130 AIM OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION.

dispensing their charities only to the companies and regiments organized in their neighborhoods, came finally to accept the larger methods of the Commission, which disbursed the sanitary supplies it received to any hospitals or soldiers that needed them, without regard to sectional limits. The government accorded to the Commission increased facilities for performing its work. The. railroads transported all its freight free of charge-the express companies carried its packages at half price - and the telegraph companies remitted the usual charges on its messages.

The Commission did a more extensive work than was at first contemplated, or is to-day generally known. It sent inspectors, who were always medical men, to the army, to report on the "quality of rations and water-the method of camp cooking-ventilation of tents and quarters -the drainage of the camp itself-the healthfulness of its site - the administration of the hospital-the police of the camp -the quality of the tents, and the material used for flooring them — the quality of the clothing, and the personal cleanliness of the men "—and other points of importance to the health and efficiency of the army.

It also caused to be prepared, by the best medical talent in the country, eighteen concise treatises on the best means of preserving health in camp, and on the treatment of the sick and wounded in hospital and on the battle-field. These were acknowledged by the surgeons to be of great value.

It put nurses into the hospitals who had been trained for the work, and who, in addition to having aptitudes for the care of the sick, were attracted to it by large humanity and patriotic zeal.

ITS MULTIFORM BENEVOLENCE.

131

It established a series of kettles on wheels, with small portable furnaces attached, in which soup was quickly made in the rear of battle-fields, for the faint and wounded, even while the battle was in progress.

It invented hospital cars, for the humane transportation of the wounded, in which the ordinary hospital bed was suspended by stout tugs of india rubber, preventing jolting.

It maintained forty "Soldiers' Homes," or "Lodges," scattered all along the route of the army, and over the whole field of war, which were free hotels for destitute soldiers, separated from their regiments, or passing back and forth, with neither money, rations, nor transportation. Over eight hundred thousand soldiers were entertained in them, and four and a half million meals, and a million nights' lodgings were gratuitously furnished.

It established a "Claim Agency," to secure the bounty of the soldiers, when, by some neglect or informality, it had been kept back. It opened a "Pension Agency," whose name explains its office. It arranged a "Back Pay Agency," which took the defective papers of the soldiers, on which they could not draw their pay, regulated them, and in a few hours drew the money due them, sometimes securing twenty thousand dollars back pay in one day.

It maintained a "Hospital Directory," through which information could be officially obtained concerning the invalids in the two hundred and thirtythree general hospitals of the army, and concerning others, reported as "missing," and "fate unknown." In the four offices of the Directory, at Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Louisville, there were recorded the names of more than six hundred thou

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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

134

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.