SANITARY COMMISSION. 



s, villages, nnd farms, often Ix-nring llic mnrki 

 of loving self-denial. Tin 1 r"-t l' iln -ir transport i- 

 tion was diminished full two-thirds by the generosity 

 of railroad and express companies, wlio.se services 

 (as also those of the telegraph lim-i were in mo>t 

 jr.ituitous. Depot's of supplies were estah- 

 lishetl Sent. 5, 1861, at Boston. New York, IMiilii- 

 delphia, Washington, Cincinnati. :ind Whcclim; ; 

 central aid associations hail previously been formed 

 also at Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, and else- 

 where in the West. The boxes sent to these places 

 were opened, their contents sorted, recorded, and 

 sent where they were needed. The Commission 

 >-d nothing meant for any particular pe.rson or 

 place, and recognized no distinctions of State or 

 regiment, but aimed to minister to all soldiers of 

 the Union alike. The government was unable to 

 provide adequately for the sick and wounded ; the 

 efforts of affection" or charity in the North, whether 

 individual or local, to send help to the camps and 

 but lie-fields were perforce in hvrge measure confused 

 and futile ; the Commission, with its carefully de- 

 vised system, its admirable administration, and its 

 army of earnest and disciplined employes, stepped 

 in as an intermediary, and distributed the loving 

 bounty of those at home to their defenders through- 

 out the South. 



The re<ief bestowed was of two classes, general 

 and special. An inspector and staff of agents, with 

 four-horse wagons or steamboats loaded with sup- 

 plies, were usually attached to each army corps and 

 to each expeditionary force. The inspector (always 

 n physician) visited the hospitals, was in fiv<jviciit 

 conference with the surgeons, and on their demand 

 furnished from his stores food, clothing, wines, 

 medicines, etc. So far as was possible, battles were 

 anticipated and provided for; at 000 out of 700 

 during the war, the agents and stores of the Coni- 

 >a were present. After Antietam, e. </., it 

 cared for near 10,000 wounded during four days, in 

 which no government supplies were accessible. An 

 auxiliary relief corps, some 150 members, was or- 

 ganized in May, 1804, to minister to the wounded 

 left in hospitals' when the army continued its march. 

 Feeding-stations on the route of the ambulances 

 was part of its work. Among those who fell in this 

 d injiTOUH service were the wife of Gen. liarlow 

 and 1'rof. Iladley, of Union Theological Seminary in 

 New York. 



The Special Relief Service was intended mainly 

 for the sick of new regiments, and for soldiers dis- 

 charged or dismissed from hospitals ; the latter were 

 aided on their way home, protected from sharpers 

 and frem their own weaknesses, and their arrears 

 of pay collected for them. Forty homes and lodges 

 inn MtabHdtad and sustained throughout the land, 

 from Boston to Brownsville, Texas. Over one mil- 

 lion nights' lodgings, and nearly five million meals, 

 were thus supplied, and .*2,.~><X>,000 of pay obtained. 

 A pension bureau and war claim agency was 

 founded, which after the war took charge of some 

 57,000 claims, and collected $7,500,000 gratuitously. 

 A convalescent camp near Alexandria, Va., long 

 directed by Miss Bradley, rendered various services 

 to very many. The special relief service was orga- 

 nized and controlled by Rev. F. N. Knap p. 



But these labors, however useful to the soldiers, 

 and however effective with the popular mind, were 

 not the only work of the Commission, nor, In the 

 view of its leaders, the most important part thereof. 

 They never lost sight of the ideas conveyed by their 

 title, ".Sanitary." Had they loudly proclaimed the 

 scientific and far-reaching nature of their views, 

 and confined tlu-inselves to the effort to prevent 

 rather than to assuage suffering, they would have 

 lacked popular Ryni|>athy and support. Brain bore 

 as large a part in their work as heart and hand. 

 Nothing that they did received more praise than 



' the Hotptlul Dirtctnry, which aimed to keep nnd 

 follow up the reeor-t of the sick or wounded. A 

 central office at Washington was opened Nov. 27, 

 ISii-J, and branches followed at Philadelphia, Louis- 

 ville, and New York. Agents took the names of 

 the wounded at'ler c\er\ faille, and '2X1 general 

 hospitals sent IYt ipient report.": tlms a list of over 

 000,000 was kept, with the latest facts known as to 

 each. The worst horror of war to those at home 

 was the frequent uncertainty as to the fate of rela- 

 thcs or friends; in such cases inquiries after the 



! missing were prosecuted, and the facts learned in 

 ii out of every ten cases. The archives of the 

 Commission, preserved in the Astor Library, include 

 a large row ol folios of (his JJirectur;/. 



liurtnui'j i'iiiti Statute, Inaugurated ! 

 retary Olmstcd, and carried on by Dr. B. A. Gould, 

 did work of great scientific value and repute, cm- 

 bodying inspections of some 870 regiments, nnd 

 tabulating statistics concerning "the ell'ects of ap- 

 plied or neglected hygiene, of diet, of long marching 

 and heavy equipment, of tent and fixed hospitals; 

 the mortality of young recruits; the influence of 

 climate, drill, nationality, of previous occupations, 

 or slate of education upon soldiers ; the height, 

 weight, strength, and force of the enlisted men,' 1 

 and other matters bearing upon life insurance, 

 anthropology, etc. This the president of the Com- 

 mission considered "one of the most creditable and 

 faithful portions' 1 of its work. Mr. Olmsted's report 

 of the statistics of Ihe battle of Bull Run, in the be- 

 ginning of these collections, was " the first scientific 

 attempt to generalize the causes of our disaster." 



In ways more immediately affecting the physical 

 welfare of the soldiers, the Commission by no means 

 confined ilself to the supply of food and clothing. 

 A corps of sixty well-know"]! medical men was or- 

 ganized under Dr. H. G. Clark, of Boston, to visit 

 and inspect the gmcral lioxpiluls throughout the land, 

 and report to the medical committee. These reports 

 by May, 1803, covered 2500 folio pages, and on their 

 basis suggestions were made to the surgeon-general 

 for improvements in the hospital system, which 

 thus reached a degree of excellence nowhere at- 

 tained liefore, and unhappily not kept up in the 

 United States since the war. The Medical Bureau 

 also was closely watched from an early period, with 

 a view of weeding out ignorance and incompctency. 

 In this task much jealousy nnd opposition was 

 aroused, and the existence of the Commission was 

 for a time endangered ; but a reform was at length 

 accomplished, disorders and deficiencies in the main 

 removed, and a system of promotion for services and 

 merit substituted for that under the old rule by 

 mere seniority. 



The inventions of the Commission wore of great 

 benefit in assuaging suffering and saving life. Tho 

 pavilion hospitals, built from its models, and in- 

 tended to minimize the dangers of contagion and 

 pestilence, were widely adopted. Its hospital curs 

 and steamboats aimed to lessen the horrors attending 

 the transportation of the sick and wounded by land 

 and water with merely the ordinary government 

 facilities. After the capture of Fort Donclson 

 several States attempted to transport their own 

 men, nnd yielded this service reluctantly to the 

 Commission, whose organization was more complete 

 and its facilities greater. Its steamers, provided 

 with surgeon?, nurses, and all necessaries, carried 

 multitudes of sick and wounded men from the posts 

 adjacent to camp or battle-field to the nearest hos- 

 pitals. The hospital car, devised by Dr. E. Harris, 

 of New York, was hung on gutta-percha springs to 

 prevent jolting, nnd turned the stretchers on which 

 the wounded were borne into hanging beds ; supplied 

 with comforts and attendance it did much to 

 diminish for the wounded the torments of travel by 

 the common modes of conveyance. 



