Figure 5,— Ambulancii. alongside ship docked in Brooklyn, New York, at Nye's Elevator, 

 where the Red Cross maintained a warehouse. (Photo courlesy Library oj Congress.) 



holding these vehicles was displayed in a letter dated 

 October 11, 1898, from Miss Barton to her nephew: 



I am glad the ambulances go back to New York, and 

 it perhaps would have been quite as well if the other 

 hospital stuff which he found there had also gone; but 

 he had no orders for this, and not knowing what was 

 there, I could not tell him .... I must have told you 

 what a good understanding remained between us; 

 blessed old mules they would have worked, if they could 

 have gotten anything to work in! But army orders 

 were agin us and we kept the mules close by us and 

 sent them safely home. Not a piece of harness, nor an 

 ambulance was ever used or ever gotten at. ' 



Shipped to Brunswick, Georgia, on board the 

 Morse, the ambulances were discharged and sent by 

 the steamer Princess Anne to New York. Mr. Barton 

 had suggested that they be sent to Washington, D.C., 

 for storage, but since no warehouse was available 

 there, they were kept in New York, where they re- 

 mained for a short time outside the Red Cross ware- 

 house in New York, with no protection whatever 

 from the weather. Later, they were disassembled by 



' Clara Barton Papers (Library of Congress accession 10357, 

 box 37, folder 2). 



Studebaker Brothers at a cost of $14.80 and stored 

 inside (see fig. 5). 



By November 1898, official protest was being made 

 by the Red Cross to the U.S. Government for its 

 having delayed delivery of the ambulances until they 

 were no longer needed and for having seized ten 

 thousand dollars worth of supplies. One of the most 

 substantial complaints was found in a letter from 

 the chairman of the Central Cuban Relief Committee, 

 to the then Secretary of State John Hay: 



Our object in referring these reports to the Department 

 is to inform you of the arbitrary seizure by the Army of 

 the United States of a large and valuable lot of supplies 

 belonging to this committee, and to enter our complain 

 against such an insulting and unwarranted act, with the 

 request that suitable action shall be taken .... We 

 cannot believe that any conditions (especially in time of 

 peace) could create a Military necessity for the forcible 

 seizure by the War Department, and yet we are informed 

 by our Agents that the plea of "Military necessity" was 

 the only e.xcuse given for this arrogant indignity against 

 us ... . We beg to call your attention to the large 

 quantity of hospital furnishings and delicate foods in- 

 cluded in this seizure, articles which are of no use at 

 Gibara, except to add to the personal comfort of the 

 officers of the .^rmv, but which are sadlv needed in 



172 



BULLETIN 24 1 : CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



