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PRESENTED BY

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A SKETCH

OF ITS ORIGIN, HISTORY, LABORS FOR THE SICK AND

WOUNDED OF THE WESTERN ARMIES, AND AIT)

GIVEN TO FREEDMEN AND UNION REFU-

GEES, WITH INCIDENTS OF

HOSPITAL LIFE.

With the respects of the author,

J. G. FOKMAX.

ST. LOUIS:

PUBLISHED FOR THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY SANITARY FAIR.

R. P. STUDLEY A CO.

1864.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I .

Origin of Sanitary Commissions — How the Western Commission came to be organized —
The Early Battles in Missouri— Want of Preparation for taking care of the Wounded—
Order of Maj. Gen. Fremont constituting a Sanitary Commission — Establishment, of
Military Hospitals in St. Louis— Hospital Cars fitted up on the Pacific II. R.— Voluntary
Contributions from New England and the Northwestern States— Loyal Sympathies and
Patriotism of the Women of the Country — Incidents pp . 3 12

CHAPTER II.

Change of Department Commanders in the West— Gen. Halleck— Large Increase of Troops-
Hospitals filled— New Hospitals opened— Prevalence of Measles, Pneumonia, Typhoid
Fever and Diarrhea during the fall and winter of 1861-2— Large Arrivals and Distributions
of Sanitary Stores— Inspection of Hospitals— Secretaryship of the Commission— Medical
Director, J. J. B. Wright— Deficiency of the Medical Supply Table— The Labors of the
Loyal and Patriotic Women of St Louis in, the Hospitals— The Employment of Female
Nurses — Their Heroism and Self-sacrifice pp. 13 — 22

CHAPTER III.

The Battle of Fort Donelson— Activity of the Western Sanitary Commission— Steamers em
ployed to bring the Wounded_ to the St. Louis Hospitals— A Delegation from the
Commission and the Ladies' L'nion Aid Society return with a load of the Wounded —
Attentions to the Sick— The first Suggestion of Hospital Steamers— The Western Sanitary
Commission immediately acted on the Suggestion— The "City of Louisiana" fitted up
for this Sen-ice— First trip to Island No. 10— Value and usefulness of Hospital Steamers
proved by subsequent Experience— Assistant Surgeon General R. C. Wood— Great De
mand for Surgeons and Nurses— James M* Barnard, Esq., of Boston— Battle of Pea
Ridge— Destitute Condition of the Sick and Wounded— The Hospitals at Cassville— A. W.
Plattenburg sent by the Commission with Sanitary Stores— Interesting Account of his
Journey and of the good accomplished by it— The Agency Continued— His Future Labors
—Testimonials of his Usefulness— Heroism of Mrs. Phelps at Pea Ridge PP. 23—34

216595

C H A P T E It J V .

Soldiers' Home Established at St. Louis— Premiums Awarded to the Stewards and Ward-
masters of the best Hospitals, and to the most Faithful Nurses — The Rattle of Pittsburg
Landing— Large Number of Wounded— Additional Hospital Steamers furnished— Volun
teer Surgeons and Nurses — Additional Hospitals fitted up at St. Louis — Demand for
Surgeons — Number of Sick and Wounded in the St. Louis Hospitals — Report of the Com
mission PP . 35—48

C H A P T E R V .

Letter of the Commission to the Surgeon General— Scollay's Deodorizing Burial Case-
Capture of Fort Pillow and Memphis— Opening of the Mississippi River to Vicksburg—
Fitting out of the Naval Hospital Boat " Red Rover"- Arrival of Gen. Curtis' Army at
Helena -Its Destitute Condition— Sickness of the Army at Helena -Sanitary Depot Estab
lished there— Overton Hospital at Memphis— Sick from the Army in Tennessee -Hospitals
and Regiments Supplied -The Navy— Letter from Commodore Davis— An Earnest Appeal
from the Commission— Generous Response from New England PP. 49-59

CHAPTER VI.

Army of the Frontier — Agent sent to Springfield, Mo. , with stores — Battles at Cross Hol
lows, Cane Hill, and Prairie Grove— Arrival of Rev. Mr. Newell at Fayetteville with am
bulances and sanitary goods —His useful services — His death at a later period— Notice of
his character— Flying hospitals— Additional hospitals at St. Louis— The Marine, Jefferson
Barracks, and Lawson Hospitals — The diminishing per centage of deaths —The hopeful
condition of the armies of the Union— The sympathy of the people with the soldiers— Pros
pects of ultimate victory PP . 60—07

CHAPTER VII.

Gen. Sherman's first attack on Vicksburgh — Works assaulted — Severe losses to the Union
arms — Hospital steamers bring the wounded to Memphis and St. Louis — Battle of Arkan
sas Post— More wounded brought to St. Louis — Delegation of the Ladies' Union Aid So
ciety of St. Louis — Iowa State agent — Renewal of the expedition against Vicksburg, by
Gen. Grant— Increased hospital accommodations required— Visit of Mr. Yeatman to Gen.
Grant's army— His letter— Benton Barracks hospital, St. Louis— Additional hospitals at
Memphis — The floating hospital, "City of Alton," the " Ruth, " and "Glasgow" —
Second visit of Mr. Yeatman to Gen. Grant's army — His report — Sanitary stores sent
to Gen . Grant's army— Fall of Vicksburg— Its untitled heroes pp . 68—79

CHAPTER VIII.

Soldiers' Homes at Columbus, Ky., Memphis, Vicksburg, and Helena— Over 150,000 soldier
guests entertained — Further account of the St. Louis hospitals — Whole number of patients
treated— Number of deaths— Per centage of deaths— The military prisons at St. Louis and
Alton, Illinois — Humane treatment of sick prisoners pp. 80 — 99

CHAPTER IX.

Sanitary stores sent to the army of Gen. Davidson, at Bloomllcld, Missouri— Part of them
captured by Guerrillas — Narrow escape of the Agent — Stores sent to the army of General
Steele, at Du vail' s Bluff and Little Rock— Agency established at Little Rock— Acknow
ledgements— Stores sent to Foi-t Blunt, Cherokee Nation— Acknowledgment—Stores sent
to colored troops at Miliken's Bend, Goodrich's Lending, and Yicksburg — Letters of
Rev. Dr. Eliot and Mr. Yeatman— Books and instruction furnished to colored troops at
Benton Barracks— Letter from Colonel A. Watson Webber— Stores sent to Nashville and
Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Agency at Hunlsville, Ala. — Stores sent to the Naval Flotilla —
Veteran Regiments entertained at St. Louis— Stores to the 33d Ills, infantry— Acknowledg
ment — Stores to Banks' army on Red River— Several important questions answered— Do
the Soldiers get any of the Sanitary stores? — Illustration — Accountability of Agents —
Hospitals, regiments, hospital steamers and gunboats supplied with Sanitary stores — List
of Female Nurses who have proved their worth in the hospitals of St. Louis PP. 91 — 109

C II A P T E R X .

The Freedmen of the Mississippi — Fii-st efforts for their relief at Helena — Miss Maria R.
Mann— Mr. Yeatman 's visits to the freedmen, from Island No. 10, to Natchez— Chaplain
H. D. Fisher detailed as an Agent of the Commission, to make an appeal for aid, in New
England — Generous contributions received —Mr. Yeatman' s Report — Condition of the
freedmen — The subject presented to the attention of the Government —Mr. AV. P. Mellen
and Mr. Yeatman return to carry into effect an improved system of leasing the abandon
ed plantations, and of securing better wages to the laborers— Second visit to Washington —
Military protection given— National and other Freedmen 's Relief Associations — Messrs.
Marsh and Foster go to Vicksburg as agents — Teachers sent — Death of one of the num
ber— 4,500 freedmen arrive with the return of Gen. Sherman's army from Meridian— Their
condition — Aid given — Union refugees of the Mississippi Valley— Refugee. Home at St .
Louis— Refugees at Pilot Knob — Labors of Sup't. A. Wright — Refugee Home at Vicks
burg— School for refugee children pp . 110- 128

CHAPTER XI.

Resources of the Western Sanitary Commission— Appropriations by the Governor and Legis
lature of Missouri— Liberality of St. Louis— Donations from Massachusetts and California
— Gifts of the Peaple — Contributions from the Women of the Loyal States— Distributions
by the Commission— Number of Articles given— Estimated value one and a half millions
of dollars -Expenses of the Commission for Salaries of Agents, Rents, and Distribu
tion of Stores less than one per cent. — Friendship of Major Generals Fremont, Halleck ,
Curtis, Scholield, Rosecrans, Sherman, and Lieut. Gen. Grant for the Commission-
Also, of Assistant Surgeon General Wood, Gen. Allen, Colonels Parsons, Myers,
Haines, and Maj. Smith -Ladies' Union Aid Society of St. Louis -Its Work— Receipt s
and Disbursements -Freedmen's Relief Society of St. Louis -Its Work— Receipts and
Disbursements-Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair— Conclusion PP. 12!>— IJjS

THE

0mmjss0n

CHAPTER I.

ORIGIN OF SANITARY COMMISSIONS — How THE WESTERN COMMISSION CAME TO BE
ORGANIZED — THE EARLY BATTLES IN MISSOURI — WANT OF PREPARATION FOR
TAKING CARE OF THE WOUNDED — ORDER OF MAJ. GEN. FREMONT CONSTITUTING A
SANITARY COMMISSION — ESTABLISHMENT OF MILITARY HOSPITALS IN ST. Louis —
HOSPITAL CARS FITTED UP ON THE PACIFIC R. R. — VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM NEW ENGLAND AND THE NORTH-WESTERN STATES — LOYAL SYMPATHIES AND
PATRIOTISM OF THE WOMEN OF THE COUNTRY— INCIDENTS.

THE first organized attempt to mitigate the horrors of war, to pre
vent disease and save the lives of those engaged in military service.
by sanitary measures and a more careful nursing of the sick and
wounded, was made by a commission appointed by the British Gov
ernment during the Crimean war, to inquire into the terrible mortality
from disease that attended the British army at Sebastopol, and to apply
the needed remedies. It was as a part of this great work that the
heroic young Englishwoman, Florence Nightingale, with her army of
nurses, went to the Crimea to care for the sick and wounded soldier,
to minister in hospitals, and to alleviate suffering and pain, with a self-
sacrifice and devotion that has made her name a household word,
wherever the English language is spoken. In the armies of France the
Sisters of Charity had rendered similar services, and even ministered
to the wounded on the battle field; but their labors were a work of
religious charity and not an organized sanitary movement.

The experience of armies having shown that not less than five sol
diers die of disease to every one killed in battle, it became a problem,
whether this immense loss could not be greatly diminished by sani
tary means, and the military strength of a people be proportionally
increased by a greater economy of life, and the superior health, vigor,
and aggressive power of its armies. To this consideration was also
added the Christian duty of a people to minister to the comfort and
health of men engaged in so perilous a service, leaving their homes
and families and kindred to encounter sickness, wounds, and death,
for the sake of country and liberty.

The result of the enquiries of the British Commission, and of the
researches of medical science has clearly established the fact that the
" efficiency of an army must ever depend upon the state of health of
the corps which compose it;" and that "the history of war can 110
longer be confined to bare details of the plans of battles and the
manoeuvres of armies," but that "w^e must refer to other elements,
and principally to the sanitary condition of troops as the causes of
our victories, or the reasons for our disasters." *

The idea of an organization of civilians to look after the health of
the armies of the United States, on the breaking out of the present war,
and to minister to the sick and wounded, when the great battles should
be fought, which it was foreseen must be the inevitable results of the
conflict, originated in the minds of humane and patriotic men, who had
the welfare of the country, and its noble defenders, at heart, and took
form in the summer and autumn of 1861, in the formation of the United
States Sanitary Commission, with its centre of operations at Washing
ton, and of the Western Sanitary Commission, with its field of service
at St. Louis, and in the armies, the navy and the hospitals of the west.

The noble labors of the U. S. Commission and its subordinate

* The British Army and Miss Nightingale . By Charles Shrimpton , M . D . , late Surgeon
Major in the French Army, London: Bailliere Brothers, 18G4. Quoted in North American
Review, April, 1864.

branches having been already recorded in a valuable history,* and
in various publications, it is proposed in the present publication to
give a sketch of the "Western Commission, its modes of operation,
its agencies and labors in the western armies and hospitals, its inci
dental work for the Freedmaii and Union refugees, and its plans of
usefulness for the future of the war.

The organization of the Western Sanitary Commission was the
result of circumstances growing out of the war in Missouri ; the
necessity for it was both sudden and unexpected, and its earliest
labors were entirely spontaneous and unpremeditated. The city of
Saint Louis had become the Headquarters of the Military Depart
ment of the West. During the summer of 1861 the battles of
Boonville, Dug Spring, Carthage, and Wilson's Creek, were fought in
Missouri, the last on the 10th of August, twelve miles south of Spring-
field, near the Fayetteville road. This was one of the most desperately
fought engagements of the war, and the number of killed and
wounded was very great. The wounded, numbering 721, were
brought all the way from Springfield to Rolla in ambulances and
army wagons, and thence by cars to Saint Louis, and so little
preparation had then been made for such an event that there were
not additional hospital accommodations for so many in the whole
city. The "Ke\v House of Refuge Hospital," situated two miles
south of St. Louis, had only been opened on the 6th of the same
month, by Medical Director De Camp, with Dr. Bailley in charge,
two excellent and humane surgeons of the regular army, and was as
yet unfinished and unprovided with the requisites of a good hospital.
Its condition at the time is thus described in an article in the North
American Review for April, 1864, entitled "Loyal Work in Missouri."
'' It had neither stoves, nor bedsteads, nor beds, nor bedding, nor
food, nor nurses, nor any thing prepared. The first hundred arrived

*The United States Sanitary Commission, Boston; Little, Brown Company, 1863.

at night. They had been brought in wagons a hundred and twenty
miles, over a rough road, by hurried marches, suffering for food
and water, from Springfield to Holla, and thence by rail to Saint
Louis to the station on Fourteenth Street. There, having had
nothing to eat for ten hours, they were put into furniture carts
(much better than those instruments of torture called ambulances)
and carried the remaining three miles. Bare walls, bare floors, and
an empty kitchen received them ; but the kind-hearted surgeon,
Bailley, did all he could to make kindness take the place of good
fare. He obtained from the neighbors cooked food for their supper,
and lost no time in getting together the various means of comfort.
The poor fellows were so shattered and travel-worn that they were
thankful enough to get eatable food, with the hard boards to sleep
upon, and no word of complaint did we ever hear one of them
utter. In the course of the week three or four hundred more were
brought in, the condition of things meanwhile rapidly improving ;
but so great was the difficulty of obtaining anything that was
wanted, that many of the badly wounded men lay there in the
same unchanged garments in wThich they had been brought from the
battle-field three weeks before. Every day, however, made things
better, and by the end of a month from the first arrivals Dr. Bailley
began to say that 'it was not yet what he called a good hospital,
but that the men were all comfortable.' "

Arrivals of sick and wounded continued and other accommodations
had to be obtained without delay. All the available wards of the
Saint Louis Hospital, kept by the Sisters of Charity, and of the
City Hospital were immediately taken and filled, and still there
was need of more hospitals. The sad and neglected condition of
those who were brought from Springfield excited the benevolent and
patriotic sympathies of all who loved their country and its brave
defenders. The wounds of many had not been dressed since their
first dressing after the battle ; others were still suffering from

unextracted bullets and pieces of shell, and the hospitals were
unprovided with the necessary hospital clothing to substitute for
the soiled clothing of the men, which in many instances were
saturated with the blood of their wounds.

It was at this juncture that the Western Sanitary Commission was
suddenly called into existence. Miss D. L. Dix, the philanthropist,
was then in Saint Louis, and in communication with the new Com
mander of the Department, Major General Fremont ; Mrs. Fremont
was also deeply interested in every thing relating to the welfare
of the sick and wounded soldier ; other persons of humane and
patriotic motives and sentiments were personally known to General
Fremont, and the suggestion of a Sanitary Commission at Saint
Louis, to be subordinate to and act in aid of the Medical Depart
ment, coming from such sources, was favorably regarded and carried
into immediate effect. An order was issued by him on the 5th
of September, appointing the Western Sanitary Commission, in which
its duties and sphere of action were thus defined :

"Its general object shall be to carry out, under the properly con
stituted military authorities, and in compliance with their orders,
such sanitary regulations and reforms as the well-being of the soldiers
demand.

"This Commission shall have authority — under the directions of
the Medical Director — to select, fit up and furnish suitable buildings
for Army and Brigade Hospitals, in such places and in such manner
as circumstances require. It will attend to the selection and appoint
ment of women nurses, under the authority and by the direction
of Miss D. L. Dix, General Superintendent of the Nurses of Mili
tary Hospitals in the United States. It will co-operate with the
surgeons of the several hospitals in providing male nurses, and in
whatever manner practicable, and by their consent. It shall have
authority to visit the different camps, to consult with the com
manding officers, and the colonels and other officers of the several

regiments, with regard to the sanitary and general condition of the
troops, and aid them in providing proper means for the preserva
tion of health and prevention of sickness, by supply of wholesome
and well cooked food, by good systems of drainage, and other
practicable methods. It will obtain from the community at large
such additional means of increasing the comfort and promoting the
moral and social welfare of the men, in camp and hospital, as may
be needed, and cannot be furnished by Government Regulations.
It will, from time to time, report directly to the Commander-in-Chief
of the Department the condition of the camps and hospitals, with
such suggestions as can properly be made by a Sanitary Board.

" This Commission is not intended in any way to interfere with
the Medical Staff, or other officers of the army, but to co-operate
\\ilh them, and aid them in the discharge of their present arduous
and extraordinary duties. It will be treated by all officers of the
army, both regular and volunteer, in this Department, with the
respect due to the humane and patriotic motives of the members,
and to the authoiity of the Oommander-in-Chief.

" This Sanitary Commission will, for the present, consist of James
E. Yeatman, Esq.; C. S. Greeley, Esq.; J. B. Johnson, M. D. ;
George Partridge, Esq., and the Rev. Win. G. Eliot, D. D."

As soon as this order was issued the gentlemen named in it,
acting as a Sanitary Commission, commenced their labors in con
nection with the Medical Department. Their first important work
was the fitting up of a new hospital sufficiently large to accommodate
at least five hundred patients. Negotiations were opened for renting
the large five story marble-fronted building, corner of Fifth and
Chesnut streets, which was secured at a reasonable rent. Necessary
alterations were made, arrangements for bathing introduced, special
diet-kitchens were fitted up, and the whole building furnished with
beds and bedding. On the 10th of September it was opened for
the reception of patients, under the charge of Surgeon John T.

Ilodgen, U. 8. V., with a competent corps of Assistant Surgeons,
apothecary, steward, ward masters, nurses, &c., under the title of
the "City General Hospital.*'

It was rapidly filled with patients and continued as a military
hospital until the autumn of 1863, under the charge of Dr. Hodgen,
whose able and faithful services and great surgical skill were fully
recognized and appreciated by the Medical Department and by the
Western Sanitary Commission, with whom his relations have always
been most intimate, and whose members have ever found in him
a willing co-worker and friend.

Being located in a central part of the city, convenient to the
rail road depots and the river, it was the place of reception of
nearly all the severely wounded and the hopelessly sick on their
arrival, for which reasons its per centage of deaths was large, being
144 for a period of nearly two years ; but it was one of the best
conducted and well managed hospitals in the west.

It was in this building the Wesiern Sanitary Commission com
menced its useful and arduous labors, having its office in a small
room at the left of the entrance, in the second story, and a store
room for sanitary goods in the basement, its members meeting every
day for consultation and action; its President, Jas. E. Yeatman, giv
ing his whole time to the work, and having only one man to act
as store keeper, porter and clerk, at tlie small salary of thirty dollars
a month ; and yet the work went on, each member of the Commis
sion lending a helping hand, boxes of sanitary stores arriving from
New England, and from the various towns and cities of the West,
prepared and forwarded by the willing hands of the wives and
mothers and daughters of the land, and being distributed as needed
to the hospitals and camps, and regiments m and around St. Louis,
and at more distant posts in the interior of the State.

From September 12th to September 21st, occurred the seige, the bat
tle, and surrender of Lexington, Mo., which threw some three hundred

more wounded men upon the hospitals of St. Louis. During the two
months in which these events happened, besides the hospitals already
named, five more were added, the Good Samaritan, the Fourth Street
or Eliot Hospital, the Pacific, the Post and the Convalescent Hospitals
at Bentoii Barracks.

During the month of October, Maj. Gen. Fremont took the field in
person, with an army of twenty thousand troops, and went in pursuit
of the rebel Gen. Price, who had retreated from Lexington. This
pursuit was continued to Springfield, Mo., under forced marches, and
on Gen. Fremont's removal from the command, November 5th, the
army was ordered back again by the new commander, Maj. Gen. Hun
ter. By this long and toilsome march and counter march, many of the
troops were broken down, and were transferred to the hospitals.

One of the last acts that Gen. Fremont performed, on leaving St
Louis on this expedition, was an order, alike creditable to Ins judg
ment and his humanity, directed to the Western Sanitary Commission,
to fit up two hospital cars on the Pacific Railroad, with berths, nurses,
cooking arrangements, etc., for the transportation of the sick and
wounded, which was done. These were probably the first hospital
cars prepared and furnished as such in the United States, and for
several months they proved exceedingly useful.

Through all these exciting months the members of the Western Sani
tary Commission continued their voluntary labors without abatement,
and the fitting up of all these hospitals was left mainly to them by the
then acting Medical Director. As sanitary stores were needed, appeals
were made through the newspapers and generously responded to by
the people of St. Louis. Gradually the work of the Commission be
came more widely known ; some of its members having a large acquain
tance in New England, an interest was excited there, and contributions
of hospital clothing, bandages, lint, dried and canned fruits, jellies and
other delicacies for the sick, began to arrive from that source, and from
Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and other Western States. From

the principal cities and towns of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and
Rhode Island ; from Boston, Providence and Portsmouth; from Salem,
New Bedford, Worcester, Springfield, Cambridge, Cambridgeport,
Roxbury, Newton, and many other towns, boxes came filled with new
blankets, sheets, comforters, pillows, towels, socks, mittens, bandages,
lint, and many little articles of convenience for the soldier's private
use, such as needle books, pin cushions, handkerchiefs, games for
amusement, little boxes of salve for sores and wounds, all showing
the thoughtful sympathy and affection of the noble women of the
country for those who had taken up arms to vindicate the majesty 01
the Government against a most unholy rebellion — a cause in which
their own fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons had enlisted that they
might preserve the institutions of liberty to themselves and coming
generations.

It was au interesting spectacle to see these boxes opened in the store
rooms of the Commission, and on examination to find in. the socks and
mittens (of which there were many thousand pairs, in anticipation
of the needs of the winter,) tracts and manuscript letters, full of words
of advice, encouragement and sympathy. Sometimes there would be
found in the toe of a sock a letter addressed, " To the soldier who shall
wear these socks : Be of good cheer ! may these socks keep your feet
warm, while you stand on your post, or march on to battle and
victory!" "May the rebellion soon be subdued, and you have the
satisfaction of having aided in the glorious work." Sometimes quite
lengthy epistles would be folded up in these presents, with the names
and address of the writers given, and we have known some very
pleasant correspondence to follow from these friendly missives to the
soldiers. In one instance a pocket bible was contained among the
sanitary stores, having the name and address of the giver, and was
given to an intelligent and faithful soldier at Rolla, who wrote the lady
an acknowledgment of the gift, and a very interesting and profitable
correspondence resulted.

Sometimes these presents would contain a slip of paper, on which
would be written, " Knit by a little girl, eight years of age," and some
times another would be written, " Knit by E F , aged seventy-
six years," showing that from childhood to age the women of the
country, were heart and hand with their country's defenders, in the
war for the preservation of the Union.

From the Northwestern States contributions also came in freely,
especially from Wisconsin, where the Rev. H. A. lieid, and his wife,
devoted themselves, with a truly Christian zeal, to the work of soliciting
supplies. Illinois and Iowa, and Michigan also did their part nobly,
and a few gifts were sent from Ohio, though the contributions from
that State went mostly to the U. S. Sanitary Commission. The sup
plies sent from these Western States were largely of canned and dried
fruits, jellies, butter, etc., for the use of the sick. In this connection the
City of Madison, and all the smaller towns in Wisconsin, the cities of
Chicago, Quincy, Alton, Peoria, and the smaller towns in Illinois ; the
cities of Detroit, Ypsilaiiti, Marshall, Battle Creek, and other places
in Michigan, the cities of Davenport, Dubuque, Keokuk, and the towns
of Iowa will be long and gratefully remembered.

C H A P T E li II.
CHANGE OK DEPARTMENT COMMANDERS IN THE WEST— GENERAL HALLECK— LARGE

INCREASE OF TROOPS-HOSPITALS FILLED— NEW HOSPITALS OPENED— PREVALENCE

OF MEASLES, PNEUMONIA, TYPHOID FEVER AND DIARRHEA DURING THE FALL
AND WINTER OF 1861-2— LARGE ARRIVALS AND DISTRIBUTIONS OF SANITARY STORES
—INSPECTION OF HOSPITALS— SECRETARYSHIP OF THE COMMISSION— MEDICAL DI
RECTOR, J. J. B. WRIGHT— DEFICIENCY OF THE MEDICAL SUPPLY TABLE— THE
LABORS OF THE LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC WOMEN OF ST. Louis IN THE HOSPITALS
—THE EMPLOYMENT OF FEMALE NURSES— THEIR HEROISM AND SELF-SACRIFICE.

On the removal of Maj. Gen. Fremont, his successor continued in
command but sixteen days, when he was superseded by the appoint
ment of Maj. Gen. Halleck on the 21st of November. The business
of recruiting, which had suffered on account of these changes, was
now revived and carried forward successfully, until there were en
camped at Benton Barracks, during the months of December and
January, 1861-?62, over twenty thousand troops, infantry, cavalry, and
artillery, from nearly all the Western States. The extensive grounds
and barracks prepared by General Fremont were entirely occupied,
and the work of military instruction went forward with zeal and
energy.

The presence of so many troops in one great encampment, the
crowded condition of the barracks, the inexperience of the soldiers in
their first encounter with exposure and hardship, the inclemency of
the winter months, and the inability of the department to do all that
was required, occasioned a large amount of sickness among the dif
ferent regiments. The most prevalent diseases were measles, pneu.
monia, typhoid fever, and diarrhea. In one instance, it happened that
three hundred, in a single regiment of cavalry, were sick, mostly
taken down with measles. In another, the surgeon reported one
thousand out of thirteen hundred men, suffering from coughs and

colds. The barracks being rough buildings, with many open cracks,
and floors without any space beneath, were far from comfortable, and
the regimental hospitals were not well warmed, nor kept at an even
temperature, nor properly ventilated. The consequence was that many
of the measle patients were afterwards attacked with pneumonia, and
died. The small-pox also broke out, and the hospital established on
Duncan's Island, (opposite the arsenal, in the Mississippi river,) for
this class of patients, was filled and required additional accommoda
tions.

During the months of December and January, the number of sick
and wounded in all the hospitals of Saint Louis and vicinity had
reached over 2,000, and the labors of the Sanitary Commission were
greatly increased. Meetings were held every few days ; frequent
inspections were made of all the hospitals and camps ; reports were
prepared and submitted to the commanding general; improvements
were introduced; and supplies were forwarded wherever needed.

Besides the hospitals and camps in and around Saint Louis, there
were large bodies of troops at Kolla, the terminus of the south-west
branch of the Pacific railroad, a point of great strategic importance,
and at Tipton and Sedalia, two other important points, and at Ironton,
the southern terminus of the Iron Mountain railroad, and at Jefferson
City, the capital of the State, where they were encamped for the winter.
At these places there was a large amount of sickness and great mor
tality. The tents and huts in which the soldiers had gone into win
ter quarters, were poorly ventilated ; the hospitals were generally log
buildings, very much crowded, badly ventilated, and yet allowing the
entrance of draughts of cold air, having also bad floors, through which
the dampness ascended from the ground. The soldiers were not yet in
ured to hardship, and were inexperienced in taking proper care of
themselves, and in attending to sanitary and police regulations, and
the consequence was a melancholy state of disease and death at
those military posts. The writer of this sketch has a sad remern-

brance of the new-made graves at Holla, which he found there in the
spring of 1862, where so many of the Iowa, and Illinois and Missouri
troops spent the fall and early part of winter before they went 011
their victorious march, under General Curtis, through Springfield to
Pea Ridge, recovering the ground relinquished by Gen. Hunter, after
the removal of Fremont, and driving the rebels from Missouri beyond
the Boston Mountains.

But before this march was undertaken, and while the troops lay
in their winter encampments, the demands for sanitary stores were
incessant, and the supply was always equal to the emergency. From
regimental surgeons there was a constant application for additional
medicines beyond the allowance afforded by the Medical Depart
ment. The old medical supply table was found utterly inadequate
to the emergency. Expectorants and other important remedies were
in constant demand, and large additions were furnished by the
Sanitary Commission. The request was equally urgent for hospital
clothing and delicate food for the sick. Large issues were made
of blankets, sheets, pillows, pillow slips, comforters, slippers-, socks,
wrappers, shirts, drawers, bandages, lint, and supplies of farina, jellies,
canned and dried fruits, stimulants, &c. Surgeons came into the
Sanitary Rooms personally to present their requests, and voluntary
agents from Holla, Jefferson City, Tipton, Sedalia, and Ironton al so
came, and represented the condition of the .hospitals at those posts,
to all of which liberal responses were made, goods forwarded, visits
made in person by the President and members of the Commission,
and members of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and every thing
done that was possible to alleviate suffering and diminish disease.

In these labors the "Western Commission received the hearty and
cordial support of Major General Halleck, the new commander of the
Western Department, and was often favored with the presence at
its meetings of his Chief of Staff, Brigadier General George W.
Cullum, U. S. A., whose experience and excellent suggestions were
of great value.

Up to this period, January, 1862, the Commission had received
over live hundred and twenty-five boxes of goods, and distributed
over fifteen thousand articles, consisting of hospital clothing, and
delicate preparations of food for the sick, besides aiding to furnish
many of the general hospitals and supplying1 the deficiencies of
medicine to the regiments.

The work of the Commission during the months of December
and January had consisted largely in the visitation and inspection of
the camps and hospitals in and around Saint Louis, in efforts for
their improvement, in the reception and distribution of sanitary
stores, in the employment of female nurses, and in correspondence
with the military authorities and the friends of the Union cause
in different parts of the country.

In the enlargement of its work it became necessary to procure
additional store room for goods, and to employ a Secretary. For a
period of three months this position was filled by Kev. J. G. For-
man, of Alton, 111., who resigned it to enter upon his duties as
Chaplain of the 3d Missouri volunteers, and Mr. L. B. Ripley suc
ceeded him for several months, when he also resigned and became
the Quartermaster of the 33d Missouri volunteers. In May, 1863,
Kev. Mr. Forman again became permanently Secretary of the Com
mission.

In February, 1862, the small room in the Fifth Street Hospital
was vacated for the larger rooms, No. 10, North Fifth Street, still
occupied by the Commission.

In the month of December the excellent Medical Director, Sur
geon De Camp, with whom the Commission had labored in estab
lishing and fitting up the new military hospitals, was superseded
by Dr. J. J. B. Wright, U. S. A., and it was some time before
the relations of the Commission became entirely harmonious with
this officer. Like many of the old army surgeons he was sensi
tive of any imaginary interference with the Medical Department,

considered it fully competent to manage every thing relating to the
health of the army, and had an evident dislike of sanitary commis
sions, and a disposition to decline all aid from this source. He
was in the habit of remarking that the old army had never re
ceived any such assistance, and that he saw no reason why the
volunteers should have this partiality shown to them. But the
Sanitary Commission showed no partialities, and all soldiers of the
United States, whether regulars or volunteers, were treated by it
precisely alike. The prejudice existing in the minds of the surgeons
of the regular army towards the Sanitary Commissions and the
surgeons of the volunteer forces has been frequently manifested, and
is to be greatly deplored, preventing harmony of action and result
ing in much injury to the service.

In the present instance there was great complaint from the surgeons
of the volunteer regiments of the deficiency of the medical supply table,
and constant applications were made to the Commission for additional
medicines. The regimental surgeons stated that they could not get
their requisitions answered at the medical purveyor's office; that the
articles they most needed were stricken oft', the quantities reduced
in others, and that their patients could not be properly treated and
were dying for want of proper medicines. The difficulty was repre
sented to Maj. Gen. Hallcck by the Commission, and he issued an
order on the Medical Department to increase its allowances, which
order the Medical Director refused to comply with. The matter was
referred by Gen. Halleck to "Washington, and the result was that in
the end the medical supply table for regiments in the field was con
siderably enlarged. The relations of the Commission afterwards
became more harmonious with Medical Director Wright, as he found
its services to be really useful and necessary; but, although invited, he
never attended its meetings, and always maintained a distant and
merely official intercourse with its members.

While the Commission was thus engaged the loyal and patriotic

women of the city were not less active, in works of love for the sick
and wounded, and in expressions of encouragement and sympathy for
the soldiers in the field. In them the Commission found most ener
getic and faithful co-workers. At the rooms of the Ladies' Union Aid
and of the Fremont Relief Societies, they met daily and cut out hospital
garments, employed sewing machines in the making of them, gave
occupation and assistance to soldiers' wives and families, received
and distributed sanitary stores, visited the sick, carrying with them
delicately prepared food and cordials, good religious books, and other
reading matter to cheer and comfort them, conversed at their bedsides,
gave them consolation and sympathy, and in many instances gave hope
in Christ and confidence in God and heaven to the departing spirit.
The labors thus cheerfully performed will not only find an honorable
record on earth, but are already registered in heaven.

It would be a grateful task to the writer to name many of those
whom he often met in these visitations of mercy in the hospitals, but
the fear of wounding by giving publicity to deeds that were not done
to secure the world's applauses, and making omissions that would
seem like an unjust discrimination, induces him to refrain from the
attempt. Some of them were the wives of our best and most loyal
citizens, persons of wealth, culture and refinement, who used to sit
for hours by the bed-side of the sick and wounded, fanning the
fevered brow, reading from sonic good book, and speaking so hope,
fully, that their gentle influence was always visible in its effects upon
the countenances of those who were the objects of their tender soli
citude and care. In one instance, a youth, hardly yet more than a
boy, who had been often visited, as his spirit was sinking away from
earth, asked one of these goodly women to kiss him for his mother;
and the farewell kiss was given, and the spirit of the boy departed,
leaving the smile of peace on his fair young face, which his own
dear mother could never kiss again.

Among those who thus passed from room to room through the hos-

pitals, giving to one a testament, to another a soldier's prayer-book,
to a third a volume of pleasant reading, accompanied always by an
expression of friendly interest and sympathy, two sisters from Phil
adelphia are warmly remembered, who came all the way to Saint
Louis, and spent the winter in these holy ministries of love, whose
names, like the true sisters of humanity of our own city, I leave un-
mentioned here, feeling assured that they are all recorded in the
Lamb's Book of Life, and written on the tablet of many a soldier's
heart.

The following lines, written by a private soldier, addressed to one
who had thus ministered to him in sickness, are the fit expression of
what was often conveyed in the pleased and grateful countenance
of many a sick and dying soldier to the saintly souls of those who
came to bless and comfort them in their hours of pain and lan
guishing :

" From old Saint Paul 'till now,

Of honorable women, not a few

Have left their golden ease in love to do

The saintly work which Christ-like hearts pursue.

"And such an one art thou! God's fair apostle,
Bearing His love in war's horrific train :
Thy blessed feet follow its ghastly pain —
And misery, and death, without disdain.

" To one borne from the sullen battle's roar,
Dearer the greeting of thy gentle eyes,
"When he, aweary, torn and bleeding lies.
Than all the glory that the victors prize !

" When peace shall come, and homes shall smile again,

A thousand soldier-hearts in northern climes,

Shall tell their little children in their rhymes,

Of the sweet saints who blessed the old war times."

The employment of female nurses, and their assignment to duty in
the hospitals, was another important service rendered by the Presi
dent of the commission — a delicate trust — and one attended with
many difficulties. The example of Florence Nightingale and her corps
of female nurses in the Crimea, and the patriotic sympathies of the
women of America with their brothers in arms, led large numbers of
them to offer themselves for this service. The natural superiority of
women, as nurses, was felt by all, and the government, therefore,
determined to make room for a certain proportion of female nurses
in the hospitals. Miss D. L. Dix, a lady widely and favorably known
by her humanitary labors for prisoners and the insane, was appointed
" Superintendent of Women Nurses,'7 to determine upon their qualifi
cations, and grant certificates ; and only those who had received such
certificates, either from her or her agents, were to be employed by
the surgeons in charge of general hospitals. The President of the
Western Sanitary Commission was made the agent of Miss Dix for the
Western Department, and on him the duty devolved of receiving all
applications for this branch of the service, determining the qualifica
tions of the applicants, granting the certificates of appointment, and
assigning them to duty in the hospitals, on the request of the sur
geons in charge for the number required.

The qualifications of women nurses were, that the applicants should
be of suitable age, (from 25 to 50 years,) that they should be per
sons in good health, with sound constitutions, capable of bearing
fatigue; that they should be free from levity and frivolity, of an
earnest but cheerful spirit; that they should dress in plain colors,
and in a manner convenient for their work; that they should be per
sons of good education ; and, that they should be recommended by
at least two responsible persons, (their clergyman and physician being
preferred,) as to their fitness for this service.

At a later period Surgeon General Wm. A. Hammond issued an order
regulating the number of women nurses to be employed in the general

'Jl

hospitals to one for every twenty beds, afterwards modified to one for
every thirty beds, and requiring that no nurses should be employed with
out the certificate of Miss Dix, or her agents, except on emergencies.

Under these regulations a large number of women nurses were
employed in the hospitals of the Western Department, and were
allowed a compensation of $12 per month and transportation from
their place of residence, and to it again on their being relieved
from duty, with quarters and a ration (or board) in the hospitals.
The full number allowed was seldom called for by the surgeons,
and in some of the more distant hospitals the regulations were
not always complied with, the surgeons in charge often employing
persons selected by themselves, and not always such as would have
been approved. This practice has recently been prevented by an
order from the War Department, prohibiting the payment of all who
have not received the proper certificates of approval from Miss
Dix, or from those acting with her authority.

The nurses commissioned by the President of the Western Sanitary
Commission have generally been such as to do honor to the service,
and by their devotion to the sick and wounded soldier, their attention
to his diet, their oversight of his welfare, their watchings by his bed
side, their kindly presence and cheering influence, they have often
turned the balance when poised between life and death, and saved
many a soldier and hero to his country and his friends.

The number employed in the hospitals of the Western Depart
ment up to the present date, (May, 1864,) holding their certificates
from the President of the Western Commission, is two hundred and
seventy-three.* A few instances of unworthiness have occurred, and

* In giving this account of women nurses it is proper to state that an order was issued
from the Medical Department in October, 1803, directing that certificates should be granted
to those nux-ses who had been for some time in the service, on the recommendation of the
surgeons in charge. Under this order about one hundred certificates were sent by mail in
answer to such recommendations. It has been since ascertained that some of those for
whom certificates were thus obtained were cooks and laundresses, the surgeons in these
cases taking the responsibility as to the character of those whom they recommended.

some have failed to meet the requirements of the situation, but gen
erally they have been persons of intelligence, /good education, and a
credit to humanity, the noblest types " of good, heroic womanhood."
Many of them have left homes of comfort and refinement, and the
pleasant associations of honored friends and kindred, to engage in
this work of self-sacrifice ; some have been closely related to the
best and noblest families in the nation, and left all to minister in
hospitals for the sake of those who have fought and bled in the
sacred cause of human liberty. Others again, have laid down their
lives in this holy service, dying of disease incurred in the infected
air of the hospital, and passing onward with our departed heroes
and martyrs to that higher life where the sounds of war and con
flict are hushed in eternal peace.

CHAPTER III.

THE BATTLE OF FORT DONELSON — ACTIVITY OF THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION
— STEAMERS EMPLOYED TO BRING THE WOUNDED TO THE SAINT Louis HOSPITALS —
A DELEGATION FROM THE COMMISSION AND THE LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY

RETURN WITH A LOAD OF THE WOUNDED— ATTENTIONS TO THE SlCK— THE FIRST
SUGGESTION OF HOSPITAL STEAMERS— THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION IMME
DIATELY ACTED ON THE SUGGESTION— THE " ClTY OF LOUISIANA" FITTED UP FOR
THIS SERVICE— FIRST TRIP TO ISLAND No . 10— VALUE AND USEFULNESS OF HOSPITAL

STEAMERS PROVED BY SUBSEQUENT EXPERIENCE— ASSISTANT SURGEON-GENERAL R.
C. WOOD— GREAT DEMAND FOR SURGEONS AND NURSES— JAMES M. BARNARD, ESQ.,
OF BOSTON— BATTLE OF PEA RIDGE— DESTITUTE CONDITION OF THE SICK AND
WOUNDED — THE HOSPITALS AT CASSVILLE — A. W. PLATTENBURG SENT BY THE
COMMISSION WITH SANITARY STORES— INTERESTING ACCOUNT OF HIS JOURNEY AND
OF THE GOOD ACCOMPLISHED BY IT— THE AGENCY CONTINUED— His FUTURE LABORS
—TESTIMONIALS OF HIS USEFULNESS— HEROISM OF MRS. PHELPS AT PEA RIDGE.

On the 13th, 14th, and loth of February, 1862, was fought the
battle of Fort Doiielson, on the Cumberland River in, West Ten
nessee, in which the United States forces under General U. S.
Grant, were victorious, compelling the surrender of the Fort, and
taking- 10,000 prisoners of war under the rebel Brig. Gen. S. B.
Buckner. In this battle there were 231 killed and 1,007 wounded
of the Confederate forces, and the loss on our own side was much
greater, as the rebels fought within their entrenchments and our
troops in the open field, where for three nights they lay upon the
bare ground in a driving storm of snow and sleet, and renewed
the battle from day to day, till victory crowned their arms.

On the news of this battle reaching St. Louis the Western Sani
tary Commission made every preparation to assist the Medical
Department in the care of the sick and wounded. A member of
the Commission, accompanied by a delegation of physicians, nurses,
and members of the Ladies' Union Aid Society, and by Surgeon J.
II. Grove, U. S. V., proceeded immediately to Cairo by rail, and
thence by steamer to Paducah, Ky., at the mouth of the Cumber-

land river, with sanitary stores, to which place the wounded had
been brought, where they were most courteously received by Medi
cal Director Simmons, who placed the steamer "Ben Franklin" at
their service, and ordered a load of the wounded to be put in their
charge to bring to St. Louis.

While the boat was being made ready, the ladies of the delega
tion went on board the various steamers at the landing and gave
their kind attentions to the wounded, assisting to wash them, and
to promote their comfort in every possible way.

The following account of the return trip is from the report made
to the Commission at the time : " Furnished with the order of
the Medical Director we visited the various hospitals in Paducah,
and selected as many of the wounded as we could safely and com
fortably transport to St. Louis. It required twenty-four hours to
get 155 patients on board.

"As soon as we got under way, the ladies set to work to wash and
cleanse, and comb the hair of the sick and wounded. Warm water,
soap, sponge, and flesh brushes were brought in requisition. Not only
the face and neck, but the hands and feet, and other parts of the body
had to undergo this purifying process. After this, the surgeons, Drs.
Grove, Alleyne, and myself, proceeded to dress the wounds and other
severe injuries of our patients, in which again we were materially
aided by the ladies and gentlemen of our delegation. This process
required from three to four hours daily.

" The following was the daily routine : Early in the morning the ladies
attended to the ablutions and cleansing of the patients. Breakfast was
then served them, after which, a careful surgical and medical examina
tion was gone through. Then came dinner, when they were waited on
by all on board who could be spared from duty. After dinner, they
were read to, and entertained by conversation. At supper again they
had the attentions of all on board. After which we had singing of
sacred or national hymns, reading the Scriptures, and prayer,"

On arriving at St. Louis the wounded were at once taken in charge
by medical officers, acting under the Medical Director, and transferred
to the various hospitals.

From this time, general hospitals were established at Paducah and
Mound City, and the Western Commission directed a portion of its
supplies to those points, and many sanitary stores were also sent
directly from the towns and cities of Illinois, accompanied by friends
and relatives, and other humane persons, who went to tender their
services as nurses, or in any capacity in which they could be useful.

It was during the trip of the St. Louis Sanitary delegation to Padu
cah, that the idea of hospital steamers was suggested by Dr. Simmons,
the Medical Director, and embodied in the report to the Western Com
mission. He thought it would be wise to procure several good sized
steamers and to fit them up as floating hospitals, properly organized
with a chief surgeon, assistant surgeons, stewards, nurses, medical and
sanitary stores, to accompany the progress of our arms along the west
ern rivers, and to be always ready to receive the sick and wounded,
on the occurrence of great battles, and convey them to the general
hospitals, already provided farther north. The trip of the "Ben.
Franklin " was itself a recommendation of the plan, and it was speedily
acted upon by the Commission.

At the same meeting at which the above report and suggestions were
made, Rev. "Wm. G. Eliot, D.D., was requested to address a letter to
Maj. Gen. Halleck, setting forth the proposed plan for one or more
Floating Hospitals, pledging that the Commission, if the suggestion
met with his approbation, would take the whole care and labor of
carrying it into execution.

The plan was highly approved by the General commanding, and an
order was issued to the chief quartermaster to purchase a steamer
suited to the purpose, who, in connection with the Commission, finally
selected and chartered the " City of Louisiana." On the 20th of
March she had been thoroughly furnished as a hospital boat, the Gov-

ernmeiit supplying her with beds and commissary stores, and the
Western Sanitary Commission completing her outfit at an expense
of $3000. In addition to this the Commission also provided the assis
tant surgeons, the apothecary, the male and female nurses, and fur
nished a full supply of sanitary stores. Her first trip was made to Island
No. 10, to await the conflict there, but the place was taken at last by
a flank movement of Gen. Pope on New Madrid, without loss of life,
and there was no occasion for her service at that time. But it was
not long till ample opportunity of usefulness occurred at Pittsburg
Landing. On this first trip the President of the Western Sanitary
Commission went also, sharing in the general expectation of a terrible
battle at Island No. 10.

After the battle of Pittsburg Landing this boat conveyed 3,389
patients to northern hospitals, and was in the spring of 1863, purchased
by the Government, remodeled for a permanent floating hospital, with
accommodations for five hundred beds, and named the UR. C. Wood,"
in honor of the Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Army,
who was the first of the leading surgeons of the regular army to give
his sanction and approval to the plan of a Sanitary Commission, and
has always given his influence, encouragement, and aid to its beneficent
labors, counselled with its members, and carried into effect, in his
department, every valuable suggestion it has made.

The "JR. C. Wood" is a vessel of great speed, and of large dimen
sions. Her state rooms have been removed, and the whole upper deck
made into one large ward, with abundant light admitted, and having
excellent means of ventilation, with ample provision of bath rooms,
hot and cold water, cooking apartments, nurses' rooms, medical dis
pensary, laundry, and many other conveniences. With all the requi
sites of a good hospital on shore, it has the advantage of the fresh
breezes and currents of air that are common to the river ; and in the
heat of summer, by moving on the stream, a delightful ventilation and
refreshing breeze are obtained, passing through the sick ward, and

cooling- the fevered brows and pulses of the patients on board. Dur
ing the summer of 1863 this boat made constant trips from the army
at Vicksburg, bringing: the wounded and sick to the St. Louis hos
pitals. During her first period of service she was in charge of Dr.
Wagener, and is now in charge of Surgeon Thomas F. Azpell, U. S. V.
The great utility and valuable service of floating hospitals was soon
established and led to the fitting out of several others by the Gov
ernment.

During the month of February, 1802, the "Western Commission dis
tributed 13,250 articles of hospital clothing, food for the sick, bottles
of cordials and stimulants, packages of bandages and lint, crutches,
back-rests for supporting the head and shoulders, splints, towels, ban
dages, socks, slippers, books, and packages of reading matter ; and the
labors of its members were constant and unceasing, frequently occu
pying the night as well as the day.

The demand for nurses was at this time very great. From the Mound
City Hospital, near Cairo, 111., in charge of Surgeon E, C. Franklin,
U. S. V., there was a request at one time for forty nurses, of which
only fourteen could be immediately sent. Several surgeons were pro-
procured from Boston, Mass., to come out and enter the hospital ser
vice, in which the commission had the valuable aid and recommenda
tions of James M. Barnard, Esq., of that city, who has, in a thousand
ways, assisted in its work, aided its contributions and given it his
best influence and counsel.

On the 7th and 8th of March, 1862, another great battle was fought
at Pea Ridge, Ark., in which our forces under Maj. Gen. S. E. Cur
tis, were victorious over a force of the enemy, three times our num
ber, commanded by Generals Van Dorii, Price, McCulloch and Mcln-
tosh. Our killed and wounded numbered one thousand; the loss of
the enemy was still greater. The great distance of this battle-field
from St. Louis, being two hundred and fifty miles beyond Rolla, the
terminus of the South- West Branch of the Pacific railroad, and the

roads being of the very worst description, through a country only
halt-civilized, mountainous, without bridges, and without hotel accom
modations, stripped by the passage of armies of forage for teams
and of food for men, subject to raids and murders by guerrilla bands,
it was utterly impossible to bring the wounded of Gen. Curtis' army
to the hospitals of St. Louis. And what was still worse, the march
through the south-west had been undertaken in the winter, over bad
roads, with deficient transportation, and the medical department was
most miserably provided with the means of taking care of so many
wounded. The surgeons were without hospital clothing, without
stimulants, so necessary in surgical operations, without bedding for
the wounded, and their supply of medicines was exceedingly limited.

The desperate character of the battle had suddenly thrown upon
their hands nearly a thousand badly wounded men, in a country thinly
settled by a people living mostly in log houses, and having few of the
necessaries of life. The court house at Cassville, and all the principal
dwellings — there was not a church in the place — were filled, and
many wounded were also housed in the same way at Keitsville, so
that on approaching these villages every other dwelling seemed to be a
hospital, having a red flag floating over it.

In a few instances, wounded officers were conveyed in ambulances
all the way to Holla, and taken home to their friends; and those of
our brave troops who were less severely wounded were transported
to Springfield, Mo., w^here the churches and public buildings were
converted into hospitals for their use. Passing onward from Holla to
the Army of the South-west, soon after the battle, with the Lyon
regiment, to reinforce Gen. Curtis, it was a painful scene to witness
Avounded men lying in the bottom of open wagons on beds of straw,
jolted over the rough ground, on their way to friends living along
the route; for 'among the regiments that fought most bravely and
suffered most severely, was Phelps' Missouri six months volunteers,
composed of the sons of loyal families, who had lived and suffered in

South-west Missouri from the persecutions of the rebels, many of
them having been driven to Holla as a place of refuge and enlisted
there, and such of them as now were wounded were being conveyed
to their own homes, or to Springfield, where better hospital accom
modations existed. In this city, as we marched through, we found
the hospital buildings filled with the wounded from Pea Eidge; and
at Cassville, when we reached there, it was a touching sight to be
hold, as we did, in one room, a row of young men, in the freshness
of youth, lying on beds, each having lost a leg, while in other
buildings were those who had received all manner of hurts, wounds
from pieces of shell, bullet wounds, arms torn and afterwards ampu
tated, and legs taken off, and all bound up, awaiting the dreadful
issue of life or death.

But it was with peculiar satisfaction we found that the stores of
the Western Sanitary Commission had been received there some days
before our arrival, and that the wounded men were lying in clean
beds, and clothed with shirts and drawers, instead of the blood
stained garments in which they came from the battle-field. The large
supplies, forwarded by the commission, had reached the medical
director, Dr. Otterson, and had been put to immediate use; his sup
ply of stimulants had been largely increased, and his sick and
wounded were in a comfortable condition .

On the news of this battle reaching St. Louis, the members of the
Sanitaiy Commission worked day and night, packing up sanitary
stores, and sent forward Mr. A. "W. Platteiiburg in charge of hospital
supplies, on the llth of March, who was followed immediately after
by another supply of as many more. In this undertaking, Maj. Gen.
Halleck furnished every facility in his power, giving to Mr. Platteii
burg an order, over his own signature, addressed " to all quartermas
ters and other officers between St. Louis and Sugar Creek, Ark.,''
directing them "to furnish every reasonable facility in their * power,
to forward, with all possible dispatch, consistent with safety, the

bearer, Mr. A. "W. Plattenburg, and the hospital stores under his care,
destined for the wounded in the late battle at Sugar Springs "—after
wards named Pea Ridge.

In his report of his journey and arrival at Cassville with his
stores Mr. Plattenburg says :

;; I arrived at Holla, Mo., at four o'clock, r. M., of the same day
and was furnished with a horse and transportation for sanitary
stores. The first day we proceeded fifteen miles over a road that
was as bad as it could be. The day following I rode forty miles
and stopped at night "with a Union man, who had been robbed of
almost everything movable. He had two sons in Phelps' Missouri
regiment, one of whom had just died in the Springfield hospital.
Oil Sunday morning I reached Springfield at 10 A. M. The Quar
termaster was ordered to furnish transportation by the first train.
The wounded from the recent battle were coming in, as •well as
some rebel prisoners. I visited the post hospital, accompanied by
Dr. Ebert. There were one hundred sick and wounded, mostly
from Pea Ridge. I examined the hospital very carefully ; found
a part of the men on the floor, destitute of all comforts. They
had neither bed sacks, blankets nor sheets, not even tin cups or a
teapot. They were, however, very cheerful. Dr. Ebert, a very
kind and attentive surgeon, requested me to procure a wardmaster
and matron. I made a requisition upon your Commission for them,
as also for a large number of supplies for the hospital, enough to
make all the patients as comfortable as possible.

" The train with your stores reached Springfield on Wednesday
following, and on Friday were sent forward. Transportation was

so insufficient that this delay was unavoidable. The next day,
/

25th, I arrived at Cassville. Here I found two large tents, six
buildings, ( among them the court house, ) and the tavern, used
as hospitals. The patients were lying on the floors, with a little
straw under them, and with knapsacks or blankets under their

heads for pillows. They had no comforts of any kind, no change
of clothes, but were lying in the clothes they fought in, stiff
and dirty with blood and soil. There were four hundred federal
wounded here. There was a great deficiency of nurses, detailed
men not answering the purpose well. Their sheets had been
torn up for bandages, and until Dr. Otterson reached there with
his supplies they were poorly furnished with medicines. Stimu
lants were very much needed to sustain the sinking men, but none
were to be had. There were no brooms to sw^eep with and no
mops to wash the rooms. Your stores were here turned over to
the brigade surgeon, who opened and distributed them to the dif
ferent hospitals. Never was a provision train more joyously greeted
by starving men than was this ample supply of hospital stores by
these sick and suffering soldiers.

" On the next day I went forward to the army, reporting my
self to Gen. Curtis, introduced by your letters. I 'found him in
an ordinary tent, without furniture, except a stool and a small cross-
legged pine table. The floor was covered with straw, and a roll
of blankets constituted his bedding. Being invited, I dined with
him upon plain army fare. I then proceeded to Gen. Davis' posi
tion, within one and a half miles of Elk Horn Tavern, where the
heaviest fighting* was done. I visited the battle-ground, and was
filled with astonishment when I saw the strength of the positions
out of wThich our gallant little army had driven the great force
opposed to it. Meeting two rebel surgeons one of them said :
'We are Texans ; our army has treated us shamefully ; they stam
peded, and left us here with our sick and wounded men, and, I
will tell you, sir, that for two days we had nothing to give our
poor fellows but parched corn and water. Every federal officer and
man has treated us like gentlemen, and Gen. Curtis told me that
so long as he had a loaf of bread, we should have half it.' This

was tlic field where McCulloch and Mclntosh were killed while
endeavoring to flank the Peoria batter)'.

"I visited with these surgeons the hospitals at Piiieville. No
provision whatever had been made by Price, and our scanty sup
plies had been shared with them. For twenty-live miles around
every house was a rebel hospital. We also had three federal hospi
tals at Piiieville, but not to exceed forty patients. At this point
there was a total absence of stimulants, and men were dying for
want of them. In one place are forty graves of the Iowa Third
Cavalry. All the dead of both armies were buried.

" On my return I called on Gen. Curtis at Keitsville, and promised
to urge forward the remaining supplies, which would be sufficient
to meet all immediate wants. They were duly forwarded, and
reached the command in good time. At Cassville I found that Dr.
McGugin, of Iowa, who had been working very faithfully among
our suffering men, was completely exhausted. At Springfield I
found additional supplies, which had been forwarded by your coin-
mission. I was assured that they would go forward on the fol
lowing morning, and they were rolled out to load up before I left.
I am fully convinced that no army was (so far as provision
for the wounded was concerned,) ever sent into the field in such
destitute condition as ours, except the one that it fought and con
quered. Our preparations were wholly inadequate ; the enemy had.
apparently, made none at all.

"The labors of your commission are most highly appreciated by
both officers and men. But for the promptness with which your
supplies were sent forward, for which you are greatly indebted to
the Commanding General, great suffering must have unavoidably
occurred. Could the kind and sympathizing men and women of
our loyal States, who place these abundant contributions at your
command, but see and realize the thrill of joy with which they
were received by the suffering ones, who have so bravely and gladly

shed their blood to restore to us a united nation, and to vindicate
the majesty of our trampled laws, they would rejoice that they
had made the slight sacrifice required to achieve so great a good,
and seek, 1 am sure, to enable you to anticipate rather than to
supply, such wants in future.

"Many of these poor sufferers have left distant homes and loving
friends ; have been accustomed to receive the tenderest cares and
the most watchful sympathy during the slightest indisposition. Now
they meet death and grievous wounds, and wasting sickness, in a
remote, semi-hostile and thinly settled country, surrounded generally
by comparative strangers. And tliis great sacrifice is most cheer
fully made. Xo word of repining or regret did I hear, but every
where our gallant men were sustained by an abiding faith that
they had suffered and would die, if need be, in a most just and
righteous cause."

Mr. Plattenburg's efficiency and usefulness were so satisfactory to
the commission, that he was employed from that time as an agent to
continue with the Army of the South-west, which he did till the
spring of 1863, accompanying it through all its toilsome march from
Cassville to Forsyth, returning to St. Louis for sanitary stores, going
back to it again overland, and arriving with it at Helena on the
following July.

In March, 1863, he proceeded to the vicinity of Vicksburg, with
the army of Gen. Grant, remained there in charge of a sanitary
boat loaded with stores, and, with his assistants, distributed to the
army during the seige of Vicksburg, and after its capture, until the
Fall of 1863, when he was sent to the Army of the Cumberland with
Gen. Sherman's 15th army corps, and established an agency at Hunts-
ville, Ala., remaining in charge of it till April, 1864, when he re
signed his position to attend to interests of his own. During his
two years of faithful service, he gained the esteem of the officers
of the army, received many testimonials of his great efficiency and
c

usefulness, and always enjoyed the full confidence and support of
the Commission.

In December, 1862, the surgeons of the Army of the South-west
united in a testimonial in which they say: " The agent of the
Commission, Mr. A. "W. Plattenburg has always cheerfully furnished
for the use of the sick and the wounded, every thing* in his pos
session. Joining this army just after the battle of Pea llidge, he
came with his abundant stores most providentially, and through all
dangers, trials, and vicissitudes he has remained constantly with us,
and ever faithful to his mission."

In a letter of Maj. Gen. Curtis, dated March 1st, 1863, he says :
"Among the pleasant and grateful recollections of the campaign
of the South-west was the arrival of Mr. A. "\V. Plattenburg, the
agent of this noble Commission, just after the battle of Pea Ridge
(where the wounded were so unprovided for), with his abundant
sanitary stores and supplies of stimulants. In the destitute condi
tion of our hospitals it seemed like a providential interposition in
our behalf."

Among the incidents at the battle of Pea llidge worthy of men
tion in this connection, were the labors of Mrs. Phelps, w^ho had
accompanied her husband, Col. John S. Phelps, with his regiment to
the battle-field. While the battle was yet raging, this heroic woman
assisted in the care of the wounded ; tore up her own garments
for bandages, dressed their wounds, cooked food and made soup
and broth for them to eat with her own hands, remaining with
them as long as there was any thing she could do, and giving
not only words but deeds of substantial kindness and sympathy.
And wherever the cause of our national Union and its perils shall
hereafter be known, " this that this woman hath done shall be re
membered as a memorial of her."

CHAPTER IV .

SOLDIERS HOME ESTABLISHED AT ST. Louis — PREMIUMS AWARDED TO THE STEWARDS
AND WARDMASTERS OF THE BEST HOSPITALS, AND TO THE MOST FAITHFUL NURSES —
THE BATTLE OF PITTSBURG LANDING — LARGE NUMBER OF WOUNDED — ADDITIONAL
HOSPITAL STEAMERS FURNISHED — VOLUNTEER SURGEONS AND NURSES — ADDITIONAL
HOSPITALS FITTED up AT SAINT Louis— DEMAND FOR SURGEONS— NUMBER OF SICK
AND WOUNDED IN THE ST. Louis HOSPITALS — REPORT OF THE COMMISSION.

On the 13th of March, 1862, a Soldier's Home for discharged and
ftirloughed soldiers passing through the city, was established by the
Western Commission, at 29 South Fourth Street, St. Louis, capable
of accommodating from fifty to one hundred soldiers daily. It was
placed in charge of Rev. Charles Peabody as Superintendent, with
Miss A. L. Ostram for Matron, and has afforded many a poor,
penniless, and invalid soldier food and lodgings, saved others from
the sharpers that lie in wait to impose on the unwary, from ex
orbitant hotel charges, and from the bad associations and influences
of the lower class of hotels ; it has been an asylum to many who
left the hospitals to go home, not yet fully recovered — some of
them returning to their families to die — where on their way they
could enjoy a few days of quiet rest, have the aid of the Super
intendent in getting their pay and bounty, and the kind attentions
of the matron to nurse them and bind up their wounds.

During the first year of its existence, the Soldiers' Home at St.
Louis entertained with meals and lodgings, twelve thousand four
hundred and ten (12,410) soldier guests, most of them invalids par
tially restored to health, passing on furlough to their homes, or
returning to their regiments.

During its second year to March 12th, 1864, it has entertained
eight thousand four hundred and thirty-six (8,436) enlisted men,

making a total of twenty thousand eight hundred and forty-six
(20,846) soldiers who have enjoyed the hospitality of this Home in
a period of two years. And yet compared with four others after
wards established by the Commission at Columbus, Ky., Memphis,
Tenn., Helena, Ark., and Vicksburg, Mississippi, the average num
ber entertained has been much less than at those places. This has
been partly owing to its smaller accommodations and partly to its
greater distance from the seat of war, as our armies obtained pos
session of the States bordering on the Mississippi Iliver.

Of the 20,846 soldiers who have been the guests of this Home
5,576 have been from Illinois, 4,615 from Iowa, 4,520 from Mis
souri, 1,795 from Wisconsin, 1,221 from Indiana, 420 from Michigan,
668 from Ohio, 342 from Minnesota, 136 from Kentucky, 359 from
Kansas, 82 from Arkansas, 64 from the Marine Brigade, 111 from
the U. S. Regulars, 73 from Nebraska, 576 from other States, and
288 from the Invalid Corps.

The number of meals furnished to soldiers for the two years ending
March 12th, 1864, was eighty-five thousand nine hundred and ninety-
two (85,992), and the number of lodgings for the same period was
twenty-four thousand two hundred and ninety, (24,290). In 110 case
has any charge been made to any of the guests. Besides these, many
near relatives, fathers, mothers, and wives of sick or furloughed sol
diers, accompanying them, have received the hospitality of the Home,
of which no account has been made.

The expense incurred by the Commission in maintaining this institu
tion is about $3,000 a year, and the value of the rations and fuel fur
nished by the Government is about $2,000 more.

The conduct of the soldiers while staying at the Home has generally
been respectful, and such as would become good citizens. The hos
pitality and kind attention given have been almost uniformly received
with gratitude. Many on leaving have come to the office and expressed
their thanks to the superintendent, and often, although informed that

every thing- they had received was freely given, have insisted on
bestowing something from their hard earnings to help sustain the
institution. On being shown to their rooms at night it has been com
mon to hear such expressions as these: " Oh, Jim, see here, this is a
nice fat pillow, as sure as you are born, the first I have seen for six
months," to which another would reply, "Yes, Sam, these are pillows,
sure enough, and this is a clean soft bed. I tell you what, this makes
me think of home.''

On Thanksgiving and Christmas and New-Years days it has been
customary to provide some fowls and other extras ; and at all times,
butter, vegetables, milk, dried and canned fruits and tomatoes have
been furnished, in addition to the army ration. Very often expressions
are heard at the table, or after meals, indicating- the grateful appre
ciation of the soldier, who has been for months confined to hard bread,
salt meat, and coffee, without rnilk, 011 finding so wholesome and
palatable a change of diet. "AVell," says one, "I haven't had so good
a meal for two years." " Yes," answers another, " this is pretty good
fare; if we could only have such all the time we'd get along first rate.
But I expect Uncle Sam does the best he can for us. It's hard getting
anything down among them Rebs. The sooner we can clean them
out and come home the better."

A reading room is provided at this as well as the other Homes, con
taining several hundred volumes, and the daily papers and several
religious journals are also furnished, so that the soldier is able to pass
liis time pleasantly and profitabl)r during his short stay. He is thus
kept from a desire to roam through the city in search of amusement,
and goes on his way refreshed in body and mind.

In the winter of 1863, Miss Ostram, the first matron, after nearly
a year of faithful service, was transferred to the Home at Memphis,
and the situation remained vacant, for a considerable period, during
which Mr. John Gibbon acted as clerk and steward, which position
he filled w,ith great fidelity. On his retiring, about six months ago,

it became necessary to fill the situation of matron, when Mrs. J. E.
Rice, now performing the duties with satisfaction, was appointed,

The institution has been conducted with eminent success by Mr. Pea-
body, the Superintendent, who has shown great executive ability in
its management, whose courtesy and kindness to the soldier have given
him a place in their grateful remembrance, and whose intercourse
with the military authorities, and the members of the commission, has
always been such as to win their esteem and confidence.

In his last annual report to the Commission (March 12th, 1864) Mr.
Peabody very justly remarks upon the benefits to the country arising
from sanitary labors, and from such institutions as the Soldiers' Home :

"Observing from the position I have occupied, the wrecks left
behind the wake of armies, the conviction forces itself upon me
that the labors of the Sanitary Commission, by the immense supple
mental aid it has rendered in furnishing sanitary supplies and estab
lishing Soldiers' Homes, have contributed not a little to saving men
for the service, as well as rescuing them from death. In prosecuting
their wars the ancients had no hospital trains or medical staff in atten
dance on their armies. In their military movements the sick and
wounded soldiers were left behind to die. In these times, and in our
unhappy struggle with a giant rebellion, the soldiers are tenderly
cared for, not only by the medical department of the army, but by thou
sands of patriotic hands, working systematically, through thoroughly
organized channels, which often reach far beyond the routine of the
service. The future historian of this great struggle will be able to
show that the very small per cent of loss among our armies, as com
pared with that of modem European wars is to be attributed largely
to what the people themselves have done through organized voluntary
labors in behalf of the soldiers.

" Having aided, under your auspices, in the organization of the
Soldiers' Home, established in this city, and watched over it daily
for two years, I cannot but express the conviction that for the amount

of money expended, this enterprise has brought back in substantial
and lasting benefits to the soldiers quite as much as any of the noble
undertakings in which your Commission has engaged. It has cheered
the disheartened soldier in his toilsome duties. It has saved multitudes
from imposition and exactions, and has aided them in securing prompt
attention to their just rights. By the substantial comforts and kind
attentions which it has afforded it has served to impress on the minds
of those who fight our battles the fact that their toils are remembered
and their heroic efforts appreciated. Standing in the face of death on
the bloody field the recollection of such kind hospitality and attention
has served to strengthen their arms and exalt their courage in the
deadly conflict. By lending a helping hand to the weak and faltering
as they return homewards from their exposures, it has served to assure
their friends and the loyal public that the opinion, too current through
the land, that the common soldier is always trod upon and abused, is
a mistake. It has afforded kind nursing to hundreds of sick and suffer
ing, and by a little care and attention, has saved many valuable lives.
It has also afforded the opportunity of impressing moral and religious
truth on the minds of the soldiers, and of ministering consolation to
some who were just entering upon their last great conflict. In view
of the good it has already accomplished, and its capacity for future
usefulness to the soldiers and the service, it is warmly commended to
your special consideration."

In the early part of April, 1862, the "Western Sanitary Commission,
wishing to encourage and stimulate a patriotic emulation among the
stewards, ward masters, and nurses in the hospitals to excel in their
several spheres of duty, and thereby promote the welfare of the sick
and wounded, by securing the best possible attention, and the most
favorable conditions for recovery, offered a series of premiums as fol
lows, to be paid in gold on the 4th day of the following July :

1. To the head steward of whichever one of the large hospitals

shall have been kept in the best condition, all tilings considered, and
in which the comfort of the patients shall have been uniformly best
cared for, in every way, through a term of three months, the sum of

TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS.

2. To the head steward of the best of the smaller hospitals, as above
estimated, the sum of FIFTEEN DOLLARS.

3. To the best assistant steward in every large hospital, who shall
be the most punctual, attentive and diligent in the performance of his
duties, the sum of TEN DOLLARS.

4. To the best assistant steward, estimated as above, in all the small
hospitals, the sum ot EIGHT DOLLARS.

o. To the best ward master in each of the large hospitals, whose
ward shall have been uniformly kept in the best and most perfect
order, as to cleanliness of beds and bedding, the comfort of the patients,
and in all other respects, the sum of TEN DOLLARS.

6. To the best ward master in each of the small hospitals, estimated
as above, the sum of EIGHT DOLLARS.

7. To the best twenty nurses, in all the hospitals, who shall remain
in service through the three months, and who shall prove themselves
the most kind, faithful and attentive, in the discharge of all their
duties to the sick, FIVE DOLLARS EACH.

8. To the best culinary department, in all the hospitals — that is, for
the best and cleanest kitchen, the best and most wholesome cookery,
with the smallest w^aste, the sum of TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, the same
to be divided between the head cook and assistants, in the hospital to
\vliich the prize shall be awarded, in such proportions as may seem just.

9. To the second best kitchen, etc., estimated as above, the sum of

FIFTEEN DOLLARS.

10. To every female nurse who shall remain in the service for three
months, and shall have given full satisfaction, a certificate shall be
awarded, with special vote of thanks.

11. To the best hospital, all things considered, a public expression
of thanks shall be given, with the approval of the Medical Director
and of the General commanding.

To secure the just award of these premiums and testimonials, the
Sanitary Commission will make weekly, or more frequent, visits of
inspection to every hospital under direction of the Head Surgeon, and
in consultation with him, and a careful record of each visit and its
results will be kept.

A monthly inspection will also be made, Avith the same view, by
order of the General commanding.

In offering these premiums, the " Western Sanitary Commission" are
actuated by a desire to assist the medical staff in making the military
hospitals of the " Department of the Mississippi," the most perfect in
the United States.

This undertaking had the sanction of the Commanding General of the
Department, and of the Medical Director, and its influence was highly
beneficial in stimulating the best endeavors of those who filled the
stewardships in the hospitals, and had the immediate care of the sick
and wounded — not so much for the sake of the pecuniary rewards
as from the consciousness that their labors were carefully noticed and
appreciated, which gave an additional spur to their humane interest
in the soldier, and excited a laudable and proper ambition to receive
the award of well doing.

The persons to whom these awards were finally made were as fol
lows : To Mr. George Thomas, chief steward of the Fifth Street Hos
pital, $25; to Mr. Kleuber, chief steward of Camp Benton Hospital,
$15: to Mr. Matthews, assistant steward in the Fifth Street Hospital,
$10; to Messrs. James McCrea, George Miran, and Henry Craw-
shaw, ward masters in the Fifth Street Hospital each $10; to Messrs.
Loar, Henry Sanders, and James Larkin, nurses in the Fifth Street
Hospital, and to Mr. Charles Tising, nurse in the Good Samaritan
Hospital, $5 ; to the chief cook and assistants in the culinary depart-

ment of the New House of Refuge Hospital, $25; to the chief cook
and assistants in the culinary department of the Camp Benton Hos
pital, $15; and to the following female nurses, with certificates and
a vote of thanks, $5 each: Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Ballard, Mrs. Parker,
Mrs. Gibson, Mrs. Aldrich, Mrs. Honghton, Mrs. Brooks, Mrs. Ferris,
Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Plummer, Miss McNair, Mrs. Colfax, Mrs. Bar
ton, Miss Johnson, Miss Clark, Miss Cullom, Miss Ostram, Mrs. Starr,
Mrs. Freeman.

On the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, occurred the great battle of
Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee river, between the Union forces
under General Grant, and the rebel forces under General A. S. John
son and General Beauregard. In this battle, the loss to the Union
army was 1,735 killed, and 7,882 wounded; and to the rebels, 1,728
killed, and 8,012 wounded, many of whom fell into our hands.

The news of this terrible battle was brought to St. Louis by tele
graph, and Maj. Gen. Halleck immediately addressed a note to the
Western Sanitary Commission, requesting its co-operation with the
medical and quartermaster's departments in sending steamers, prop
erly fitted up, furnished with medical and sanitary supplies, and a
requisite force of surgeons, wound-dressers and nurses to take care
of the wounded, and return with them to St. Louis ; also in fitting
up additional hospital accommodations in this city to receive them.

The following note was received from the Chief Quartermaster:

QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OK TRANSPORTATION, )

St. Louis, April 10th, 1862. I

JAS. E. YEATMAN, Esq.,

President Western Sanitary Commission:

DEAR SIR : I have arranged with the owners of the steamers
" Continental" " Crescent City " and "Imperial" to remain on or
go to the Tennessee river for the relief and use of the sick and
wounded. In case you find it necessary or desirable, you will please

direct either of these boats to such points as you may deem best for
these purposes, and I will settle for the time they are detained in
the service, on your certificate. These boats, so taken, are not to
be interfered with while in use for hospital purposes.

Eespectfully,

LEWIS B. PARSONS,

Capt. and A. Q. M.

The following', of the same date, was also directed to the captain
of the steamer "Empress" from the same source:

" You will at once proceed to Pittsburgh Term., unless otherwise
ordered by James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary
Commission, who will accompany you on the trip. * * You

will return to this point as soon as you can consistently be dis
charged from the duty on which you are sent, namely, for 'hospital
purposes.' "

The hospital steamer " City of Louisiana" arrived on the 9th of
April from Pittsburg Landing- with three hundred and fifty sick,
having left there previous to the battle. On the receipt of the in
telligence that a battle had been fought, she returned the next day,
to the scene of conflict, with additional sanitary stores.

The steamer " I). A. January" which had been purchased by
the Government for a hospital steamer, fitted up by the Western
Commission, and placed in charge of Surgeon A. H. Hoff, LT. S.
V., was also sent to Pittsburg Landing. This boat from the date
of this battle to the month of August, made eight trips, and con
veyed 2,692 patients from ports on the Tennessee and Lower Missis
sippi rivers to northern hospitals, mostly to the hospitals of Saint
Louis. She has been remodeled, in accordance with plans of Sur
geon Hoff, and continued in the service, having rendered incalcu
lable benefits, accommodating five hundred patients, and bringing
from Vicksburg, Helena, and elsewhere, many thousands of sick and

wounded to St. Louis and affording them the best possible treat
ment on the way.

On the evening of the 10th of April the steamer "Empress,"
being furnished by the "Western Sanitary Commission with a com
plete outfit of medical and sanitary stores, with a corps of surgeons,
wound-dressers, and nurses, both for herself and the large and splen
did steamer " Imperial," (then on the Tennessee river,) started for
Pittsburg Landing, in charge of the President of the Commission
(Mr. Yeatman), where, on her arrival, the outfit for the "Imperial"
was transferred to that boat, and all were loaded with the wounded
with as much expedition as was possible.

On this expedition there accompanied Mr. Yeatman Drs. Pollak,
Grove, Azpell, May, Bixby, and Barnes, Surgeon Grove, U. S. V.,
taking charge of the "Imperial" on arriving at Pittsburg, with
the requisite force of assistant surgeons, stewards, wound-dressers,
nurses, etc.

A delegation of noble women from St. Louis, members of the
Ladies' Union Aid Society, also accompanied this expedition as
volunteer nurses, and rendered invaluable service. Among those now
remembered who thus gave their timely aid was Mrs. Washington
King, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Perley Child, Mrs. J. E. D. Couzins, Mrs.
C. B. Fisk, Mrs. J. Crawshaw, and Miss Patrick.

On the return trip the steamer "Empress" was loaded with nine
hundred wounded men, her guards, decks, and cabins being filled, and
friend and foe alike provided for ; for many wounded prisoners fell into
our hands on the second day of the battle. The "Imperial" also
returned loaded in a similar manner, and continued to run for
several months as a floating hospital in charge of Surgeon Grove.
The " City of Louisiana" " D. A. January " and the " Crescent
City" also returned with their cargoes of human lives, and the
wounded were received into the hospitals of St. Louis.

The crowded condition of the hospitals and want of room made

'§

it necessary that additional hospital accommodations should be
mediately provided. The Western Sanitary Commission proceeded
at once to procure two large halls in Arnot's and Thornton's and
Pierce's buildings on Chesnut and AValnut streets, and furnished
them with beds and furniture and sanitary stores, and with the
requisite number of nurses, for the accommodation of three hun
dred and twenty sick and wounded men.

During the midst of these labors Maj. Gen. Halleck telegraphed
the Commission from Pittsburg Landing to send twenty surgeons
to that place for duty there. Nine were procured and went for
ward the same day, and afterwards an additional number.

On the first of May the Commission made a report of its labors,
from which the following particulars are selected as completing an
outline of its history to this date :

There were then fifteen military hospitals in and about St. Louis,
affording accommodations for for 5,750 patients, and a reserve was
constantly maintained in readiness by the Commission of 250 beds
in addition, making a total of 6,000. The number of patients ad
mitted to that date was 19,467, of whom 1,400 had died ; 15,717
had been furloughed, discharged, or returned to their regiments,
and 3,750 remained. There had been 162 additional deaths on float
ing hospitals in transit, at McDowell's military prison, the St. Louis
Arsenal, and at private houses. The number of patients on hand
was unusually small, great numbers having been furloughed, in order
to relieve the hospitals, pending the expected battle at Corinth.

The Commission had fitted four floating hospitals, regularly em
ployed for the transportation of the sick and wounded in the De
partment of the Mississippi, the " City of Louisiana," Dr. Wagner,
the " D. A. January," Dr. Huff, the "Imperial," Dr. Grove, and
the " Empress," Dr. Azpell, all very large and fine steamers, altered
and arranged for this purpose. They were capable of transporting
two thousand sick or wounded men, and were fully provided with

experienced surgeons, assistant surgeons, apothecaries, stewards,
dressers, and male and female nurses. They had every conven
ience that experience could suggest, and were supplied with large
reserves of hospital clothing, lint, bandages, delicacies, fruit, £c.,
that they might be prepared to furnish temporary transports or
field hospitals whenever and wherever needed.

As these boats were constantly plying between St. Louis and
the immediate vicinity of all probable battle fields, no better method
of securing prompt relief wherever needed could have been devised
or desired.

The first two of these boats remained permanently in the service,
to which others were added at a later period.

The hospital steamer " City of Memphis,'' in charge of Surgeon W.
D. Turner, U. S. A., had also been supplied with hospital furniture
and stores by the Commission.

There can be no doubt that these floating hospitals have saved hun
dreds of priceless lives, by transporting the sick and wounded promptly
from the field to well regulated hospitals, and by furnishing in transit
good surgical attendance and nursing, and comfortable accommo
dations.

During the eight months the Commission had then existed it had
received 985 cases of goods from eighteen States, viz :

Massachusetts 223 New Hampshire 1G

Illinois 132 i New Jersey 11

Wisconsin 74 Minnesota ." 10

Rhode Island 69 ; Indiana 9

Pennsylvania 63 j Connecticut 7

Missouri 61 Vermont 6

Iowa 57 | Maine 5

New York 51 i Delaware 4

Michigan 40 I District of Columbia 3

Ohio 12 I Not ascertained 137

Besides these, it had also received large contributions in money
and goods from the citizens of St. Louis and vicinity, not included
in the above statement, for the reason that they had been received

in bulk, in many instances by the wagon load, and in thousands
of small packages.

The articles distributed by the Commission, to that date, numbered
166,288, including 6,813 blankets, 8,065 sheets, 7,034 pillows, 11,545
pillow-cases, 10,443 towels, 5,249 handkerchiefs, -21,577 shirts, 11,159
pair drawers, 19,519 pair socks, 4,384 pair slippers, 1,841 dressing
gowns, 1,032 articles of clothing, 18,196 books and pamphlets, 3,084
pads, 981 bottles of domestic wines, 1,459 cans jelly, 2,340 pounds
farina, 1,400 cans fruit, and 25,000 miscellaneous articles, such as
mittens, games, crutches, work bags, bed pans, spit cups, picket caps,
pin cushions, eye shades, slings, india rubber syringes, isinglass plas
ters, remedies, etc. In addition to these the Commission purchased
large numbers of articles for the complete outfit of the city and
floating hospitals, and for armies in the field, embracing air and
water beds, washing machines, implements of various kinds, barrels
of stimulants, (of better quality and in larger supply than furnished
by Government,) of eggs and chickens, cases of oranges and lem
ons, hundreds of pairs of crutches, invalid chairs of novel construc
tion, bedsteads, cots, mattresses, graduated back-rests, stands or stools
for the bedside, sideboards for the proper security and arrangement
of medicines, disinfectants, splints, and innumerable other articles.
Seventy-four hospitals had then been supplied. The demand from
every quarter rapidly increased and the distribution had reached
the rate of 17,000 articles per week.

Thus the labors of the Commission were greatly increased, and
the work of ministering to the sick and wounded went forward night
and day. Another great battle, it was expected, would soon occur
at Corinth, and the hopes and anxieties of the loyal people of the
country were raised to their highest degree of intensity. But the
evacuation of that position by the rebel forces, and their escape
under their arrogant and boastful commander, General Beauregard,
in the presence of the powerful Union army that was arrayed

against them by Maj. Gen. Halleck, now commanding in person,
disappointed the public expectation; and, notwithstanding the retreat
of the rebels gave us some of the fruits of a decisive victory, yet
they were enabled by this movement to get away without any sub
stantial loss, to go and assist in the defense of Richmond, and to
transfer the contest to Virginia, where the great battles of the
Peninsula followed in the summer of 1862. In the West, it only
remained to follow up our naval victories from Island No. 10 to
Memphis and Helena, and to hold the ground already gained till
another great campaign could be inaugurated in the fall of the same
year. It now became necessary to attend to the sick, occasioned by
the diseases of camp life, and the malaria of the southern climate,
to look after the camps and hospitals in Arkansas and Tennessee,
and to continue the supplies to the hospital steamers of the west
ern rivers, and to the general hospitals established at various points
from St. Lonis to Helena. The labors of the Commission during
the summer of 1862 will form the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER V .

LETTER OF THE COMMISSION TO THE SURGEON-GENERAL — SCOLLAY'S DEODORIZING
BURIAL, CASE — CAPTURE OF FORT PILLOW AND MEMPHIS— OPENING OF THE MISSIS
SIPPI RIVER TO YICKSBURG — FITTING OUT THE NAVAL HOSPITAL BOAT "RED
ROVER"— ARRIVAL OF GEN. CURTIS' ARMY AT HELENA— ITS DESTITUTE CON
DITION—SICKNESS OF THE ARMY AT HELENA — SANITARY DEPOT ESTABLISHED
THERE — OVERTON HOSPITAL AT MEMPHIS — SlCK FROM THE ARMY IN TENNESSEE —
HOSPITALS AND REGIMENTS SUPPLIED — THE XAVY — LETTER FROM COMMODORE
DAVIS — AN EARNEST APPEAL FROM THE COMMISSION — GENEROUS RESPONSE FROM
NEW ENGLAND.

THE intimate connection of the Western Sanitary Commission
with the hospitals of St. Louis, and of the Department of the Mis
sissippi, and the frequent inspections made by its members, had
given opportunity to observe defects, and to suggest remedies.
Among the evils that arrested attention was that of insufficient space
and air to each patient, many of the hospitals being too much
crowded, hindering and preventing the recovery of the sick, espe
cially in cases of typhoid fever, erysipelas, and badly wounded men.

On the 8th of May, the Commission addressed the following com
munication to the Surgeon-General of the U. S. Army, at Washing
ton:

SAINT Louis, May 8th, 1862.
Dr. WM. A. HAMMOND,

Surgeon- General U.S.A.:

SIR : The Western Sanitary Commission of the Department of the
Mississippi, most respectfully suggest the importance and necessity
of some rule or law regulating the amount of space allowed to every
patient in hospital. In the absence of such a rule great mistakes
are made, and in many hospitals, otherwise well conducted, the beds
D

are so crowded together, and the number of cubic feet of air to each
patient is so inadequate, that fatal consequences result.

The members of the Commission having had large opportunities of
observation, confidently express the opinion that not more than half
the space necessary for the successful treatment of the sick, and
especially of the wounded men, is usually allowed in the general
and post hospitals.

By actual measurement they find that the average of square feet
on the floor, allowed in some of the best hospitals even, for typhoid
and erysipelas and badly Avounded patients is only forty or fifty
feet per bed, and sometimes less ; and of cubic feet of air only
three hundred and fifty to eight hundred feet, little regard being
paid to the height of the rooms occupied.

They believe that 110 degree of cleanliness or care, or of professional
skill can remove the evil effects of such over crowding, and that there
is no way of preventing its continuance except by positive regulation.

In making these suggestions the Commission has no design of
complaint. The hospitals of this department are almost all well
conducted and the patients well and skillfully treated, and the sur
geons would undoubtedly be glad to have authority to correct the
evils referred to. The near approach of warm weather makes the
subject one of urgent importance, and it has already become of
painful interest to the Commission, during a recent thorough in
spection of hospitals, containing over four thousand sick and wounded
men, many of whom are seriously suffering from the causes named.

The Commission is of the opinion that the minimum space in
well ventilated hospitals should be six hundred and forty cubic
feet for each bed, and for typhoid cases, erysipelas, and severely
wounded men, not less than twelve hundred feet. Larger space
would be desirable, but practical difficulties of various kinds fre
quently occur to make it unattainable consistently with the general
interests of the service.

The Commission therefore respectfully and earnestly submit this
matter to the consideration of the Surgeon General, and have the
honor to remain,

His obedient servants,

JAMES E. YEATMAN,
0. S. GREELEY,
J. B. JOHNSOX,
GEOKGE PARTRIDGE,
WM. G. ELIOT.

The subject submitted to the Surgeon General in this letter re
ceived his favorable consideration, and in the hospitals afterwards
established a sufficient and specified number of cubic feet of air
was allowed to each bed. In the case of the Lawson Hospital on
Broadway, the regulation has been carried out very thoroughly, and
the prescribed number of cubic feret of air allowed to the beds, in
the several wards, is lettered over the entrance ; the ward having
the largest space containing 778 cubic feet to a bed, and the lowest
allowance in any ward being 606 cubic feet to a bed.

In the spring of this year a most useful invention was brought
to the attention ol the Western Commission, designed to afford a
safer, cheaper, and better method of preserving the remains of
deceased persons without burial, for transportation to friends at a
distance, an object greatly desired by those having relations killed
in battle, or dying in the military hospitals. The invention bore
the name of "Dr. Scollay's Deodorizing Coffin or Burial Case,"
and was submitted to a series of experiments before a committee
of the Commission, consisting of Drs. S. Pollak, Chas. A. Pope, and
J. B. Johnson, Rev. M. Schuyler, D. D., and R. R. Hazard, Jr., Esq.
The burial case is thus described in the report of this committee:
" Taking the ordinary wooden coffin he [Dr. Scollay] has so im
proved it as to make it in all respects equal, and in many superior,
to the iron, or any other case now in use. The coffin is made

effectually air-tight by a peculiar match joint and a coating- of ce
ment, which not only renders it impervious to air and fluid under
ordinary pressure, but must greatly preserve the wood from decay.
To preserve the coffin from rupture under the extraordinary press
ure of the gases arising from decomposition^ and to render the
escape of such gases impossible, unless deodorized, a provision is
made which constitutes the principal feature of the improvement.
This consists of a deodorizing chamber, placed inside, at the foot
of the coffin, of such size and so arranged as not to increase its
bulk or alter its form. * * * This chamber is so arranged and
divided that the escaping gases pass freely through apertures into
the lower division, and thence into the middle apartment, which is
filled with a deodorizing chemical compound. Through this they
pass into the upper apartment, which is furnished with a self-adjust
ing valve, which yields to a moderate pressure and permits their
escape.-'

The experiments of the committee proved that bodies may be pre
served in these burial cases without becoming offensive for many
months, not the slightest smell being perceived, even in the warmest
weather — in one case after 150 days. In another instance, in which
antiseptic agents were used before encasing, it was observed, after
nearly two months, that decomposition had been very slight, and the
body was quite natural in its appearance, and in a recognizable con
dition.

The committee concluded their report as follows : " The cases can be
furnished at a trifling advance upon the ordinary wooden coffin in gen
eral use. They are light for handling and transportation, not liable to
explosion, and it is reasonable to believe from the tests already pre
sented that bodies may be kept in them from thirty to fifty days, and
perhaps longer, without becoming offensive, and the necessity of imme
diate burial and a disagreeable interment be avoided."

The subsequent use of these deodorizing coffins, by Mr. Smithers,

government undertaker of this city, has more than established the
correctness of the foregoing conclusions. The deodorizing coffin was
afterwards sent to Washington, and after a series of experiments there,
was approved by the Surgeon General, and Mr. Smithers was con
tracted with by Colonel Myers, A. Q. M., at St. Louis, to use it in the
burial of all soldiers from the hospitals of this city, so that they might
afterwards be more conveniently removed by their friends. But the
Quartermaster General at Washington disapproved the contract, and
it was never carried into effect.

On the 12th of April the gunboats of the Mississippi Naval Squadron
left New Madrid, just below Island No. 10, and proceeded down the
river to Fort Pillow in Tennessee. An attack was made on the fort
the next day, but was not attended with immediate success. On the
4th of May a severe naval battle occurred at this point between our
gunboats and a Confederate ram and gunboats from below, who came
up and commenced the attack, in the hope of destroying or capturing
our naval force, including the mortar boats. The result of the engage
ment was disastrous to the rebels, one of their boats having been sunk
and two others blown up, while their whole fleet was crippled, and
withdrew down the river. One of our boats, the " Cincinnati," was
disabled, and four of her crew wounded.

On the 4th of June Forts Pillow and Kandolph were evacuated by
the Confederates, and on the 5th our fleet arrived at Memphis, con
sisting of the gunboats Benton, Cairo, Carondelet, Louisville, and St.
Louis, and the four rams Monarch, Lancaster, No. 3, and the Queen of
the West. On the 6th a great naval battle ensued, the Confederates
bringing into the engagement the gunboats Beauregard, Little Rebel,
General Price, General Bragg, General Lovell, General Van Dorn,
Jeff. Thompson, and the Sumpter. The scene of the battle was in
front of the city, viewed by thousands of spectators, and the result of
an hour's fighting was the destruction of the entire Confederate fleet,
which was either sunk, or run ashore, except the General Yan Dorn, a

swift vessel, which escaped down the river. By this victory Memphis
was captured, and the Mississippi river opened as far down as Vicks-
burg, against which some naval operations were undertaken, and
an attempt made to change the current of the river by a canal,
which were afterwards abandoned.

By these events a new field of operations was opened to the Western
Sanitary Commission. The naval squadron had now its own sick and
wounded to be provided for, and general hospitals were immediately
established at Memphis and Jackson, Tenn., and at Helena, Ark.

At a meeting of the Commission held the 22d of May, the President
reported that Capt. Wise of the gunboat flotilla had proposed that the
steamer "Red Rover" a fine large boat, captured from the enemy at
Island No. 10, should be fitted up by the Commission, as a floating hos
pital, for the Mississippi Naval Squadron, towards which he would
furnish $2000, of the expense.

She was accordingly remodeled in her cabin arrangements, and a com
plete outfit of beds, bedding, furniture, sanitary stores, medical dispen
sary, etc., supplied by the Commission, the services of surgeons, an
apothecary, steward and nurses were engaged, and the boat placed in
charge of Dr. Geo. H. Bixby, surgeon, and Dr. Hopkins, assistant sur
geon, two thoroughly educated and skillful young physicians who were
sent out from Boston by that philanthropist and friend of the soldier,
James M. Barnard. Their services were so highly appreciated that, in
a few months, they received the unsolicited honor of a regular com
mission in the U. S. Navy as assistant surgeons. Dr. Bixby has con
tinued in charge of the "Red Rover" to the present date, and Dr.
Hopkins also remains in the service, in which they have both acquired
a high reputation and are greatly esteemed. The expense incurred
by the Commission out of its own funds, in fitting up this boat, was
$3,500, which was done with the greatest satisfaction for the brave
men who had fought so nobly, and gained so many victories on our
western waters.

On the 10th of .hily the Army of the South-west under Maj.
Gen. Curtis, arrived at Helena in a condition of great destitution.
The toilsome march from Batesville under the intense heats of
summer, the want of provisions, the difficulty of finding water to
drink, and what was procured being often muddy and stagnant,
caused much sickness to follow the severe privation of the troops
on that terrible march, in which the heroes of Pea Ridge fought
their way through to a new base of supplies and a river communica
tion with St. Louis.

In midsummer, this army of ten thousand men pitched their tents
on the bottom lands of the Mississippi, around, above and below
Helena, and 011 the hill-sides and in the woods lying back of the
town, and a more unhealthy location could scarcely have been found.
But it was the only situation that could be occupied on the west side
of the Mississippi below Memphis; its communication with Little
Rock by the Clarendon road, its commercial advantages, -its excellent
houses, its convenience for storage of commissary and ordnance stores
all made it important that it should be held as a military post.

The regiments suddenly changing their mode of life from the rug
ged and toilsome marches to which they had been accustomed, to one
of comparative inactivity, using water from the Mississippi, or from
the poor springs and rivulets that were found along the margin of the
stagnant cypress swamps that lie back of Helena, it was not surpris
ing that many of these stalwart men were soon brought down with
bilious, remittent, intermittent and typhoid fevers, and with diarrhea,
so that during the autumn months, the regimental hospitals were
filled, and the five churches of the town, with one exception, were
all converted into hospitals.

Mr. Plattenburg, the agent of the Commission, who had continued
with this army from Pea Ridge through all its lengthy march over
the Ozark Mountains and through the plains and bottom lands of
Arkansas, by a circuitous route of nearly eight hundred miles, now

opened a depot at Helena, and received a full supply of sanitary
stores, which he dispensed liberally to the regimental surgeons for
their sick ; and to all the troops many articles of comfort were
given, such as towels, handkerchiefs, combs, canned fruits, and
vegetables, potatoes, onions, &c. These gifts were received with
the strongest expressions of gratitude, after so much destitution,
hardship and suffering, and did much to prevent disease and alle
viate distress.

At Memphis one of the largest and finest buildings in the city,
intended orignally for a hotel, was taken for hospital purposes,
and called "The Overton Hospital." To Surgeon Derby, who was
placed in charge of it, frequent sliipments of sanitary stores were
sent to meet the wants of the sick from the armies of Tennessee.

At St. Louis the work of friendly inspection and oversight of
hospitals went on through the summer and autumn of 1862, and
large supplies of sanitary goods were sent to the hospitals and
regiments, hospital steamers and gunboats, throughout the Depart
ments of Missouri, the Tennessee, and the Mississippi.

The gunboats and naval hospital boat of the Mississippi squadron
had also been kept liberally supplied during this year. In September,
the following letter was received from Commodore Davis, showing
his high appreciation of the services rendered by the Commission :

>ORT, 1
J, 1862. J

FLAGSHIP EASTPORT,
HELENA. September 18,

SIR : The present season is about drawing to a close, and upon the
recommendation of Dr. Bixby, I have sent the hospital steamer Red
Rover to St. Louis, to be properly fitted up for the winter.

1 cannot let her return to your vicinity without expressing, in behalf
of myself and the officers and crews of the vessels under my command,
our heartfelt and grateful acknowledgments for your uniform kindness
and attention to the wants of the sick of the squadron.

5V
. t

I beg you to believe that your benevolent labors in our behalf have
been fully appreciated.
I have the honor to be, with the utmost respect,

Your obedient servant and friend,
(Signed,) C. H. DAVIS,

Commodore Commanding Western Flotilla.
JAMES E. YEATMAX, ESQ.,

President Western Santary Commission.

Letters were also received from Acting Rear Admiral David D.
Porter, and from the Surgeon in Chief of the Naval Flotilla, W.
Whelan, in October, expressive of similar sentiments, and acknowl
edging the receipt of sanitary stores.

The resources of the Commission at this time had become very much
reduced. The great battles in Virginia and Maryland, between Gen
erals McClellan and Lee, commencing on the Peninsula, in May,
continued before Richmond, and ending at Antietam, in November,
had caused all voluntary contributions from New England and the
Middle States, to flow in that direction, and the Western Commission
had for months been thrown on its own resources and the aid of the
citizens of St. Louis. Notwithstanding this diminution of its resources,
the "Western Commission also responded to the call of the Surgeon
General, and forwarded fifty boxes containing supplies of lint, band
ages, &c., to Washington.

It now became necessary, however, to issue an earnest appeal for
a replenishment of its stores, from which an extract is here given,
showing its wants, the extent of its opportunities, and the work to
be done.

" The demands upon this Commission are as great a.s at any previous
time, and the field of its labors is daily enlarged. An army of not less
than one hundred and fifty thousand men, in Tennessee, Kentucky,
Arkansas and Missouri, and the gunboat flotilla, looks to St. Louis for
nearly all its sanitary supplies, and must continue to do so through the

war, as the most convenient and accessible place at all seasons of the
year. Heretofore the Commission has been able to meet all requisitions.
It has never refused to send liberally and promptly to any point, what
ever has been needed to alleviate suffering and to cure or prevent
sickness.

" In Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas, the demand for all kinds of
hospital supplies is great, and increasing, for a war of unprecedented
malignancy has begun to be waged, and exposures of our brave men
both to disease and wounds are fearfully great. Those who are at a
distance from the scene of action, can have no adequate idea of the pri
vations and hardships of the service, or of the number of those broken
down by it. The casualties of the battle-field are but a small item in
the estimate. Forced inarches, the murderous rifle of an unseen and
skulking enemy, who knows the work of the assassin better than that
of the soldier, fill our hospitals, and thin our ranks. To such risks
are our sons and kindred exposed from day to day, in defense of the
country which we all love so well. Has money any value greater than
to supply their need ? Ought we to become niggardly in gifts, or
weary of work in such a cause ? Can the women of America enjoy or
endure the luxury of peaceful homes, except on condition of giving
the labor of their hands and the prayers of their hearts to those who

are defending them at such a cost ?

*********

" This appeal is most earnestly and affectionately made to all loyal and
humane persons in the Union. They have already done much, but
redoubled efforts in all departments of the war must now be made.
The 600,000 new recruits will not be without their sick and w^ounded,
and many a hard battle must yet be fought. Let the rich give of their
abundance. Let the poor spare all they can.

" Especially we appeal to LOYAL WOMEN, wherever they may be. They
are the true " Home Guards" of the nation — the ministering angels to
sickness and suffering. Without them Sanitary Commissions can do

hut a small part of their work, and upon their efficient assistance we
principally depend."

This appeal was nobly responded to from New England, Boston alone
sending $9,000 at this time, and a few months later contributing
$50,000 more, for sanitary purposes in the western armies. One noble
and patriotic woman in that city, Mrs. Thomas Lamb, has appro
priated a room in her own house for the reception of sanitary goods,
for the western soldiers, letting it be known to her friends, and the
result has been that she has packed and forwarded to this Commission
of her own and their contributions, over one hundred boxes of hospital
supplies, garments, etc., besides generous sums of money, the boxes
ranging in value from $150 to $200 each. Other humane and patriotic
friends, among them Messrs. James M. Barnard and R. C. Greenleaf,
have also labored most indefatigably in the same way, and endeared
themselves forever to all who knew of their noble services to the
soldiers in the armies of the west. When it is remembered that Massa
chusetts has had her own sons, mainly in the armies of the Potomac,
and in the Department of the South and of the Gulf, and that without
neglecting her duty to them, she has made the most generous dona
tions of any other State to our western troops, no one can fail to
appreciate so noble an example of disinterested patriotism and benevo
lence.

CHAPTER VI.

ARMY OF THE FRONTIER— AGENT SENT TO SPRINGFIELD, Mo., WITH STORES— BAT
TLES AT CROSS HOLLOWS, CANE HILL, AND PRAIRIE GROVE— ARRIVAL OF REV. MR.
NEWELL AT FAYETTEVILLE WITH AMBULANCES AND SANITARY GOODS — His USEFUL
SERVICES— His DEATH AT A LATER PERIOD— NOTICE OF HIS CHARACTER— FLYING
HOSPITALS — ADDITIONAL HOSPITALS AT ST. Louis — THE MARINE, JEFFERSON BAR
RACKS AND LAWSON HOSPITALS — THE DIMINISHING PERCENTAGE OF DEATHS — THE

HOPEFUL CONDITION OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNION— THE SYMPATHY OF THE PEO
PLE WITH THE SOLDIERS— PROSPECTS OF ULTIMATE VICTORY.

Iii the Fall of 1862 Brig. Gen. Schofield took command of the Army
of the Frontier, beyond Springfield, Mo., and on leaving St. Louis,
expressed the desire that the Commission would forward a full supply
of sanitary stores to that post. The suggestion was favorably regarded
and acted upon, and an agent, Mr. J. E. Tefft, sent forward, furnished
with every thing necessary as a supplement to the medical stores
allowed to the surgeons in the field.

Many supplies had been previously sent to Surgeon Melcher, Medical
Director at Springfield, and the additions now made were forwarded
in view of the probability of more active hostilities between the Union
and rebel forces of the south-west.

This anticipation proved to be well founded. Towards the end of
October, in the north-west part of Arkansas, near the old battle-field
of Pea Ridge, at Cross Hollows, Gen. Herron had a severe engage
ment with the enemy; and again on the 28th of November, Gen. Blunt
made an attack on Gen. Marmaduke, with about eight thousand men,
at Cane Hill, forty-five miles north of Van Buren, in which the rebels
were defeated, and retreated to that place. Again, on the 7th of
December, the combined Confederate forces, under the command of
Gen. Hindman, estimated at fifteen thousand men, attempted to cut
off the reinforcements of Gen. Blunt, ten miles south of Fayetteville,

and made an attack on Gen. Herron before he had formed a junction
with Gen. Blunt. Gen. Herron's forces, however, held their ground
until Gen. Blunt, who was informed of the movement, came upon the
rear of the rebel army, at Crawford's Prairie, when there occurred
what has since been called the battle of Prairie Grove, in which the
rebels were defeated, the loss in killed and wounded on both sides
being very great.

The wounded from this battle were removed to Fayetteville, and
public buildings and private houses were taken for hospitals ; but there
was a great deficiency of means to take proper care of the men, the
town and the country around it having been greatly impoverished by
the war, and the inhabitants being of the poorest class. There was 110
adequate supply of bandages, lint, bedding, stimulants, nor means of
fitting up the empty houses and making them comfortable, nor of
cooking food.

Previous to this battle the Commission had sent forward Rev. Fred
erick E. Xewell to Springfield, to take the place of Mr. TefFt, with two
ambulances and additional stores, and on hearing of this battle he
proceeded on from Springfield to Fayetteville. His arrival was most
timely, and, with an earnest devotion to duty, he turned over every
thing he had to Surgeon Ira Russell, U. S. V., in charge, and Assistant
Surgeon Carpenter, and went to work himself at whatever his hands
could find to do. For a time he acted as carpenter, ambulance driver,
nurse, wound-dresser, and general worker, and in the report afterwards
made by the Surgeons, his services were spoken of in the highest terms
of commendation.

In the report of Surgeon Russell, he said: "My thanks are due to
the Western Sanitary Commission for the valuable aid rendered to the
wounded from the battle of Prairie Grove, by its agent, Mr. F. R.
Newell." In Dr. Carpenter's report he said: "Mr. Newell's sanitary
stores were a perfect God-send to our poor fellows, many of whom had
lost nearly all their clothing on the battle field. He made a judicious

distribution of his shirts, drawers, and other articles, among the most
needy. He also placed at our disposal two ambulances, without which
we could hardly have carried on the hospital. Enough cannot be said
of an institution which performs such deeds."

As Mr. Newell has since been removed from his earthly labors to the
heavenly life, it is proper that some further mention should here be
made of him. After the battle of Prairie Grove he continued for seve
ral months to act as the agent of the Western Commission at Springfield,
Mo., and in May, 1863, returned to St. Louis, where he was, soon after,
elected chaplain of the 1st Missouri State Militia, and assigned, by an
order of Maj. Gen. Schofield, to the duty of superintendent of freed-
meii in this city. For several months he attended to this work in a
faithful and conscientious manner, interrupted occasionally by illness,
when, on the 8th of January, 186-4, after a severe attack of inflammatory
rheumatism, he died suddenly, at Benton Barracks, at his post.

As a friend of the poor freedmen and their families, as a Christian
minister and a citizen, as a man of amiable, forbearing, and Christ-
like spirit, he will be long remembered by those who were associated
with him in his labors, and who knew of his fidelity to the cause of his
Divine Master.

During the fall of 1863 the idea originated in the Western Sanitary
Commission of a Flying Hospital, to accompany the army in the
field, prepared for the emergencies of battle, with the means of
immediately providing for wounded men. The President of the
Commission was authorized to fit out three ambulances, with hos
pital and shelter tents, cots, bedding, towels, sanitary stores, food,
liquors, bandages, lint, sponges, vessels for supplying the wounded with
water and stimulants, the whole to be in charge of a competent person,
with a corps of male nurses and wound-dressers in attendance, to
accompany the army, to be under the direction of the medical direc
tor, and ready at all times to assist the surgeons when required. Two
pannier mules were also to accompany each ambulance, with straps

and fixtures, by which kegs of water and stimulants, and other ar
ticles of immediate utility on the battle field, could be carried on their
backs, and be at hand when most needed. The plan was submitted
to Assistant Surgeon General Wood, and met with his entire ap
probation.

The first of these Flying Hospitals was fitted up for Gen. Grant's
army, then at Corinth, Miss., and a letter, endorsed by the Assistant
Surgeon General, was addressed to Maj. Gen. Grant, asking per
mission for it to accompany his movements. The Flying Hospital
went forward to Lagrange, Tennessee, where the Medical Director,
Surgeon "Wirtz, refused his sanction, and would not permit it to go
any further. The letter to Gen. Grant probably never reached him,
as no answer was ever received, and the opposition of his chief
surgeon defeated an enterprize which was, in every respect, practicable
and unobjectionable, having for its object the better care and prompt
relief of our wounded soldiers on the field of battle. Some prejudice
against Sanitary Commissions, or too great a readiness to regard
their proffered assistance as an interference with official dignity and
routine, or some failure of military etiquette, are supposed to have
stood in the way of this beneficent project. The mules and ambulances
were afterwards returned to the Soldiers' Homes at Columbus and
Memphis, where they did good service ; the stores were distributed
to the sick, and the nurses and wound-dressers performed valuable
services in the hospitals at LagTange and elsewhere.

The outfit of Rev. Mr. Newell, as an agent of the Commission with
Gen. Schofield's army, with his ambulances and stores, was similar in
its character, and proved exceedingly useful, after the battle of Prairie
Grove, though not arriving in time to be present at the battle.

The difficulty of procuring the necessary sanction, and co-operation
of the regular army surgeons to such an enterprize has prevented its
renewal, although there is never a great battle where these Flying-
Hospitals w^ould not be of the greatest utility and benefit, and save

many valuable lives. It is due, however, to Assistant Surgeon Gen
eral AYood, whose humanity is always paramount to official etiquette,
to mention the fact of his hearty approval, and that it was at his
request that one of these hospitals was sent to the Army of the Fron
tier, then at Fayetteville, Arkansas.

During the present year three additional military hospitals were
added to those already established in St. Louis, the Marine, the Jef
ferson Barracks, and the Lawson Hospitals. The necessity for this
arose from the large number of sick brought by the hospital steamers
from the armies of the Frontier, the South-west, the Tennessee and
the Mississippi.

Thej_Marine Hospital was a government institution, originally in
tended for persons engaged in the navigation of the Mississippi river.
It is a four story stone and brick edifice, surrounded by extensive and
well shaded grounds, a garden in which the convalescent patients per
form a part of the labor, and has every convenience of a model hospitals.

It was opened as a military hospital May the 4th, 1862, and then had
accommodations for 150 patients. From that date till May 1st, 1864,
it had received 1574 patients, and its per centage of death was 9.
During the summer of 1863 its accommodations were enlarged for 100
more patients by the addition of wooden barracks, in which a new and
excellent mode of ventilation was introduced by Mr. Leeds of Phila
delphia, by means of stoves, drawing fresh air through an air chamber,
under the floor, and passing it through the heating chamber of the
stoves into the wards. There being also a ridge ventilation at the
top of the barracks, and a ventilating shaft in each ward, with open
ings at the top and bottom of the rooms, no more perfect system of
ventilation could possibly be devised, securing at the same time what
ever temperature may be desired.

The officers are Assistant Surgeon James H. Peabody, U. S. V.,
in charge, L. H. Galloway, M. D., Acting Assistant Surgeon, and
Rev. James A. Page, Chaplain.

-ryi i

% JMT

***V

•

Jefferson Barracks was formerly a military post at which United
States troops were stationed, situated about twelve miles below St.
Louis, on the west bank of the Mississippi river. It consists of long-
rows of buildings, one and two stories high, with basement kitchens
and dining-rooms, and wide piazzas, extending 011 three sides of a
large plat of ground, in the form of a parallelogram, shaded with fine
trees, the open end of the grounds being towards the river, with a
high flag-staff on the bluff, from which the flag of the Union is always
unfurled to the breeze. The old post hospital stands near on an
adjoining eminence, and is two stories high, and the post chapel is
situated several hundred yards back from the river, in a pleasantly
shaded spot, retired from the barracks.

In April, 1862, these buildings, except the post chapel, which is
still reserved for worship, were converted into a large hospital, for
which purpose they were admirably suited, the rooms being large,
having numerous windows on both sides, opposite each other, and the
piazzas and shaded walks, affording excellent opportunities for exercise.

Beside the old buildings, the Government, during the summer of
18G2, erected others on the ample grounds belonging to it, cii the west
side, so as to afford accommodations for two thousand five hundred
patients. These new buildings are one story high, in triple rows six
hundred feet long, divided into wards of three hundred feet each.
There are three groups or sets of these new hospitals, some distance
apart, the entire grounds in every direction being beautifully shaded
by large oak trees. They are so arranged that each group has the
central row appropriated to a dining-room, and surgeons', nurses' and
stewards' quarters, the outside rows being for sick wards. Besides
these improvements, a system of water works has been introduced,
with reservoir and pipes, by which the water of the Mississippi is
carried through all the buildings.

The institution is in charge of Surgeon J. F. Randolph, U. S. A.,
assisted by Dr. H. It. Tilton, U. S. A., and P. C. McLane, M. D.; A.

L. Allen, M. D.; T. F. Rumbold, M. D.; Hiram Latham, M. D.; S.
Leslie, M. D., and J. J. Marston, M. D. The Post Chaplain, Rev. J.
F. Fisli, has been stationed here many years, and continues his ser
vices, in connection with Rev. S. Pettigrew, Hospital Chaplain.

The number of patients received and treated in this hospital in two
years, ending April 30, 1864, is 11,434. The per centage of deaths the
first year was eleven and a half, which was much increased by the
large number brought to it in a dying condition. The per centage of
deaths for the year just ended is nine and eight-tenths.

The Lawson Hospital is situated on the corner of Broadway and
Carr streets, and was fitted up during the latter part of the fall of 1802.
The edifice was originally intended for a hotel, is seven stories high,
and is divided into eight wards, besides office rooms, nurses' quarters,
linen room, kitchen, dining hall, and store rooms. It is well ventilated;
an average number of seven hundred and fifty cubic feet is allowed
to each bed ; and it is provided with a steam engine and elevator,
furnished by the Western Sanitary Commission, at an expense of two
thousand five hundred dollars. The institution is in charge of Surgeon
C. T. Alexander, U. S. A., assisted by W. II. Bradley, M. D.; L. H.
Bottomley, M. D., and Wm. Fritz, M. D. Rev. Phillip McKim is
Hospital Chaplain.

The hospital wTas opened January 17th, 1863, since which the whole
number of patients received has been 3,021. For the first four months
the per centage of deaths was very large, being twenty-five and nine-
tenths, which was owing to the fact that during that period it received
the wounded from the battles of Vicksburg and Arkansas Post, and
the sick from Milliken's Bend and Helena, which were of the worst
description, having many hopeless cases both of wounds and of chronic
diarrhea, some of whom died as they were being brought into the
hospital. The per centage of deaths for the last year, ending April
30th, 1864, has been much less, being 7 8-10.

The diminished per centage of deaths in the military hospitals during

the third year of the war, which the statistics of other hospitals will
show, is evidence of a most gratifying improvement in the manage
ment of these institutions, and in the care and treatment of the
sick and wounded soldier. This result has been influenced also by
the sifting out from our armies, by death and discharges from the
service, during the first two years of the war, all those who were
not able to endure its hardships and exposures, those who remain
being mainly veteran troops. Xo war has ever been conducted in
which the per cent of deaths from disease has been so small, and the
health and vigor of the troops so well maintained ; nor one in which
there has been so strong a current of sympathy and aid from the
people at home towards the soldiers in the field, as in this war for
the unity and national supremacy of the American Republic. Civilians,
unable to bear arms, men of science and of letters, the orators and poets,
and clergy of the land, and the noble and self-sacrificing women of our
free commonwealths, have all vied with each other in their etforts to
give help and sympathy to the soldier, and to inspire an interest in his
welfare. With such an influence to encourage and cheer the armies
of the Union, there is an explanation of the health, the spirit, and
the unconquerable bravery of our troops, who, under their present
tried and able commanders, are bearing the flag of freedom on to
victory. May the spirit of liberty continue thus to animate all hearts,
and welcome home our brave defenders when the last battle shall
be fought, and our peace and prosperity be established on sure
foundations.

CHAPTER VII.

GENERAL SHERMAN'S FIRST ATTACK ON VICKSBURG— WORKS ASSAULTED— SEVERE
LOSSES TO THE UNION ARMS — HOSPITAL STEAMERS BRING THE WOUNDED TO
MEMPHIS AND ST. Louis— BATTLE OF ARKANSAS POST— MORE WOUNDED BROUGHT
TO ST. Louis— DELEGATION OF THE LADIES' UNION AID SOCIETY OF ST. Louis—
IOWA STATE AGENT— RENEWAL OF THE EXPEDITION AGAINST A'ICKSBURG BY
GENERAL GRANT— INCREASED HOSPITAL ACCOMMODATIONS REQUIRED— VISIT OF
MR. YEATMAN TO GEN. GRANT'S ARMY— His LETTER— BENTON BARRACKS
HOSPITAL, ST. Louis— ADDITIONAL HOSPITALS AT MEMPHIS— THE FLOATING
HOSPITAL, "CITY OF ALTON," THE "RUTH," AND " GLASGOW" — SECOND VISIT
OF MR. YEATMAN TO GENERAL GRANT'S ARMY— His REPORT— SANITARY STORES
SENT TO GEN. GRANT'S ARMY — FALL OF VICKSBURG — ITS UNTITLED HEROES.

IN the latter part of December, 18G2, Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman
embarked an army of twenty thousand troops on transports, at
Memphis and Helena, and commenced an expedition against Vicks-
burg, under the direction of Maj. Gen. Grant, who was to co-operate
by land, in a movement through Holly Springs to Jackson, taking
Vicksbnrg in the rear. On the 26th of December, the main forces,
under Gen. Sherman, disembarked successfully at Johnston's Landing,
near the mouth of the Yazoo river, and prepared for an assault the
next day on the northern works that defended the city. On the 27th,
28th, and 29th, several attempts were made to take the fortifications,
but a stern and terrible resistance was made by the rebels, who
outnumbered our forces, and who had the advantage of the strongest
natural defenses and artificial earthworks known in modern warfare.

The result of the three days' fighting was a terrible loss in killed
and wounded to the Union forces, and a temporary relinquishmeut
of the undertaking. An unforeseen contingency, the capture of Holly
Springs, in General Grant's rear, cutting off his communication
and his supplies, had compelled his return to that point, and the aban-

doiimeiit of his part of the undertaking-, which had enabled the rebels
to concentrate their forces at Vicksburg, and accomplish Gen. Sher
man's defeat. The wounded of his army were immediately forwarded
to the Memphis and St. Louis hospitals by transports and hospital
steamers. On their way they were met by a delegation of the Ladies'
Union Aid Society, of St. Louis, hastening on the first boats with boxes
of sanitary goods, to minister to their necessities.

The Western Commission put in charge of these ladies a large supply
of stores, to be used by them or turned over to the surgeons, as they
should be needed. The agent of the Commission, Mr. Plattenburg,
also went down with Gen. Sherman's expedition from Helena, and
was on hand with his sanitary stores immediately after the fighting.

The delegation of the St. Louis Ladies' Union Aid Society consisted
of Mrs. Alfred Clapp, the President of the Society, Mrs. J. E. D. Cou-
/ins, Mrs. Washington King, Mrs. J. Crawshaw, Mrs. Wm. Clark, and
Miss Breckinridge. Besides these there was also a delegation from
the Chicago Branch of the U. S. Commission of Mrs. M. A. Liver-
more and Mrs. Hoge of Chicago, and Mrs. Henrietta J. Colt of Mil-
waukie; and there was likewise Mrs. Annie Wittenmier, the State
agent of the Iowa Sanitary Commission, who had in charge a large
supply of sanitary goods from that State. All these noble women
were indefatigable in their efforts to relieve and comfort the sick and
wounded, and to minister to them.

The disastrous attack on Vicksburg, which ended the year '62, was
followed up, almost immediately by another expedition, with the same
army, under Gen. J. A. McClernand, assisted by the navy, against
Arkansas Post, on the Arkansas river, which was taken, after another
severe battle on the llth of January, '63, with eight thousand prison
ers, and a large number of cannon, ordnance stores and small arms,
the gunboats " Louisville," "DeKalb," " Cincinnati, "and " Lexington,"
under Admiral Porter, co-operating with the land forces.

The fortifications at Arkansas Post were destroyed, and the cxpe-

dition then returned up the river to Helena and Memphis, bringing
along several hundred wounded on transports, who suffered many
privations, the surgeons being poorly provided with the means of
making them comfortable. The boats were much crowded, the weather
was cold, draughts of air were blowing through the cabins, the sick
and wounded men had to lie on the floors, and there were not nurses
enough to take care of them.

On reaching Helena a portion of the St. Louis delegation of the
Ladies' Union Aid Society, who had just returned from Vicksburg,
went on board these transports, took such sanitary stores with them
as were needed, and remained on them till they reached St. Louis,
bestowing the tenderest care and nursing upon those poor suffering
and wounded men.

The severity of these wounds, the unavoidable exposure in winter,
the long passage to St. Louis, both of those from Vicksburg, as well
as of those from Arkansas Post, resulted in the loss of many of these
brave men, and a great percentage of deaths followed in the Lawson
Hospital at St. Louis, where most of them were taken, as well as of
the very sick, from Helena, being 25 9-10th per cent of all who were
admitted during that winter, till the first of the next June.

It was at this time, while there were so many sick in the camps
and hospitals of the army in Tennessee and Arkansas, during the
worst winter known for many years, and when so many wounded
were thrown upon our care, that additional hospitals were opened
at St. Louis and Memphis, and additional hospital steamers fitted up
to ply to and fro on the Mississippi river, between the army and the
well-furnished and well-managed hospitals farther north.

This was done also in view of the renewal of operations against
Vicksburg. On the failure of Gen. Grant's movement through
Mississippi, to take Jackson, and attack Vicksburg in the rear, while
Gen. Sherman attacked the city on the north side, he returned to,
Holly Springs,, punished the'recreant commander, Col. li. C. Murphy

who had surrendered that post without any proper effort to defend it,
by dismissal from the service, and thence proceeded with his army
to Memphis, where he embarked his forces on transports for Young's
Point and Milliken's Bend, La. Here he landed his troops on the
2i)th of January. It does not come within the legitimate object of this
work to give even a sketch of military operations, beyond what is
necessary to show how the Sanitary Commission followed the army
and navy, and improved its opportunities of usefulness.

During February and March, while the army of Gen. Grant was
occupying the low region of country above Vicksburg, on the Lou
isiana shore, trying to change the bed of the river, by cutting a canal
across the large bend, opposite the city ; while gunboats and transports,
with troops, were sent to explore the bayous leading to the Yazoo
and Red rivers ; and while an expedition was sent to open the Yazoo
Pass, to effect a passage through the Cold Water and Tallahatchie rivers
to the Yazoo, by which to destroy rebel vessels in that river, capture
Yazoo City, and take Vicksburg in the rear, the Mississippi was
overflowing the low lands in every direction, the camping grounds
of many of the regiments were flooded, the rains were incessant,
and, as a necessary consequence, there was a large amount of sickness
in the army. Exaggerated reports were circulated by letter writers
through the Northern press, and much anxiety and uneasiness were
felt in regard to the health of the troops.

At this time Mr. Yeatman, the President of the Western Commission,
went down to make a personal inspection, and on his return, on the
13th of March, published a letter, giving an account of his visit,
and of the actual state of things. In this letter he says:

" For a short time after the landing of the army at and near Young's
Point, consequent upon long confinement upon transports, there was
much sickness; but the health of the troops improved rapidly, and
the per centage of sickness is below what I have generally found it
in camps in other portions of the country which I have visited. Besides

many others, I visited every regiment in Sherman's corps, which was
reported in the worst condition. While in some of the new regiments
the amount of sickness was large, in others it was unusually small.
The great danger to be apprehended was from want of vegetable diet,
symptoms of scurvy having already made their appearance.''

Mr. Yeatman recommended that the friends of the soldiers should
send large quantities of vegetables, fruits, and pickles, and the Com
mission at once sent a large supply, and directed its agent, Mr.
Plattenburg, to proceed immediately and establish his headquarters
with the army near Vicksburg.

Mr. Yeatman remarked, with great satisfaction, the interest taken
by Generals Sherman and Grant in the health of their troops, lie
says of the former: "I saw Gen. Sherman going through the camps
on foot, giving particular directions in regard to sanitary regulations.
No one could look after liis men more carefully than he does. While
he maintains a strict, discipline, he mingles with and goes among his
men to ascertain personally their wants. lie has a kind word for all,
and is greeted, by his men, as one who cares for, and thinks of their
comfort. With the sick he is as delicate and tender as a woman. I
am thus particular in mentioning General Sherman's corps, as my
attention was particularly directed to it, owing to reports which had
been made to me."

After describing the ample arrangements made for the care of the sick
.and wounded, he remarked still further : " Gen. Grant is determined
to have provision, made for the sick equal to any contingency that may
arise, and before long will quarter his army on high ground, on the
opposite side of the river. Assistant Surgeon General Wood is accom
plishing, and will accomplish, all that is possible to be done."

While these arrangements were being carried out near the scene
of conflict, the Assistant Surgeon General was making extensive pre
parations, at St. Louis and Memphis, to be well provided against future
emergencies. Under his directions, the large amphitheatre building

in the old fair grounds at Bcnton Barracks, a few miles northwest
from St. Louis, and north of the St. Charles road, was taken pos
session of by the Government for hospital purposes. It was enclosed?
provided with windows, floored, partitioned, divided into wards,
thoroughly whitewashed, furnished with iron bedsteads and good
beds, and converted into one of the largest, most thoroughly ventilated
and best hospitals in the United States, capable of accommodating
two thousand live hundred patients. Numerous other buildings, near
the main edifice, on the same grounds, formerly used by the Agricul
tural Society for its exhibitions, were used for oflicers' quarters,
medical dispensary, commissary rooms, special diet kitchens, &c., and
the fine walks and splendid shade added much to the beauty and
attractiveness of the place.

The institution was at first placed in charge of Surgeon Ira Russell,
U. S. V., under whose administration it was conducted with entire
success. It was opened March 1st, 1863, and during the following
three months received two thousand and forty-two patients. For
that period the per centage of deaths was only four and a half of the
whole number. From June 1st, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, there were
four thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight patients received, and
the per centage of deaths was seven and one-tenth.

In this hospital there was appointed an excellent corps of female
nurses, who were placed under the immediate oversight and direc
tion of a supervisor of nurses, acting under the surgeon in charge,
which position was ably and successfully filled by Miss Emily
Parsons, of Cambridge, Mass. The good order, attention to duty,
and faithfulness of the nurses, in the several wards, were greatly
promoted by this system. Fortunately for the experiment it had
the hearty approval of the surgeon in charge ; and it is due to
him, as well as the supervisor of nurses, to say that probably, in
no hospital in the United States, was the nursing of the sick and
wounded brought to greater perfection than here.

Auxiliary to this system the Ladies' Union Aid Society also estab
lished a special diet kitchen, in one of the buildings in the amphi
theatre, which is wholly conducted by members of that society,
provided with delicacies for the sick, wines, stimulants, &c., to
which the Western Sanitary Commission also contributes, and from
this kitchen any delicate food needed for the very sick can always
be ordered, by the surgeons, and be immediately prepared.

For a few months of the autumn of :63, Surgeon Russell was relieved
by Surgeon J. H. Grove, U. S. V., who conducted the institution
on the same principles, and under whom it maintained the same high
character.

In the winter of 1863-4 Benton Barracks became a recruiting station
for colored troops ; hospital accommodations were needed for the sick
of the colored regiments ; several of the wards were appropriated for
their use ; and Dr. Grove, having been assigned to another position
of responsibility and trust, Dr. Russell was again placed in charge.
Under his management the institution still maintains its original
character ; the female nurses act under Miss Parsons, as supervisor ;
the special diet kitchen is still maintained, in charge of Mrs. Shepard
Wells, of the Ladies' Union Aid Society ; and the sick soldiers,
whether of the white troops or of the regiments of African descent,
each occupying separate wards, are treated with the care and kind
attention due to the soldiers of the Union.

Besides the general hospital, there is also a post hospital at Benton
Barracks, likewise in charge of Surgeon Russell. During the fall of
1863, and winter of '64, many of the sick of the new colored regi
ments were treated here. The whole number of patients received
was 6140, and the per centage of deaths 8 2-10. Female nurses are
provided for this hospital by the Western Sanitary Commission, the
Government only allowing them to the general hospitals.

At Memphis, by direction of Assistant Surgeon General Wood,
several additional hospitals were fitted up there in tire winter and

spring of 1863. They were generally the largest and best buildings
in the city, having been originally designed lor hotels, or blocks of
stores, four and five stories high. These hospitals were named the
Overtoil, Washington, Gayoso, Jackson, Jefferson, Marine, Webster,
Union, Gangrene, and Officers', and were capable of accommodating
about 5000 sick and wounded men. During the summer of '63,
while Gen. Grant's army was operating against Vicksburg, and after
the fall of that city, these hospitals were filled, and there was a
constant demand for sanitary stores. Maj. T. P. Eobb, of Illinois,
acted as a Sanitary agent for that State, and also for the Western
Sanitary Commission, and distributed largely both to the regiments
encamped at Memphis, and to the hospitals.

Many commissioned officers having been wounded at the battles of
Vicksburg, were also without their pay, and were not allowed by
regulations the ordinary accommodations of enlisted men. Their
condition being made known to the Commission, it furnished a
complete outfit of every thing necessary for a hospital of one hun
dred beds, called the Officers' hospital.

The United States Sanitary Commission also maintained a well-
supplied agency at Memphis, in charge of Dr. H. A. Warriner, an
able and efficient officer, who had a general supervision of the work
of that Commission, on the Mississippi river, and often acted in
friendly co-operation with the agents of the Western Commission.

During the same winter and spring the large and splendid steamer
" City of Alton,''' was used as a floating hospital, being fitted up for
this purpose; and the steamer "Ruth" of equal dimensions and mag
nificence, (since destroyed), the steamer " Glasgow," and a number
of smaller boats were likewise used as transports for conveying the
sick and wounded from the Lower Mississippi to the hospitals at Mem
phis and St. Louis. Besides these, the large and commodious floating
hospital " Nashville" was fitted up so as to accommodate one thousand
patients, and located permanently near Milliken's Bend, in charge 04

Surgeon L. D. Strawbridge, U. S. A. ; and the hospital steamers " City
of Memphis," and "1). A. January," capable of accommodating twelve
hundred more, were under the order of the Medical Director, either
for transportation to hospitals, or for the care of the sick and wounded
for any length of time that might be needed there. The Medical Pur
veyor also had a boat set apart exclusively for medical supplies of all
kinds, with cots and bedding sufficient to extemporize several other
floating hospitals, in case of necessity. Two large boats were likewise
turned over to the United States and Western Sanitary Commissions,
whose agents were constantly receiving and distributing supplies. No
army was ever better provided for than the army of Gan. Grant at this
period, and to these efforts to keep up the health and vigor of the
troops was due much of that courage and endurance which resulted
in the splendid victories that crowned our arms, in the series of great
battles fought at Fort Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills,
the Big Black river, and before the entrenchments of Vicksburg, to
the fall of that city.

When at last this Gibraltar of the enemy fell into our possession,
with thirty thousand prisoners of war, there were many sick and
wounded men in the camps and hospitals around the city. These had
still to be cared for and brought up the river, away from the heats
of summer in that Southern latitude.

At the time of Gen. Grant's investment of Vicksburg, and the two
unsuccessful assaults made on the rebel works on the 19th and the 22d
of May, there were four thousand five hundred of our brave troops
wounded. The President of the Western Sanitary Commission made
a second visit at that time in charge of the steamer " Champion"
loaded with commissary and sanitary stores. A large portion of the
sanitary goods, and many tons of ice, having been furnished by the
merchants of St. Louis, Mr. Yeatman, on his return, publishhd a
report of his visit, in which he says :

" On the evening of the 26th of May I left here on I ae steamer

" Champion" accompanied by a corps of surgeons, nurses and dressers
of wounds, numbering fifty-five in all, with some two hundred and fifty
tuns of sanitary supplies, besides cots, mattrasses, and every thing
necessary for taking care of a thousand wounded men, in case of ne
cessity, the latter articles having been furnished by order of the
Assistant Surgeon General K. C. Wood.

"We did not arrive at Chickasaw Bluffs, near Vicksburg, until
the evening of the 31st of May, where we found that the number
of the wounded had been greatly exaggerated, the actual number
not exceeding four thousand five hundred. The arrangements of
the Medical Department were most excellent, and the transportation
of the sick and wounded, on the hospital steamer, " D. A. January ,"
in charge of Surgeon A. H. Huff', were most perfect. I found that the
greater part of the wounded, who required attention, and who could
be removed, had been attended to. Of those who had been thus
cared for there were about 1,900; and about 2,000 more, who were
but slightly wounded, were treated in division hospitals, together
with a few hundred who were too severely wounded to be moved.
The division hospitals were being consolidated with the army corps
hospitals, which were to be placed in shady, sequestered spots, where
an abundance of pure, fresh water could be had.

" The wounded being so well provided for it was not necessary
that our steamer should be used for hospital purposes ; the hospi
tal beds, bedding, and supplies were turned over to the proper
medical officers, and the dressers of wounds and nurses were placed
where they could be most useful, some of them in hospitals and
others on hospital steamers. By the time we arrived at Vicksburg
all sanitary stores had become completely exhausted, and the new
supplies, in my charge, were greatly needed. They were at once
placed in the hands of our Agent, Mr. A. W. Plattenburg, by
whom they were distributed, most liberally, whenever they were
most wanted. Blessings were invoked, by both Surgeons and men,

for this timely care in providing for them, in the great extremity
which always succeeds a series of battles, and which can only be
fully provided for in this way. No parched and thirsty soil ever
drank the dews of heaven, with more avidity, than did those
wounded men receive the beneficent gifts and comforts, sent to
them through this Commission."

The number of articles sent to Gen. Grant's army from the Western
Commission during the month of June, preceding the fall of Vicks-
burg, was 114,697, consisting of 3,090 hospital shirts, 3,080 hospital
drawers, 1,260 sheets, 4,400 bandages, 2,412 bottles of Catawba wine,
1,337 cans of fresh fruit, 1,976 cans of condensed milk, 10,000 lemons,
1,600 gallons of lager beer, 5,477 Ibs. dried apples, 2,400 Ibs. dried
peaches, 2,088 Ibs. codfish, 1,850 Ibs. herring, 11,710 Ibs. crackers,
23,060 Ibs. ice, 1,800 chickens, 3,171 dozen eggs, 3,068 Ibs. butter,
1,840 Ibs. corn meal, 3,145 bushels potatoes, 2,500 fans, 6,004 books
and pamphlets, and of the following articles in similar proportions :
Blankets, pillows, socks, slippers, handkerchiefs, towels, Ibs. of rags,
Ibs. of lint, eye shades, oil silk pads, pin cushions, rolls of adhesive
plaster, tourniquets, crutches, back rests, close stools, spit cups,
sponges, splints, air beds, bottles of whisky, bottles of brandy,
bottles of Catawba bitters, bottles of ginger wine, bottles of cassia
syrup, bottles of blackb3rry syrup, Ibs. of farina, Ibs. of corn starch,
Ibs. of oat meal, Ibs. of arrowroot, Ibs. of tapioca, Ibs. of sago, Ibs.
of pinola, Ibs. of flaxseed, Ibs. of cassia, Ibs. of allspice, Ibs. of mus
tard, Ibs. of nutmegs, Ibs. of pepper, bottles of pepper sauce, bottles
of horseradish, bottles of tomato catsup, bottles of cranberry sauce,
bottles of flavoring extracts, cans of clams and oysters, cans of spiced
tripe, cans of jelly, cans of condensed soup, cans of cocoa paste, Ibs.
of chocolate, cans of portable lemonade, gallons of ale, bottles of drugs,
bottles of extract of ginger, Ibs. of dried small fruit, Ibs. of dried
beef, Ibs. of extract of beef, Ibs. of mackerel, Ibs. of cheese, Ibs. of
bread, Ibs. of zwieback, Ibs. of coffee, Ibs, of tea, Ibs. of sugar, Ibs.

of sour krout, gallons of pickles, gallons of vinegar, bottles of fine
pickles, ibs. of carbonate of soda, Ibs. of saleratus, Ibs. of citric acid,
Ibs. of castile soap, Cook's Manual, stationery, faucets, combs and
brushes, Ibs. of hops, Ibs. of tobacco, bread trays, water coolers,
scales, cooking stoves, brooms, tin cups, tin basins, tin plates, tin
boilers, tin buckets, tin dippers, tin skimmers, coffee pots, tea pots,
spoons, stew pans, cork screws, knives and forks, and iron boilers.

Fortunate was it for these brave men that so much preparation
and provision had been made for their comfort, and that loving hearts
and kind hands had labored for them at home, sending contributions
and agents, and volunteer surgeons and nurses, after them, wherever
the fortunes of war had led them, to assist in binding up their wounds,
in nursing them when sick, and in making them whole. On the fall
of Vicksburg, on the following 4th of July, none rejoiced more than
these untitled heroes, in the celebration of that day, by so great a vic
tory, and none were more worthy to claim their share of its honors,
and to partake in the glory of this, the greatest achievement of
the war.

C II A P T E R VIII.

SOLDIERS' HOMES AT COLUMBUS, KY., MEMPHIS, VICKSBURG, AND HELENA— OVER
L">(),000 SOLDIER GUESTS ENTERTAINED— FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE ST. Louis
HOSPITALS— WHOLE NUMBER OF PATIENTS TREATED— NUMBER OF DEATHS— PER

CENTAGE OF DEATHS — THE MILITARY PRISONS AT ST. LOUIS AND ALTON, ILL. —

HUMANE TREATMENT OF SICK PRISONERS.

ON Mr. Yeatman's first visit to the army of Gen. Grant, in the
winter of '63, he became satisfied of the necessity of Soldiers' Homes
at Memphis, Term., and Columbus, Ky., where there Avere many
troops stationed, and many others constantly arriving-, either going-
home discharged, or on furlough to visit their friends, or returning
to their regiments, being frequently without means to pay hotel
expenses, and needing a place of refreshment and rest. The change
of transportation from the river to the railroads, leading to Jackson
and Corinth, made this the more necessary.

On the 13th of February, '63, the Soldiers' Home at Memphis was
opened for the reception of guests. According to previous arrange
ment made by the President of the Western Sanitary Commission
with Gen. T. C. Hamilton, then in command of the 16th army corps,
the large residence on Beal street, known as the " Hunt Mansion,''
was turned over to Mr. O. E. Waters, as agent of the Commission,
for this purpose.

It had formerly been the head-quarters of Maj. Gen. Grant, and
more recently of Gen. Hamilton, and was the property of a Mr. Win.
llichardson Hunt, a very wealthy planter, owning a great number
of slaves, and now a colonel in the rebel army, many of his slaves
still residing in Memphis and providing for themselves. He spent
over forty thousand dollars in building and beautifying this mansion

with its elegant grounds, little dreaming that in doing this he was
preparing so comfortable a home for the soldiers of the Union, and
the defenders of the flag he himself dishonored by his infidelity and
treason. AVlicn the city of Memphis was captured by the United States
navy he was among the first to flee, with his fellow traitors, and
abandon his home and country for an uncertain abode at Atlanta,
Georgia.

AVrhen the Home was made ready for guests a card was published
inviting the weary soldier to come and partake of its hospitalities, and
it was not long till the place was much sought for, and groups of
soldiers, dusty and travel-worn, could be seen occupying its piazzas and
pleasant rooms, or sitting beneath its evergreen arbors and magnolia
shades.

The Superintendent, in his annual report, gives the following account
of the opening of the institution :

"'Our first guests were brought in by Mrs. Governor Harvey. She
found them wandering through the streets, sadly in need of a kind
friend to give them assistance and care. One of them, a little drummer
boy of the 29th Wisconsin Infantry, when brought in and laid upon a
soft mattress, exclaimed, with tears in his eyes, 'Oh, how pleasant
this is ! ' Brave little drummer boy ! his spirit found a brighter home
and a softer couch ere the morrow's sun arose.

"During the first three months we were confined exclusively to the
care of discharged and invalid soldiers, very often having from twenty to
thirty helpless men at a time, when papers must be examined, pay col
lected and comfortable transportation secured, on some steamer going
North. Many of these men I found lying upon the hard pavements in
the streets, and on the bluff, near the steamboat landing, in a helpless
condition, with no friend to assist them. Three-fourths of them were
delayed here, from one to eight weeks, on account of imperfect papers.
If the oflicers in our army, having this duty to perform, only knew
of the suffering and anguish caused by their carelessness, they would
f

certainly look well to the careful and correct execution of the
soldier's discharge papers and final statements. Many a weak, war
worn soldier, with his steps turned toward his Northern home, full
of bright anticipations and cheering hopes that he will soon be
mingling Avith the loved ones there, when told that his papers are
defective, and rejected by the paymaster, and that they will have to
be returned to his regiment for correction, has felt his heart sink
within him, and the radiant smile has passed away from his face, in
the bitterness of his disappointment. In some instances, before their
papers have returned, they have waited, unable to go home,
sinking in health, until their final discharge carne from the court of
Heaven, and, without seeing their loved ones on earth again, they
went up to their heavenly home, and their eternal reward.

" Since the Home was established, thirteen deaths have occurred
within its walls. This number is small, comparatively, with the
number of very sick men we have entertained.

"After the first of May, ?63, soldiers of all classes were admitted
to the Home, and our numbers began to increase rapidly. The least
number entertained in a single day was six, and the greatest number
three hundred and fifty. After the siege of Vicksburg was over, and
our army sent to other scenes of action, the number of sick materially
decreased, and our attention was directed more to the care of well
men, providing food, transportation, etc."

Of this class of guests the number has steadily increased, and the
usefulness of the Home was never greater than at the present time.
From its establishment, February 18th, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, the
whole number of guests entertained has been 25,830, the number of
meals furnished 55,894, and the number of lodgings provided 18,986.
Of these guests the record shows them to have been largely Illinois,
Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana troops, with considerable num
bers from Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and other States. The soldiers
from Illinois stopping at this Home, to the 1st of March, were 3018;

from Missouri, 1,524; from Iowa, 1,289; the remainder from other
States.

Besides the regular guests entertained here, often the wife, mother,
sister, or father of the sick soldier, accompanying him home, and hav
ing limited resources, have been received as guests, and members of
the United States Christian Commission, engaged in the work of min
istering to the army, have also been welcomed to its hospitality, and
their religious services in the house have given it a religious and moral
character that was highly beneficial to its inmates.

From the opening of this Home, to the present date, it has been under
the superintendence of Mr. O. E. Waters, whose services have been
constant, faithful, and satisfactory, in the highest degree. For several
months he was assisted by Miss A. L. Ostram, as matron, who resigned
her position to fill a similar one at Cairo, Illinois. She was succeeded
by Mrs. Lucy E. Starr, who has occupied the position for nearly a
year, and has imparted so cheerful a spirit to the Home, and been so
unremitting in her labors that her praise is every where spoken by
those who have been the guests of the institution.

On the 16th of February, '63, the Soldiers' Home at Columbus, Ky.,
was opened, and has entertained many thousand soldier guests. It
was at first superintended by Mr. Brown, and for a short time by
Mr. Geo. E. "\Vyeth, when Chaplain Ephraim Xute, became superinten
dent in the spring of '63, and continued in charge till September of the
same year, when he went to jSTew Orleans to establish another Home for
the Commission in that city.* He was succeeded at Columbus by Mr.
S. J. Orange, the present excellent and faithful superintendent. The
first matron was Mrs. S. A. Plummer, who was assisted by Miss Ida

•The Soldiers' Home at New Orleans was duly established in October, 18(52, by
Mr. Nute, acting as the agent of the Western Sanitary Commission, under a special
order from Maj. Gen. Grant. He was provided with furniture, stores, and funds for this
pin-pose, to the value of several thousand dollars, and the Home, on its first opening, was
crowded with guests. Late in November it was transferred to the U. S. Commission,
under whose auspices it is still continued. Rev. Mr. Nute, from the date of this transfer)
ceased to be the agent of the Western Commission, and soon after returned to his
regiment.

Johnson, and to both these ladies great praise is clue, lor their devotion
to the interests of the Home, and their kind and faithful service to the
soldiers, who were their guests . In August, '63, Mrs. Plummer was
transferred to the Soldiers' Home, at Vicksburg, where she has con
tinued as matron to the present date. She was succeeded at Columbus
by Mrs. Orange, who has performed the duties of matron with the
utmost satisfaction. Many letters have been received from soldiers
who have been the guests of this home, testifying their appreciation of
the services of Mr. and Mrs. Orange, and their gratitude for the
kind hospitalities received.

The whole number of guests entertained at the Columbus Home
from February 16th, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, has been 52,259, the
number of meals furnished, 96,694, and the number of lodgings
provided, 20,315. The number of troops from Illinois, among the
above guests, for the year ending February 16th, 1864, was 2,243;
from Iowa, 888; from Wisconsin, 1,211; from Missouri, 864; the
remainder being from the other Western States.

The Soldiers' Home, at Vicksburg, was opened August 6th 1863,
with Mr. E. K. Foster for Superintendent, and Mrs. S. A. Plum
mer for Matron. On the taking of this city, it became the base
of movements into the interior, and with its garrison and the
moving of troops, and the changing of transportation from the
river to the land it was foreseen that a Soldiers' Home would be
necessary here. A large and good building was obtained from the
Government for the purpose, furniture and supplies were sent for
ward from St. Louis, sufficient for two hundred guests, and from
the opening of the institution to the present date, it has been crowded
to its utmost capacity.

Mr. Foster continued in charge till the 28th of November, when he
was succeeded by Mr. N. M. Mann, the present competent and
excellent superintendent. Mr. Foster continued to act as Sanitary
agent for the Commission, at Vicksburg, from the transfer of Mr.

Plattenburg to tlie 15th army corps, till in January, 1864, when lie
was transferred to Helena, Ark., to open a Home at that place.

Mrs. Plummer has continued to act as matron of the Vicksburg
Home from the beginning, and devoted herself to its duties with her
usual zeal and interest in the welfare of the soldiers. She has been
ably assisted in her labors by Miss Hattie Wiswall, assistant matron,
another of the excellent and devoted women, who have been untiring
in their services to our brave defenders in arms, from the beginning
of the war. For many months this Home has also enjoyed the volun
tary labors of Mrs. Governor Harvey, of Wisconsin, who, finding it
crowded with guests, has lent a helping hand in its management,
besides giving much of her time and energy to the interests of the
poor freedmen and their families, and to the destitute Union refugees.
Mr. Mann has also labored most efficiently for these people, of which
an account will be given in a chapter devoted to that subject.

The number of soldiers entertained at the Vicksburg Home, from
August 6th, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, has been 49,738; the number of
meals furnished 81,144, and the number of lodgings provided 30,882.
Of the guests for six months, 3,866 have been from Illinois regiments ;
1,919 from Iowa regiments; 829 from Wisconsin regiments; 451 from
Missouri regiments; the rest being from other States.

There have also been entertained at this Home quite a number of
persons, laboring as agents and teachers to the freedmen, and mem
bers of the Christian Commission, who, being engaged in a similar
work of benevolence and Christianity, and the city being without
sufficient hotel accommodations, have been welcomed, from time to
time, to its hospitalities.

On February llth, 1864, another Soldiers' Home was opened at
Helena, Ark. Having1 a large army in Arkansas, and many troops
passing through Helena, on their way to and from their regiments, it
was deemed advisable, with the concurrence of Brig. Gen. X. B.
Buford, commanding that post, to establish a Homo there. In this

work Gen. Buford and his excellent lady afforded much aid, and one
of the churches of the place having been assigned for the purpose,
with new buildings erected for office room, kitchen, and dining hall,
the institution was soon comfortably fitted up with bedsteads, beds,
bedding, kitchen furniture, stores, etc., sent from the Western Com
mission, and was immediately filled with guests. For a brief period
Mr. K. K. Foster acted as superintendent, when he returned to St.
Louis, and Rev. John I. Herrick, chaplain of the 29th Wisconsin
infantry, being on detached service at Helena, was detailed by Gen.
liuford, at the request of the Commission, to act as superintendent,
and continues in charge at this date. Mrs. II. A. Haines, an expe
rienced and capable person, was sent down to be matron, and has
filled the position thus far very successfully, and with entire satisfaction
to the Commission. During the three months the Home has been
established, it has entertained 3527 guests, furnished 8062 meals, and
and provided 3162 lodgings.

Summing up the statistics of all these Homes, including the one at
St. Louis, it will be found that there have been entertained in them
152,200 soldier guests, 327,786 meals furnished, and 96,635 lodgings
provided, and that of this number there have been 14,703 guests from
Illinois regiments, 7,359 from Missouri regiments, and 8,711 from
Iowa regiments, up to March 1st, 1864, the remainder being divided
among soldiers from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York,
and the U. S. regulars.

Besides the hospitals of St. Louis, of which a previous account has
been given, there are two Post hospitals, one on Hickory street, and
the other at Benton Barracks, the Gratiot Prison hospital, and the
Small-pox hospital on Duncan's Island. The first of these was
originally a General hospital, and there was formerly a Post hospital
at Schofield Barracks, in the immediate vicinity, on Chouteau Avenue,
which was consolidated with it November 1st, 1863. The whole

number of patients received at Hickory street, to that date, was 1826,
and the per centage of deaths was 6 1-10, and at Schofield Barracks
the number of patients received was 206, and the per centage of deaths
4 3-10. At the Military Prison hospital, in McDowell's College,
Gratiot street, the number of patients received to May 1st, '64, is
3,514, and the per centage of deaths 11 4-10. The surgeon in charge
is B. B. Breed, U. S. V. The number of patients received at the
Small-pox hospital to June 1st, '63, was 871, and the per centage of
deaths 22 9-10. The number of prisoners received at the same institu
tion, for the same period, was 162, and the per centage of deaths 34 1-2.
The great mortality of prisoners in this hospital, and at McDowell's
College, Gratiot street, was owing largely to the neglected and ex
hausted condition in which they fell into our hands. Xo statistics
have been received from this institution, for this work, although
requested of the surgeon in charge.

The number of patients treated at the Post hospital on Hickory
street, from November 1st, 1863, to May 1st, 1864, is 1,412, and the
per centage of deaths 2 9-10. The institution is in charge of Frank
W. White, M. D., A. A. Surgeon, U. S. A.

The Good Samaritan, the Fifth street, the Elliott, and the New
House of Refuge hospitals, having been discontinued, the statistics
of them may be found in the second Annual Report of the Commis
sion, June 1st, 1863.

The whole number of patients treated in the hospitals of St. Louis,
including those at Jefferson and Benton Barracks, up to May 1st, ?64,
is 61,744, the number that have died is 5,684, and the per centage of
deaths 9 1-10.

The military prisons of St. Louis have, from the beginning of the
war, received the constant attention of the Western Sanitary Com
mission, and sanitary stores have been issued to them in all cases of
urgent need, upon the requisitions of the surgeon in charge.

In November, 1862, the hospital of Gratiot Street Prison, iu Mc
Dowell's College, used exclusively for prisoners of Avar, was found to
be much crowded, and the building also needed a thorough renovation
and cleansing. The facts were reported to Maj. (-Jen. Curtis, then
commanding the department, and the crowded condition both of the
prison and the hospital, was obviated by sending a considerable num
ber to the large military prison at Alton, Illinois. The Commission
then had the whole interior of the prison and hospital thoroughly
cleansed and whitewashed, by wards, and the condition of things was
much improved. Assistant Surgeon General Wood also assigned two
surgeons to the prison, and made its hospital entirely separate, with
its own arrangements complete.

The Commission made an effort at the same time to induce the gov
ernment to rent other and larger buildings for a military hospital, but
the necessity having in a measure ceased, with a removal of a part
of the patients to Alton, it was not successful.

The Myrtle Street Prison, in which military offences by United States
troops are punished, was also thoroughly inspected at the same time,
and measures of improvement were carried into effect.

The Commission has extended its inspections to the military
prison at Alton, Illinois, and furnished supplies, to most urgent cases
of need, on the requisition of the surgeon in charge. This prison is
the same formerly occupied as the Illinois State Penitentiary, which
was removed to Joliet, just before the breaking out of the war. It
has a large area of ground, 420 by 323 feet, enclosed by a high stone
wall, with the prison buildings inside, is in a healthy location, within
a few rods of the Mississippi river, on the east side, has good water,
excellent drainage, a free circulation of pure air, and could not be better
adapted to the purposes for which it is used.

A committee from the Western Sanitary Commission visited it in
December, 1862, and in a published report of the visit, said, ""We

found the hospital to be a good, brick structure, 104 by 35 feet, well
ventilated, but insufficiently warmed. It contains sixty-three patients.
Many of the sick were needing proper under-clothing. Most of the
buildings in the enclosure stand isolated, with considerable ground
between them, so that in a moral and sanitary point of view, they are
very favorably situated. The prisoners are furnished abundantly with
good wholsonie food, and they appear to be entirely satisfied with the
kind treatment of officers and attendants. The clothes of the prisoners
are washed outside the walls, by laundresses, paid out of the prison
funds. There is also a washing apparatus on the ground, with a plen
tiful supply of hot water, and soap, which is freely resorted to by
the inmates."

There were then 700 prisoners confined in this prison, with accom
modations for 1,300. Since then, it has frequently contained over one
thousand. During a recent visit of the Secretary of the Commission, he
found the hospital in an excellent condition, in charge of Surgeon T. A.
Worrell, U.S.Y., Dr. Hez. Williams, A. A. Surgeon, with beds for three
hundred patients ; the floors clean, and the arrangements similar to the
military hospitals for our own troops. There were 120 sick prisoners
out of 1000, then in prison. The four female nurses in attendance Avere
Sisters of Charity. A chaplain is also allowed the prison, Rev. Father
Vehay, of the Catholic church. A supply of sanitary stores has been
recently sent to the Surgeon in charge, on his requisition. The small
pox patients are treated in tents, on the island, just opposite Alton.
There were recently but few cases of this disease.

Those who die in this prison, are buried in a ground about two miles
out of the city, set apart especially for that purpose. They are fur
nished with a coffin, the same as the Union soldier, and are in all
respects decently interred. Head boards, with the initials of their
names are placed at each grave, so that there can be no difficulty iden
tifying the spot.

The statistics of the prison and hospital were recently requested, for
the purpose of giving a more complete statement for this work, but
were refused by Brig. Gen. Copeland, commanding the post. It is
believed that the facts would show that this prison and its hospital
have been conducted in a manner creditable to the humanity of the
United States Government, and would convey, by contrast, a terrible
rebuke to the inhumanity with which our soldiers have been starved
and treated in the prisons of the South.

CHAPTER IX.

SANITARY STORES SENT TO THE ARMY OF GEN. DAVIDSON, AT BLOOMFIELD, Mo.—
PART OK THEM CAPTURED BY GUERRILLAS — NARROW ESCAPE or THE AGENT —
STORES SENT TO THE ARMY OF GEN. STEELE, AT DUVALL'S BLUFF AND LITTLE
ROCK — AGENCY ESTABLISHED AT LITTLE ROCK — ACKNOWLEDGMENTS — STORES SENT
TO FORT BLUNT, CHEROKEE NATION — ACKNOWLEDGMENT — STORES SENT TO COLOR
ED TROOPS AT MILLIKEN'S BEND, GOODRICH 's LANDING, AND VICKSBURG — LET
TERS OF REV. DR. ELIOT AND MR. YEATMAN — BOOKS AND INSTRUCTION FURNISH
ED TO COLORED TROOPS AT BENTON BARRACKS — LETTER FROM COL. A. WATSON
WEBBER — STORES SENT TO NASHVILLE AND MURFREESBORO, TENN. —AGENCY AT
HUNTSVILLE, ALA. — STORES SENT TO THE NAVAL FLOTILLA — VETERAN REGIMENTS
ENTERTAINED AT ST. Louis — STORES TO THE 33o ILLINOIS INFANTRY — ACKNOW
LEDGMENT—STORES TO BANKS' ARMY ON RED RIVER — SEVERAL IMPORTANT QUES
TIONS ANSWERED— Do THE SOLDIERS GET ANY OF THE SANITARY STORES? — IL
LUSTRATIONS — ACCOUNTABILITY OF AGENTS — HOSPITALS, REGIMENTS, HOSPITAL
STEAMERS AND GUNBOATS SUPPLIED WITH SANITARY STORES — LIST OF FEMALE
NURSES WHO HAVE PROVED THEIR WORTH IN THE HOSPITALS OF SAINT Louis.

DURING the month of August, 1863, Brig1. Gen. Davidson, command
ing1 a force of cavalry, was stationed at Bloomfield, Mo., preparatory
to a movement on Little Rock. His sick were to be left at that place,
in hospital, and, in accordance with his request, the Commission sent
an agent there, Mr. H. J. Waterman, with a large supply of sanitary
stores. On the way from Cape Girardeau to Bloomfield, with a com
missary train, in which six of the wagons were loaded with the stores
of the Commission, the train was attacked, while encamped at night,
by a band of guerrillas of the enemy, twelve soldiers and teamsters
were killed, the mules were carried off, and the wagons, commissary
stores, and sanitary goods set fire to and burned, with the exception
of two wagons, which happened to contain sanitary stores. The
guerrillas then made their escape, and Mr. Waterman, with the captain
of the train, who had narrowly escaped, proceeded on the next day
to Bloomfield, in a very crippled condition. On arriving there, what
was left of the sanitary stores were distributed to the sick, in hospital,

where they were much needed, and most thankfully received, and
Mr. Waterman returned to Cape Girardcau, where he had left about
half of his original supply, being unable to procure transportation.

Previous to his reaching Bloomtield, Gen. Davidson had moved on,
towards Little liock, with his available forces, and as it was now
known that Maj. Gen. Steele was about to move from Helena, with a
large force, to the same point, it was deemed advisable, by the Com
mission, that a permanent agent should accompany this expedition.
Mr. Waterman was accordingly ordered to proceed, from Cape
Girardeau, with his stores, to Helena, by the river, and there join
the command of Gen. Steele. On his arrival at Helena, the expedition
had moved as far as Clarendon, on White river, and the weather being
warm, it was reported that already there were many sick at that
point. Mr. Waterman, with difficulty, procured transportation, and
reached Clarendon, where, being himself taken very sick, with an
attack of fever, he turned over his stores to the Medical Director,
Surgeon James C. Whitehill, and returned home.

In the meantime the Commission had forwarded additional supplies
for this expedition, which were on the way to Helena, to be re-
shipped there up White river to Clarendon. Another agent, Mr.
George M. Wyeth, who had been sent to Helena to act at that point,
was now sent forward to take the place of Mr. Waterman. By the
urgent advice of Surgeon Casselberry, Medical Director at Helena,
he proceeded at once to join Gen. Stecle's army at DuvalFs liluft',
taking along the sanitary stores with him, which had previously
arrived at Helena, and distributing them to the surgeons, for their
sick, in general hospital, and to the regimental hospitals.

The army of Gen. Steele having1 advanced upon Little liock, the
capital of Arkansas, and after a battle with the rebel forces, under
Gen. Price, captured the city, many sick were still left at DuvalFs
Bluff, where a general hospital had been established.

Better hospital accommodations, however, were found at Little Rock,

which now had become the head-quarters of the Army of Arkansas,
and the sick were soon removed and provided for there. Mr. Wyeth
immediately established his agency at Little Rock, and distributed to
the hospitals, and camps of the army, according1 to their necessities,
receiving regular shipments of supplies from St. Louis, and fulfilling
the duties of his position with fidelity and success.

Among the testimonials of the great good accomplished by this
agency, a letter was received, September 30th, 1863, from Rev. E. S.
Pcake, Chaplain 28th Wisconsin Infantry, who had assisted Mr. "Wycth,
in his work, in which he says:

" The Sanitary Commission has accomplished so much good by pro
viding and forwarding supplies of the articles most needed for the
relief and comfort of the sick in the Arkansas expedition, that it gives
me great pleasure to send a brief statement of the facts. Your agent.
Mr. Wyeth, arrived at Helena in time to learn the wants of the expe
dition, and followed the army up White river, to Duvall's Bluff, where
our general hospital was established under temporary sheds. He
brought some tons of sanitary stores, and remained there, attending
to their proper distribution, until the order was given to remove all
the sick to Little Rock. These supplies have been the means of saving
many valuable lives to the army and to the country.

"Mr. Wyeth visited Little Rock by the first railroad train that came
through, and took a tour of inspection through the hospitals, general
and regimental, learning the actual condition of the sick, and their
wants. He has sent to us all the supplies remaining at the Bluff,
and has now gone to Helena, hoping to find another shipment from
St. Louis at that point. The U. S. Sanitary Commission has sent
its contributions to us through Dr. Fithian, so that we have been
able to meet the call for aid, which cornes from the hospitals of a large
army, in a very satisfactory degree. We look upon this, however, as
only the beginning in a great work of charity, which must be con
tinued for several months to come.

"Let not our friends be weary in doing well. If they could see the
good that they are doing, and the relief that their contributions afford,
to the sick and wounded in the army, who, from their position, are
helpless and dependent, it would prove an abundant encouragement
and reward. The moral effect of this work upon the army is of great
importance. It makes men braver and better soldiers and patriots, to
see these tokens of interest, care, and love following them from their
homes.*'

On the same day, Surgeon James C. Whitehill, medical director at
Little Rock, also wrote to the President of the Commission :

"Permit me through Surgeon J. T. Hodgen to acknowledge the
receipt of a fine supply of sanitary stores, and on behalf of our sol
diers to thank you and the generous donors for so opportune a testi
monial of their and your continued care and sympathy. We have had
a great deal of sickness, and the country through which we have
passed has been able to furnish but little adapted to the wants of the
sick soldier. I have myself receipted to your agent, Mr. "Wyeth, for
the goods received, and placed them under the care of a most reliable
and worthy man, who attends to their faithful distribution. Your Com
mission is doing an inconceivable amount of good for our sick soldiery-
and deserves the hearty co-operation and liberal support of Christians
and philanthropists."

During the summer the Commission had also sent a shipment of
stores to the colored soldiers at Fort Blunt, in the Cherokee country,
which was duly received and acknowledged by Surgeon S. C. Harring
ton, of the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry, in a letter, in which he says :
"The goods were exceedingly opportune, as there was a great desti
tution of such things here. Were it not for your Commission, the
army must suffer greatly for want of those things it most needs."

During the autumn of '63, generous supplies of sanitary stores were
sent to the colored regiments, at Milliken's Bend, Goodrich's Landing,
and Vicksburg. In a letter of Rev. Dr. Eliot, under date of August

21st, to friends in Boston, he wrote: " \Ve have the whole army west
of the Mississippi, to see to, and a large part of Gen. Grant's, arid
the gunboats, and the summer sickness are daily becoming worse.
At Helena, where such grand lighting was done on the 4th of July,
there are two thousand sick, left by armies moving forward. Gen.
Steele writes, that he never needed our services more than now; and
from every direction the claims come in upon us. We are making
very large shipments daily, and are, this week, under the necessity
of taking a large additional store-room for our bulky stores.''

Under the same date, in answer to inquiries respecting colored
troops, Mr. Yeatman writes: "We care for the sick and wounded
colored soldiers, just as we do for the white. We have supplied a
number of regiments in Louisiana, Mississippi, Kansas, and in this
city. The accounts we have of them entitle them to our confidence."

During the fall and winter of 1863-4, Brig. Gen. Win. A. Pile,
organized three brigades of colored troops, at Benton Barracks, and
in order that they might have every benefit that was possible, during
the period of their organization and drill, the Commission purchased
three thousand copies of Sargent's Standard Primer, for their use, and
teachers were provided to instruct them in reading ; their officers and
liev. Wm. H. Bradley, in the service of the Commission, taking part
in this work. The sick of' these brigades, in hospital, received the
same treatment and attention as white troops; and sanitary stores
were supplied, both from the Commission and from the Ladies Union
Aid Society, as they were needed.

Among the acknowledgments received from the officers of colored
troops, the following is given, from the colonel of the 1st Mississippi

Vol. Infantry, A. D., dated:

" VICK.SBURG, DEC. 29, 1863.
"REV. J. G. FOKMAN,

" Sec'ry Western Sanitary Commission:

"DEAR SIR — I forward enclosed herewith, a receipt for sanitary
stores, so kindly sent to my regiment. They will be of great benefit

to my men, and I am very much obliged for so bountiful a supply.
They will perform a great and needed good, not only for the sick, but
for those on duty. I cannot but regard the prevention of disease, by
suitable additions to the diet and comfort of the men, as important as
it is to cure them, after they have filled the hospitals. I propose that
my brave colored troops should have something extra on New Year's
day.

" There is no limit to the good that can easily be done for this most
susceptible people. How the minds of men have been blinded in
regard to them ! AYhat outrageous sins has not our white humanity
to account for ! How dark blindness seems when one has passed from
it to the broad light of day !

" The officers from the old * Third Missouri' send their kindest

regards.

" Yours, very truly,

"A. WATSON WEBBER,

" Colonel Commanding "

During the fall and winter of 1863-4 generous supplies were sent
by the Commission to the Nashville Branch of the Ladies' Union Aid
Society, of St. Louis, and to Mrs. Barker, and other ladies, who were
laboring in connection with the U. S. Christian Commission, both
there and at Mu rf re esbo rough, Tenn., in the general hospitals. The
long-tried and faithful agent of the Commission, Mr. A. "W. Flatten
burg, also went forward to Nashville with stores, and afterwards up
the Tennessee river, as far as Eastpori, to Gen. Sherman's army, and
still later established an agency at Huntsville, Ala., from which point
liberal supplies of sanitary goods have been furnished to the hospitals,
and of vegetables to the troops, eliciting the warmest expressions of
gratitude.

In a letter of Mr. Flattenburg, dated March 4th, 1864, he says :
"The vegetables sent by the Commission were issued directly to
the soldiers, and a more thankful and pleased set of men has not been
seen since the war."

This was at a time of great scarcity of vegetable food, and when
the scurvy was making its appearance among the troops.

During the recent winter, supplies have also been furnished to the
gunboats, and to the naval hospital steamer, " Red Rover." Among the
goods sent were seventy-five libraries of books, one for each boat in the
flotilla, and seventy-five sanitary store chests to the same number of
vessels, each chest containing a good supply of hospital clothing, band
ages, lint, adhesive plaster, condensed milk, farina, and other articles
useful to the sick.

On the return of the veteran regiments of Missouri troops, on fur
lough, to return to the war for another three years, they have been
received with a generous hospitality by the city of St. Louis, provided
for at Turners' Hall, and escorted through the city by the Home G-uards,
with marked honor. Whenever they have needed any thing from the
Sanitary Commission, as they went back to the army, it has been freely
given. The veterans of Illinois, Iowa, and other States, have been
treated in like manner, as regards their sanitary wants.

The 33d Illinois infantry, which had been stationed in Texas, and
re-enlisted as veterans, on returning from their furlough, received from
the Commission a sanitary chest, filled with excellent stores. The
following acknowledgment was afterwards received, in which there
are some of the reminiscences of the siege of Vicksburg given :

'•HEADQUARTERS MEDICAL DEPARTMENT U. S. FORCES IN TEXAS? )

"FORT ESPERANZA, MATAGORDA ISLAND, Jan. 15, 1864. \

"REV. J. G. FORMAX,

" Sec'ry Western Sanitary Commission:

"MY DEAR SIR: Your timely supply of sanitary goods has been
received, and in behalf of our noble soldiers, I would return to the
Commission our grateful thanks for this and many other manifestations
of kindness and interest in our sick and wounded men. I take pleasure
in adding my testimony to that of many others, of the vast amount of
G

good the Western Sanitary Commission has been instrumental in doing.
I vividly remember the last 22d day of May, after the charge upon the
fortifications of Vicksburg. Our division, (Gen. Carr's,) had about
four hundred badly wounded men, brought into our division hospital
on that day. We had been cut oft' from our base of supplies for over
two weeks, had fought three successful battles, and had entirely ex
hausted all our medical and hospital stores. Our men were brought
from the battle field with their winter clothing on, and in many cases
their clothing and woolen blankets were saturated with blood, and
covered with fly-blows, and we had no change to give them. We
heard that communication was opened with Chickasaw Landing, twelve
miles distant, and that a U. S. Government boat was there with sup
plies. At once, four wagons were sent there, with a request from the
officer to send us the supplies that were so urgently needed, and the
necessary papers could be executed afterwards. The wagons returned
empty, and the men were told that nothing would be issued, unless
the papers had gone through all the proper channels, and were tied
with red tape, which would require several days to accomplish.

"One of the teamsters remarked to me, that he saw the boat of the
Western Sanitary Commission, coming up the Yazoo river, as they
were leaving. Our wagons were sent back, and our situation made
known to that noble hearted gentleman, A. W. Plattenburg, agent of
the Sanitary Commission, who at once loaded them with every thing
necessary for the comfort and health of our wounded soldiers, and
in a few hours a great change was seen in the hospital.

"The clothing was all changed, good beds were provided, nutritious
food and proper stimulants prepared ; and, but for this timely aid
from your Commission, it is probable many of these poor soldiers
would have died. This is only one instance. I could cite many others
of a similar character, if time would permit.

"Go on in your noble efforts to ameliorate the condition of our unfor
tunate sick and wounded soldiers ; and may God bless your efforts,

and put it into the hearts of our loyal peonle to contribute still larger
means to enable you to accomplish a greater amount of good.
"Very respectfully,

" GEORGE P. REX.

" Surgeon 33d Illinois Infantry,
" Medical Director U. S. Forces in Texas"

A very large shipment of sanitary goods has also been sent this
winter, to the army of Gen. Banks, on the Red river, and the Com
mission is at this date, (May 16th, 1864,) sending forward all the stores
that can possibly be shipped to the army of Gen. Sherman, at Chatta
nooga, Da4ton and Tunnel Hill, Georgia, to be prepared for the care of
the sick and wounded of his army. Mr. H. E. Collins, its efficient and
energetic agent, (late Cashier of the Commission,) is at Xashville,
Tenn., pushing them forward, that no time may be lost, no pains
spared, to meet any emergency that may arise. He will go on to
Chattanooga, leaving Mr. Albert Clark at Xashville, to attend to future
shipments. Mr. James Tompkins, another agent of the Commission, is
now at Chattanooga, and will go forward to the front with his stores as
soon as he can communicate with the Medical Director.

Having thus exhibited something of the work of the Western San
itary Commission for the soldiers and sailors of the western armies and
navy, there are several questions often raised, which may be appro
priately answered here:

It is sometimes asked what need there is of Sanitary Commissions ?
Why don't the Government do this work, and take proper care of the
soldiers, without depending on voluntary contributions? The answer
is plain. The Government can only act through a system of regula
tions, by its authorized agents, who must be governed by prescribed
rules and limitations, and held to a strict responsibility, or there would
be no end to the waste and loss and imposition to which it would be
subjected. Hence the necessity of a fixed ration for the soldier, and
of supply tables for the hospitals, by which so much can be drawn and

TOO

no more, the amount of hospital supplies being1 regulated according
to the average number of sick. Thus it will often happen that the
wants of an army in a time of sickness, or in an unhealthy locality,
or after a battle, will greatly exceed the supplies on hand; and there
is no way of meeting these emergencies, except through some such
instrumentality as the Sanitary Commission.

In the army ration there is a deficiency of vegetable food. The amount
of potatoes, for instance, to each ration, is not one-quarter of what
would be a sufficient supply for a well man at home. In the hospitals
it will barely answer for the hash that is given for breakfast, three
times a week ; and very often the proportion allowed to the well sol
dier is not given him, because the commissary has none. Sometimes
for weeks and months, in the field, the regiments will receive no pota
toes ; and onions and other vegetables (still more rarely allowed) will
be wanting. Such a want of vegetable diet soon engenders scurvy and
other diseases that incapacitate the men for duty, and destroy life. To
meet this want, the Western Sanitary Commission has forwarded many
thousands of bushels of potatoes and onions, and thousands of cans of
tomatoes, and kegs of pickles, to the army. And besides these supplies
the surgeons in charge of hospitals make constant requisition for
articles not furnished by Government, or not in sufficient quantity
to meet the necessities of their patients.

Prejudicial stories have been circulated by many dissatisfied
and fault-finding persons about the waste and consumption of sani
tary stores by officers, accompanied by assertions that what is sent
never reaches the private soldier. Much harm has been done in this
way, by suspicious and evil-minded persons, discouraging contributions
and preventing supplies from being sent to the army. In the early
part of the war, before this great sanitary work had been reduced to
a system, instances of waste and theft, and misappropriation of sanitary
goods did no doubt sometimes occur; but even then they were the
exception and not the rule. This evil has, however, been constantly

101

diminishing' ; persons detected in it have been disgraced and dismissed
from the service ; and a greater degree of responsibility has been
secured, with more ample means of exposure, so that now the mis
appropriation of sanitary goods can scarcely take place without bring
ing disgrace and punishment on the parties engaged in it.

Nevertheless, the impression still prevails with many that the private
soldier never gets any of the sanitary stores sent to the army, and
many soldiers themselves, who have received them in their hospital
diet, and at the Soldiers' Homes, slept in comfortable beds, rested
upon soft pillows, worn dressing-gowns, and socks, and shippers, in
sick wards, and eaten vegetables, fruits, butter and delicacies at their
meals, (not being informed of the fact) have never known that these
things came from the Sanitary Commissions.

An interesting illustration of this is mentioned by Rev. Glen Wood,
General Agent of the American Tract Society, who has spent much
time in the army, in the distribution of reading matter. During a
visit to a general hospital, which I think he said was at Murfreesboro'
or Jackson, Tenn., he engaged in conversation with a convalescent
soldier in one of the wards, who had just finished a letter to his wife.
The soldier said to him:

" I received a letter from my wife, away in Wisconsin, and she
writes that the Soldiers' Aid Society are getting up some sanitary stores
to send to us, and that she is helping to make up a nice lot of things.
I have just written to her, and told her not to do any such thing ; that the
soldiers never get what is sent to them : and that the surgeons and stew
ards and officers only feast on them, while the common soldiers get none."

Several of the other soldiers responded to the statement of their
comrade, " That's so ; we never see any sanitary stores here."

Rev. Mr. Wood said, " My dear sir, I think you must be mistaken.
I have been through the army a good deal, and have seen a great many
things received by the soldiers that were sent from home, through the
Sanitary Commissions, and otherwise."

102

He continued, addressing the first speaker, " 1 see you have on a
comfortable dressing-gown, and socks and slippers, and clean sheets,
and a pillow on your bed ; where did you get these things from ?"

" Well/' said the soldier, "I reckon Uncle 8am fitted up this hos
pital, and these here articles came from the linen room."

Mr. Wood remarked again, " I noticed at dinner that you had pota
toes, and pickles, and onions, and butter, and dried fruit, and tomatoes;
where did you get these things from ?"

" O," said the former speaker again, " I reckon Uncle Sam provided
'em, or may be they were bought with the hospital fund/'

" But," says Mr. Wood, " such things can scarcely be bought here
for love or money. I don't see any in the market, and the sutlers
ask a great price for them. Suppose we call in the steward, and see
if he cannot throw some light on this question."

The steward was then requested to come in, and Mr. Wood asked
him if he would be kind enough to state to these men where most of
the articles of hospital clothing that had been mentioned, and the butter
and fruit and vegetables, and other delicacies on the table, had come from.

" Why, boys," said the steward, " didn't you know we got those
things from the Sanitary Commission ?"

Instantly the men dropped their heads in some confusion, and the
first speaker replied, "No, sir, we didn't know it. "Why didn't you
tell us, and we shouldn't have said what we did to this gentleman. I
hope he will excuse our mistake. As for me, I'm going to tear up
my letter to my wife, (tearing it in pieces) and write her another,
and tell her to go ahead with them sanitary stores, and right glad we
shall be to get them."

The men seemed much pleased with this turn of affairs, and Mr.
Wood left them, having made a most salutary impression, and giving
them all the reading matter they wished.

There is no doubt that much harm has been done, by letters from
men who are naturallv croakers and fault-finders, in discouraging

103

O
s
contributions to the, Sanitary Commissions. The well soldier,

has always enjoyed his health, ought not, of course, to receive t
delicacies and comforts designed only for the sick, and for hospital
use. The vegetables distributed by the Commission he eats, without
inquiring where they came from, and writes home that he has never
received any thing from the Sanitary Commission.

The following method was adopted by Surgeon Charles H. Hughes,
1st Missouri State Militia, to cure one of these croakers of his fault
finding spirit. Surgeon Hughes stands very high in the esteem of
those who know him, and his statement is worthy of all credit. He
says in a letter to the Secretary, from De Soto, Mo., May 2d, 1864,
acknowledging the receipt of sanitary stores :

" I will tell you how I cured a croaker in the St. Louis Hickory
street hospital once. He said the steward got half the things sent by
the Sanitary Commission. I took every thing from him. for a week,
which had been furnished him by the Commission, his pocket comb,
pocket handkerchief, slippers, socks, and gown, and reading matter.
I deprived him of the looking-glass, feather pillow, and comforts,
and, for the two latter, gave him a hard, hair pillow and Government
blanket, and let him take his meals at a separate table, on the rations
furnished by the commissary, and bought out of the fund. After that
he croaked about the parsimony of Uncle Sam, and I put him in the
guard-house. When he rejoined his company he was effectually cured.

" Much wrong has been done to the Sanitary cause, and to medical
officers in the service, by the letters of these croakers. People are
foolish enough to believe them, not knowing that the things which are
usually sent to, and relished by the sick, are unwholesome, oftentimes,
to the stomach of a healthy man, because they vitiate his appetite for
the more substantial food which he most needs. A physician seldom
indulges in sweetmeats, and the wearing apparel, hospital clothing,
etc., sent by the Commission, always bear a stamp, which would dis
grace any one but the legitimate wearer — the patriot soldier."

104

A strict accountability is maintained between the Western Sanitary
Commission and all its agents in the field. Whenever stores are sent
to the agents, they are forwarded by the United States quartermasters
as Government freight, and they receipt for them, and are responsible
for their delivery. When delivered to the agents of the Commission
they receipt to the quartermasters, and the receipted bills of lading
are returned to the chief quartermaster at St. Louis, and acknowledg
ments are also made to the Commission. When sanitary stores are
distributed to the surgeons for the sick and wounded in hospitals, it
is done in answer to written requisitions, and their receipts are taken
and returned to the Commission at St. Louis. Piles of these documents
are now on file at the Western Sanitary Commission rooms, and it can
easily be shown what regiments and hospitals have received sanitary
stores, and the use made of them, by the surgeons and stewards,
inquired into.

The following General, Post, and .Regimental hospitals are among
the number that have been supplied by this Commission : New House
of Refuge, St. Louis and City hospitals, General hospital, (corner of
Fifth and Chesnut street,) Good Samaritan, Eliot, (Fourth street,)
Pacific, Hickory street, Jefferson Barracks, Marine, Benton Barracks,
Lawson and Small-pox hospitals, hospitals in Arnot's and Thornton
& Pierce's buildings, Schofield Barracks and Military Prison ; hospitals
in Cairo, and Mound City, 111. ; at Paducah, and Columbus, Ky. ;
Pittsburg Landing, Union City, Jackson, Lagrange, Memphis, Nash
ville, and Murfreesboro', Tenn. ; Corinth, and Vicksburg, Mississippi ;
Huntsville, Ala. ; Helena, Clarendon, Brownsville, Duvall's Bluff,
Fayetteville, Salem, and Little Rock, Ark. ; Fort Blunt, Cherokee
Nation; Young's Point, Milliken's Bend, Goodrich's Landing and
Duckport, La.; hospitals of the 6th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th army
corps ; and of Quimby's, Hovey's, Steele's, Logan's, McPherson's, Her-
ron's, KimbalPs, McArthur's^ and Blair's divisions ; and of Thayer's,
Irving's, Wilder's, and the Marine brigade ; hospitals at Otterville, Pacific

105

City, Kolla, St. Joseph, Sulphur Springs, Sedalia, Tipton, Commerce,
St. Charles, Ironton, Pilot Knob, Cape Girardeau, Lebanon, Patterson,
Jefferson City, Kansas City, Springfield, Mo. ; Fort Scott, Fort Leav-
enworth, Kansas; Fort Halleck, Idaho; Evansville, Ind.; Quincy, 111;
and Keokuk, Iowa. Many stores were also issued to convalescent
camps, and personally to large numbers of convalescent soldiers.

Among the regiments supplied, are all the Missouri troops, from
the 1st to the 37th infantry ; from the 1st to the 14th cavalry ; Wellfly's
and the other Missouri batteries of artillery ; Bissell's engineer corps ;
Benton and Fremont Hussars, and Merrill's and Curtis' Horse; the
Iowa troops, from the 1st to the 40th regiments of infantry; and the
1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th Iowa cavalry; and the 1st Iowa and
Dubuque and Dodge's batteries; the 2d, 4th, 8th, 10th, llth, 13th,
14th, loth, 17th, 18th, 20th, 26th, 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 32d, 33d, 36th,
40th, 41st, 42d, 43d, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 53d, 54th, 55th, 56th,
61st, 62d, 63d, 76th, 77th, 81st, 87th, 90th, 93d, 94th, 95th, 97th, 99th,
101st, 103d, 106th, 108th, lllth, 113th, 114th, 116th, 117th, 118th, 122d,
124th, 126th, 127th, 130th, 131st, 145th, and 147th Illinois infantry;
the 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Illinois cavalry ; and Peoria, Mercan
tile, Board of Trade, Taylor's, and 1st Illinois batteries; the 7th,
8th, llth, 12th, 16th 18th, 23d, 24th, 25th, 34th, 39th, 43d, 47th, 48th,
49th, 53d, 54th, 56th, 59th, 60th, 67th, 72d, 83d, 93d, 96th, 97th, 99th,
and 100th Indiana infantry; Coggswcll's 1st Indiana battery; and the
1st Indiana cavalry; the 1st, 16th, 20th, 22d, 30th, 32d, 36th, 37th, 42d>
46th, 47th, 48th, 53d, 54th, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, 68th, 70th, 72d, 76th,
77th, 78th, 80th, 83d, 95th, 96th, 114th, and 120th Ohio infantry ; 5th
Ohio cavalry; and the 2d, 4th, 8th, llth, 16th, and 26th Ohio batter
ies: the 1st, 2d, 6th, 8th, 9th, llth, 12th, 14th, Kith, 17th, 18th, 23d,
25th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 32d, 33d, and 41st Wisconsin infantry ; 12th
Wisconsin battery; and 1st, 2d, and 3d Wisconsin cavalry; the 2d,
7th, 8th, 12th, 15th, 20th, and 27th Michigan infantry ; and 2d and 3d
Michigan cavalry; the 3d, 4th, 5th, llth, and 17th Minnesota infan-

106

try; and 1st Minnesota battery; the 1st, 2d, 5th, 10th, llth, [and
13th Kansas infantry; and 1st and 5th Kansas cavalry ; the 1st Ar
kansas, (white), 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th Arkansas colored infantry ; and
the 1st, 3d, and 4th Arkansas cavalry ; the 5th Maine infantry ; the
llth New Hampshire infantry ; the 32d Massachusetts infantry ; the
17th and 178th New York infantry; the 34th and ooth New Jersey
infantry ; and 2d New Jersey cavalry ; the 45th Pennsylvania infantry ;
the 4th Virginia infantry; the 7th, 19th, and 22d Kentucky infantry;
the 8th, dth, 10th, llth, and 12th Louisiana colored infantry; the 1st,
2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th, Mississippi colored infantry; and 1st Mississippi
colored cavalry ; the 13th United States regular army ; and the 48th,
49th, 51st, 58th, and 59th United States colored infantry ; and 2d
and 6th United States colored artillery.

The hospital steamers supplied by the Western Sanitary Commission,
are the "City of Louisiana," afterwards refitted and named the "R. C.
Wood," the "D. A. January," the "Empress," the "Imperial," the
"Eed Rover," the "City of Alton," the "City of Memphis," the
"Nashville;" and of the transports, -Conveying the sick and wound
ed, the "Ruth," the "Glasgow" the "Diana," the "Nebraska," and
the "Baltic."

Of the gunboats of the Mississippi naval squadron, supplies have
been sent to nearly all, among which the following may be named :
the Louisville, Mound City, Carondelet, Chillicothe, Judge Torrence,
Lafayette, NaumJceag, Ratler, Autocrat, Black Hawk, Petrel, Gen
eral Price, Romeo, Choctaw, Benton, Avenger, Tyler, Monarch,
Switzerland, Pairpaw, Tawha, Key West, and No. 11, tliere being
many more, to whom contributions have been sent quite recently,
including the whole Mississippi squadron.

In concluding the present chapter, it is deemed an appropriate place
to mention the names of those female nurses, who, by long and faithful
service, and special devotion to the care of the sick and wounded sol
diers, in the St. Louis hospitals, have earned the gratitude of the West-

107

crn Sanitary Commission, and of those who have been the objects of
their kind solicitude and^ self-sacrificing labors. In giving this list of
honored names, it is not improbable that some will be omitted, who
deserve a place in it, for it is made up under many disadvantages,
and without all the means of a careful examination. It is also to be
regretted that the Christian names of some are not within the knowledge
of the writer, and cannot be easily obtained. The list is as follows : Mrs.
M. I. Ballard, Mrs. E. O. Gibson, Mrs. L. D. Aldrich, Mrs. Houghton,
Mrs. S. A. Plummer, Miss Carrie C. McNair, Mrs. Harriet Colfax, Mrs.
Sarah A. Barton, Miss Ida Johnson, Miss Clark, [Miss A. L. Ostrarn,
Mrs. Lucy E. Starr, Mrs. Olive Freeman, Mrs. Anne M. Shattuck,
Mrs. E. C. Brendell, Mrs. E. J. Morris, Mrs. Dorothea Ogden, Mrs. E.
C. Witherell, Miss N. A. Shepherd, the Sisters of Charity at the New
House of Refuge Hospital, Miss Emma L. Ingalls, Miss Emily E. Par
sons, Miss Fanny Marshall, Miss Louisa Maertz, Miss Harriet N. Phil
lips, Mrs. Elizabeth A. Nichols, Miss Eebecca Craighead, Mrs. H. A.

•
Haines, Mrs. H. A. Reid, Miss Hattie Wiswall, Mrs. Reese, Mrs. Maria

Brooks, Mrs. Mary Allen, Mrs. Bickerdike, Miss Cornelia M. Tomp-
kins, Mrs. M. A. Steller, Mrs. Carrie Gray, Mrs. M. J. Dykman,
Misses Marian and Clara McClintock, Mrs. Otis, Mrs. Sager, Mrs. Pea-
body, Mrs. Rebecca S. Smith, Miss Melcenia Elliott, Mrs. C. C. Hagar,
Mrs. J. E. Hickox, Mrs. Lucy L. Campbell, Miss C. A. Harwood, Miss
Deborah Daugherty, Miss Phebe Allen, Mrs. Wells, Mrs. Ferris, and
Miss Lucy J. Bissell.

Of these honored women, Mrs. E. C. Witherell laid down her life in
this service. She had served very faithfully in the Eliot Hospital, St.
Louis, for many months, and was always most gentle, kind, and
unremitting in her attention to the sick and wounded. In the spring
of 1862, she was transferred to the hospital steamer "Empress" as
matron, and continued on her till the next July, when, on the 10th
of the month she died, a victim of fever, contracted in performing the
arduous duties of a nurse. The Western Sanitary Commission passed

108

a preamble and resolutions, commemorative of her virtues, in which
she was mentioned as one who was "gentle and unobtrusive, with a
heart warm with sympathy, and unshrinking in the discharge of duty,
energetic, untiring1, ready to answer every call, and unwilling to
spare herself where she could alleviate suffering, or minister to the
comfort of others.'' In self-sacrifice and devotion to duty she was
regarded as " not a whit behind the bravest hero on the battle field,"
giving, as she did, her life for her country and humanity.

If the history of the present war shall ever be faithfully written, it
will contain many touching incidents of woman's heroism, and a noble
record of the inestimable services rendered by her, in the hospitals
of the army, living in an impure atmosphere, amid scenes of suffering
and death, that the soldiers of the Union may be gently nursed and
cared for, and sent forth again to do battle for a righteous cause. A
young woman is now present to the mind of the writer, and her name

is in the foregoing list, who came from her country home, in Iowa, a

•
volunteer to nurse her country's defenders, among whom were all of

her own brothers, who were old enough to fight. She had education,
strength, and a holy resolution to undertake the hardest service she
could find. For months she served in the hospitals of Tennessee, went
home alone in charge of the corpse of a neighbor of her father's, who
had died in the hospital at Memphis, returned to St. Louis, and when,
in one of the large hospitals, a volunteer was called for, to serve in the
erysipelas ward, a position of danger and of trying service, while
others were reluctant, she made a ready and willing offer of herself,
was accepted, and spent months in the cheerful performance of her
duty there, without a murmur or complaint. She is still filling a
position of arduous service and much responsibility, and may occa
sionally be seen, leading a blind soldier, in his visits to the surgeon,
for the treatment of his eyes, taking delight in every opportunity of
doing good to those who are giving their lives for their country.
Another one we also knew, whose name is likewise in this simple

109

record, who, at Helena, Ark., in the fall and winter of 1862-3, was
almost the only female nurse in the hospitals there, going from one
building to another, in which the sick were quartered, when the streets
were almost impassable with mud, administering sanitary stores, and
making delicate preparations of food, spending her own money in pro
curing milk and other articles that were scarce and difficult to obtain,
and doing an amount of work which few persons could sustain, living
without the pleasant society to which she had been accustomed at
home, never murmuring, always cheerful and kind, preserving in the
midst of a military camp such gentleness, strength, and purity of char
acter, that all rudeness of speech ceased in her presence, and, as she
went from room to room, she was received with silent benedictions,
or an audible " God bless you, dear lady, for your kindness to me,"
from some poor sufferer's heart.

When such women are willing to leave their pleasant homes, and
forsake almost every comfort, for such a service, and in. such a cause,
there is still hope for the land of their birth ; for while virtue and
self-sacrifice remain, the cause of liberty and free government cannot
perish from the earth, but must grow stronger and more triumphant
with every conflict, as ages roll away.

CHAPTER X.

THE FREEDMEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI — FIRST EFFORTS FOR THEIR RELIEF AT HELENA —
Miss MARIA R. MANN — MR. YEATMAN'S VISITS TO THE FREEDMEN, FROM ISLAND
No. 10 TO NATCHEZ — CHAPLAIN H. D. FISHER DETAILED AS AN AGENT OF THE
COMMISSION TO MAKE AN APPEAL FOR AID IN NEW ENGLAND — GENEROUS CON
TRIBUTIONS RECEIVED — MR. YEATMAN'S REPORT — CONDITION OF THE FREEDMEN —
THE SUBJECT PRESENTED TO THE ATTENTION OF THE GOVERNMENT — MR. W. P.
MELLEN AND MR. YEATMAN RETURN TO CARRY INTO EFFECT AN IMPROVED SYSTEM
OF LEASING THE ABANDONED PLANTATIONS, AND OF SECURING BETTER WAGES TO
THE LABORERS — SECOND VISIT TO WASHINGTON — MILITARY PROTECTION GIVEN —
NATIONAL AND OTHER FREEDMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATIONS— MESSRS. MARSH AND
FOSTER GO TO VICKSBURG AS AGENTS — TEACHERS SENT — DEATH OF ONE OF THE
NUMBER — FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED FREEDMEN ARRIVE WITH THE RETURN
OF GEN. SHERMAN'S ARMY FROM MERIDIAN— THEIR CONDITION— AID GIVEN-
UNION REFUGEES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY — REFUGEE HOME AT ST. Louis —
REFUGEES AT PILOT KNOB — LABORS OF SUPERINTENDENT A. WRIGHT — REFUGEE
HOME AT VICKSBURG — SCHOOL FOR REFUGEE CHILDREN.

INCIDENTAL to its great work of ministering to the sick and wounded
of the Western armies and navy, and of promoting the health and en
ergy of our soldiers in the field, the Western Sanitary Commission has
felt itself called to devote a portion of its labors to the relief of forty
thousand freedmen, along the banks of the Mississippi river, from
Columbus, Ky., to Natchez, many of whom, in their transition from the
ownership and control of slave masters, to the condition of freedmen,
have suffered untold hardships and privations, in a country stripped by
the ravages of war, with no demand for labor, except in a few favored
localities, nor any means of providing for their most urgent wants, food,
clothing, and shelter. Seeing in them the victims of a life-long oppres
sion, thrown destitute and almost naked upon the tender mercies of our
armies in the field, many of them dying of exposure, hardship, and dis
ease, the members of the Western Commission could not turn a deaf
ear to their silent appeals for assistance and Christian sympathy.

Their attention was first called to the sufferings of these people at

Ill

Helena, in the beginning of the winter of 1862-3, where there were
between three and four thousand, men, women and children, part of
them living in a place back of the town, established for them, by Gen.
C. C. Washburne, the previous summer, called " Camp Ethiopia," in
the condemned and cast-off tents of the army, and in caves and shelters
of brush — the best arrangement that could be made at the time, but
wholly insufficient for winter. Others dwelt in the poorer houses of
the town, sixteen and twenty persons occupying the same room, and
others still in the few huts that remained on the neighboring planta
tions. The able-bodied men had been worked very hard on the fortifi
cations of the place, and by the quartermasters, in unloading coal from
barges and freight from steamboats, and also as grave-diggers, team
sters and wood choppers, and in all manner of fatigue duty. For these
services many of them never received any compensation, through the
neglect of the officers, having them in charge, to keep proper pay rolls,
and the indifference of several of the military commanders, immedi
ately succeeding Maj. Gen. Curtis. At one time an order was issued
forbidding their payment, on the ground that their masters would have
a claim against the Government for their services. All the while they
were compelled to do most of the hard work of the place, and press-
gangs were sent out to take them in the streets and put them to work,
sometimes by night as well as by day, taking no account of their names
or labor, and dismissing them without compensation. Sometimes they
were shot down, and murdered with impunity.

Under such circumstances they were not able to provide for their
families, and rations had to be drawn for them from the Government.
Herded together as they were, in camps and the poorest dwellings, it was
no wonder that they sickened and died at a fearful rate. The writer of
this, who was then on duty at Helena, has seen the streets patroled by
mounted orderlies, to gather up the "contrabands," as they were called,
for forced labor, while their women and children were driven from their
little houses, to Camp Ethiopa, under an arbitrary military rule, with

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a view of expelling them from the town ; and there being no additional
shelter at the camp, they had to suffer there, till the order became par
tially a dead letter, by reason of its inhumanity. A military order was
as one time issued, to carry them beyond the lines, under which many
of them were delivered up to rebel masters, in violation of the Articles
of War. "With hundreds of sick, their only hospital was a small build
ing, not sufficient for the care of twenty persons.

It was under these circumstances, that the Western Sanitary Com
mission, early in January, 1863, sent to Helena, that excellent and
philanthropic woman, Miss Maria R. Mann, with a large supply of
sanitary stores, clothing, hospital goods, furniture, stove, &c., to fit up
a better hospital for the sick of this class, and to minister generally to
their wants.

At this time, Rev. Samuel Sawyer, chaplain of the 47th Indiana in
fantry, and Rev. J. G. Forman, chaplain of the od Missouri infantry,
both of them on detached service at Helena, were doing what they
could for these poor people, and welcomed the arrival of Miss Mann
with great satisfaction. Mr. F. secured rooms for her and her stores in the
same house occupied by himself and others, and the work of ameliora
tion was immediately commenced. The hospital wTas soon renovated;
and a month or two later, on the removal of a portion of the army, a
larger and better building was obtained, when the sick of the freed
people were better situated, and army surgeons were detailed to attend
them. It was now known that a change of policy towards the emanci
pated people had been inaugurated by the Government. Adjutant
General Thomas was on his way to look after these people, and organ
ize regiments of fighting men from them, and the military commanders
became more willing to grant favors in their behalf.

In the Spring a splendid regiment of the 1st Arkansas infantry, A. D.,
was recruited in a few days, commanded by Col. Wm. F. Wood, and a
second was commenced. Miss Mann remained till the following Au
gust, performing a great amount of useful service to the wives and

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children of these men, giving" clothing to the poor and needy, selling to
those who had money to buy with, and replenishing her stock with the
proceeds ; teaching women to cut and make their own garments, provid
ing medicines for the sick, visiting them in their camps and dwellings,
giving them excellent advice, and in every possible way improving their
condition.

Her labors there were also sustained by friends in New England, with
whom she was in correspondence, and several thousand dollars worth
of clothing, material for clothing, medicines, etc., were* used by her in
the most judicious manner, Rev. Dr. Eliot, at St. Louis, acting for
the Commission, as Treasurer of a special fund for this purpose, contri
buted mostly by humane people in New England. Rev. Jonathan E.
Thomas, chaplain 56th Ohio infantry, was also detailed to assist in this
work, and his humanity and kindness to the poor " contrabands/' as
well as the faithful service of Rev. Mr. Sawyer, and the devoted labors
of Miss Mann, will long be remembered by them, and by the writer of
this sketch, who was providentially associated with them, for a time, in
their benevolent work. It is due to Major Generals S. R. Curtis, C. C.
"Washbume, and Prentiss, who were in command at Helena for a brief
period, to say that it was not during their administration of affairs that
the evils here narrated occurred, and that they were always ready to do
whatever was in their power, for the amelioration of the condition of the
colored people at that post.

During the month of October, '63, the condition of the freed people,
along the Mississippi river, again enlisted the earnest consideration of
the Western Sanitary Commission. The same state of things that had
existed at Helena, was reported as existing at many other points, be
tween Columbus, Kentucky, and Xatchez, chiefly the result of neglect,
inability to procure remunerative employment, failure of quartermasters
to enroll and pay the freedmen their wages, and the helpless condition of
many, in consequence of the taking of the strong and able-bodied men
H

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for United States soldiers, leaving their wives and children, for a time,
unprovided for.

On the 6th of November the Commission addressed a letter to the
President of the United States, calling- his attention to the condition of
these people, the necessity of assistance, before another winter should
set in, and proposing to assume the labor of soliciting contributions
and extending relief, as an incidental part of its work. The proposal
was favorably regarded, assurances were given by the Secretary of War
that all possible aid would be rendered, in the way of transportation
and otherwise, and, a few weeks later, Mr. Yeatman made a special
visit down the river, to ascertain and report the actual state of things.

At the same time, Maj. Gen. Schofield, who gave his hearty approval
and sympathy to the work, detailed, by special order, Chaplain H. D.
Fisher, of the 5th Kansas Cavalry, to visit New England, under the
direction of the Commission, and make a suitable appeal for contribu
tions for this object. Mr. Fisher's visit was entirely successful, and
very large contributions of clothing, material for clothing, shoes, and
other necessary articles, amounting in value to about $30,000, and
$13,000 in money, were obtained, by a committee in Boston, composed
of Chas. G. Loring, Chairman, M. S. Scudder, Secretary, Alpheus
Hardy, Treasurer, A. A. Lawrence, James M. Barnard, Wm. Endi-
cott, Jr., Edward Atkinson, and sixteen others. These contributions
came from Boston, Salem and other neighboring towns and cities, to
whom the appeals of the Western Sanitary Commission have never
been made in vain. Many valuable boxes of clothing material and
shoes were sent by the Boston Educational Commission for Freedmen,
of which Messrs. Barnard, Atkinson and Endicott, of the other com
mittee, were also members.

On the 17th of December, Mr. Yeatman returned from his first visit
to the freedmen of the lower Mississippi, and made a full report to the
Commission, of which five thousand copies were printed and circulated.
He stopped at Island No. 10, at Memphis, Helena, Goodrich's Landing,

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Milliken's Bend, Young's Point and Vicksburg, the plantations of Jeff
and Joe Davis, and at Natchez, and returning, visited some of these
points a second time.

The report, consisting of sixteen pages of closely printed matter, is so
full of information that it is impossible to make even an abstract of it
for this work. It is sufficient to say, that he found about forty thou
sand of these people in camps, at the above and other places, between
Cairo and Xatchez, in various degrees of poverty and wretchedness;
that among them he found several volunteer agents, missionaries, and
teachers, from the United Presbyterians, the Friends, and the Freed-
men's Aid Associations, laboring for their benefit as well as they could,
without system or co-operation; that in the cotton growing region, from
Goodrich's Landing to Vicksburg, on the abandoned plantations, leased
by the Government, he saw over twenty colored men, and heard of
others who had raised from five to ten bales of cotton, on their own
account, proving their capacity for self-maintenance, with a fair chance ;
that where they were laboring under the lessees their wages were whol
ly inadequate, being but five dollars per month for women, and seven
dollars per month for men, with subsistence of the poorest kind ; that
they suffered many wrongs under this system; that when they were em
ployed by Government Quartermasters, to cut wood for steamboats, they
were frequently not paid ; that they were charged an unreasonable
price for goods, and Were really suffering wrongs and hardships, equal
to those they had borne in a state of slavery, while they were enjoying
none of the blessings of liberty.

Mr. Yeatman, in his report, thus sets forth some of the wrongs of
these people: " Within the city of Memphis, not directly connected
with any of the camps, or with the colored regiments, there are some
three thousand freed men and women, mostly freed men, who are em
ployed in various ways, and at various rates of compensation. Those
employed by Government, receive but ten dollars per month, while

110

many could readily earn Irom thirty to fifty dollars per month. Those
thus employed are outside of the military organization.

"To give an instance: One quartermaster told me that he had in his
employment, a harness maker, to whom he could only pay ten dollars
per month, while he was paying white men, doing the same work,
forty-five dollars per month; and that the colored man could readily
procure the same wages, were he allowed to seek a market for his labor
in the same town. I saw a number of colored men pressed into service,
(not military,) to labor at the rate of ten dollars per month, one of
whom petitioned to be released, as he had a good situation at thirty
dollars per month. The firemen on the steamboat on which I was a
passenger from St. Louis to Memphis, were all colored, and were re
ceiving forty-five dollars per month. These men were afraid to go ashore
at Memphis, for fear of being picked up and forced into Government
employment, at less than or ^-fourth their existing wages.

"Besides the fact that men are thus pressed into service, thousands
have been employed for weekj and months, who have never received
any thing but promises to pay. This negligence and failure to comply
with obligations, have greatly disheartened the poor slave, who comes
forth at the call of the President, and supposes himself a free man, and
that, by leaving his rebel master, he is inflicting a blow on the enemy,
ceasing to labor and to provide food for him and for the armies of the
rebellion. Thus he was promised freedom, but how is it with him ?
He is seized in the street, and ordered to go and help unload a steam
boat, for w^hich he will be paid, or sent to work in the trenches, or to
labor for some quartermaster, or to chop wood for the Government.
He labors for months, and at last is only paid with promises, unless
perchance it may be with kicks, cuffs, and curses.

"Under such treatment, he feels that he has exchanged one master
for many masters ; these continued abuses sadden and depress him, and
he sighs to return to his former home and master. He, at least, fed,

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clothed, and sheltered him. Something should be done, and 1 doubt
not, will be done, to correct these terrible abuses, when the proper
authorities are made to comprehend them. The President's proclama
tion should not thus be made a living- lie, as the Declaration of In
dependence has too long- been, in asserting the inalienable rights
of man, while the nation continued to hold millions of human beings
in bondage."

In another place he says :

" The poor negroes are everywhere greatly depressed at their con
dition. They all testify that if they were only paid their little wages as
they earn them, so that they could purchase clothing, and were furnished
with the provisions promised, they could stand it ; but to work and get
poorly paid, poorly fed, and not doctored when sick, is more than they
can endure. Among the thousands whom I questioned, none showed
the least unwillingness to work. If they could only be paid fair wages,
they would be contented and happy. They do not realize that they are
free men. They say that they are told they are, but then they are taken
and hired out to men who treat them, so far as providing for them is
concerned, far worse than their " secesh" masters did. Besides this they
feel that their pay or hire is lower now than it was when the " secesh"
used to hire them. This is true/'

And yet, under all their accumulated wrongs, these people manifest a
wonderful faith in Divine Providence ; they seem to be sensible that God
has some better thing in store for them, and to realize that, through this
wilderness of suffering and sorrow is the only ^ath to their deliverance.
Mrs. Porter, at Camp Holly Spring, near Memphis, related to Mr.
Yeatman an instance of this. When she first went there to teach, an
old negro came out to meet her, whose head had been whitened by the
frosts of ninety winters, and who was almost blind, supporting himself by
his staff. "With his hand stretched forth he accosted her, saying, " "Well,
you hab come at las'. I'se been 'spectin' you, lookin' for you, for de
las' twenty years. I knowed you would come, and now I rejoice." She

118

said, "I have come to teach you." " Yes, yes, I know it, and I tank
de Lord."

At this same camp Mr. Yeatman saw a colored man, who, after his
return from his work, was seated in his cabin, surrounded by his own
children and a" few others from the adjoining cabins, teaching them their
lessons for the morrow. At another school he met an old woman, aged
eighty-five, who was intent on her books. When asked if she was not
too old to begin to learn, she said, " Xo," that she must learn now or
not at all, as she had but little time left, and she must make the most of
it. When asked what good it would do her, she said " she could read
de bible, and teach de young." At other places similar instances of
faith and piety, and the desire of knowledge, were witnessed.

Mr. Yeatman was most favorably impressed with the capacity of the
negroes to become soldiers. He gives an account of several successful
expeditions, under Col. Farrar, at Natchez, in which they brought
in prisoners. In one instance he says, " The prisoners were much
chagrined at being taken by negroes, and asked if they could not have
another guard to take them through town ; but as they were captured
by negroes, they had to be guarded and escorted by them."

He says of another experience he had, " In going from Goodrich's
Landing to Milliken's Bend, I was escorted by twenty colored troops,
mounted on mules captured from the enemy. They rode gallantly and
fearlessly, putting our their advance guard and arranging themselves
in true military order, conducting themselves with as much propriety
as an equal number of well behaved gentlemen. When we arrived at
the Bend, and dashed into the fort, surrounded by troops, my com-
panion— Dr. May— and myself, dressed in citizen's clothes, and mounted
in an old wagon, were taken for prisoners, and our escort was called
out to by the soldiers, "Rebs! Rebs!" and an amount of ivory dis
played that 1 have seldom seen exceeded.

"I could but compare my first visit to this point years ago, when I
landed to take charge of a large estate, as executor, with my present

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one. It was here in these swamps that I first saw and knew what a dead,
leaden thing slavery is, and the wrong and injustice which could be
inflicted, even by one, considered the kindest and most humane of mas
ters. I doubt not the seed was then sown in my heart which has since
germinated, and makes me now not only willing, but anxious to labor
for these poor sons of soil. What a revolution a few short years has
brought about ! Who can doubt that an infinitely wise and just God
governs the world?"

On submitting his report to the Commission, Mr. Yeatman was dele
gated to visit Washington, and present this subject to the Government.
In doing so, he also presented a series of printed "suggestions of a plan
of organization for freed labor and the leasing of plantations along the
Mississippi river." His report and suggestions were most favorably
received at Washington, and he was urged and authorized to accom
pany Mr. W. P. Mellen, the special supervising agent of the Treasury
Department, to Vicksburg, to mature and carry them into effect. This
trust of the Government he accepted, as a voluntary work, declining
an official position, which was offered him ; and he proceeded a second
time, now in company with Mr. Mellen, to the region of the leased
plantations, near Vicksburg.

The new plan of labor — in view of the high price of cotton, and
the profit to be derived from its cultivation — provided that the freed-
men should receive from 812 to $25 a month, according to age, sex,
ability, etc.; that there should be a secure method of enforcing the
contract for labor and wages ; that the lessee should furnish goods at an
advance of ten per cent. 011 the cost; that there should be established
"Home Farms," under a superintendent, for the young and old, the
infirm and destitute; that there should be schools and teachers, for
all children under twelve years old ; and that a tax should be paid to
the Government of four dollars, on each bale of cotton raised, and of
two cents per pound, for the support of the "Home Farms," and
the schools; and that the system should be carried out by commis-

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sioners of plantations, acting under the Treasury Department, who
should see that justice is administered; that the freed people are treated
as free, and encouraged to respect and observe the institutions of
religion, marriage, and all the customs of virtuous and civilized
society, and to become worthy of the blessings of a Christian civ
ilization.

On their way down the river, Messrs. Me lien and Yeatrnan had a new
form of lease, and printed regulations prepared at Memphis, and on ar
riving at Vicksburg, inaugurated the new order of things. At first it
met with some opposition from the old lessees, who saw in it a diminu
tion of their gains; but seeing that it was promulgated with authority,
it was acquiesced in, local agents were appointed, and about six hundred
plantations were immediately leased, under the new system.

The withdrawal of the troops, from some of the districts, had caused
considerable discouragement at first, but on a second visit of Messrs.
Mellon and Yeatman to Washington, the Secretary of War was induced
to give the services of the Marine Brigade, for the purpose of affording
protection to the plantations and freed people ; and the work of growing
cotton, the present year, is already progressing with satisfaction to all
concerned, with a great improvement in the prospects of the laborers,
and their ultimate success as independent cultivators of the soil ; for
the more intelligent of them do not fail to see the advantages of pos
sessing land of their own, and are ambitious to work for themselves,
instead of a master. In almost every instance where they attempted,
last year, to cultivate cotton, on their own account, they were entirely
successful, numerous instances of which Mr. Yeatman gave in his pub
lished report.

While these changes were being effected, a National Freedman's
Relief Association had been organized^!! New York city, and a North
western Freedmen's Relief Commission at Chicago, besides which there
were two similar associations already existing at Cincinnati, and another
was formed at Indianapolis, Harmonious relations were at once estab-

lished between these Associations and the Western Sanitary Commission.

On the llth December, Messrs. Win. L. Marsh and U.K. Foster, from
the National Freedmen's lielief Association of New York, arrived at St.
Louis, with a letter of introduction from Hon. F. G. Shaw, the Presi
dent of the Association, on their way to Vicksbtirg, to establish an
agency there, for the distribution of goods to the needy, the sale of them
to those who could pay, and for the employment of teachers to instruct
the people. Mr. Yeatnian was at the time down the river; but these
gentlemen, seeing the advantages of co-operation and unity of purpose,
consented to act also as agents of the Western Sanitary Commission,
and thereby secured an arrangement for the re-shipment of their goods
from St. Louis to Vicksburg, which they were expecting from New
York, and the Commission also secured the benefit of their valuable
services, as agents in the field.

Very large shipments of clothing soon began to arrive from New
York, directed to Mr. Marsh, and were forwarded with shipments from
the Western Sanitary Commission, at the earliest period. They were
unfortunately delayed several weeks by the severe cold of December
and January, which closed the navigation for awhile, but were ulti
mately received, and accomplished great good. Of the proceeds of the
goods sold by these gentlemen, on account of the Western Sanitary
Commission, they have returned $1000. Their services have been in
every respect most useful and satisfactory, and have been extended to
Natchez, and other places besides Vicksburg.

D uring the winter they wrote to the Commission to send them two
teachers, to assist in the work of instruction and distribution at Vicks
burg. Miss A. M. Knight, of Sun Prairie, Wis., and Miss Sarah J.
Hagar, of this city, were commissioned, and their services have been
very acceptable and useful. In February, Mrs. Lydia H. Daggett, of
Boston, a very excellent and capable person, was sent into the same
field, to act under the direction of Mr. Marsh.

Within a few days, the friends of Miss Hagar have been pained to

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receive the news of her unexpected death, at Vicksburg, from a sudden
attack of disease. She was a devoted, and estimable young woman.
It is due to her memory, that the following letter, from Mr. Marsh,
should have a place here, since she died in the service of the Commis
sion, and in so good a cause.

"NATCHEZ, May 6, 1864.
" REV. J. G. FORMAN,

"Sec'ry Western Sanitary Commission:
"My DEAR SIR — You have already received from Mr. Mann, the sad

•

intelligence of the death of Miss Hagar, one of the teachers sent by
you, to labor among the freed people in this valley.

"I was at Natchez when she was taken ill, and did not receive
intelligence of it in time to reach Vicksburg, until after her death;
which occurred on Tuesday, May 3d.

"In her death, the Association have lost a most earnest, devoted
and Christian laborer. She entered upon her duties at a time of great
suffering and destitution, among the freedmen, at Yicksburg, and when
we were much in need of aid. The fidelity with which she performed
her labors, and the deep interest she manifested in them, soon endeared
her to us all. "We shall miss her sorely; but the noble example she
has left us, will encourage us to greater elforts and more patient toil.
She seemed to realize the magnitude and importance of the work upon
which she had entered, and the need of Divine assistance, in its per
formance. She seemed also to realize what sacrifice might be demand
ed of one engaged in a work like this, and the summons, although sud
den, did not find her unprepared to meet it. She has done a noble
work, and done it well. The sacrifice she made, is the greatest one
that can be made for any cause, the sacrifice of life. i Greater love
than this, hath no man ; that a man lay down his life for his friends.'
She has gone to receive her reward.

"The family thus suddenly bereaved, and plunged in affliction, by
this sad occurrence, has our sympathies and prayers. When they meet

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to perforfn the last sad rites due to the dead, may they not look in the
close, narrow, burial-case for their loved one, but rather raise their eyes
to behold a spirit, freed from earthly fetters, clothed in spotless robes,
and wearing the crown bestowed only upon those who prove faithful

to the end. Respectfully,

" W. L. MARSH."

Besides the labors of Messrs. Marsh and Foster at Vicksburg, the
regular agent of the Commission, Mr. X. M. Mann, has taken a deep
interest in the same work, and though much occupied in the superin
tendence of the Soldiers' Home, and the care of the refugees, he has
found time to lend a helping hand. An interesting letter was received
from him, dated the 7th of March, in which he gives a full account of
the arrival of the four thousand five hundred freedmen, who returned
with Gen?l Sherman's Army, from Meridian, and of his distributions of
food and clothing among them. " Anticipating a need," he says, "I
had drawn heavily on the Commissary for bread and had a large amount
on hand. I had the ambulance of the Western Sanitary Commission
loaded with this bread, and taking along half a dozen kind-hearted
soldiers, we went the whole length of this wagon train and gave to each
family a loaf or two. It was but a little thing to do, but the eagerness
with which they took and ate it told how grateful it was to them. I
assure you I never was more happy than that night, amid all that
wretchedness, giving bread to those hungry creatures. That night they
lay on the levee, in their wagons, and on the ground. Many who came
from plantations this side of Jackson were without conveyances, having
walked in, bearing their " effects" on their heads. The next morning
they were sent on Steamboats to camps at Davis' Bend, and Oswego
Landing, and in company with Mrs. Harvey, of Wisconsin, and Miss
Dart, a teacher from New England, I went to Oswego with a quantity
of old clothing, furnished by the National Freedmeirs Relief Associa
tion, of New York, for distribution. To all the most destitute, or rather
the most torn and naked, for all are destitute, we gave some of the

124

more necessary articles of clothing-. 1 only wish that the donors of
those articles could have witnessed the distribution. I do not know
where on the face of the globe, out of the Southern Confederacy, a
thousand people could be got tog-ether that would present to charity so
strong an appeal as these. I wish I could send to every Northern home
of plenty, a photograph of these bare-footed, ragged, half-naked
creatures, as they appeared to me that day. They had been fed, and
although their destitute, filthy, tattered and homeless condition was
enough to draw tears from a heart of stone, many were cheerful and
gave evidence that, with a very little comfort, they would be happy.
The endurance of the negro has always been a marvel. It was never
so much so as now. It is his difference from the white man, in this
respect, that is to save him, if he is saved, in this great trial."

The Union refugees have also received a share in the labors of the
Western Sanitary Commission. During the fall and winter of 1861-2
many refugees were driven, by the rebels, from the interior and south
west parts of Missouri to St. Louis, and were in a condition of want and
suffering. A home, on Elm street, was opened for the most helpless
and destitute, and others were assisted, according to their necessities.
Mr. John Caveuder, an old and respectable citizen, eminent for his
integrity and Christian character, devoted his whole time to their care.
A fund was raised at first, by a call of the Western Sanitary Commis
sion, amounting to about $3,800, besides a large amount of clothing.
A further sum of $15,000 was raised by an order of Maj. Gen. Halleck, by
assessing the wealthy class of secessionists, in St. Louis, for this object,
and from this resource Mr. Cavender was able to render very important
aid to these persecuted and destitute people. For two years he took
almost the entire charge of this work, in which he had the counsel ot
the members of the Commission, and was sometimes aided with
funds for the purpose, when other sources failed. During the winter
of 1863, Mr. Cavender, whose health had been failing, was taken sick
and died, and there was but little demand from that time, till the next

125

September, for any further aid to the refugees. In this charitable
service no one could have been more faithful and constant than Mr.
Cavender had been; and in other relations and duties, during- an
honorable and well spent life, he had been distinguished as the upright
citizen, and patron of Christian learning1 and philanthropy, and his
death was greatly lamented.

In August, '63, there began to be further arrivals of destitute refugees
from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas.
Many of them were women, with small children, poorly clad, often
barefooted, brought up the river on Government steamers, and landed
here, without the means of procuring a place of shelter for a single
night. Their husbands had been killed in the war, had been murdered
by guerrillas, had been conscripted into the rebel army, or had died
from the effects of exposure in lying out in the woods, in dens and
caves of the earth, to escape the blood-hounds of the rebel conscription.
At first these poor refugee families fell into the hands of the police
but the police station was not a fit place for them, although some of
them found shelter there.

One day, late in August, the President of the Commission was called
to see what could be done for a poor blind woman, and her family of
six children, who had walked all the way from Arkansas to Holla, Mo.,
her little children leading her several hundred miles by the hand, and
from Rolla they had been brought on the cars to St. Louis, as a charity.
They were in an upper unfurnished room of the Pacific hotel, the
woman, and a boy about twelve years old, being sick, and she totally
blind. They sat upon the floor, clothed in rags, and presented a sight
that would have moved the stoutest heart to pity and to tears.

The children of this woman, whose name was Mrs. Hargrave, were
adopted by Rev. Dr. Eliot, and placed in the Mission school on Eighth
street, and the mother was sent to the St. Louis hospital, kept by the
Sisters of Charity. Her youngest children she had never seen, they
having been born since she became blind. The parting of the blind

126

mother from her little ones was a touching- scene. But she gave them
up willingly, knowing it to be a necessity, and for their good. At the
Sisters' hospital, her health, after several months, was restored, and,
by a surgical operation of Dr. Pope, the cataracts were removed from
her eyes, and she was able to see. Her children were then brought to
her, and the meeting can be better imagined than described.

A little later, another refugee mother came, and, with two little
children, stood at the door of the Commission, on Fifth street, having
no place to go. They were barefooted, dusty with travel, and mise
rably clad. The mother told her sad story.

Her husband had been murdered by guerrillas, near Fort Smith,
Ark., and she had walked, with her children, to Holla, riding part of
the way in Government wagons, and had reached St. Louis, as a place
of refuge. She had to stay at the police station that night. The next
day, three women and children arrived from Jackson, Tenn., in an
equally destitute condition. There was no alternative but to open
another refugee home. The President of the Commission rented the
house, 39 Walnut street, for the purpose, on the 1st of September, and
from that date to the present, not less than fifteen hundred refugees
have been sheltered, provided for, or sent on their way to friends, or
places of employment, in the free States. By an arrangement with
Generals Schofield and Rosecrans, rations and fuel are allowed from
the Government, and the rent is paid by the Quartermaster; but the
incidental expenses of the home, and the charities in clothing, money,
&c., are provided by the Commission. It is under the superintendence
of Rev. Mr. Forman, the Secretary of the Commission, and its domestic
arrangements are conducted by Miss M. Elliott, as Matron, who, in a
spirit of true self-sacrifice, devotes her time and strength to the service
of these poor outcasts from the rebellion. The expenses and charities
of the Home, and for destitute refugee families in the city, and to those
going beyond St. Louis, have been about $1,000 in six months, beyond
the aid received from the Government in rations, fuel, rent, and trans-

127

portation. Several valuable boxes of clothing have been received from
New England; also contributions of money from Boston, from the
Ladi'es' Loyal League, of St. Louis, and from various other sources.
The receipts for this charity and for the Freedmen, and the disburse
ments are kept separate from the other funds and resources of the
Commission, so that there is no misappropriation of what is designed
for the soldiers to these objects. Contributors are always requested
to designate the object of their charities, and if no designation is
made, they go into the sanitary fund.

The number of refugees at Pilot Knob, at the present time, is over
1700 persons, mostly women and children. They are chiclly from
Arkansas, and are under the superintendence of a faithful and excellent
man, Chaplain A. Wright, who has been specially assigned to that duty.
Contributions to the value of several thousand dollars in goods,
clothing, shoes, medicines for the sick, hardware and sash to assist
in building cheap houses, and over $1000 in money have been sent
to Mr. Wright, and expended in a judicious manner. At a time of
special distress the Commission sent him fifteen barrels of clothing?
eighty dollars in material for clothing, (purchased by Mrs. Genera}
Fisk ) twenty dollars in money, sixty dollars in medicines, thirty dollars
worth of glazed sash, half a dozen axes for women, who cut their own
wood ; and of the other contributions a large portion was collected by
Mrs. Fisk, who made visits to Pilot Knob, and was most energetic and
successful in her endeavors to relieve and benefit these poor people.
Brig. Gen. Fisk, also, while commanding the District, did every thing
in his power to minister to their wants.

The Western Commission also responded to an appeal from Mr. J. R.
Brown, agent U. S. Sanitary Commission at Leavenworth City, for aid
to refugees at that post, and at Fort Scott, Kansas, and sent thirty
boxes of clothing to those points, and a thousand Union Spellers for
schools of the freed children at Leavenworth.

At Rolla, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, Cairo, Columbus, Memphis,

1-28

Helena, and Vicksburg, there are multitudes of these poor refugees,
numbered by thousands, who have come to us from rebel persecution
and outrage., or have been driven, by the ravages of war, and the
destitution of food and clothing, to seek a refuge within our lines.
Humanity requires that they should be aided, at least to the extent
of saving life, and to "enable them to reach places, where employment
and subsistance can be found.

Recently a necessity has arisen for a Refugee Home at Vicksburg,
and the Commission has established one there, under the superinten
dence of Mr. Mann, with Mrs. Maria Brooks for matron. It was
opened on the 1st of April, and has already received and aided 2,160
of these poor people. On the 7th of May, there Avere 620 remaining,
mostly women and children. Transportation had been furnished to
those wishing to emigrate North, and employment for the able-bodied
men.

The large number of destitute white children, belonging to these
tamilics, having no means of instruction, has induced the Commission
to send a teacher, Miss G. C. Chapman, to Vicksburg, to open a school
for them, in connection with the Home, also under Mr. Mann's super
intendence. This lady is now on her way, with a supply of school
books for this purpose.

In all these enterprises of benevolence, Mr. Mann, as the agent
of the Commission, has had the sanction, advice and co-operation of
General McArthur, commanding at Vicksburg, who has assigned to
the Commission suitable buildings for the purpose, and shown his
great friendliness in this and many other ways.

CHAPTER XI.

RESOURCES OF THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION — APPROPRIATIONS BY THE
GOVERNOR AND LEGISLATURE OF MISSOURI —LIBERALITY OF ST. LOUIS-DONATIONS
FROM MASSACHUSETTS AND CALIFORNIA — GIFTS OF THE PEOPLE — CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM THE WOMEN OF THE LOYAL STATES — DISTRIBUTIONS BY THE COMMISSION —
NUMBER OF ARTICLES GIVEN — ESTIMATED VALUE, ONE AND A HALF MILLIONS or
DOLLARS — EXPENSES OF THE COMMISSION FOR SALARIES OF AGENTS, RENTS, AND
DISTRIBUTION OF STORES LESS THAN ONE PER CENT. —FRIENDSHIP OF MAJOR
GENERALS FREMONT, HAI.LECK, CURTIS, SCHOFIELD, ROSECRANS, SHERMAN, AND
LIEUT. GEN. GRANT FOR THE COMMISSION — ALSO, OF ASSISTANT SURGEON GENERAL
WOOD, GEN. ALLEN, COLONELS PARSONS, MYERS, HAINES, AND MAJ. SMITH — LADIES
UNION AID SOCIETY OF ST. Louis — ITS WORK — RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS —
FREEDMEN'S RELIEF SOCIETY OF ST. Louis — ITS WOHK — RECEIPTS AND DISBURSE
MENTS — MISSISSIPPI VALLEY SANITARY FAIR — CONCLUSION.

The resources of the Western Sanitary Commission have consisted of
the voluntary contributions of the people of the loyal States. Noble
men and women in the leading towns and citizens of New England, in.
the great Northwest, and in a few of the great cities of the seaboard —
Boston, Providence, New York, and Philadelphia — have for nearly
three years given liberally of their means and influence to strengthen
this Commission, and help it to do the work which Providence has
given it to do.

But, beside all these, the city and comity of St. Louis, and the
Legislature of Missouri, have acted with a generosity and patriotism
worthy of all honor. In addition to the liberal contributions of the
citizens, during the first year of the labors of the Commission, the late
Gov. Gamble, from an appropriation by the Convention of Missouri,
for the benefit of Missouri troops, placed $50,000 in the treasury of the
Commission, to be used for sick and wounded soldiers of the State of
Missouri. This sum was used, not by singling out that class of soldiers
for special care, but caring for all United States soldiers alike, an ac-
i

130

count was kept of the extent to which Missouri troops shared in these
benefits, and the amount, being far beyond the appropriation, the State
authorities were abundantly satisfied and pleased with the use made
of these funds.

Again, in the winter of 1864, the Legislature of Missouri made an
other appropriation of $25,000 to the Commission, to be used in the
same way, and the county court of the county of St. Louis made a
donation of $2,000. Besides these gifts, there was raised, at the Mer
chants' Exchange, St. Louis, a liberal subscription of money and goods
to the Commission, for the army of Gen. Grant, during the siege of
Vicksburg, amounting in value to about $5,000, and December 25th,
1863, a committee of the merchants, of which Mr. Joseph C. Cabot was
chairman, raised another subscription of $25,000 additional, for the
general purposes of the Commission.

Besides a constant now of contributions from Boston and neighbor
ing towns and cities of Massachusetts, that city at one time, through
a committee, of which R. C. Greenleaf was treasurer, in response to
an appeal from Kev. Dr. Eliot, on behalf of the Commission, contribut
ed $50,000 ; and the distant State of California, stimulated by the
eloquence and patriotism of the lamented Thomas Starr King, sub
scribed $50,000, being part of a donation of $200,000, the balance of
which went to the United States Sanitary Commission. These contri
butions of money, with the gifts of friends in New York city, through
that noble and patriotic citizen, James A. Roosevelt, and from other
towns and cities of the loyal States, have amounted in the aggregate,
to $275,000 in money ; while the stores contributed from the same
sources, and from the Ladies' LTnion Aid Societies, of almost every
village and city from Maine to Minnesota, and from Boston to St. Louis,
consisting of blankets, comforts, sheets, pillows, pillow-slips, socks,
slippers, mittens, bandages, lint, salves, cotton and woolen shirts and
drawers, hospital garments, dressing gowns, dried and canned fruits,
tomatoes, jellies, domestic wines, blackberry cordials, butter, vegeta-

131

blcs, pickles, books, reading matter, and thousands of other useful
articles, have amounted in value to more than a million and a quarter
of dollars.

Out of these contributions, the Commission has issued to the western
armies; 985,984 articles ; 28,838 to the western navy ; 80,505 to freedmen,
and 5,848 to Union refugees, making an aggregate of 1,101,174 articles.

In addition to these, many thousands of articles were given out
during the first three months of the labors of the Commission, that no
account was made of; and we have reason to believe, that many
thousand more have escaped entry ; it is so difficult, in the hurry
occasioned by a great battle, or a pressing emergency, to keep an ac
curate record. During the months of June, 1863, and February, '64,
the distributions of the Commission reached 184,333 articles. These,
it is true, were busy months, but not more so than those which suc
ceeded the battles of Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, and Pittsburgh Land
ing. During the first nine months of the labors of the Commission, its
records show a distribution of over 250.000 articles, so that we are
quite confident of a large under estimate in the statistics here given,
but they accord with the books, and we are not willing to make any
exaggerations. The expenses of the Commission, during the whole
period of its labors, for the salaries of agents, employees, rents, etc., is
less than one per cent, of the whole amount distributed. The services
of the members of the Commission, which includes the President and
Treasurer, are gratuitous.

Through all this immense labor, from September 5th, 1861, to the
present date, the Commission has enjoyed the friendly confidence and
co-operation of every commander of the Department; and to Major
Generals Fremont, Halleck, Curtis, Schofield, and Rosecrans, to the
Secretary of "War, and to Lieut. Gen'l Grant, and Maj. Gen'l Sherman
in the field, it is much indebted for their support, and the facilities
it has enjoyed in the transportation of supplies, in letters of commen
dation, in access to the armies, in the respect paid to it by surgeons

132

and subordinate officers, and in varied opportunities of usefulness. To
Assistant Surgeon General R. C. Wood, Gen. Robert Allen, Colonels
L. B. Parsons, and William M. Myers, of the Quartermaster's Depart
ment; to Col. Haiues and Capt. King of the Commissary Department,
and to Maj. Robert Smith, of the Pay Department, the Commission is
indebted for many favors, and for obliging and gentlemanly treat
ment on all occasions.

The names of contributors to the funds and stores of the Commission,
it would be a pleasure to record here, yet their number is so great,
and the space allotted to this work already so nearly filled, that the
writer is not able to do them this honor ; but their names are registered,
in the Lamb's Book of Life, recorded by the angels in Heaven, and they
shall all be known and recognized in the resurrection of the just.

Before concluding this work, it remains to give a brief account of two
co-operative associations in St. Louis : the Ladies' Union Aid Society,
and the Freedmeir s Relief Society, and to notice the Mississippi Valley
Sanitary Fair, now in successful operation, while these concluding
pages are being written — an euterprize inaugurated for the benefit of
the cause in which the Western Sanitary Commission, and these kindred
associations, are engaged.

The Ladies' Union Aid Society of St. Louis was organized August
2d, 1861. Mrs. C. W. Stevens was the first President. Its officers at
present are, Mrs. Alfred Clapp, President, Mrs. Saml. C. Davis, Mrs.
T. M. Post, and Mrs. Robert Anderson, Vice-Presidents ; Mrs. S. B.
Kellogg, Treasurer; Miss II. A. Adams, Recording Secretary, and
Miss Belle Holmes, Corresponding Secretary. Miss A. S. Debenham
and Miss S. F. McCracken have also acted as Secretaries in the absence
of the regular Recording Secretary, for several months, at Nashville,
Tennessee.

The friendly connection and co-operation of this association with the
Western Sanitary Commission has already appeared in the course of
these pages, and want of space now precludes a full statement of its

133

separate work, which has been already made public iu a valuable re
port of forty-eight pages for the year 1863.

The work of the society has consisted in hospital visiting, in aid to
soldiers' families, in the distribution of religious reading, from the
Christian Commission, in volunteering as nurses after the great battles,
in making up hospital garments and rolling bandages, in receiving and
distributing sanitary stores, in preparing delicate food for the sick, at
its special diet kitchen at Beuton Barracks, where 19,382 dishes had
been prepared from May 20th to October 1st, 1863, and in assisting the
Western Sanitary Commission in its work. Of articles made, up to
October 1st, 1863, its report shows 37,676 sheets, 2,664 shirts, 1,765
pairs of drawers, 2,568 bed sacks, 79,324 pillow cases, 3,558 towels,
amounting to 127,555 articles. In doing this work soldiers' wives were
given employment, and $6,130.85 paid out for the purpose, the articles
being used by the Western Sanitary Commission, and the Medical Pur
veyor. The receipts of the Society, in money alone, up to Sept. 25th,
1863, had been $31,137.42, and its disbursements $28,987.85. Its re
ceipts in sanitary stores have been very great, coming largely from the
noble women of St. Louis, and its distributions of the same class of
articles issued by the Western Sanitary Commission, to Oct. 1st, 1863,
were 225,134 articles.

The Freedmen's Relief Society of St. Louis is a local organization
of ladies, who have rendered most useful service and aid in behalf of
the poor frecdmen, and their families at St. Louis, and in sending con
tributions to Memphis, Helena, and other points on the lower Missis
sippi. Their co-operation with the Western Sanitary Commission has
been very efficient, and thousands of poor " contrabands," at Benton
Barracks, and elsewhere, have had occasion to bless them.

The officers of this association are Mrs. Washington King, President,
Mrs. Lucien Eaton, Vice President, Mrs. C. C. Bailey, Treasurer, Mrs.
Wm. T. Hazard, Corresponding Secretary, and Mrs. Enos Clarke,
Recording Secretary. Its Board of Managers'are Mrs. H. A. Nelson, Mrs.

134

H. Kennedy, Mrs. O. H. Platte, Mrs. N. Chapman, Mrs. Wm. McKee,
Mrs. J. H. Parker, Mrs. Dr. McMurray, Mrs. John McLean, Mrs. Tru
man Woodruff, Mrs. L. Brawner, Mrs. W. D. Butler, and Miss A. L.
Forbes. The following gentlemen are also an advisory committee: —
Rev. II. A. Nelson, D.D., Rev. Henry Cox, Lucieu Eaton, Esq., and
Henry Hitchcock, Esq.

During the summer of 1863, several thousands of freedmen were
brought from Helena and elsewhere, to St. Louis, and quartered in the
old Missouri Hotel ; a hospital was opened for the sick, on Sixth street,
and the society had its hands full in assisting to clothe them, and min
ister to their necessities. Many of these people were afterwards for
warded to Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois, as hired laborers. But a large
work still remained for the freedmen's families at Benton Barracks,
where there are many rejected recruits, and families of colored soldiers,
to be assisted and provided for. A school for colored children is now
taught at that place, by Miss Knight, a lady employed by the ATestern
Sanitary Commission, books are furnished, and a similar work of
instruction is carried on for the colored soldiers while they remain.

The receipts of this society, for the year 1863, were, in money,
$4,863.20, and its expenditures $3,800.36, and its receipts and dis
bursements in goods, clothing, etc., a large, but unestiinated amount.
The articles of clothing distributed were 4,356, besides large quantities
of linseys, osnaburgs, and blue checks, to be made into garments. Five
hundred dollars were also appropriated towards a church and school
house, at Island No. 10, and 93 boxes of clothing, were sent to Colum
bus, Memphis, Helena, Bolivar, Pittsburg Landing, and Benton
Barracks.

As the last pages of this work are passing through the press, a noble
enterprize is in progress, in this city, for replenishing the funds of the
Western Sanitary Commission, and of these kindred and co-operative
associations, that they may be enabled to go on with their noble and
philanthropic labors, during the continuance of the war. The great

135

fairs that had been held in the large cities of the East, and in Chicago
and Cincinnati, in aid of the United States Sanitary Commission, gave
nothing to the funds of the Western Commission. Illinois, Indiana,
and Ohio, neighboring States, have poured their great and generous
contributions chiefly through that channel; and their own regiments,
as this history will show, have been the constant care of the "Western
Sanitary Commission, both in the field and in its Soldier's Homes.
With large and increasing demands upon its treasury and supplies,
its resources had begun to fail. The example of other cities sug
gested the idea of a Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair at St. Louis,
and the enterprise was commenced in the latter part of the month
of January, by a large preliminary meeting, at Mercantile Library
Hall, presided over by the Mayor of the city, Hon. Chauncey
I. Filley ; at which an organization was effected for this purpose.
Speeches were made by the Mayor, by Eev William G. Eliot, D. D.,
by Brig. Gen'l C. B. Fisk, by Major Gen'l W. S. Rosecrans, by Maj.
McKee Dunn, and Professor Amasa McCoy. A letter was read from
Lieut. Gen'l Grant, in which he expressed the heartiest sympathy in
the undertaking, and bore testimony to the many tons (amounting to
thousands,) of sanitary stores furnished to his army by the Western
Sanitary Commission. The following officers and committees were then
elected, to inaugurate and conduct this great enterprise.

Maj. Gen'l W. S. Rosecrans, President; Gov. Willard P. Hall, 1st
Vice President ; Mayor C. I. Filley, 2d Vice President; Brig. Gen.
C. B. Fisk, 3d Vice President; Brig. Gen. J. W. Davidson, 4th Vice
President ; Mayor Jas. S. Thomas, 5th Vice President ; Sam'l Copp, jr.,
Treasurer ; Maj. Alfred Mackay, Cor. Secretary.

STANDING COMMITTEE. — James E. Yeatman, Wm. G. Eliot, George
Partridge, Carlos S. Greeley, John B. Johnson, — members of the West
ern Sanitary Commission.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF GENTLEMEN. — James E. Yeatman, Chair
man, J. H. Lightner, E. W. Fox, Sam'l Copp, jr., Geo. D. Hall, S. R.

136

Filley, Charles B. Hubbell, Jr., James Blackmail, Win. D'Oench, Wm.
Patrick, J. O. Pierce, Gustavus W. Dreyer, II. A. Homeyer, B. R.
Bonner, Adolphus Meier, Chas. Speck, Wm. Mitchell, Wm. Adriance,
George E. Leighton, M. L. Linton, Wm. H. Beiiton, Dwight Durkec,
Amadee Yalle, Wyllys King, George P. Plant, Morris Collins, J. C.
Cabot, N. C. Chapman, John D. Perry, S. H. Laflin, Jas. Ward.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF LADIES. — Mrs. C. I. Filley, President;
Miss Anna M. Debenham, Recording Secretary ; Mr. Gen'l V. P. Van
Antwerp, Corresponding Secretary; Miss Phoebe W. Conzins, Corres
ponding Secretary; Mrs. Samuel Copp, Jr., Treasurer; Mrs. Robert
Anderson, Mrs. George Partridge, Mrs. J. E. D. Couzins, Mrs. E. M.
Weber, Mrs. Truman Woodruff, Mrs. Clinton B. Fisk, Mrs. F. A. Dick,
Mrs. Alfred Clapp, Mrs. Dr. E. Hale. Mrs. A. S. W. Goodwin, Mrs.
H. T. Blow, Mrs. Amelia Reihl, Mrs. N. C. Chapman, Mrs. Washing
ton King, Mrs. S. A. Ranlett, Mrs. T. B. Edgar, Mrs. C. S. Greeley,
Mrs. W. T. Hazard, Mrs. Charles D. Drake, Mrs. Wm. McKee, Mrs.
Samuel C. Davis, Mrs. McKee Dunn, Mrs. R. H. Morton, Mrs. Dr.
O'Reilly, Mrs. S. B. Kellogg, Mrs. S. A. Collier, Mrs. W. A. Doan,
Mrs. Dr. Hseussler, Mrs. Adolphus Abeles, Mrs. F. P. Blair, Mrs.
Elizabeth W. Clarke, Mrs. II. Dreyer, Mrs. John Wolff, Mrs. Ulrich
Busch, Mrs. John J. Hoppe, Mrs. Charles Eggers, Mrs. Wm. D'Oench,
Mrs. Dr. Hill, Mrs Adolphus Meier, Mrs. John C. Vogel, Mrs. R.
Barth, Mrs. H. C. Gernpp, Mrs. O. D. Filley, Mrs. Henry Stagg,
Mrs. E. W. Fox.

Various subordinate committees were afterwards appointed, repre
senting all the trades and branches of business in St. Louis, and a
committee was appointed to conduct a department in the Fair for the
benefit of freedmen and Union refugees, so that contributions might
be made for this charity, by itself, and kept separate from the general
sanitary work of the army.

Appeals were immediately sent out to the people of the Mississippi
valley, and to the whole country ; the newspaper press of St. Louis

137

lent their columns, with great generosity, to the promotion of the
enterprise, and published largely in its interests ; and friendly papers
abroad have given it all the publicity that could be desired.

The merchants and private citizens, the noble men and women of St.
Louis, have taken hold of the enterprise with a generous zeal, and
determined to make it a decided success. Friends in Boston, New
York, New Bedford, New Haven, have made handsome donations,
and some of them have sent representatives to aid in the work. While
these labors were being performed, a splendid building was erected on
Twelfth Street, from Olive St. to St. Charles St., 500 feet long and 114
feet wide, with wings on Locust street, 100 feet each in length, beyond
the main building, and 54 feet wide, with an octagon centre 75 feet in
diameter, and 50 feet high. A stercoscopticon has also been built at one
side ; and the whole has been arranged, decorated, divided into apart
ments, and filled with contributions from art and nature, of the most
valuable kinds. From the mineral and agricultural, and manufactur
ing resources of Missouri and the great west, from lakes and oceans,
and rivers, from battle fields and farms and workshops, and stores of
merchandize, gifts have come that make one of the most beautiful and
valuable collections that has ever been gathered on this continent.

Besides these contributions in goods, at the opening of the Fair, on
the 17th of May, $200,000 in money had already been given towards the
object, of which much the largest portion comes from the citizens of
St. Louis, a city that has probably suffered more from the war than any
of the loyal cities of the Union.

For three days the Fair has been in successful progress, and before it
closes, this sketch of the labors and history of the Western Sanitary Com
mission will be added to its contributions, and explain more fully the
great work for which it has been held, and to which its results will be
sacredly appropriated. Written under a pressure of other duties, and
without opportunity of revision, its chapters going to press as fast as
they can be given to the printers, it must needs contain some imper-

138

fections and errors, and some omissions will doubtless have occurred ;
but a frequent demand has been made for such a work, and it is hoped
that it will be of some service to the great cause we have at heart, and
give to the world a better appreciation of the labors and sacrifices that
are necessary to sustain our heroes in the great conflict in which we are
engaged — a conflict of the free States of the Republic with the slave-
power of the South, which has undertaken to divide our country, build
itself up on the ruins of a beneficent Government, and perpetuate,
through coming ages, the crime of holding millions of the human race
in bondage. In this contest, in which the Providence of a just God
is clearly seen, vindicating itself, let it be our part to be found on
the side of humanity, of Christian civilization, of liberty and law; and
may God save the right!

INDEX.

Accountability of agents , 104

Alexander, C. T., Surg. U. S. A 66

Allen, A. L., M. D 66

Allen Gen . Robert 132

Appeal of Western Sanitary Commission, 57, 58— Response. . '. 59, 114

Army of the Frontier, 60— Agents and stores sent to 60

Army of the South-West, 28— its arrival at Helena, 55— its toilsome march, 55— its pri
vations and bravery , 55— sickness at Helena 55

Arkansas Post, battle or, 66, 69

Arnot's buil ling converted into a hospital 45

Atkinson , Edward 114

Azpell, T.F., Surg. U. S. V 27, 44, 45

Battles, of Booneville, Dug Spring, Carthage and Wilson's Creek, 5 — of Lexington 9—
of Pea Ridge, 15, 27— of Fort Donelson, 23— Naval fight at Memphis, 53— of Cross

Hollows, 60— of Cane Hill, 60— of Prairie Grove, 61

Banks , Gen . , his army supplied 99

Bailley , Dr 5

Barker, Mrs 96

Barnard , James M 59, 114

Benton Barracks 13, 14

Benton Barracks Hospital, 10, 73— number ol patients, 73— per centage of deaths 73

Bixby, Geo. H., Ass't Surg. U. S. N 54

Blunt, Gen 60

Bloomtield, Mo 91

Boston, Mass., its liberality 59

Bottomley, L. H.,M. D 66

Bradley, W. H..M. D 66

Bradley, Rev. W. H 95

Breckenridge, Miss 69

Breed, B. B., Surg. U. S. V 87

Brooks, Mrs. Maria ]2

Cabot, Joseph C . . . , 130

California, liberal donation 130

Calloway, L. H., M. D % 64

Cane Hill , battle of 60

Cape Girardtr ati 92

Carthage , battle of. 5

Casselberry, Surg., U. S. V 92

Cavender, John, 124, his labors for refugees, death and character 124, 125

1 ' Champion, ' ' Steamer sent with Sanitary goods to Vicksburg 77

Chapman, Miss G. C., teacher for refugees at Vicksburg 128

Chattanooi-a, stores sent to, 99 — agent there 99

Christmas at Soldiers' Home 37

Christian Commission, U. S 83, 96

" City of Alton," hospital boat 75, 106

1 ' City of Louisiana, ' ' hospital boat 25, 44, 45, 106

140

"City of Memphis," hospital boat 46, iw

Clapp, Mrs. Alfred 69, 132, 13G

Clark, Mrs. Wm 69

Clark, Albert 09

Clarendon , Ark 92

Columbus, Ky . , Soldiers' Home at 83

Collins, H. E 99

Colt, Mrs. Henrietta L 69

Colored troops, 74— sick of at Benton Barracks 74

Conclusion 138

Contributions, from what States, Cities, and Towns, 10, 11, 12, 46, 59, 114— from Boston,

114, from other sources 127, 129

Copeland , Gen 90

Cotton on leased plantations, 119— taxed, 119— raised by tVeedmen for themselves 120

Couzins, Mrs. J. E. D 69

Crawshaw, Mrs. J 69

' ' Crescent City , ' ' hospital boat 44, 45, 106

Cross Hollows , battle of ; 60

Cullum, Geo. \V., Brig. Gen 15

Curtis, S. R., Maj. Gen., 15, 34, 113, 131— letter of 34

Daggett , Mrs . Lydia II 121

Dart, Miss 123

Davidson, J. W. Brig. Gen 91

Davis, C. H. Commodore, his Letter to the Commission 56

De Camp, Medical Director 5, 16

Deodorizing coffin 51

Derby, Stirg. U. S. A 55

Diseases at Benton Barracks, winter of -61-2 13

Distributions of Sanitary Stores, 15, 47, 77— to Grant's army, 78, 94, 97— to Banks'
Army, 99-at Memphis, 75 -what Hospitals supplied, 104, 105 -what Regiments sup
plied, 105, 106— what Hospital Steamers supplied, 106— what Gunboats supplied, 106

—to Freedmen , 121— to Refugees , 127 -whole number of articles 131

Dix, MissD. L., Sup't of Female Nurses in the U. S. Hospitals 7, 20

Drummer Boy, 81- death of. 81

D u vail ' s Bluff . 92

Educational Commission for Freedmen, Boston, 114— Contributions from 114

Eliot, W. G., D. D., 8, 113, 130- Letter of, 94— orphans adopted by 125

Eliot Hospital, St. Louis 10

Elliott, Miss Melcenia 126

1 ' Empress, ' ' Hospital boat 44, 45

Endicott, Wm . , Jr 114

Farrar, Col 118

Fifth Street Hospital, St. Louis 8, 9

Fish, Rev. J. F., Post Chaplain 66

Fithian, Dr., agent U. S. Sanitary Commission 93

Fisher, Rev. H. D 114

Fisk, Mrs C. B., 127— her labors for refugees 127

Fisk, C. B., Brig. Gen 127

Floating Hospitals , origi n of 25

Flying Hospitals 62, 63

Forman, Rev. J. G., Secretary 16, 112, 126

Fort Donelson, battle of, 23, 131— wounded brought to St. Louis 24

Fort Blunt, 94— Sanitary Stores sent to 94

Foster, R. K., Supt 84

Foster, H . R 121

Franklin, E. C 27

Fremont, John C., Maj. Gen 7, 10, 13, 131

141

Fremont, Mrs

Fremont Relief Society 18

Freedmen of the Mississippi, 110— sufferings of, 110— relief sent to Helena, 112— labors
of Miss Maria R. Mann at Helena, 112, 113— visit of Mr. Yeatman to, 114— letter of
the Commission to the President concerning them, 114— Chaplain Fisher's visit to
New England on account -of, 114-arrival of at Vicksburg, 123 -distributions to,
123— Freedmen 's Aid Committee formed at Boston, 114— Educational Commission,
114 — contributions from, 1H— other associations, 115— wages of Freedmen not

paid, wrongs by military authorities, 116, 117— Freedmens' Home farms 119

Freedmen's Relief Society of St. Louis, 133-its officers, 133— its work 134

Friends 115

Fritz, Wm., M. D ^

Gamble, late Governor 129

Gangrene Hospital, Memphis 75

Gayoso Hospital , Memphis 75

Gibbon, John 37

• ' Glasgow, ' ' Hospital transport 75

Good Samaritan Hospital 10

Grant, U. S. Maj. Gen., 08, 131— his care of the health of his Army 72

Greeley, C. S 8

Qreenleaf, R . C 59, 130

Grove, J. H. Surg., U. S. V 23, 74

Guerrillas Destroy Sanitary Stores , 91— Murder 126

Guests at Soldiers' Homes 35, 36, 82, 84, 85, 86

Gunboats, 53, 69— supplied with Stores, 106 - rebel Gunboats destroyed at Memphis 53

Hagar, Miss Sarah J. , Teacher to Freedmen, 121— death and character 122

Haines , Col •. 132

Halleck, Maj. Gen '13, 131

Hamilton, Gen. T. C 80

Hammond, Dr. Wm. A., Surg. Gen., U. S. A., Letter to 49

Hardy , A Ipheus 114

Hargrave, Mrs. , blind refugee 125

Harrington , S . C . , Surg 94

Harvey, Mrs., of Wisconsin 81, 123

Helena, Ark., occupied, 55-sickness there, 55— churches converted into hospitals, 55—

Soldiers' Home at 84

Herron , Gen 61

Hodgen, JohnT., Surgeon U. S. V 9

Hoge, Mrs 69

Holly Springs, Miss 68

Hopkins, Surgeon U. S. X 54

Hospitals. ^ 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 27, 45, 56, 64, 65, 66, 75, 86, 87, 89

Hospital Cars 10

Hospital Steamers 25, 26, 44, 45, 46, 54, 75

Hughes, Charles H. , Surgeon U. S. V 103

Hunt, Win. Richardson, (rebel), 80— Mansion converted to a Soldier's Home 80, 81

Hunter, Maj. Gen 10

Hun tsville , Ala 96

Illustration , of erroneous complaints 101

' 'Imperial , ' ' Hospital Boat 44 . 45

Incidents 11, 34, 37, 91, 101, 117, 118, 125, 126

Ironton 14

Jackson Hospital , Memphis 75

"January, D. A." Hospital Boat 44, 45

Jefi'erson City, Mo 14

Jefferson Barrack' 8 Hospital 64, 65

142

Jefferson Hospital, Memphis 75

Johnson, J.B., M.D 8

Johnson , Miss Ida 33

King, Capt 132

King, Rev. T. S 130

King, Mrs . Washington 69

Knight, Miss A. M 121

Ladies' Union Aid Society, St. Louis, 18, 23, 69, 70, 96— officers of, 132— its work 133

Ladies' Union Aid Societies, 130

Ladies Loyal League 127

Lamb , Mrs . Thomas 59

Latham, II., M. 1) 66

Lawrence , A . A 114

Lawson Hospital 64, 66

Leeds, Mr 64

Leslie, S., M. D 66

Letters, of Gen. Curtis, 34- of Mr. Yeatman,71, 95-of Col. Parsons, 43-of the Commis
sion, 49, 114-of Commodore Davis, 56-of Chaplain Peake, 93— of Surg. Whitehill,
94— of Surg. Harrington, 94-of Rev. Dr. Eliot, 94, 95-of Col. Webber, 95-of A.

W. Plattenburg, 96— of Surg. Rex 97

Livermore, Mrs. M. A 69

Lodgings at Soldiers' Homes 36, 37, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86

Loring, Chas. G 114

Mann , N . M . , S up t . . . 84 , 1 23

Mann, Miss Maria R 112, 113

May, Dr 118

Marine Brigade 120

Marine Hospital, St. Louis, 64— ditto at Memphis 75

Marsh, W. L., 121— letter from 122

Marston, J. J.,M. D 60

Me Arthur, Gen 128

McLane, P., M. D 65

McClernand, J. A., Maj. Gen 69

McKim, Rev. Philip, Chaplarn 66

Massachusetts 59

Meals at Soldiers' Homes 36, 83, 84, ,85

Memphis Captured, 53-Soldiers' Home at, 80, 81, 82-hospitals at 75

Merchants' Exchange 130

Mellen, W. P., Treasury Dept 119, 120

Military prisons at St. Louis, 45, 88— at Alton, 111. , 88— report of 88

Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair, 134-its organization, 135— its success 137

Mission School, St. Louis 125

Missouri Legislature, appropriation of 129, 130

Missouri troops cared for 129, 130

Mound City Hospital 27

Murphy, Col. R. C., disgraced 70

Myers, Col. Wm. M 132

1 ' Nashville, ' ' hospital boat ." 75

National Freedmen's Relief Association 120, 123

Naval Squadron of the Mississippi 53, 54, 56, 57

New England, its liberality £9

Newell, Rev. F. R., agent, 61— his death 62

New House of Refuge Hospital 5

New Orleans Soldiers ' Home 83

N ightingale , Florence 3 , 20

Northwestern Freedmen's Aid Commission 120

143

Nurses, Female, qualifications of, 20— number employed, 21— General Order, 20, 21—
character of Nurses, 20-premiums awarded to, 42-only allowed to General Hos
pitals, 74— list of honor 107

Xute, Chaplain E . , Sup' t ^

Officers ' Hospital , Memphis 75

Orange, S. J., Sup't, 83- Mrs. Orange, matron 84

Origin of Sanitary Commissions, 3— of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, 4— of the West
ern Sanitary Commission 4—7

Ostram, MissA.L....f 35» 83

Overton Hospital, Memphis 75

Pacific Hospital, St. Louis 1°

Paige, Jas. A., Chaplain 64

Parsons, Col. L. B., Letter of 43, 131

Parsons, Miss Emily 73, 74

Partridge, George 8

Peabody, Rev. Chas., Sup't, 35— Peabody, J.H., Surg., U. S. V 64

Pea Ridge, Battle of, 27, 131— wounded, 27— Agent sent with stores, 29— his account of.30, 32

Peake, E. S., Chaplain, Letter of. 93

Pettigrew, S . , Chaplain 66

Phelps, Mrs . John S. , her heroism at Pea Ridge 34

Pittsburg Landing, battle of, 42, 131- wounded of, 43, 44— delegations and hospital

steamers sent, for them 43, 44

Plattenburg, A. W., 29, 30, 33. 34— letter of. 96

Plummer, Mrs. S. A., matron 83, 84, 85

Post Hospitals , St. Louis 74, 87

Prairie Grove, battle of, 61— supplies furnished 61

Prem iums , given to uest stewards , nurses , etc i9

Pope , Dr 126

Pope, Maj . Gen 2

Porter, D . D . Admiral 57

Prentiss, B. M. Maj. Gen 113

Questions answered .' 99, 100, 101, 102

Randolph, J. F. Surg. U. S. A 65

"Red Rover," naval hospital boat , 54, 97, 106

Reid, Rev. H. A., 12-Mrs. Reid 12

Refugees, 124— their destitution, 124— fund raised for, 124— further arrivals, 125— Sad

story, 126— at what places, 127— distributions to 124, 127

Refugee" Homes at St. Louis, 124, 126— at Vicksburg, 128- School for 128

Reports, of soldiers' Homes, 38, 81— of Mr. Yeatman's visit to Grant's army, 71, 77— of

freedmen 114, 119

Resources of Western Sanitary Commission 129

Rex, Geo. P. Surg. 33d 111. Infantry, letter of 97

Ripley, L. B 16

Robb, Maj. T. P 75

Rolla, Soldiers' Graves there .". 14, 15

Roosevelt, Jas. A 130

Rosecrans , Major Gen 131

Rumbold, T. F., M.D., 66

Russell, Ii-a, Surgeon U. S. V 73, 74

• 'Ruth, ' ' Hospital Transport 75

Sanitary Stores , number and value of articles issued 131

Sawyer, Rev. Samuel 112, 113

Schofield, Maj. Gen ]14, 131

Scollay's deodorizing coffin, 51 — Report on it 51, 52, 53

Scudder, M. S 114

Secessionists assessed for Refugees 124

144

Sedalia 14

Sherman, W. T. , General, 68, 131— his care for the sick of his army 72

Sick and wounded in St. Louis hospitals, 14— number of, 45, 87— of Grant's army 72

Sisters of Charity 3, 125

Smith , M:ij . Robt 132

Small Pox, 14— Hospital at St. Louis 14, 87

Special Diet K itchen 74

Soldiers' Homes 35, 36, 87, 33, 39, 80, 81, 83, 84, 85

Soldiers at the Soldier's Home -From what States, 36, 82, 84, 85, 86— Character. ... 36

St. Louis Hospitals 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 45, 64, 65, 66, 75, 86, 87

St. Louis, its liberality, 129-County Court 129

Starr, Mrs. Lucy E., Matron 83

Steele , Major Gen . 92

Surgeons of the Regular Army 17

Tax on Cotton growing 119

Tefl't, J. E 60, 61

Thanksgiving at Soldiers' Homes 37

Thomas, J. E., Chaplain 113

Thornton & Pierce's building converted to a hospital 45

Tilton, E. II., Surg , U. S. A 65

Tompkins, James 99

Union Hospital, Memphis 75

United Presbyterians 115

United States Sanitary Commission 4, 93, 135

Value of contributions estimated 131

Ventilation in Marine Hospital, St. Louis, 64— ventilating stoves introduced 64

Veteran regiments, 97— cared lor by Missouri 97

Vicksburg, 68— battle of, 68 -wounded from 69

Visitors of hospitals, 18— noble women, 18— soldiers' tribute 19

Wages of Freedmen 115, 116

Wagner, Dr ^

Warriner, Dr. H. A 75

Washington Hospital , Memphis 75

Washburne, C. C., Maj. Gen HI, 113

Waters, O. E., Sup't 80, 83

Waterman, H. J 91, 92

Webber, Col. A. W., Letter of. 95

Webster Hospital , Memphis 75

Wells , Mrs . Shepherd 74

Western Sanitary Commission, origin of, 4 to 7— of whom composed, 8 -its rooms,

16— appeal of, 57— resources of I-9

Whelan, W., Surg., U. S. X 57

Whitehill, Jas. C., Surg., U. S. V., 92— Letter of 94

White, Frank W., Surg., U. S. V 87

Wilson's Creek, battle of 5

Wood, Ass'tSurg. General 26, 72, 74, 132

" Wood, R. C.," hospital boat 26

Wood, Rev. Glen 1Q1

Wood, Col. W. F 112

Wounded, at new House of Refuge Hospital, 6-1'rom Fort Donelson, 23-of PeaRidge,

28, 29 -of Pittsburg Landing, 42-of Vicksburg, 69, 77— Arkansas Post 70

Wright, J. J. B., Surgeon U. S. A., Medical Director, 16 — Relations to the Western

Sanitary Commission 17

Wright, Chaplain A . , Sup' t. of Refugees at Pilot Knob, 127— His work 127

Yeatman, Jas. E.8-His visit to Gen. Grant's army, 71— His report, 72— His second
visit, 76— Report, 77— Visit to the Freedmen of the Mississippi, 114— His report, 114—
His suggestions, 119-Visit to Washington, 119 -Suggestions carried into effect 120

OF THE \

suggest

fl <

(( UN!

UNIVERSITY II

OF JJ

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

JAN 28 1948

JUN 10 1968
RECEIVE;

JUN 2*8-9

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LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476

vJ I O I O

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Full text of "The Western Sanitary Commission, a sketch of its origin, history, labors for the sick and wounded of the Western armies, and aid given to freedmen and Union refugees, with incidents of hospital life"

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