bounty of the people in furnishing supplementary supplies
to the army, formed no part of its original design, and was not
undertaken till the Commission had been in existence for some
months.

(See document No. 40, Mr. Olmsted’s Report to the Secretary of War,
Dec. 1861, p. 75.)

This is now, and has been for the last two years, , a most
prominent department of the work of the Commission, and
involves a much larger outlay than any other.. Besides pro¬
viding for the cost of storing, moving, and distributing the
supplementary stores received at its depots by voluntary con¬
tribution, it purchases such stores on a very large scale. Its
expenditure on such purchases during July, 1863, was about
$90,000, and during May, 1864, about $263,238 10.

4. The great object of the Commission has from the first been
to promote the national cause by helping to economize the life,
health, and efficiency of national soldiers while in the national
service ; and its published calls for support have been mainly
founded on the service it has claimed thus to render the com¬
munity.

5. Boon after the war commenced (in August 1861, the
want became apparent of provision for aid and relief to men in
the national service, but temporarily out of connexion with the
military system on which alone they could rely for quarters,
rations', or (if ill) for medical treatment. (See Document No. 40,
p. 82.) ’ Hence arose the “ Special Belief Department of the
Commission,” first embodied in the “ Home ” at Washington,
and subsequently extended to every great military centre. At
these establishments men temporarily and accidentally sepa-

rated from -their regiments, find food, shelter, and medical
treatment, and are furnished, if necessary, with transportation
to tlieir proper place.

Insensibly, and perhaps unavoidably, the agents in charge
of these “Homes” found themselves in a manner compelled
to extend their privileges to men no longer in the national
service, and forming no part of the national army, as, for in¬
stance, to such as had been discharged the service for disabilitv
and were obliged to wait perhaps several days in Washington
or elsewhere before they could draw the pay necessary to enable
them to return to their homes, and were meanwhile without
the means ot obtaining food or shelter.

Hence naturally grew up the practice of sending such men
to their homes (sometimes at the cost of the Commission) and
then collecting and remitting to them the back pay to which
they were entitled, and also of taking charge of their claims
to pensions and attending to such claims, in order to save the
discharged soldier from detention from his home or from the
risk of extortion on the part of pension agents.

From January 1st to October 1st, 1863, the number of
claims of this class taken in charge, collected and paid over to
the claimant at the Washington office alone, was 2,130, and
the aggregate value of these claims was $130,159 01.

(See Document, No. 69, p. 88.)

It will be observed that this work did not enure to the
benefit of National Soldiers actually in service, except perhaps
most remotely and indirectly by way of encouragement and as
an indication of public sympathy and interest in their welfare
even wThen disabled and discharged.

6. I he k* Report (No. 40) was extensively circulated in
pamphlet form and published at length in several of the News¬
papers of New York. It may be worth noticing that it in¬
cludes (at page 89) a statement of certain work done by the
Commission in regard to interments.

Of the paper, numbered 69, an edition of about 15,000

copies was printed and circulated. It professes to furnish, an
outline of work done by the Commission, tor the purpose ot
enabling the Community to decide whether it deserved farther
public support. As already stated, it distinctly sets loitli the
work of the Commission in the matter of pensions, and in
other measures for the aid of soldiers discharged the service

for disability.

In December, 1861, a pamphlet “letter” (pp. M) was
circulated by the Commission calling for support from the
public, and enumerating, among other objects to which the
funds of the Commission were applied, that of “ furnishing
suitable food, lodging, care and assistance to men discharged
from the general Hospitals or from their regiments, but often
detained for many days in the City before they can obtain

their papers and pay.” (pp. 12.)

The details of this and of other branches of the “ Special
Relief Department ” of the Commission, have been also
brought before the public by several Reports from the Super¬
intendent of that department, which have been largely
circulated and have created as much interest and attention as
any publication of the Commission.

7th. Attention has been called to the system of the Com¬
mission in regard to pensions, back pay, &c., by other
publications and also by advertisements.

8. The expenses connected with the system as heretofore
organized have not exceeded $6,000.

The whole expenses of the Commission for the year ending
June 1st, 1864, were

The expenses of the Pension Bureau of the Commission, it
enlarged as hereinafter mentioned, will be about $10,000.

9. The Commission has caused investigations to be made by
skilled agents into the permanent provision made by foreign
Governments for disabled officers and soldiers, by pensions.

by Hotels des Invalided and other like establishments. The
results of these investigations have been printed but not
generally circulated.

The Commission has never announced an intention of using
any portion of its funds for the erection, establishment, or
endowment of an Asylum, “ Sanitarium,” or other institution
for the support of discharged and disabled soldiers, nor has it
asked for funds for that purpose.

It is now proposed, in order to carry out fully the benevolent
designs ot the Commission, to enlarge and systematize the work
it is now doing in regard to pensions, bounty, and back pay,
by establishing a special department, having its central office
at W ashington, and numerous agencies throughout the country,
to collect for soldiers, for those who have been discharged from
the service, and for their relatives, money due from the
Government for pensions, back pay, bounty, Ac. The service
to be rendered gratuitously by the agents of the Commission,
the agents to be paid by the Commission.

It is also proposed to establish, with the funds ot the Com¬
mission, a 16 Sanitarium,” or Asylum, for disabled soldiers who
have been discharged from the service in consequence of such
disability contracted therein, and to maintain and provide for
such discharged disabled soldiers, who would otherwise be
thrown upon public charity for support.

Ihe opinion ot counsel is requested on these three points: —
1. Has the Sanitary Commission, in view of the nature and
objects of its organization, as set forth in the original order,
and the practice as shown by the documents above referred to,
any right or authority to establish such a pension agency as
above described ?

2. If it has such legal authority, do the officers or members
ot the Commission incur any pecuniary liability in case of the
fraud, neglect, or embezzlement of the agents appointed and
paid by them to render services gratuitously to those who may
choose to employ them to collect pensions, back pay, Ac.,

from the Government ; and if so, by what measures can such
liability be restricted or prevented?

3. Has the Commission any legal authority to employ any
portion of its funds in the establishment and maintenance ot
such a “ Sanitarium,” or Asylum, as above described %

New York, June 18, 1864.

GEO. T. STRONG.

0 P I N ION.

I have been asked upon a case submitted to me, on behalf
of the Sanitary Commission, the following questions :

I. Has the Sanitary Commission, in view of the nature and
objects of its organization, as set forth in the original order
creating it, and the practice as shown in its published docu¬
ments, any right or authority to establish such a pension
agency as it has created ?

II. If it has such legal authority, do the officers or mem¬
bers of the Commission incur any pecuniary liability in case
of the fraud, neglect or embezzlement of the agents appointed
and paid by them to render service gratuitously to those who
may choose to employ them to collect pensions, back pay,
etc., from the Government; and if so, by what measures can
such liability be restricted or prevented ?

III. Has the Commission any legal authority to employ
any portion of its funds in the establishment and maintenance
of such a Sanitarium or Asylum as is described in the sub¬
mitted case ?

In answering these questions, I shall assume that the case
submitted to me is incorporated in my opinion.

I shall treat the first question as the principal one to be con¬
sidered. The second is in its nature subsidiary to the first, and
the answer to the third will readily be derived from the con¬
siderations advanced for the solution of those which precede it.

The first question can be best apprehended by an examina¬
tion into the nature of the powers of the Commission, and an
inquiry into the source whence they are derived.

It is true, as is stated in the case, that the Sanitary Com¬
mission was called into life by an order emanating from the
President of the United States and the Secretary of War, dated
June 13, 1861. Its office and powers, so far as the Govern¬
ment is concerned, are set forth in the order.

But, I apprehend, that the functions of the Sanitary Com¬
mission, by means of which it has acted as the almoner of the
people’s bounty, are not derived from this quarter. That order
has only furnished an opportunity and occasion for the exer¬
cise of powers which spring from another source. The Sani¬
tary Commission holds the funds of the public as a charitable
trustee, and its power and authority must be derived from the
law of Charitable Trusts. The question, in my view,
amounts substantially to this : Can the public spontaneously
select a number of gentlemen, in whom it has a most generous
confidence, and bestow upon them funds to be employed for
the purposes described in the submitted case ; and can these
gentlemen hold and administer these funds under the rules of
law applicable to charities? Had there been no organizing
order by the Government, the question would have been the
same as it is now, except that the Commission might not
have had the same facilities for carrying out and executing
the benevolent designs of the public.

There then appears to be three subordinate inquiries :

(1.) Does the pension agency of the Sanitary Commission
come within the definition of a charity ?

(2.). Are the objects of charity pointed out with such defi¬
niteness that it is legal and capable of being enforced by the
proper legal tribunal ?

(3.) If these questions are answered in the affirmative, is
the law of charities, as understood in England, a part of the
law of Hew York and of the courts of the United States?

(1). At the outset of this examination, it will lie well to

recur to the legal meaning of the term “ charity.” Undoubt¬
edly, in one sense, charity may be deemed to be the good affec¬
tions which men ought to bear to each other. In another
sense, it signifies relief to the poor. But this is not the legal
signification. The legal notion of a “ charitable use” requires
that either personal or real property be devoted by its owners
to some public use, in such a way that they cannot recall it ;
that an authority having a permanent character shall preside
over the fund, and see to its administration ; and that its
beneficiaries are to be derived in succession from a class of
persons who, having no claim upon the property, are selected
from time to time by the trustees. There may be other chari¬
ties, but they do not come within the scope of the law of
“ charitable uses.”

The question now is, Did the law of England, indepen¬
dent of all statutory regulations, recognize and enforce such
charities as these ?

If we consider the question historically, it is entirely free
from doubt. Charities have existed in England from the
earliest period. It is an interesting fact that none are earlier
than those which are established for sick and distressed soldiers
and sailors. There have been almshouses in Dover in the County
of Ivent from time immemorial, designed for “poor and af¬
flicted persons, soldiers, and shipwrecked seamen, who had been
captured by the Dunkirkers, Jews, Dutchmen, and Spaniards,
lying-in- women and melancholy persons, boys with perished
hands, cripples, and all sorts of casual and afflicted poor.” It
was a rule of this charity that when any recovered and were
dismissed, they wTere set forward on their journey to the next
parish, one mile from Dover. It thus appears to have been
a charity in the oldest time of the common law to cure
sick soldiers and to restore them to their homes. {Thirtieth
Report of the English Commissioners of Charities , 533.) So
in the year 1272 John Deverish founded the hospital of St.
John at Southampton, for the relief of sick and lame soldiers.
So strongly did the humane design of these and similar chari¬
ties commend itself to the people of England, that in the fa-

mous statute for the enforcement of charitable trusts, known
as 43 Elizabeth, cap. 4, the only hospital which is mentioned
is that for sick and maimed soldiers.

These early charities were not exclusively managed by cor¬
porations. It was a very common practice to select trustees who
had the power of self-perpetuation, or who could fill up their
number in case of resignation or death. There are foundations
of this kind whose origin is lost in the obscurity of antiquity,
but some still exist which are known to be from four to five
hundred years old. These ancient charities were frequently
brought before the Court of Chancery, and their validity re¬
cognized and established at common law, before the enactment
of the statute 43 Elizabeth. ( Dwight's Charity Cases , p. 1-108.)
The decrees collected in this volume show beyond the possi¬
bility of a doubt that all the essential features of charity law,
as at present administered, are a part of the original equity
jurisprudence of England. It is true that the English courts
now commonly refer to the statute of 43 Elizabeth to deter¬
mine whether any particular charity scheme is legal, for there
is in that statute an enumeration of various charities. All
these charities, however, were in existence before the statute,
which contains such a partial and incomplete summary, that if
it had been literally construed it would have limited, rather
than have enlarged, the principles of the common law.

Ho such charity as that of the Pension Agency of the Sani¬
tary Commission is mentioned in the 43 Elizabeth. This fact,
however, is not material. It is sufficient, according to all the
recent authorities, that a fund is bestowed for a general and
public purpose. I refer upon this point to Tudor on Chari¬
table Trusts , 2nd edit., p. 15. He says : “ It is not material
that the particular public or general purpose is not expressed
in the statute of Elizabeth, all other legal, public or general
purposes being within the equity of that statute. Thus, a gift
to maintain a preaching minister, a gift to build a sessions
house for a county * * * * iiave been held charitable

uses within the equity of the statute of Elizabeth. So funds
derived from the gift of the crown, or the gift of the legisla-

ture, or from private gift, for paving, lighting, cleansing, or
improving a town, are within the equity of the statute of
Elizabeth, and are to be administered as charitable funds. So
a gift to bring spring water for the inhabitants of a town ; for
a life-boat ; for a botanical garden for the public benefit. So
with an institution for investigating, studying, and endeavoring
to cure maladies, distempers, and injuries incident to any
quadrupeds or birds useful to man. The same point was de¬
cided when a gift was made to the British Museum.”

The reason on which these propositions rest, is well expounded
by the late Lord Chancellor Oranworth, when pronouncing his
decision in the case of the University of London v. Yarrow,
23 Beavan, 159 S. C., 1 De Gex and Jones, 72. The testator
in that case bequeathed £20,000 for founding and upholding
an institution for investigating and studying and relieving the
maladies and distempers of birds and other animals useful to
man. Lie further proceeded to provide a scheme or plan,
whereby his design could be carried into effect. It was objected
that such an institution was not a charity. Said the Lord
Chancellor : ** I cannot say that I have any doubts about this
case. The determination of what constitutes a charity has
occasionally given rise to very difficult questions. * * When
the testator points out what he contemplates, and that which
he contemplates is something highly beneficial to the commu¬
nity at large, I do not know that any question has then been
raised whether it was within the statute of Elizabeth or not.”
The statute of Elizabeth enumerates several objects which it
says have been those to which well-disposed persons have been
in the habit of devoting property, but the objects there enume¬
rated are not to be taken as the only objects of charity, but are
given as instances. If that were not so, a cursory glance at the
statute has satisfied me that no general hospital would be
within it, as the only charity ot this kind mentioned is the
maintenance ot sick soldiers and mariners. Yohody ever
doubted that this was only put as an instance of those objects
to which pious and well-disposed persons had theretofore de¬
voted their property. The courts have always construed the

act as applying to objects of the same nature as those specified.

I cannot entertain for a moment a doubt that the establish¬
ment, of a hospital in which animals useful to mankind are treated
with a view to public advantage is a charity. * * I enter¬

tain no doubt that it would be a good charity to establish an
institution for investigating and removing the causes of the
potato disease and of the vine disease, for it would tend to the
improvement of those vegetables, and if any sound theory
were to arise from its investigation, it would be a most bene¬
ficial establishment for mankind in general.”

Assuming this theory to be correct, as it cannot reasonably
be disputed, there is no doubt that the Pension Agency ol the
Sanitary Commission is a good charity by the law of England.
The public advantage is plain and needs no argument. Many
of those entitled to the pension are sick and maimed ; they
struggle with poverty and obtain a slender support from
periodical payments by the government. It these payments are
delayed, or lost by the unfaithfulness of agents selected by
themselves, their families must be supported by the public.
Moreover, it is a recognized and sacred duty on the part of the
people to support and protect those who have been the defence
of the nation in time of war. The property ot public-spirited
individuals, can be devoted to no more noble or lofty public
use than this. Not only is the debt of the people thus in a
measure discharged, but it is of general advantage that the
soldiers in our armies should have such a recollection ot the
prompt and sympathetic recognition of their services, as will
lead them under a new emergency, to throw themselves un¬
reservedly upon the active good faith and energy ot the
government and their fellow citizens. Such an agency as the
one under consideration, managed by men in 'whom the public
have an unqualified confidence, with agents selected for their
known worth and fitness for the business; rendering a
spontaneous and gratuitous service to our soldiers, can not
fail to have an important influence upon the efficiency of our
military force. There is no stronger argument in favor of the
public nature of this charity, than the fact that the people at

large have contributed to its funds, for it is not conceivable
that an entire nation should contribute to that object which
is of no public use or advantage. It will be perceived from
■what has been already urged, that it is not necessary that all
the recipients of the beneficent action of this agency should,
through poverty or other like reasons, require its services. It
is enough that some of our soldiers need them, and it would
not be practicable or requisite to distinguish between the two
classes. It was held many years since by Lord Chancellor
Manners, that in order to constitute a charity it is not ne¬
cessary, as has been supposed, that the gift should be to the
poor, for many of the objects considered charitable, were much
more beneficial to the rich than to the poor, such as repairing
and preserving bridges and buildings which are of indis¬
criminate benefit. (Shelf ord on Mortmavn, pp. 81.

I am for these reasons unhesitatingly of opinion that the
Pension Agency of the Sanitary Commission is a charity, when
tested by the rules of the English law as at present adminis¬
tered. r am also of opinion that the statute of 43 Elizabeth,
e 4, is only in affirmance of the common law, and that its
object was not to introduce any new principles concerning
charities, but only to provide new methods of enforcing those
whose existence it recognized.

(2.) It may be asked whether this agency is sufficiently de¬
finite to come within the rules which govern the validity of
charities. Sir Francis Moore in his “ Heading on the Statute
of Charitable Uses,” says four things are principally to be
considered: “1. The ability of the donor ; 2. The capacity of
the donee ; 3. The instrument or means whereby the thins; is
given ; 4. The thing itself, which is or may be given to a
charitable use,” to which may perhaps be added ; 5. Lawful
beneficiaries sufficiently described. In the present case, no
discussion can be had in respect to the first, third, and fourth,
of these requirements. The donors are the people of the
United States ; the instruments or means are their own willing
hands ; the things given are goods directly useful to the army
or the universal currency of the country. There is no nice

question concerning the validity of trusts ot land, or ot the
mental capacity or free volition of the donor, or concerning the
legality or formality of an intricate conveyance ; questions
which obscure the validity of charitable bequests. The only
points worthy of a moment’s attention, are these : is the
Sanitary Commission a body capable ot holding and executing
a charitable trust; and is the pension agency sufficiently
definite in its character? In respect to the first question,
there is no reasonable doubt. The Sanitary Commission is an
ascertained body of men. Although not a corporation, its
members may be sufficiently described as individuals by the
name which is now imperishably associated with them. They
may be regarded as trustees to hold the property which the
people have given to them. The validity of such trusts
is clearly recognized in the common law. Many charita¬
ble foundations have been managed in this manner for sev¬
eral centuries ; surviving trustees filling vacancies occasioned
by death or by resignation, or, in the last resort, making ap¬
plications to the Court of Chancery for the continuance of the
trust.

The only remaining point under this branch of the discus¬
sion, is the description of the beneficiaries. They are persons
who have been enlisted as soldiers in the armies of the United
States, but who have been discharged by reason of disability
to serve, or on other like grounds. There is no indefiniteness
in this description which renders the charity uncertain. It is
no more indefinite than the case mentioned in the 43 Elizabeth,

c> 4 _ a hospital for sick and maimed soldiers. Sir Francis

Moore tells us that the word “ maimed ” in this statute means
a hurt that disables a person from serving any more as a sol¬
dier or a mariner. Phis charity was therefore expi esslj foi
discharged soldiers. The law of charities only requires that
the class of beneficiaries should be designated. It is a part ot
the office of the trustees who control and administer the funds
to determine who are members of this class, and to exercise
from time to time a power of selection of such persons as
are beneficiaries. The fact that such persons are unascertained

or uncertain when the funds were contributed is of no import¬
ance ; it is sufficient if they are ascertained when the money
is applied to their use. Uncertainty is an element in all or¬
ganized charities, whether they be institutions of learning or
religion, hospitals for the sick or houses of refuge for the poor.
It has even been said that charity— meaning organized charity
— ends where certainty begins.

This question was before the Supreme Court of the United
States in the recent case of Perm v. Carey, 21 Howard, U. S.
Reports, pp. 465. A testator gave his property to the City of
Cincinnati in trust for the building, establishing, and main¬
taining two colleges for the education of boys and girls. This
was held to be a sufficient description. In the same case a
“ bequest for the support of poor white male and female per¬
sons, neither of whose parents were living,' ” was upheld as
sufficiently definite.

The result of this examination is that the Pension Agency
ot the Sanitary Commission is embraced within approved legal
definitions of the term “ Charitable Trusts.”

(3.) Under this branch of our inquiry, it only remains to
examine the question whether the law of charities is in force
in the jurisprudence of the United States, as well as of the
several states of the Union.

The courts of a large number of the States have already
passed upon this question, and have decided that the English
law of charities is a part of their own common law. Ho lesral
subject has been litigated with more pertinacity and ardor.
How the attack has assumed a historical form, and it has been
urged with great ingenuity and learning that the common law
of England does not recognize charities. How it has been
claimed that the colonies of this country never adopted English
theories on this subject, and that charities have been rejected
from American law. But the friends of charity have no less
resolutely insisted that the historical argument was in their
favor, and that charity has been from the beginning, and is
now, a part of our American law. The Supreme Court of the
United States has uniformly adopted this view ever since the

great and conclusive argument of Mr. Binney in the Girard
College Case, Vidal v. Girard, 2 How. TJ. S. 127. The most
recent decision of the Court, Perm v. Carey, 24 How. U. S. 465,
fully sustains Vidal v. Girard. The only important State in
which the question is open to doubt is Hew T orlc. The present
condition of the law in that State justifies a more full examin¬
ation than would otherwise be necessary. The colonial law
of Hew York recognized charities. One of the earliest in¬
stances was a case where money had been raised by voluntary
contributions to “ rescue Christian Slaves in Barbary.” The
money was placed in the hands of four persons as “ trustees
of money raised on voluntary contributions towards the re¬
demption of slaves.” Ho doubt was ever made of the validity
of this arrangement, and the fund was managed in accordance
with the direction of the Colonial Court of Chancery, con¬
sisting of the Governor and the Privy Council. Another case
is the well-known instance of Cullen’s Charity, under the title
of Attorney-General v. Cullen. The decree of the Colonial
Court of Chancery directed that Mr. Cullen’s legacy in favor
of the poor of Hew York and Albany should be paid over to
trustees named by the testator, to be by them distributed in
accordance with his direction. These cases bear strongly upon
the organization of the Sanitary Commission, for in one of
them the charitable fund was obtained by the benevolent con¬
tributions of the community at large, and in the other the
principal of the fund was distributed among the poor in suc¬
cession. It is unnecessary to say that general contributions
and equally general distribution are marked characteristics of
the Commission.

The question of the right to give personal property to
charitable uses, established by the common law of England?
and recognized by colonial practice and adjudication, came
before the Hew York Court of Appeals in the year 1853.
(Williams v Williams, 4 Selden 525.) This case involved the
right of trustees to manage in perpetuity a fund for the
education of the poor. It was a stronger case than the present,
for it not only created an indefinite body of beneficiaries, but it

■>

provided for a distribution to them for ever, of the proceeds of
the fund. It thus established a “ perpetuity ” which it is well
known, is not lawful in the case of private trusts. The court
however held the bequest valid, and recognized the distinguish¬
ing and peculiar features of the law of charitable trusts as a
part of our law. Although this case has been at various times
vehemently attacked by counsel, it has never been shaken by
the court, and it is believed that it never will be — manet et
manebit.

If these views be correct, the Sanitary Commission has a
right to establish such a Pension Agency as is described in the
case submitted for my opinion.

II.

The question whether the officers and members of the Com¬
mission incur any pecuniary liability in case of the fraud,
neglect, or embezzlement of their agents, is somewhat complex.
On the one hand, regard must be had to the donors of the
funds which they have in charge for the purposes of the charity;
and on the other, the relation of the Commission to the bene¬
ficiaries in respect to the custody and control of their property
must be considered. In respect to the donors, the ordinary
rules of charitable trusts, are undoubtedly applicable. The
property having been impressed with a public use, no longer
belongs to the donors, and any mismanagement of it could
only be corrected by a proceeding on the part of the Attorney-
General. The trustees of the fund having acted with ordinary
discretion and with good faith, would not be held personally
responsible for the misconduct of their subordinates. But in
respect to the liability of the Commission to the soldiers, the
question would not admit of the same solution. Its members
might be deemed to be gratuitous agents. There is no in¬
consistency in this double view. It has already been mention¬
ed that the Lord Chancellor of England has decided that a
hospital for curing diseased animals useful to man, at an

expense not exceeding tlie actual cost, is a charity. — University
of London v. Yarrow. — It can hardly he denied that while the
managers of such an institution, had under their care for such
a purpose, animals belonging to private owners, they would be
regarded as bailees. They are charitable trustees in respect
to the management and expenditure of the charitable property ;
in respect to the property of private individuals, on which the
charity operates, they are bailees. In like manner, the mem¬
bers of the Sanitary Commission may be deemed to be agents
or bailees in respect to funds or other property belonging to
the soldiers. Viewed in this aspect, what are the responsibil¬
ities of agents holding the property of their principals and
acting without recompense ?

Some of the authorities which hold the sternest rules regard¬
ing such agents, are Allen v. Merchants’ Bank of New York,
22 Wendell, 215, and the subsequent cases which adopt the
principle of that decision. In the case referred to, it was held
by the New York Court of Errors, that a Bank which received
for gratuitous collection a bill of exchange drawn here upon a
person residing in another state, is liable for any neglect of
duty occurring in its collection from the default of its agents.
It is true that the facts of that case were not like the present,
but the case was decided on a principle or course of reasoning
which may be applicable. It wTas laid down by Senator
Verplanck, who delivered the prevailing opinion, as a general
rule of the law of agency, that “ where a trust is put in one
person, and he whose interest is entrusted is damnified by the
neglect of such as that person employs in the discharge of that
trust, he shall answer to the person damnified." Citing Lord
Holt’s opinion, 12 Modern It., 490. It would make no differ¬
ence, though an undertaking of this kind be gratuitous, for the
receipt and possession of the money by an agent is a sufficient
consideration to give the transaction the legal characteristics
of a contract. — (Dunlap’s Paley on Agency , pp. 6 and 77-8.)
Other cases which hold a similar doctrine to that of Allen v.
Merchants’ Bank, are Montgomery County Bank v. Albany
City Bank, 3 Selden, 459 ; Commercial Bank v. Union Bank,
1 Kern an, 203.

■j

‘21

Assuming that these principles are general in their nature,
and extend to all agencies, gratuitous or otherwise, there is a
■well-established qualification, which is, that the rule may be
varied by an express or implied agreement or understanding
between the parties. In other words, the agent is liable to
the principal for the acts of subordinate agents, unless there
is sufficient evidence of some agreement or custom discharging
his responsibility. — (Allen v. Merchants’ Bank, supra, and the
other cases before cited.)

The facts of the present case, I think, are within the
exception. It seems to me that there is an implied under¬
standing that the Commission shall not be responsible for the
acts of its employes. When wre consider its organization, its
charitable design, its administration of the funds of the public,
and the fact that its character is universally known; still
further, when we contemplate the vastness of the territory
over which its operations extend, and the variety and com¬
plexity of its affairs, it can scarcely be doubted that there is a
tacit understanding that the members of the Commission shall
incur no pecuniary responsibility other than that which exacts
from them reasonable diligence in the selection of competent
subordinates. It should be added that the cases which have
come before the courts, are those where a motive, either of
business or interest, has induced the gratuitous agent to act
for the principal. Eone can be found where the administrators
of a great public charity offered as a gratuitous favor to collect
and transmit funds for its beneficiaries. As this is a case of
the first impression, a court would reasonably hesitate to apply
principles which are suited to ordinary business transactions
to a subject of such public and extraordinary interest.

M hether this view be correct or not, it is entirely clear that
an express contract may be made, exempting the principal
from responsibility. This proposition is not only a rule of
law, but the dictate of good sense, and of reason; for, when
a person is about to enter upon a gratuitous service, he has no
duty to perform, and may prescribe the terms upon which he
w ill enter upon the undertaking, if he does not contravene the
rules of public policy.

My answer to the second question is, that I do not think
that the members of the Commission wTould be liable to its
beneficiaries for the acts of subordinate agents ; but, for greater
caution, I would recommend that proper communication be
made by public notice, or otherwise, that its members will
only be bound to use reasonable diligence in the selection of
its employes.

III.

In respect to the third question, I am of opinion that the
Sanitary Commission has, in the present condition of things,
no right to appropriate its funds to the establishment and
maintenance of a Sanitarium. Its expenditures should be
confined to the objects stated in its circulars.

The propositions of the Commission having been set forth
in various offers to the public, and having been acted upon by
the bestowal of contributions must be deemed to be the law of
the trust, which should be administered accordingly until the
beneficiaries for which the fund was intended are exhausted.
Nothing of that kind appears, nor does it appear that the funds
of the Commission are more than sufficient to meet the legiti¬
mate demands upon them. If there should be a surplus, a
court of chancery might entertain a proposition for an appli¬
cation of the fund to cognate purposes, under its well-known
power to approximate the intention of the donors. This
approximating, or so-called cy pres power can only be exercised
when the intentions of the donor cannot be literally fulfilled.
Says Shelford, “ The distinction now prevails that the Court will
not decree the execution of the trust of a charity in a manner
different from that intended except so far as it is seen that
though the intention cannot be literally executed, another
mode may be adopted consistent wfith the general intention by
which it may be carried into effect in substance without in¬
fringing upon the rules of law. If the mode pointed out by
the donor becomes by subsequent circumstances impossible, the

general charitable intent is not to be defeated if it can be at¬
tained.” (Shelford on Mortmain, pp. 602.)

The same idea is expressed by Mr. Tudor in his recent
work upon Charitable Uses, in the following language : “ The
doctrine of cy pres is applied to cases where, the terms of the
gift being originally precise and complete, by lapse of time
or otherwise they have become un suited under altered circum¬
stances to carry out the general intention of the founder.” —

pp. 260.

Much criticism and even ridicule has been expended by
various writers and advocates upon the cy pres doctrine. In
some of its aspects it cannot be defended ; especially where it
is applied to a discovery of the original intention of the donor.
It then often degenerates into an ingenious perversion of his
real intent. The branch of it which is now under examination
cannot be successfully impugned. The ground on which the
doctrine rests is, that when property has once been bestowed
upon a valid charity it is given to a public use ; that the donor
intended to withdraw the fund from the mass of his private
resources, and devote it to public purposes of a kind which he
designates ; that the public purpose is of the essence of the
gift, and the particular method of applying the fund is inci¬
dental ; and that when the particular method designated by
the donor is no longer feasible or practicable his general intent
will be carried out, and the Court, acting on the suggestion of
the Attorney-General representing the public, will appropriate
the fund to some public use, as nearly related as possible to the
donor’s intention.

The English practice upon this point, based upon general
principals of equity jurisprudence, has long been settled.
Thus in the year 1631, money was raised in England by
voluntary contributions, for the relief of the poor during a
pestilence. A surplus having remained, after all the objects
or which the contribution was made, were relieved, the
University of Cambridge and others petitioned the King in
council, that the unexpended residue should be applied to the
erection of a work house for the poor. A decree was made to

that effect by the privy council, acting not under the 43
Elizabeth, for the council is not mentioned in that statute, but
proceeding upon general principles of equity law. {Thirty-
first Report of the Commissioners of Charities , pp. 24.)

There is little doubt that this course would be adopted in
the case of the Sanitary Commission. Should there be a
surplus fund, the establishment and maintenance of a Sanitar¬
ium for soldiers, would be closely allied to the object for which
funds were originally contributed. It cannot, however, be
ascertained until the close of the war, that any surplus will
exist. It will then be necessary to submit the matter to a
court having chancery powers and to ask for its direction.
Consequently, it cannot be stated with positiveness that a
Sanitarium would be authorized, for it might be supposed that
some other object was nearer the contributor’s intent, than the
one in question : still there is a reasonable probability that if
the Sanitary Commission should present a plan for the ap¬
propriation of the supposed surplus, which should involve an
institution like a Sanitarium, it would be approved by the
court. Such a plan in the technical language of charity law
is termed a scheme. The rule is well expressed by Mr. Tudor :
u When difficulty arises, either from altered circumstances or
otherwise, so that the intention of the founder of the charity
or of any scheme cannot at the present time be literally carried
out, it will become the duty of the trustees, * * * to ap¬

ply to the court of chancery for a scheme,” pp. 293-4. The
theory upon which a “ scheme ” is ordered, is that the charity
is to be administered under the eye of the court. It may be
ordered even where there is an unlimited discretion given to
trustees as to distribution, and where it serves no purpose ex¬
cept to show that the fund is applied to proper objects. —
Supple v. Lawson, cited in 16 Yesey 211. These views are in
substance sanctioned and enforced by a very recent decision
in Pennsylvania, City of Philadelphia v, Girard’s Heirs.
45 Penn. St. Pep. (9 Wright) 28. A. D., 1863.

My reply to the third question is, that the law of Charities
requires the Sanitary Commission to devote its receipts to

the objects advertised in its circulars. These are the law of
the trust confided to the Commission by the public. If, how¬
ever, there should be a surplus at the close of the war, it may
be applied to an object, in the nature of a Sanitarium, such as
the proper court may sanction. It would seem judicious, if an
effort is to be made to collect additional funds, that suitable
publication should be made of the intention, under certain
contingencies, to provide a home for disabled soldiers.

Should such a course be taken, there is every reason to
believe not only that large contributions will be made, but
that bequests will be given to the Commission by citizens of
this and other countries. The efforts and sacrifices of our
soldiers and sailors will for many years attract the sympathy
and admiration of mankind, and these sentiments will doubt¬
less be evinced by liberal pecuniary contribution to all re¬
sponsible charities in their behalf. The “ Patriotic Fund ” in
England, for the widows and orphans of soldiers and sailors,
originated but a few years since, already amounts to more
than seven millions of dollars, (£1,459,687.) This sum has
been invested permanently for the benefit of the objects of the
charity. A Spanish gentleman recently made a considerable
bequest to this fund, which has been pronounced valid by the
courts of Spain. {Report of the Commissioners of the Patriotic
Fund to Parliament , 1863.) I believe that it would be wise
for the Sanitary Commission, to frame and publish to the
world a comprehensive plan for the support of disabled soldiers
and their families, by which it may hold the same relation to
the benevolent people of this country, as the Commissioners of
“ The Patriotic Fund ” hold to contributors in England. The
people of the United States will insist that this great institu¬
tion shall assume a permanent character, and that it shall
manage their benefactions as long as there is a disabled soldier
who may require their aid.

It may be proper to add, that it is still an unsettled question
in the State of Uew York whether real estate can be acquired
by a charitable association, in any case, without the express
authorization of the Legislature. Such sanction, if asked for,
3

could undoubtedly be obtained. At all events, the difficulty
might be avoided either by taking a lease of suitable land, or
the institution might be placed in a State where no such diffi-
culty, which in New York is occasioned by the doubtful con¬
struction of a local statute, exists.

It has given me great personal satisfaction, as the result of
matured reflection, to reach the conclusions which have been
set forth in this opinion. I should have experienced unalloyed
regret had I been driven to the belief that the law of our
country did not favor an institution which has soothed the
horrors of war by the sweet charities of our private and
domestic life, invigorating the soldier with its active sympathy,
while it nursed and cured his wounds. It is a pleasure to
know that the vastest and most unselfish charity of modern
times is the offspring of remote antiquity, and that there has
been no time for five hundred years in which the common law
did not pay a tender regard to the sick and wounded soldier.

37 Lafayette Place, New York,
November 4, 1864.

THEODORE W. DWIGHT.

SANITARY COMMISSION.
No. se.

PLAN OF EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION

OF THE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

AND

RULES

FOR ITS

EXECUTIVE SERVICE.

Adopted December 16th, 1864.

Uefo JJork:

SANFORD, HARROUN & CO., STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, 644 BROADWAY.

1864.

PLAN OF

EXECUTIVE ORGANIZATION.

There shall he —

I. A Standing Committee, as at present constituted, of
six members, having all the powers of the Commis¬
sion in the intervals of its. sessions.

II. A Medical Committee, as at present constituted, of
three members.

III. A General Secretary, under authority of the Com¬
mission and its Committees, having his headquar¬
ters at W ashington, but free to move to any portion
of the field where his general supervision is required.

IY. An Associate Secretary, charged with the work of
the Commission, in such portions of the country as
shall be assigned to him, with headquarters at
Louisville.

Y. As many Sanitary Inspectors, under the direction of
the two Secretaries, as the work of Inspection and
Relief may require.

YI. As many Relief Agents as the necessities of the
Army or Navy may call for.

YII. As many Assistant Secretaries at the Washington,
Louisville, and New York Offices, as the necessities
of the service may require.

YIII. A Special Relief Department.

IN. A Hospital Directory.

N. A Statistical Department.

OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE.

The Standing Committee will receive the instructions of
the Commission, at its successive sessions, and lie charged with
their execution. It will have all the powers of the Commission
in the intervals of the sessions; but its action at all times
will be subject to correction and rectification by the Com¬
mission. The Standing Committee will hold its meetings at
least once a week, and as far as possible daily, except when
the Commission is in session. Its usual seat will be the New
York Office, but it may meet anywhere ; two members shall
constitute a quorum for ordinary business at the New York
Office. The Standing Committee will usually communicate
its orders through the General Secretary. A meeting shall
be called by the Chairman at the request of any two mem¬
bers.

OF THE MEDICAL COMMITTEE.

The Medical and scientific work of the Commission is in
the immediate charge of the Medical Committee, which re¬
ports upon questions referred to it by the Standing Commit¬
tee or the Commission ; originates and recommends action on
scientific subjects, and exercises executive functions when
delegated to it by the Commission or Standing Committee.

OF THE GENERAL SECRETARY.

The General Secretary is the Chief Executive officer under
the Commission, and, during the intervals of its sessions, of
the Standing Committee, and the Head of the Working De¬
partments. All officers of the Commission will receive their
instructions from him and present to him regular reports,
and such special reports as he may call for. lie will be
responsible to the Standing Committee, and finally to the
Commission for the execution of the plans determined on by
the Commission or Standing Committee. His orders to
all officers of the Commission are to be obeyed as the or¬
ders of the Commission. The General Secretary will each
week present to the Standing Committee, at its regular weekly

meeting, a concise report of the general movements and work
of the Commission, and obtain fresh instructions upon all new
questions of importance.

The General Secretary will also present to the Standing
Committee, monthly, an approximate estimate of the pecu¬
niary wants of the coming month.

Once each month the General Secretary shall furnish to
the Standing Committee vouchers for all money expended
during the previous month.

All reports from the Heads of the various Departments
will be sent to the General Secretary to be considered, acted
upon and deposited in the Washington Office, the depository
of the records of the Commission.

OF THE GENERAL AND ASSOCIATE SECRETARY.

The Secretaries, at Washington and Louisville, will have
charge, in their respective fields, of the whole matter of
collecting and distributing supplies. All Inspectors and Relief
Agents will be under their direction, and will report accordingly.
To them is committed the oversight of all the business of 'the
Commission, in their several fields, such as official correspon¬
dence, and the cultivation of personal relations with the
Military authorities, correspondence with the various branches
and with the public, the study of the sources of supply, the
probable wants of the army, and all the necessities of special
relief. All Relief Stations, Floating Hospitals, and trans¬
portation, shall be under their direction.

The Associate Secretary, at Louisville, will make a full
monthly report to the General Secretary of the work assigned
to him.

OF SANITARY INSPECTORS.

To each Military Department, if large enough, a Sanitary
Inspector may be assigned by the General Secretary, to direct
the work of the Commission in the same. His title shall be
Chief Inspector (as — of the Army of the Potomac, or — the
Cumberland), and he shall be responsible for and report to his

official superior on the progress and condition of the work of
Relief and of Inspection in his department.

OF RELIEF AGENTS.

The Relief Agents shall receive directions for their work
from the Inspectors of the districts in which they serve.

OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARIES.

The Assistant Secretaries, at the offices in Washington,
Hew York, and Louisville, shall perform the duties of corres¬
pondence and such other business as may he assigned to
them.

OF THE SPECIAL RELIEF DEPARTMENT.

The work provided for by the Special Relief Depart¬
ment, until further order, shall be :

1st. The locating and conducting “ Homes ” and “ Lodges,”
subject to the direction of the General or Associate Sec¬
retary.

2nd . The work of aiding soldiers, correcting their papers,
obtaining arrears of pay, securing bounty, prize money,
etc., and in all ways acting as their protector.

3rd. The collection of material upon which to base action in
establishing “ Sanitaria.”

1th. Such other work as may be required by the General
Secretary.

OF THE HOSPITAL DIRECTORY.

The work of the Hospital Directory will be conducted as
at present ordered.

OF THE STATISTICAL DEPARTMENT.

The Statistical Department will have essentially the same
work and duties as heretofore.

As the value of the information collected by this Depart¬
ment depends very much upon the promptness with which it

presents the conclusions derived from the data it furnishes,
the Head of the Statistical Department will, on the first
day of each month, report to the General Secretary the
amount and character and source of the material he has
received during the previous month, the disposition made
of it, and the results reached. He will also state the kind
and amount of information most needed, in order to enable
him to complete any unfinished tables, or to settle any
question under examination, pertaining to the advance¬
ment of Sanitary Science.

Also, once every three months (seven days preceding the
meeting of the Commission) he shall deliver to the General
Secretary a report of the total amount of work accomplished
during the previous three months, and the work on hand.

RULES.

The Standing Committee will meet daily, at the Central
Office, No. 823 Broadway, New York, at half-past three, p. m.,
or at such other hour and place as it shall appoint. It will
also hold evening sessions at least once in each week. Two
members of the Committee shall be a quorum for the transac¬
tion of routine business. All action by the Committee is
subject to the approval of the Commission.

II.

All action of the Committee shall be recorded in its minutes ;
which minutes shall be reported to the Commission at every
meeting.

III.

At each weekly meeting of the Committee, the Secretary
shall report, in writing, on the current business of the past
week, which report shall be entered at length in a book to be
provided for that purpose. He shall also lay before the Com¬
mittee such reports and correspondence as he may consider of
importance, or as calling for action, with a memorandum or
abstract in writing of their substance.

The order of business at meetings of the Committee shall be — -
(1.) The examination of bills, and motions by the Treasurer,
(2.) Communications from the General Secretary.

(3.) Miscellaneous business.

IV,

At eacli session of the' Commission the minutes of the
Standing Committee shall be reported by the General Secre¬
tary, who shall read such portions of them as may contain the
record of any action of importance, and the whole if called for.

The Treasurer shall make no payments without authority
from the Committee.

VI.

Twice each month the Treasurer shall have his bank book
balanced and submit it, with his check book, to the Standing
Committee.

VII.

All bills for services or supplies ordered by any member,
officer, or agent of the Commission, shall be certified by him
in writing as correct, before presentation for payment, which
requirement may, however, in special cases, be dispensed with.

VIII.

All bills for services or supplies must be presented within
five days after they are payable. It is the duty of every mem¬
ber and agent of the Commission who shall engage services,
or purchase supplies on its behalf, to notify the person with
whom he is dealing of this rule, and distinctly to inform him
that the presentation of his bill within that space of time, is a
condition of its payment. Ho open accounts with the Com¬
mission can be kept by any person in its employ, or with
whom it deals.

IX.

Ho money shall be paid without a proper voucher. All
vouchers for the expenditure of money shall, before pay-

ment, be certified in writing, by the chief officer in charge of
the office from which such expenditure is made, or by some
person to be designated by such officer.

Vouchers shall particularly designate for what purpose the
money has been paid, and shall include a detailed statement
of items and the receipt of the party and to whom the
payment has been made. The amount covered by defective
or irregular vouchers, will be charged against the officer by
whom they are certified or by whom the expenditure has been
made.

Persons volunteering in the service of the Commission will
under no circumstances be allowed compensation for such
service, or for any loss they may have sustained ill the per¬
formance of their duties.

XI.

The account of every person employed by the Commission
must be settled, at least once a month, and when paid, must
be credited by service, etc., so as to close it monthly.

XII.

All bills presented for payment, which, for any special
reason cannot be made to conform to the above rules, will be
sent to the Treasurer, with written statement of the circum¬
stances of the case.

XIII.

Xo deposit can be made in bank on account of any person
employed by the Commission. If any of them wish to place
money in the safe, they may be permitted to do so ; but they
must be distinctly informed that the Commission is to be in
no way responsible for its safe keeping, and that such deposit
is at their own risk.

XIV.

If any person so employed be absent at the close of the
month (or week, as the case may be), when he is entitled

to payment for services, and no person be duly authorized, in
writing, to receive such payment for him, the officer in charge
shall receipt for the amount thereof in his name, and the
Cashier wfill draw such amount, enclose it in a sealed en¬
velope, directed to him and lodge it in the safe until called
for. Funds, so deposited, will also be at the risk of their
owmer.

XY.

No funds are in any case to be advanced to any Home,
Lodge, or other office of the Commission as heretofore.

XYI.

A classified statement, with vouchers of the cash disburse¬
ments of each office, must be made and forwarded to the As¬
sistant Treasurer at Xew York, at the end of each month.

XVII.

No officer or agent of the Commission is allowed to expend
any portion of its funds for any purpose, however humane,
charitable, or meritorious ; or for the aid, relief, or benefit of
soldiers in the National service, in any way, or through any
method, direct or indirect, which has not been approved and
sanctioned by the Commission, or by the Standing Committee.
Any application of the funds of the Commission to other
objects, however strongly they may appeal to the sympathies
of its officers, is a breach of trust.

XVIII.

Commercial drafts may in no instance be resorted to, by
Agents, for obtaining funds from the Treasurer. Agents
should endeavor to make timely requisition for anticipated
necessities, by correspondence with the General Secretary,
and, in case of emergency, by telegraph.

XIX.

XX.

Every person in the service of the Board, above the grade
of ordinary clerk, laborer, or teamster, shall make a weekly
report in writing to his immediate official superior, unless he
shall present a written excuse which shall be satisfactory to
the General Secretary.

XXI.

Xo payments shall be made on account of the salary of any
person in the service of the Commission, above the rank of
ordinary clerk, laborer, or teamster, who shall have failed to
comply with the provisions of the foregoing resolution.

XXII.

Members of the Commission detailed for special service by
the Commission or its Committees, and receiving compensation
therefor, shall be subject to the orders of the General Secre¬
tary.

XXIII.

Xo person in the employ of the Commission is permitted to
criticise or censure the conduct, or the policy of any mili¬
tary officer, or of Government, by word or writing, except
only, that if such conduct or such policy seem to him inju¬
rious to the sanitary interests of the national forces, he shall
report his opinion and the facts on which it is founded, to the
Commission through the General Secretary.

XXIV.

Xo agent of the Commission shall take part in any political
procession, or be concerned in any partisan meetings or de¬
monstrations whatever. It is also recommended that they
should abstain from exciting discussions or conversations on
political topics, as the value of their services and influence in
their special sphere may be thereby unfavorably affected.

XXV.

Xo agent of the Commission is permitted to furnish infor¬
mation to the newspaper press, of military movements with
which he may have become acquainted in the course of his of-
flcial work. Chiefs of the Field Kelief Department, will stu¬
diously discourage all newspaper correspondence by their sub¬
ordinates.

XXVI.

Xo agent of the Commission is allowed to sell anything
whatever, even though his own private property, to officers or
soldiers of the . national army, or to other persons in Govern¬
ment employ. Any agent of the Commission violating this
rule, directly or indirectly, thereby terminates his relations
with the Commission.

XXVII.

Xo person may be afforded quarters in the Homes, Lodges,
or other establishments of the Commission, except those
who are engaged in its service or are legitimate objects of its
charity.

XXVIII.

Xo wines, whiskey, or other spirituous liquors shall be is¬
sued to officers or privates, except upon the requisition of a
medical officer. Such supplies shall be issued to civilians
and persons engaged by the Commission, only by request of
competent medical advisers ; and no liquors shall be drank on
premises occupied by the Commission, except when advised,
as above stated.

XXIX.

Furloughs from the Commission’s service may be given by
authority of the Cenernl or .Associate Secretaries. They must
always be in writing and for a definite period.

♦

XXX.

Xo appointment of an agent or servant, by any member,
officer, or agent of the Commission, shall be valid or binding,
until approved by the Commission or the Standing Committee!

XXXI.

It being most desirable that every Lodge, Home, Depot, or
other, establishment of the Commission should set an example
to the army of cleanliness, good order and conformity to sani¬
tary laws, and there being reason to fear that agents of the
Commission, in their zeal to relieve our national soldiers and
to promote their, health and efficiency, are sometimes led to
overlook the sanitary conditions required to keep themselves
in good health and fit for their work : it is further ordered
that every officer of the Commission in charge of any of its
posts, be responsible for the maintenance th ereof in the utmost
attainable degree of neatness and purity, and for the prompt
correction— so far as may be— of whatever endangers his own
health and that of members of his corps. He will see that
their quarters furnish each ample air space ; that their supply
of water is uncontaminated ; that they have, if possible, facili¬
ties for bathing, and are required to use them at least once in

each week ; that the neighborhood of each station is kept free
from refuse and rubbish, and daily policed ; that water-closets
or sinks are properly disinfected, and that servants, contra¬
bands or others, are provided with cleanly and wholesome
clothing and quarters. Should special difficulties prevent
this being done at once, and always, they must be promptly
reported to the Secretary administering the District, with a
requisition for whatever may be necessary to give agents and
servants of the Commission the same aid and relief which the
Commission seeks to give the army.

XXXII.

XXXIII.

It being important not only to the health, but to the effi¬
ciency of every Relief Agent, that his dress and his equipments
be kept in perfect order, and that any defects therein be at
once corrected, it shall be the duty of the Chief Officer of the
Commission at every Relief Station, to assemble his Corps at
least once in each week, for a minute inspection of their cloth¬
ing, shoes, blankets, haversacks, &c. He shall cause such
articles as are found deficient to be at once repaired or replaced.

It shall be his duty, moreover, to advise all Relief Agents of
the importance of personal neatness, and to require of them .
such attention to their dress and equipments as may set an
example of good order and military precision to those with
whom their duties bring them in contact.

XXXIV.

The General Secretary shall provide books, containing
printed forms, substantially as follows: “N<> . A. B. is en-

“gaged by the United States Sanitary Commission, by the- - ,

“durin" the pleasure of the Commission, at the rate of -

“dollars per - , as - , and also for such other or further

“duties as may from time to time be assigned to him. Dated

“ the _ day of _ , 136 .” This memorandum shall be

signed by the General Secretary, or by the Associate Secre¬
tary, and by the person so employed or engaged. It shall
be subscribed by every officer, agent, or servant now or here¬
after engaged by the Commission for a stated term of service.

XXXV.

The Chief Officer of the Commission at every Belief Station
or other Agency which employs a wagon train, will cause such
train to be daily inspected, and will require a daily report in
writing of the condition of every wagon, which shall be at the
base of each inspection, and of its team and harness. Blanks
for such reports shall be furnished by the General Secretary.
Every wagon shall be numbered. The Inspector will examine
and report on the condition of the wagons, and of the horses,
and will see that their harness and their shoes are m order,
and that each team is provided with whip, feed box, wrench,
water buckets, etc., and with forage if necessary.

He shall also keep a wagon clearance book, containing the
following entries, in columns, headed accordingly, viz.: 1.
Date of entry. 2. No. of wagon. 3. Name ot teamster. 4.
General description of load. 5. To whom, or to what corps or
division consigned. 6. Date of return of wagon. 7. lie-
marks.

XXXVI.

It is recommended by the Standing Committee, that at all
Relief Stations, Homes and Lodges of the Commission, sue 1
provision be made for the observance of Sunday, as a day oi
3

rest and religions observance, as the military situation may
render possible. J

XXXVII.

All copies of reports, correspondence and other papers re¬
lating to the business of the Commission, in the hands of any
officer or agent of the Commission, and which have come to
his hands in the course of his official duty, or been obtained
through privileges enjoyed by him in consequence of his
official position, are the projierty of the Commission, and can¬
not be retained by such agent or officer after the termination
of his duties as such.

XXXVIII.

_ All letters addressed to any principal office of the Commis¬
sion shall be at once referred, on their receipt, to the officer in
charge of the special department having supervision of the
subject.

It is the duty of each officer to whom such letters are re¬
ferred, immediately to acknowdedge their receipt, and, if pos¬
sible, to transmit at once the information sought for.

XXXIX.

A copy of these Rules shall be furnished to every officer and
agent now or hereafter in the service of the Commission, and
they will be held severally strictly responsible for their ob¬
servance.

SANITARY COMMISSION.

>'o. 87.

PRELIMINARY REPORT

OF THE

NORTH CAROLINA, MARCH, 1865,

AND UPON

THE PHYSICAL CONDITION OF EXCHANGED PRISONERS LATELY
RECEIVED AT WILMINGTON, N. C.

New York, April 4th y 1865.

Dr. J. Foster Jenkins,

General Secretary United States Sanitary Commission:

DearSir — The accompanying report, marked “A,” fromJ.
C. Dalton, M. D., Professor of Physiology and Microscopic
Anatomy, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New
York, will put you in possession of the leading facts connected
with our voyage from New York to Wilmington, on the
Commission’s steamer Chase.

In obedience to instructions from the Standing Committee
of the Commission, we left New York on Saturday, March
11th, at 9 p. m., for Beaufort, North Carolina. We arrived
there on Tuesday, March 14th, at 4.30 p. m. I immediately
communicated, by telegraph, with Dr. Page at New Berne, and
informed him of our arrival. After waiting some hours,
without reply from Dr. Page, who was absent at the front
near Kinston, where Gen. Schofield was pushing the enemy
vigorously, I endeavored to secure a landing for such stores

as we wished to send from the cargo of the Chase to New
Berne. This I failed to do from the fact that the only wharf
at the terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad
was in possession of the Construction Corps, and used entirely
for the landing of locomotives and other rolling stock.
Accordingly, I chartered the J. H. Maitland, a schooner,
intending to use her as a store boat. The J. H. Maitland'
at this time, had on hoard coal for the navy, which Captain
West, in command of the fleet in Beaufort harbor, offered to
remove as speedily as possible.

Two o clock, Thursday, the 16th inst., we began to transfer
a portion of our cargo to the Maitland, and on Saturday, the
18th, at half-past eleven, having lightened the Chase so as
to enable her to pass over Wilmington Bar, we sailed for
Wilmington.

On Sunday, the 19th, at one o’clock, we reached the dock
at Wilmington. I immediately requested Dr. Dalton to make
a thorough visitation of the hospitals, ascertain the number
of returned prisoners needing our services, and also the
number of sick and wounded from Generals Sherman’s,
Schofield’s, and Terry’s commands.

During his absence I waited upon Gen. J. C. Abbott, the
Commandant of the Post, to inform him of our arrival, and
obtain from him facilities for the discharge of our cargo. He
took a lively interest in our mission, and sent me to Captain
Lamb, A. Q. M., who furnished a detail of fifty men, and
placed at our disposal a large covered wharf, having ready
access from the main river street and ample space for the
storage of our entire cargo. Having secured these facilities,

I went to the distributing rooms of the Commission in the
town, and reported our arrival to Mr. Foster, the devoted
and over-worked Agent of the Commission in charge of its
affairs here. Mr. Foster had issued his last supplies the
previous afternoon, and our arrival was, therefore, most
opportune. I may mention, as an evidence of the work done
by Mr. Foster, in attempting to meet the more pressing wants
of the returned prisoners, previously to our arrival, that he had

issued, among other supplies, two hundred and forty barrels
of milk punch.

Early on Monday morning, March 20th, we began dis¬
charging our cargo, and Dr. Dalton returned from his visit
of inspection with the report that there were between twelve
and thirteen hundred returned prisoners in the Avarehouses
and hospitals of Wilmington, and about twenty-six hundred
sick and wounded men from Gen. Sherman’s army and from
the commands of Gens. Schofield and Terry. The corrected
returns, subsequently received, shoAv that there were at that
date actually twenty-four hundred and seventy-five (2,475)
returned prisoners.

Dr. Dalton reported that all these men would need woollen
clothing and condensed food, stimulants and esculents, and
that the surgeons, including Dr. Buzzell, the ranking medi¬
cal officer, hailed the advent of the Sanitary Commission with
great joy. I refer you to Dr. Dalton’s report for information
as to the principles Avhich regulated us in estimating the
amount of food probably necessary to secure the largest benefit
to the sufferers.

The surgeons in charge of the various hospitals began to
send in their requisitions at an early hour on Monday morn¬
ing, and the issues made upon their requisitions were sufficient
to clothe and feed every individual in the various hospitals
and warehouses, and to secure an ample reserve supply of
food and clothing for two or three weeks to come.

In order to aid Mr. Foster in the performance of his duties,
I instructed him to secure the services of two clerks, and I
also requested Mr. Hoblit, our able Belief Agent, who had
accompanied General Sherman from Atlanta to Savannah,
to make a regular tour of the hospitals, and urge upon the
surgeons the necessity of furnishing the patients as large a
quantity of tomato soup made from beef stock, of condensed
milk, of chocolate, onions, and farinaceous food, as in their
judgment the condition of their patients would require.

I found the surgeons in charge of the various hospitals
working to the utmost of their ability in the care of these
needy men. Many of them had carried their exertions far

beyond the limits of prudence, forgetting themselves in their
desire to do good. Many of them were sick, including Dr.
Buzzell;* and Dr. Palmer, one of the ablest men in the
volunteer corps, had worn himself out and died, while Dr.
Jarvis and others, who still survived, were sacrificing in their
professional ministrations. My experience here was in keep¬
ing with what I have heretofore seen in the conduct of the
medical officers in hospitals and on the field, and I think
that the people do not yet understand or appreciate what has
been done, and what is now doing here and elsewhere every
day, by the medical staff, to mitigate the sufferings that
inevitably accompany war.

Having completed the arrangements for the discharge of
the cargo of the Chase, I visited some of the warehouses and
hospitals, to examine into the condition of the returned
prisoners. I shall not attempt here to picture their fearful
condition.

I congratulate the Commission upon the opportunity which
was afforded by the presence of so distinguished a physiologist
as Dr. Dalton, who could bring to bear his powers of analysis
and diagnosis, in establishing the facts with reference to the
causes which had reduced these men to their present lament¬
able condition. Dr. Dalton spent Sunday and Monday in
visiting the hospitals containing the returned prisoners, with
a view of determining whether their condition was due to
disease, or the consequence of starvation and exposure, and
for his calm and well-digested opinion upon this subject, I
refer you to his report, heretofore alluded to, marked “A.”

I had several interviews with citizens of Wilmington, who
had seen our prisoners as they were brought into the city for
exchange, with a view of ascertaining what their impressions
were, as to the motives which influenced the rebel officers in
the management of squads in their respective commands. I
found that some of the rebel officers in charge of our returned
prisoners had permitted the citizens to furnish them food,
while others had forbidden all access to the pens in which the
men were quartered; and one, a rebel captain, having charge

* Plas since died, a martyr to the cause of humanity.

■j

of about a thousand men, had gone with his drawn sword
and knocked the food from the hands of the famished men,
informing the citizens who had furnished it, “that the best
thing that could happen to the Yankees was to be starved,
and thus expiate the crime which they had committed in
invading southern territory and destroying the peace of
southern homes.”

On Tuesday we sailed for Beaufort, taking as passengers,
David B. Adams, M. D., late Acting Assistant Surgeon U.
S. A., sick with typhoid fever, and Henry Hiscocks, Captain
Battalion G, 1st Missouri Light Artillery, who was in a state
of confirmed phthisis, the consequence of exposure and priva¬
tion during eight months in a Southern prison, and Col. B.
S. Pardee, Connecticut State Agent.

On Wednesday we reached Beaufort harbor and discharged
the balance of our freight upon the Maitland, making an
issue of onions and potatoes to the fleet in the harbor, as many
of the men in the fleet had been without any but the scantiest
supply of vegetables for two or three months.

On Thursday we waited upon Gen. L. Y. Easton, obtained
coal for the Chase, made through him an issue of pickles to
the six hundred men in the Quartermaster’s squad, and
started by rail for New Berne.

Dr. Page, Inspector of the Commission, on duty in North
Carolina, joined us at Morehead City, and went with us to
New Berne. At New Berne I examined into the working of our
Relief Stations, visited Dr. Cowgill, Surgeon in charge of the
Foster Hospital, Dr. Hand, the Medical Director, and Gen.
Palmer, the Commandant of the Post. I found Dr. Page
distributing potatoes and onions and other antiscorbutic food,
with woollen clothing and other sanitary supplies, to the
needy soldiers in New Berne, and to such as were sent to the
rear from the command of Gen. Schofield.

Messrs. Page and Bowman were absent from New Berne,
having pushed forward with Gen. Schofield in the advance
to Kinston, carrying with them on the construction train two
large feeding tents to meet the wants of those who were
wounded and sent to the rear, in the various skirmishes and

fights for the possession of the line of the road between New
Berne and Goldsboro’. Dr. Page will report to you in detail
the operations of the relief corps in connection with General
Schofield’s advance ; suffice it to say that the abundant
resources of the Commission had been used in such a manner
as to give material aid and comfort to some thousands of
needy men.

Dr. Cowgill’s Hospital, the Foster, was a model of success¬
ful organization and administration, and I was very much
struck with the quarters appropriated to the use of the rebel
wounded. These quarters were hospital tents raised above
the ground, upon yellow pine underpinning and floors, boun¬
tifully supplied with bedding, attendants, food and medicine,
and in every way a credit to the professional skill and
philanthropy of Dr. Cowgill, and the humanity of our
Government. I could not avoid indulging the comparison
between the condition of these men under the care of our
medical officers, and that of our poor fellows who had suffered
in rebel hospitals and rebel prison pens.

I found that Dr. Page was making preparations to cultivate
his large hospital garden, amounting to over one hundred
acres in the suburbs of Newbern, for the benefit of men in the
Hospitals, and the forces operating in this vicinity, while all
the details of his work in other fields of usefulness were beim*’

attended to with admirable zeal, fidelity, and intelligence.

Leaving New Berne on Saturday, wepassed through Pamlico,
Croatan, and Albemarle Sounds, and the Albemarle and
Chesapeake Canal to Norfolk, where I visited Mr. Sherman,
the gentleman in charge of the affairs of the Commission
at this point, and examined his storehouse, and method of
transacting business, with satisfaction.

I then visited the lodge of the Commission at Portsmouth,
opposite Norfolk, which is in charge of Mr. Alcock. I found
this lodge in admirable order. As you are familiar with its
condition and usefulness through the regular reports of Mr.
Alcock, I shall not enter into details.

On Monday, the 27th, I left Norfolk for New York, via
Fortress Monroe and Baltimore. I cannot express too highly

my obligations to Dr. Dalton, for his able services, nor forget
to mention those of Messrs. Cobb and W. A. Paton, who
accompanied us from New York, and gave their assistance in
many of the details of the work.

Extract from my Letter to you , dated Wilmington, N. C .,
March 20to, 1865—11 P. M.

The returned prisoners sent into Wilmington numbered
nearly 9,000. About 7,000 of the less famished have gone
North. Gen. Abbott, who received our poor fellows in the
exchange, has just told me that language would utterly fail
to describe their condition. Filth, rags, nakedness, starva¬
tion, were personified. Many of the men were in a state of
mind resembling idiocy, unable to tell their names, and lost
to all sense of modesty, unconscious of their nakedness and
personal condition. Some of them moved about on their
hands and knees, unable to stand upon their gangrenous feet,
looking up like hungry dogs, beseeching the observer for a
bite of bread or a sup of water. Some of them hitched along
on their hands and buttocks, pushing gangrenous feet,
literally reduced to bone and shreds, before them. Others
leaned upon staves, and glared from sunken eyes through
the parchment-like slits of their open eyelids into space,
without having the power to fix an intelligent gaze upon
passing objects. Others giggled, and smirked, and hobbled,
like starved idiots; while some adamantine figures walked
erect, as though they meant to move the skeleton homewards
so long as vitality enough remained to enable them to do so.
To see the men who remain here in hospital would move a
heart as hard and cold as marble. Their condition is that of
men who have for months suffered chronic starvation. Their
arms and legs look like coarse reeds with bulbous joints.
Their faces look as though a skilful taxidermist had drawn
tanned skin over the bare skull, and then placed false eyes
in the orbital cavities. They defy description . It would take
a pen expert in the use of every term known to the anatomist
and the physician to begin to expose their fearful condition.

Very respectfully yours, C. K. AGNEW.

.A.

Report of J. C. Dalton, M. D., Professor of Physiology and
Microscopic Anatomy, College of Physicians and Surgeons,
New York.

The steamer Chase left New York on Saturday evening,
March lltli, for Beaufort Harbor and Wilmington, N. Of,'
la,den with beef stock, condensed milk, onions, potatoes,
pickles, and other similar articles, together with an abundance
of flannel under-clothing and blankets. It was intended to
discharge the cargo, in whole, or in part, at either Beaufort
Harbor or Wilmington, as the necessities of the case might
make it desirable. It was anticipated that the wants of the
sick and wounded from Gen. Schofield’s Corps, and possibly,
also from Gen. Sherman’s Army, then moving in a north¬
easterly direction on its way from Columbia, would be best
relieved from the direction of Beaufort; while the necessities
of our returned prisoners, recently delivered at Wilmington,
would require supplies at the last-named point.

On entering Beaufort Harbor, where the steamer arrived
on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 14th, a large number of
transports were found waiting, partly discharged and partly
still laden with supplies and material. Gen. Schofield’s Corps
which had been transferred by sea from Wilmington to
Beaufort, had advanced to Newbern, and thence, along the
line of the railroad, toward Goldsboro’. At the time of our
arrival it had reached a point within a few miles of Kinston,
where it had come in contact with the enemy, and repulsed
him after a somewhat severe engagement on the 10th and
11th instant. The efficient agents of the Commission were
accordingly then at the front, doing all in their power to aid
in relieving the wounded from this engagement ; and Dr.
Agnew soon learned by communications from them that their
supplies were already sufficient for that particular emergency.
The railroad from Morehead City, in Beaufort Harbor, to
New Berne and Kinston was then entirely in the hands of a
construction corps, which was actively engaged in relaying
the track and getting the road in running order to the rear

of Gen. Schofield’s advancing columns, and it was impossible
to obtain transportation over this road even to New Berne,
except for material required for the construction of the road
itself, and supplies absolutely essential for the subsistence of
the army. The only other mode of sending to New Berne was
to go round by way of Hatteras Inlet and the Neuse Biver,
but this could only be done by vessels of much ligher draft
than the Chase. It was decided, therefore, to discharge a part
of the cargo upon a schooner, which could remain in Beaufort
Harbor as a storeship, and from which such supplies as were
needed at New Berne could be sent round from time to time on
lighters, by way of Hatteras Inlet. The remaining, and
larger portion of the cargo was to be taken immediately to
Wilmington in the Chase for the use of the returned prison¬
ers. These arrangements were completed by the evening of
Friday, the 17th. By that time we learned that General
Schofield had again advanced and had occupied Kinston
without further opposition.

On Saturday, 18th inst., at noon, the Chase left Beaufort
Harbor, and arrived off the bar, at the entrance of Cape Fear
River, before daylight on Sunday, the 19th. At 11 a. m. she
crossed the bar, and came to her dock at Wilmington early
in the afternoon of the same day.

At Wilmington, we found 3,940 sick and wounded men,
including the returned prisoners, whose condition was such
that they were all to be regarded as sick men, and urgently
in need of comfort and relief. Of the whole number to be
cared for there were about 2,000 sick belonging to the com¬
mand of Gen. Terry (who had moved directly North after
the capture of Wilmington, on the line of the Wilmington
and Weldon Railroad,) and about 600 from Gen. Sherman’s
army, who had been sent down the north-western branch of
the Cape Fear River, a few days previously, from Fayette¬
ville. The remainder consisted of our returned prisoners,
1,250 in number. Corrected returns, subsequently received,
show the number of returned prisoners to have been twenty-
four hundred and seventy-five (2,475) ; making the grand total
about 4,900, who had been delivered by the enemy a short

distance above the city, at the north-eastern branch of the
Cape Fear River, since our occupation of the town. Of these,
Gen. Terry s sick and wounded were, of course the best pro¬
vided for, since they had occupied the town from the date of
its capture, and felt, more than anything else, the want of
ambulances and other means of transportation, which had
been necessarily taken with the main column on its advance
northward. Those arriving from Gen. Sherman’s command
were, many of them, quite destitute, having been on the
march through the enemy’s country for about two months,
ever since the date of Gen. Sherman’s leaving Savannah.
They needed clothing and food as well as rest and medicines.
But the greatest and most pitiful necessities were among our
returned prisoners. No description can do justice to their
miserable condition, because nothing but an actual inspection
of them, in considerable numbers, can show that the wretched
faces and figures that present themselves everywhere are not
the isolated and exceptional effects of severe illness, but the
general result of a uniform and long-continued process of
starvation and misery. There were degrees, of course, in
which this condition was more or less marked. The better
cases were walking about the streets, perhaps barefooted, or
with no other clothing than a pair of white cotton drawers
and an old blanket or overcoat, both equally ragged. In
these, the slow, dragging gait, listless manner, and cavern¬
ous, inexpressive look of the face, together with the general
emaciation, formed a peculiar aspect by which they alone
attracted the attention of the passer-by, and by which they
were at once distinguished from the other convalescent sol¬
diers. There was no occasion to inquire in Wilmington
which were our returned prisoners ; after half a day’s experi¬
ence, any one could distinguish them at a glance. Many of
them, who had strength to crawl about in this manner, were
prevented from doing so by the want of clothing. Major
Randlete, the Provost Marshal of Wilmington, told me that
on one day forty of these men came into our lines absolutely
as naked as they were bom. I inquired of a considerable
number of them, whom I saw in the hospitals confined to

their beds — caked or with only a shirt, and covered with a
hospital blanket — what had become of their clothing, and
was told that they had thrown away what remained as soon
as they could obtain shelter, because it was so ragged, filthy
and full of vermin. One of them, on being told that the
Sanitary Commission had sent them flannel shirts and
drawers, caught at the word with a childish eagerness, and
repeated the good news to his companions with a faint half¬
imbecile smile as long as I was within hearing. With the
great majority of the feebler ones, personal cleanliness was a
thing which they appeared to have entirely forgotten. They
no longer retained sufficient strength either of mind or body,
to appreciate or correct the degradation to which months of
unavoidable uncleanliness had reduced them. In the most
extreme cases the condition of the mind, as well as the ex¬
pression of the face, was absolutely fatuous , and the aspect
of the patient was not that of a strong man reduced by illness,
but that of an idiotic pauper, who had been such from his
birth. Nevertheless, several of the surgeons informed me
that the condition of the patients had visibly improved since
their reception, and that I could not then form an adequate
idea of what it was when the3r entered our lines. In that
case it must have been lamentable beyond description.

The testimony of both men and officers was uniform as to
the causes of their unnatural condition. These causes were —
1st., starvation, and 2d., exposure. Only such officers and
men as could procure money, were able to obtain anything
like sufficient nourishment. Some of them told me that
during the entire winter they had received absolutely no meat ;
a pint of corn-meal, often with the cob ground in, sometimes
with and sometimes without salt, a handful of u cow peas,”
and sometimes sorghum molasses, constituted their usual
ration. When in hospital, they had only very thin corn-meal
gruel and a little corn-bread. To the debility occasioned by
this insufficient food, was added that resulting from exposure.
It was a common thing for a prisoner, immediately on
being taken, to be stripped of his clothing — shoes, socks,
pantaloons, shirt and drawers — and to be left with only an

old and worn-out pair of drawers and, perhaps, an equally
worn-out shirt and blanket given him in exchange This
robbery of clothing was also practiced, more or less, upon
o i°ers Even an assistant surgeon, who was captured within
four miles of Richmond, told me that he was robbed of his
flannel shirt, while standing in front of the Libby Prison and
in presence of the rebel officer in charge of the squad This
was immediately after his arrival in the city, and when he
lad been for the three days succeeding his capture, entirely
without food. With the scanty clothing thus left them, the
men were kept during the winter, often without any shelter
excepting such as they could contrive to provide by excavating
a sort of rifle-pit in the ground, and covering' it with old
blankets or canvas, as their supply of fuel was insufficient
and sometimes entirely wanting ; even in the hospitals their
sunering iiom cold was very great.

One of the most melancholy sights in Wilmington was
that to be seen at the “Geer” Hospitals. In these hospitals
were collected all those patients who had lost their feet
either wholly or in part, by freezing, from their exposure

‘ Unng th® Past wmter> and this in a well wooded country,
n some of them, two or three toes only, on one or both feet
were gangrened, and in process of separating by ulceration ;
in others, both feet had entirely separated, and the patients
were awaiting the time when their general strength and the
condition of the stump would warrant a final amputation.

In many cases the patients ascribed this gangrene directly to
frostbites received on particular occasions ; in others to their
illness from which they were suffering-generally fever com¬
bined with exposure. My own impression, derived from the
result of many inquiries, was that it was generally due to a
continuous depression of the vital energies from starvation
and neglect, resulting gradually in a destruction of the life
of those parts most exposed to the cold and the weather
With all these cases awaiting relief, it was impossible that
the stores brought by the “Chase” should have come at a
more opportune period. From all the officers in Wilming¬
ton, of all grades and departments, there was hut one oxpres-

siori of gratitude and relief at hearing of our arrival, and we
could not have asked more ready and cordial co-operation
than was given us at once hy all upon whom we depended
for information and assistance. A capacious covered dock
was at once assigned for the discharge and storage of the
supplies, and an abundant force of negro refugees assigned to
the labor of unloading the steamer. So rapidly was this work
effected that during the day, on Monday, supplies were
already in process of distribution to the various hospitals, a
complete list of which, with the number of patients in each,
had been previously obtained. The covered dock was used
as an issuing office, as well as a storehouse, and being very
capacious and well lighted, it afforded admirable facilities for
reaching the various articles as they were needed.

It was found that all the returned prisoners, without excep¬
tion, and all the men recently arrived from Gen. Sherman’s
army, needed flannel shirts, drawers, and blankets ; that
shirts and drawers were also required hy all the other sick
and wounded then in hospital, and blankets hy about two-
thirds of them. Tin plates, cups, knives, and forks were
also much needed, all of which were at once supplied. In
order to regulate the distribution of food and stimulus to the
different hospitals, the following diet table was made out, to
serve as the basis of calculation. It was thought that such
a ration, with the interchanges between various articles
which could he readily effected whenever desired, would he
best suited to the greater portion of the cases :

Name of Article.

]]eef Stock .

Canned Tomatoes,
Condensed Milk...

Onions .

Potatoes .

Soft Crackers .

Chocolate .

Pickles .

Whiskey .

Daily Ration.

. 2 oz.

. 8 “

. 4 “

. 4

. 4 “

. 1 “

. 4 “

The various hospitals were requested to send down requisi¬
tions according to the above diet table, in quantities corres¬
ponding with the number of patients in each hospital; they
were not restricted, however, absolutely to the above quantities,
but the diet table was adopted as expressing a minimum
ration, which could he increased, if desirable, in particular
cases, and which could he supplemented, for those patients
who were able to bear it, with articles from the regular army
ration.

Early on Tuesday morning a sufficient quantity of the
above articles had been landed to supply the whole number
of patients in Wilmington for at least fifteen days. A portion
of the cargo, over and above this amount, which would he
more probably required at New Berne at the next emergency,
was retained for reconveyance to Beaufort Harbor. On Tues¬
day afternoon the steamer left Wilmington, and proceeded
down the river to Fort Fisher, hut owing to a south-easterly
gale, and consequent heavy sea on the bar, she was unable to
go out until the following day, Wednesday, the 22d instant,
at 2 o’clock, p. M. At that time she crossed the bar, unhurt,
without difficulty, and again entered Beaufort Harbor on the
morning of Thursday, the 23d. At Beaufort Harbor the re¬
mainder of her cargo was transferred to the storeship, and
the steamer, after coaling, sent hack to New York.

Very respectfully yours,

J. C. DALTON.

List of Supplies shipped by U. S. Sanitary Commission , on board
Steamer Chase, March ] 1th, 1865, for Wilmington, via Morehead
City, N. C.

1,755 Blankets,

211 Cotton Shirts,

200 dozen Flannel Shirts,

217 u Knit Shirts,

200 u Flannel Drawers,
217 11 Knit u

534 11 Wool Hose,

78 pair Cotton Socks,

60 ‘ 1 Shoes,

12 Haversacks,

372 dozen Towels,

56 Cushions,

2 dozen Suspenders,

122 lbs. Thread,

8 gross Fine Combs,

208 Quilts,

263 Pillow Cases,

101 Pillows,

2 bbls. Cotton Rags,
lj 11 Bandages,

20 Sleeping Caps,

20f yards Flannel,

167 dozen Handkerchiefs,

474 bbls. Crackers,

92 dozen Condensed Coffee,
1,857 lbs. Coffee,

800 “ Corn Starch,

1,600 11 Maizena,

50 “ Tobacco,

28 dozen Smoking Tobacco,
166 bbls. Sour Krout,

507 “ Onions,

520 “ Potatoes,

3,300 lbs. Chocolate,

40 tierces Pickled Tomatoes,
76 “ “ Onions,

214 bbls. Pickles,

3,000 lbs. Beef Stock,

80 doz. 1 lb. can’d Mutton,

100 “ “

“ Chickens,

4 “ “

“ Mince Meat,

8 “ “

‘ ‘ Sausage Meat,

4 » “

“ Lobsters,

40 “ 11

u Spiced Oysters,

1,200 “ “

“ Cond’sdMilk,

1,100 “ “

u Tomatoes,

40 “ “

11 Peas,

40 “ u

u Blackberries,

260 “ “

‘ 1 Peaches,

80 “ “

1 ‘ Pears,

40 “ “

“ Quinces,

40 “ “

“ Apple Butter,

50 dozen Jelly, assorted,

40 1 1 Mustard,

20 -u Cumberland Sauce,

1 u Candlesticks,

100 Wash Basins,

12,000 Needles,

70 Bed Pans,

73 Urinals,

10 gross Dinner Plates,

4 Hatchets,

240 dozen Knives and Forks,

4 u Lanterns,

4 Axes,

2 dozen Coffee Pots,

83 11 Tin Cups,

2 “ Pails,

5 gallons Kerosene Oil,

110 dozen Whiskey,

8 11 Lemon Syrup.

4 boxes Candles,

5 boxes Soap,

299 reams Note Paper,
52,000 Envelopes,

42 gross Steel Pens,

8 “ Pen Holders,

36 dozen Inkstands,

2 reams Wrapping Paper,
1 dozen Mucilage,

1 ream Letter Paper,

4 gross Pencils,

10,000 Labels,

10 lbs. Squibbs Chloroform,
2 oz. Morphine,

5 Head Rests,

Crutches.

Note.— April 11th.— The following additional Invoice of Supplies was
shaped on board the steamer Uncas, April 7th, 1865, for
distribution at New Berne and Wilmington:

1,000 pairs Infantry Pants,

500 Blouses,

2,900 Woollen Shirts,

2,003 pairs Woollen Drawers,

1,500 “ “ Socks,

20 yards Flannel,

2,172 Cotton Shirts,

2,055 pairs Cotton Drawers,

244 “ “ Socks,

1 case Winter Clothing,

1 u Summer u
808 Sheets,

300 Blankets,

200 Quilts,

127 Pillows,

934 Pillow Cases,

388 Bed Sacks,

2,052 Towels,

2,001 Handkerchiefs,

300 pairs Suspenders,

2,208 11 Slippers,

2,040 11 Brogans,

496 Cushions,

682 Arm Slings,

112 lbs. Black Tea,

800 “ Maizena,

1,008 cans Condensed Milk,

27,000 cans Tomatoes,

77 lbs. Dried Fruit,

112 galls. Apple Butter,

11 bbls. Pickles,

7 casks 1 1

25 boxes Lemons,

21 bbls. Boston Crackers,

2,208 papers Smoking Tobacco,

192 bottles Brandy,

50 “ Domestic Wine,

50 bbls. Stock Ale,

500 pairs Crutches,

2 cases Compresses,

8 bbls. Old Linen, Lint and Ban¬

dages,

40 galls. Kerosene Oil,

72 Oil Lanterns,

15 gross Pipes,

32 Tin Cups,

75 bbls. Chloride of Lime,

16 casks 11 11

350 bbls. Quick Lime,

300 Fine Combs,

36 lbs. Thread,

2,000 Needles,

All of which is respectfully submitted.

C. R. AGNEW.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,
No. 88.

ADDRESS

DELIVERED BY

Mrs. Hoge, of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission

(BRANCH OF THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION),

At a Meeting op Ladies, held

AT PACKER INSTITUTE, BROOKLYN, L. I.,

March, 1S6S,

IN AID OF THE GREAT

NORTH WESTERN FAIR,

TO BE HELD AT

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,

MAY 30th, 1865.

Ifcfcr Ifor fe :

SANFORD, HARROUN & CO., STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 644 BROADWAY.

1865.

ADDRESS.

When the echo of the first rebel gun at Sumter fell on
the nation’s ear, and stirred its patriotic heart, with one
accord, men of all sections and of various shades of political
feeling, seized their muskets, fell into line of battle, and
resolved not to falter till rebellion should be crushed and the
honor of the old flag justified. The women of the land, with
swelling hearts and uplifted eyes asked, “ Lord, what wilt
thou have us to do ?” The marvelous organization of the
U. S. Sanitary Commission, with its various modes of
heavenly activity, pointed out the way, saying, “the men
must fight, the women must work — this is the way, follow
me.” In accepting this call, there has been no reservation.
Duty has been taken up, in whatever shape presented,
nothing refused that would soothe a sorrow, staunch a
wound, or heal the sickness of the humblest soldier in the
ranks. Some have drifted into positions entirely new and
heretofore avoided. They have gone forth from the bosom of
their families to visit hospitals, camps and battle-fields ; some
even, to appear as we do before you to-day, to plead for aid
for our sick and wounded soldiers, suffering and dying, that
we may live. The memory of their heroism is inspiring — the
recollection of their patience and long suffering is over¬
whelming. They form the most striking human exemplifica¬
tion of divine meekness and submission the world has ever
seen, and bring to mind continually the passage, “He is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her
shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.”

As I cast my eyes around to-day on the hundreds of bright
young faces, eagerly bent to hear the soldier’s story, I appre-

ciate as I never have done before, what these brave men have
won. and from what they have saved ns. But for these noble
warriors, who have stood a living wTall between us and
destruction, where would have been our schools, our colleges,
our churches, our property, our government, our lives?
Southern soil has been watered with their blood, the Missis¬
sippi fringed with their graves, measured by acres instead of
numbers. The shadow of death has passed over almost every
household, and left desolate hearthstones and vacant chairs.
Thousands of mothers, wives and sisters at home have died
and made no sign, while their loved ones have been hidden in
southern hospitals, prisons and graves — the separation, thank
God, is short, the union eternal. I have only a simple story
of these martyred heroes to tell you. I have been privileged
to visit a hundred thousand of them in hospitals ; meekly and
cheerfully lying there , that you and I may be enabled to meet
here , in peace and comfort to-day.

Could I, by the touch of a magician’s wand, pass before
you in solemn review, this army of sufferers, you would
say a tithe cannot be told.

The first great hospital I visited was Mound City, twelve
miles from Cairo. It contained twelve hundred beds, fur¬
nished with dainty sheets, and pillows and shirts, from the
Sanitary Commission, and ornamented with boughs of fresh
apple blossoms, placed there by tender female nurses to refresh
the languid frames of their mangled inmates. As I took
my slow and solemn walk through this congregation of suffer¬
ing humanity, I was arrested by the bright blue eyes, and
pale but dimpled cheek, of a boy of nineteen summers. I
perceived he was bandaged like a mummy, and could not
move a limb ; but still he smiled. The nurse who accom¬
panied me said, “¥e call this boy our miracle. Five weeks
ago, he was shot down at Donelson ; both legs and arms
shattered. To-day, with great care, he has been turned for
the first time, and never a murmur has escaped his lips, but
grateful words and pleasant looks have cheered us.” Said I
to the smiling boy, some absent mother’s pride, “ how long

did yon lie on the field after being shot?” “From Saturday
morning till Sunday evening,” he replied, “ and then I was
chopped out, for I had frozen feet.” “ How did it happen
that you were left so long?” “Why, you see,” said he,
“ they couldn’t stop to bother with us, because they had to take
the forth' “But,” said I, “did you not feel ’twas cruel to
leave you to suffer so long?” “ Of course not! how could
they help it ? They had to take the fort , and when they did,
we forgot our sufferings, and all over the battle-field went up
cheeis from the wounded, even from the dying. Men that
had but one arm raised that, and voices so weak that they
sounded like children’s, helped to swell the sound.” “ Did
you suffer much ?” His brow contracted, as he said, “ I don’t
like to think of that ; but never mind, the doctor tells me I
wont lose an arm or a leg, and I’m going back to have
another chance at them. There’s one thing I can’t forget
though,” said he, as his sunny brow grew dark, “ Jem and I
(nodding at the boy in the adjoining cot) lived on our father’s
neighboring farms in Illinois ; we stood beside each other and
fell together. As he knows, we saw fearful sights that day.
We saw poor wounded boys stripped of their clothing. They
cut our’s off, when every movement was torture. When
some resisted, they were pinned to the earth with bayonets,
and left writhing like worms, to die by inches. I can’t for¬
give the devils for that.” “ I fear you’ve got more than you bar¬
gained for.” “ Hot a bit of it ; we went in for better or worse
and if we got worse, we must not complain.” Thus talked
the beardless boy, nine months only from his mother’s wing.
As I spoke, a moan, a rare sound in a hospital, fell on my
ear. I turned, and saw a French boy quivering with agony
and crying for help. Alas ! he had been wounded, driven
several miles in an ambulance, with his feet projecting, had
them frightfully frozen, and the surgeon had just decided the
discolored, useless members must be amputated, and the poor
boy was begging for the operation. Beside him, lay a stal¬
wart man, with fine face, the fresh blood staining his bandages,
his dark, damp hair clustering round his marble forehead.

lie extended his hand feebly and essayed to speak, as I bent
over him, but speech had failed him. He was just brought
in from a gunboat, where he had been struck with a piece of
shell, and was slipping silently but surely into eternity. Two
days afterward I visited Jefferson Barracks Hospital. In
passing through the wards, I noticed a woman seated beside
the cot of a youth, apparently dying. He was insensible to
all around ; she seemed no less so. Her face was bronzed and

deeply lined with care and suffering. Her eyes were bent on
the ground, her arms folded, her features rigid as marble. I
stood beside her, but she did not notice me. 1 laid my hand
upon her shoulder, but she heeded me not. I said “ is this
young man a relative of yours ?” no answer came. “ Can’t I
help you ? With a sudden start that electrified me, her dry
eyes almost starting from the sockets and her voice husky
with agony, she said, pointing her attenuated finger at the
senseless boy, “ he is the last of seven sons — six have died in
the army, and the doctor says he must die to-night,” The
flash of life passed from her face as suddenly as it came, her
arms folded over her breast, she sank in her chair, and became,,
as before, the rigid impersonation of agony. As I passed
through another hospital ward, I noticed a man whose dejected
figure said plainly, “ he had turned his face to the wall to
die. His limb had been amputated, and he had just been
told his doom. Human nature jebelled. He cried out, “I
am willing to die, if I could but see my wife and children
once more.” In the silence that followed this burst of agony,,
the low voice of a noble woman, who gave her time and abun¬
dant means to the sick and w^ounded soldiers, was heard in
prayer for him. The divine influence overcame his struggling
heart, and as she concluded, he said, “ Thy will, O God, be
done !” “ ’Tis a privilege, even tnus, to die for one’&

country.” Before the midnight hour he was at rest. The
vacant bed told the story next morning.

At one time I spent six weeks with the army on the move,,,
having in charge a large amount of hospital stores, and having
the privilege of personally dispensing them to those who so*

greatly needed them. As the steamer on which we had our
headquarters was tied up for the night, I was sent for by the
colonel of a Wisconsin regiment, in great haste, to see a
young man who was very ill on board the steamer Empress.
As we entered the boat we were met by the colonel, who said,
“ Ladies, I am in great distress ; I have in my regiment a
young man who had graduated, studied law, and was about
to form a legal partnership with his father, when my regiment
was forming. He was an only child , and a young man of
rare promise. He enlisted in my regiment. The day we
left Wisconsin his father and mother were with us. The
mother, forgetting all but her only child, threw her arms
around me and said, ‘ O colonel, for God’s sake, guard my
treasure, for it is my all ; and now I’m afraid he’s going to
die.’ ” We threaded our way through the long cabin, on which
lay rows of sick soldiers, with no pillow but a hard knapsack,
no bed but the bare floor, and no clothing but that in which
they had marched and picketed for many weary weeks. The
young man referred to. had been placed in a state room. As
we entered, he drew the soiled blanket over his once neat
collar and neck-tie, that had not been removed, and said,
“ Ladies, don’t come in ; I’m too filthy to be seen.” As he
lay there, I thought I had seldom seen a finer face — a broad
forehead, clearly cut features and dark expressive eyes, be¬
tokened intellect and refinement. W e talked with him cheer¬
fully; told him the colonel had granted him a furlough, to
be removed to our boat, to be carefully nursed till we could
place him in his mother’s care. He looked so bright, and
spoke so cheerfully, that we cherished hopes of his early
recovery. We promised to send a stretcher for him in the
morning, and after making all arrangements for his comfort,
and giving him a cup of tea, we left him. After leaving the
room, I thought, what if he should die ? Who will receive his
last words, or know his last thoughts? I turned back and
said, “ we shall send for you in the morning, if we live ; but
life is so uncertain, especially in the army on the move : sup¬
pose we never meet on earth again, what would you say?”

Looking serenely up, lle said, “ I understand you. Should I
die, tell my mother, as I have lain here these weary days all
her early teachings have come back, and I trust have done
ieii woi \ My sabbath-school lessons, that she struggled to
teach me, are now remembered and prized. Tell her I hope
to meet her in that heaven, where she is sure to go ; and tell
nevei regretied the step I have taken. She must not
mourn tor me as without hope, for if I die ’twill be in a glori¬
ous cause, and our separation will be short.” I said, “ thank
trod . I hope you may be spared long to comfort your parents
and serve,' your country and your Maker.” Ife thanked me
earnestly tor returning, and as I was told talked cheerfully for
an hour about going home. The next morning we sent a
stretcher, but the answer came back, that William had gone
home, not to his mother, but to his Father’s arms Three
weeks later, on my route to Vicksburg, I met a friend of the
family m search of William’s body. He said the parents
were longing for the precious casket of their jewel to lay
it to rest under the old willow tree at the homestead. He
said they bad well nigh sunk under the crushing blow but
were upheld by his parting words of love, and faith and
heroism which I had transmitted to them— God help them
m their loneliness.

. er the first repulse of our army from Vicksburg, sad
stories of sickness and suffering reached the ears of the Sani¬
tary Commission. I was entrusted by the Commission with a
choice supply of stores, and, accompanied by two gentlemen
started for Vicksburg. The river was high— the weather mis¬
erably rainy and depressing; guerillas constantly threatening
our boat— everything portentous and gloomy. After a painful
but rapid journey, we reached Young’s Point, when I was
immediately transferred, with my stores, to the Silver Wave,
the Sanitary boat of the U. S. Commission. For ten days I
stood in the little store house of the Commission, dealing out
life, and health, and happiness to our emaciated soldiers.

. . d t lat tIle croakers at home, who excuse themselves from
giving, and cool the zeal of others, could have seen what I

have seen. All doubts would vanish, and the nerveless arms
be strengthened for renewed efforts. As I stood at the rude
counter, I had beside me a barrel of soft crackers, a bag of
onions, a sack of potatoes, a box of herring, a box ot pepper,
and a box of home-made gingerbread. Green tea, lemons,
codfish and white sugar completed the assortment. The news
spread quickly that a lady was on the Sanitary boat with com¬
forts for the sick. Requisitions poured in rapidly, for, alas!
the need was great. The number of the hospital, the exact
number of sick men, the character of supplies needed, were
carefully designated, signed by the surgeon, as well as a solemn
pledge given that not one jot or tittle should be used but for
the sick soldiers. I believe, with rare exceptions, it was kept.
Careful subsequent examinations of all the hospitals supplied
proved it. As I stood at my post, convalescent soldiers, that
we would call skeletons at home, by dint of canes and crutches
and friendly hands, came in solemn procession to receive for
themselves these treasures. I rejoice to be able to say I did
not turn one away empty-handed, and also remark, to the
honor of the brave soldiers, that not one applied whose appear¬
ance was not a complete certificate ot his necessity. I said to
one of these emaciated men, u will you have a few soft
crackers ? 55 The only answer was an outstretched hand and
tearful eye. u Shall I give you an onion ? 55 u O, how I’ve
longed for that, and wished I had ten cents to buy one from
the sutler ! ” To another I said, “ Perhaps you would like a
lemon?” “A lemon! just let me look at and smell one ; I
believe ’twould cure me.” “ How about some home-made
gingerbread ? ” That always brought the gushing tears, and
was, without fail, just like wife or mother’s. One poor fellow,
who was obliged to seize both railings to support himself up
the narrow stairway, opened his battered haversack and drew
forth a small paper of coffee. Said he, u I know you don’t
sell anything here, but I thought it I could change this coffee
I’ve saved from my rations, for a little green tea, I’d get an
appetite. If I could only get a cup of tea like mother made,
I believe I should get well.” I motioned back the parcel, for

I could not speak, and gave him a little package containing
white sugar, and a lemon and some green tea, two herrings,
two onions, and some pepper. He looked at the parcel a
moment and said, “ Is that all for me ? ” I bowed assent. He
covered his pinched face with his thin hands, and burst into a
low sobbing cry. I laid my hand upon his shoulder and said,
“ Why do you weep ! ” “ God bless the women ! ” he sobbed

out, “ what should we do but for them ? I came from father’s
farm, where all knew plenty ; I’ve lain sick these three months ;
I’ve seen no woman’s face, nor heard her voice, nor felt her
warm hand till to-day, and it unmans me; but don’t think I
rue my bargain, for I don’t. I’ve suffered much and long, but
don’t let them know at home. May be I’ll never have a chance
to tell them how much, but I’d go through it all for the old
flag!” “Who knows,” I said “but the very luxuries I’ve
given you, have been sent from the Aid Society to which your
mother belongs ? ” “I shouldn’t wonder,” he replied, “ for my
mother writes me she never lets anything keep her away from
the meetings. I’m glad of it, for I don’t know what would
become of us poor fellows but for the Sanitary Commission.”
He wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, gave me
his “good bye,” “God bless you,” and said, “I feel that I’ve
turned the corner ; I haven’t been as strong for months as I
feel now.” With the help of one railing he descended the
stairs, and called out from the landing, “ farewell, God bless
you ! ” Ho you ask me do the soldiers receive what they need ?
I answer, not one-fourth, because it is not there to give them.
The true way to put an end to the complaints of returned
soldiers, that their wants are not fully met, is to quadruple ,
not diminish supplies. The pretended or misguided friends
of the soldier , little realize their work, when they thus check
liberality to that heaven-born charity, the U. S. Sanitary
Commission. I speak earnestly, for I have seen its work in
scores of western hospitals, in the camp and the battle-field.

I have accompanied it in its labor of love as it has followed
the destroying angel, binding up mangled limbs, clothing
emaciated forms, pillowing aching heads, giving nourishment

to exhausted bodies, drawing back from the brink of eternity
husbands, sons, brothers, to bless their country and their homes
ao’ain. Where one testifies against it, thousands bless it and
I’aise up their voices and pens in its behalf. Thank God ! it
has a hold on the hearts of the people, and the brave men for
whose benefit it was inaugurated. But for some clamor, the
Sanitary Commission would lack one evidence of heavenly
approval. YToe be to you, when all men speak well of you.

It imitates the Blessed Master in His mission, and shares in
His reproach.

In one of my frequent trips to the Army, on my way to
Yicksburg, the Steamer on which we were traveling was
seized at Columbus as a government transport. The beautiful
Ruth was despoiled of her gay trappings— they were laid away
for some future gala day, and she put on the homely and
sober habilaments of war. The decks were covered with our
boys in blue ; a Brigadier General took command of the boat
and we were fairly embarked in the army on the move, under
military orders. While these great changes were being rap¬
idly made, I strolled on the levee, and as usual found myself
in the midst of groups of soldiers. The sun had sunk below
the horizon, and left a gorgeous retinue of golden clouds to
tell of his departure — the turbid Mississippi, with its deep
monotone, rolled majestically toward the sea — camp fires all
along the shore were becoming visible in the gathering even¬
ing — the sound of fife and drum mingled with tlie^ busy hum
of* preparations for a move— the frowning fortifications of
Columbus stood out boldly and clearly against the evening
sky, while the lights and fires of a score of steamers looked
like an illumination for victory. There was a glorious uncer¬
tainty in all our movements, that added mystery and romance
to the scene — we knew we were going to battle, but none
knew where, or when, or how, save the officers in command.
A soldier, sick or well, knows not his destination, but obeys
orders whenever given, and asks no questions. I passed
from group to group, and said a cheering word, and told how
we loved, and honored, and labored for them at home. It re-

tumultuously, why is it, O my God, that some suffer and
sacrifice so much in this great struggle for national exist¬
ence, while others pass heedless on, reaping the fruit of their
bloody sweat and toil, and talk of pelf given and labors
bestowed on these heroes ? Let the heart of every man and
woman echo, why ? My young friend passed his hand
across his eyes hastily, as he said, “dont think I would
have things otherwise; I counted the cost, and am willing
to pay the price, be it what it may.” I said, “ a moment
since, I pitied you, but now I envy you ; you are happy in
your choice ; are sustained by wife and mother ; know what
self-sacrificing patriotism means, and trust in God implicitly.”
“ You are right,” he said, “ I will write your words to Mother
and Mary, for I am proud of them both.” We walked down
the hill rapidly, and were soon at John’s camp. lie said, “’tis
past taps, I must leave you ; my Colonel wont be hard, he
knows I’m never away in mischief ; I’ll tell him I’ve been al¬
most home to-night. I must tell you, Madam, I believe God
sent you here ; for the first time in nine months, I had a touch
of home-sickness, just before I met you ; ’tis all gone now —
farewell ! God bless and keep you.” lie vaulted lightly over
the ditch around the camp, and was soon lost among the white
tents of the encampment. I know not whether John still
lives to honor his regiment, or whether he lives in a hospital,
or sleeps in a Southern grave ; one thing I know, living or
dying? lie is one tlie Lord’s own, and will shine among His
jewels. In a few days after this interview, I entered the
Gayoso Block Hospital at Memphis, under the care of Mother
Bisherdyke of great renown ; I longed for an army of doubters
to be with me there. My visit was unexpected, and haj>pened
at suppertime. As I entered the door, I met Mother Bisher-
dyke in the convalescent dining hall, where everything on the
table w as nutritious and appetising. As she was on her way
to the hospital wards, I accompanied her ; there lay 600
freshly wounded men from the battle of Arkansas Post ; each
man was eating such food as we would have given them at
home. The air was perfectly pure, and the snowy sheets,

and shirts, and soft pillows were refreshing. Mrs. B. knew
every man by name as by intuition, and as she passed, spoke
to one and another. When we reached the centre of the room,
she said, “ boys, this is Mrs. H. from Chicago, from the K W.
San. Com. Look at your shirts, your sheets, your pillows,
they are all marked with the name of the San. Com. ; your
good suppers to night, all came from there, and what you get
every day comes from the same place.” As from one voice,
arose the cry, “ three cheers for the San. Com. — God bless the
women at home.” As we passed from cot to cot, Mrs. B.
would ask, William, “how does your egg suit you4” “Ex¬
actly right mother.” “ Well, John, how goes the milk toast? ”
“ Bully, mother, tastes like the old cow’s milk at home,” said
a grey headed man, with a shattered arm, “ Mother, I dont
believe my wife could beat that cup of green tea, with white
sugar, you sent me to-night ; it has about cured me ; I feel as
chirk as a robin,” At one cot knelt a bright, bronzed-faced,
motherly woman, feeding her husband cautiously ; his jaw
had been shot away, the splintered fragments removed, and
he lay a woful spectacle, not able to speak intelligently.
“How do you feel to-night, James,” said mother B., “all
right now, since she’s come,” said he, laying his hand fondly
on her head. The constant woman’s face beamed with joy,
as she said, “ I believe I can take him home next week.” As
I was about to leave, I stood in their midst, and said, “boys
you look so bright and happy and seem so cheerful, I think
you must be shamming ; you are all heroes, but are you badly
wounded ? ” “ Why should’nt we be happy ? ” cried out a

brave manly voice, “We left all to fight for the old flag, and
put it where it belongs, and wre left it flying at Arkansas Post,
if we did get hit.” Another cried out cheerfully, “ Madam,
what do you call this ? ” and drew aside the sheet, to show
the stump of a leg. Another pointed to where the strong
right arm had been, and another to his bandaged head, from
which a piece of shell had been extracted. A Wisconsin bat¬
tery boy beside me, called out, “what do you say of me?
One of my arms was taken off nine months ago, and the Hoc-

tor says the other must go to-morrow. I’ve been in nine bat_
les, and been wounded every time, but “the Post” has used
me up. What am I to do in the world, not 20 years old, and
no arms?” “My grand fellow,” said I, “the women will
take care of you. God never spared your life, but for some
great purpose, and I believe you will live to bless and be
blessed.” Tears burst from his eyes, as the boys cheered,
and he said fervently, “ thank you for that.”

The long and weary siege of Yicksburg had continued many
months previous to the terrific assaults of our brave army on
the fortifications in the rear of that rebel stronghold. On the
19th and 22d of May, were made those furious attacks, up
steep acclivities, in the teeth of bristling fortifications, long
lines of rifle-pits, and sharp-shooters who fringed the hill tops
and poured their murderous fire into our advancing ranks.
It would seem impossible that men could stand, much less
advance, under such a galling fire. They were mowed down
as wheat before the sickle, but they faltered not. The vacant
places of the fallen were instantly filled, and inch by inch they
gained the heights of Yicksburg. When the precipice was
too steep for the horses to draw up the artillery, our brave
boys did the work themselves, and then fought and conquered.
When they had gained the topmost line of rifle-pits, they
entered in and took possession ; and when I made my last visit
to the Army of the Mississippi, there they were ensconced as
conies in the rock, enduring the heat of a vertical sun, and
crouching, like beasts of prey, to escape the rebel bullets from
the earthworks, almost within touching distance. The fierce
and bloody struggle had filled long lines of field-hospitals with
mangled victims, whose sufferings were soothed and relieved
beyond what I could have conceived possible, and it rejoiced
my heart to see there the comforts and luxuries of the Sanitary
Commission. The main body of the army lay encamped in
the valleys, at the foot of the rifle-pits, and spread its lines in
a semi-circle to a distance of fourteen miles. The health of
the army was perfect, its spirit jubilant. They talked of
the rebels as prisoners, as though they were guarding them,

and answered questions implying doubt of success, with a
scornful laugh, saying, “ why, the boys in the rear could whip
Johnson, and we not know it; and we could take Vicksburg if
we chose and not disturb them.” Each regiment, if not each
man, felt competent for the work. One glorious day in June
accompanied by an officer of the 8th Missouri, I set out for
the rifle-pits. When I reached them, I found the heat stiflino- •
and as I bent ta avoid the whizzing minies, and the falling
branches ot the trees, cut off by an occasional shell, I felt that
war was a terrible reality. The intense excitement of the
scene, the manly, cheerful bearing of the veterans, the boominc
of the cannon from the battlements, and the heavy mortal
that were ever and anon throwing their huge iron balls into
V lcksburg, and the picturesque panorama of the army en
camped below, obliterated all sense of personal dancer or
fatigue. After a friendly talk with the men in the extreme
front, and a peep again and again through the loop-holes
watched and fired upon continually by the wary foe I de¬
scended to the second ledge, where the sound of music reached
us. We followed it quickly, and in a few moments stood
behind a rude litter of boughs, on which lay a grey-haired
soldier, face downward, with a comrade on either side. They
did not perceive us, but sang on the closing line of the verse :

“ Come, humble sinner, in whose breast

A thousand thoughts revolve;

Come with thy sins and fears oppressed,

And make this last resolve.”

I joined in the second verse :

“I’ll go to Jesus, though my sins
Have like a mountain rose,

I know His courts, I’ll enter in,

Whatever may oppose.”

In an instant, each man turned and would have stopped, but I
sang on with moistened eyes, and they continued. At the
close, one burst out, “ Why, ma’am, where did you come from ?
Did you drop from heaven into these rifle-pits ? ” “ You are

the first lady we have seen here,” and then the voice was
choked with tears. I said, “ I have come from your friends at
home to see you, and bring messages of love and honor. I have
come to bring you the comforts that we owe you, and love to
give. I’ve come to see if you receive what they send you.”

“ Do they think so much of us as that ? Why, boys, we
can -fight" another year on that, can’t we?” “Yes! yes!”
they cried, and almost every hand was raised to brush
away the tears. “Why, boys,” said I, “ the women at home
don’t think of much else but the soldiers. It they meet to
sew, ’tis for you ; if they have a good time, ’tis to gather
money for the Sanitary Commission ; if they meet to pray, tis
for .the soldiers ; and" even the little children, as they kneel
at their mother’s knees to lisp their good-night prayers, say,
“God bless the soldiers.” A crowd of eager listeners had
gathered from their hiding places, as birds from the rocks.
Instead of cheers as usual, I could only hear an occasional sob
and feel solemn silence. The gray-liaired veteran drew from
his breast-pocket a daguerreotype, and said, “Here are my
wife and daughters. I think any man might be proud of
them, and they all work for the soldiers.” And then each
man drew forth the inevitable daguerreotype, and held it for
me to look at, with pride and affection. There were aged
mothers and sober matrons, bright-eyed maidens and laughing
cherubs, all carried next these brave hearts and cherished as
life itself. Blessed art ! It seems as though it were part of
God’s preparation work, for this long, cruel war. These
mute memorials of home and its loved ones have proved the
talisman of many a tempted heart and the solace of thousands
of suffering, weary veterans. I had much to do and prepared
to leave. I said “ Brave men, farewell ! When I go home 1 11
tell them that men that never flinch before a foe, sing hymns
of praise in the rifle pits of Vicksburg. I'll tell them that eyes
that never weep for them own suffering, overflow at the name
of home and the sight of the pictures of their wives and
children. They’ll feel more than ever that such men cannot
be conquered, and that enough cannot be done for them.”

tT!re frrS, the WOmen at llome. and a grasp ofmulti-

reSent 1 The0!8* ^ “d 1 tlU'ned away to ^ other

rh,e °ftcer who was With me, grasped my hand •
Madam,” said he, “promise me you’ll visit my regiment
morrow t would be worth a victory to them. You don’t

know what good a lady’s visit to the army does. These men
whom you have seen to-day, will talk of your visit for six
months to come. Around the camp fires, in the rifle-pits, in
the dark night or on the march, they will repeat your words
describe your looks, your voice, your size, your dress, and all’
agree in one respect, that you look like an angel, and exactly
like each mans wife or mother.” Such reverence have our
soldiers for upright, tender-hearted women. In the valley
beneath, just having exchanged the front line of rifle-pits
wi h the regiment now occupying it, encamped my son’s
egiment. Its ranks had been fearfully thinned by the ter¬
rible assaults of the 19th and 21st of May, as they had formed
the right wing of the line of battle on that fearful day. I
-new most of them personally, and as they gathered round
me and inquired after home and friends, I could but look in
sadness for many familiar faces, to be seen no more on earth.

1 said Hoys, I was present when your colors were presented
o you by the Board of Trade. I heard your colonel pledge
himself that you would bring those colors home or cover
them with your blood as well as glory. I want to see them,

, y0U ,e them stlll> after your many battles.” With great
alacrity the man in charge of them, ran into an adjoining
ent and brought them forth, carefully wrapped in an oil-silk

iT vin dde ftrew ft oft an(l flung the folds to the breeze-

What does this mean ?” I said. “ How soiled and tattered,
and rent and faded they look-I should not know them.”
The man who held them said, “why, ma’am, ’twas the smoke
and balls did that.” “ Ah ! so it must have been,” I said.
Welb you have covered them with glory, but how about the
oo . A silence of a minute followed, and then a low voice
said, “ four were shot down holding them— two are dead and
two in the hospital.” “ V erily, you have redeemed your

pledge,” I said solemnly. “ Now, boys, sing 'Hally round
the Flag, Boys!’”— and they did sing it. As it echoed
through the valley, as we stood within sight of the green
sward that had been reddened with the blood of those that
had fought for and upheld it, methought the angels might
pause to hear it, for it was a sacred song— the song of freedom
to the captive, of hope to the oppressed of all nations. Since
then, it seems almost profane to sing it with thoughtlessness
or frivolity. After a touching farewell, I stepped into the
ambulance, surrounded by a crowd of the brave fellows, ihe
last sound that reached my ears was cheers for the Sanitary
Commission and the women at home. I soon reached the
regimental hospital, where lay the wounded color-bearers.
As I entered the tent, the surgeon met me and said, “ I’m

so glad you’ve come, for E - has been calling for you all

day.” As I took his parched, feverish hand, he said, “ Oh !
take me home to my wife and little ones to die.” There he
lay, as noble a specimen of vigorous manhood as I had ever
looked upon. His great broad chest heaved with emotion,
his dark eyes were brilliant with fever, his cheeks flushed
with almost the hue of health, his rich brown hair clustering
in soft curls over his massive forehead, was difficult to realize
that he was entering the portals of eternity. I walked across
the tent to the doctor, and asked if he could go with me. He
shook his head, and said before midnight he would be at rest.
I shrunk from his eager gaze as I approached him. “ What
does he say?” he asked quickly. “You can’t be moved.”
The broad chest rose and fell, his whole frame quivered.
There was a pause of a few minutes. He spoke first and
said, “Will you take my message to her?” “ I will,” I said,
“if I go five hundred miles to do it.” Take her picture from
under my pillow, and my children’s also. Let me see it once
more.” As I held them for him, he looked earnestly and
then said, “ tell her not to fret about me, for we shall meet in
heaven. Tell her ’twas all right that I came. I don’t regret
it, and she must not. Tell her to train these two little boys,
that we loved so well, to go to heaven to us, and tell her to

bear my loss like a soldier’s wife and a Christian. lie was
exhausted by the effort. I sat beside him till his conscious¬
ness was gone, repeating God’s precious promises. As the
sun went to rest that night, he slept in his Father’s bosom. I
will say no more. From the storehouse of memory, so filled
with thrilling incidents, ’tis difficult to select. Enough, how¬
ever, has been said, to teach the women of the land a lesson
concerning the heavy debt they owe these heroes— enough to
furnish them with arguments to meet the cavils of the un¬
believing or captious, and with rebukes for the pernicious and
selfish, who dare complain that they are perpetually besought
to give to the soldiers, when the meanest, the comeliest of
them all who has given his limb, his eye, his health, perchance
his heart’s blood, has given more than they all. Women of
the North, arise ! put on your armor anew. Let your persist¬
ence be measured only by the soldier’s endurance. Now,
when they have fought and won an honorable peace — when the
bow of promise gilds the horizon, and the watchman says
“ All’s well !”— relax not your efforts. Let the army of sick
and wounded soldiers receive your grateful offerings, not as a
bribe for future efforts, but a tribute of gratitude and justice ;
and when the peace bells ring and the bonfires gleam, let
Charity not doff her robes, but gird herself afresh, and tarry
not till every sick and wounded soldier shall be restored to
home and friends if he has them ; and if not, have a “ Home ”
provided for him. May it be said of woman, as of old, “ she
hath done what she could.”

U. S. Sanitary Commission.- No 89

extbacts

FROM THE

#«arierlj Jijraal |{dicf Itpri

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

Washington, D. c., April, 1865,

CONCERNING THE REBEL HOSPITALS AT RICHMOND, VA., AND
THE PROVISION MADE FOR THEIR PATIENTS, AS CON¬
TRASTED WITH THE SUPPLIES FURNISHED
TO UNION PRISONERS OF WAR IN
REBEL HANDS.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :

PRINTED BY McGILL & WITHEROW.

1865.

[Extracts from the Report of Frederick N. Knapp, Superintendent of Special
Relief, read at the quarterly meeting of the Board of the U. S. Sanitary
Cmmission, Washington, D. C., April 20, 1865.]

Oa Sunday, April 2d, I arrived at Wilmington, North
Carolina, having left Washington in response to the call made
by Dr. Agnew in his letter of March 20th, describing the
wretchedness and destitution of the 1,500 or 2,000 Union
prisoners who had just been brought into Wilmington,
exchanged or paroled from the Rebel prisons.* * When'

*Dr. c. R, Agnew, of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, in a letter to the
General Secretary, dated Wilmington, N. C., March 20, 1865, writes thus:—

* * * “The returned prisoners sent into Wilmington numbered nearly

9,000. Some 7,000 of the less famished have gone North. General Abbott who
received our poor fellows in the exchange, has jus told me that language would
utterly fail to descr.be their condition. Filth, rags, nakedness, starvation, were
personified in their condition. Many of the men were in a state of mind resem¬
bling idiocy, unable to tell their names, and lost to all sense of modesty, un¬
conscious of their nakedness and personal condition. Some of them moving
about on their hands and knees, unable to stand upon their gangrenous feet
looking up like hungry dogs, beseeching the observer fora bite of bread or a
sup of water. Some of them hitched along on their hands and buttocks
pushing gangrenous feet, literally reduced to bone and shreds, before them.’
Others leaned upon staves, and glared from sunken eyes through the parch-
ment-like slits of their open eyelids into space, without having the power to
hx an intelligent gaze upon passing objects. Others giggled and smirked, and
obbled like starred idiots ; while some adamantine figu es walked erect, as
though they meant to move the skeleton homewards so long as vitality enough
remained to enable them to do so. To see the men who remain here in hos¬
pital would move a heart as hard and cold as marble. Their condition is that
of men who have for months suffered chronic starvation. Their arms and legs
look like coarse reeds with bulbous joints. Their faces look as though a skil¬
ful taxidermist had drawn tanned skin over the bare skull, and then placed
false eyes in the orbital cavities. They defy description. It would take a pen
expert in the use of every term known to the anatomist and the physician to
begin to expose their fearful condition. May God in his infinite mercy, for¬
give the creatures who have done this horrid thing!” * * * *

I reached Wilmington, all but 300 of these Union prisoners
had been sent North; and those who remained had been
made in all respects clean and comfortable, as had been
those who had gone on shipboard. And this had been done
largely, almost exclusively, through the abundant supplies of
clothing furnished by the Commission — some thousands of
garments — which enabled these men to lay aside the filthy
rags in which alone they had for months been clothed. I
am convinced from what I myself saw, and from the testi¬
mony of the medical and the military officers at Wilming¬
ton, that the Sanitary Commission did one of its most
blessed and beneficent works in the help it gave to the sur¬
geons there, who, with utterly deficient means athand, were
trying to lift these returned prisoners out of a state of
filth and starvation — a condition resulting directly from long
confinement at the South and studied deprivations. And
I may add that among the men who still remained at Wil¬
mington, although they were surrounded by comforts, and
their appearance had of course been entirely changed from
what it was at first, there was, in the seventy gangrenous
limbs (dry gangrene from frost or exposure) of men
gathered in one hospital, the saddest and most striking
evidence I have yet seen of the malignant cruelty practiced
upon our Union prisoners by the enemy.

^ 'i' ^ 'i' ^

On Friday, April Tth, I left City Point, upon the Sanitary
Tug Boat, “ Gov. Curtin,” which was starting with stores
for Richmond. We arrived at Richmond Friday evening,
having been delayed on our way up two hours, at “Deep
Bottom,” where we took on to the “ Curtin” quite an amount
of supplies from what had been the Sanitary Store-house
of the 25th Army Corps ; the sanitary wagons, — which you
will recollect followed the troops into Richmond the morn-

ing it was evacuated, -though well loaded, were able to take
but a share of the supplies.

Saturday morning, after passing by the smoking ruins,
and getting sight of “ Libby Prison” and “ Belle Isle,”— each
bound in with its terrible history,— I went out to “ Jackson
Hospital,” one of the principal hospitals of the place, a
mile and a half or two miles from the city; and here I saw
that which, by contrast, made me feel ten-fold more fully than
ever before how great had been the barbarity of that system of
starvation and exposure by which the rebels, with slow and
terrible death, had killed off our men, their Prisoners of War.

I found at that rebel hospital the evidence of thorough or¬
ganization and wise system — a large generosity in all the pro¬
visions for the comfort of their patients; and testimony
proving the fact that, as a general thing, there had been
no lack of supplies there, but usually an abundance of all
needed stores. As I looked on these well ordered methods,
and the liberal provision which had long been made by the
rebels at that hospital, located within less than cannon-shot
distance of Belle Isle, I felt that the thin screen of “ ignorance ”
or of “ inability , with which some persons still seek to
temper the barbarity ot the rebels, must be at once and ut¬
terly swept away, leaving the inhuman cruelty of this slow
murder to stand out clearly, and its true nature to be recog¬
nized, viz : a means systematically arranged and adopted,
under a deliberate plan, as an engine of war, whereby to thin
our ranks by death, precisely as the bayonet is used in
battle, except that the bayonet is connected with bravery,
while this instrument of death is the weapon of cowardice.
For what could stand in stronger contrast with the boasted
chivalry ot the South, or with the undoubted valor of her
soldiers in the field, than this resort to a process of starving
defenceless men by thousands, showing that the spirit of

slavery, which fomented and has guided this rebellion, is not
only oppressive but base ; since bravery — that virtue which all
men praise — dies out under a system that creates and thrives
upon brutality and ungoverued passions ? What, therefore,
if not this meanest and most cruel method of getting rid
of a dreaded foe, should forever be branded as cowardice ?

Jackson Hospital, as established and conducted by the
rebels, was excellent; in some respects, few military hos¬
pitals of our own surpass it. It was excellent in its gen¬
eral plan of organization ; in its location and its arrangement
of buildings ; in its administration; in its thorough policing ;
in the exceeding cleanliness of its bedding, and in the very
liberal provision made by the Rebel Government for the
Hospital Fund.

Jackson Hospital comfortably accommodates 2,500 pa¬
tients. Winder Hospital, which is near by, but which I did
not visit, is said to be similar to Jackson Hospital in general
arrangements and capacity, but inferior in its situation and its
appointments. The buildings at Jackson Hospital are much
like our usual wooden hospital barracks, well arranged and
well warmed and lighted, the floors nicely scoured, and the
walls, in many wards, covered with canvas, which was
painted white. The bedsteads were only wood, but were
kept very white, and on each was both a straw bed and a
cotton mattrass, and two feather pillows, with nice pillow
cases. The sheets and blankets and bed-spreads were unu¬
sually clean, and bore marks of being carefully looked after.
The cleanliness of the bed-linen was accounted for by the
large laundry, where sixty (60) laundresses were constantly
at work. The laundry was provided with a long row of
fixed tubs, into which the water was brought by pipes,
and ample provision was made for heating water, heating
irons, &c., &c.

This laundry had its tenements near by for the wo¬
men employed there, where they seemed comfortable in
their quarters, and neat in personal appearance. At the
hospital, beside the medical corps and nurses, and the
two Matrons to every ninety patients, there were in each
section a Chief Linen-Matron, and a Chief Culinary-
Matron, with their two assistants. In each section was a
kitchen for special diet, with four to six stoves— this besides
the general kitchen attached to each section. The special
diet list was posted in all the wards, and seemed liberal and
aiming to secure variety. The Dispensaries were well fitted
up, and the persons in charge said, in answer to my inquiry,
that, excepting a deficiency at times in some few articles, their
supply had been good. The Linen-rooms were kept in the
neatest order, and seemed to have been unusually well filled.
The Baggage-rooms were like the rest, clean and well ar¬
ranged. The Dining-rooms of each section, where the con¬
valescents ate, were also kept well, and the tables neat, and
bearing marks of care and comfort, and convalescents who
had been there some months assured me that their fare
was on the whole excellent. There were no covered walks
connecting the different buildings in the section with
the dining rooms, nor were there any “ tram-ways” from the
kitchens to the wards ; but the walks were hard and clean,
and the drains deep and free. At the head of each section
were neat buildings, one of which was occupied by surgeons,
others by matrons and women assistants. These buildings,
with their white-washed fronts and green blinds, and patches
of grass, had a look of comfort. There was no general
method of carrying water by pipes over the different build¬
ings, consequently there was no provision for bath rooms in
the several wards — a decided deficiency; but good water for
ordinary use was furnished by wells. The water closets for

convalescents were located where a running stream carried
off the deposits.

Within the hospital grounds and near by was an open
grove of large trees, with grass beneath, neatly kept. At
the further edge of this grove was one of the two large ice
houses which supplied the hospital, each 30x30 feet, and 18
feet deep. They are both now filled solid with ice, well
protected. A little way from the hospital on the other side
are large sheds and a barn, also a dairy house, with the cold
water of the melting ice of one of the ice houses flowing
through it. At this dairy in summer they have had sixty
cows (pastured near by) to furnish fresh milk, and at times
fresh butter also, to the patients. The refuse from the barn
yard goes to enrich the hospital garden of three or four
acres, which, the surgeon formerly in charge told me, had
become very productive.

Near the dairy house stands a large baker}% (at present
not used) with capacious ovens where formerly, as the man
in charge stated, they turned out sixty thousand pounds of
bread per day.

To the above memoranda is to be added this most import¬
ant fact, viz : that the Rebel Government, in making provi¬
sion for the “Hospital Fund,” added one hundred per cent, to
the usual army ration. Thus was furnished large means for
purchasing extra supplies.

Such, roughly sketched, is the record of Jackson Hospital,
as it had been during the past year or more ; while near by,
all the time, was Belle Isle, with its shelterless and starving
thousands. * * * * *

u. S. SANITARY COMMISSION

No. 90.

CIROULAE,

addressed to the

BRANCHES AND AH) SOCIETIES

tributary to the

u. S. SANITARY COMMISSION

MAY 15, 1865.

WASHINGTON, 1). C.:

PRINTED BY McOILL & WITHEROW

1865.

Central Office,

Washington, D. C., May 15, 1865.

To the Branches and Soldiers’ Aid Societies tributary
to the United States Sanitary Commission:

At the late quarterly session of the Board of the U. S.
Sanitary Commission, held at Washington, April 18-21 the
President and General Secretary were requested to prepare
an address to the various Branches and Aid Societies co¬
operating with the Commission, and awaiting instructions
trom the Commission as to their present and future duty.

Since that period such rapid changes have occurred in the
military situation, affecting so materially the work of the
Commission, that it has been impossible, until now, to arrive
at a satisfactory conclusion as to the probable demands to
be made upon us.

While our work in the field is rapidly drawing to a close
there remains much to be done by the Commission within
the approaching two months for the relief and comfort of
our armies as they return from their long marches and ex¬
hausting service. New depots of supplies have already
been established at the several points where these armies are
to rendezvous and encamp preparatory to their discharge.

The abandonment of the Post and Base Hospitals must
increase for the time the already large number of patients in
General Hospital, while the necessary aid to be extended

to the various garrisons during the interval preceding the
more permanent adjustment of the new military status must
make large drafts upon our resources. The supplies now
available at our several depots are wholly insufficient to meet
this final but urgent demand upon the Supply Service; and,
deeming it important both for the actual relief ot existing
needs and for the consistent completion of this work ot the
people, continued now through four successive years of
faithful co-operation, that our issues be not meagre or our
care neglectful, we call upon our Branches and Aid Socie¬
ties to maintain their usual system and activity up to the 4th
July next, persevering in their work until that time with
unabated energy, and with an intelligent appreciation ot the
necessity of the case.

It is confidently anticipated that their labors in contribut¬
ing supplies to the hospitals and the field may properly term¬
inate at that date, unless wholly improbable and unexpected
events arise to make such conclusion of their work unpa¬
triotic and inhumane. Timely notice will be given if any
such necessity occur.

In the meantime the rapid disbanding of our armies
and their immediate return to their relations in civil
life will devolve upon our Branches and Aid Societies
a new and important work, to be performed under
their immediate supervision, and necessitating the mainte¬
nance of their organization for an indefinite period. The
occasion for this continued effort grows out of the fact that
these returning soldiers, by their military service, have be¬
come more or less detached from their previous relations,
associations, and pursuits, which are now to be re-established.
Many of these men will be not only physically but morally
disabled, and will exhibit the injurious effects of camp life
in a weakened power of self-guidance and self-restraint, in¬
ducing a certain kind of indolence, and, for the time, indispo¬
sition to take hold of hard work. The possession of money

in the majority of cases will increase the inducements to
idleness and dissipation, as well as the exposure to imposition.
To protect the soldier from these evils and temptations,
naturally resulting from his previous military life, is a duty
which is now owed to him by the people, as much as was
the care extended to him, through the Commission, while
in active service in the field ; for we are to regard the future
necessity that may exist for help and guidance to returned
soldiers as no less a condition incident to the war than
the wounds and sickness to which the supply agencies of the
Commission have hitherto so generously ministered.

In submitting to our Aid Societies a practical plan of
work adapted to these new conditions, our object is to sug¬
gest such methods as will aid the process by which these

men are to resume their natural and proper relations in
civil life.

The first and most important means in the accomplish¬
ment of this object will be found in a systematic provision
for securing suitable occupation to all these returned men,
adapted, where necessary, to the condition of those partially
disabled, thus constituting each Branch and Aid Society
a “Bureau of Information and Employment,” by which the
light occupations in all towns, and whatever work can be
as well done by invalid soldiers as by others, shall be re¬
ligiously given to the men who may have incapacitated
themselves for rivalry in more active and laborious fields of

duty by giving their limbs, their health, and their blood to
the nation.

To this end, and to guard against the possibility of
imposition, the names ot all men who have enlisted from
each town and city should be obtained and preserved, and a
record kept that shall gather all facts material to the
work in hand; which, while it will be the means of
collecting most useful information, will, at the same
time, constitute an invaluable contributiou to the his-

tory of the war. Carefully prepared forms for this pur¬
pose will be furnished from the Central Office of the
Commission, to which monthly returns will be made, and
where they will be duly tabulated. These results will be
promptly transmitted each month to the several Aid Socie¬
ties, to furnish whatever guidance they may for the wise
prosecution of the work.

The co-operation of our Aid Societies in extending iur
formation concerning the various agencies of the Commis¬
sion for the relief and aid of discharged soldiers and their
families will constitute another important service which
they may render.

Some of these agencies are of a character which will not
terminate with the disbanding of our armies, but will find
their largest field of activity and usefulness during the year
succeeding the close of the war.

The Commission is rapidly extending its system of Claim
Agencies to all the principal cities and centers of population
throughout the country. Through these agencies all claims
of soldiers or sailors and their families are adjusted with the
least possible delay and without charge, thus securing to the
applicants the full amount of the claim as allowed, and ex¬
emption from the heavy tax, and often gross imposition and
fraud, to which they are subjected by the ordinary methods.
The evils to which the discharged soldier is exposed in the
adjustment of claims against the Government are of so grave
a nature that no effort should be spared to secure to him the
benefits of this agency of the Commission’s work. Regard¬
ing the Local Aid Societies as the natural guardians of the
soldiers and the supervisors of the work of the Commission
in their respective towns or cities, it is desired that they will
exercise a careful superintendence of this work, promoting by
every practicable means its efficiency, and making sure that
every returned soldier in their vicinity and the family of
every deceased soldier is actually informed of the aid gratu¬
itously offered them by this agency of the Commission.

rhe maintenance of the organization of our Aid Societies
will preserve to the Sanitary Commission the means of com¬
municating with the people, from time to time, upon such
topics as concern the continued welfare of returned soldiers,
and especially in regard to the more permanent provision’
which it will be necessary to make for disabled soldiers, inca¬
pable of self-support. It is the profound conviction of the
Sanitary Commission, that the peculiar genius and beauty
of American institutions is to show itself in the power which
the ordinary civil, social, and domestic life of the nation ex¬
hibits to absorb rapidly into itself our vast army, and restore to
ordinary occupations those who have been fighting our bat¬
tles ; while the sick and the wounded are distributed through
the country, objects of love, care, and restoration, in the
several communities where they belong, instead of being
collected in great State and national asylums, objects of
public ostentation, and subjected to the routine, the isola¬
tion, and the ennui of an exceptional, unfruitful, and un-
happy existence. Public provision of this latter kind, as
free from its evil as may be, must be made for a certain
small class of the friendless and the totally disabled ; but
humanity and American feeling demand "that this class
should be reduced to the smallest possible number through
the zeal and friendliness shown towards our returning inva¬
lid soldiers in the towns from which they originally came.
The Sanitary Commission will soon lay before its Branches
and the public plans for such asylums for disabled and
discharged soldiers as it may be necessary to establish.

Reserving the expression of our gratitude to our Branches
and Soldiers Aid Societies to a later period, we remain in
behalf of the Board,

Yours, faithfully and truly,

H. W. BELLOWS,

President.

JNO. S. BLATCHPORD,

General Secretary.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

SUPPLEMENT TO No. 90.

14, 1865.

WASHINGTON, D C •

MCGILL * WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.
1865.

Central Office,

Washington, D. C., June 10, 1865.

In our circular of the 15th ultimo, addressed to the
Branches and Aid Societies tributary to the U. S. Sanitary
Commission, concerning future opportunities and methods
of work, and more especially the procurement of employ¬
ment for discharged soldiers, as far as may he necessary
in consequence of physical disability, or as a means of
aiding their return to former relations and occupations in
civil life, it was proposed to furnish certain carefully pre¬
pared forms.

These forms are herewith transmitted.

Their use, while diminishing the labor, will also facilitate
an intelligent and systematic prosecution of the wrork, and
will enable the Central Office of the Commission eventually
to tabulate the results gathered from all Aid Societies
throughout the country.

Forms A, B, C, D, and E, relate exclusively to the procure¬
ment of employment, and sufficiently indicate the method
and all necessary detail pertaining to the work.

It is important that the large and varied measure of good
which may be secured to the soldier and to the community,
by a thorough and generous application of the methods here
presented, be kept clearly in view.

The Bureau of Information and Employment is designed
to accomplish the following specific objects :

1. To aid those who have served honorably in the Army
and Navy of the United States in obtaining employment,

and to facilitate their return to former occupations and rela¬
tions in civil life.

2. To prevent, as far as possible, the necessity tor costly
charitable institutions, by thus encouraging industry, and
aiding the disabled soldier, who might otherwise seek an
asylum, to strive for self-support.

3. To lesson the pauperism and crime, necessarily more or
less a consequence of war, which surely attend on large num¬
bers of unoccupied men left to themselves without employ¬
ment or means of subsistence.

4. To save to the country a large amount of productive
labor, at a time when it can least afford to maintain idle
hands.

Form F embraces questions to be answered, not by the
soldiers themselves, but by intelligent observers, upon certain
general conditions incident to the war, and to the return of
the soldiers to* their homes.

This form may seem to some unnecessarily full, and de¬
manding information not immediately tending to practical re¬
sults. The purpose which has determined the selection
of the questions embraced may, therefore, be distinctly
stated. It is, First, to collect such information concerning
our discharged soldiers as will enable us most judi¬
ciously and effectively to be prepared to render to those
really needing it any form of aid or relief which may be
demanded of the people, in behalf of the men, or the children
of those men, who have fought our battles ; Second, to seize
upon the occasion which is now presented for gathering
material which shall illustrate the manner in which, under
republican institutions, these men, long aliens from
home pursuits, are at once quietly reinstated in their former
industrial relations, and become again vital parts of the
living whole. The value of the facts which may be thus
obtained, in answer to the questions of Form F, can scarcely
be over-estimated in its bearing upon many important ques¬
tions, which already begin to engage the attention of states¬
men and philanthropists, and which, in their answers, are to
have a direct influence, in most practical ways, upon the

thronglt

record will never be made with the , <luestlons> th>s
present Z/.ffll “»

tematic method, a knowled4 of the exist! S' ^ ***'
Hio li Ai.m i A'r , G ^ existence and work of
Urn Army and Navy Claim Agency” of the U S S ,

tablished UcTtei that ^ P,aCeS Where the*,' may be no es-
1 , " a'™ ASency of the Commission, the Aid Societies

cesLiTbknkf1 “ *6Service b^' aPPb’*ng to this Office forne-
manv'hJ “d lnstructlon8. that will enable them in

justment ofTaims. tra'1SaCt Deces8a^ detai»* m the ad-

toac additi°n.t0 tbe issue of cards and circulars, (according
to accompanying forms,) to make known in your respective

zszl ,worl j“ *- p"*"* ><• mS:

mide f"' ”J«r'«king, thu. liberal use be
facilities for </ ^ ?\e8S f°r advertlsln& y°ur office and its
fam!!ies! g g P t0 discharSed tidier, and their

Commi!eCeSSary b°°kS and f°rms wil1 be furnished by the
OffiT : Td ;I|!TIinati0n *° theBranches or tbe Central

the CommL / % returned to the Central Office of

the Commission, for purposes of tabulation.

this suDDlem08^ -n0?^ tbat tbe work marked out in
demand of tTe " f entered UP0D Promptly. It is the

retZug .“Zr ’ “

JNO. S. BLATCHFORD,

General Secretary.

Form A.

Jf. Jftttitary Commission.

BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT

1. Number of Application,

2. Date, .

3. Name, .

4- Age, .

5. Nationality, .

6. Residence, .

7. Regiment, .

8. Term of Military Service, .

9. Nature and Degree of Disability, .

10. Occupation previous to Enlistment,

11. Occupation desired, .

12. Qualifications, .

13. Habits — Temperate or otherwise,

14. Means of Support, .

15. Married, .

16. Persons dependent on Applicant fo

Support, .

17. References, .

18. Opinion of Referee, .....

19. Kind of Employment secured .

20. Remarks, .

Form B.

It. £. ^inutiun (Smumhusiiov.

1. Number .

2. Date, .

3. Name,

4. Address .

5. Service required, .

6. Hours of service required daily, .

7. Skill or strength demanded, . .

8. Proposed Term of Engagement, .

9. Compensation .

10. Bemarks, .

I ' i r

BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

EMPLOYER’S REGISTER.

Form F.

^L $, J?a nitttvy £ om mission,

BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

CENTRAL OFFICE, 244 F STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Returns from

.186

I. Population, according to census of 1860, included
in the area embraced within the limits covered by
this report . . .

II. Number of men who have enlisted from.

III. Number who are still in the service.

IV. Number who have died in the service.

V. Of those who have returned home, what pro¬
portion are able-bodied? .

VI. Of those disabled, what proportion areseriouslv
disabled? . .

VII. What propprtion are slightly disabled?

VIII. What proportion have come distinctly upon
the charity of others for support? . .

IX. What agencies exist in your community for
the relief of discharged soldiers or their families? .

X. What has been the kind and amount of aid
which these agencies have rendered? .

XL In your community how far is preference given
by employers of labor to discharged soldiers ? .

XII. Number of widows of soldiers.

XIII. Number of these widows who are poor and
partially dependent .

XIV. Number of children of deceased soldiers.,

XV. What available provision has been made by
the State or by other agencies by which these chil¬
dren, if poor, can be cared for and educated? .

XVI. To what extent is aid of this kind, if any
exists, sought and used for the advantage of these
children? . . .

XVII. What, upon the whole, has been the effect
of this long term of military service upon the moral
lone of the soldiers themselves? .

XVIII. What has been the effect upon the indus-.
trial habits of these men? .

XIX. Is there any marked effect upon the homes
and upon the children of these soldiers, produced by
this long absence of the father of the family ? If there
is, how, in general terms, does it show itself? .

XX. Taking your community as a whole, what do
you observe is the influence of the war, including, on
the one side, the effect of these calls for generous sacri¬
fices, the discipline of liopos and fears and sorrows,
and on the other hand the demoralizing influences
brought back from army life? .

Form C.

3fl. <f. fiiuitjuii Commission,

BUBEAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT.
Central Office, 244 F Street,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

fw'i O^THLY RETURN.

(Insert name of Aid Society.)

I86 .

Month of 186

Number of applications for Employment :

By Able-bodied Men

By Disabled Men .

Total .

Number of applications by Employers . .

Number furnished with Employment :

Able-bodied Men .

Disabled Men . . .

Total .

Number who having once been furnished with employ¬
ment have applied a second time .

K8MD OF EMPLOYMENT FURNISHED.

No.

Agricultural, . . . .

Mechanical, ......... . . .

Commercial, .........

Teaching, professional or fine arts,

Laborers, .......... .

Others, not included in above, . . .

REMARKS.

f :j • rr

‘

ry- ■ +1 ; " ■ ■ . • . a v ; m" •

.dSHSlttfim T >13 rojqwa lO QJIX

Form D.

\l. #. Sanitary Commission,

BUREAU OP INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT,

( Insert r.zTr.e of A

'*v\j i

186

With the design of obtaining employment through this Bureau

refers to you as to his character and qualifications.

You will oblige us by filling out and returning the annexed
blanks with your signature. Your reply will be shown only to his
employer.

Respectfully yours,

Is he temperate ?

Is he industrious ? .

Do you deem him honest ?

How long have you known him ?

State facts which may be of service
to him, or of which his employer
should be informed.

No.

. (lutn No- of ApjriieatioB.)

Form E.

^t. 3- Sanitary Commission,

BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT.

(Insert name of Aid Society.)

1 86

You are requested to call at our office respecting

your application at . o’clock . , on

inst. and to bring this

. O

notice with you.

No.

* (Insert No of Applica'ion.)

-Fora, of Circular to be printed and used by Aid Societies in their respective localities, the proper designation of each being Inserted )

m. f. Jfomburg ®ommiss(mL

BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND EMPLOYMENT,

(Insert name of Society.)

This Bureau is established with the following objects :

1. To aid those who have served in the Army and Navy of the United States in obtaining employment

2. To prevent, as far as possible, the necessity for costly charitable institutions, by thus encouraging indus¬
try, and aiding the disabled, soldier who might otherwise seek an asylum, to strive for self-support.

3. To lessen the pauperism and crime necessarily more or less a consequence of war, and which surely
attend on large numbers of unoccupied men left to themselves without employment or means of subsistence.

4. To save to the country a large amouat of productive labor, at a time when it can least afford to main¬
tain idle bands.

The services of the Bureau are given gratuitously.

Information and suggestions are solicited relative to employments adapted to maimed and disabled men.
Employers are earnestly requested to make application to this Bureau for every class of labor ; and are
reminded that our Army and Navy have contained many of theVst and most trustworthy young men of the
nation — skilled in every occupation.

It is demanded by both patriotism and humanity, that the light occupations of all towns, and whatever
work can be as well done by invalid soldiers as by others, be given to the men who may have incapacitated
themselves for rivalry in more active and laborious fields of duty, by giving their limbs, their health, and
their blood to the nation.

[Append names of Officers of Aid Society.]

JNO. S. BLATCHFORD,

General Secretary.

D. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. 91.

On the 22d March, 1S61, the Sanitary Commission resolved
to ask the aid and co-operation of an Auxiliary Finance Com-
nnttee, to be composed of gentlemen of the highest position
and standing, on whose advice it could depend in any ques¬
tions that might arise as to the best management of its funds.

It was thought desirable that this Committee should also be
requested from time to time, to pass upon and examine the
accounts and vouchers of its Treasurer. These have been
audited and examined by Committees appointed by the Com¬
mission and consisting of its own members, at intervals of not
less than three months, ever since the Commission was ap¬
pointed in June, 1861, and have been found correct. But the
amount confided to the Commission by the people has been so
large, and the responsibility thus imposed on it so heavy, that
a thorough investigation of its expenditures by gentlemen not
belonging to its own body seemed expedient for the protection
of the Commission and the satisfaction of the public.

Messrs. A. A. Low, Jonathan Sturges and John Jacob
Astor, Jr., having consented to act as such Auxiliary Finance
Committee, all the books, accounts, and vouchers of the
Treasurer from June 26th, 1861, the date of the first entry
they contain (including those of the Washington and Louis¬
ville Offices) were laid before this Committee. It proceeded
to engage the services of a professional accountant, and on the
30th May, 1865, reported the result of its examination down
to January, 1865.

Tlie leports of the Committee and of its accountant, are as
follows :

New York, May 30, 1865.

Geo. T. Strong, Esq.,

Treasurer.

Dear Sir,

We hereby certify that Mr. James M. Ilalsey, Teller of
the Seamens Savings Bank, was selected and appointed by ns
to examine into the books and accounts of the Sanitary Com¬
mission, and after many months devoted to this work more or
less continuously, the accompanying certificate shows the
result of his examination.

His name is appended to a statement of receipts and dis¬
bursements from June 26, 1861, to January 1, 1865, sent here¬
with, the aggregate being $3,470,587 94.

Respectfully yours,

( Signed )

J. J. ASTOR, Jr.,

A. A. LOW,

JON’N STURGES.

78 Wall Street,

New York, July 20, 1864.

Messrs. A. A. Low, Esq.,

Jonathan Sturges, Esq.,

J. J. Astor, Jr., Esq.

Gentlemen,

I have to report ( pursuant to your instructions) that
the accounts of the Treasurer of the U. S. Sanitary Commis¬
sion have been carefully examined, and that I find them correct ,
in all particulars.

The examination included the Bank accounts kept by the
Treasurer, and I find vouchers returned for the same, correct
both as to date and amount.

Herewith I hand you a statement of the receipts and dis¬
bursements of the Commission from June 26, 1861, to May 1,
1864, showing a balance of cash on hand of $394,598 62,
which I find to have been the balance on the Bank Books at
that date.

accounts, I shall be pleased tofornish with ^

required.Stant tW"7 (Jfe * Colli»s) at «7^«“££
Respectfully yours,

JAS. M. HALSEY.

New 1 ork, March 30, 1865.

Messrs. A. A. Low, Esq., i

Jonathan Sturges, Esq., i Committee.

3. J. Astor, Jr., Esq. )

Gentlemen,

the U S ?rTithn ]'and 7°n my rep°rt °f the 0Perations of
. S. Sanitary Commission from June 1861 to Jan 1865

Upon a careful examination of the books, I find vouchers for

all disbursements, and to the best of my knowledge and belief

the enclosed account is correct in every particular.

Respectfully, yours &c.,

JAS. M. HALSEY.

The same Committee has been requested to continue its
examination from 1st January. 1865, until the affairs of the
mmission shall be finally wound up. The result of such
future examination will be duly laid before the public.

Henry W. Bellows,

President.

Johk S. Blatchford,

General Secretary.

823 Broadway, New York, June 1, 1865.

u. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. O^.

REPORT

CONCERNING TIIE

FIELD RELIEF SERVICE

OF THE

WITn THE

ARMIES Of TIIE POTOMAC, GEORGIA, AND TENNESSEE,

IN THE

DEPARTMENT OF WASHINGTON,

MAY AND JUNE, 1865.

WASHINGTON, D. C. :

McGILL & WIT HERO VV, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS.
1865.

Central Office,

Washington, D. C., July i, i865.
Rev. H. W. Bellows, D. D., President :

"if"' rS": °" ““ 2M “d 2<1,‘ of M*J' '<»>. «™

200,000 soldiers, composing the armies of the Potomac
Georgia, and Tennessee, were gathered within sight of the
National Capital, and participated in the grand review which
took place in Washington at that time, preparatory to the
fina discharge from service of a large portion of the troops.

The Relief Service of the Sanitary Commission with these
troops in the Department of Washington-a record of which
is embraced in the accompanying Report-commenced with
the establishment of Relief Stations at convenient points on
the line of march, for the supply of ice-water and simple re-
fresh merit during the two days’ continuance of the review
This simple but gratefully-received service diminished ma-
tenally the fatigue and exhaustion incident to the occasion.

Many of the troops were worn and exhausted by the long
marches and uninterrupted service, and exhibited the low
physical condition resulting from a long, unvaried diet and
deprivation of vegetable food. A temporary and partial sus¬
pension of the ordinary governmental channels of supply
necessarily incident to the adjustment of regimental ac¬
counts preparatory to mustering out, became the occasion of
many wants which it was the obvious duty of the Commis-

sion to endeavor to supply. The demand upon us, for the
period during which the troops remained temporarily in
camp to await the process of discharge and transportation to
other points of rendezvous, has been second only in impor¬
tance and magnitude to the requirements of the battle-field
itself.

The timely aid of the Commission, thus rendered, is be¬
lieved to have been of the most beneficent character, and has
been most gratefully acknowledged by both officers and

men.

The organization by which these wants have been system¬
atically ascertained and provided for may appear lrom the
following

Regulations for the Field Relief Service of the U. S. Sani¬
tary Commission with the armies in the department of
Washington, May 25, 18G5:

Dr. M. D. Benedict, Chief Inspector, in charge.

Mr. A. M. Sperry, Chief of Field Relief Corps.
Mrs. Stephen Barker, Supt. of Hospital Visitors.

The establishment for a Corps shall be as follows :

PERSONNEL. . . One agent in charge, with such additional agents

and laborers as, in the opinion of the Chief
Inspector, the requirements of the service may
demand.

EQUIPMENT.

.One tent, and one four-horse wagon and driver.

THE GHIEP OP HELD CORPS Will supervise and be held responsible

for the work of the agents in charge of the sev¬
eral Corps Stations.

He will report to the Chief Inspector. The agent
in charge of Corps Relief Station will report to
Chief of Field Relief Corps. All other agents
and laborers will be under the direction of agent
in charge of Corps Relief Station.

THE AGENT IN CHARGE OF CORPS STATION Shall select the most

convenient point for the location of his tent, at
which place he or his representative will always
be found. One four-horse wagon and driver will
be detailed, subject to his order, for the trans¬
portation of supplies and for such other pur-
poses, in the legitimate discharge of his duties,
as he maj'- elect.

REQUISITIONS . Requisitions for supplies from the agent in charge

to be in all cases sent to the Chief Inspector in
time to allow a proper inspection of the same ;
and the agent in charge will be held responsible
for any failure of supplies chargeable to a non-
compliance with these regulations.

Requisitions from medical officers for hospital
stores and stimulants to be referred to Chief
Inspector, and to be endorsed by the agent in
charge, with strength of regiment, number of
sick, and such brief report upon condition of til9
men as may be possible.

SUPPLIES,

.Supplies of clothing, shoes, &c., to be issued— ex¬
cept in special cases, after careful examination
by the agent in charge — on special requisitions
of the Officers commanding companies, to be
approved by the Regimental Commanders.

Supplies of stationery, tobacco, towels, handker¬
chiefs, thread, &c., to be drawn from the Field
Depot, and to be accounted for to the agent in
charge by the distributing agent, and to be
charged to the Regiments, Brigades, and Divis¬
ions, with the view to preserve a correct record
of issue.

THE CORPS OF HOSPITAL VISITORS Temporarily detailed for auz-

iliary service with the Field Relief Corps, will
report, through their Superintendent, to the
Chief Inspector ; their work to be confined to
such individual relief as may be designated, and
not to include the issue or supply of clothing.

The following reports will exhibit in detail the method
and results of the work.

JNO. S. BLATCPIFORD,

General Secretary.

REPORTS.

Jno. S. Blatchford, Esq., General Secretary:

Sir: I have the honor to hand you herewith the reports and other
documents of interest relating to the late issue of supplies by the
Commission to the troops encamped in and about Washington.

These reports include all that need be said of the magnitude of the
work; of the necessity for the large and liberal distribution, arising
from the destitute condition of the men, and of the manner in which
the work was accomplished — rendering any additional statement from
me unnecessary.

Yours, very respectfully,

M. D. BENEDICT.

REPORT OF A. M. SPERRY.

U. S. Sanitary Commission,

Washington, D. C., June 22, 1865.
Dr. M. D. Benedict, Chief Inspector,

U. S. Sanitary Commission, Dep’t of Washington:

Sir . The work of the Field Belief Corps has, in this Department,
closed, and it remains for me to submit a final report for the brief
period it has been under my charge.

In attempting this, I regret that circumstances have prevented my
collecting many facts and statistics concerning the troops and our work
among them, which would give certainty and directness to much that
can now be presented only in general terms. This remark will explain
the form which my report assumes.

For the purpose of presenting clearly a summary of results, I desire
to direct your attention to

THE WORK TO BE DONE.

With the close of the campaign that resulted in the collapse of the
rebellion, the Field work of the Commission and the organization
of the Field Relief Corps terminated. There were to be no more
battles, and therefore, no “ battle-field relief.” The expensive wagon-
train and the attendant system of supply was broken up; the agents,
one by one, sent home, and the feeling everywhere prevailed that “ the
Sanitary ” had about done its work. Sick and wounded lingering
in Hospital were to be watched for a time; “ special relief” was to be
afforded to men on their way home; “ claim agencies” might multiply
and extend their protection to every soldier in need of it; “ Sanitaria”
might make available the remaining powers of the maimed and home¬
less; but no more horrors of actual war would ever call upon the store¬
houses of the Commission, or the ready sympathies of the people.

Armies, the aggregate strength of which must have exceeded two
hundred thousand men, were rapidly assembling around this city,
previous to the grand review and their disbandment. These men were
the travel-worn veterans of Sherman, and the battle-slained heroes of
the glorious old Army of the Potomac, men of whom the nation is
already proud, and whom history will teach our children to venerate.
Alas! that veterans require more than “field rations;” that heroes
will wear out or throw away their clothes, or become diseased with
scurvy or chronic diarrhoea.

The Army of the West had marched almost two thousand miles,
subsisting from Atlanta to the ocean almost wholly upon the country
through which it passed. When it entered the destitute regions of
North Carolina and Virginia it became affected with scorbutic diseases.
A return to the ordinary marching rations gave the men plenty
to eat, but> no vegetables. Nor had foraging put them in a condition
to bear renewed privation.

The Commissary Department issued vegetables in such small quan¬
tities that they did not affect the condition of the troops in any
appreciable degree. Surgeons immediately sought the Sanitary Com¬
mission. The demand soon became greater than the supply. At first
they wanted nothing but vegetables, for having these, they said, all
other discomforts would become as nothing.

After we had secured an organization through the return of agents

and the arrival of transportation, a division of labor was made, result¬
ing ultimately in three departments, more or less distinct. These were :

First, the supply of vegetables;

Second, the depots for hospital and miscellaneous supplies; and,

Third, the visitation of troops for the purpose of direct distribution
of small articles of necessity or comfort.

Our first contact with Sherman’s army was at its Provisional camps
at Alexandria. In these camps were gathered thousands of men, re¬
turned prisoners, convalescents, stragglers, and men detached by va¬
rious causes from the main body. Much need prevailed. Our Depot
there remained with the Army of the Tennessee, (15th and 17th
Corps,) and followed it to its new position, taken up after the
review, where we again entered upon the work of general supply.
This work is not detailed in the reports of our agents as fully as I
desire; but it was systematically and thoroughly conducted. We
were fortunate in having there agents who had been long connected
with the army, knew its officers, its men, and their real wants. The
issue of vegetables was made promptly, and hospital supplies most
needed carefully dispensed. Besides this, the different Regiments and
Detachments were all visited by two ladies, agents of the Commission,
who distributed, directly to the men, the towels, handkerchiefs, paper,
envelopes, needles, and thread, furnished for this purpose. I mention
their services with much satisfaction.

This depot continued in its place until the army took up its west¬
ward march, and was then transferred to the Army of Georgia, (14th
and 20th Corps.) We had, simultaneously with our work at other points,
put agents into the two Corps composing this Army; but we had no
Depot there until the establishment of the one referred to above.
Still, I think the requisitions of our agents reached most of the really
destitute cases. Much individual relief was also afforded by the visits
of the ladies aligned to these Corps. A division of the 19th Corps
attached to this army was also supplied. Our distribution went on
until the troops going away were under arms, many regiments taking
with them the oranges, lemons, and tomatoes we gave them, and the
men putting them in their haversacks as they moved. Provisional
Divisions, composed of the Veteran troops, remained behind; these
were finally consolidated into a single organization, and assigned to the
Army of the Tennessee.

I dismiss general statements concerning our work in the armies of
the West by saying that a feeling of gratitude toward the Commission

pervaded all; that the troops were u more than satisfied” with what we
had done for their welfare, feeling, in the language of more than one
soldier, that they were “ in God’s country once more.” Medical officers
were not only desirous of availing themselves of our stores, but were
equally ready to acknowledge the benefits conferred.

Our work in the Army of the Potomac dates, properly, from the
25th of May, the day after the review, at which time our Depot
was established. We had previously reached such regiments as had
made application through their Surgeons or Chaplains, but these cases
were few. The result of first impressions, derived from statements of
prominent officers, was, that in this army our issues need not be
heavy. We however found occasion to do much — all that we were able to.
It soon became evident that the need of vegetables was here as great
as it had been in Sherman’s army. The general condition of the
men was unfavorable. They were worn out, had indifferent rations,
poor camps, and if they had not as much scurvy as the other army,
they were in a fair way to get it. Our duty was plain and the
reasoning simple: Unless these men have a change of diet, they will
sicken and die in constantly increasing numbers. Government cannot
furnish vegetables, therefore we must.

Furnishing vegetables to the Army of the Potomac was the second
part of the work to be done. Our Depot near 5th A. C. headquarters
was an institution in itself. Its history is best told by the huge pile
of requisitions accompanying this report, all of which were drawn upon
that station. I regard our work here as of the greatest value to the
troops. Many interesting details are given in the accompanying reports,
but more are omitted. The immense pressure of business left no leisure
to record facts or to give incidents of daily experience. If at any time
we desire added testimony to the efficiency of our work or of its necessity,
we have but to refer to the medical officers, and to the rank and file of
the three Army Corps there reached.

In its details our work might doubtless have been improved; but the
results were, upon the whole, satisfactory; and I do not hesitate to
say that there was as small a percentage of waste as has ever been
attained at any Sanitary station of its size. If the tents were old, so
were the agents; and these, unlike the former, were perfectly sound.
Doubtless some men got shirts, and other men supplies, who did not
need them ; but all such things are exceptional, and should be treated
as evils that are to be kept down to the minimum without expecting
a radical removal. Men steal, cheat, and lie, out of the army as well

as in it, yet society does not suspend operations. The unjust are upon
the earth, yet God sends his sunshine and rain. In the same spirit of
patient forbearance ought we to pursue our work of beneficence.

We very soon found that an important part of the work to be done
was to meet, so far as we could, the demands made upon us for under¬
clothing and socks. * * * * Previous to the homeward march,

an issue of clothing— partial, I think— was made; but many did not
draw, thinking a few days would see them out of the service and on
their way home ; man} , because they preferred to draw in Washington,
neglected to do so then ; others had no opportunity. Arriving here,
clothing was issued to some extent, but not generally. Much confusion
prevailed ; accounts of organizations going out of service must be
closed. This took time; and often there were men who would not be
mustered out. These would have no opportunity to draw until re¬
assigned.

It is also true that during the rapid and exhausting march home
from Richmond and beyond, many men parted with everything in
ord^r to keep with their commands, who, had they been marching the
other way, would have kept everything. To the weary soldiers Wash¬
ington seemed to be the land of plenty, reaching which, all good
things could be attained. How serious was their disappointment may
be shown by the indignant protests and the statements of Sherman’s
men that they would rather be in North Carolina, and from the Army
of the Potomac that they were better off in the trenches before Peters¬
burg than here. That this was not mere grumbling is shown by its
universality, by the expressions of medical officers, and by my own
observation. The reports of other agents of the Commission upon
this point show the same state of things. How far the Government is
to receive censure, or how much is chargeable to circumstances, I am
unable to say. The fact that our agent in charge at the Depot in the
Army of the Potomac decided to give but ten shirts to the hundred men
shows what were his views of the need, and also the calls made upon
him. I would not have it understood that ten per cent, of the army
was naked, but that more than that number had no change of clothing,
and often no whole garment. These remarks apply to other articles
besides shirts. Socks are always deficient in supply, and the simple
dictates of humanity prompt us to furnish them to foot-sore or destitute
men. We gave no shoes, save in those cases where men had none and
had no immediate prospect of getting any. Blankets were at first given
to men sick in quarters, who had none, and who were compelled to

lie on the ground. This was the case also in the Field Hospitals.
Often men came in with no blanket, and the crowded condition of the
hospital prevented their getting other accommodation than the ground.
But as the hospitals improved and the condition of the camps became
better, the need for them became less, and very few were asked for.

The standard of comfort among troops in the field has steadily ad¬
vanced. It is a good sign when a few shoeless or sbirtless men, seen
even at the close of a campaign, excite both pity aud indignation at
the causes of their destitution. It would be unjust, also, to the effi¬
cient Department that has the clothing of the men for its care, not to
recognize and applaud its wonderful persistence and energy, even while
stating that it does not always reach individual suffering. Our own
duty is and has been, as it always should be, supplementary to govern¬
mental Departments. If by these issues of clothing we have helped
men, to whom we owe a debt of gratitude that we never can pay,
to attain a degree of comfort they could not have otherwise possessed
— if by introducing additional means of protection and cleanliness we
have saved men from fever, who, without this aid, would have sickened
and perhaps died — and if we have been once more the instruments of
letting the army feel the gifts of the people at home, it is a reason for
thankfulness that we have had both the means and the opportunity
of doing so. The armies that swept from the face of the earth the
slaveholders’ republic were true men. The soldier who asks for some
needed garment to-day will, years hence, be reverenced as one of the
heroes of a glorious age.

The large amount of miscellaneous and hospital supplies used at our
various Depots, and more especially at our Depot in the Army of the
Potomac, were issued principally to the troops and to the sick in
Quarters. The issues made to Hospitals are herewith submitted in a
tabulated form. The crowded condition of the Field Hospitals, in¬
cident to the difficulty of getting permission to send men to General
Hospital, and the desire on the part of the men to stay and be mus¬
tered out with the regiment, kept many sick men in Quarters who
would under other circumstances have been sent away. To these men
something more palatable than the bread, meat, and coffee of the camp
was of the utmost importance, and to these we issued as freely as our
means would permit. Miscellaneous stores were here, as in other
Corps, distributed through the camps by the ladies who were assigned
to this duty.

I copy from the record of a single half-day’s visit to different points
the following hurried notes:

“ June 12th. — Visited 1st and 2d Division Hospitals, — A. C.
Their condition is crowded and uncomfortable, with much typhoid and
typhus fever, and diarrhoea; the mortality being greater than usual.
The ‘ fund ’ is large, giving a good diet list. The men arc worn out
by hard marches, and suffering from lack of vegetable food, not
having in camp sufficient food. The Hospitals are badly located,
surrounded on all sides by camps. This is no fault of the Surgeons, who
have chosen the best places they could find. I notice that the air is
everywhere tainted by the exhalations from the half-buried debris of
old camps.

“ Visited the Surgeon of the — Regiment, N. Y. V , who expressed
his thanks for ‘the large and liberal supply of vegetables just furnished
by the Commission’ — 1 the men being delighted.’ He had entered
an energetic protest, in a report to the Medical Director, against the
treatment the men were receiving from the Commissary Department.

“The Surgeon of the 1st — reports scurvy well developed, and con¬
demns in very strong terms the treatment the men are receiving. He
thanked us for our issues of vegetables, giving, as it did, ‘nearly five
pounds per man.’ lie had in a number of cases directed men to eat
their potatoes and onions raw, in order to secure their full benefit.

“ Dr. - , Brigade Surgeon — Brigade, — A. C., reports that our

issues were very timely, and of excellent quality — ‘ the onions being
the best he had ever seen.’ ‘ The men had some of them yet.’ He
had always appreciated the service the Commission rendered, and
believed it still necessary. ‘ The men received only field rations, and
were in great need.’ Both the last-named gentlemen had entered
written protests against the rations the men were receiving.

“ Surgeon - , — Corps, reports the health of the men good until

they came here. Water is poor; also, ‘food not as good as when before
Petersburg.’ They are out of money, and have drawn no under-cloth¬
ing. ‘ Men were used up by the review.’ ‘Seventeen (17) ambu¬
lance loads were taken to a single Division Hospital the day after
it:’ — this showing that the men were not in good condition.

“The general testimony is to the effect that the condition of the
men is worse than in the field. Sickness, of course, is most common
among the recruits. But men ‘ made of iron,’ says one surgeon, whom
he supposed ‘ couldn’t be sick,’ have had to succumb. The causes

seem to be previous hard work, unhealthiness of present camps, in¬
ferior quality of food, insufficient exercise, and a general relaxation of
discipline.”

4 erbal reports from our agents, who went through the several Corps,
show a similar condition of things generally prevalent. When typhus
and typhoid fevers, of a peculiarly unmanageable type, prevail through¬
out an entire army ; when the number of deaths are out of all proportion
to the number sick ; when men who have borne the brunt of heavy
campaigns fall victims to preventable diseases, almost in sight of their
homes, it would seem as if some one must be to blame; or, if circum¬
stances alone, then it is our duty to do all in our power to remove those
circumstances.

In conclusion, I have to state, that we reached all the men of both
the grand Armies with a liberal issue of vegetables, averaging fully
three pounds per man. We have supplied all the 1 ivision Hospitals
with many articles not to be had at the time through regular channels,
and with additional comforts. We have reached the sick in Quarters
to an extent sufficient to alleviate much suffering; and we have fur¬
nished, through Surgeons, Chaplains, and our own lady visitors, large
quantities of those minor, but essential articles, the possession of which
makes much of the difference between comfort and discomfort.

I would respectfully call your attention to the accompanying reports
from the members of the Eelief Corps. To these gentlemen we are
indebted for the success of our undertaking; and long acquaintance
with most of them has made me aware how patiently, faithfully, and
intelligently they have labored. t

The work of' the Field Relief with these armies is done. In the
story of our national redemption will be many thrilling chapters of
battles, sieges, and marches; many sad ones, of heroes slain, of
hospitals filled with sick and wounded, and of desolated homes; but
in the midst of the gloom of the battle-smoke, and the pale shadows of
hospital wards, will shine a rosy light; for it will also be told how
the nation, with one heart, united to bless and comfort those who
suffered in its cause— how mothers, wives, and sisters forgot their
tears for the dead in working for the living, and bound up their own
wounds in helping the suffering. Thank God for the lessons this
has taught us. How truly have we been again taught, “ It is more
blessed to give than to receive.” None can better understand the
meaning of these words than can those who have been allowed to be

^instruments of conveying the people’s bounty to its army in the

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

A. M. SPERRY,
Superintendent Field Relief.

REPORT OF MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.

„ „ Washington, D. C., June 29, 1865.

A. M. Sperry :

Sir: It was my privilege to witness the advance of the Army
in the spring of 1862, and the care of soldiers in camp and Hospital
having occupied all my time since then; it was therefore gratifyino-
to close my labors by welcoming the returning Army to the same
camping grounds it left four years ago. The circumstances under
which it went forth and returned were so unlike, the contrast between
our tremulous farewell and our exultant welcome so extreme, that it
has been difficult to find an expression suited to the hour. The Sani¬
tary Commission adopted the one method by which alone it could give
for itself this expression. It sent out its agents to visit every regiment
and all soldiers on detached duty, to ascertain and relieve their wants,
and by words and acts of kindness to assure them of the deep and
heartfelt gratitude of the nation for their heroic sufferings and
achievements.

The l&d, 5th, 6th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 17th, and 20th army corps have
been encamped about the capital. They numbered over 200,000 men.

Our first work was to establish stations for Sanitary stores in the
camps wherever it was practicable, to which soldiers might come for
the supply of their wants without the trouble of getting passes into
Washington. Our Field Relief Agents, who have followed the army
from point to point, called on the officers to inform them to our store¬
house for supplies of vegetables and pickles. The report of the Super¬
intendent of Field Relief will show how great a work has been done
for the army in these respects. How great has been the need of a full
and generous distribution of the articles of food and clothing may be
realized by the fact, that here were men unpaid for the last six
months, and yet to remain so till mustered out of the service in
their respective States ; whose Government accounts were closed,
with no sutlers in their regiments, and no credit anywhere. Every

market-day numbers of these war-worn veterans have been seen asking
for some green vegetable from the tempting piles, which were forbid¬
den fruit to them.

In order to make our work in the army as thorough, rapid, and
effective as possible, it was decided to accept the services of the
“Hospital Visitors.” They have been at home in the Hospitals ever
since the war begrn, but never in the camp. But we believed that
even here they would be safe, and the gifts they brought would be
more valued because brought by them.

Six ladies have been employed by the Sanitary Commission as Hos¬
pital Visitors. These were temporarily transferred from their Hospitals
to the field.

The 2d and 5th Corps were visited by Mrs. Steele and Miss Abby
Francis.

The 6th Corps by Mrs. Johnson, Miss Armstrong, and Mrs. Barker;
one in each Division.

The 9th Corps by Miss Wallace, whose illness afterward obliged her
to yield her place to Mrs. Barker.

The 14th Corps by Miss Armstrong.

The^J5th and 17th Corps by ladies belonging to those Corps — Mrs.
Porter and Mrs. Bickerdyke — whose admirable services rendered other
presence superfluous.

The 20th Corps was visited by Mrs. Johnson.

The articles selected for their distribution were the same for all the
Corps ; while heavy articles of food and clothing were issued by orders
from the Field Agents, smaller articles — like towels, handkerchiefs,
stationery, sewing materials, combs, reading matter, &c. — weVe left to
the ladies.

This division of labor has been followed, except in cases where no
Field Agent accompanied the lady, and there was no Sanitary Station in
the Corps. Then the lady agent performed double duty. She was pro¬
vided with a vehicle, and followed by an army wagon loaded wit hi sup¬
plies sufficient for her day’s distribution, which had been drawn from
the Commission storehouse upon a requisition approved by the Chief
Clerk. On arriving at the camp her first call was at headquarters, to
obtain permission to distribute her little articles, to learn how sick the
men were, in Quarters or in Hospital, and to find out the numbers in
each company. The ladies adopted two modes of issuing supplies : some
called fur the entire company, giving into each man’s hand the thing
he needed ; others gave to the Orderly Sergeant of each company

the same proportion of each article, which he distributed to the men.
The willing help and heartfelt pleasure of the officers in distributing our
gifts among their men have added much to the respect and affection
already felt for them by the soldiers and their friends.

In Mrs. Johnson’s report of her work in the 20th A. C., she says :

“ In several instances officers have tendered the thanks of their regi¬
ments, when they were so choked by tears as to render their voices
unheard.”

I remember no scenes in camp more picturesque than some of our
visits have presented. The great open army wagon stands under some
shade tree, with the officer who has volunteered to help, or the regular
Field Agent, standing in the midst of boxes, bales, and bundles.
Wheels, sides, and every projecting point are crowded with eager sol¬
diers, to see what “ the Sanitary ” has brought for them. By
the side of the great wagon stands the light wagon of the lady,
with its curtains all rolled up, while she arranges before and around
her the supplies she is to distribute. Another eager crowd surrounds
her, patient, kind, and respectful as the first, except that a shade more
of softness in their look and tone attest to the ever living power of
woman over the rough elements of manhood. In these hours of per¬
sonal communication with the soldier, she finds the true meaning of
her work. This is her golden opportunity, when by look and tone
and movement she may call up, as if by magic, the pure influences
of home, which may have been long banished by the hard necessi¬
ties ot war. Quietly and rapidly the supplies are handed out for Co.
A, B, C, &c., first from one wagon, then the other, and as soon as a
regiment is completed the men hurry back to their tents to receive
their share, and write letters on the newly received paper, or apply the
long needed comb, or mend the gaping seams in their now “ historic
garments.” When at last the supplies are exhausted, and sunset
reminds us that we are yet many miles from home, we gather up the
remnants, bid good bye to the friendly faces which already seem like
old acquaintances, promising to come again to visit new regiments to- *
morrow, and hurry home to prepare for the next day’s work.

Every day, from the first to the twentieth day of June, our little
band of missionaries has repeated a day’s work such as I have now
described. Every regiment, except some which were sent home before
we were able to reach them, has shared alike in wrhat we had to give.
And I think I speak for all in saying that among the many pleasant
9

memories connected with our sanitary work, the last but not the least
will be our share in the Field Relief.

Yours respectfully,

MRS. STEPHEN BARKER.

ARTICLES DISTRIBUTER BY TIIE HOSPITAL VISITORS.

2,897 shirts.

1,976 drawers.

6,545 socks.

] 00 vests.

2,639 dozen pairs suspenders.

5,682 “ combs.

40,000 towels.

47,842 handkerchiefs.

4,000 papers of needles,

542 pounds thread.

2,216 papers of pins.

10,000 pounds tobacco.

467 reams of paper.

209,000 envelopes.

438 gross pens.

169 “ penholders.

1,057 dozen pencils.

256 “ bottles of ink.

664 cans of milk.

574 “ tomatoes.

The following extracts from the Reports of the Agents
visiting the several Army Corps will also indicate the char¬
acter of the work :

Sir : * * * * * * *

I found I could supply one and sometimes two Regiments per
day, in addition to one entire Brigade, thus successfully closing the
work of distributing supplies to the nine Brigades, consisting of forty-
five Regiments, besides the various Detachments of headquarter and
ambulance guards, teamsters, &c ; in all, over twenty thousand men.
********

My plan has been to distribute by Regiments, first conferring with
the Brigade Commanders and Surgeons, then the Commanders, Sur¬
geons, or Chaplains of Regiments, in regard to the wants and conditions
of the enlisted men.

I generally had the wagon driven into the camp of each regiment,
and after furnishing the Surgeon with what was needed for the sick,
would give shirts, drawers, socks, &c., to the 1st sergeants of the com¬
panies. to be by them given to the most needy, while combs, thread,

565 cans fruit.

32 boxes oranges.

33 “ lemons.

26 pounds tea.

156 “ farina.

860 “ chocolate.

100 “ sugar.

244 bottles jelly.

208 “ B. B. brandy.

474 “ Jamaica ginger.

70 '• bay rum.

14 " wine.

1,353 fans.

60 straw hats.

250 tin cups.

175 “ plates and 36 spoons.

24 pieces musquito netting.
30,000 1 Soldiers’ Friend,’ and quan¬
tities of soldiers’ journals,
daily papers, &c.

pins, needles, tobacco, and other small articles I gave to the men the

selves, being certain that those who needed mo-t ,1 u ^

The work has been facilitated by the kind assistance I h°U reo®IV®‘
,om Brigade and Regimental Commanders, S^C^I

I have but one exception to report-but one instance where Officers
were not favorable to the work in which I was engaged. All others
O far as I know, were ready and anxious to assist me in the diZw
of supplies of which the men stood in so much need, and in

thlThlnksof r ' p‘VC °ffiCerS Td6red’ °a b6half °f their

to rlndet th S,ment,3’ WheD th6y Were 80 ^ emotion as

to lender their voices unheard. It was very touching to see brave

officers of “ Sherman’s army” melted to to-ir- -i •

y eitea to teais at seeing their men

receive comforts from their loyal friends. * * * *

Very respectfully.

Dear Sir : * * * * # #

Ch?nniaThUKty ^MT;-May 30’ 1 Visited **“">"‘•1 Surgeon and
Chaplain in the 3d Division, 5th Corps. By every one of them I was

-me y lcceive . All were glad to welcome the Commission among

em and some liad long been wondering what had become of it.

eai y e^eiy one gave utterance to the same remark made by the

Surgeon tn charge of the Hospital, in regard to the prevalence of so

much sickness in the Division. They attributed it in a great measure

to the severity of the spring campaign, followed by the fatiguino-

n, arches to and around Washington; also to the exposure of many

to the weather, quite a number being destitute of proper clothing

having lost it on the marches, and being unable to procure more, the

Quartermasters having ceased issuing. Some of it was charged to the

quality of the food— having had no vegetables since leaving the

vicinity of Burkesville. Four-fifths of the Surgeons testified to

scorbutic symptoms in their Regiments. Vegetables seemed to be

absolutely necessary to the preservation of the health of the men

*******’*
Respectfully, yours.

Dear Sir : * *****

I have visited each Regiment and conversed with Surgeons and Offi¬
cers, also Brigade and Division Surgeons, and submit, as a result, the
following deductions:

r!hat the Government is not furnishing the vegetables necessary for

the health of the men, and that there is much suffering in consequence^
That the articles furnished by the Commission are absolutely needed

and gratefully received.

That with two exceptions,
work of the Commission, an
within their power so to do.
* * *

the Surgeons of the Corps appreciate the
d avail themselves of its services when

Very respectfully.

Dear Sir: *****

These sick men lay in tent Hospitals, on rough, hard bunks, or blankets
spread on the ground They were poorly supplied with proper articles
of food, that day being the first on which they had received soft bread,
and as yet they had not been furnished with the requisite medical sup¬
plies. They, nevertheless, lay without complaint, cheerful, and almost
happy, declaring that they had seen much harder times, and were
thankful for the mere privilege of rest during sickness. The stores ot
fruits and jellies were most gratefully received by these men, as well
as by their Surgeons, who assured us that although the men in their
long" campaigns had learned to suffer, and bo silent under almost any
suffering and deprivation, these supplies were particularly welcome at
this time.

After having first furnished the Hospital of a Division with the
needed supplies, I proceeded regularly to distribute to the soldiers of
the Division, beginning with Brigades in their Regimental organization.
Consistently with the plan of calling at Corps and Division Headquar¬
ters, I, in all cases, requested the authority and aid of Regimental Offi¬
cers’ in calling up the Orderly Sergeants in the Regiments, in order to
receive the supplies for the men of their respective Companies. Racli
sergeant reported the number of men in his Company, and received his
proper proportion of articles

* * * * * * * *
By the lltli instant every Brigade, Regiment, and Company in the
1st and 2d Divisions had been visited, and each man had been furnished
with the various articles intended by the Commission.

The number of men in the two Divisions was ten thousand.
********

Of course, discrimination was made in the giving out of these stores.
Articles intended exclusively for the sick, such as jellies, canned fruits,

cordials, and wines, were left at the Hospitals, while an abundant supply
of oranges and lemons enabled us to provide these fruits more liberally
for the benefit of men throughout the Regiments who were sick in
Quarters. * * * The business of dealing out several

articles of clothing, such as shirts, drawers, shoes, &c., was in charge
of the Field Agent who accompanied the wagon of supplies. The
limited stock of these articles prevented their general distribution,
and they were only given in cases of necessity. Towels, handkerchiefs,
suspenders, combs, tobacco, stationery, pins, needles, and thread were
supplied universally.

********
Yours, respectfully.

Dear Sir: *******

I found the Officers very pleasant, and always willing to assist me.
They all said the articles I brought would do the men a great deal of
good, as they had not been paid in several months. Most of the men
I saw had been with Sheridan through the campaigns up the Valley,
and were quite destitute. Their sutlers always charge them two or
three times as much as they can buy the same things elsewhere for.

Respectfully.

Having been connected with the Army of the Tennessee for over
three years, I can safely say, that they never have been so systematically
supplied with Sanitary stores as they have been since arriving here. It
might be proper here to state the manner in which distributions were
made. To each one hundred men we issued one barrel potatoes, one
half-barrel onions, and one fourth barrel pickles, on requisitions of
Chaplains or Surgeons of Regiments or Brigades. The other articles
such as clothing, stationery, lemons, oranges, &c., were distributed by
the ladies, who visited each Regiment, and distributed such articles
as were needed by the men.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant.

Sir : * * * # * * * *

Immediately after securing our position, our agents visited eacli Regi¬
ment in the 5th and 2d Corps, and the various Field Hospitals. Sub¬
sequently we did the same in the Gth A. C.

Ihe Hospitals we found in a needy condition. Having received
orders to send none of those patients to the General Hospital, and
there being an unusual amount of sickness in most of the Regiments,
they were overcrowded. Indeed, they could not receive all who should
have been sent to them from the Regiments. Add to this the fact
that they had been only established for a few days, and had only the
outfits of Field Hospitals, the supply of sheets, pillow-slips, bed-ticks,
and pillows was insufficient. In one Hospital they could not obtain
the straw to put in the bed-sacks, and the sickest men were lying on
rudely-construoted “ bunks,” made of poles, covered by a single blan¬
ket Ihe Surgeons complained of difficulty in obtaining proper articles
of diet, and in several instances of failure in obtaining the needed
stimulants for the lowest cases. These difficulties always exist in Field
Hospitals, but were greatly aggravated by the large amount of work
thrown upon the Medical Department in Washington by the presence
of Sherman s Army The cases of sickness were mostly typhoid fever
and diarrhoea. The mortality which existed was alarming.

\ ou will see that there was a necessity for large issues to the Hos¬
pitals Ihe lemons and acid jellies were peculiarly acceptable to the
fever cases. Netting was a great comfort to all. “ The slippers were
good as a prescription. ' The vegetables were only furnished when
the Commissary was deficient, and were used to put in the soups.
Clean clothing was as necessary as medicine, and could not be supplied
in sufficient quantities by the Hospital Department. The articles of
diet were faithfully used. The statement of articles furnished to each
Hospital, which I append, will explain fully what we did for them.
While I take pleasure in saying that the Surgeons in charge of the va¬
rious Hospitals seemed to be honorable, conscientious, hard-working
men, who made a wise use of our supplies, I take even greater pleasure
in saying that they made no unreasonable demands, and that our sup¬
plies enabled us to meet almost all of their calls.

The Regiments scattered through the various Corps demanded the
greater part of our time. The amount of sickness and destitution in
each Regiment was very large. Many causes contributed to this result.
At that time few had obtained the material to build bunks of, and

were sleeping on the muddy ground. Had they been encamped before
Richmond, they would speedily cut down bushes or obtained boards
in some way to have constructe comfortable quarters; but here there
was a great scarcity of wood, and strict orders had been issued forbid¬
ding them from cutting anything from the woodlands. The water in
some localities was poor. Many were sick from the effects of their
rapid march from Richmond. A generous rivalry existed between
the two Corps to see which would arrive first.

****** *• *

I have previously spoken of the impossibility of accommodating all of
the sick men in the Hospitals. The consequence was, that each regi¬
ment had from ten to twenty-five men sick in Quarters. Most of these
men had diarrhoea, arising, in .. any cases, from a lack of sufficient
vegetable food, kor these cases the Surgeons drew small quantities of
farina, milk, corn, starch, lemons, tea, &c., which they gave out each
morning during sick-call to such as required them. Previous to our
arrival it had been almost impossible to obtain any article of diet for
these cases. The complaint in regard to the lack of vegetables was
universal.

*** ****■}£

It was the privilege of our Station to give orders for a ration of vege¬
tables to each regiment in the 2d, 5th, and 6th Army Corps. These
orders were mostly filled in the following proportion : One barrel of
potatoes, one-half barrel of onions, and ten gallons of pickles, for every
hundred men. These orders were drawn by the Surgeons from our
Office in Washington, and distributed to the men. No issue of the
Commission was ever more opportune or gratefully received. The Sur¬
geons wished us to convey to the Commission, in behalf of their Regi¬
ments, their warmest thanks for this timely issue. Just before I left,
one of the Surgeons called and said that it had been the means of check¬
ing the symptoms of scorbutus in his Regiment. Another said that
“ the potatoes, when divided, gave a ration of three pounds tot each
man.” Another said that “ his men succeeded in making them last a
week and another told me “ that he had ordered a large number
of his men to eat their vegetables raw — their gums were so dry and
spongy — and that the men did not waste even a potato skin.”

* * * * #***

The call for our clothing was very great. Many of the sick of the
Regiments required clothing which they would not have needed when
well. Aside from the sick, there were quite a number who were re-

turning from prison, or from the General Hospital, who were in an ex¬
tremely destitute condition. Aside from these cases there were others
who, through no fault of their own, were extremely destitute.
*******

While our station was in operation we filled at least 2,000 requisi¬
tions. Our number was so insufficient and our accommodations so
limited that we could not always do our work as systematically as is
best. Still, I can say that all of the agents have worked hard, and we
have endeavored to do as much good as wc could with the means at
our disposal working early and late for this end.

We experienced the kindest treatment from all with whom we came
in contact. * * * * The Provost Marshal of this

Division and the Division Medical Director did everything in their
power to further our work, besides furnishing us with a guard night
and day, and a large tent for our storeroom.

* *1* * * * * *
Very respectfully.

Dear Sir: * * *

General Sherman’s command had received, since they left Savannah,
but one ration of vegetables, and that reached them by way of Wil¬
mington, and was sent by the Sanitary Commission. Foraging to the
requisite extent was impossible. The tracts of country traversed by
the column did not contain supplies enough of the needed kinds j and
moreover, time could not be allowed for the purpose. The command
was— “ forward ! ” and resolutely, cheerfully even, officers, rank and
file, masticated their hard-tack and devoured their pork, and victory
was their stimulant and only dessert. Lips became parched, gums
spongy, and muscles emaciated — the first stages of scurvy. Thus they
camped round and about Washington, and put off their travel-stained,
dilapidated garments, but no change of diet could be given them by
their Commissaries.

The Sanitary Commission, through the liberality of the people, has
been enabled to do much for these men who have fought so bravely.
One afternoon a heavily loaded train was sent out to the station beyond
Alexandria Immediately Surgeons and Chaplains came in with their
requests, and many ambulances and. wagons gathered around the tents
waiting to be loaded. It was astonishing how fast the news traveled.

g in.

* *

Before we could get time to hoist our flag applications came pourin
\V e heard you were in the vicinity, and were hunting you ” * .

Two men voluntarily came from their camp, distant four miles, and

aftei midnight, to carry a barrel of potatoes that a Chaplain could not
put in his wagon. * * * *

Very respectfully yours.

Dear Sir : * * * * * *

Our troops, since thlir encampment about Washington, have been
poorly clothed and not well fed. The lack of clothing may be ac¬
counted for in various ways, without censuring Government. Many
neglected to draw when opportunity offered, expecting to be mustered out
immediately, bur, being retained in the service, found themselves desti¬
tute, with no money to buy. Returned prisoners were also constantly
coming iu camp to rejoin their respective regiments, and almost
invariably they were in a very destitute condition. Quartermasters
aiso were obliged to close their accounts with Government prior to
being mustered out, and discontinued their customary issues. When
it is fuither remembered that the troops had just emerged from a
severe spring campaign, and had made some heavy marching, in
which quantities of under-clothing is always lost, the necessity for a
liberal issue of clothing and shoes on the part of the Commission is
apparent.

Nothing, however, was more acceptable to the troops than the vege¬
table issue made by the Sanitary Commission I myself visited the
whole of one Corps and part of another, and was informed by every
Surgeon or Officer I met that the Commissary was lamentably deficient
in this respect, aud that the troops were for the most part subsisting
on marching rations, and scanty at that. This state of things has
undoubtedly produced a most injurious effect on both the health and
morale of the men. Nearly every Regimental Surgeon stated to me
that- he had au unusually large number on his sick list, which he at¬
tributed mainly to the lack of anti-scorbutic and vegetable diet. The
Division Hospitals were all filled and deaths were numerous. * *

Yours, &c.

To the preceding Reports we add, as one of many cordial
and gratifying testimonials, the following letter from Chap¬
lain Jeremiah Porter, long connected with the Army, and
familiar with the operations of the Sanitary Commission
in the field :

Washington, D. C , June 12, 1865.
Jno. S. Blatciiford, Esq., Gen’l Sec’y :

Dear Sir : Having overtaken Sherman’s army at Alexandria three
weeks since, after its successful march from Goldsboro, through Ra¬
leigh and Richmond, it has afforded me great pleasure to see how
ready the U. S. Sanitary and the Christian Commissions were to meet
their immediate wants.

While the Hospitals of Georgia, South and North Carolina, and
Virginia had received liberally during these last months of the cam¬
paign from both these institutions, the marching army was very much
out of their reach.

But, on arriving in the vicinity of this city, which their long marches,
valor, and sacrifice had saved from the power of our enemies, the worn
and weary soldiers were gratified to find that their necessities had been
anticipated \ that the Homes and Lodges and Rests welcomed multi¬
tudes, and that the men in the field were not overlooked.

The delicacies, the fresh vegetables, the fruits, and the under-cloth¬
ing so much needed after such fatiguing marches and successful battles,
they had not the means of buying, as they had not been paid by
Government since leaving Atlanta, seven months ago. The Govern¬
ment rations, though generous here, yet needed to be supplemented in
the field by the generous donations of the soldiers’ frieuds.

Being in camp wMi the Army of the Teuuessee, I saw with admira¬
tion the operations of your Commission in the 15th, 17th, and 14th
Corps.

Every facility being cheerfully given at the Rooms to obtain the
needed supplies which were pouring in from the North to meet a pres¬
ent necessity, ladies who had four years’ experience in these Corps,
and who enjoyed the confidence of Gen. Logan, as earnest and unwea¬
ried friends of the soldier, from his intimate acquaintance with their
work, Commanders of Brigades and Divisions most cordially encouraged
them to bring these supplies to their men. For this purpose army
wagons and six-mule teams were daily at the service of these your
agents in the field, varying in number from four to eight teams per

day, until each Brigade of these Corps had been met and ,1, •
practically supplied. ’ aad *eir wunts

It was a luxury to those who had associated with these vie, •
armies before Corinth and Memphis and Vicksburg and in A1 7°“
and Georgia and North Carolina, to meet them here in WashingtoT
and to receive the ardent thanks of officers and men for this one more
remembrance of them by the Sanitary Commission, before t j
dispersion as soldiers. A year since, these same ladies were ministering
o he mutilated thousands brought from the battle-fields, from Resacf
to Kenesaw Mountain, of the stores of your Commission. Now they
c eer the remnants of these heroes as .hey are “ putting off the harness "
war, and have a right >o “ boast,” for “ in God they have done val-

7’ a“d th6Se dolla,,ons judiciously and generously given to the
victors express a nation’s gratitude to its defenders. Still, though the
aggregate of donations from day to day was large, the gifts to individ
uals were comparatively small. A comb, a handkerchief, a towel a
shirt, a little dried fruit, a few pickles, a lemon, or an orange, blac’k-
beny coidial for invalids, each reminded the receiver of the oreat
benevolent heart that beat with love for the soldier. °

heaving the cry in haste, [ have only time to speak of the work
under my own observation. Those of whom I have written are but
few of the aborers in this great work in our now disbanded armies. I
am grateful to God who has not suffered your Commission or its co¬
operating Christian Commission to be weary in well-doing, and that
both are reaping their reward.

Very truly )ours,

JER. PORTER.

The following is a statement of some of the principal issues of sup¬
plies from the storehouse at Washington, D. C., from May 25 to June
1<, 1865, inclusive. Some of these supplies were furnished to the
General Hospitals, but most of them were issued to the troops gathered
around Washington :

Bed Sacks . 1=179

5lan,kets . 1,035

Mosquito Netting . pieces 174

Phi Is

Brushes, hair . 44

Combs, coarse . fifi 79ft

Do fine . 27710

Pillows . 58

Pillow Cases . 1 984

Quilts 434

Head-rests . 2Q

Sheets 2 464

Knives and Forks . doz 95

Mattr asses . 94

Stretchers . 22

Spoons . doz 1424

Soap .

. lbs 312

Oranges .

341

Stoves and Fixtures

. 3

Onions .

. bbls

1,2274

. 41

! Pickles .

“

773$

Towels..... .

. 56,625

Do .

....gallons

917

Tin Cups .

. 3,180

Do., .

537

Tin Plates .

. 3,050

Porter .

154

Potatoes .

. bbls

2,431

Peaches .

. cans

7,734

Coats, woolen and linen . 95

1 Rice .

135

Caps .

. 27

■ Rum, Jamaica .

Drawers, cotton.. ..

1 Sugar, white .

. lbs

1,596

Do., woolen. ..

Do., brown .

. “

1 ,030

Eye Glasses .

Salt Fish . .

341

Handkerchiefs .

. 62,684

1 Tamarinds .

. kegs

Hats .

. 870

i Tea, green .

. lbs

1,473

Pants, woolen and linen... prs 125

j Do., black .

301

Suspenders . .

. pairs 29,312

Tobacco, chewing...

. “

14,632

Shirts, cotton . .

. 8,600

Do., smoking...

6,016

25,354

1 Tomatoes .

. cans .

34,646

Shoes .

1 Wine, foreign .

. bottles

233

Slippers .

. “ 2,968

1 Wine domestic .

. bottles

Sru’l.*? pnt.tnn

“ 12 821

' Whiskey .

616

Do., woolen .

. “ 23,514

Vests .

. 157

1 Bay Rum . .

. bottles

555

W rappers

. 272

• Bandages .

. bbls

Cologne .

135

Ale .

. bottles 252

1 Candles .

. lbs

114

Annie Butter .

. cans 993

j Camphor, spts .

. bottles

137

Apples and Fruit, dried. ...bbls 2,713

Do., gum .

Blackberries .

. cans 388

1 Crunches .

. pairs

108

Beef Stock .

i Canes .

313

Blackberry Wine,

Cordial, &

Fumenti, spts .

. bottles

Tirnnrl v

bottles 3,205

1 Fans .

2,964

Brandy .

. “ 486

! Games .

. cases

Brandy, French _

. “ 134

Housewives, Comfort bags, &c

2,381

Do., do .

. gallons 10

Lime Juice .

. bottles

Butter .

. lbs 498

i Lint .

. bbls

Canned Fruits .

. cans 135

Muriatic Acid .

. lbs

Do Moats

“ 102

Needles .

. papers

6,307

Cherry Brandy .

. bottles 174

! Old linen .

. bbls

a m nRPn ft

“ 12

Pipes .

. boxes

Cocoa .

. lbs 31

Pins .

. papers

7,113

Chocolate .

993

Reading Matter.. .

Coffee .

i Straw for Bedding.

. lbs

300

Corn Starch .

. “ 1,926

| Shoestrings . .

Con. Milk .

. “ 13,169

Stationery —

oon. miiK .

Crackers and Cakes....

. bbls

313$

Envelopes .

. 396,305

Farina .

. lbs

4,057

Ink .

..bottles 4,855

Ginger, Jamaica .

..bottles

3,976

Writing Paper...

... reams 906$

Gherkins . .

. .jars

159

Pens .

. gross 6484

Jellies and Preserves..

“

2,151

Pencils .

. 15,558

Lemons .

591

Penholders .

. 24,370

Lemonade, Con .

. cans

Thread, white and black... lbs 664

Maizena .

. lbs

2,009

1 Yeast Powder .

. cans 5

The estimated value of supplies issued from the Washington depot
from May 24 to July 1 was $237,811.94.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

No. 03.

CIRCULAR

addressed to the

BRANCHES AND AID SOCIETIES

TBIBUTAEY TO THE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

JULY 4, 1865.

WASHINGTON, D. 0. :

PRINTED BY McGILL & WITIIEROW.

1865.

Central Office,

Washington, D. C., July 4, 1865.

To the Branches and Aid Societies tributary to the
Sanitary Commission:

In a circular (Ho. 90) issued from this office May 15, last,
you were called on to continue your labors in collecting and
providing supplies up to the present date. For the alacrity
you have shown in complying with this request, under circum¬
stances so unfavorable to zeal, we tender you special thanks.
Your continued support has enabled us to extend a generous
assistance to our armies gathered at Washington and Louis¬
ville, and elsewhere, before being finally mustered out of
service. When you have forwarded to our Receiving Depots
such supplies as you may now have in hand, we hope to find
our storehouses sufficiently recruited to meet all remaining
wants of the service. In the Eastern Department our work
of supply is substantially done, with the exception of a limit¬
ed service still required in the Department of Washington.

In the Western Department it may continue, on a very
diminished scale, a couple of months longer. In Texas and
the Department of the Gulf the supply service may possibly
last all summer. But, by economy of our stores in hand,
we feel authorized to say that after collecting what is al¬
ready in existence we shall be able to meet all just demands
made upon us. We, therefore, in accordance with our
promise, notify our Branches that their labors in collecting

supplies for us may finally cease with this date. We shall
make no further requisitions upon them, except in regard
to supplies already in their hands.

We hope our Branches will use all diligence in forward¬
ing to our Receiving Depots, through the accustomed chan¬
nels, whatever stores may reach them from their Aid Socie¬
ties, or any they have in hand.

All balances in cash left in the Branch treasuries, after
settling up their local affairs, will he forwarded to Geo. T.
Strong, Esq., Treasurer of the U. S. Sanitary Commission.

So far as any of our Branches are engaged in other por¬
tions of our work than in collecting and forwarding supplies,
their labors will continue so long as those of the Commis¬
sion itself last. But the supply work is over, and the char¬
acteristic labors of the women of the land, in furnishing
hospital clothing and comforts for sick and wounded soldiers,
are completed. Henceforward, during the few months of
existence still allotted to the Sanitary Commission to com¬
plete its work of collecting the pensions and back pay of the
soldiers, in which it already has one hundred and twenty-
seven offices established, to make up its scientific record and
close up its widely-extended affairs, there will be no proba¬
ble necessity for addressing the women of the country, and
this circular may be our last opportunity, until the final
Report of the Commission is made, of expressing the grati¬
tude of the Board for their patient, humane, and laborious
devotion to our common work.

For more than four years the U. S. Sanitary Commission
has depended on its Branches, mainly directed and controlled
by women, for keeping alive the interest in its work in all
the villages and homes of the country ; for establishing and
banding together the Soldiers’ Aid Societies which in thous¬
ands have sprung up and united their strength in our service.

By correspondence and by actual visitation, as well as by a
system of canvassing, you, at the centres of influence, have
maintained your hold upon the homes of the land, and kept
your storehouses and ours full of their contributions.

By what systematic and business-like devotion of your time
and talents you have been able to accomplish this we have
been studious and admiring observers. Your volunteer work
has had all the regularity of paid labor. In a sense of re¬
sponsibility, m system, in patient persistency, in attention to
wearisome details, in a victory over the fickleness which
commonly besets the work of volunteers, you have rivalled
the discipline, the patience, and the courage, of soldiers in
the' field— soldiers enlisted for the war. Yot seldom, indeed,
your labors, continued through frosts and heats, and without
intermission, for years, have broken down your health. But
your ranks have always been kept full— and full, too, of the
best, most capable, and noble women in the country. Yor
do we suppose that you, who have controlled and inspired
our Branches, and with whom it has been our happiness to
be brought into personal contact, are, because acting in a
larger sphere, more worthy of our thanks and respect than
the women who have maintained our village Soldiers’ Aid
Societies. Indeed, the ever-cheering burden of your com¬
munications to us has been the praise and love inspired in
you by the devoted patriotism, the self-sacrificing zeal, of the
Aid Societies, and of their individual contributors. Through
you we have heard the same glowing and tear-moving tales
of the sacrifices made by humble homes and hands in behalf
of our work, which we so often hear from their comrades, of
privates in the field, who, throughout the war, have often won
the laurels their officers have worn, and have been animated
by motives of pure patriotism, unmixed with hope of pro-

motion, or desire for recognition or praise, to give their blood
and their lives for the country of their hearts.

To you, and through you to the Soldiers’ Aid Societies,
and through them to each and every contributor to our sup¬
plies — to every woman who has sewed a seam or knitted a
stocking in the service of the Sanitary Commission— we now
return our most sincere and hearty thanks — thanks which
are not ours only, but those of the Camps, the Hospitals, the
Transports, the Prisons, the Pickets, and the Lines ; where
your love and labor have sent comfort, protection, relief, and
sometimes life itself. It is not too much to say, that the
Army of women at home has fully matched in patriotism and
in sacrifices the Army of men in the field. The mothers, sis¬
ters, wives and daughters of America have been worthy of
the sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers who were fighting
their battles. After having contributed their living treasures
to the war, what wonder they sent so freely after them all
else that they had ! And this precious sympathy between
the fire-sides and the camp-fires — between the bayonet and
the needle, the tanned check and the pale face — has kept the
Nation one ; has carried the Homes into the Ranks, and kept
the Ranks in the Homes, until a sentiment of oneness, of
irresistible unanimity — in which domestic and social, civil
and religious, political and military, elements entered, quali¬
fying, strengthening, enriching, and sanctifying all — has at
last conquered all obstacles, and given us an overwhelming,
a profound, and a permanent victory.

It has been our precious privilege to be your almoners; to
manage and distribute the stores you have created and given
us for the soldiers and sailors. We have tried to do our
duty impartially, diligently, wisely. For the means of car¬
rying on this vast work which has grown up in our hands,
keeping pace with the growing immensity of the war, and

which we are now about to lay down, after giving the Ameri¬
can public an account of our stewardship, we are chiefly
indebted to the money created by the Fairs, which the
American women inaugurated and conducted, and to the
supplies collected by you under our organization. To you,
then, is finally due the largest part of whatever gratitude
belongs to the Sanitary Commission. It is as it should be.
The soldier will return to his home to thank his own wife,
mother, sister, daughter, for so tenderly looking after him in
camp and field, in hospital and prison; and thus it will he
seen, that it is the homes of the country which have wrought
out this great salvation, and that the men and the women of
America have an equal part in its glory and its joy.

Invoking the blessing of God upon you all, we are grate¬
fully and proudly your fellow-laborers.

H. W. BELLOWS, Trident.

A. D. BACHE.

F. L. OLMSTED.

GEORGE T. STRONG.

ELISHA HARRIS.

W. II. VAN BUREN.

WOLCOTT GIBBS.

S. G. HOWE.

C. R. AGNEW.

J. S. NEWBERRY

Rt. Rev. T. M. CLARK.

Hon. R W. BURNETT.

Hon. MARK SKINNER.

Hon JOSEPH HOLT.

HORACE BINNEY.

J. HUNTINGTON WOLCOTT.

Rev. J. H. IIEYWOOD.

CHARLES J. STILLE.

EZRA B. McCAGG.

JNO. S. BLATCHFORD, General Secretary.

^ Commission,

CENTRAL OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., July 15, i865.
importanftocTl? thVSrnMt attoSn U is deemcd

ers who have so faithfully con Hb Z V tho“ «>^ork-
the Commission during the past fom-, 10 d8efulness of
Is Army and Navy Claimiffen.v" 7 *?> -to tho work of
by agencies established throughout ’the' lT b? «g p''oseoufed
gratuitous adjustment and coflect on of Stut0S’. for the
Government, for soldiers, sailors and I*' a-£>ainst ‘be
IS most earnestly desired th f di • , eir dependents. It

brought to the knowledge of \nA fhi g"ra.ted niaJ be
ing Us benefits afforded to ever,,, 11 °PP0,;tu'i'U of enjoy-
throughout the Union. To > thc^P™ T and 8oI,ber’s family

the Commission appeala with S, Sf” a“d Aid Societio8
lively interest in thiTefthrt i Z ofTr^ ?list their
already established by tho Col • * • Local Agencies
A.d Society should select 'tho™, amc8° of8t,nPPO,,<1<!d- Eaeh
accessible to the field of labor and ah 1 f 1 ?-be a?ents mosfc
it practicable, every claimant’ rn , ]oa d direct in person,
cannot be accomplished, the claimant-? ,Where thi8

address, and the name rank com - amoand post-office
vice of the soldier, with the date Jf 1 7’ ,reSlmenr. a"d ser-
should betaken, and a letter wri?«.n i-dlM ,arge op death»

who will return the proper blanks* wbi V"00-*0 tl)e aSent>
execution. P * blanks, with directions for their

interests so familiar to von nil ,1 1 >’ , ofJ,le various local

Let but the united ac^vUv of a l ,Ul<] b<3 free,^.used-
pnse, and in the future it will he r G.fQl,C]sed ,n tln$ enter-
mg effort of the Commission’s carefr'o/be^X'once. 0"0"'11'

JUO. s. blatciiford,

General Secretary.

LIST OF AGBITTS.

MAINE.

CONNECTICUT.

Augusta..... . Joseph. Burton

Bangor . Ruel Smith

Bucksport . J- E. Sherman

Corinna . Freeman Knowles

Levant . T. H. Wiggin

Newburgh . Ariel Kelly

Paris . Wm. A. Pidmn

Portland . W. H. Fessenden

Springfield . A. D. Clarke

NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Concord . Sam’l C. Eastman

Manchester . Cyrus A. Sullaway

Portsmouth . Rev. Sullivan Holman

VERMONT.

Brattleboro . . . Geo. H. Bailey

Burlington . A. J. Howard

Montpelier . B. L. Fuller

Rutland . James E. Porter

Bridgeport . Andrew Grogan

Hartford . Rich’d W. Roberts

New Haven . . .

New London . Chas. M. Wilcox

NEW YORK.

New York City,

Albany .

Buffalo .

Elmira .

Rochester .

Syracuse .

Troy . .

Utica . .

Ogdensburg .

Watertown .

Plattsburg .

Ludlowville....

Lenox .

Hampton .

Spencer .

Poughkeepsie..

. H. Greenfield

. . McClure & Miller

. F. G. Pattison

Mrs. Chas. B. Stuart
...Dr. A. Mandeville

. S. F. Smith

. B. II. Hall

. Geo. C. Carter

....Gardner B. Chapin

. Lucian E. Carter

. Oren C. Gregg

. John Ludlow

. R. II. W. Bruce

. . II. C. Broughton

. C. W. Bradley

. Walter C. Allen

MASSACHUSETTS.

NEW JERSEY.

Boston . Francis S. Dyer

Lowell . N. D. A. Sawyer

New Bedford . Wm. Almy

Neponset . Thos. Temple

Springfield . Lewis A. Tifft

Worcester . Jno. A. Lovell

Greenfield . Geo. W. Bartlett

Pittsfield .

RHODE ISLAND.
Providence . Wm. R. Walker

Trenton . . B. Cooper Allinson

Freehold . . .

Newark . Bavid A. Ryerson

PENNSYLVANIA.

Harrisburg..

Pittsburg....

Erie .

Wilkesbarre.

Carbondale..

Meadeville..

DeWitt & Snodgrass

. B. F. Brown

. A. J. Foster

Hubbard B. Payne

. D. N. Lathrope

. D. C. McCoy

Shippensburg . D. W. Thrush

Amity . . J. D. Huston

DELAWARE.

Wilmington . Levi Clark Bird

MARYLAND.

Baltimore . J. P. Creager

Frederick . Joseph M. Ebberts

WEST VIRGINIA.

Wheeling . James Gilchrist

Grafton . James M. Scrogin

OHIO.

Cleveland . W. H. Gaylord

Dayton . Robert Brundrett

Zanesville . David Hull

Chillicothe . Thad. A. Minshall

Marietta . George M. Woodbridge

Steubenville . W. A. Walden

Toledo . Hartwell Osborn

Mansfield . Vance & Dailey

INDIANA.

Indianapolis . Temple C. Harrison

La Fayette . Taylor & Watson

Evansville . Charles E. Marsh

Richmond . .....Lewis D. Stubbs

Madison . David G. Phillips

La Porte . Wm. Andrew

Terre Haute . Thos.C. Bailey

Fort Wayne . David P. Whedon

ILLINOIS.

Chicago . M. D. Bartlett

Peoria . Chauncey Nye

Quincy . H. A. Castle

Alton . James Newman

Centralia . Samuel P. Tufts

MICHIGAN.

Detroit . Wm. Jennison, Jr.

. C. E. Barstow

Kalamazoo. ...Chas. A. Thompson, Jr.

Jackson..... . G. Thompson Gridley

Grand Rapids . Isaac H. Parrish

MINNESOTA.

St. Paul . Jno. Peller

WISCONSIN.

Milwaukie . Wm. G. Whipple

Madison . Buel E. Hutchinson

Fond-du-Lac . N. C. Giffin

Watertown . Calvin B. Skinner

La Crosse . .Sto^dill & Daniels

IOWA.

Dubuque . E. S. Norris

Davenport . Chas. H. Kent

Burlington . J. P. Brown

Des Moines . Geo. P. Abel

MISSOURI.

St. Louis . Henry M. Post

KENTUCKY.

Louisville . H. H. Burkholder

Bowling Green . E. F. Kinnard

Frankfort . Jno. M. Brown

TENNESSEE.

Knoxville . Chas. Seymour

KANSAS.

Leavenworth . Chas. H. Crane

Lawrence . Eugene L. Akin

LOUISIANA.

New Orleans . C. W. Seaton

McGill & Wimuiow, Printers & Stereotjpers, Washington, D.C.

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

I£TO. 94.

REPORT

CONCERNING THE

anb Comfort gibnt b % Sattif^ Commission

SICK AND INVALID SOLDIERS,

FOR THE QUARTER ENDING JUNE 30, 1865.

- - .

By peedeeick tst.

SUPERINTENDENT OP SPECIAL RELIEF SERVICE.

Central Office, U. S. Sanitary Commission,
Washington, D. C., July l, 1865.

Jno. S. Blatchford, Esq.,

General Secretary:

Sir : I herewith submit to you a report of the Special
Relief Service, during the quarter ending June 30, 1865,
together with statistics connected with this service, not em-
braced in their due order in the previous quarterly ’report of
April 1, but fitly presented now.

During no three months since the Special Relief Service
commenced has its work been larger, more varied, more
thorough in its methods, and more successful in its results,
than during these three months on which I now report.

In some localities, and regarding some branches of labor,
the work has indeed diminished ; but taking it as a whole'
the 44 aid and comfort” rendered to the soldiers through this
agency of the Commission has never before in the same
period of time been as great and manifest as during this
last quarter.

This larger call, or rather opportunity for work, may be
traced to three causes, viz :

1st. The wide-spread information which has recently been
extended through the armies and hospitals concerning the
Sanitary Commission, and its readiness and ability to aid
the soldiers needing help.

2d. The hurried discharging of thousands of men from
General Hospitals, and the rapid disbanding of large armies.

3d. The relaxing of labor on the part of some State Agen¬
cies, and of many -individuals before engaged in rendering
help to the soldiers, who mistakingly thought that the
chief call for aid was past as soon as actual battles were at
an end.

Regarding the first, it may be said, that during this season
a more thorough and systematic method has been adopted
of advertising to the soldiers everywhere, what the Sanitary
Commission can do for them. This has been effected by
means of posters in hospitals and public places, by letters
direct to Surgeons and Chaplains of regiments in the field,
and by distributing among the troops large numbers of the
“ Soldiers’ Friend,” (published by the U. S. Sanitary Com¬
mission,) and of the “ Soldiers’ Journal,” which, beside much
other valuable matter, announce the Commission’s purpose
and work. Of these two publications together, one hundred
and five thousand (105,000) have been placed in the hands
of the soldiers during the last three months.

It has recently been the case that a large proportion of
the sick or disabled men discharged from the Regimental
or General Hospital have been referred directly, and with
painstaking interest, by their surgeons or other officers, to
the Sanitary Commission, for needed help and protection.
This has been the case, not in Washington alone or especially,
but as well, and in some instances even more thoroughly, in
New Orleans, and at places in the West. I refer to this
here for the sake of putting it on record, while I draw your
attention to the fact that there is a large and constantly in¬
creasing co-operation with us in this work of Special Relief
on the part of the Officers in the Army itself.

Concerning the second point named, it can readily be under¬
stood how this hurried discharging of so many men should
by mere multiplication of previous work, in the ratio of the
numbers discharged, increase the calls upon the Special Relief
Service ; but to those not immediately cognizant of the facts,
it cannot be understood how much carelessness, on the part of
surgeons and subordinates in hospitals, who were concerned
in making out the papers, or in providing for the comfort of
those invalid men, was induced or allowed by the semi-dis-
organized state incident to a “breaking-up”— of drawing
towards a close. Few of the rigid rules were enforced;
none of the selfish inducements to thoroughness and faithful¬
ness were offered which exist when continuation of service
promises promotion.

This carelessness, or this indifference, on tire part of others,
left many soldiers in just that state where the Sanitary Com¬
mission, with its Special Relief, could come in and do its
most beneficent work for them; thus making up — (and this
has always been one part of its mission) — making up their
loss to the soldiers, who else would surely suffer from the
ignorance, or the cold-heartedness, or the hurry of various
officers. For so true it is, that while a large majority of the
officers in our army have been watchful of the interests of
their soldiers, there has been another class of officers— in the
aggregate many men— who seem not to have once attained
to the best idea which can inspire a person entrusted, as are
these, with power, viz: the idea that they are not commis¬
sioned merely to drill and lead, but to befriend and protect
their soldiers.

Precisely here it has been, to make up, as I said, for the
deficiency of these men, that the Sanitary Commission, with
its Special Relief, steps in and reaches out its hand. I make
this point here, because, while accounting for a large in¬
crease (under a partially disorganized state of the army) of
our work, it also suggests most forcibly to our thought the
very nature or genius, as viewed from one side, of this
branch of the Commission’s work.

Again, in regard to the effect produced by the rapid dis-

charge and mustering-out of so many thousand men, we
are to note, as bearing directly upon our Special Relief
work, the fact, that for every $100,000 paid out to soldiers
going home, there rise up at least one hundred sharpers,
unseen before, to waylay these men, and to induce them
foolishly to spend their money; and happy for the soldier
if it end in nothing worse. It can well be understood,
then, how the Commission, which is to stand between these
soldiers and their tempters, has found, during the past two
months especially, work enough to do; and I venture to
say, that during no previous two months has the Commis¬
sion received more abundant thanks from the men them¬
selves thus restrained or rescued ; and at no previous period
has it merited greater gratitude from the wives or families
of these returning soldiers who thus were induced or
enabled to carry home with them the money, and often the
self-respect, which for a long term they had been earning
with toil. It is refreshing to feel how large a debt of
gratitude thousands of homes are under to this Commis¬
sion — homes which do not know, and will never once dream,
that they have received. a benefit at our hands. This is so
much like the debt which children owe to parents, (never
measured — scarcely divined,) that I love to dwell upon it, as
peculiarly illustrating what to me is the distinctive and exalt¬
ing characteristic of this Commission — not in its Special Relief
work alone, but in its intrinsic nature, viz : that it is not a
“Commission” made such by the creative wisdom of certain
men, but that it is really and simply the heart and intelligence
of the people themselves, taking this form — and which, if it
had not taken this form, would, of very necessity, have taken
some other form — by a sort of native instinct or controlling
impulse ; that it is doing its work, led on step by step, almost
as unconsciously, and with absence of artificial plan, as is the
father of a home, while he seeks the comfort and good of his
children.

I must be pardoned here this digression, for the reason that
this thought is bound in with my special work, and never
so much as of late, when we are thus really blessing by

hundreds homes that have never heard the name of the San¬
itary Commission. Not in a spirit of ostentation is this record
made, but simply with sincere gratitude, and with that sense of
possession, or of treasure held unseen, which attends an act
by which we confer on others real blessings, all unknown
by, and never to be told to those befriended. In this sense,
of an unseen possession, is the blessing returned to the count¬
less laborers, who, with unwearying zeal and unrecognized
devotion, have for four years — this country through — upheld
the hands of the workers nearer the hospital and field.

This may not be — this, indeed, is not the place or time to
do it; but surely all these thoughts which grow up out of
our work in the Commission, and which encourage and
cheer us in whatever weariness we have in our toil, ought
to be gathered up and put in sheaves ; they are part of the
harvest, and will prove bread for giving strength to other
men and women who, perchance, in coming years and in
other nations, may, through our example, seek to bring the
love and care of the homes of the soldiers near even to the
soldiers in the field.

But to return. I will specify yet one more of the occa¬
sions for enlarged activity brought to us with this prepara¬
tion for closing the war. Seizing eagerly upon the oppor¬
tunity offered all inmates of hospitals who are able to travel
to be discharged, a large number of sick men, or those
partially disabled from wounds, start for their homes upon
the cars. Their feeble condition exposes them to suffering
and serious evils, which, in their anxiety to reach their
friends, they cannot anticipate. Here the Commission,
through its Special Relief Service, has had offered to it,
during these same three months last past, a far larger field
than in this regard was ever given it before.

Such are some of the facts which will suggest the measure
of the calls made upon us of late; the several reports which
will be appended will show to you how we have met these
calls. But before passing to details of our work, it is but
right for me to indicate to you, in connection with what I
have said of this recent increase of labor, what seems to me

the probable future of our Special Relief work, and thus
auswer the question which is being asked, viz : “ hen
can we probably close this part of our service ?

For one month our work will not very perceptibly dimin¬
ish, except in the number of inmates of some of our Lodges
and Homes— those which are located at points from which
the army is nearly withdrawn ; after that it will diminish
rapidly, being at the end of two months reduced probably
one half or two thirds its amount, and so on in its descend¬
ing series, though I cannot see how this branch of the
Commission’s work can entirely cease for some time longer.
Even after the great mass of the soldiers (except the regulai
and retained army) shall have gone to their homes, there
will be of those left behind on detached service, or by
disease or wounds which prevented earlier transfer, very
many waifs and wanderers and men needing help ; and at
that time, peculiarly, will it be the case, even more than
now, that if the Sanitary Commission does not care for
these men no one will.

With greatly reduced force, of course, and with a con¬
stant aim at meeting the fitting demand that the Commission
close its work at the earliest day possible, should such aid
he continued. And under that lead and guidance I think
there will be no danger of its prolonging its work— unduly
stimulated by the love of doing good— beyond the point
where humanity and sound judgment should direct.

I will now submit to you in detail reports touching the
points to which I have called your attention in my general
review.

Beginning with Washington, I shall present you first Mr.
Abbott’s report of the work done at the Special Relief
Office, H street, including with it the Superintendent’s report
of Lodge 4, at which place Mr. Abbott’s office is located.

The report of the work there, both in itself and in its
relation to previous reports, will be a fair index of the cha¬
racter and relative amount of service rendered at our several
most important offices during the last quarter.

I submit Mr. Abbott’s report entire, as it is compact in

form, and makes record of certain facts, (concerning the
general aims of our service,) which, if not thus presented
by him, would elsewhere have claimed attention :

U. S. Sanitary Commission,

(i Special Relief ” Office, 389 H Street,
Washington, D. C., July 1, 1865.

Sir: I herewith submit the report of the work of this
office and of “ Lodge No. 4/’ for the quarter ending June
30, 1865. S

The work of rendering relief to soldiers and seamen, in
adjusting their accounts and claims against the Government,
has largely increased since my last quarterly report; while
the work of assisting men who are in General Hospitals in
securing their back pay, an agency which during the previous
six months had been so large, and productive of so much good,
has been almost entirely suspended, consequent upon the
orders for discharging all men in General Hospitals.* Appli¬
cations for pensions have increased. The number of persons
seeking advice, information, and aid in various ways, has also
been much larger than during the previous quarter. The
number has also been unusually large of destitute soldiers and
seamen, and the relatives of soldiers and seamen, who, com-

* “Agency for getting Back Pay for Soldiers in General Hospitals."— It was
found that very many soldiers in hospitals had various amounts of back pay
due them, which their families sorely needed, but which was so tied up, that
it could not be collected without an amount of investigation and labor which
the Paymasters had no right to bestow upon individuals. Some of it had
been due six or eight months, and the men had been mustered and paid for
intermediate months, leaving this which was due in the position of an old
debt.

Agents of the Commission, authorized and cordially aided by Col. Brooke,
Chief Clerk in the Paymaster General’s Department, entered upon the work
of obtaining the necessary information in each case, so as to enable the Chief
Clerk to furnish to the man a certificate of the pay due to him, upon which
to draw his money.

This work, which commenced as an experiment in Stanton Hospital, at the
suggestion of Rev. William Henry Channing, Chaplain of this hospital and
Chaplain of the House of Representatives in Congress — whose ever-hopeful
and forelooking patriotism and devotion to the soldier have given him a large
influence in the great movements of the last four years — gradually extended
until it embraced nearly all our General Hospitals, and rendered this much-
needed aid to some thousands of men. The record book of this O'fice gives
the names of three thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven (3,737) soldiers
of this class whose papers were filed by the Commission, and whose pay was
thus secured. — K.

ing to attend sick friends in hospital, and exhausting their
means, were left helpless; without aid these persons could
not have reached their homes. For the amount of money
thus expended, I would refer you to my cash account; as
also to my Office Journal, for a record of the circumstances
under which this aid was given, a careful examination having
been made in each case. I have been able to concentrate
my work considerably on account of the suspension of one
branch of it before referred to. This enabled me to dispense
with the services of several clerks, and reduce the expenses
of the Office, although the aggregate amount of work accom¬
plished is in excess even of any previous quarter.

The work of the Office, as it is now divided, constitutes five
distinct branches. These general divisions do not embrace
the special work of attending to the comfort and bodily
wants of the needy soldier or seamau, who come to us, or
are brought here, or whom we find elsewhere, — warning,
protecting, and caring for them in various ways, helping
them out of difficulties, giving them advice, writing letters for
them, looking up their friends, visiting the sick and wounded,
looking up effects of deceased soldiers and forwarding them,
securing admissions to schools and asylums for soldiers’
orphans, and much other aid that I have not time or space
to mention here. Omitting these forms of service, the five
general branches of labor referred to are as follows :

The First includes the adjustment of the pay account of
weak and disabled soldiers, too feeble to attend to it them¬
selves, as also the accounts that are inaccurate and compli¬
cated of all men discharged on account of disability. All
soldiers coming for payment to Colonel Taylor, Paymaster of
discharged soldiers, are at once referred by him to our Office,
if defects are found to exist in any of the papers presented.

The Second includes claims for bounty, either for wounds
or service.

The Third includes the adjustment of the accounts of men
who still remain in the service.

The Fourth embraces claims for pensions and for arrears

of pay, and for bounty, and such cases as require a formal
claim with a power of Attorney.

The Fifth concerns itself with Officers’ accounts, pay and
prize money of seamen, commutation of rations, and claims
against the Quartermaster General’s Department.

Our arrangements and facilities for transacting business
at the various Government Departments are all we could ask,
except at one or two, where, on account of the limited num¬
ber of clerks employed to do the work, our papers are some¬
times delayed. But our relations with the various military
and civil officers with whom we have business to transact is
most gratifying.

The operations of the Lodge connected with this Office
ave been unusually large. The average number of meals
furnished per day during the last month of the quarter was

The Superintendent and all the employees of the Lodge
have worked hard, and deserve commendation for the man¬
ner in which theyihave performed their duty.

Ihe following is an exhibit of the pay accounts and
claims received and acted upon during this quarter :

Number of imperfect pay accounts of discharged soldiers taken in hand. 484

Number of cases definitely settled .

Number of cases returned. . 4g

Number of cases in process of adjustment . 238

Number of bounty cases received..

Number of cases settled .

Number of cases returned .

Number of cases partly completed

475

318

314

Number of accounts of such men as are still in the service,

Number of cases satisfactorily adjusted .

Number of cases on hand .

Number of cases returned .

119

139

103

129

Number of pension claims filed . 859

Number of cases thus far allowed . . . 542

Number of new claims for arrears of pay and bounty filed . 40

Number of cases allowed . . . 57

Number of claims for pension arrears of pay and bounty settled . 52

Number of cases on hand . . . . 1^5 9

Number of officers’ accounts received

Number settled.. .

Number on hand .

Number of cases returned .

Number of Naval claims filed

Number settled .

Number on hand .

149

Number of ration-money claims received

Number of cases allowed .

Number of cases on hand . . .

Number of claims on Quartermaster’s Department received

Number of cases adjusted .

Number of cases on hand .

Whole number of cases and claims received and recorded during the

quarter . *

Whole number completed .

Number returned .

Number of cases on hand, in process of investigation or completion .

2,258

1,580

256

2,406

Amount secured for tlie soldiers and sailors on the cases
completed, (exclusive of pension claims allowed, and a large
number of claims for ration-money adjusted, but not
recorded,) $167,394 67.

Add to this amount wThat was paid on the cases excluded,
and it would increase to two hundred and thirty thousand
dollars, ($230,000.)

Number of letters received at this Office during this quarter . 5,933

Number of letters written and copied . 3,016

Number of business letters mailed . 6,270

Number of affidavits made out and executed

516

Number of meals given at Lodge No. 4 . . . 43,386

Number of nights’ lodgings furnished . 10,097

* * * * * * *

* * * * Our labors for this quarter have been exceed¬

ingly onerous. The work that we accomplished was a
blessed one; so great was the pressure that we were obliged
to work both night and day. Those whom we assisted
appreciated the aid and the relief rendered them. I never

labored with greater satisfaction. My assistants all entered
into the work with the right zeal, and a determination to
relieve and protect all of our soldiers and seamen whom
they could find needy. Some days our large Office was
crowded. They would come hobbling in on crutches, or
leaning upon the shoulders of comrades, get their wants
supplied, their business adjusted, and leave, blessing the
Commission for what it has done and is doing for the soldiers.
At the Lodge they received a good wholesome meal, and
then were conveyed by our ambulance and wagons to the
railroad station, where they were met by the couriers of the
Commission, and furnished all needed care and assistance
to their homes and friends.

Trusting that our works will meet with your approval, I
remain, very truly, your obedient servant,

J. B. ABBOTT,

Chief Assistant Special Belief Service.

Such is Mr. Abbott’s report of most painstaking and suc¬
cessful labor. He might fitly have mentioned, that during
this quarter there had come to him for aid a number of men,
bearing with them marks of disgrace in the words “ deserter,”
or “absent without leave,” written in red upon the face of their
discharge papers, while upon their hearts, and on their real
record, as it afterward proved in most of the cases, the word
written was — honest and faithful soldier. Perhaps there is no
one form of service rendered at our offices of Special Relief
which is really worth more to the one aided than this, by
which such men are again honorably restored to the rolls ;
for with that red mark upon their papers, they go home
deprived of all pay and allowances, with a lasting stain upon
them. In some instances we find that the word “deserter” is
rightly written, in which case we again, under the stamp of
the Sanitary Commission, (recording the fact that we have
examined his record,) repeat the word “deserter,” writing
it in still larger hand. But in a majority of instances, our
examinations reveal the fact, (and furnish to the Adjutant
General’s office testimony to prove it,) that the accused man

was thus branded simply through the carelessness or ignor¬
ance of his officers, who had not the time or the will to
follow up the record of the man and learn the truth.

The process by which this work is accomplished is often
long and tedious, certified evidence being demanded
which shall account satisfactorily for the man during
the entire period covered by the charge, not a day omitted.
It involves correspondence often with distant parts of the
country, and with surgeons of hospitals, and officers in all
sections of the army. All necessary inquiries by the Com¬
mission, let it here be recorded, are almost without excep¬
tion answered by those addressed with promptness, and
evidence of a readiness to co-operate with us in the work.
And at the Adjutant General’s Office there is always a cor¬
dial willingness, upon proper testimony, at once to restore
to the rolls, in its place of honor, the men whose record we
have made clear. It is now fully recognized, I think, by the
War Department, that the Sanitary Commission does not
desire to act as the prejudiced or tender-hearted advocate of
any soldier who, even by his own cowardice or disobedience,
has brought upon himself censure and disgrace, but that it
is simply by straightforward and thorough business methods
seeking to do the work of humanity and justice.

I dwell somewhat upon this single branch of our work
because the faces of some of those men, thus lifted out of
despair, and lighted with joy and gratitude, are so full
before me, as they thank us for honor restored — thank us
in behalf of themselves, of their wives, and their children.
One of these men, thus aided by us, said to me: “You
cannot understand, — and I hardly want that you should
understand, — just what your Office has done for me ! I will
only tell you this — that I am going to start to-night for
my home in Wisconsin to see my wife and children,
whom I have not seen for two years, and whom I had deter¬
mined I never would see if I had to carry back that stamp
of a 4 deserter’ upon me.”

To illustrate by a single instance the labor sometimes at¬
tending these cases, and the patience with which the work

is pursued, I will state that but just now, as it happened,
the final evidence was obtained for a man of Co. B 10th
Michigan Vols., whose papers were taken in hand more
than two years ago, (February 9, 1863.) His case, with
whatever testimony could be obtained, had been three
several times presented at the Adjutant General’s Office, and
three times rejected for lack of satisfactory testimony to
clear the charge of desertion. At length, however, by per¬
severance, the needed evidence was obtained, and the charge
was removed, pay collected, and a draft for two hundred
and forty-seven dollars has just been sent to the man at his
home at Clear Lake, Michigan.

The person who has charge of all these cases marked
“Deserter,” or “Absent without Leave,” at one of our
Offices, (Washington,) furnishes me the following memo-
randum :

Number of cases taken during the three months . 45

Number of cases on hand, (old list) . 12

Number of cases adjusted, (honorably restored) . 35

Number of men proved real deserters . . . jq

Number of cases now under process of completion, (with every possible

chance of clearing the charges against them) . 12

In no place, perhaps, more fitly than in this connection,
can I refer to one most important service of the Com¬
mission, through its Special Relief Agency, which is scarcely
recognized, but which is by no means among its smallest
benefits. By securing justice to hundreds of soldiers who
previously felt that they were wronged, and by giving rest
and food, and comfort, and their money, in a way not other¬
wise provided for, to thousands who were sick and weary,
and complaining of the neglect of the government — -by these
means has the Sanitary Commission sent to their homes
many thousands of men, silent and satisfied, who would
otherwise have been in their several communities fomenters
of ill-will against those in power. The man who knows
that he has been for four years fighting, without fear or
flinching, for his country, feels doubly wronged at anything

like indifference or neglect shown toward him by his govern-
ment.

I assume that this very service of explaining mistaken
views, correcting bitter prejudice, and healing wounded
feelings on the part of the soldiers, though it is an office
scarcely noted, never recorded, is one of the most valuable
results of the work of the Sanitary Commission.

Iu order to secure these ends, and to claim a right thus
to be the adviser of these soldiers, it has always been care¬
fully impressed upon every man as he enters the Special
Relief Service, that no matter how hurried he may be, or
how unreasonable may seem the spirit of the soldieis who
seek assistance or complain of wrongs, he is himself always
to give to each soldier a patient hearing and kindly explana¬
tion, thus gaining for the opinion or advice of the agent of
the Commission that influence which belongs to counsel
which is bound in with evidences of friendly, personal re¬
gard. And let me say, in passing, probably no class of men
on earth are more impressed and affected by evidences of
real kindness and personal interest, as of kindred or of
friend, than are these same weather-stained, war-worn,
hard-handed soldiers. It is readily seen, then, how, through
this Agency, which is so far connected with Government as
to be more or less associated with it in the mind of the sol¬
dier, that most valuable and kindly service above referred
to, as of explainer and conciliator, is rendered.

Another point to be noticed is this — the increased oppor¬
tunity to be the helpers of the Colored Soldiers, who peculiarly
need, in their ignorance, both the aid and the patient hearing
which I believe it has been the aim of all agents of the Com¬
mission to give to these men, for I think that we have not
one individual in the Special Relief Service who does not
see behind that dark wall of defence the light of a stern
and glowing patriotism, — not one who does not believe that
under a black skin there may be hidden a pure, white soul.
During the past three months the number of colored
soldiers who have come under our care has been large, and

we are daily extending benefit to them. An agent from the
Special Relief Office of Lodge 4 is now at work at Beaufort,
S. C., securing to the colored troops at that place their dues’
of which they were being defrauded by claim agents. He
was sent at the suggestion of Col. T. W. Higginsou, of Mass,
formerly of the 62d Mass. Volunteer colored troops, to pros¬
ecute this work. He goes from Beaufort to Charleston, and
thence further south.

Next in order is the report of the Superintendent of The
Home, which is herewith submitted :

F. N. Knapp, Esq.,

Superintendent of Special Relief.

Sir : The following is my report of the work at “ The
Home” for the quarter ending June 30, 1865.

MALE DEPARTMENT.

Whole number admitted .

Whole number of meals furnished .

Whole number of lodgings furnished .

Admitted on account of discharge for disability .

Admitted on account of sick furlough .

Admitted under orders (sick) .

Amount of money received on deposit from soldiers

The men reported as “under orders” are nearly all men that
are being transferred to hospitals at the North, or have been
ordered from hospitals here to the several States to be
mustered out of the service.

Of the men reported on furlough, a large proportion are
men that have been given a furlough in order that they
might go to their homes and await the necessary papers to
be mustered out.

I think I am right in saying that at no time since The
Home was established has there been as much real good
accomplished in the same length of time as during the past
quarter, for nearly all the men we have had under our care

.. 3,677
.. 25 939
.. 10,987

.. 1,399
704
.. 1,174

$31,597

during these three months have been those that required a
very large amount of assistance.

The number of inmates at The Home lias been gradually
diminishing for the last few weeks, and I think it probable
that the number will now rapidly diminish until the close.

“ HOME HOSPITAL.”

The following is a statement of the work done in the hos¬
pital connected with The Home :

Whole number admitted to the Hospital . . 1,384

Number of sick prescribed for and treated . 522

Number of wounds dressed . . . 862

Number sent to the general hospitals . 145

Number of deaths . ! . 5

I extract the following from the report of Dr. M. D. Bene¬
dict, who has been Surgeon in Charge during the past few
months :

* * * * “ Sick and wounded soldiers discharged from

Hospitals find here rest, nursing, and medical treatment while
waiting for transportation, or for the settlement of their ac¬
counts, and much suffering is alleviated and prevented by
these means. The necessity for such attentions will con¬
tinue to exist until all the soldiers, sick and wrounded,
remaining in the hospitals of the District, are discharged or
transferred to other hospitals.

“Of the good order and management of this institution
it is unnecessary that I should speak. I cannot see how it
could be improved in these respects, and I trust its beneficent
work will continue until the necessities which called it into
existence shall have been fully met and answered.”

COURIERS.

On the 15th of May I was put in charge of the relief
couriers running on railroads, with instructions to “ increase
the present number to as many as may be required to meet
the urgency of the case.”

In accordance with these instructions, I immediately

employed several new men for this service and w „•
then had an efficient corps at the work S'nCe

By this arrangement a courier leaves Washington every
evening for New York on the 6 p. m. train: on! for Hal
ns urg every day at 4J p. m.; and one for Wheeling Va
every Monday and Thursday, at 7J p. m g’ V ’

The work accomplished by the couriers has been of the
utmost importance to the sick and wounded soldiers and it
^impossible to state in a report the real good that has been

. Bt?'°W 1 ?ive the uu,mber of me“ that have been assisted
by the couriers since the 15th of May, over the several rail-

To New York, or beyond .
Wheeling, or beyond...
Harrisburg, or beyond

3,467

579

694

Total

Add to this the number (1,325) assisted by" the couriers from
to May 15th, and we have a total of . .

April 1st

4,740

6,065

FEMALE DEPARTMENT.

(Home for Wives and Mothers of sick soldiers.)

Whole number admitted .

Whole number meals furnished . . 4 roo

Whole number lodgings furnished . . 0’

. . . . . . . Zjool

.Nearly all that have been admitted to this branch of The
-Lome were mothers or wives who came here for the purpose
of nursing their friends in the hospitals of the city.

The number for the last few weeks has been much less
than at any previous time, on account of the expectation
that all the men in hospitals will now be discharged, and soon
be at their homes.

DETECTIVE.

In connection with The Home, there was appointed, on the
15th of May, a Special Detective and Agent of the Commis-

sion, to be stationed at the B. and 0. R. R- depot, to look
after the soldiers in and around that place.

We were fortunate in securing a man thoroughly acquain¬
ted with his work; the aid he has rendered to the soldiers is
of great value ; hundreds have been promptly started on their
way home who would otherwise have loitered in the city,
and without doubt have lost their mouey and papers, if not
their lives.

For the detail of all the work above indicated, I refer to
the Journal of the Home, and to the reports which accompany
this.

I am, very respectfully,

J. B. CLAIIK, Sup’t.

Concerning the “ Home,” in addition to Mr. Clark s report,
it may he mentioned that the “Home for Wives and Mothers
of Soldiers” has been, until recently, constantly full and
over-crowded, although in ordinary cases no one remains
there for any length of time unless she brings a certificate
from the surgeon in charge of the hospital where her son,
brother, or husband may be, stating that said woman’s con-
tinuance there is desired, and will be a benefit to the relative
who is sick. It has been a service attended with peculiar sat¬
isfaction, this which has been rendered to soldiers’ wives and
mothers ; for it is not limited to food, and shelter, and home
kindness only, but it is extended to the work of aiding these
to find and then minister to the sick or missing whom they
seek. Probably no page of our record more than this from
the “ Home for Wives and Mothers of Soldiers,”— were it
right to give it in its minuter details, — would appeal to our
sympathies, or tell of the sacrifices called for by this war,
sacrifices so sadly but willingly borne. And what is true of
the record of this one Home in Washington, is true also of
the many similar agencies of the Commission at the South
and West, where those seeking, with woman’s love, sick or
lost son or husband, are tenderly protected and cared for.

The “ Sanitary Commission Relief Couriers,” referred to
by Mr. Clark, are at the railroad stations before the cars

kave, to help any soldiers who are feeble in obtaining their
t.ckets, (if not provided beforehand,) and in securing com-
fortable seats or position m the cars. Daring the night they
attend to all the wants of the invalid soldiers who may be in
their respective trains, -not a few of whom are borne on
stretchers. At each one of the termini of these routes waits
another agent of the Commission, with ambulance and aid to
take the soldiers to the next station, or to the Lodge, as the
case may admit. A most valuable service have these men
rendered to hundreds of soldiers too feeble entirely to go on
alone. For, as has always been the case, the soldier’s own
estimate of his strength as he looked homeward, or even
the surgeon’s opinion yielding to importunity, allowed very
many men to leave the government hospital only to remain
for a longer or shorter term at some Home or Lodge of the
Commission, or to be thus supported by the way. The
records for this quarter at Cairo, Louisville, Nashville, Cin¬
cinnati, Cleveland, and elsewhere, as well as at the East,
repeat this fact, and tell also with gladness how strong and
warm a hand they have severally, in the name of the fathers
and mothers themselves, reached out tp these fainting men.

In order to meet the emergency, and to induce at several
points along the railroads throughout the country provisions
additional to that secured by our Couriers, and at points
where the Commission had no Lodges established, a circular
was issued by the Special Relief Department of the Commis-
sion, of which the following is a copy :

U. S. Sanitary Commission, Central Office,

Tq Washington, D. C., May 20, 1865.

During the next few weeks a very large number of convalescent and par¬
tially disabled men will be discharged from the General Hospitals and sent to
their homes. Many of these men will be in a condition ill suited to bear the
fatigue and privations incident to a long journey ; they will be men who under
ordinary circumstances would not be allowed to leave the Hospitals. Bui;
under the privilege now fitly granted to hospital inmates, permitting all who
desire it to be discharged, these men, in theit impatient eagerness, will try to
the utmost what little strength they possess.

Under these circumstances there will be a peculiar call for watchfulness and
efficiency on the part of all Agents of the Sanitary Commission, and of

Relief Organizations, who have taken in hand the duty of meeting discharged
men at the various railroad stations on their journey homeward.

Therefore, let additional Agents be in readiness, so that every train, regular
and irregular, may be met, and not a disabled soldier reach or pass your
station who is not promptly greeted by an offer of whatever refreshment or
help he may need. Let your supplies be abundant, and your watchfulness
wakeful.

In addition, and as supplementary to the regular “ Sanitary Commission
Relief Couriers,” who go over the several railroads upon the evening express
trains daily from Washington, you should have at your place men in readiness,
with proper material at hand, to accompany at shortest notice any soldier who
may be found in the cars exhausted by his journey, and evidently too feeble to
travel further without additional care.

If your station be a point where many soldiers leave the cars to scatter in
various directions for their homes, or where they remain some hours— as is the
case with many central towns and large cities— you will find it eminently wise
to employ, for the time being, men of energy and judgment, who shall be posted
near the railroad station, and whose sole duty it shall be kindly to guard
these soldiers while there from being robbed, defrauded, or led astray. Such
men could likewise see that all these soldiers, who have to go on further, are
informed of the time of leaving of their several trains, and have tickets or
transportation secured, and are seated in the right car. By these means a
very valuable service may be rendered.

It is now nearly our last opportunity to extend this kind of help or protec¬
tion to our returning soldiers, wounded in battle, and we cannot perform the
service too promptly or too generously if we would represent to these soldiers
the gratitude and the love of the people.

Yours, very truly,

FRED. N. KNAPP,
Superintendent of Special Relief Service.

This circular was sent to the communities near all principal
railroad stations; and, as we have assurance, called forth in
many instances timely and liberal care for these returning
men. I refer to, and insert this circular in my report, in
order to give you assurance, by illustration in one point, of
the thoroughness and forethought with which we have
quietly but earnestly endeavored, as an essential province of
our work, to seize upon every occasion for giving relief to
our soldiers. Our principle from the beginning has been just
this — to make this Special Relief Service the exponent, as far
as was possible, of what we hold the Sanitary Commission
itself to be, viz : the presence of the people with their
soldiers while away from home.

Hospital V lsitor and Special Relief Agent. Most of the pa¬
tients admitted there were from Field Hospitals, sick with
tever and chronic diarrhoea ; and much sufl'ering has been
saved, and many needs supplied through Miss Bradley’s
prompt and unwearied ministrations. Beside distribution of
other ordinary sanitary supplies, and having charge chiefly
of the special diet, she has looked after the papers and the
pay of the discharged men at the camp, accompanying them
iu person to the Paymaster’s, or to the Lodge in Washing¬
ton, and continuing other branches of work, as specified in
previous reports.

We should omit one valuable service rendered by Miss
Bradley if we neglected to notice the “ Soldiers’ Journal,”
which she started at Convalescent Camp, and still carries on
at Augur General Hospital. It is a weekly paper, edited
under her supervision, and printed by soldiers. It is devoted
to the interests of enlisted men, contains all important Gen¬
eral Orders of the War Department, and such information as
instructs a soldier both in bis duties and bis rights. This
little paper has had a large circulation in the army, and a
corresponding influence for good. The profits (amounting
now to some two thousand dollars) are to be devoted to a
“Home for Children of Deceased Soldiers.”

At Alexandria the Lodge which for so long a time has fur¬
nished a home to so many soldiers needing aid was destroyed
by fire in J une. The necessity for a Lodge at that post had
nearly ended.

The records of the quarter were as follows :

Number admitted...,
Number of lodgings
Number of meals...,

3,834

2,721

9,836

The Home for Mothers and Wives of Soldiers which was
connected with the Lodge was well ordered and constantly
filled by those seeking for or ministering to the sick in the
hospitals in and around Alexandria.

The Lodge at Maryland avenue has been closed, and the
Lodge at Gth street wharf will be closed on the 15th instant.

At Portsmouth, Va., the Lodge, after a long term of quiet
but efficient work, has recently been closed. I regret that
the quarterly report of Mr. Alcooke, the devoted Superin¬
tendent, has not yet reached me, as I am sure it would
contain evidence of much kindly aid rendered.

So, also, has the work ended at Annapolis, Md. There
the Home for Soldiers’ wives and Mothers for many months
had given a rare measure of comfort to those seeking,
among the returned prisoners especially, their husbands
and sons. Many sad and touching incidents are recorded
in the books of that “ Home.”

At Baltimore, Md., there has been most valuable service
rendered at the Home. As some question has arisen
concerning the necessity of longer continuance of our Spe¬
cial Belief work at the point, I insert here the report of Mr.
J. B. Abbott upon the subject, just handed to me :

“ Special Relief ” Office, 389 II Street,

Washington, D. C., July 1, 1865.

“ Sir : In compliance with your request I have visited
Baltimore and investigated the working of the Soldiers’
Home, its management, and the necessity of continuing it.
*******

It is still accomplishing an important work, and the want of
such an institution is not less now than the day it was
established. The working of the Home is carried on as
economically as a proper provision for the wants of the sick
and wounded soldiers who stop there would admit. I see
no good reason for diminishing the supplies of the Home,
or changing its general management.

“I believe the Superintendent is an honest, prudent, and
good man, and that his heart is in the work he is doing;

and that it would be hard to find a man that would manage
the Home better in all respects than he does.” * * *

“For the last five or six months Mr. Hastings has also taken
charge of the ambulance, running to the railroad stations
and steamboat landings to look after the sick and wounded
arriving, to see that they are properly taken care of.” * *

“I am well satisfied with the operations of the Home and
its management, and of the necessity for continuing it. * *

At Philadelphia a large and well arranged Home or Lodge
was erected a few months since, and, although its doors
were opened st> late in the war, it is performing an admirable
service upon a generous scale. This is a statement based
merely upon my own observation, and upon what I have
heard from persons who have seen its efficient working. Ho
reports from the Lodge in Philadelphia have yet come to this
Office. At Philadelphia there is also quite a large amount of
Special Relief Service performed, not connected with the
Lodge or Rest, but similar to that of our Special Relief Of¬
fice at Washington ; a devoted worker is in charge of it,
and it would add much to the interest and completeness of
this report had its records been transmitted.

At New York City the Special Relief Service performed
by the Sanitary Commission has been embraced with the
general work of the New York Agency, under direction of
the Standing Committee, additional to whatever individual
relief may have been rendered by the “ Woman’s Central
A. R. A.” at the Cooper Institute. The only work there,
immediately under the direction of this Special Relief
Department, has been that performed by our hospital-car
couriers with their ambulance, waiting the arrival of each
Washington train at Jersey City ferry— this is covered by
the records of the Home at Washington, inasmuch as the
car-couriers start from and report there. The “ Lincoln
Home” in New York, which is doing such a beneficent
work for disabled soldiers, unable to provide for themselves,
though not under the immediate supervision of the Depart¬
ment, is intimately connected with the Special Relief

Service of the Commission. The report of its first six
months’ labors is looked for by the Commission and the
public with great interest. It has been trying an experiment
in a new field, with most important results, and its records
will be studied by all persons who may hereafter, in differ¬
ent parts of the country, undertake to establish similar
institutions.

Passing to Hartford, Ct., we find there a Sanitary Lodge
which was started about three months since, and which has
been useful far beyond the expectation even of the earnest
women who were interested in it. The following is its re¬
port, inserted here in full, because it illustrates admirably
the character and work of a number of similar Belief Sta¬
tions, (not here separately noticed, as their reports for the
quarter have not yet been received,) commenced so late in
the day that many persons saw no necessity for opening
them.

REPORT OF HARTFORD SOLDIERS’ REST.

“The ‘Hartford Soldiers’ Kest’ was opened May 1, 1865,
under the auspices of the Sanitary Association, and has proved
most successful in the object for which it was intended — that
of furnishing a temporary home for disabled and invalid
soldiers, and also as an attractive place of resort for the
members of our returning regiments, most of which are de¬
tained here a number of days for pay and settlement.

“ The Superintendent, Mr. Sizer, is a man whose previous
experience and warm-hearted patriotism eminently fit him
for the situation. His unwearied labors for the comfort of
all committed to his care, his energy and thoroughness in
seeking out and investigating cases of want and destitution
among the returning soldiers, following them with his sym¬
pathy and shielding them from imposition and temptation,
indicate a true and heart-felt devotion to his work which
merits our gratitude and respect. Appended are extracts
from his journal which will give you an idea of his duties.

“ The Relief Service at the hospital cars forms an inter¬
esting feature of our work. An average of forty rations
per day, consisting of sandwiches, fruits, pickles, lemonade,
cordials, &c., has been given out since the opening of the
Rest, by Mr. Sizer and his Assistant in person to the soldiers
in the hospital cars, two of which, containing sick and dis¬
abled men, pass through this city en route for Boston daily.
“‘God bless the Sanitary Commission, I’ve seen you
before down at the front ! ’ — is often the response upon the
reception of this refreshment, so grateful to the sick and
weary men.

“ The whole number of soldiers admitted to the Rest
is four hundred and ten. Two thousand and seventy meals
have been given, and six hundred and forty-two lodgings.
Soldiers have also been assisted by transportation, and the
Commission has distributed clothing*to the needy in many
instances.

“ The managers feel satisfied that the money expended
for the support of the Rest would have been well appro¬
priated if only for the moral influence the place exerts as a
refuge for these men who are strangers, thrown upon the
city without the restraints of home or society, and exposed
to such influences as makes it more a matter of surprise
than otherwise that so many escape utter demoralization.

“ SARAH WOODBR1DGE,

“Asst. Sec. Hartford Sanitary Association.”

EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL OF SUPERINTENDENT OF “ THE HART¬
FORD SOLDIERS’ REST.”

*******

44 Our sitting room has been made attractive to soldiers
who are waiting at this post for muster-out and pay ; and
the many who would otherwise resort to saloons and bar¬
rooms have found a pleasant welcome to the social games,

the books, and the daily papers.”

*******

44 For many weeks after the Rest was opened there was
no hospital at 44 Camp Depot,” (the Military Post,) and we

took charge of the poor boys that were sick, furnishing
medical attendance until they recovered and went away re¬
joicing in the Sanitary Commission.”

***** * *

“Many soldiers when paid off come to us with their
money, and say they have no friends, and do not dare to
keep their money about them, and wish it kept for them
until they are ready to go home. We have had over $1,000
at one time in small sums belonging to soldiers.”

*******

“A soldier came in just at dark; he says ‘Count that
package of bills — the package is marked 200, and was paid
to me for $200.’ We open it and can only make $125. We
find he was nearly the last man paid off, so we go with him
to the Paymaster and succeed in making clear the case — an
unintentional mistake— --and the additional $75 is paid to the
soldier.”

*******

“The Claim Agency in connection with the Rest is in
charge of Capt. R. W. Roberts, an earnest worker for the good
of the soldier. He has no limit to office hours, but is always
at his post, aiding early and late those who have claims
to work up or the many who have been defrauded by lawyers
or claim agents, in which case he often gets a return of
money and papers ; or when the soldier has been charged
too much he gets a return of all over what is found to be
right — in this and many other ways he is always doing some¬
thing for the soldiers.”

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

In Boston, Mass., the Special Relief Service is still con¬
ducted with that wise system and thoroughness which were
early stamped upon it, and which has made it an example to
be Copied at many of our Homes and Lodges. The following
extracts are taken from the Quarterly Report by James M.
Barnard, Esq., Ch. Ex. Com. Boston Associates U. S. Sani¬
tary Commission:

“AID RENDERED.

Furnished transportation at Government rates .

Furnished transportation paid by Commission .

Furnished transportation by U. S. Quartermaster

Furnished carriage within the city .

Furnished special attendance to their homes .

Furnished lodging .

Furnished meals . . ****

Furnished clothing . - .

Furnished aid in arranging papers .

Furnished aid in obtaining pay . •••

Furnished medical advice .

Wounds dressed .

Loaned money .

Gave money .

Sent to hospital .

Referred to Local Relief Associations .

Amount of pay collected .

Furnished transportation by hospital cars..., .

Number of Soldiers aided .

Daily average .

3,850

811

6,283

7,051

139

104

443

377

121

$2,099 85
4,314

12,779

140.13-30

“Of the whole number that have received aid at our
Relief Rooms, amounting to 8,465, as distinct from the
‘Hospital Car Service,’ Maine has furnished 2,317; New
Hampshire, 286 ; Vermont, 19 ; Massachusetts, 4,396 ; Con¬
necticut, 45; Rhode Island, 18; New York, 117; New
Jersey, 4 ; Pennsylvania, 22 ; Maryland, 7 ; District of Co¬
lumbia, 15; Delaware 2; Ohio, 12; Michigan, 17 ; Indiana,
3 ; Illinois, 8 ; Iowa, 3 ; Minnesota, 9 ; Wisconsin, 7 ; Ten¬
nessee, 2; California, 10 ; Louisiana, 10; Alabama, 4; Geor¬
gia, 3; Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas,
and rebel army, one each ; U. S. Regulars, 265*, U. S. * avy,
430; Veteran Reserve Corps, 381.

“ Transportation has been furnished by orders issued upon respec-

tive railroads, to . * .

Transportation procured from U. S. Quartermaster . ** **

Transportation by hospital cars between New York and Boston has

been furnished . . . .

Cost of Hospital Car Service. . '*'**

Average cost per man . *

******

3,850

4,314
$408 18
10£ cts.
*

“ The total expenditure for the quarter has been $8,197 19,
classified as follows :

Rent and taxes . $225 00

Furnishing and repairs . 214 58

Salaries . 1,040 01

Traveling expenses . 5 00

Advertising . 78 84

Stationery and printing . 164 01

Hospital stores . 19 95

*Superintendent’s expense account . . 6,025 58

Miscellaneous . ... 16 04

Hospital Car Service . , . 408 18

Money loaned and given . 325 89

Postage . 17 50

Sundries . 160 01

Whole number of men aided . . . 12,779

Whole expenditure . $8,187 19

Average cost per man . . 64.1-7 cts.

Number of soldiers furnished with meals . 7,057

Number of meals furnished . . 15,946

Average No. meals per man . . 21-

Amount paid for meals . $6,077 22

Average cost per meal . 38J cts.

Number of orders issued for transportation at Government rates... 3,850

Aggregate miles of distance . . 279,533

Resulting in a saving to the soldier of . . $2,975 12

Amount of money loaned and given . . . $325 89

Number of recipients . 144

Average amount to each . $2 26

Amount returned . 75 67

Average amount returned . 13 34

Number furnished with clothing . 139

Number of garments furnished . . 317

Average per man . 2.3-13

* * * * * * *

* Classification of Superintendent’s expense account:

Transportation . $193 17

Traveling expenses . 2 00

Meals . 6,077 22

Furniture . 4 05

Fuel . 30 40

Washing . 263 13

Salaries . ' . . . 98 00

I here insert the report of the Special Relief work at
Harrisburg, Penn. :

“Sick Soldiers’ Rest,”

Harrisburg, July 1, 1865.

F. N. Knapp, Gen’l Sup’t Special Relief Service,

U. S. San. Com., Washington, D. C.,

Sir: In pursuance of instructions a statement concerning
our work at the “ Sick Soldiers’ Rest ” in this city is respect¬
fully submitted :

This miniature hospital was opened under the auspices of
the U. S. Sanitary Commission on the 28th of March last,
and has consequently been in operation a little over three
months.

During this period we have received and cared for as best
we could, four hundred and forty-eight- (448) men, fourteen
(14) women, and three (3) children. Two thousand five
hundred and sixty-eight (2,568) meals have been furnished,
and eight hundred and forty-eight (848) lodgings.

' Of these men more than two thirds have had wounds
dressed or medical aid rendered, the remainder requiring
rest, food, and cleansing only. Those who were sick
have been examined and prescribed for by able physicians
in civil practice, whose services I have procured. Dr. Ru¬
therford, Sen., has made about seventy-five (75) visits to
the Rest, and often been consulted at his office. He has
faithfully attended upon all the more serious cases, while
other excellent physicians have rendered important services
gratuitously, both at the Rest and at their respective offices.
6 *******

The diseases with which we had to deal have been diar¬
rhoea, typhoid fever, pneumonia, measles, and consumption.
One other disease, not named by the doctors, has pre¬
vailed to a most alarming extent, and we have prescribed
for at our own responsibility : I call it “ chronic hydro¬
phobia,” but have used no other remedy than soap and
water, yet with entire success. * * *

There have been some very sick men here. There have

been six deaths at the Rest during 25 days, and all from
chronic diarrhoea. * * * Each of these patients was

pronounced past hope of recovery when brought here, and
all were too far gone to he removed to the Post Hospital, a
mile and a half distant. Many more recent cases were
cured, or the patient so far recovered as to he able to go on
to his home.

Our effective force at the Rest has consisted of Superin¬
tendent, Nurse, and Matron. The Superintendent has served
as assistant in all work ; the Steward as nurse and wound-
dresser in one person, and the Matron has served as cook
and general house-keeper.

Since we opened there has been hut one entire night of
quiet repose within our walls, and on that night only have
the Superintendent and Nurse been able to take off’ their
clothes. * * * * * *

The Nurse has often been on his feet twenty of the
twenty-four hours, performing the most exhausting labors
with great tact and patience. If it be asked why Jacob
Zarker is not dead, I can only answer — I don’t know ! * *

This man’s services here are above praise.

None but the experienced nurse or bed-side attendant
can have an adequate idea of the effects consequent upon a
faithful care and handling of patients received in such ter¬
rible condition as we have had them, in small numbers,
perpetually — especially as we had but a small building and
few of the appliances of a regular hospital : the feeding,
lodging, and general care of a regiment, capable of helping
themselves, is easy, compared with this.

Our little hospital, refuge, asylum, “ Rest,’’ or whatever
it may be called, was erected some three years ago by two
benevolent gentlemen of this city, John B. Simon and Eby
Byers, as a lodge and place of refreshment for soldiers
in transitu to or from the army, who might require
repose for a day or two only. It was not designed as a place
for very sick persons or others to remain for any consider¬
able length of time. Since it was made over to the Com¬
mission we have used it as circumstances and unforeseen

events have compelled us to. We have admitted to it, at all
hours of day and night, any who needed care. * ’*

The building, located close to the railroad station, con¬
tains four apartments, (one of which I added, according to
your approval, only five weeks ago;) an entry 5x16 feet, dinino-.
room 16x16, kitchen 12x12, sick room, and lodging room
21x22 ; walls 10 feet, with ventilators through the ceiling,
and all but kitchen papered and carpeted, and presenting
quite a homelike appearance. The hydrant water is intro¬
duced into the dining-room; and all parts but the kitchen
are well lighted with gas.* * * * The building through¬

out, with all its appurtenances, has been kept most scrupu¬
lously clean-— more especially the beds and bedding— and
to keep the vermin of all descriptions under control has
been no small task.

Our table has always been laid with clean, snow-white
cloths, clean dishes, and well-scoured knives and forks.
The food has been uniformly good, sufficient in variety, and
the cooking excellent. * * * * *

We have dispensed but a small quantity of clothing or
articles of any kind to be used outside of the Rest. The
amount is about as follows: 88 shirts, 38 prs. drawers,. 24
prs. socks, 22 prs. slippers, 6 blouses, 6 prs. pants, 74 pocket
handkerchiefs, 15 prs. crutches, also brushes, combs, tobacco,
&c. Five applications have been denied where one has been
granted, and this on the ground that it would be a perver¬
sion of the funds to furnish clothing to men in health,
within a few hours ride of home, and within a few days
time of being paid money due them, and upon the receipt
of which they would be sure to throw aside Sanitary cloth¬
ing for that which is more costly. This denial, however,
has brought not a few denunciations upon my head, and
charges of being “ un-sanitary ” in my dealings with the
soldiers. And I dare say those men go to their homes teli-

* “ Special thanks are due to Messrs. Simon and Byers for their generous gift
of the use of this building, with most of its furniture. They were offered
one thousand dollars ($L,000) for the rent of it for a lager beer saloon and
clothing store, for a shorter period than we have occupied it.”

ing the people how mean the Sanitary Commission is, and
that it never did any good.

We have furnished squads of men in the cars with crackers,
coffee, and chocolate ; have fed a few hungry rebels; helped
multitudes of Union soldiers in getting transportation, back¬
pay, pensions, &c., by putting them on the right track; written
many letters; run daily to the Provost Marshal, Quarter¬
master, mustering-out officer, ticket officer, &c. ; and of
these small matters, taking up *a great amount of time, I
have made no record nor kept any account. * * *

We have sent special attendants with a number of persons
who were unable to take care of themselves — two to Pitts¬
burg, two to Michigan, one to Elmira, one to Rochester, and
others to points on the railroad many miles west.

Of the six persons who died at the Rest, four were
decently buried in the city cemetery and two were taken
home by friends. Government coffins were furnished for
all. We have sent about fifty men to the general hospital.
The register will give all statistics desired. * * * *

Our first patient was John - , a young man 20 years old,

from the West, whose leg was crushed under the cars near
Harrisburg as he was returning to his regiment, having re-
enlisted. lie was brought in on the night before we were
ready to open, and, Dr. Rutherford being called on, ampu¬
tation was performed — and thus we were inaugurated.
John’s blood was bad through dissipation, and his wound
would not heal. He was nigh unto death for a long time,
and it was 27 days before he could even be sent to the hos¬
pital. His wound has so far healed that he returned home
about ten days ago. Ills disposition and temper were ex¬
ceedingly bad, and, being as helpless as an infant for a long
time, he gave us a world of trouble.

One Sunday morning we received notice that a soldier
was lying nearly dead in the canal, half a mile above the
Rest. The Steward and myself took a stretcher and has¬
tened to the spot. He had been knocked down and robbed
at ten o’clock the night previous. He was so badly injured
that the least motion caused him intense pain. We lifted

J™, the7 f,ban,kme,lt six &et high, got him upon the

l A Ught hlm t0 the Rest- We nursed and

andled him as if he had been an infant for three weeks,

homeSOt llm UP°n hlS CrUtcheS’ and> after 29 <JaJS, sent him

On the 14th of June J. R., a large, athletic man, 35 years
o d, was brought to the Rest about six in the evening-, having
just been paid and discharged and enticed into a genteel
rum-den und drugged with poisoned liquor. Circumstances
which I have not room to detail prevented the intended
robbery, and utter stupefaction or death intended. His agony
was most heart-rending for 14 hours ; but in eight hours
more we succeeded in getting him into a condition that a
special attendant could take him home, a distance of 150
miles west.

But the details of individual cases, even in the little Rest
in Harrisburg, would require a volume. About fifty men
have been brought in on stretchers or in the arms of others.
Many of these seemed ready to die, whom from one to ten
days careful nursing restored. Essential relief, aid, and
comfoit have been rendered to hundreds who were real
sufferers.

Impostors have continually beset us, but with very little
success. Many have demanded of me their transportation,
saying that the Sanitary Commission had helped them to
this place and commended them to me. This may some¬
times have been true, and in some instances it was true,
and yet I denied them on finding them impostors.

My great fort — or perhaps I ought to say weak point — is
the opinion that by talking with and cross-examining an
applicant ten minutes, I can, in 19 cases out of 20, tell
whether he lies or speaks the truth ; and, contrary to some
notions of true benevolence, I fancy that it is almost as good
a deed to detect and expose an impostor and prevent his
success as to relieve a case of real suffering.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, your obedient
servant, w. h. hadley,

Sup’t “ Sick Soldiers’ Rest.”

HOMES AND LODGES OF THE WEST.

Concerning the present condition of the Homes and
Lodges of the West I intended to have spoken from my own
observation, as well as from the official records. Three several
times I essayed to go there within these three last months, and
as many times have I beeu prevented by conditions not under
my control. I felt that I had a right myself to be refreshed
by noting the admirable working and full-grown strength of
those Lodges, some of which I, with Mr. Olmsted, saw when
they were but in their infancy. And I felt, too, that it was
due to Dr. Newberry if he desired it, as he so cordially did,
that I should go there and inspect thus much of the work of
his strong and most faithful hand. I make this note in
order to say how much I regret being obliged to give up
what would have been so obviously a duty and a pleasure
combined.

But of the continued success of the Homes and Lodges at
the West our monthly reports testify. In some of these the
call for service has diminished during the past few weeks,
in others it has increased. I am unable to form any accu¬
rate estimate of the probable call for the continuance of
these several Homes ; though it would be my opinion that
for some two or three months to come a number of them
would necessarily be kept open.

Before presenting certain of the statistics of these Homes,
allow me to place before you the following extracts from
reports (some of which have appeared in the Bulletin and
Reporter) which will illustrate the measure and the kind of
work done there. It is evident, let me say, that many of
the Western Homes have had a much longer opportunity
than has fallen to the lot of the other Homes and Lodges of
the Commission for ministering to the manifold wants of the
returned Union Prisoners as they came from the murderous
prison-pens and dungeons of the South. The testimony of
the men themselves and of their ever grateful kindred is,
that our Western Homes received them almost with the

2rZSn nd T?th W,hiCh U iS SUpp03ed 0I% a other's

heart could give to long lost children.

Captain Brayton, the efficient Superintendent at Nash¬
ville, writes as follows.-(It will be recollected that at this
°me, during the year 1864, between seventy and eighty
thousand lodgings were given, and over two hundred thou-
sane meals prepared ; and the same work has continued.) _

* “ ,plje men come in at all hours of the day

and night. When their names are registered, their papers
are taken and sent at certain hours to the Quartermaster for
transportation, while the soldiers eat, sleep, or rest. An
lour before car-time the sick or wounded are carried in am¬
bulances to the train, assisted on board, and their transport¬
ation exchanged for tickets. This system has saved much
delay and perplexity to the men. Before its adoption it was
not uncommon for soldiers to remain several days seeking
transportation. Many of the number admitted have been
wounded or sick. The wound-dressers, with soap, water,
sponges, bandages, and cerate, were always ready to receive
the wounded and relieve their pain by fresh dressing, while
the nurses received the sick and prepared them by anodynes,
cordials, and nourishing food for their further journey.

Generally the sick and wounded are sent forward after a
day of rest, but it is not uncommon for men to be so ex¬
hausted on arriving here as to render it necessary to send
them to a hospital to recruit. Such could not remain long
at the Home, as the house would soon be filled, and the
weary traveller find no place of rest.

h or the sick and wounded the Sanitary Commission pro¬
vides medicines and restoratives without stint, with every
conceivable article of nourishment that the market or the
canning system can produce.

“Besides bandages, lint, rags, soap, towels, arm-slings,
crutches, &c., I have been supplied with every article of
clothing worn by soldiers, to be furnished them when, as
often happens after a battle, they are compelled to travel
without their descriptive lists, on which they draw from the
Government. The sufferers have thus been saved many

thousands of dollars, by moderate issues from this Home,
while the promotion of health and comfort has been beyond
estimate.

“ Among our suffering visitors we have cases that excite
our sympathies and touch the heart with a painful force.
Fathers and mothers, wives, sisters, and brothers, come in
numbers from the North, seeking their sick, wounded, or
lost ones. Some are without means. Others find their mo¬
ney nearly expended before their object is accomplished, and
come to the Home for advice and assistance. They are never
turned away empty. Every assistance is afforded them that
our house or knowledge of passing events and our means
can afford. Some find their friends at the home. Others
are aided to find them in hospitals or camps. Some, alas !
find them recorded with the dead, and return broken-hearted
to desolate homes.

“Many of those have been females who had wandered
through the city in quest of a shelter half the night before
coming to the Home, either because they had not heard of
our house, or because an impression had gone out that
we could not entertain females, because of the great rush
of soldiers. Yet we never turned a soldier’s relative away
who came on an errand of inquiry. Recently we have ap¬
propriated additional room, and employed a matron of ex¬
perience to give special attention to the comfort of females.
This plan is working admirably, and daily relief and comfort
is afforded to many under circumstances that abundantly
reward all who participate in the work.

“ A young man came from the army to the Home in an ad¬
vanced stage of dropsy. His paroxysms of pain at intervals
were dreadful. Soon a telegram came from his father, in¬
quiring for the son. He was answered : “ Come quickly, if
you would see him alive.” He arrived the next day, near
night, and spent an hour with his son, (who was singularly
comfortable between his paroxysms,) when he breathed out
his life on his father’s bosom. All needed assistance was
rendered in burying the son, but the parent’s agony was car¬
ried home.

A slender female cam<e from Wisconsin. She received a
letter saying her husband, at the front, had received a fur¬
lough, and, though very low with chronic diarrhoea, was
about to make the dangerous experiment of going home.
She thought of it a few days, but the picture of his suffer¬
ings along the line of travel prevented sleep, and she deter¬
mined to fly to his rescue. After traversing a part of five
States, she arrived at Nashville, a stranger and alone. Step¬
ping on to the platform, true to her one object, she inquired
in a crowd for her husband. No one knew him. At length
a young man said to her: “I have just come from the Chat¬
tanooga depot, where I saw a soldier too weak to stand taken
from a car and laid on the platform.” “That may be my
husband. I will go to him,” she replied. Directed by the
young man, she crossed the city to the depot. On turning
the corner near the platform she saw a form wrapped in a
blanket. Hastening her step, she turned back the folds, and
found her loved one. Regardless of the crowd, she sat down,
laid his weary head in her lap, and spoke to him as no other
could, of love, hope, home, and their dear child. They were
brought to the “Home” of the Commission. He was laid on a
clean cot, and another placed near for her; but she took a
kneeling position beside him, and kept it almost constantly
day and night. With her affectionate attention, and the use
of cordials, he was greatly revived for a few hours.

The pleasure of looking upon the happy, and truly hand¬
some couple, compensated us for any amount of attention
we had bestowed on them, and upon others for months. It
was, however, too late. Two days after, while kneeling close
to him and whispering words of affection, he suddenly put
his arm around her neck, and, kissing her feebly,- said : “I
shall never see our child.” The breath passed with the
voice, and he was dead. She was taken by surprise. Such
mental and physical agony I have never witnessed. The
body was embalmed, and the sorrowing widow took her
lonely way home with the precious remains. * * *

“I could relate numerous other instances of almost equal
interest that have occurred at the Home and at hospitals

while the soldiers’ sorrowing friends were stopping with us;
but it would all fail to convey an adequate idea of the calls
made upon us for aid, or of labors performed by my faithful
officers and attendants, in relieving the wants of hungry and
suffering humanity day and night.”

Respectfully,

ISAAC BRAYTON,

Superintendent.

The following account, written, not by an Agent of the
Commission, but by an officer of the Army, will convey an
idea of the “Home” at Columbus, Ohio, where, during the
past three months, six thousand four hundred and sixteen
lodgings have been given, and seventeen thousand eight
hundred and ninety-five meals have been furnished :

“ The Soldiers’ Home at Columbus is a large and commo¬
dious building, erected by the United States Sanitary Com¬
mission. The building is only a few yards from the depot,
and the sick or wounded soldier needs no direction to find
it, for a large, conspicuous sign informs all that it is the “ Sol¬
diers’ Home and, on entering, I assure you I found it to be
such. I entered a large sitting-room, where there were about
sixty returned prisoners sitting comfortably around a glow¬
ing stove, reciting to a few listeners their thrilling stories
of outrage and wrong, that make us blush for our kind, south
of Mason and Dixon.

“ To the left of the entrance was a large hall, with long,
cleanly-spread tables, on which was loaded an abundance of
that wholesome food for which those noble fellows had pined
during their captivity. But now ‘they were in God’s coun-
try,’ as they called the North ; and I felt, as I gazed on these
provisions made for their comfort by the voluntary contri¬
butions of our citizens, that they were also ‘amongst God’s
people.’ One of the officers of the Commission took me
into the comfortable little hospital attached to the ‘ Home,’
where I saw rows of neat, clean cots, and on each was stretch¬
ed the pale, emaciated form of returned prisoners. Poor
fellows ! no tongue can -tell their sufferings while in the hands
of ‘ the chivalry ;’ and, although I have seen the reality my-

self, I listened with renewed interest; and, as I heard some
touching story from the lips of a worn-down, ghastly-looking
soldier, once a strong and stalwart youth, I could not hold
back the tears of sympathy, while the fires of indignation
burned afresh against our more than barbarous foe.

But here, in the cozy 4 Home,’ there was a quiet feeling
of happiness. Kind hands were here to minister, and a hun¬
dred comforts assured them that their long captivity was not
caused by a lack of interest on the part of the American peo¬
ple. They fully appreciated the philanthropy of the Sani-
taiy Commission ; and I heard many repeat the oft-quoted
phrase, 4 God bless the ladies !’ I understand that these poor
fellows will be forwarded to their homes to-morrow, and their
places will be occupied by others coming on. I assure you,
my friends, my heart went out towards this noble organiza¬
tion, and I know every true soldier blesses it.”

The following 44 Picture of one day’s operations at the
Home,” at Cleveland, Ohio, will convey a more full and a
truer impression of the service rendered there than would be
given by many pages of statistics and figures:

44 How few of our citizens have taken the pains to turn the
corner of the Union depot, to give a passing look at the
flourishing Soldiers’ Home, stretching its white length along
the pier ! It has certainly done its best to attract the peo¬
ple’s affectionate attention, not only covering itself with
mighty signs, as with a garment, but adorning itself with
the flag which converts all places under its shelter into
soldiers’ homes. As the representative of our city’s hos¬
pitalities to the sick and wounded soldiers, to the returned
prisoner, or to any of our national army who need food and
shelter, it has now so good a name, that all who have con¬
tributed to its support may well be proud.

44 The last few da}7s have brought an unusual number of
guests to its door: on Wednesday one hundred and fifty,
and on Thursday one hundred and seventy more having
been entertained there. Eastern hospitals are in process of
depletion to make room for new arrivals from Sherman’s
army, of those who have fallen by the way in the grand

march. Convalescents they call these weary men, who hob¬
ble on crutches about the door, and crowd every available
space within the Home limits; yet each bears his marks of
disease or wound, either in pale face and feeble gait, in use¬
less arm or crippled limb. But all differences in individual
cases are merged in the one absorbing interest with which
the still closed dining-room door is watched. Behind that
protecting barrier all is now bustle and active preparation,
and under the influence of quick fingers the meal is in readi¬
ness, soon enough for the patience even of the hungry crowd
waiting beyond the door. How the word is given, and in
troops the first instalment of men, very slowly and feebly—
not as they marched away with Sherman— for these must be
carefully helped to their places at the bountiful table, with
crutches stowed away in close proximity; this one must
have some kind hand to supply the place of the arm now
hanging useless by his side, and another’s morbid appetite
craves some variation from the ordinary fare. The guests’
names must be recorded as accurately as the warfare of
knives and forks will permit, rough Government crutches
exchanged for the comfortably-padded ones furnished by the
Sanitary Commission, and many little deficiencies in cloth¬
ing noted and remedied, while the men do justice to the fare
before them. Ho wonder the faces brighten under the com¬
bined influence of kind words and good cheer. Did the
maker of these marvelous cookies realize the exquisite relish
with which the appetite of a convalescent regards them?
These vegetables and apple-butter, with which some thought¬
ful country Aid Society has furnished the Home larder, are
delicious beyond belief to men so long consigned to salt beef
and hard tack; while the butter and soft bread receive such
special attention, that reinforcements are speedily required.
A low hum of applause and approving comment runs round
the tables , one and another says audibly enough to rejoice
the attendant ladies, ‘Well, this looks like home!’ or ‘I
hav’n’t seen anything like this since I left home!’ Many
pay only the compliments of full justice to the meal, while
here and there one summons up courage to make a neat lit¬
tle speech of thanks as he rises from the table. But whether

silent or complimentary, the feeling of all, we believe, is ex¬
pressed in the words of the tall, pale sergeant, who, rising
with difficulty on his crutches, says : ‘ Ladies, kind friends !
it is worth the little we have suffered for our country to meet
such a warm reception at home.’

“ Now the room is finally emptied of its first guests, and
the tables hastily prepared for the second instalment, and
then for a third and fourth. All honor to the worthy Matron
that her larder stands bravely such repeated attacks, and her
coffee-boiler stoutly replies to all drafts made upon it. What
a relief, that the last poor fellow who lingered near the table
has fared as well as the first who rushed eagerly in to the
assault! The same programme is repeated on each occasion,
with variations in individual cases. One forever-helpless
man is carried in the arms of a brother soldier, that he, too,
may have the pleasure of sitting at the table with the rest ;
and he pulls out the fatal bullet which ‘ruined’ him, as he
says, to exhibit. Meanwhile there are many in the sleeping
ward too feeble to care to leave its comfort, whose taste must
be consulted, and to whom food must be carried. Here one
man’s wound needs dressing, another asks for a fresh band¬
age; here a slipper is wanted for a swollen foot, and another
sickly soldier must have some strengthening remedy from
the medicine-chest. At last all are fed, all rested, and all
wants attended to ; the whistle of the train is heard, and the
soldiers depart, with strength enough gained to carry them
on their journey, leaving behind them a blessing for the
Home. But their departure brings little rest to the Home
Corps. The debris must be removed, and fresh preparations
made for the arrival of the later trains, which may bring as
many more guests to be entertained again and lodged over

. * * * * • * *

night.

When we turned to the West we passed by the Home at
Buffalo, N. Y., where for a year past most excellent service
has been rendered. But the following picture paints in such
warm coloring the blessed spirit of welcome which pervades
this Home, that I insert it here to serve as the representive

description of the many other Homes of the Commission
further West, not mentioned here in detail.

THE soldier’s REST, BUFFALO, N. Y.

u Immediately opposite the depot, standing out in a very
modest way, as if it stood out solely from a feeling of duty,
and not a whit with the feeling of vanity, is a snug, clean,
home-like house, wearing on its brow the words, “ The
Soldiers’ Rest,”— “U. S. Sanitary Commission.” Without
articulating a syllable, simply by looking and being looked
at, it answers the questions in a moment ; and to its door
walk, totter, or hobble the moneyless and friendless sons of
Uncle Samuel, to find a bed, a meal, or a rest, without money
and without price ; to find carpets and chairs, lounges, books,
and fires, which greet them with the genial smile of home,
rather than with the bold stare of hotels ; and which at once
magnetize them into the conviction that the Rest was pro¬
vided not so much for soldiers in the aggregate and concrete,
as for themselves individually and personally. It is amusing
to see how, at first, some of them look from their shoes to
the carpet, and back to their shoes, as if the one had no right
on the other; and then how they sidle into a corner where
there are no chairs, though they crowd the chairs out of the
way to reach the corner. And when the warm-hearted lady,
who has been appointed superintendent by the warm-hearted
ladies of the Buffalo Branch, coaxes them to give the chairs
a fair chancp along the walls by sitting down in them ; and
coaxes the weakest to lie down on the lounges; and coaxes
steaming dishes to come out from the tidy kitchen expressly
to be eaten ; and coaxes the white pillows and sheets to
smooth all the wrinkles out of themselves, that they may
woo sleep to smooth all the wrinkles out of the tired faces
— while all this is going on, it does one’s heart good to see
how the carpets and chairs and walls nudge each other and
laugh at the shoes for their timidity ; and how quickly the
men laugh heartier than all of them as the cheer and glow
char a each one into the belief, that before he enlisted he

built the Rest for his own especial use, but had
about it till that minute.

forgotten all

The original design of the ladies who compose the Buf¬
falo Branch of the United States Sanitary Commission was to
provide a temporary home for sick soldiers passing through
their city, or to the hospitals of their city ; and a large num¬
ber of those who have received the benefit of the Best have
been of this class; but the numerous applications, and evi¬
dent claims of well men for attention, have caused them to
lay the case before Government officials, and, with that gen¬
erosity and humanity which has so eminently characterized
the United. States authorities, Government has decided to
erect buildings on the same ground, and as a part of the
Best, for the accommodation of all soldiers who are justly
entitled to rations and care, such regulations being estab¬
lished as that Government rations shall only be issued to
soldiers, while, at the same time, the Sanitary Commission
can, from its own resources, feed discharged men or others
who are not entitled to subsistence.

Hie Best w^as opened in June, and the daily average of
men cared for was three ; during July, August, and Septem¬
ber, the daily average was seven ; October, thirteen, and
January thirty-one ; so that the work done during the last
month is ten times as great as that during the first. Bo
better indication of the necessity of the Best, or of the ab¬
solute necessity for its continuance could be asked than this
fact. During the eight months of its operation 3,318 en¬
listed men, from twenty-nine different States, have been
cared for ; 2,497 lodgings, in sweet, white beds, have been
given ; and 8,869 hot, toothsome meals, have been furnished;
and all has been done in such a quiet, unpretending way,
that thousands of passers by, who might have glanced at
the modest house, have not even noticed its existence, much
less known its work. A meal to an emaciated convalescent
often prevents a relapse, and a few nights’ quiet rest have
saved many a life. If ideas ever take upon themselves a
solid form, the 6 Best ’ is but an expression of the Good
Master’s command, 4 Love one another.’ ”

As an instance of the large service rendered at points
where the necessity or utility of providing special relief ap¬
peared to some very doubtful, I may refer to the Home at
Detroit, Michigan. Here, according to the report of the
work for the last six months, (embracing the three months
prior to July 1,) there were about eight thousand nights’
lodgings, and between twenty-seven and twenty-eight thou¬
sand meals furnished for soldiers.

The Home at New Orleans gives for its three months’ re¬
cord evidence of most valuable work. It has in that time
furnished, in its well ventilated and nicely ordered rooms,
nineteen thousand three hundred and forty-three (19,343)
lodgings, and at its table it has supplied to invalid and far
loughed.and other soldiers needing the aid, including many
returned Union prisoners, sixty-three thousand nine hundred
and fourteen (63,914) meals. We may not easily over-esti¬
mate the worth of this service at such a distant point as New
Orleans, a point through which multitudes of soldiers pass,
yet far removed from the ordinary facilities for securing
supplies and comforts. This remark applies with peculiar
force also to the Homes at such places as “ Camp Nelson,”
Kentucky; “Jeffersonville,” Indiana; “Memphis,” Tennes¬
see; “Cairo,” Illinois; at which four Homes over forty-live
thousand meals were furnished during the last quarter.

In presenting this general report I have given in detail but
two or three of the special reports of the Homes and Lodges
of the Commission, enough only to indicate the method of a
work which has now a large uniformity of system. I have
sought rather to convey an idea of the aims, spirit, and
agencies of this branch of the Commission’s service, which,
during the last six months, has provided for those seeking
shelter and care, nearly one million of meals, and over two
hundred and fifty thousand of nights’ lodgings.

I append to this, copied from the Bulletin, the list of
Homes and Lodges as it stood on the first of June.

Respectfully, your obedient servant,

FRED. N. KNAPP,

Superintendent of Special Relief.

APPENDIX.

List of Soldiers’ Homes and Lodges of the United States
Sanitary Commission, June 1, 1865 :

Alexandria, Va. * Alexandria Lodge.” Orange and Alexandria Rail¬
road Station. J. B. Holt, Superintendent.

Annapolis, Md. “ Home for Soldiers' Wives and Mothers.” Mrs.
Hopes Sayres, Matron. „

Baltimore, Md. “Soldiers’ Home.” No. 62 Conway Street. A. E.
Hastings, $upt.

Boston, Mass. “ Soldiers’ Home.” No. 76 Kingston street. Charles
F. Mudge, Supt., near Boston and Worcester Railroad Depot.

Buffalo, N. Y. “Soldiers’ Rest.” Exchange street, opposite Central
Railroad Depot. Mrs. H. Indevine, Matron.

Cairo, Ill. “ Soldiers’ Home.” C. N. Shipman, Superintendent.

Camp Nelson, Ky. “ Soldiers’ Home.” Thomas Butler, Superintend¬
ent.

Cincinnati, O. “ Soldiers’ Home.” Third street. Col. G. W. D,
Andrews, Supt.

Cleveland, Ohio. “ Soldiers’ Home.” Joseph Jerome, Superintendent.
Columbus, Ohio. “ Soldiers’ Home.” T. E. Botsford, Superintendent.
^Detroit, Michigan. “Soldiers’ Home.” No. 81 Jefferson Avenue.

Harrisburg, Pa. Near the Railroad Depot. “ Sick Soldiers’ Rest.”
W. II. Hadley, Supt.

Hartford, Ct. “Soldiers’ Rest.” Near Railroad Depot. 0. B. Segir,
Superintendent.

Jeffersonville, Indiana. “Soldiers’ Home.” New Market street,
near the Depot. E. T Smith, Superintendent.

Louisville, Ky. “ Soldiers’ Home.” V. Scott, Superintendent.
Memphis, Tenn. “Soldiers’ Lodge.” Near landing. C. W. Christy,
Superintendent and Relief Agent.

Nashville, Tenn. “Soldiers’ Home.” Captain I. Brayton, Superin¬
tendent.

New Orleans, La. “Soldiers’ Home.” Corner Magazine and Julia
streets. Sumner Bullard, Superintendent.

New York City. “ Discharged Soldiers’ Home.” No. 45 Grove street,
near Blecker. Dr. M. M. Marsh, Superintendent.

Paducah Ky. “ Soldiers’ Home.” E. D. Way, Superintendent.
Portsmouth, Va. “Soldiers’ Home.’ John Alcooke, Superintendent.
Philadelphia, Pa. “Soldiers’ Lodge.’” Corner 13th and Christian
streets, near Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Depot. Col.
C. E. Soest, SiJfst.

Washington, D, C. “ The Home.” No. 374 North Capitol street. J. B.
Clark, Supt.

“ Home for Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers.” No. 380 North Capitol street.
J. B. Clark, Supt.

“Lodge No. 4.” No. 389 H street. Loomis, Supt.

Wilmington, N. C. “Soldiers’ Lodge.” Market street. F. B. Foster,
Supt.

Appendix A.

FORM OF RETURN USED IN THE HOMES AND LODGES U. S. SANITARY

i— i
02
02

Date c® Return . . . 186 . . . Officer in Charge.

U. S. Sanitary Commiss:n

i> oc. No. J>4.

Mote — The last previous Report up
Special Relief, published as a document
the Commission, was dated October 1, 18» ,
(Doc. No. 77.) The record of the work d
ring the intermediate time has been print
from quarter to quarter in the “ Reporte »
and the “Bulletin."

SANITARY COMMISSION.

No. O S.

PROVISION RE Q^U I R E D

FOR THE

Relief and Support

DISABLED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

AND THEIR DEPENDENTS.

A Report to the Standing Committee

- OF THE

U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION,

BY REV. HENRY W. BELLOWS, D. D., PRESIDENT.

New York, December 15, 1865.

To the Standing Committee

of the United, States Sanitary Commission:

Gentlemen — On the 9th of November, 1865, the Board
requested me to prepare a report upon the wants of sick and
disabled soldiers, with such account of the existing provisions
for their relief as I might be able to collect.

The subject had engaged the attention of the Sanitary
Commission from a very early period of the war. Feeling
that the time would come, when it must engross public
attention, and that it was very desirable to collect the whole
experience of foreign countries in advance, we took advantage
of the going abroad of one of our most intelligent students
into social questions, Mr. Stephen H. Perkins, of Boston,
to engage him while visiting the chief military countries in

Europe, to collect all documents and pursue all inquiries
relating to the subject of pensions, military asylums, and the
methods of favoring by civil offices in the gift of the govern¬
ment, the soldiers disabled in war. Mr. Perkins investigated
the subject thoroughly and made a valuable report, which
was printed, and served as the basis of an elaborate essay on
the general subject, prepared under the direction of the
Commission in April, 18G4, which contains t lie materials of
much instruction to all future legislators in this department.
On the 15th August, 1862, I addressed a letter of general
instructions to Mr. Perkins,* on his departure for Europe, in
which the peculiar relations of American institutions to the
probable wants of our disabled soldiers, not then in exist¬
ence, was fully dwelt upon. It seemed to me, even then,
that the young and vigorous civilization of America, with
the respect for labor and the habits of personal self reliance
prevailing among us, and the open opportunities of the new
country, would prevent the question of provision for oui-
sick and wounded soldiers from ever becoming one of very
urgent and burdensome character; that the experience of
countries with a long past, very settled social distinctions,
and a thick and crowded population, where labor was cheap
and poverty common, would afford little that was instructive
to us, except in the way of contrast ; that the splendor of
the names of certain military and naval asylums abroad,
the Hotel des Invalides, the Hospitals in Vienna, Naples,
and Berlin, the Hospitals at Chelsea and Greenwich, were
likely enough to stimulate our national and state pride to
attempt some similar institutions really not needed, while the
lively sympathy of the people, grateful toward the wounded
and disabled heroes of the war, might, when inflamed by
local rivalries in this popular kind of benevolence, multiply
very injuriously as well as needlessly the refuges and charities
of our returned soldiers. It seemed to us, that our pride, as
a democratic nation, ought to point just in the other direc-

^See Appendix.

ti°u ; i. e towards such a shaping of public opinion as would
end to reduce dependence among our returned soldiers to the
lowest possible po.nt; to quicken the local and family sens
of responsibility, so as to make each neighborhood and each
household, out of which a soldier had gone, and retur^ d
helpless and dependent, feel itself privileged and bound to
take care ot him ; to weaken all disposition towards eleemosv-
narj support ; to encourage every community to do its utmost
towards favoring the employment of returned soldiers and
especially partially disabled ones in all light occupations; to
make mendicancy and public support disreputable for all with
any ability, however partial, to help themselves; to prevent
the public mind from settling into European notions in regard
to military asylums; especially to guard the subject from the
artificial excitement which political and medical aspirants to
place and power might strive to communicate to it, and to
keep it as far as might be, from state rivalries, party emula¬
tion, and civic ambition. In short, we desired to favor in
every way the proud and beneficent tendency of our vigorous
American civilization, to heal its wounds by the first Inten¬
tion ; to absorb the sick and wounded men into its ordinary
life, providing for them through those domestic and neigh¬
borly sympathies, that local watchfulness and furtherance
due to the weakness and wants of men well known to their
fellow citizens, and which is given without pride and received
without humiliation ; and, this source of relief failing, then
from the ordinary charities of the towns and counties from
which they had sprung.

The facts, furnished by Mr. Perkins's report,* prove that

*An examination of Mr. Perkins’s Report furnishes us the following
facts:

Foreign Pensions as compared with American.

In France the minimum is 1 franc per diem, say

20 cents per diem.

Prussia . “ “

Austria . 2J “ “

America . 27 “ “

foreign experience, as we foresaw, chiefly tcacl s us what
is to bo avoided; that their pension systems, Frat - excepted,
are wholly inadequate even to the wantsof the chtp countries
of Europe, driving the disabled into asylums, a 1 would be
absurdly deficient in America; that their great i vlums, the
Hotel des Invalides, the military hospitals at Bern, \ ienna,
and Naples, are costly failures, measured by tin success in
protecting the character or promoting the happiess of the

In France one-fifth of pensions being officers, receive £ - whole fund.
In Prussia

Austria, including widows, ai

In America, (at present not computed.)

The foreign continental pension systems are all ordered \th reference
to maintaining the military status, as something above tin -dinary civil
status, and of making as broad a distinction between thos . li • are and
those who are not soldiers. Also, in confirmation of tl aristocratic
system, in which the officers are hailed as a sort of nobl- when com¬
pared with the common soldiers. The usage, too, of proviing 1* »r the
younger sons of the nobility in the army, produces a very iju.-t exag¬
geration of the pensions for officers.

There is, too, no proper adjustment of the pension m - in to the
hospital or asylum system; so that every encouragement s given to
entering the hospital rather than accepting the pension. I France this
is less true, but in Italy and Prussia, especially, sadly true There are
at least 10,000 men in military asylums in Italy out of 30,00 pensioners.

The Versorgungs-schein, or furnishing of a right to claii preference
in civil employments, while favorable to the employment of ? disabled,
is very unfavorable to the rights of civilians and would n< answer in
this country.

The absence of any employment in the military hospit; abroad is
usually recognized as a great defect, and the cause of drunmness to a
terrible extent.

As the number of years of service — 15, 20, and 25 year— furnish a
heightened claim to rights of pension and asylum abroa- there is a
peculiarity in it applying only to military governments cm] ing large
standing armies after the continental system, which has Dot tig corres¬
ponding to it in our country. Possibly the analogy ma unhappily
increase in future years.

men who occupy then everywhere creating ennui, drunken¬
ness, and discontent Since these reports, Chelsea and
Greenwich Hospitals, ired of their experience, have resolved,
as rapidly as possible to scatter on pensions their depend¬
ents, and in so daig have, in our judgment, settled
forever the inexpediecy of creating permanent military or
naval asylums. The have long had nothing in their favor
but national pride, ad the necessity of having some place
where a small per centge of homeless and friendless incurables
could be sent to die, o be taken care of through their helpless
lives. This small nraber, it now appears, are more wisely
attached to other pulic charities, and in a scattered way
provided for, as a siall per centage of the indigent and
wholly dependent poron of the public, than made a separate
class of, and kept as ipublic show.

None can have filed to admire the tendency which
so suddenly and qmtly dissolved our vast and compact
armies, and before th exultation of their victories had died
away, distributed thci far and wide over the land, setting
them back in the furiw, the workshop, the bench, the mill,
the mine, out of whih they had come at the nation’s cry
“To arms.” It mustbe already obvious that this benignant
tendency of our free nd popular institutions, so amazing to
Europe, is equally oprative over our sick and wounded men,
who have got out of tc hospitals in an incredibly short time,
their wounds rapidl; healed by the hope of getting home,
and the stimulus of te self-respectful necessity of resuming
work again ; their lirbs already replaced by artificial mem¬
bers ; their homes an friends and old comrades insisting on
their return to their ol places, where protection, aid in finding
occupation, and all sets of kindness have awaited them.

In May last we hadtill 183 general hospitals in operation,
with 78,313 patient, To-day we have only 20 hospitals
open, and not more h an 2,463 patients under treatment.
Such an anxiety to geaway from the abundant and benignant
care of the Governmnt have our sick and disabled soldiers
manifested, that thei spirit of self-help and independence has
no doubt cost many othem their lives. At their own urgent

petition they 1 me often been suffered to leave before prudence
warranted, and, too early out of hospital, many of them have
fallen into the homes and lodges of the Sanitary Commission,
and in many instances died on our hands. We have seen
hundreds much too feeble to travel, using what seemed to us
their last strength in reaching their homes. It is obvious
enough that such a spirit as this, though it may kill its proud
exhibitors, will not leave many willing dependents on the
public bounty !

For a few months, while our soldiers were passing to their
homes, and stopping in transitu in our cities, there was a
quantity considerable in itself, although very, small in per
centage, of mendicancy among our soldiers. Convalescents
just out of hospital, and not half as well as they thought
themselves, were appealing for assistance. The railroad cars
and street cars presented also the spectacle of numerous
invalids wan and feeble. We saw in our cities all the suffering
of invalidism, all the beggary and want of the war, just at
its close, passing before us at one review. The public mistook
this to a great extent for the mere beginning of a worse
ending, or, at the best, as a permanent condition of things.
They thought they were seeing a sample, when they were
really looking at the whole piece. The public imagination was
greatly inflamed, and numerous and piteous appeals wrere made
for creating asylums and homes for a great army of sick and
disabled soldiers. But already, and in spite of the cold season,
which closes navigation and stops so many kinds of work, this
spectacle of mendicant, unemployed, and vagrant soldiers,
or of sick and disabled men, has so rapidly disappeared, that,
continuing at the same rate, it is now certain in one more
year to furnish no longer a subject of considerable anxiety.
All our predictions and hopes have been doubly fulfilled.
The disposition to provide in larger and expensive ways for
sick and disabled soldiers, in public asylums, has almost
entirely ceased. Without concert, and without even general
reasonings, with little or no knowledge of foreign experience,
the healthy mind of the American people all over the country
has gravitated (as we shall presently prove) to one result.

With every disposition to do all that is necessary for sick and
disabled soldiers, and with a greater readiness to extend
relief to them— to erect shelters over their heads, to provide
toi them while they live than to exercise any other form of
charity , there has been so little pressure upon them, so little
disposition to avail themselves of these opportunities on the
part of the invalids themselves, that a general lull in the
efforts to raise money for this purpose, or to carry out projects
in this direction, shows itself at all the great centres of our
military population, and we can safely predict that very few
of the hundred schemes that have been brewing in the hearts
of private philanthropists or of public legislators will survive
a twelvemonth of this uniform public experience.

Although these open and universal facts, obvious to all
eyes, are more decisive than any special and classified testi¬
mony, yet, to satisfy ourselves further upon these points, I
requested Mr. Knapp, our Special Relief Agent, to address a
letter of inquiry to the most expert persons at the chief centres
of our military strength, the regions where our soldiers
enlisted, and to which they have now returned, asking certain
questions, the nature of which the letter itself will best
show :

New York, Nov. 17, 1865.

My Dear Sir — 1 desire to obtain certain facts concerning
sick and disabled soldiers, and take the liberty of asking
your aid in procuring the information for me.

What do you judge is the number in your city and
vicinity of seriously disabled soldiers who would properly be
received at a “ Soldier’s Home/' or an Asylum? What
proportion is this to the whole number of men from your city
and vicinity? What is the nature of the disability of these
men ? What proportion are disabled as the result of wounds?
What proportion as the result of sickness ? Are there many of
them who are blind? Are many of them idiotic, or with
weakened minds?

What, so far as you have observed, is the nationality of
these men needing most aid?

What provision has been made in your city for disabled
soldiers; and, if any, what has been the success of the under¬
taking?

Can you inform me whether the feeling ot the necessity of
such institutions as “ Soldiers’ Homes, ’ or asylums, has ot
late increased or diminished?

I would also ask, whether the soldiers’ families — their
widows and orphans — are or are not a larger and more
important class of sufferers than the u disabled soldier class,
and how among you their wants are met?

I do not seek detailed or minutely accurate answers to these
questions, but such as will give an idea of real needs, and
how to meet them.

If you will write me within a few days in response to this
letter, you will confer a favor which will he gratefully
acknowledged.

I am, dear sir,

Very truly, your friend,

FRED. N. KNAPP,
Superintendent of Special Belief.

This letter was sent to different parts of the country to
twenty-seven persons, men and women distinguished for their
practical experience with this class of sufferers, their relief
labors, their tried humanity, and living at the points of most
interest and importance. A majority of these letters have
been answered, and if they had not almost absolutely con¬
curred in their replies, and coming from widely scattered
regions, put beyond question what the nature of the others
would be, I should have waited till all came in before
drawing my conclusions. But such is the urgent importance
of settling the public mind as far as possible,, and of giving-
such direction as wisdom and experience may furnish to the
opinions of Congress, soon to legislate upon the subject, that
I have thought it best to wait no longer for testimony which
is certain only to confirm the evidence already abundant,
which is here brought forward. The fact that the testimony
precisely bears out the expectations of the Commission formed

the first year of the war — expectations based on the American
character and the nature of our institutions— indicates clearly
enough that any remaining testimony will only strengthen
what is already sufficiently established.

These letters, filed and tabulated for reference in our office,
(where any one specially interested can consult them,)
show that the number of sick and disabled men needing any
public care, or even asking for it, is exceedingly small
compared either with the size of our armies or the expectation
of the public. It is not because a very large class of sick and
disabled men does not exist, scattered through the country,
hut because these men are the objects of a proud and tender
domestic or neighborly care, and withdrawn from public
view, as it is desirable they should he.

Thousands, we doubt not, are declining rapidly or slowly
in the bosom of their homes, uncomplaining, and even
hiding, in many cases, their griefs and their wants. The
only form in which such noble sufferers can he reached by
the public gratitude, in a way not to demean and injure their
pride, is, by an improved pension law. The existing pension
law is a great mercy, so great that the necessity of giving up
a claim upon one’s pension in order to become an inmate of
a national asylum, is a sufficient check and a most wholesome
one to thousands from applying. Moderately increased, it
would still further lessen the claimants on this objectionable
form of public support, and no asylum or hospital from any
cause should fail to make this relinquishment a condition of
its protection and support..

But while this number is comparatively and unexpectedly
small, it is yet in its aggregate considerable.

There may be, take the country through, 2,000 persons, so
homeless, so helpless, so utterly disabled by sickness or
wounds, that they must, all of them for a while, become the
objects of public support in Asylums or Soldiers Homes.
Among these, as we shall presently see, are few, almost no
Americans. They are chiefly Irish and German ; 75 per
cent. Irish, 15 or 20 per cent. German, and the residue of

other foreign nationalities. We doubt if 2 per cent, would
turn out Americana ! Now this is not only because Americans
have a spirit above dependence, but also because they have
natural friends, homes, parents, brothers, or in all cases,
neighborhoods where their claims are recognized and allowed.
A foreigner, enlisting in many instances just upon his arrival
at the beginning of the war, or who came over for the very
purpose of joining the army, if disabled, has nothing to look
to but the care of a country grateful for his services.

1 lactically, so far as public asylums are concerned, it is
almost exclusively a question of what shall be done for the
soldiers of foreign birth, and chiefly new comers. Were it
only Americans to be considered, there would be positively
no occasion for any public asylums. But the claims of
foreigners, losing limbs, health, the power of self-support in
our military service, ore just as sacred as those of natives,
in some respects even more so, as natives may be supposed to
have had greater reasons for going into the field, and to have
owed a more obvious debt to the country. The wholly disa¬
bled Americans are, for the most part, patiently, and under
tender care, dragging out their lives in American homes; tho
disabled foreigners chiefly in public asylums, alms-houses, and
hospitals. Their case is indeed often a pitiable one.

In estimating at 2,000, the number of such as need, for the
current year, Retreats and Refuges specially designed for
them, we assume the following facts to be well established in
the evidence on our files.

The places wo have heard from, which it was considered
important to address, give us about a thousand cases. Assum¬
ing that this represents one-lialf of the total, we have 2,000
as the outside number. Probably this is a large estimate.
It is manifest that the agricultural regions will absorb the
disabled soldiers more rapidly than the manufacturing regions
or the cities; not so much because our invalids are better
adapted to farm work, for the very reverse is the case, but
because living is so much cheaper, and another mouth in a
farmer’s family, living on his own products, is no considerable
drain as it is found to be in cities and crowded districts.

Although the West has been most prompt in proposing Asylums
and Homes for disabled soldiers, we do not expect to see more
than half as great a need of them there as at the East •
especially, because, the foreign population from which our
asylums are filled, belongs very largely, and particularly the
newer portion of it, to our cities. The best established

Home’ ’ for disabled soldiers (excepting that at Washington)
now in existence, perhaps, is at Columbus, Ohio. It is large
and amply furnished, and has proclaimed its readiness to
receive all disabled soldiers who apply, without regard to State
iines. The Cincinnati Branch of the United States Sanitary
Commission has appropriated $15,000, and the Cleveland
Blanch $5,000, to its support until the Ohio Legislature
meets, (January, 1866,) from which an ample endowment is
expected. Yet up to this time only 130 have applied for
admittance !

The largest number of disabled soldiers requiring asylum,
in any one neighborhood, is apparently at Philadelphia,
where Mr. R. M. Lewis (and no one can give a wiser judg¬
ment) estimates them at 400. This must seem a very large
per centage for the city, or even the State. But we are
to bear in mind the fact, that in that city both the Wash¬
ington and Baltimore, as well as the great local hospitals,
have emptied their dregs, and we must expect to find, as the
Government hospitals close, the full number of Mr. Lewis’s
estimate thrown upon some “Home” or asylum there. We
consider it a most encouraging fact that at this most fruitful
point of want only so many as 400 disabled men are to be
provided for. And it is a pleasure to know that an institu¬
tion, already worth a hundred thousand dollars, is in exist¬
ence there to minister to these needy and deserving soldiers.

Mr. Knapp, as the result of thorough, personal exam¬
inations recently made, estimates only 150 as the constant
average of New York city and immediate neighborhood. No
doubt this number will prove for some time near the real
amount of fit candidates for this kind of care. Double this
number will always be applying, for New York is the natural
home of the most skillful and successful beggary, and all the

idlers and d roues who went into the war under the attractions
of the bounty will return to this city to live by their wits
or their frauds. But it is as the metropolis, the place where
the foreign element which has been in the war (especially the
Irish) will present their claims. The “Lincoln Home" of the
United States Sanitary Commission, at 45 Grove street, which
opened last May, has not yet had one pure native American
on its books. Nine-tenths of its beneficiaries are, and have
always been and will always continue to be, Irish, the other
tenth chiefly German. It is most creditable to the Germans
that they do not learn in their own country the shameless
beggary of the Irish, and so do not, even when as poorly off,
straightway slip into mendicancy and dependence here in
America.

Doubtless one or two years will carry off quite a per centage
of the 2,000 we estimate as the present number of men needing
asylum. A certain portion of them will rapidly weary of
confinement, and as they get better, solicit and find light
occupation; others will learn trades suited to their disability,
and be able to make their own living. Wo expect to see the
number of helpless invalids, unable to do better and left on
the hands of the people, considerably reduced within a very
few^ years; and this in spite of the fact, which we do not lose
sight of, that as the men spend their bounty and back pay,
some who have supported themselves hitherto, will, after a
few months, fall into public dependence; others, struggling
with disease and reluctantly giving up, will, after a year or
two, come to the same fate. Already it is found in ou.
asylums that a good many of the applicants are men prema¬
turely old, wrho w'ore out the remnants of a constitution in the
army, and at fifty have no stamina for work.

It would be idle, therefore, and a wicked wraste of money,
and time, and wisdom, to make permanent provision, for
so distant a future only as twenty years, for even a thou¬
sand men. And far more than this provision is certain to be
made, nay, exists in part already in the National Soldier’s
Home, at Washington ; Soldier's Home, at Boston, Mass.;
the Ohio State Home, at Columbus, Ohio; the Soldier’s and

Sailor's Home, Philadelphia ; the Lincoln Home, New York ;
Soldier's Home, (projected,) Milwaukee, Wis. ; Soldier’s
Home, at Chicago; Soldier's Home, Penn Yan, Yates Co.,
N. Y. ; Soldier's Home in some part of Indiana; a Soldier’s
Rest at Syracuse. A Sanitary Commission Home at St. Louis,
and probably several other Homes and Asylums ought to be
added to this list, which professes no completeness. Several
other plans like the “ Harris Hospital ” at Albany, are in
gestation.

There seems no need whatever to urge this form of
provision, as it appears certain to be over done without
any additional stimulus. What is vastly more important,
is to make prompt temporary provision for the 2,000 men,
more or less, who need immediate care; to build no slow,
expensive palaces *, to aim at no permanent institutions, but
to meet the exigences of the case ; and to do no more until
the future necessities of this class can be more exactly meas¬
ured. If a hundred thousand dollars exists in the hands of
a body of trustees, for the interests of disabled men, their
duty is, not to hoard it and spend the interest, not to lay it
out in a purchase of house and grounds, and beg money to
support their Asylum, but to hire a modest and suitable place,
and support it out of their principal as long as it lasts, and
when ten years have used it up, learn that the occasion for
their asylum has passed away.

We hope to see no great national institutions rising at
Washington or elsewhere.

The evidence obtained of the nature of the disability,
which is generally loss of limbs, or occasioned by wounds,
rather than by sickness, is probably due to the fact that the
sick either get well, die, or as invalids, find light employ¬
ment, while limbless men take much longer to accommodate
themselves to their condition; are thrown much more out of
their old callings, have a much more obvious claim on public
sympathy, or are much easier to put forward and so contiact a
readier habit of dependence. It is pleasant to state that very
many men with one arm have found occupation m our cities
as messengers, and that systematic effoits, alrea y veit
successful in Boston, and quite so in iNew Yoi v, aie no

making to establish in our cities the foreign plan of commis¬
sionaires , under thorough drill and with substantial responsi¬
bility, to serve as light porters, messengers, and guides, as
temporary servants to strangers in the cities, and to perform
the thousand offices which all travellers on the continent
will remember so well the convenience of having received
from them in Paris and all along the route of continental
travel. It is believed that a corps of 50U men, neatly uni¬
formed, and under semi-military drill, well selected from
among our invalid soldiers, wound find a comfortable support
in the city of New York as commissionaires. Philadelphia
would, doubtless, support at least halt as many, and perhaps
Poston a hundred. The country at large could well emplov
1,500 men in this way. We learn that the messengers, in
this city not soldiers generally, ragged, dirty, and repulsive
as they often are, who now assume partially this career, are
making from one to two dollars a day when in the least
attentive to their duties. The fifty in our Sanitary Commis¬
sion Bureau of Employment do even better than this.

The general disposition which the men of the “ Veteran
Reserve Corps” have shown to be disbanded, (00 per cent, of
the whole,) proves that the necessity for public support is far
less urgent than we thought. In no other country but ours
could such a testimony be furnished in evidence of the open¬
ness of career offered to all, as this voluntary relinquishment,
for more inviting prospects, of living wages, on the part of
a large body of men, whose support the Government had
assumed as an act of justice and humanity.

It is instructive to notice that the per centage of men
disabled by blindness is very small. This is a remarkable
testimony to the general excellence of our commissariat and
our hospital system; since blindness, by reason of wounds,
is inconsiderable compared with what grows out of bad food,
unhealthy lodging, disregard for all sanitary laws, and
ignorance ol ophthalmic surgery; above all, from special
diseases and contagious disorders to which crowded places,
camps, and hospitals are subject. The United States of
America has an enviable freedom from blindness as compared

with other nation? 1 to 2,470 being the ratio to our popula¬
tion ; not one half what it is in Great Britain ; while in
France, it is 1 to 938, and in Norway 1 to 540. No class
of disabled men deserves greater sympathy than those wholly
blinded by the war; a hardship almost strictly proportioned
to the want of internal resource and mental activity. It is
a special satisfaction to find this class so small. The idiotic,
too, turn out much less than was feared from the terrible
effect which rebel prisons had, at least temporarily, upon the
brains of our weaker-minded men.

To revert again to the nationality of our disabled men
applying for public aid, they are, in the Eastern and Middle
States, Irish and German almost exclusively, and in the
proportion of 75 and 20 per cent., respectively, of the whole
number ; while in the Northwest, and probably in the West,
they are German and Irish, perhaps in about equal propor¬
tion, or 45 per cent, each of the whole.

It is a just source of pride that while about 80 per cent, of
our whole army was composed of native citizens, 90 per
cent, of all the drafted men requiring aid, are of foreign
extraction; a fact which that portion of the English press,
long in the habit of attributing our victories to mercenaries
from abroad, may digest as it best can.

It is plain, from all that has been said, that the anxiety
of the public in regard to wholly disabled men, requiring
care and support in public asylums, which now appears to be a
comparatively small and very manageable class, has distracted
attention from that vastly more important class of sufferers,
lingering uncomplainingly in their homes, who have claims
on the Pension Bureau, which, small as they are, are very
slowly settled, and which, when paid, furnish a very
meagre expression of the gratitude of the country toward its
greatest and most self-sacrificing benefactors.

The Sanitary Commission, early feeling the importance of
the relief which the present system might afford the invalids
of the war and their families, established a Special Bureau
for the gratuitous collection of soldiers claims, (back pa) .
bounty, pensions, &c.,) which, extending all over the United

l(i

States, has rendered most efficient service in saving soldiers
and their families from the thousand harpies preying on their
ignorance and their necessities. By making known the rights
and claims of soldiers in all communities, it has also advanced
the work of the Pension Bureau in a very important degree.
It is alleged, that half the claims of soldiers and their
families, for a given period, passed through our offices. But
no effort of ours could very much relieve the delay which,
unavoidably or otherwise, has occurred in the settlement of
soldiers’ claims and those of their widows and orphans. But
leaving the question of the settlement of soldiers’ claims,
there is a question of still more importance, which concerns
the insufficiency of the pension allowed.

Eight dollars per month for a man who has lost a limb, or
is otherwise equally disabled, twenty for one who has lost
both feet, and twenty-five for one who has lost both hands
or both eyes, is much too little to meet their necessities.
What a feeble reciprocation, too, is eight dollars per month
to the poor widow, with her orphan children to support and
educate, who has given her husband and the protector of
their offspring up to his country? The subject is too large
and too complicated to be treated here in anything but a
most general way. It is full of minute and embarrassing
details, which only an expert can understand, and there is
no official work on the subject. What we have to suggest is,
that the pension system is the true system for the relief of
our invalided and disabled soldiers — their widows and
orphans ; that it deserves a far more careful, generous, and
constant consideration than it seems to receive ; that it should
occupy the time and sympathies which are so much more
readily expended upon schemes of showy, debilitating charity.
The pension is a debt due the soldier and his widow and
orphans, which it does not demean them to receive, which
they have a moral right to claim, and which ought to be
adjusted to their necessities, and made adequate to their
relief or support. If their be any direction in which the
public money may be expended with freedom, without com¬
plaint on the part of tax-payers, though with a generous

leaning to indulgence, it is in the matter of pensions A,
piesent, the provision is pernicious and disgraceful to the

nation. We desire, in a democratic country, to see the private

80 irAZ ’ aml LlS Hfe’ services> and sacrifices.valued
at the full by a grateful country. The disposition to heap

richly merited honors and emoluments on a few distinguished
° ce.rs onl^ > ls not worthy of a nation that knows no differ¬
ence in the political claims of its citizens, and values men
not for rank or station, hut for merit and personal worth.
\\ e have seen too much of the patriotic spirit of our common
soldiers, and of their wives and children, not to feel that they
are wronged by the scrimped and paltry pensions they draw,
after the precious sacrifices they have made. Two years ago
we offered bounties with an almost humiliating eagerness to
the worst men whom we could press into the ranks — bounties
" one sum, often exceeded what ten years’ pension

pays a disabled soldier, or his widowed and orphaned family.
N°w, looking back on the services we were ready to bribe so
lavishly, we are slow to value them, after they are rendered,
at any reasonable sum ! For ourselves, w^e held the bounty
system as a disgrace, reproaching the spirit of our volunteers,
demoralizing the country, and letting down the war, by its
mercenary aspect, both in foreign eyes and our own. But a
fit pendant for this disgrace is the present set of pension laws.
If the bounties already paid could only have been saved to
increase the pensions, how much better and more honorable
for the country it would be ! Still it is fair to say, that no
country offers as good military pensions as ours, even at
present rates ; but let it be remembered that foreign wages are
no standard for America, and foreign pensions no rule for us.

We believe the 'pension system is the proper substitute for
military asylums. We could desire that the wrholly disabled,
who claim public support, should be pensioned to the full
extent of their living, board, and clothes, and then suffered
to go where they please, and lookup their own residence and
their own protectors. It would be both more humane, more
economical for the country, and more favorable to the temper
and spirit of our people.

Doc. 95.

This may be illustrated by the history of the National
Soldiers’ Home at Washington. We had 73,2G0 officers and
men engaged in the Mexican war. The National Soldiers
Home was founded, we believe, on the money paid General
Scott by the city of Mexico for sparing the captured city from
sack. To this sum, doubtless, large appropriations have been
added, besides the amount collected from the assessment
which is laid upon all soldiers of the regular army. What
it has cost, we have no means of knowing ; but we should be
surprised to find it less than halt a million. It isa boautitul
and attractive place, both as to house and grounds, and in
the immediate vicinity of Washington. All regulars and
pensioners of the volunteers, on relinquishing their pension
for the time, have a right to a residence in this Home. At
the beginning of the war, there were only 80 inmates. The

present number is luO.

The average cost per man, including

food, clothing, lights,

fuel, and medical treatment, (but not including rent or interest

on original outlay,) was for the year
Iftfil .

. §262.00

1862 .

. 265.70

1863 ... .

. 312.12

1 ftfU . .

. . 413.87

Those who are able and willing to work as common laborers

are paid 25 cents per day; mechanics, §14 per month.

It is very difficult to keep the men in any state of content¬
ment. Those who have pensions to fall back upon, soon
'weary of the Home, and prefer to take their chances in the
world of freedom with that small dependence at command.
Many who resort there, are, it is said, of a rough and unruly
disposition.

Now, if the sum expended upon these men were allowed
them in pensions, not only would the cost of the buildings and
grounds be saved — although that wo do not consider a very
important item — but the spirit and independence of the
soldier’s name and character, and his rapid return to civic
virtues and independence of life, would be favored, while
the vices which come from lierdiug coarse men together in

purely masculine
obviated.

and official hands,

would be entirely

We cannot doubt that if the pension rates were doubled it
would be as economical for the country as it would be honor
able to its gratitude and useful and blessed for the invaUd '

ft»nilie8teStti°ny -I thG let,te1'8 refen'ed t0 i8’ that soldiers’
iamilies— -their widows and orphans-present a much more

urgent and suffering claim than disabled soldiers themselves *

and it is even said that the widows and orphans are pecu-

‘“T )■ better off than those families who have had a maimed

and disabled husband and father returned to them to he

>uppoi ted Some of the States have made special provisons

or this class, both during and since the war. Special
laws have been passed in Massachusetts for their relief.
But too much was done during the war, and too little
has been done since, and is doing now. In the city of New
\ork> a profuse and injurious relief was afforded the families
ot absent soldiers by the city, at a time when wages were
high enough to make the general condition of the poor easier
than at any period within our memory. Thus soldiers were
encouraged to spend their wages on themselves and to their

own hurt, instead of sending them home, and many women
accustomed to honest labor fell into dependent and dissolute
ways. But that relief was suddenly cut off, and now the
difficulty is the other way. But it is not in cities alone that
the orphaned families of our brave soldiers are most in need.
Everywhere, and from all quarters, we hear but one stoiy of
their sufferings and distress ; and we see with great satisfaction
numerous private charities and imblic associations moving
for their relief. We must not permit the freedmen, or the
needy Southerners, to absorb our attention to the neglect of
this most deserving class of our own people — the widows and
orphans of the war. Again, we repeat, we know no way of

v Note . — The record of the Pension Office gives us the following figures:
Applications for pensions for invalid soldiers, 97,000 ; for widows and orphans,
116,450.

APPENDIX.

[Letter of instructions addressed by the President of the Sanitary
Commission to Stephen II. Perkins, Esq., August 15, 18G‘2.]

Deaii Sir — The Sanitary Commission are much exercised with the
subject of the future of the disabled soldiers of this war. They calcu¬
late that, if it continue a year longer, not less than a hundred thousand
men, of impaired vigor, maimed, or broken in body and spirit, will be
thrown on the country. Add to this a tide of another hundred thousand
men, demoralized for ciril life by military habits, and it is easy to sec
what a trial to the order, industry, and security of society, and what a
burden to its already strained resources, there is in store for us. It is,
in our judgment, to the last degree important to begin now, to create a
public opinion which shall conduce to, or compel the adoption of, the
wisest policy on the part of our municipal and town governments, in
respect of disabled soldiers — so as to discourage all favor to mendicity —
all allowance to any exceptional license to those who have been soldiers —
all disposition for invalids to throw themselves, any further than is
necessary, on the support and protection of society. You, who have
paid so much attention to social science, know how easily loose, indulgent
and destructive notions creep into communities, under the name and
purpose of humanity, and what temptations of a sentimental kind there
will be, to favor a policy which will undermine self-respect, self-support,
and the true American pride of personal independence.

In view of this, the Sanitary Commission is now studying the general
subject of the proper method of dealing with our disabled soldiers at the
close of the war, and, as far as possible, prior to that. The few guiding
principles thus far excogitated, appear to be these :

1. As little outside interference with natural laws and self-help as
possible.

'2. As much moral and other encouragement and strengthening of the
natural reliances as possible.

3. The utmost endeavor to promote the healthy absorption of the invalid
class into the homes, and into the ordinary industry of the country.

A" opposition to these principles will be the rivalry and competition
of States, in generosity to disabled soldiers-similar to that which has
appeared in running bounties to recruits up to an excessive and injurious
height; the attempt to make political capital out of the sympathy of the
public with the invalids of the war— issuing in over-legislation and over
action with much bad and demoralizing sentimentality — and, worst of
all, a public disposition to treat this whole class as a class with a right
to be idle, or to beg, or to claim exemption from the ordinary rules
of life.

To illustrate what I mean by interference with natural laws, I should
regard any general scheme for herding the invalids of the war into State
or National Institutions, as a most dangerous blow to domestic order, to
the sacredness of home affections and responsibilities, as well as a weak¬
ening of what may be termed the law of local sympathy. Their natural
kindred are the first protectors of our invalids; the local community,
the next ; and the State the last. We must exhaust the two first before
drawing on the last; or, rather, we must cherish and sustain the two
first by every possible means before resorting to the last, which in the
end will require to be heavily drawn upon. This is not a matter of
mere pecuniary consideration. It is not to save the State or National
Treasury, but to encourage and save the spirit of independence, to pre¬
serve the self-respect, and the homely graces and virtues of the people
on which all the real dignity and strength of the Nation rest.

To accomplish this result — i. c., to restore the large proportion of all
our invalids to their homes, there to live and labor according to their
strength, sustained and blessed by their own kindred — we must have a
sound, a generous, a wisely considered pension law ; and this pension
law must be rid of all humiliating or enslaving character. It must be
considered as the payment of what has been earned, and its payment
should be made regular, punctual, immediate, and with as little los3 by
agencies and obstructions as possible. Moreover, the right to a pension
should not rest exclusively on visible wounds. Broken constitutions, or
impaired vigor, traceable unmistakably to military service, should entitle
to i) pension.

To employ to the utmost the law of local sympathy, the disabled and
invalid soldiers should be encouraged in every way to settle in the neigh¬
borhoods from which they came, and be throwm as much as possible on
the fraternal responsibility of their neighbors for employment and sym¬
pathetic aid. A sense of local or communal responsibility to leave the
light employments in every village or hamlet to these invalids, shoula

be cherished. The emulations of towns could be depended upon lor
this, were a proper start given to it by a judicious amount of writing on
the subject in the leading journals. In London, by some recent law.
one-legged or one-armed men have some special privileges, as ticket-
takers, parcel-bearers, messengers, &c. (I hope you will find out when
abroad precisely what it is.) I am confident that if we begin right we
can induce a most extensive and most wholesome re-absorption of the
invalids of the war into the civil life of the nation, to the actual advan¬
tage of its affections, its patriotism, and its honest pride. Hut the
subject will need careful guidance.

After everything has been done to discover and appropriate all light
forms of industry throughout the whole circle of trades suited to maimed
and invalid men, there will still remain those whom the small support of
a pension, eked out by home protection or local sympathy and co-opera¬
tion, will not adequately care for. The large body of foreigners, tho
reckless and unrelated, those who have hitherto been afloat, with such
as are most seriously disabled, or have least natural force to provide
for themselves — these must be collected in National Institutions. We
don’t want a vast net-work of soldiers’ poor-houses scattered through the
land, in which these brave fellows will languish away dull and wretched
lives. Nor do we want petty State asylums, to be quarrelled about and
made the subject of party politics. We want to economize our batten'd
heroes, and take care of them in such a way as to maintain the military
spirit and the national pride ; to nurse the memories of the war, and to
keep in the eye of the Nation the price of its liberties. After reducing
to the smallest number this class, to be kept in the hands of the State,
how best to deal with it is the chief problem connected with this topic;
and the principal sources of light are, first, general principles, and next,
the experience of other nations — for we have had next to none in our
own country.

Of the general principles, a few occur to me at once :

1. Justice and policy both demand that these Institutions should be
National, and not State Institutions. A war against State pretensions
should not end without strengthening in every way Federal influence.
This war is a struggle for National existence. We have found a
National heart, and life, and body. Now, let us cherish it. I know
that desperate efforts will be made to build up State asylums for these
invalids. Let us judiciously discourage the idea from the start.

2. The Institutions should honor both military and civil life. They
should be military in their organization, control, dress, drill, and maintain

the antecedents of the war mi • 1

trophies, arms, cannon, &c„ might brL^Xni^r 1 t

«* — ■»>— a, , j L“x « "d :

encouraging and allowing such an amount . . be Industnal—

discourage listlessness and monotony and variety of labor as would
dependence. T’ "d P~ feeling of utter

How these institutions are to grow un k ,i„ i *f ,

^rees as a necessity, or by bold legislation ’from the start %

T\e have thought, as a Commission, of asking r
tl.0 control and care of disabled soldie s from I t ?7™t for
Hospital as patients, and beirin their eonv 1 r ?eave the

they are finally discharged ;°say four months' oT The -vt* Peri°H WheU
create special Hospitals (with Government funds') forth ^’i^11 t0
ofa temporary character - to find } ^ convalescents,

nrcnt in Li/own ^

heilndfT’ . . . . . . a®^ated associations^ to^h'eir^vreH

being and future career, and aiding in every way the success '

pnnc.plcs lard down in the earlier part of this letter J

Iheu, retaining, partly at our own expense, (that is out of the

he plT8 hr:rtS 0Hbe pe0ple’^ *“ "><*« ^blcd men who ar

ZnJZtb I" b PerTnent aSJ'IUm" to i-ugurate a gZt

partly uil(ioi. th it fZ T* * ^ °Wn C°ntro1 and “anagement,

and embody v which by degrees should fmbrac

Z T I 7 ’ humane> and Patriot!c idea suited to the case

Our dependence for success in such a scheme-very crude as yet-wouH

e the possession of more and earlier thought, better and fuller informa-

itself and ?! r pla,,-Such a Pla“ as would recommend

2 « tt ’ ’ 7 StatemeDt' W°'lld S° “*■*> ‘he consent and
affections of the people, as to secure its adoption by Congress.

bv bus? ,lei,left *° P°lltlc|ans, or be hurried through Congress

by busy men, it will want all profound merits. It will he s“e to violate

z^:rr°ts’ 7 woz poHticai ec°n°my’ and *» ^ the

plan it 1 V . he °t ler hand> we e«i slowly mature a wise, ripe

, ■' 11 come a germ of the utmost beneficence to the soldiers and

r,° tiie nation.

. e aie vr.iy anxious to have a careful report on the subject of the
oreign institutions for the care of invalid soldiers, before the next meeting
'Ongress. And at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the

Sanitary Commission recently held at my house, the following resolution
was offered by Mr. Olmsted, and passed:

Resolved, That S. H. Perkins, Esq., be requested to study the military
pension and invalid system of the principal European nations, visiting the
more important establishments in which invalid soldiers are maintained,
and to report his observations to the Commission, with the conclusions of
his judgment in regard to an invalid and pension system for the disabled
soldiers of the present war.

I hope you will consent to do this work for us. I know no man so
well fitted, and I really think it can be laid upon you as a clear- call of
Divine Providence. Nothing was said on the subject V>f remuneration.
We are all volunteers in this good work. But I think there is no
doubt that any necessary expenses, incurred in this service, extra to your
natural expenses, would be cheerfully reimbursed by this Commission ,
and, if this is a point of interest or importance, I will have action taken
upon it at the earliest moment.

***********

I am, dear sir, very respectfully and cordially, yours,

HENRY W. BELLOW^

• President of the Sanitary Commission.

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