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U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.
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G9.
STATEMENT
OF
THE OBJECT AND METHODS
OF THB
SANITARY COMMISSION,
Appointed by the Government of the United States, June 13, 1861.
PUBLISHED BY ITS DIRECTION.
NEW YORK:
Wm. C. Bryant & Co., Printers, 41 Nassau Street, corner or Liberty.
1863.
�\HfMT
At the last session of the Sanitary Commission, at Washington, a
resolution was adopted a That the subject of an appeal to the public
« for funds be referred to a Committee consisting of the Standing Com-
« mittee and the members of the Commission residing at Philadelphia and
“ Boston.” This Committee submits the following statement.
823 Broadway, New York, Dec. 7, 1863.
�SANITARY COMMISSION.
6 J Qli'i t
3NTO- 69.
£
The Sanitary Commission was created by Government in
June, 1861.
Like every other organ of our National energies it has been
steadily gaining strength ever since that time. The resources
that have been put at its disposal, and the work it has been
enabled to do, far exceed the most sanguine hopes of its founders.
Its aggregate receipts (including the money value of supplies
sent to its depots) are believed to exceed the income of any other
benevolent organization, American or Foreign, during the same
period.
The objects of this paper are, first, to state what has been
done with these great public benefactions; and, secondly, to
enable the People to determine whether it will or will not pro
mote the National cause, by enabling the Commission to continue
and extend its efforts.
A large portion of its resources has been expended on measures
for the prevention of disease. Their result is necessarily nega
tive and cannot be stated with certainty. The low rate of
mortality from disease in our Armies has unquestionably been
due in some degree to the warnings and labors of the Commission. But it is impossible to say how much other causes have
contributed to it, or to distinguish their effects from those due
to the work of the Commission.
It is certain that, in the summed of 1861, experienced Army
officers predicted that malaria, camp fever and dysentery would
within six months destroy fifty per cent, of the Volunteer Army
�then assembling. What the Commission did to avert this
calamity, will be stated hereafter, and must have contributed
—under Divine favor—to save our Armies from the ravages of
pestilence.
But it has done much work beside—with positive results that
can be definitely stated. The value of this work is recognized
by the Medical staff of the Army, and in Orders published by
prominent General officers, East and West.
*
Its direct and tan
* Department of the South, Headquarters in the Field, )
Morris Island, S. C., Sept. 9, 1863.
)
General Orders, No. 73.—The Brigadier-General commanding desires to make
this public acknowledgment of the benefits for which his command has been in
debted to the United States Sanitary Commission, and to express his thanks to the
gentlemen whose humane efforts in procuring and distributing much-needed articles
of comfort have so materially alleviated the sufferings of the soldier.
Especial gratitude is due to Dr. M. M. Marsh, Medical Inspector of the Com
mission, through whose efficiency, energy and zeal, the wants of the troops have
been promptly ascertained, and the resources of the Commission made available
for every portion of the army. By order of
Brigadier-General Q. A. Gillmore.
Ed. W. Smith, Asst. Adjutant-General.
OfficialIsrael S. Sealy, Capt. Forty-seventh N. Y. Volunteers, Acting Asst]
Adjutant-G eneral.
Headquarters Department of the Cumberland, )
Murfreesboro, Feb. 2, 1863.
f
The General commanding presents his warmest acknowledgments to the friends
of the soldiers of this army, whose generous sympathy with the suffering of the
sick and wounded, has induced them to send for their comfort numerous sanitary
supplies which are continually arriving by the hands of individuals and charitable
societies. While he highly appreciates and does not undervalue the charities
which have been lavished on this army, experience has demonstrated the importance
of system and impartiality, as well as judgment and economy, in the forwarding
and distribution of these supplies. In all these respects the United States Sanitary
Commission stands unrivaled. Its organization, experience, and large facilities for
the work, are such that the General does not hesitate to recommend, in, the most
urgent manner, all those who desire to send sanitary supplies to confide them to
the care of this Commission.
They will thus insure the supplies reaching their destination without wastage or
expense of agents or transportation, and their being distributed in a judicious
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gible results are many thousand lives saved, an incalculable
amount of suffering relieved or mitigated, smallpox and scurvy
checked in camps and hospitals by cargoes of vegetables, and by
timely supplies of vaccine—and succor, comfort and relief freely
given to hundreds of thousands when they could be obtained
from no other source. What the People have thus done for their
soldiers will long be held in honorable remembrance as a magni
ficent National act, not only of humanity and charity, but of
Patriotism also, for by preventing disease and speeding conva.
lescence, it has materially strengthened the National forces,
contributed to the success of the National cause, and added
a certain number of thousand bayonets to the available strength
.of the Army during every month of the past two years.
This is the great object for which the Commission exists. Its
work is, in the highest degree, humane and charitable, for it visits
and relieves the sick, destitute, and miserable. But its ultimate
end is neither humanity nor charity. It is to economise for the
National service the life and strength of the National soldier.
The Commission works in a spirit and on a system as practical
as that of the War Department, and it submits the value of its
system and its work to the practical common sense with which
the People decide on whatever concerns the public interest.
It asks the confidence and support of patriotic and far-sighted
men on two special grounds. One is the nationality and catho
licity of its work as compared with that of State and local or
manner, without disorder or interference with the regulations and usages of the
army.
This Commission acts in full concert with the Medical Department of the Array,
and enjoys its confidence. It is thus enabled with a few agents to do a large
amount of good at the proper time. Ever since the Battle of Stones’ River, it has
distributed a surprisingly large amount of clothing, lint, bandages and bedding, as
well as milk, concentrated beef, fruit, and other sanitary stores, essential to the
recovery of the sick and wounded.
W. S. Roseceans, Major-General Commanding Department.
�6
ganizations. Not a word of censure or of disrespect should be
spoken of these agencies. Many of them do great good within
their own sphere. But their sphere is provincial, not National,
and their object is the relief of some single class of National sol
diers, to the exclusion of all others. They assist men, not be
cause they now belong to the National army, but because they
formerly belonged to some particular State, county, or neighbor
hood. This distinction between their avowed object and that of
the United States Sanitary Commission should be clearly under
stood.
The Commission studiously ignores sections and State lines,
and knows soldiers from Missouri or from Massachusetts only as
in the National Service. It declines all contributions for
the exclusive benefit of a single class, and impartially applies
its resources, received from East or West, to the aid and relief of
the National Army East and West, asking only where they are
most sorely needed. It is thus daily teaching thousands a prac
tical lesson on the blessings of National Unity, which will not
be forgotten when they return to the duties of civil life. The
Maryland or Illinois volunteer who has been rescued from mis
ery and the prospect of death, by clothing, food, stimulants and
chloroform, that came to him on the field or in some ill-pro
vided hospital, through the Commission, from some remote cor
ner of New England or Pennsylvania, is likely for the rest of his
days to think of himself less as a Marylander or as a Western
man, and more as a citizen of the United States; and though he
will not value his State less, he will love his country more.
Even rebel prisoners, helped through their sickness and destitu
tion by the stores of the Sanitary Commission, carry back to
their Southern homes new and enlarged views as to the resources
and the generosity of the People against which they have fought
under coercion, or misled by systematic falsehood.
,
The Commission seeks to direct the overflowing sympathy of
�7
the People with the Army into a National channel. It calls on
the women of New England to clothe soldiers at Alexandria and
Chattanooga, and on the West to aid the Army at New Orleans
or Port Royal, wherever supplies are most wanted or can be
most economically carried. Its influence on its contributors is
no less National than on its beneficiaries. That of local or
State agencies tends to foster, in contributor, agent and bene
ficiary alike, the very spirit of sectionalism and “ State-isk-ness”
to which we owe all our troubles.
The Commission is, moreover, the only organization for Army
relief, local or general, that works on a system carefully con
formed and subordinated to that of the Army, and through,
agents specially trained and permanently employed. The ob
jection that has been made to its employing permanent salaried
officers, instead of unpaid volunteers, giving a fortnight or a
month each, to the work of Army relief, is untenable and short
sighted. It has to distribute millions of dollars worth of
bulky stores over an area of many thousand square miles.
This is, in a merely business point of view, a work of seri
ous magnitude. It is, moreover, a work of special delicacy
and difficulty, because it must be so done as not to inter
fere with the machinery of the Army, or weaken the reliance of
the men upon their officers. Without a corps of agents who un
derstand their work, give their whole time to it, and are bound
to perform definite service during a definite period, loss, waste,
and misapplication of supplies are inevitable. This branch of
the Commission’s work may fairly be compared with that of our
largest railroads and express companies, and is at least as worthy
of being well and economically done. But how long would any
railroad corporation keep out of the hands of a Receiver, if
it confided its freight business to volunteers over whom it
could exercise no real control, and who felt themselves at full
liberty to leave its service whenever they tired of it, or when-
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iTO * '! f ■
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ever they thought themselves overworked or unfairly criticised,
instead of employing superintendents, clerks, and porters, en
gaged in the usual way and on the usual terms ? The poetry of
the Relief Agent’s work may be spoiled if he receive a salary,
but in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, its practical value to
the Army is doubled. It would be easy to name splendid ex
ceptions to this rule, but they are only exceptions.
The work of Army relief, like every other practical and seri
ous business, requires skill which can be got only by expe
rience, and men cannot, as a general rule, be secured for service
long enough to acquire experience and skill, unless they receive
moderate pay. But the difference between a skilled and an un
skilled agent is equal to a difference of at least fifty per cent, in
the amount of practical good each can do the soldier with the
stores entrusted to him, and it costs the Commission less than
two per cent, on the estimated value of its supplies to distribute
them through skilled salaried agents, instead of unskilled volun
teers. This is not all. The volunteer is necessarily unacquaint
ed with the complex regulations under which Government sup
plies the wants of the Army, for thorough familiarity with their
practical working can be acquired only by months of actual con
tact and experience. He cannot tell, therefore, when called
upon to relieve a Regiment or a Hospital, whether its officers
have done or have neglected their duty, and whether they can
or cannot promptly obtain what is needed through regular offieial channels. His impulses prompt him of course instantly to
relieve the suffering he sees before him. He distributes his sup
plies at once, asking no questions, and goes home thankful that
he has been enabled to relieve so much destitution and dis
tress. But he has too often been merely covering up the
short-comings of some inefficient Officer paid by Government to
do precisely the same thing, and has thus shielded him from
■
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exposure and dismissal, and done the Army in the long run
more harm than good.
The Commission avoids this danger. It reserves its sup
plies for the cases of accidental failure, which must from time
to time occur in the working of every military system, and
especially of one newly organized on so vast a scale as ours, and
seeks rather to strengthen the official agencies through which
Government provides for the army, than to set itself up as a
rival source of supply, and thus weaken the confidence of the
men in their military superiors.
Finances
oe the
Commission.
The Treasurer of the . Commission has received in cash from
his appointment, in June, 1861, up to and including December
7th, 1863:......................................... ,............
From Maine......................................
$17,720 33
“ New Hampshire.................................................
1,701 44
“ Vermont.............................................................
2,035 15
“ Massachusetts........ ................ .>...................
. 48,548 86
“ Connecticut.............................
5,181 35
“ Rhode Island......................................................
8,068 30
“ New England (Statesnot discriminated).......
6,683 75
New York............................................................ 160,042 58
“ New Jersey.........................................................
3,170 88
“ Pennsylvania.................................................
11,699 18
“ Delaware ...........................................................
765 00
“ Maryland...........................................................
1,733 00
“ Washington, D. C..............................................
2,333 08
J “ Ohio ...................................................................
2,700 00
.1.
“
“
“
Michigan.............................................................
Illinois.................................................................
Kentucky...........................................................
578 00
546 25
6,166 45
�10
«
From Indiana..........................
500 00
“ Minnesota...........................................................
45 00
“ Nevada Territory.............................................. 54,144 75
“ California........................................................... 526,909 61
“ Oregon............................................................... 26,450 78
“ WashingtonTerritory........................................
7,258 97
“ Idaho...................................................................
2,110 46
({ Vancouversand San Juan Islands...................
2,552 68
“ Honolulu.............................................................
4,085 00
“ Santiago de Chili................................................
3,688 84
“ Peru.....................................................................
2,002 00
“ Newfoundland...................................
150 00
“ Canada...............................................................
439 48
“ England and Scotland........ . ........................... .
1,150 00
“ France..................................................................
2,750 00
“ Turkey..................................................................
50 00
“ China..................................................................
2,303 93
“ Cuba.....................................................................
23 00
“ Unknown som’ces...............................................
3,192 88
Making in the whole the sum of......................... $919,580 98
Large amounts have been raised by the Branches of the
Commission beside their contributions to its Central Treasury,
included in the foregoing statement. The money receipts of the
Philadelphia branch for instance, over and above what it has
contributed to the general Treasury, up to December 4th, 1863,
have been $117,097 75.
These local receipts have been expended chiefly in the pur
chase of supplies forwarded to the depots of the Commission at
Washington, Louisville, Morris Island, New Orleans, &c., or to
its relief agents in the field, and in the local work of Special
Relief.
. .. .. j
..
�11
/J To the large amounts thus raised at our principal cities, must
be added the aggregate of the smaller sums which innumerable
societies, “sewing circles,” snd other patriotic organizations
affiliated with the Commission or its various branches have
spent in the purchase of material to be converted into Hospi
tal clothing, and for other like purposes. This aggregate may
never be precisely ascertained, but it doubtless far exceeds what
has been received by the Branches and the Central Treasury
together.
There must also be taken into account the value of the trans
portation given the Commission for its bulky stores, either freely
or at greatly reduced rates, by Railroad and Express Companies,
and of the free use it enjoys of many of our Telegraph lines.
These are equivalent to so much money saved its treasury for
the benefit of the Army, through public confidence in its effi
ciency and National scope. This amount can only be estimated
at present, but it is immense. On two Western Railroads alone,
it is understood to exceed two hundred thousand dollars.
The money value of the material supplies dispensed by the
Commission will be considered hereafter. Leaving them out of
view, it is evident' that the public bounty it has organized and
directed in aid of the National Army must be estimated in terms
of millions.
But it enjoys the confidence also of the Military authorities.
Having been ever on its guard against the danger (inherent in all
attempts to aid the Army through outside unofficial agencies,)
of weakening the sense of responsibility among officers, and in
terfering with discipline among the rank and file, it is known to
Military and Medical officers as an auxiliary on which they can
call with entire safety. It has, therefore, as a general rule, the
benefit of their cordial co-operation. The economical value of
their assistance, especially in all field operations, is inestimable.
It often makes all the difference between life-saving success and
�12
utter waste and failure. Quartermasters feel authorized to help
forward supplies entrusted to the recognized agents of the Com
mission when they decline giving facilities to unknown and
irresponsible relief agents. After a great battle such transpor
tation cannot be bought with money, though the lives of thou
sands may depend upon it, and the lives of many thousands
have been saved because help was sent them through the Sani
tary Commission, and because the system of the Commission
is known to harmonize with that of the A rmy.
The confidence thus reposed in the Commission economizes
its resources in many other ways, and enables it to use them
with special advantage and effect. For instance, Government
supplies ordinary rations to the hundreds of thousands of men
who are relieved in the “ Homes ” of the Commission. It often
furnishes transportation, guards for depots and for wagon trains,
and details of men for special service in aid of the Commission.
*
Without this help the “ Special Relief” system, which has done
what no Government system could undertake, and what we
could not have endured to see left undone, would have cost four
fold what it has. The special advantages thus secured to the
Commission through the confidence reposed in it by the Public
* Head-Quartbrs Department op the Cumberland, )
Stevenson, Ala., August 19th, 1863,
j
Sir,—The General commanding authorizes the use of half a car daily for the
shipment of sanitary stores by the United States Sanitary Commission, from Nash
ville to such points South as may be desired. This letter, if exhibited to the
Quarter-Master at Nashville, will procure you the transportation at all times, unless
the exigencies of the service should make it necessary temporarily to suspend the
permission. General directions to ship nothing but government stores, will not
affect this permit. Should it be necessary to suspend it, special direction will be
given.
I am, very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
C. Goddard,
Lieut. Col. and A. A. G.
Dr. A. N. Reed,
U. S. Sanitary Commission.
mA -
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and by the Army, make every dollar contributed to its Treasury
do the work of two.
Though the resources controlled by the Commission have been
very large, its work has demanded them all. It has repeatedly
been obliged to purchase supplies, after its depots were ex
hausted, for tens of thousands of wounded men. This includes
rebel prisoners in our hands, for it has been found practically
impossible to pass by on the other side when any citizen of the
United States was suffering from the casualties of war.
The disbursements of the Central Treasury for the eight
'-months ending December 1st, 1863, have been as follows:—
*. ..»j
April................... ............................. $29,142
May.................... ............................. 36,315
June................... ............................ 54,623
July.................... ............................. 92,020
August.............. ............................ 40,507
September ..... ............................ 28,470
October.............. ............................. 30,191
November........ . ............................. 49,845
57
09
21
86
07
35
81
87
i'
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'll
$361,116 83
or on an average a little over forty-five thousand dollars a month.
GENERAL ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMISSION.
The Commission meets at Washington quarterly, and holds
special sessions whenever they are required. During the inter
vals between its sessions its affairs are administered by its chief
executive officer, the General Secretary, and by a standing com
mittee of five of its members, which meets daily in New York.
Two “ Associate Secretaries ” are stationed one at Louisville
and a second at Washington. The former is charged with the
work of the Commission west of the Alleghanies, the latter east
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•—including our positions on the Rebel Seaboard, and the city of
New Orleans. These Associate Secretaries, have the supervision
of all Sanitary Inspectors, Relief Agents, &c., within their re
spective departments, receive constant reports from them, and
direct their labors wherever comparison of these reports indicates
that they are most wanted. Each is in communication also with
the Branches of the Commission, and through them with the
local Societies that send their stores to the branch and central
depots and makes requisitions for these stores from time to time
as they are needed. In case of pressing emergency he pur
chases supplies or calls by telegraph for their purchase at the
point from which they can be most speedily forwarded.
Each Associate Secretary is thus kept informed of the relative
wants, of every regiment within his department, and as to the
particular depots from which supplies of any particular class
can be most promptly and economically forwarded. No State
Agent can thus view the whole national field. He may do great
service, but he can never be quite sure that he would not have
done the whole army and the whole country much more service
if he had worked somewhere else.
The subordinate agents of the Commission are employed on
duties which can mostly be classed under the heads of Sanitary
Inspection, Army Relief, and Special Relief. They all report
to one or the other of the two Associate Secretaries already men
tioned, except the Inspectors. These report to a third Associate
Secretary, who is also Chief of Sanitary Inspection.
There are several hundred “ Associate members ” of the Com
mission, selected as prominent and loyal citizens, or as experts in
Sanitary science. Many of them have attended its sittings, and
aided it with their counsel. Under their auspices the numerous
Branches of the Commission have been established in our prin
cipal cities. These admirable and efficient organizations pro
vide for the local work of Army relief, and raise funds and
�15
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secure supplies for the general objects of the Commission. Each
has its own Treasurer.
*
The object of this paper is to state the work and the wants of
the Commission itself, but it is impossible to pass over, without
mention, the services rendered by its Branches. The final his
tory of the Commission, and of the great popular movement of
munificence and humanity that distinguishes this war from all
others, will show how much these organizations at Chicago,
Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York,f Pittsburgh, Brooklyn,
Cincinnati, Boston, and elsewhere, have done in addition to the
work of the Central Commission. Without them the Commis
sion would have been a comparative failure. The work of the
Commission and of its branches cannot be so analyzed as to
show exactly how much of the aggregate result should be cred
ited to either. To attempt such analysis would overload this
statement with details. But its readers must bear in mind, that
the results it sets forth as accomplished “ by the Commission,”
are in many cases largely due to the energy of its branches,
the Commission itself acting merely as a balance-wheel to
secure the harmony and the impartial Nationality of their
work.
The financial centre of the Commission is at New York. Its
Treasurer acts under the supervision of the Standing Committee,
and makes no payments without its authority.
SANITARY INSPECTION OF CAMPS, POSTS, AND HOSPITALS.
This was the chief object contemplated by the Commission
when it was created by Government. As has already been stated,
our Armies were during the summer of 1861, in serious danger
of destruction by epidemic disease. Modern Sanitary science was
* See Appendix B.
f The Women’s Central Association of Relief, New York.
�16
hardly recognized in the ancient regulations of the Medical Bu
reau. Its officers could not be expected to go beyond the strict
line of official duty when that duty was more than quadrupled.
The first business of the Commission therefore was to awaken
general attention to the Sanitary interests of the Army, and to
do what it could to improve the Sanitary condition of camps,
quarters, hospitals, and men.
It sent out Medical Inspectors forthwith to warn inexperi
enced officers of the peril to which filth, bad ventilation and
bad food exposed their men and themselves. It brought
to bear upon Government the influence of the medical profes
sion throughout the country, effected the extension and invigo
ration of the Medical Bureau, and secured the express recogni
tion of the prevention of disease, no less than its cure, as among
the functions of the Medical Staff. Government now employs
its own Sanitary Inspectors and does a certain portion of the
preventive work which the Commission did during the first year
of its existence. But the Commission still keeps up an Inspec
torial Corps auxiliary to that of Government, for the latter is
numerically unequal to its great work, and there are special
causes beside that have thus far interfered with its efficiency.
Each Inspector on visiting a Camp or Post puts himself, in
the first place, in communication with its Military authorities
and asks their co-operation in his work. This being secured,
he proceeds to investigate the condition of the men in every
particular that bears on their liability to disease, and the suffi
ciency of the remedial agencies within their reach. He inquires
into the quality of their water-supply, food, cooking and clothing
—the ventilation and the cleanliness of their camp or quarters—
the position of their latrines—the provision for the removal and
destruction of refuse and offal—the equipment of their field or
post hospital—their ambulance service—the competency of
their medical officers—the salubrity or insalubrity of their
�Camp-site or post—the sufficiency of their bedding and blankets,
the character of the diseases that have prevailed among them,
and the precautions thus indicated. On these points he advises
the medical and military authorities of the Corps as a Sanitary
expert. His inspection generally discloses something that can
be done to promote the health of the command. He finds, for
instance, that there are tendencies to malarious disease that5
call for quinine as a prophylactic, or tendencies to scurvy,
that require supplies of fresh vegetables, or that there is
a deficiency of stimulants, bedding, articles of hospital diet, or
disinfecting material. If the want, whatever it is, can be
promptly supplied through the regular official channels, he sees
that this is done—but if it cannot, or if (as is often the case)
something is required which Government does not undertake to
supply, he calls on the Relief Department of the Commission
which supplies it according to its ability. If the officer who
should obtain it be inexperienced in requisitions and supply
tables, the Inspector is able to assist him. If the defect arise
from corruption or incapacity, he reports the fact. It sometimes
happens that the health of a Camp is endangered by want, not
of supplies, but of some work for which authority cannot at
once be obtained. In this case money is appropriated by the
Standing Committee, or in case of emergency by the Associate
Secretary on the Inspector’s report. The Commission has done
much work of this class. It has improved the ventilation of
hospitals, dug wells to improve the water-supply of camps, built
temporary hospitals and quarters, to replace unwholesome and
dangerous buildings, furnished and fitted up Hospital Transports
and converted ordinary Railroad cars into Railroad Ambu
lances, with cooking apparatus and store rooms, and litters hung
on springs, in which thousands of men with fractured limbs
have travelled thousands of miles without suffering or injury.
The results of every Inspection are noted on blanks provided
2
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for the purpose, and are severally reported. Each report covers
about two hundred distinct points affecting the sanitary condi-j
tion and wants of the force inspected. More than 1800 of these
reports have been accumulated. They are digested and tabu-lated, as received, by a competent actuary. It is believed that
the body of military and medical statistics thus collected is
among the largest and most valuable in existence. It can hardly
fail to furnish conclusions of the utmost importance to sanitary
science.
The Commission employs other agencies also for the preven
tion of disease. It urges measures of sanitary reform on the
attention of Government. It furnished material for the vaccination of thousands of men at a time, now happily past, when the
Medical Bureau was unable to supply the tenth part of what
was needed, and issued what it had only after a fortnight’s delay.
It has thus stayed the ravages of smallpox in regiments crowded
on board transports, after that disease had actually begun to
spread among their men.
It has done much beside to protect our soldiers against this
peril. During the first year of the war, for instance, all cases of
“ eruptive disease ” in one of our most important military depart
ments were consigned indiscriminately to a single Hospital, from
which men were “ discharged cured ” of mumps or measles, and
rejoined their regiments to sicken and die of smallpox con
tracted in this “ hospital,” so called, and to infect and kill their
comrades. It was through the persevering remonstrance and
protest of the Commission that this murderous abuse was at
last corrected.
*
The Commission has also circulated throughout the Army,
and especially among the Medical Staff’, many hundred thousandd
copies of its medical documents. This series now numbers^,
* It is hardly necessary to say that all this occurred before the appointment of
the present able and efficient Surgeon General, Dr. '\illiam A. Hammond. ’
�10
•
eighteen publications, each devoted to some special point of
prevention or cure. Some of them are addressed to the indi
vidual soldier, but the great majority are for the use of the Medical
Staff, and relate to the prevention or treatment of the diseases
t6 which camps are specially exposed, and to sundry operations
of Military Surgery with which it cannot be expected that Sur
geons recently appointed from civil life should be generally
familiar. These monographs have been prepared at the request
of the Commission, by some of the most eminent Physicians and’
Surgeons of the country. Embodying, in a condensed form, the
Idlest results of science, they have been of great use to our Army'
Surgeons, who often encounter cases1 for which their pre
vious- practice hasnot specially prepared them, and who have
neither medical libraries nor opportunities for consultation.
The Commission institutes special Inspections also from time
to time, outside of its general Inspectorial system. It employs
medical agents to look into the condition of such Camps or Hos
pitals as seem to require special attention, and to ascertain and
report the wants of our armies during or immediately after a
trying campaign. Within the past year it has made a thorough
inspection of all General Military Hospitals, East and West,
employing for this purpose Medical practitioners of the highest
professional standing; ‘ Their recommendations of improvement
ufrour Hospital system and its administration1 havebeen sub- '
mitted to the proper authorities.•'
The Relief Agents of the Commission are'not expressly ch arged
*
with the office of Sanitary inspection, but their reports and journals, sent in at short intervals, help to keep the Commission informed of the condition of the Army, and of the measures required to’-maintain it in health.; at-every point from Annapolis to Hew ’
Orleans.As has been already stated, it is from the nature of the case”
impossible accurately to estimate how many men have been'saved
�2Q
from death or disease, and how much efficiency has been econo
mized for the country by this preventive service, for though the
results of the treatment of disease can be more or less accurately
recorded, the result of measures for its prevention cannot be
stated with any kind of certainty. The only attainable data are
the percentage of disease among men to whom such preventive
measures have been applied, and among those to whom they
have not. Though inferences from a comparison of the two are
not absolutely to be relied on, (because we can never be quite
sure that the conditions of any two cases have been precisely the
same), a comparison of the mortality rates of our Army with
those of the British Armies in the Crimea and during the Pe
ninsular W ar will nevertheless throw some light on the ques
tion.
The average annual loss of the whole British Army during
the Peninsular War was one hundred and sixty-five men out of
every thousand. Of these one hundred and thirteen died by
disease or accident.
'
From 1803 to 1812 the average annual death-rate of the whole
British Army “ abroad” was 80 per 1,000—71 by disease and
accident, and 9 by wounds in action.
In July, August and September, 1854, the British Army in the
Crimea lost at the rate of two hundred and ninety-three men out of
every thousand per annum. Ninety-six per cent, of this loss was
from disease. During the next three months, October, November
and December, 1854, their loss was at the annual rate of five hun
dred and eleven out of every thousand, seven-eighths of which
loss was by disease. In January, 1855, it was at the rate of 1174
per 1,000 per annum, 97 per cent, of this loss being due to dis
ease, During the first three months of that year it was at the
annual rate of 912 per 1,000, and ninety-eight per cent, of the
loss was due to disease.
Up to May 18, 1862, our armies had lost at the rate of fifty-
�21
three per thousand per annum, and only forty-four per cent, of
that loss was by disease and accident.
*
■ In estimating the value of these figures, it must be remembered
that the conditions under which our soldiers serve have been gen
erally unfavorable. Their field of operations includes large districts
quite as insalubrious as any part of Spain, Portugal or the Crimea.
There has at all times (and especially during the first year of the
War) been among them a large proportion of half-disciplined
recruits and of inexperienced officers, while the soldiers of
Great Britain in the Peninsula and the Crimea were regulars
under high discipline, and commanded by professional officers.
The Commissariat and the Medical Department of the British
Army were parts of a system long established and matured. In
May, 1862, ours were newly organized (for the purposes of this
War), and not yet in perfect working order. The Peninsular and
Crimean Armies had therefore material advantages over our own.
Yet we have lost far fewer men by disease. Even on Morris Island
and in the pestilential swamps of the lower Mississippi our loss
by disease has been smaller than that of any Army about which
we have authentic information. For this great fact—equivalent
to the addition of hundreds of millions to our National resources
—the Nation can never be sufficiently thankful. No human
agency could have ensured it. Though the average intelligence
and culture of our common soldiers are beyond those of any
army ever yet put into the field, and though the Medical Staff
- and the Sanitary Commission have worked diligently in their
respective spheres, a blessing so great, exceptional and unhoped
for can be attributed to none but the Highest cause, f
* See Preliminary Report on the Mortality and Sickness of the Volunteer Forces,
by E. B. Elliott, Actuary.
f The last report of the Secretary of War, as just published in the daily papers,
states the number of patients in General Hospital, June 30, 1863, as 9.1 per cent.,
and in Field Hospital 4.4 per cent, of the whole national forces—and that of this
�22
DEPARTMENT OF ARMY RELIEF.
This work was not at first contemplated by the Commission.
But the need of some central agency, to prevent the most dis
tressing waste of supplies, and the most mischievous interference
with Army discipline by irresponsible volunteer agents, was soon
apparent. Boxes and bales of life-saving stores were rotting and
perishing in railroad depots because wrongly directed, or because
the Regiment for which they were intended had changed its po
sition. Regiments were throwing away superfluous delicacies,
while others were suffering for want of necessaries. The bounty
of the People was manifestly losing half its practical value be
cause unsystematically distributed, and system could be secured
only through some central and National organization.
The Commission therefore allied itself with Army Relief As
sociations and Societies already existing, promoted their forma
tion where they did not exist, and undertook the great work of
systematizing and economizing the public effort to aid the Army.
This was then and still is a work of the first necessity. For, though
no Government has ever provided for its Army so liberally as
ours, and no People has ever given so liberally to supplement
what Government does, both People and Government are still
unable to do all that should be done, and men are still dying
every day who could be saved from death at the cost of a
few dollars. System and economy in the application of the pub
lic bounty, munificent as it is, are therefore indispensable. It
must be applied so as not only to do good, but to do the greatest
good to the greatest number, and the Commission endeavors so
to apply it through its Army Relief Department.
The branches of the Commission daily receive supplies of
aggregate °f 13-5 per cent., 11 were cases of sickness and 2.5 of wounds or other
casualties. This is a most gratifying statement; especially when contrasted with
the sickness-rates of foreign armies in the field and of our own during the Mexican
war.
�23
almost every kind from the sewing societies, Soldiers’ Aid Socie
ties, and other patriotic organizations that exist under various
titles in almost every town and village of the North. The num
ber of these organizations is exceedingly great. During August
last more than one hundred and twenty contributed to the
Chicago branch alone. More than twelve hundred have sent
supplies to the New York branch. From the depots of these
branches the Commission draws the supplies that are distributed
through its relief agents.
The issues of these depots are not confined to goods received
from auxiliary societies. The branches also purchase supplies
on a large scale, especially in cases of emergency, as after a great
battle. They have thus expended several hundred thousand
dollars, the proceeds of which have gone directly to the relief of
the army. The cargoes of ice, for example, sent to the hospitals
of Morris Island and Hilton Head, by the Boston branch, at the
expense of the Central Treasury, have been of inestimable value,
not merely to the individual soldier^ whose suffering they have
alleviated, but to the country in expediting his convalescence
and return to duty.
The general fund is used for like purposes. Up to De
ember 1, 1863, the central Treasury at New York has
expended more than a quarter of a million in the purchase of
hospital clothing, chloroform, medicines, stimulants, beef stock,
farinaceous food, and other material for army relief. This is over
and above what it has spent in sending surgeons, medical dressers,
and skilled nurses to the field.
The methods adopted for the systematic distribution of these
stores have been carefully considered. They work well and
economically, and are cordially approved by the military and
medical authorities of the army.
*
Losses by miscarriage and by
* Surgeon-General’s Office,
Washington Citt, D. C., February 13th, 1863.
Sir,—In reply to your communication of the 11th inst., 1 am directed to inform
�the casualties ot war (the capture of wagons by the enemy, for
instance,) have been exceedingly small. Their estimated amount,
all told, is less than ten thousand dollars.
For each great division of the army the Commission provides
a chief sanitary inspector and a superintendent of field relief.
If the force be stationary (as at Aquia Creek during the winter
of 1862-3, at Vicksburg, and now on Morris Island,) a permanent
lodge is established near its headquarters as a relief agency or
semi-governmental hospital, and depot of supplies. If the force be
in motion, supplies are issued from wagon trains or from steam
boats, of which the. commission has three, one in the Eastern
Department and two in the Western. Transportation is some
times paid for by the Commission, and sometimes put at its
disposal by the Quartermaster’s Department. There are now
(November, 1863,) five relief agents attached to the Army of
the Potomac, one for each army corps, each at the front in
charge of a wagon train moving with its own corps, and kept
constantly supplied from the W ashington depot. Each is cer
tainly saving one man’s life every day, and probably more.
Lodges and depots are also established at every important
hospital centre and convalescent camp to do such works of mercy
as are not provided for by regulation, and cannot, therefore, be
officially done at all. Each of these lodges and depots is, in fact,
the office of a volunteer surgeon, quartermaster, and commissary,
you that the Sanitary Commission is believed to be the best repository, and
distributor of the people’s bounty; giving the greatest certainty of good to the
soldier, with the least interference with the surgeons of the hospitals.
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
By order of the Surgeou-General,
C. C. Bynnes,
Assistant-Surgeon,
.r. W. 11. Hadley,
U. S. Army.
Washington, D. C.
�23
sent there by the people, to provide for accidental failures in the
work of its government officials.
Pursuant to the settled policy of the Commission, its relief
agents are instructed to dispense supplies to camps and hospitals
through the regular military channels of supply whenever they
can possibly do so. If they have shirts and blankets for a ragged
regiment they distribute them, as a general rule, through its
officers, and thus make the supplies effective, not only to relieve
the soldier, but to maintain his confidence in his military
superiors.
• ■ • . 'i,,
It has been said that surgeons and other officers misappropriate
the stores thus put within their reach. Every great army must
include a certain per centage, larger or smaller, of dishonesty and
baseness, but such cases, if there have been any at all, are most
exceptional in ours. The Commission has diligently followed up
every rumor of the kind that has reached it, often employing
special detective agents for the purpose, but in no one case has
the report been confirmed. In most it has been conclusively dis
proved. Such stories originate in many ways. A soldier, for
instance, sells or loses a blanket issued by the Commission, and
marked with its stamp. The blanket finds its way to some second
hand shop in Washington or Cincinnati, and somebody who sees
it there sets afloat an “ authentic” report that goods sent the Com
mission for army relief are sold either by the Commission itself
or by army officers. Or a surgeon uses the hospital stores of the
Commission for his own relief when ill, thereby practically,
though indirectly, applying them to the benefit of his patients,
and thus creates a rumor that army surgeons generally live on
beef tea and brandy meant for hospital use. There is no proof
that a dollar’s worth of the people’s bounty has been thus per
verted. If any portion has been, it is less than the hundredth
part of one per cent, on the value of the supplies sent the army
through the Commission. But if fifty dollars’ worth out of every
�^6
hundred were proven to be intercepted by official corruption,
it would not excuse our abandoning the work. It should
rather inspire us to provide more actively for this additional
source of depri vation and danger. What should we think of a
farmer who declined to make provision for his stock because he
suspected his servants of stealing part of their feed?
There are, undoubtedly, intelligent people who take a different
vieXv of the case, unconsciously influenced, perhaps, by that
readiness to believe anything to the disadvantage of anybody
holding public office which seems one of our national weak
nesses. Some of them object on this ground to any organization
that works in concert with surgeons or hospital stewards, and
prefer the agency of volunteers who make unlawful inroads into
camps and hospitals, and help the individual soldier at the ex
pense of the system which must always be his main dependence.
The inevitable mischief this practice mnst produce has been
already pointed out. If one or two surgeons out of thousands
have appropriated a few hundred dollars’ worth of army stores
out of millions, the loss is insignificant when compared with the
slightest risk of impairing the morale and discipline of the army,
on which, Under God, we depend for our national existence.
The service directly rendered to the Army by the Supply De
partment, through the Commission and its branches, has been
inestimable. A full statement of its results would require pages
of detail, setting forth the operations of Relief Agents and their
Assistants after every battle, in every general hospital, and in
the camps and quarters of every Corps. Steamboats chartered
by the Cincinnati Branch reached Fort Donelson laden with
medicines and supplies of every kind in time to supplement the
deficient stores of the Medical Staff, and save hundreds of men.
At Antietam there were literally no Government Medical stores.
The surgeons had used up their stock during General Pope’s
Campaign, in Virginia. Supplies sent them from Washington
�27
had been captured at Manassas. The Quartermaster’s Depart
ment, taxed to its utmost to forward ordinance and Commissary
stores, ammunition and food, had been obliged to leave all medi
cal supplies behind, miles away from the field. But the officers
of the Commission, at Washington, advised by authority of this
unfortunate deficiency, and of the impending battle, sent off by
/ independent routes, and in good season, wagon trains laden
with medical and surgical appliances, which reached the field
before the battle was over, and for forty-eight hours after that
hardly-won victory thousands of wounded men got all their
opiates, stimulants, chloroform, medicines, appropriate diet, and
hospital clothing and bedding, mainly from Agents of the Sanitary
Commission. So at Getty sburgh, the headquarters and supply
depots of the Commission were established and at work while
the battle was hottest. At Vicksburgh, Murfreesboro, Chancellorsville, Chattanooga, Chicamauga, Fredericksburg, its relief
agents dispensed many thousand dollars’ worth of life-saving
supplies. During our Peninsular Campaign, it did the Army
most signal service. The history of its work on the Peninsula
—at White House, Savage’s Station, and Harrison’s Landing—
is yet to be written. Its Relief Depots and Hospital Transport
Service did more to relieve misery and save life than any other
voluntary organization has ever done within the same period.
After the second battle of Bull’s Run the wagon trains of the
Commission moving from Washington, met our retreating forces
at Centreville, exhausted by hard fighting, and wholly without
• restoratives or medicines. Their medical supplies had fallen
into Rebel hands. At this point, as at many others, the Com
mission’s proper work of supplementing accidental deficiencies
in the Army system saved hundreds from perishing by pros
tration and enabled them to return to their ranks and their duty.
*
* Within ten days after Chattanooga, four thousand packages of Sanitary stores
had gone to the field from Nashville, and two thousand more were on the way
I
�28
This Department of the Commission’s work has cost, not
money alone, but health and life. Many of its Agents have
already died in the service, or have been obliged to leave it
broken down by overwork and exposure or poisoned by malaria.
Another name has just been added to its roll of martyrs to our
national cause—that of Rev. James Richardson, a gentleman of
education and high social position, who died at his post Novem
ber 10th, 1863, of disease contracted in the service of the Com
mission, Two of its Agents were captured near Gettysburg]},
while carrying supplies to the front. They have undergone
months of starvation and ill-treatment at Richmond, from the
effects of which it is probable they will never fully recover.
In our General Hospitals the Relief Department of the Com
mission is now a recognized institution, on which surgeons rely
for certain extra-governmental supplies, as fully as they depend
on Government for ordinary rations. Accidental failure of
Government supplies sometimes obliges them to rely on it for
everything. This work of the Commission is not confined to
Hospitals at or near the front. During the summer of 1862, for
example, a medical officer of the Commission learning that a
transport from the Peninsula had just landed several hundred
invalids on one of the Islands of an Atlantic harbor, thought
proper to make a personal inspection of their condition. He
found them mostly bad cases of malarious typhoid fever, requir
ing vigilant nursing and stimulation from hour to hour, but with
out proper food or stimulants, or any attendance, save that of
one or two enlisted men detailed as nurses. The Post Surgeon
had gone to bed in a condition that forbade his doing more for
down the Mississippi. Up to 17th November last, 5,000 packages and boxes had
been forwarded for the relief of the wounded men at Chickamauga. The means of
classifying these supplies are not yet at hand. But a detailed statement is appended
of the supplies issued to the army of the Potomac after Gettysbubgh. (See Ap
pendix A.)
sm;
�his patients than to utter a cordial but semi-articulate consent
that the Sanitary Commission should take care of them. The
representative of the Commission forthwith sent a boat to the
city, which returned laden with beef, milk, and brandy bought
at the Hotels, for it was late and all the shops were closed. He
*
extemporized a kitchen, and spent the whole night administering
beef tea and milk punch to these neglected men, most of whom
would have been dead or past recovery before morning but for
his intervention. Many of them were saved, and an unworthy
employe of the Medical Department was summarily dismissed
.within forty-eight hours, upon report of the facts.
This is an extreme case. Instances of such misconduct are
most rare, for since the re-organization of the Medical Bureau,
our army surgeons have almost universally labored with a degree
of fidelity, energy, and self-devotion beyond all praise. But the
Commission has relieved many Hospitals suffering like destitu
tion, for which their officers were not to blame. As already
stated, the Medical Bureau has no independent transportation.
Military necessity sometimes requires that guns, ammunition and
provisions be forwarded with all possible despatch to the entire
exclusion of everything else. Supplies actually issued and con
signed to surgeons and urgently needed by them may thus often
be unavoidably detained on the road for days or weeks.
The machinery of the War Department is necessarily rigid
and wooden. A flexible organization like the Sanitary Com
mission, governed by principle rather than by
r
*ule,
and, above
all, able to exercise discretionary powers necessarily forbidden to
the officials of Government, can obviously render great service
in filling the gaps that must occur in its working, especially
on a field so vast as that of the present War.
* (And paid for at Hotel prices—an exceptional incident in the experience of the
Commission.)
�30
The value of this Relief system is well understood by the
whole Army.
*
A circular letter was lately addressed to a
large number of medical officers in charge of general hos
pitals inquiring through what Agency, National, local or
individual, supplies sent their patients did most good. The
answer was almost unanimous,—“ Through the Sanitary Com
mission, because it ministers impartially to all National soldiers,
East and West, and because it understands the paramount im
portance of subordination to Military system in all efforts for
Army relief.”-]*
z ffr <!.•’
* Headquarters Department
of
Tennessee,
Special Order, No. 86.
1. The Quartermaster’s Department will provide and furnish a suitable steam
boat, to be called the “ United States Sanitary Store Boat,” and put the same in
charge of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, to be used by it exclusively for the
conveyance of goods calculated to prevent disease, and supplemental to the Gov
ernment supply of stores for the relief of the sick and wounded.
2. No person will be allowed to travel on said boat except sick officers of the ■
army and navy, (and they only on permits from their proper commanding offi
cers,) discharged soldiers and employees of said Sanitary Commission, and no
goods whatever for trading or commercial purposes will be carried on said boat,)
and no goodswill be taken for individnals or with any conditions which will prevent them being delivered to those most needing them in the army or navy.
3. The accounts of all packages to be shipped on said U. S. Sanitary Store
Boat will be inspected before shipment, unless, an invoice of their contents hasbeen received, the correctness of which is assured by the signature of some per
son of known loyalty and integrity. • A statement, showing what goods have been
placed on board at each trip will be asent.i to the Medical Director of the Depart-’
ment at these Headquarters.
4. A weekly statement will be made by the Sanitary Commission to the Depart
ment of the Medical Director, showing what Sanitary supplies have been issued
by said Commission, and to whom Issued.^/
5. All orders authorizing the free transportation of Sanitary Stores from Cairo :
south on boats other than the one herein provided for are hereby rescinded.
By order Major General U. S.-Grant.
John A. Rawlings, Asst. Adt. General.
| This circular and all the letters in reply to it were published by the Women’s
Central Association of New York in a pamphlet entitled “ How can we best help
our Camps and Hospitals ?” New York: 1863.
�34
DEPARTMENT OF. SPECIAL RELIEF.
The necessity of this work became apparent as soon as our
volunteer forces began to assemble. It was first undertaken, at
Washington, in August, 1861, and its results there soon led to
the establishment of agencies for. the same purpose at other
points. It is now in operation throughout the country.
The General Relief System, of which some account has Just
been given, assists the soldier when in camp or in hospital, by
strengthening and supplementing the military system with which
he is then in close connexion, and on which it is his right and
his duty mainly to depend. The Department of Special Relief
deals mainly with the waifs and estrays of the Army, and
relieves the individual soldier when temporarily out of connexion
with the Military system. It gives him shelter, food, medical
treatment and transportation when it. is impossible for him
tq obtain rthem. from, Government. At points; dike Washington, or. Nashville, for, . example, there, may.be daily , found
scores or hundreds. of men, separated from, their regiments
and anxious to rejoin them, but unable to obtain transportation,
and without legal title meanwhile to quarters or rations, or any;
kind of recognition or aid from any Government officer within
reach... Some are returning after a furlough, but find that their
regiment has moved. Their little stock of money has. given .;
out, and they must beg through the streets, for aught that any
official. , has the power to.. do for them. Others.. are * sick,
but no. Hospital can admit them without a breach of regula
tions. Others are waiting to get their back pay, but there is
some technical defect in their papers for which they are not re
sponsible, and they must wait a week for a letter to, reach their
regiment and be answered, before they can draw a dollar from
the Paymaster, and subsist as they can meanwhile. ,
These seem at first to be serious abuses, but they are, in faet,
merely inevitable incidents of the rigorous system of. detail :
�82
that is essential to every army, and especially to armies so
large as ours. It is only through technical regulations, un
sparingly enforced, that the most mischievous irregularities can
be prevented, and the army as a whole kept in working condition.
But any such system, however necessary on the whole, must
produce cases of hardship, and in great armies such cases must
be numerous. When the subject matter of these regulations is
the provision of food, shelter, clothing and hospital treatment,
whatever hardship their inflexibility produces, must cost health,
efficiency and life. The Army has thus but the choice of
two evils. It must suffer as a whole, because regulations are
not rigidly enforced, or individuals must suffer because they are.
There can of course be no question which of these two evils is
the greater. However great may be the amount of suffering
thus caused, only a blind and reckless philanthropy would seek
to remedy it at the expense of discipline. A large portion
of the suffering in question arises, in fact, not so much from the
rigor of the system as from the want of accuracy on the part
of those who administer it, ancf seems due to a deficiency rather
than an excess of “ red tape.”
For this inevitable evil, the Commission seeks to provide
through its Special Relief Department. To the extent of its
means it keeps everywhere within the soldier’s reach establish
ments to supply him with food, shelter and medical care, when
he can get them nowhere else, and to supplement the inflexible
machinery of the Commissary Department, the Quartermaster’s
Department, the Paymaster’s Office, and the Medical Bureau.
This Department does much work also that can hardly be dis
tinguished from that of General Relief, except in this, that while
the latter provides for men in camp, in hospital, or on the march,
the former gives them especial attention and care while passing
from the condition of recruits to that of National soldiers, and
while still unfamiliar with the system through which they must
obtain subsistence, quarters and medical treatment.
�33
For example, a newly-raised regiment reaches Louisville or
Washingtoi^late at night, after a weary, depressing day, spent
without food in cattle cars without seats. The men are exhaust
ed, and a dozen or twenty of them are ill. Sick and well, they
are deposited at the railroad terminus. The Regimental Sur
geon’s medical stores are buried in the baggage cars, and cannot
be got out till morning. He is in a strange place, and does not
know where to go to get his patients into hospital. The Com
pany officers are equally inexperienced. It may take them half
the next day to ascertain how to get rations and quarters for
their men. Meanwhile, the men must stand in the street and
get on as best they may, without food, shelter, or medical at
tendance, the healthy sickening and the sick growing worse from
hour to hour.
This is a very moderate statement of what has occurred over
and over again. Many have died of fatigue and exposure under
these circumstances in the street or on the floor of a depot, be
fore their connection with the Government machinery could be
so established as to become available for their relief. A little
suitable food or stimulus, and a few hours rest, would probably
have saved most of them. But their officers cannot, under the
circumstances, be severely censured for the loss.
The Commission provides for cases of this class. Its agents
are kept informed by telegraph of the movements of newly-raised
regiments, and are prepared to receive them, with coffee and
soup for the well men, and with ambulances for the sick, who
are at once conveyed to a “ Home” of the Commission, where
they receive food, shelter, nursing, and medical care, till they
are able to join their regiment, or are duly transferred to Gen
eral Hospital. Many thousand men “ slightly ailing” have been
saved from illness that would have made them unserviceable for
weeks or months, and perhaps forever, by the few days or hours
of repose, comfort and medical care thus afforded them.
3
�84
The Homes of the Commission provide in like manner for the
large class already mentioned of men separated fr<gm their regi
ments, unable to get transportation, and without money or
friends, and to whom no officer within their reach can supply
quarters or rations without personal liability and violation of
Army rules. Every such case is carefully scrutinized. If it be
genuine, the man receives subsistence and quarters at the
“ Home” until the position of his regiment is ascertained, and
he is furnished transportation to rejoin it.
A regiment carrying its sick with it in ambulances is often
detailed in passing through a city. As the length of this deten
tion is uncertain, and the regiment may have to move at a mo
ment’s notice, these sick men cannot well be transferred to a
General Hospital. Their admission and their discharge would
each require too much time. But if a “ Home” of the Com
mission be within reach it provides for them during their deten
tion.
The work of the Special Relief Department is too various for
complete classification. Every day brings out some new case for
its intervention, differing from all that have preceded it. But its
chief objects are as follows :
*
9
First.—To supply the sick of newly arrived regiments such
medicines, food, and care as their officers are, under the circum
stances, unable to give them. The men thus aided are chiefly
those not sick enough to have a claim on a general hospital, but
who nevertheless need immediate care to prevent serious illness.
Second.—To furnish suitable food, lodging, care, and assist. ance to men who are honorably discharged as unfit for further
service, but who are often obliged to wait for several days be
* See printed reports of Mr. F. N. Knapp, Superintendent of Special Relief.
�35
fore they obtain their papers and pay, or to sell their claims to
speculators, at a sacrifice.
Third.—To communicate with distant regiments in behalf of
men whose certificates of disability or descriptive lists on which
to draw their pay prove to be defective—the invalid soldiers
meantime being cared for, and not exposed to the fatigue and
risk of going in person to their regiments to have their papers
corrected.
Fourth.—To act as the unpaid agent or attorney of soldiers
who are too feeble or too utterly disabled to present their own
claim at the Paymaster’s office.
Fifth.—To look into the condition of discharged and fur
loughed men who seem without means to pay the expense of
going to their homes, and to furnish the necessary means where
the man is found to be true and the need real.
Sixth.—To secure to soldiers going home on sick leave rail
road tickets at reduced rates, and through an agent at thi# rail
road station to see that they are not robbed or imposed upon.
Seventh.—To see that all men who are discharged and paid
off do at once leave the city at which they receive their dis
charge, for their homes, or in cases where they have been induced
by evil companions to remain behind, to endeavor to rescue
them, and see them started homeward with through tickets.
Eighth.—To make men going home discharged, or on sick
leave, reasonably clean and comfortable before their departure.
Ninth.—To be prepared to meet, at once, with food or other
aid, such immediate necessities as arise when sick men arrive in
large numbers from battle fields or distant hospitals.
�36
Tenth.—To keep a watchful eye upon all soldiers who are out
of hospitals, yet not in service; and give information to the
proper authorities of such soldiers as seem endeavoring to avoid
duty or to desert from the ranks.
In all these arrangements the Commission and its branches
receive practical support and aid from the Quartermaster’s
Department, which makes its beneficial work tenfold more ef
fective.
It must be understood, that the “ Homes ” are administered
in no spirit of indiscriminate philanthrophy. Malingerers and de
serters who have found refuge within them under false pretences,
are promptly turned over to military authority, and no soldier is
permitted to enjoy their privileges for a single day after he is
pronounced fit for duty.
These Relief Stations are established at most of our Military
Centres. The “ Home” at Washington is a large three-story brick
building on North Capitol street, with temporary wooden build
ings around it, and with auxiliary “ lodges ” established near
the Paymaster’s office, and other centres around which soldiers
are obliged to congregate. Each has its provision of beds, and
of food, its housekeeper, nurses, and attending Physician, and its
staff of experts in Army relief. Before they were established
men actually died of weariness and exhaustion while waiting
their turn in the dense crowd and blazing sunshine around the
Paymaster’s Office. Soldiers physically unequal to this ordeal
are now provided with shelter and rations till they have secured
their pay.
The following extract from Mr. Knapp’s last report on the
“ Home” at Washington indicates the nature and value of the
Commission’s Special Relief work at that point:
“ ‘ The Home,’ 374 North Capitol street.—Increased accommoi dations for securing room and comfort have been obtained; and
�37
“ now, instead of 140 beds, we have at the Home 320, besides a
“ large baggage-room, a convenient wash-room, a bath-house, &c.
“ Two of the additional buildings, one 16 feet by 60, the other 28
“ feet by 90, were put up by the Quartermaster’s Department.
“ The third building 30 feet by 50 (with an L 20 by 35) for a
“ ‘ Hospital,’ (this was at the expense of the Commission,) at a cost
“ of about $800. The necessity for this building, devoted exclu“ sively to Hospital purposes, is found in the fact, that although
u the men who came under the care of the Commission are
“ mostly on their way to their homes, and might therefore be
“ supposed to be not so very feeble as to need specially “ Hos“ pital ” treatment, yet, as a matter of fact many of them are
“ weakened to such a degree by disease, that by the time they
“ reach Washington, or the railway station from the front, or
“ from the various hospitals, their strength is nearly exhausted,
“ and they are only restored, if at all, by such care as hospital
“ treatment affords; and frequently they are too far gone to
“ make that available, as is indicated by the record which shows
“ that frotn February 23d to October 1st, there were received at
“ the Home 665 men, very sick, who were placed in the new
“ Hospital, of which number thirty-eight died there. This was
“ from February 23d, when this new building was opened, but
“ dating back to December 15th, there has been under the
“ charge of the Commission, including those just named, so®ie
“ 900 men who were very sick and feeble, of which number a
“ total of sixty-one (61) have died at the Home. These were
“ nearly all men having their discharge papers with them, and «
“ they had consequently given up their claim upon the General
“ or Regimental Hospitals, and had taken the first stage of their
“ journey towards their homes. If they had not found the care
“ which the Commission thus offered to them, these same men
“ must have died in the cars along the way, or at some stopping
“ point on their journey. Of the remaining 840 of these very
�38
“ feeble men we have reason to believe that many, except for the
“ care and rest secured to them by the provision of the Commis“ sion, could not have lived through their journeys.
#******
_?
“ At this office and lodge No. 4, from January 1st to October
“ 1st, 1863, the number of discharged soldiers whose accounts
“ against the Government have been settled through our assist“ ance, men who were too feeble to attend to settling their own
“ accounts, or who were unable to obtain their pay because of
“ some charge against them on the pay-rolls, or some errors in
“ their papers, amount to 2,130.”
x
“ Information and directions have been given relative to set“ tling pay accounts, collecting arrears of pay, extra duty pay,
“ and commutation money to about 9,000 men.
“ The aggregate value of the 2130 cases amounted to
“ $130,159 01. This amount was collected and paid to the
“ soldiers through this office.
“ But for the gratuitous aid thus afforded, these soldiers dis“ charged from the service, disabled by wounds, or worn down
“ by long marches and exposure in the field, or enfeebled by
“ disease, anxious to get home, would have applied to ‘ Claim
“ Agents’ for aid in obtaining speedily their dues from Gov“ ernment, submitting willingly to pay a commission ranging
“ from 10 to 40 per cent. These Agents, with some rare and
“ admirable exceptions, in four cases out of every five, impede
“ the settlement of accounts instead of facilitating them.
“ Taking 10 per cent, as an average, which is the lowest com“ mission usually charged by Claim Agents, the amount saved
“ to the soldiers in adjusting the 2130 cases of which a record
“ has been kept, is shewn to be $13,015 90. Add to this 10 per
“ cent, of the probable aggregate value of the 9000 cases in
“ which information and directions have been given, (for in most
“ of these cases the soldiers would otherwise have gone to Claim
�39
“ Agents) and the amount saved to the soldiers through tho
“ Commission by this office, is shown to be at least $70,000
“ during nine months ending September 30th.”
“ The number of letters written in adjusting the above cases
“ of sufficient importance to make a copy necessary, 2,224.
“ Many of the cases have been very difficult to adjust, requir“ ing several weeks to complete them.
“ The ‘Home’ or ‘Lodge for Special Relief’ at Alexandria
“ is almost equally important with those at Washington. Alexan“ dria is the gateway toward home for the sick and wounded of
“ the Potomac Army. During the first week after this Agency
“ was established, it provided meals for 1761 sick or wounded
“ men who could have got them nowhere else.
“ In January, 1863, a ‘ Nurse’s Home’ was opened at Washing“ ton. It has proved a source of immense relief to nurses arriving
“ in the city, and to those worn down by service at the hospitals,
“ and needing a few days of quiet and rest, and also to the wives,
“ mothers and daughters of soldiers who have come on seeking
“ their husbands, sons or fathers in hospital. During the past two
“ months many of this latter class have been cared for who, utterly
“ ignorant of the cost of their journey, and of obtaining board
“ and lodging, even for a day or two, in the city, were utterly
“ destitute and helpless. Hundreds of weary and almost broken
“ hearted women have been received as at a home. Many re“ fugees also—mothers and little children—have been received
“ here and warmed and clothed. This has proved in its working
“ one of the kindest charities of the Commission.”
Since the “ Nurses’ Home ” was opened in January, the total
number of nights’ lodging given has been........................... 1583
Meals furnished........................................................................ 3040
Number of women sheltered and admitted......................... 1190
Total cost to Commission, about.......................................... $2,300
#
�40
The Homes of the Special Belief Department at Washington,
Louisville, Alexandria, Annapolis, and New Orleans, are sup
ported by the Central Treasury of the Commission; at other
points mainly by its Branches.
Their work up to October 1st, 1863, has been as follows :—
“ THE HOME,” WASHINGTON, D. C.
Number of individuals received............ ............................ 7,287
“
“ nights lodging furnished.................................... 26,533
“
“ meals given............... .......................................... 65,621
LODGES NOS. 2, 3, 4 AND 5, WASHINGTON, D. 0.
Number ofnights lodgings furnished................................. 23,590
“
“ meals given....................................
184,995
“home”
IN CLEVELAND, OHIO.
Number of nights lodgings furnished............................... 2,569
“
“ meals given........................................................ 12,227
LODGE AT MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE.
Number of nights lodgings furnished................................ 2,850
“
“ meals given........................................................ 14,780
LODGE AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE.
Number of nights lodgings furnished..............
4,821
“
“ meals given............................................................11,909
“HOME” AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.
Number of nights lodgings furnished................................ 17,785
“
“ meals given at the Home.................................. 52,080
“
“
“
“ at Station House......................... 49,933
�41
CC
*
___55
■ HOME ” AT CAIRO, ILLINOIS.
Number of nights lodgings furnished.........................
79,550
“
“ meals given........................................................ 170,150
“home”
AT •CINCINNATI, OHIO.
Number of nights lodgings furnished................................ 40,017
“
“ meals given (about).............. 1.......................... 10,000
LODGE AT ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.
Number of nights lodgings furnished...............................
“
“ meals given................................... 1................
604
5,980
“ HOME ” AT BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
Number of nights lodgings furnished........ ;......................
“
“ meals given...........................
1,407
4,129
“ HOME ” FOR NURSES AND FOR SOLDIERS WIVES AND MOTHERS AT
WASHINGTON, D. C.
Number of nights lodgings furnished................................
“
“ meals given................
1,583
3,640
4
“ HOME ” FOR NURSES AT ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND.
Number of nights lodgings furnished.................................
“
“ meals given........................................................
569
2,847
“HOME” AT CHICAGO.
Number of nights lodgings furnished................................ 3,109
“
“ meals given........................................................ 11,325
The aggregate of nights’ lodgings furnished by the
Special Relief Department up to the 1st October
last, is therefore.............................................................. 206,570
And of meals provided.........................................
602,656
�42
The total cost of the Special Relief Department at Wash
ington, Annapolis and Alexandria, from August, 1861, to 1st
October, 1863, has been $24,582 00.
*
Among the modes in which thi^ Department does its work of
relief are several that have not been mentioned.
For example, it corresponds on behalf of soldiers with their
friends. In special cases it sends Agents with officers and sol
diers suffering under severe disease to take care of them on their
journey home.f It attends to the claims of soldiers whose pay
is unjustly withheld through mistake or otherwise. It looks
into cases of punishment or disgrace alleged to be unjust, and
if they be found so on investigation, lays the evidence before the
proper military authorities. £ Such errors must occur in the
working of a military system so extensive as ours, and the Com
mission has thus saved many good and faithful soldiers from
undeserved punishment and disgrace. It employs detectives to
ferret out and bring to justice sharpers and gamblers who live
by preying on the soldiers. It looks out for men who set off for
hospital on foot, but break down by the way, and supplies them
with conveyances.
* The “Home” recently established at New Orleans has lodged and fed 2,162
men from October 16th to 22d November, 1863. From November 22d to 27th, its
daily average of cases relieved was more than 250.
f The expense of this service has been defrayed from a special fund raised for
the purpose. Though a most humane and life saving office, it seems to involve too
large an outlay on individual cases, to be paid for out of the general Treasury
of the Commission.
t Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 1, 1863, thirty-four applications were made to the
Special Relief Agency at Washington alone, by men claiming to have been unjust
ly disgraced and deprived of their arrears of pay as “deserters” or “absent with
out leave.” The investigation of some of these claims required twenty letters to
Hospital Directors and Regimental officers, for it was necessary to ascertain and
to prove where the applicant had been during every day of the period of his
alleged absence from duty. Twenty-eight of these thirty-four claims were proved
to be valid, and were recognized as valid by the military authorities. The men
had not known how to state them, or how to obtain the necessary evidence.
�43
In short, there is hardly a service within the whole range of
charity that has not been rendered our soldiers by this agency.
And they must surely endure longer and fight better for
knowing that they are thus watched over and aided by the Peo
ple whose cause they maintain.
HOSPITAL DIRECTORY.
This branch of the Special Relief Department is of compara
tively recent date. Its offices are at Washington, Philadelphia,
Louisville and New York. Its necessity arises from the prac
tical difficulty of obtaining information about men in hospital
from official sources. It keeps a record of the name, regiment
and company of every man admitted into General Hospital, and
of the nature of his disease or injury, and also of every man
dying or discharged, and if discharged, whether it was to re
join his regiment, or as permanently disabled. These records are
corrected daily. Friends and relatives can thus readily ascertain
by letter whether any given man is in general hospital, and if
so, all particulars about him.
The names entered on the Hospital Directory books from
June 9th to Oct. 1st, 1863, were—
At
“
“
“
the
“
“
“
Washington office..................................................... 64,635
New York
“ ...................................................... 18,771
Philadelphia “ .......................... 12,213
Louisville
“ from May 9th............................ 96,433
Total...................................................... 1............... 192,052
Add number of names on record June 9th........................215,221
Total................................................................................. 407,273
Recorded as follows:
Washington office to Oct.
New York
“ “ “
Philadelphia “ “ “
Louisville
“ “ “
1st, 1863.................................... 169,007
“
“
27,320
“
“
24,513
“
“
186,433
______
Total....................................................................^....407,273
�44
The number of inquiries and of answers, from the organiza
tion of the Directory to Oct. 1,1863, have been as follows. The
surplus of inquiries over answersis the number of cases in which
the subject of inquiry had not been in General Hospital since
the Directory System went into operation.
Washington office, inquiries . ... 6,712
cc
cc
656
New York
“
cc
CC
547
Philadelphia “
cc
cc
5,852
Louisville
“
Inquiries...........
Answers.............. 4,524
“ “
474
“ “
348
“ “
4,016
13,767 Answers...............9,362
It may at first seem that this undertaking, however humane,
has no connection with the Sanitary interests of the Army, and
is therefore no legitimate work for the Sanitary Commission.
But it practically multiplies to a great extent the facilities for
correspondence and communication between men in hospital and
their friends at home, and such communications are often worth
more than any medicine to the sick and convalescent. They
promote health, bodily and mental, keep up the sick man’s
morale, and expedite his recovery and his return to duty.
OTHER WORK OF THE COMMISSION.
The Commission does much work beside that comes strictly
under none of the preceding heads. During and after a battle,
its medical officers act as volunteer aids to those of the
Army, while its Relief Agents add to their proper office of
dispensing medicines and supplies the functions of nurses, hospi
tal stewards, and ambulance drivers. Honorable instances are
recorded of the courage and devotion with which they have
brought off wounded men under fire.
*
The Commission retains
* We find the following in the Port Royal Free South of the 25th instant:
“The officers of the United States Sanitary Commission have won for them- ,
selves a splendid reputation in this department. They have by their discretion and
�45
no one in its service who shrinks from any work, hazardous,
menial, or mechanical, that comes in the course of his duty.
It has organized a system by which extra supplies are fur
nished our general hospitals at prime cost, thus effecting a very
large daily saving to their “ hospital funds.’^ Up to 1st Novem
ber last it had thus expended more than $10,000 on hospitals
around Washington, and in South Carolina.
It endeavors to keep the people, and especially the loyal wo
men of the North, informed of the wants of the Army, and
stimulates the production and forwarding of Army supplies.
It calls the attention of Government to the defects and abuses
that appear from time to time in the various branches of the
service and directly or indirectly affect the health of the Army,
and recommends to Government such improvements in the
Medical and Sanitary administration of the Army as seem enti
tled to its attention.
It relieves our men in rebel prisons wherever it is permitted
to do so, and is now sending to Richmond (at a cost of nearly a
thousand dollars a day) large consignments of food and other
supplies, appropriate for men broken down by confinement and
*
starvation.
zeal saved many valuable lives. Under the guns of Wagner, in the hottest of the
fire, their trained corps picked up and carried off the wounded almost as they fell.
As many of our men were struck while ascending the parapet and then rolled into
the moat, which at high tide contains six feet of water, they must inevitably have
perished had they been suffered to remain. But the men who were detailed for
the service with Dr. Marsh went about the work with intrepidity and coolness
worthy of all praise. The skill and experience of the members of the Commission
has, since the battle, been unremittingly employed to render comfortable the sick
and wounded.—2V. Y. Evening Post, July 30, 1863.
* It has established on every flag-of-truce boat from Fortress Monroe for the re
ception of exchanged prisoners a depot of such medicines and restoratives as are
most suitable for men in the distressing condition in which they are generally found
when discharged from confinement at Richmond. From Nov. 17 to Dec. 3 it has
sent $28,000 worth of supplies beside to Richmond. There is every reason to
believe that these supplies are not intercepted or misappropriated, and that the
Rebel authorities do in good faith protect them from attack, and convey them to
their destination. [Dec. 10, 1863.]
�46
Above all, it loses no opportunity of advocating every measure
calculated to increase the efficiency of the Military system itself
in all its relations with the sanitary interests of the Army; and
it has in this way probably done the Army as much substantial
service as by all its other agencies together. More than two
years of experience and .observation have shown it that the main
dependence of the soldier, sick or well, must be on the Military
system, and not on outside help. The reformation of the Medi
cal Bureau, and the appointment of an honest, energetic, ac
complished and fearless officer as Surgeon-General, is mainly
*
due to the influence the' Commission brought to bear on Gov
ernment. It has thus done more for the health of the Army
than could have been done for it in any other way whatever.
The Commission hopes to effect further reforms, still sorely
needed, and thus by still farther increasing the efficiency of the
Medical Bureau, to make its own existence less and less a neces
sity to the Army.
%
OBJECTIONS TO THE COMMISSION.
The Commission has from the first enjoyed a degree of public
favor and confidence greater than it had any right to expect.
Certain objections, however, are made to its system and methods
which require a brief notice, though they have for the most part
been already anticipated.
One is that the Commission employs paid agents, and that its
organization is expensive. It has already been shown that paid
and permanent Agents are in the long run cheaper than unpaid
volunteers, because the superiority of skilled labor over un
skilled, is much more than equivalent to the amount thus paid
to secure it.
The more general charge that the Commission’s system is a
* Dr. Wm. A. Hammond.
�47
costly one, is believed to be wholly unfounded. Its salaries are
on a most moderate scale.
*
Thanks to the co-operation of Go
vernment and the liberality of Railroad, Telegraph and Express
Companies, and other private agencies, its expenses for transpor
tation and telegraphing are not one-tenth of what they would
otherwise be. A reference to the statistics given above of'the
cost of its special relief system at Washington, Alexandria and
Annapolis, show how much work it has done at comparatively
trifling expense. The value of the supplies it has actually
issued to the Army from its numerous depots, East and West,
can only be estimated, and these estimates vary largely, the
lowest estimate being about four millions of dollars, and the
highest exceeding seven.
These supplies have been carried all over the country, from
Maine to Texas, and from Washington to Vicksburg, in charge
of special agents, and deposited in Relief Stations where store
keepers are necessarily engaged to protect them, and Relief
Agents to distribute them; yet this great mass of bulky stores
has been moved, stored at the depots, moved to the front, stored
again in temporary depots, and then distributed, at a total
expense to the Central Treasury of less than one and seven
eighths per cent, on their lowest valuation.
Another objection to the Commission is generally expressed
somewhat as follows:—
“ It is a very benevolent organization, no doubt, and relieves
* It may be proper here distinctly to state, that no member of the Commission
receives, or ever has received a dollar from its treasury, or from any other quarter,
in the shape of salary, or compensation for his services as Commissioner. Four of
its members hold office, viz.: its President, Vice-President, and Treasurer, and its
Associate Secretary at Louisville. Of these, the first three have been able to do
their official work without absolutely sacrificing all their other duties, and they
have done it without dreaming of “ pay” from any quarter. The Associate Secre
tary, who has removed his home from Cleveland to Louisville, abandoned his pro
fession, and devoted his whole time and energies to his official work, receives a
moderate salary.
�48
“ a great deal of suffering. But it does harm in the long run,
“ because officers are tempted to lean upon it and neglect their
‘‘ official duty of providing for their men. Without the Com“ mission there might have been more suffering at first; but
“ this evil would have cured itself by this time. Officers would
“ have been obliged to become more active and vigilant, and
“ the Army would now be in perfect condition and need no help
“ from without.”
The principle on which this criticism rests underlies all the
policy of the Commission. It has already been shown that its
system is so framed and guarded, that no Army officer can take
advantage of it to escape duty or to cover up inefficiency. But
in the application of this principle by those who use it as an ob
jection to the Commission, there is a peculiar fallacy which it is
worth while to point out.
So far from endangering the military system by relief from
without, the Commission has from the first been the chief pro
tection of the Army against this very danger, and the only organi
zation, official or private, that has openly aided and encouraged
our Military authorities in their endeavor to avert it. Though
wholly dependent on popular sympathy for support, it has uni
formly maintained this position, though well aware that it is
peculiarly distasteful to many whose patriotism and human
ity are stronger than their judgment.
The Commission did not create the unprecedented popular
effort to furnish supplies for the sick and wounded, which will
distinguish the history of this War from that of all others,
That movement began before the Commission was in existence,
when the first Regiment of National Volunteers was mustered
into the National service. It was equally spontaneous and irre
sistible. Neither the Commission nor Government could’have
checked it had they felt disposed to try. It still continues, and
it will continue so long as a single regiment remains in the field.
�49
The Commission when first appointed found the stream in full
flow, but guided by zeal rather than discretion. One regiment
out of every two, East and West, was waited on and followed up
by Agents and Relief Committees from its own town or county,
begging surgeons and quartermasters to take a few packages of
hospital stores off their hands, and surreptitiously administering
delicacies and medicaments wherever they could secure a re
cipient. Other regiments were suffering for want of necessary
subsistence, because recruited in some neighborhood less wealthy
or less liberal. Officers seemed as much disturbed by the de
moralizing interference of friends in the rear as by the demon
strations of the enemy in their front.
The Commission recognized the depth of the National in>
pulses that were at work, the immense mischief they might do
if allowed to run wild, and the good they might do if organized
and regulated, and it undertook the work of so guiding
these efforts as to make them more effective and less
dangerous to discipline. It found the Army inundated by a
flood of public bounty, wasting itself where it was not wanted,
and threatening to undermine the foundations of official respon
sibility. Its endeavor has been and is to direct this stream into
measured channels, carrying it to the points at which it will do
most good, and applying its power to strengthen the working of
the military system.
It has thus to a great extent saved the Army from the mischief
this torrent of outside relief might have done it. If it has not
fully done so, it is because so many agencies and societies for
Army relief continue to work independently of the Commission
and by methods 'which it does not approve and cannot control.
The objection that “ Government ought to do the work the
Commission is doing” has no longer the foundation it had before
the Reform of the Medical Bureau. Government might undoubtedly still farther invigorate that Bureau and thus still
4
�50
farther diminish the necessity for the Commission. Let 11s hope
that it soon will. But to refuse aid to the Army on this ground
would be mere inhumanity. No Government, moreover, has
yet been able through its own proper machinery to do for its
soldiers what the Government and the Commission together do
for ours, and the objection above quoted, though undeniable as
an abstract proposition concerning the functions of an ideal
Government, is not applicable to our Government, or to any
other that exists, or has eVer existed. The provision Govern
ment makes for the physical wants of the soldier in sickness and
in health is profuse when compared with that made by France
or England, or by any other power. But it cannot permanently
maintain a medical and surgical staff large enough to provide
with promptness (or rather without such delay as would seem
shocking and criminal if it occurred in connection with some
casualty of civil life) for the casualties of battle even on the
smallest scale.
A regiment, for instance, of a thousand strong, after a day’s
fighting, leaves, say one hundred men wounded on the field, and
scattered over an area of one or two square miles. To hunt them
up and provide for them there are one surgeon and one assistant,
with a small detail of enlisted men. The next day the regiment
moves twenty miles farther, fights again, and leaves as many
more wounded men on this second battle ground. The surgeon
and his assistant cannot possibly give thorough attention to
every case in these two widely separated field hospitals. Twenty
surgeons would be hardly enough to care for both during the
first few days, as patients are cared for in private practice.
Public sympathy with our wounded men demands that each
receive the full benefit of all that vigilance and science can do
for each of them. But government cannot provide this measure
of relief. There are not in the country thoroughly educated
surgeons enough to permanently supply every regiment with
�51.
^ven five competent medical officers instead of two. But twenty
to each would he too few to give full attention and care to
all the sufferers after a great battle.
Government may be theoretically bound to supply this de
ficiency, but it is practically beyond the resources of govern
ment. The gap has been filled up during the last two years, in
some degree at least, by the creative energies of the people
exerted through the Sanitary Commission. The people thus
maintains a supplementary Medical Bureau of its own for the
purpose, among others, of sending forward civil surgeons of the
first professional rank to reinforce the army medical staff in
emergency. When a battle is in progress, or at hand, the relief
agents of the Commission on the spot telegraph to Louisville,
Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, or some other
point, and its agency there engages the best medical talent within
reach for temporary service during the next week or fortnight.
It has already been shown that our military system is, and
must be, founded on a rigorous system of regulations and official
responsibility, and that any such system must sometimes break
down by unavoidable accident or otherwise. Public opinion
makes too little allowance for this. It condemns the Medical
Bureau because its stores arrive too late at one point, and gives
it no credit for the energy and prevision that carried them in
good season to ninety-nine others.
Government must depend for its transportation on railroads
and steamboats. Its trains and transports are just as liable
as any others to accident and detention, and often much more so.
•jSuch accidents and detentions often cause suffering and death,
for which neither the Medical Bureau nor any official is justly
accountable. In every such case our camps and hospitals have
the relief agencies of the Commission to fall back upon, and
though in supplying their wants the Commission is literally
.“doing what Government ought to do,” it nevertheless does
�52
what Government cannot do at that particular time and place,
and what the people would not willingly see left undone.
The Commission was at one time accused of desiring to usurp
the functions of the Medical Bureau, and of putting itself forward
as a rival of the Medical staff, but it must be evident from what
has been already stated, that all the policy and efforts of the
Commission have tended, from the first, in a precisely opposite
direction. It has labored untiringly, and not without re
sults, to uphold the Medical Bureau, and to obtain it addi
tional powers. Just so far as these efforts have succeeded,
have they diminished the prominence and importance of the
Commission. Its members have good reason to desire that Gov
ernment should assume all that part of its work which Govern
ment can do, for their duties have proved far more onerous than
was anticipated when they were undertaken; they often require
the sacrifice of professional and private interests, and at any
time less critical than the present they would much exceed the
amount of voluntary public service that can reasonably be ex
pected of private citizens.
Other criticisms on the work of the Commission, relating
mostly to points of detail, do not require special notice. They
are generally founded on some mistake about facts. We all
know what swarms of “ authentic statements,” “ reliable reports,”
and pieces of “ direct information” are daily engendered concern
ing the army, and everybody and everything connected with
it, and how utterly untrustworthy they are apt to be. The
Commission is the permanent subject of a due proportion of
these legends, both commendatory and disparaging.
In estimating the value of the latter, it should be remem
bered that the work of the Commission necessarily makes it
enemies. Medical and other officers who know that their inca
�53
pacity or indolence has been detected and noted by a relief
agent or inspector, naturally think it a meddlesome and mischie
vous organization, and are always ready to report, and sometimes
to embellish and magnify, every case of failure in its work.
Officers of the Medical Staff who stood high on the list, and
were expecting speedy promotion and additional rank and
emoluments, when Government was prevailed on to fill the
higher offices of the Medical Bureau according to ability and
not, as before, according to seniority (or, in other words, by
selecting the best man instead of the oldest), cannot be expected
to admire the Sanitary Commission. Some of them think (very
naturally) that it has “ ruined the service,” and are not disin
clined to believe and to endorse any story that tells against it.
Many of our most thoughtful and far-sighted people, misin
formed as to its aim and policy, suppose it to seek merely the
immediate relief of the sick or wounded soldier, at any cost to
military self-reliance and discipline, and distrust it accord
ingly. Thousands of warm-hearted and energetic men and
women, diligently laboring for portions of the army through
State agencies and local societies, find the Sanitary Com mission throwing cold water on their work, because it is not con
formed to the system which the Commission holds to be the
most economical, the most National, and altogether the best.
They cannot help becoming more or less prejudiced against the
Commission, which seems thus to discourage and discredit what
they rightly feel to be the most unselfish and the most important
work of their lives, and they are thus unconsciously predisposed
to believe anything they may hear against it.
For a year past the Commission has been under no necessity
of appealing to the public for support. It has been sustained
during that period mainly by the splendid and spontaneous con
tributions it received from beyond the Rocky Mountains. These
�$4'
enabled it to breathe freely, to lay out large and liberal plans,
to work for the future as well as for the present, and to expand
its system both of prevention and of relief to dimensions com
mensurate with the wants of the whole Army.
But these great contributions are now nearly exhausted. The
Commission receives no money from Government, and has no
income from any quarter on which it can rely. The con
tinuance of voluntary public contributions is necessarily too
uncertain to justify it in forming or continuing permanent
engagements or in undertaking any work that requires con
siderable time for its execution.
*
It’s ordinary expenditure is
nearly fifty thousand dollars a month. During last July it was
more than ninety thousand. It’s operations cannot be main
tained on their present scale without a reserve fund of at least
one hundred thousand. The balance in its treasury has now
fallen much below that point, and unless it be speedily and
* Our daily papers are full of paragraphs and advertisements about subscrip
tions and undertakings in aid of the “Sanitary Commission,” which often do not, in
fact, aid the Commission at all. The proceeds of the Fairs, Lectures, and other
entertainments announced as “for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission,” are
seldom received by its treasurer. They generally go to the treasury of some one
of its branches, and are applied to local expenses, to local “ special relief,” and to
the purchase of supplies and material. They thus relieve the general treasury of
the Commission, to some extent, from the necessity of purchasing supplies, but
they contribute nothing to any other department of its work. For instance, the
great “Sanitary Commission Fair” recently got up with such unprecedented and
admirable talent and energy by the loyal-people of Chicago, has produced not less
than sixty-nine thousand dollars. But it is not expected that any portion of this
amount will be received by the central treasury of the Commission. The pro
posed “Metropolitan Fair,” in New York, will be for the benefit of the Com
mission itself, but months must elapse before its proceeds are received, and the
Commission require large sums to sustain it in operation meanwhile.
The distinction between a “ Commission ” and a “ Committee ” seems not gene
rally recognised. Committees of patriotic and humane citizens, anxious to do
something to promote the sanitary condition of the army, style themselves the
“Sanitary Commission of-------- ” and report their receipts as contributed to
“the Sanitary Commission.” People are thus led to over-estimate the receipts
and under estimate the wants of the U. S. Sanitary Commission—the only or
ganization for army relief commissioned by Government and entitled to that name.
�55
abundantly replenished, it must at once begin winding up its
affairs, closing its “• homes” and depots, dismissing its agents, and
preparing to retire from the field.’ No reduction of its work to a
smaller and less expensive scale is practicable. It must continue
to do all it now does, or cease attempting to do anything. For
should it be obliged to abandon any part of the ground it now
covers, the diminution of its efficiency would be at once per
ceived, and the public support at once farther diminished. Each
successive contraction of its work would produce corresponding
contraction of its means, and it would rapidly dwarf and dwindle,
inch by inch, till it ceased to be worth sustaining at all. It would
be unseemly that a work so noble and so new in history as that
which the people has done through the Commission should ter
minate in lingering decay, and pass through successive stages of
'weakness to insignificance and extinction. It should rather stop
short while still in full vigor, for its existence in decrepitude and
with failing energies would bring discredit on the people, and
do little to help the Army.
The Commission now asks the country to decide, and that
promptly, whether it shall or shall not continue its work. It
makes no appeal to public humanity and sympathy, for they are
already enlisted in its favor. It declines to stimulate those feel
ings as it might, most effectively, by dwelling on the pathetic
and touching incidents of its work, on the cases of heroic suffer
ing it has relieved, and the brave men who have thanked it for
saving them to do further service to the country. It addresses
itself not to the sentiment, but to the practical good sense of the
community, and asks no support except from those who are
satisfied that the country receives a full return in money value
for all the country gives to support it. It submits to every man
the question whether it has or has not saved the country ten
times its cost by what it has done to economize the life, health,
and efficiency of the army—whether the continuance of this
�56
z-
i
work will or will not tend appreciably to diminish the cost and
the duration of the war; and whether he will or will not promote
his own material interests by doing what he can to sustain it.
In considering these questions, it must be remembered that in
all campaigns three or four men die of preventible disease for
every one destroyed by the enemy; and also that the death
of every soldier is a considerable pecuniary loss to the country,
and to each and every one of its citizens.
The amount of this loss is made up of many items—the cost
of his enlistment, his pay and his rations, while he was an in
efficient recruit, the bounties that must be paid to replace him,
and the pension which his death or disability charges on the
public ; and to these must be added his worth to the nation as
a producer, had he survived the war, and returned to the indus
trial pursuits of civil life. The average money value to the
people of each soldier in the service is certainly not less than
one thousand dollars.
Men are not among the commodities we buy and sell; but
they are bought and sold elsewhere, or have been ; and an ablebodied male adult has never been held worth much less than
that sum to his owner. A Northern mechanic or farmer is cer
tainly worth as much to the country. The loss of a single
soldier by death or disability adds at least that amount to the
expenses of the war, and to the burthen it necessarily imposes
on every member of the community.
Rigorous economy of the life and health of our soldiers is
practically most important, therefore, to every tax-payer, and to
every holder of Government Securities. Whether the Sanitary
Commission does enough toward this great object to make it
worth the people’s while to sustain it (at the cost of nearly
fifty thousand dollars a month), is the question the people is now
esked to consider and decide.
Leaving out of view all its other work, the Commission cer
�tainly saved not less than one thousand lives within forty-eight
hours after Antietam. If each of these was worth as much to
the country as the average South Carolina field hand to his
owner, then the Commission, by its work at this one point,
returned to the country more than an equivalent, in money
value, for the nine hundred thousand dollars the country has
given its Central Treasury during the last two years. But this
is only a single incident of one branch of the work it has been
doing ever since the war began.
In view of facts like this, the Commission submits the case,
without misgiving, to the intelligence of the People. The
value of all property throughout the country depends on the
success of the National cause, and every property-holder has a
personal interest in whatever promotes it. In no way can it
be more surely promoted than by retrenchment of the cost of
war; and the Commission claims that its efforts to this end
have thus far saved the People at least two dollars for every
dollar it has been enabled to expend.
It will make no attempt to raise the sum required to keep it
in operation through the instrumentalities usually employed for
like purposes. If means be freely supplied, as heretofore, the
work of the Commission will be kept up, but, if not, it will be
abandoned; and, to keep it up, not less than two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars must be raised before the 1st of February.
1864.
For the purpose of ascertaining what the People is disposed
to give, it is recommended that the several branches of the Com
mission proceed at once to ascertain, by public meetings, or
otherwise, what sum their respective cities will contribute for
the general purposes of the Commission, and report the result
to its General Secretary Dr. J. Foster Jenkins, No. 823 Broad
way, New York.
Those who are satisfied that the work of the Commission is
�58
one not only of mercy and humanity, but of substantial service
to the country, and who are able and willing to aid it, will send
their contributions to its Treasurer, Geo. T. Strong, No. 68 Wall
Street, or 823 Broadway, New York.
By order of the Commission.
Henry W. Bellows,
Wm. H. Van Buren,
x
Wolcott Gibbs,
C. R. Agnew,
B
I
j
\Committee.
Same. G. Howe,
Horace Binney, Jr.,
I
J. Huntington Wolcott, |
Fairman Rogers,
1
Geo. T. Strong,
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APPENDIX A.
........ . ...... —
......
SUPPLIES DISTRIBUTED DURING AND IMMEDIATELY
AFTER THE BATTLES AT GETTYSBURG,
JULY 1st, 2d and 3d, .1863.
—-----—
Of Articles of Clothing, etc., viz.:
Of
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
•“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
Drawers, (woolen) 5,310 pairs............................................ $9,292 50
“
(cotton) 1,833 pairs.......................... ...................
1,833 00
Shirts, (woolen) 7,158....................................
• 14,316 00
“
(cotton) 3,266............................................................
3,266 00
Pillows, 2,114................
1,268 40
Pillow Cases, 264..................................................................
105 60
Bed Sacks, 1,630..................................................................
3,463 75
Blankets, 1,007..... .........................
3,021 00
Sheets, 274.................................. '.........................................
274 00
Wrappers, 508.......................................................................
1,498 60
Handkerchiefs, 2,659............................................
319 08
Stockings, (woolen) 3,560 pairs..........................................
1,780 00
“
(cotton) 2,258 pairs..........................................
451 60
Bed Utensils, 728..................................................................
182 00
Towels and Napkins, 10,000................................................. *1,500 00
Sponges, 2,300.................................................................... . •
230 00
Combs, 1,500......... ............ ...........'...........................
75 00
Buckets, 200..................
60 00
Soap, (Castile) 250 pounds...................................................
50 00
Oil Silk, 300 yards................................... '............................
225 00
Tin Basins, Cups, etc., 7,000..............................................
*700 00
Old Linen, Bandages, etc., 110barrels...............................
1,100 00
Water Tanks, 7...................................................................
70 00
Water Coolers, 46...............................................................
230 00
Bay Rum and Cologne Water, 225bottles.......................
*112 50
Carried forward'.......... *
...............
$45,624 03
�60
Brought forward....................................................... $45,624 03
Of
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
Fans, 3,500............................................................................
145 00
Chloride of Lime, 11 barrels.........................
99 00
Shoes and Slippers, 4,000 pairs........................................... *2,400 00
Crutches, 1,200.............................
480 00
Lanthorns, 180..........................................
90 00
Candles, 350 pounds............................................................
*70 00
Canvas, 300 square yards....................................................
360 00
Musquito Netting, 648 pieces..............................................
810 00
Paper, 237 quires..................................................................
23 70
Pants, Coats, Hats, 189 pieces............................................
*96 75
Plaster, 16 rolls........................
4 00
Of Articles of Sustenance, viz.:
Of Fresh Poultry and Mutton, 11,000 pounds.....................
“
“ Butter, 6,430 pounds.................................................
“
“ Eggs, (chiefly collected forthe occasion at farm
houses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,) 8,500
dozens....................................................................
4‘
“ Garden Vegetables, 675bushels........................
“
“ Berries, 48 bushels.....................................................
u
“ Bread, 12,900 loaves..................................................
“ Ice, 20,000 pounds..............................................................
“ Concentrated Beef Soup, 3,800 pounds..............
“
“
Milk, 12,500 pounds...................
“ Prepared Farinaceous Food, 7,000 pounds........................
“ Dried Fruit, 3,500 pounds..................................................
“ Jellies and Conserves, 2,000 jars.........................................
“ Tamarinds, 750 gallons.......................................................
w Lemons, 116 boxes..............................................................
“ Oranges, 46 boxes......... ..........................
“ Coffee, 850 pounds...............................................................
“ Chocolate, 831 pounds.........................................................
“ Tea, 426 pounds...................................................................
“ White Sugar, 6,800 pounds...............................................
4‘ Syrups, (Lemon, etc.) 785 bottles.......................................
u Brandy, 1,250 bottles............................................................
u Whiskey, 1,168 bottles.........................................................
u Wine, 1,148 bottles................................................. *...........
1,540 00
1,286 00
1,700
337
^2
645
100
3,800
3,125
700
350
1,000
600
580
230
272
249
383
1,156
596
1,250
^60
861
00
50
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
30
40
00
25
00
80
00
Carried forward............. ,..........................................$71,736 73
�61
Brought forward...................................
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
“
u
Biscuit, Crackers, and Rusk, 134 barrels............................
Preserved Meats, 500 pounds...............................................
Preserved Fish, 3,600 pounds...................
Pickles, 400 gallons..............................................................
Tobacco, ICO pounds..............
Tobacco Pipes, 1,000........................ .................................
Indian Meal, 1,621 pounds...................................................
Starch,-1,074 pounds......................
Codfish, 3,848 pounds..................................... 7.................
Canned Fruit, 582 cans........................... .......... ftte.
$71,736
180
*670
125
720
120
70
5
40
75
269
436
“
“
“
“
“
“
Oysters, 72 cans...............................................
Brandy Peaches, 303 jars..............................................
Catsup, 43 jars...................................................
Vinegar, 24 bottles............................................
Jamaica Ginger, 43 jars........................................................
36
303
11
3
37
Of Ale, 600 gallons....................................................................
73
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
50
18
36
50
00
00
00
00
25
Total........................................................................... $74,838 52
* Estimated value.
J 'iJ X.
�While this paper is passing through the press, information is received
that a Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission has just been organized
at Paris, and is entering with energy on its legitimate work of col
lecting money and supplies from loyal Americans abroad, and from all
others who sympathize with us in our National struggle.
The following is an abstract of the official report of its proceedings up
to 4th December, instant, transmitted to the Standing Committee in New
York;
A meeting of American gentlemen was held at the American Consulate,
Paris, November 30th, 4863, for the purpose of organizing a Paris Branch
of the United States Sanitary Commission.
The Rev. John McClintock, D.D., was duly appointed President, and
Mr. James W. Brooks, Vice-Consul of the United States, Secretary pro
tern.
An Executive Committee was appointed, consisting of the following
named gentlemen :
Rev. John McClintock, D.D., (Pastor of the American Chapel, Paris.)
Mr. John Bigelow, U. S. Consul.
Mr. Chas. S. P. Bowles, Boston.
Mr. Edward Brooks,
do.
Dr. T. W. Evans, Paris.
Mr. Robt. M. Mason, Boston.
Mr. Geo. T. Richards, Paris.
Mr. J. Phalen, New York.
Mr. Wm. H. Thomson, New York.
Mr. Henry Wood, Boston.
Such Committee to have general supervision of the action of the Paris
Branch, subject to the approval of the Central Board of the Commission,
with power to fill its own vacancies.
�63
Mr. Geo. T. Richards was appointed Treasurer, and Mr. Wm. B. Bowles
Secretary, such appointments to be subject to the approval of the Central
Board.
The Secretary was instructed to provide books of subscription, prefaced
with a statement of the character and objects of the organization.
The meeting then adjourned.
A meeting of the Executive Committee Was held at the office of Messrs.
J. Munroe & Co., No. Rue de la Paix, Paris.
Present—Rev. John McClintock, D.D., and Messrs. Robt. M. Mason,
Wm. S. Thompson, Edward Brooks, Geo. S. Richards. Henry Woods,
Charles S. P. Bowles and Wm. Bowles, General Secretary of the Paris
Branch of the U. S. Sanitary Commission. •
Dr. McClintock • was, on motion, duly elected Chairman of the Com
mittee, and Mr. Wm. B. Bowles Secretary.
The minutes of the preliminary meeting was read and approved.
A list of names of gentlemen on whom it was thought best to wait for
subscriptions, was submitted and approved.
It was resolved that the Secretary open a correspondence with American
Consuls, and with prominent American citizens residing in Europe, with a
view to the extension and increased efficiency of this Branch of the Com
mission.
Resolved,—That the title of the Branch be “ The European Branch
»
the
United States Sanitary Commission.”
Mr. Wm. S. Thompson offered his name as one of ten to subscribe five
thousand francs each for the objects of the European Branch.
Adjourned to meet at the same place 6th December instant, at 3 P. M.
The European Branch appears to have established its permanent head
quarters at No. 2 Rue Martel, Paris, and to have already raised a con
siderable amount which it bolds subject to the orders of the Commission,
and which can be used abroad to very great advantage in the purchase of
certain articles of hospital supply.
This creation of a Branch of the Commission amoDg loyal Americans
on the other side of the Atlantic is especially gratifying, because it,has
oeen wholly spontaneous. It shows that this new work, invented by the
American People, and by them practically applied for the first time in
�history, through the Sanitary Commission—of supplying an army with
an additional staff of Volunteer Commissaries, Quartermasters and Sur
geons, working in harmony with its military authorities, and vested with
discretionary powers that enable them to do whatever the necessary in
flexibility of military regulations obliges Government officials to leave un
done—commends itself to the heads and to the hearts of loyal Americans
wherever they may be.
This extension of the influence and agencies of the Commission into
Europe suggests the mention of another fact of like interest, which
may be due to the example the Commission has set, and may prove a
material step in the progress of mankind toward the mitigation of the
evils incident to war. An “ International Conference ” of representatives
of the several European States met at Geneva last October, and has
published a voluminous report of its deliberations and transactions.
Its object is to establish a Sanitary Commission for the army of
every European Power. It proposes that, in case of war, each army—
French, Austrian, Russian, or as the case may be—shall have its staff
of Sanitary and Relief Agents, representing an International organiza
tion, whose duty it shall be impartially to succor and relieve all the sick
and wounded among friends and enemies alike, and whose office shall
make their persons sacred and inviolable, and secure them against cap
ture, injury, or interference.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Statement of the object and methods of the Sanitary Commission appointed by the Government of the United States, June 13, 1861
Creator
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United States Sanitary Commission
Description
An account of the resource
Place of Publication: New York, N.Y.
Collation: 64 p. ; 23 cm.
Series Title: United States Sanitary Commission ; Documents of the U.S. Sanitary Commission
Series No: 69
Notes: 'Published by its direction' [Title page]. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
Publisher
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Wm. C. Bryant & Co., printers
Date
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1863
Identifier
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G5384
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<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Statement of the object and methods of the Sanitary Commission appointed by the Government of the United States, June 13, 1861), identified by <a href="www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a>, is free of known copyright restrictions.
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Health
American Civil War
Conway Tracts
Medical care-Law and legislation
Public Health-United States of America