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66 BATTLE-FIELD RELIEF."

sand men, with the latest information procurable in regard to them.

The Commission also methodized a system of "Battle-Field Relief," which did much to mitigate the horrors inevitable to battles. Its agents were always on the field during an engagement, with surgeons, ambulances, and store wagons, with anæsthetics, surgical instruments, and every species of relief. They rendered invaluable aid, and were sometimes in advance of the government in their ministrations on the field of conflict. There were over six hundred pitched battles between the two hostile forces during the War of the Rebellion. History will record only a very few of them as "great battles." The suffering and horror incident to those were so immeasurable, that they could be only partially relieved; and had the ability of the government and of all the volunteer agencies of the country been tenfold greater than they were, they would have been inadequate to the awful necessities of those titanic conflicts.

After the battle of Antietam, where ten thousand of our own wounded were left on the field, besides a large number of the enemy, the Commission distributed "28,763 pieces of dry goods, shirts, towels, bed-ticks, pillows, etc.; 30 barrels of old linen, bandages, and lint; 3,188 pounds of farina; 2,620 pounds of condensed milk; 5,000 pounds of beefstock and canned meats; 3,000 bottles of wine and cordials; 4,000 sets of hospital clothing; several tons of lemons and other fruit; crackers, tea, sugar, rubber cloth, tin cups, chloroform, opiates, surgical instruments, and other hospital conveniences."

After the battle of Shiloh, in the West, where

TEN THOUSAND AID SOCIETIES.

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nearly as many wounded men were left on the field as at Antietam, the Commission distributed "11,448 shirts; 3,686 pairs of drawers; 3,592 pairs of socks; 2,777 bed-sacks; 543 pillows; 1,045 bottles of brandy, whiskey, and wine; 799 bottles of porter; 941 lemons; 20,316 pounds of dried fruit; 7,577 cans of fruit; and 15,323 pounds of farinaceous food." Whence came these hospital supplies, or the money for their purchase? They were gathered by the loyal women of the North, who organized over ten thousand "aid societies" during the war, and who never flagged in their constancy to the cause of the sick and wounded soldier. As rapidly as possible, "branches" of the United States Sanitary Commission were established in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, and other cities-ten in all. Here sub-depots of sanitary stores were maintained, and into these the soldiers' aid societies poured their never-ceasing contributions. The supplies sent to these ten sub-depots were assorted, repacked, stamped with the mark of the Commission, only one kind of supplies being packed in a box, and then a list of the contents was marked on the outside. The boxes were then stored, subject to the requisitions of the great central distributing depots, established at Washington and Louisville. Through these two cities, all supplies of every kind passed to the troops at the front, who were contending with the enemy.

A most rigid system was observed in the reception, care, and disbursement of these hospital supplies; for the methods of the Sanitary Commission, through its entire system of agencies, were those of the best business houses. It was easy to trace the

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THE BUSY HEADQUARTERS.

packages sent to hospitals back to their original contributors, vouchers being taken of those who received them, at every stage of their progress to their ultimate destination. Only a very insignificant fraction of them was lost or misused.

Through all the branches of the Commission there was the same wisdom in planning, ability in executing, and joyfulness in sacrifice. Into them all, were borne the suffering and patience of the soldier in the hospital, and the sorrow and anxiety of his family at home. Men en route to the front, full of manly strength and courage, and men en route from the camp or battle-field going home to die, invaded the busy "headquarters." People of all conditions and circumstances, wise and unwise, rich and poor, women and men, went thither for inspiration and direction. Scenes were there enacted and deeds performed which transfigured human nature, and made it divine. It was there that one felt the pulse of the country, and measured its heart-beats.

My own experience was with the Chicago Branch of the Sanitary Commission. And the brief résumé of the varied phases of life that flowed and ebbed through its unpretentious rooms, which follows in the next chapter, will give the reader some idea of the patriotic zeal, the noble self-denial, and organized work of the women of the war, in which they were grandly assisted by men.

CHAPTER IV.

MY FIRST CONNECTION WITH THE SANITARY COMMISSIONHOME SUPPLIES FOR THE SOLDIERS-A PEEP INTO THE BOXES-LETTERS FOUND INSIDE-ODD CONTRIBUTIONS. Local Societies merged in the Commission-Become identified with the Chicago Branch - The Secrets of the Boxes of Supplies - Notes packed in with the Clothing-They are tender, pathetic, heroic, and comicA letter-writing Army-"Consecrated Chicken, be jabers!"-" Butter an' Chase, bedad!"-"Comfort-bags"-"Benedictions" in the Murfreesboro' and Vicksburg Boxes - "One Box a Month - Ingenious Wisconsin Farmers' Wives - Women in the Harvest-field - A Talk with them-Generosity of a "Tailoress"-The "five-dollar gold Piece". Afraid of a Kiss - Children's sanitary Fairs - Gift of a five-year old Boy.

"Matches! Matches!"

RGANIZATIONS of women for the relief of sick and wounded soldiers, and for the care of soldiers' families, were formed with great spontaneity at the very beginning of the war. There were a dozen or more of

them in Chicago, in less than a month after Cairo was occupied by Northern troops. They raised money, prepared and forwarded supplies of whatever was demanded, every shipment being accompanied by some one who was held responsible for the proper disbursement of the stores. Sometimes these local societies affiliated with, or became parts of, more comprehensive organizations. Most of them

L

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SECRETS OF THE BOXES.

worked independently during the first year of the war, the Sanitary Commission of Chicago being only one of the relief agencies. But the Commission gradually grew in public confidence, and gained in scope and power; and all the local societies were eventually merged in it, or became auxiliary to it. As in Chicago, so throughout the country. The Sanitary Commission became the great channel, through which the patriotic beneficence of the nation flowed to the army.

When the local aid society of which I was president, merged its existence in that of the Sanitary Commission, I also became identified with it. Thenceforth, until the bells rang in the joyful news of peace, my time and energy were given to its varied work. In its busy rooms I was occupied most of the time when not in the hospitals, or engaged with some of the Northwestern soldiers' aid societies.

Here, day after day, the drayman left boxes of supplies sent from aid societies in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana. Every box contained an assortment of articles, a list of which was tacked on the inside of the lid. These were taken out, stamped in indelible ink with the name of the "CHICAGO SANITARY COMMISSION," the stamp as broad as your hand, and the letters so large as to be easily read across a room. For the convenience of the hospitals they were repacked, shirts by themselves, drawers by themselves, and so on. Then they awaited orders from the hospitals.

One day I went into the packing-room to learn the secrets of these boxes, every one an argosy of love, -and took notes during the unpacking. A capacious box, filled with beautifully made shirts, drawers,