710 



SANITARY COMMISSIONS. 



Flotilla ; it has at .ill times acted in concert 

 with the Medical Directors and Inspectors of 

 these armies, and on account of their efficient 

 supervision of the condition and sanitary wants 

 of the armies under their charge, has not found 

 it necessary to appoint separate medical inspec- 

 tors. It has the superintendence of twelve 

 hospitals (one for officers and another for mil- 

 itary prisoners), having accommodations for 

 about eight thousand patients, besides ten largo 

 hospital steamers and floating hospitals; it has 

 established Soldiers' Homes, and Soldiers' 

 Lodges, at St. Louis, Memphis, and Columbus, 

 Ky., and agencies at Helena, Milliken's Bend, 

 find Springfield, Mo., and has prepared, pub- 

 lished, and distributed a largo edition of a 

 " Treatise on the Preservation of the Health of 

 the Soldier, the cooking of food, the prepara- 

 tion of diet for the sick, the duties of nurses 

 and attendants, and the organization and gen- 

 eral management of hospitals." It has during 

 1863 and 1864 given special attention to the 

 necessities of thefreedmen in the Mississippi Val- 

 ley, and its officers have interested themselves 

 in the adjustment of wages, and in securing 

 just and considerate treatment of the emanci- 

 pated slaves from those who have rented the 

 plantations, which had been abandoned by 

 rebel owners. The Commission have expended 

 about $40,000 in the relief of freedmen. It has 

 also kept a registry of the location and con- 

 dition of invalid and wounded soldiers in the 

 Western armies. It has also provided to a con- 

 siderable extent for the large number of white 

 refugees from the States in insurrection, who 

 have drifted into St. Louis, and were in a con- 

 dition of great suffering. 



The "Western Sanitary Commission has re- 

 ceived from its organization to January, 1865, a 

 little more than $1,000,000 in cash, of which 

 $500,000 was the net result of a fair held in 

 St. Louis, in May, 1864; and about $2,000,000 

 in supplies. 



III. OTHER SAXITAKY COMMISSIONS. Two 

 or three of the Western States have established 

 organizations dependent partly upon legislative 

 grants, and partly upon contributions, for the 

 care of the sick and wounded soldiers of their 

 respective States, and their families, to which 

 they have given the name of " State Sanitary 

 Commissions." 



They have generally expended their moneys 

 for those services which, may be more appro- 

 priately rendered to a soldier by his own State, 

 or its representatives, than by others, such as 

 the furnishing means of reaching home during 

 a furlough, or of reaching his regiment when ho 

 lias been detained from it by sickness ; the pro- 

 curing of the allotment of his pay or bounty, or 

 the rendering him contented by the care of his 

 family. The Indiana State Sanitary Commis- 

 sion, fostered and prompted by the energetic and 

 patriotic Governor of that State, has accom- 

 plished much good in this way, and up to Feb- 

 ruary, 1864, had expended $320,000 in its suc- 

 sor of Indiana soldiers. The Iowa State San- 



itary Commission has been also very efficient. 

 It has expended $175,500 to February 1, 1864. 

 An organization of a similar character, though 

 we believe not with the same name, exists in 

 Wisconsin, having originated with the Into 

 lamented Governor, Louis P. Harvey, who lost 

 his life in a journey to the field of Shiloh, to 

 distribute its bounties. It has contributed 

 largely to the aid of the soldiers, and its ben- 

 efactions have not been confined to those from 

 Wisconsin. In Illinois, there is an officer called 

 a Commissioner-General, whose function it is 

 to collect stores and supplies from the towns 

 and counties of the State and send them for- 

 ward for distribution, after each great battle. 

 In New York, a State Soldiers' Depot was es- 

 tablished in July, 1863, in Howard street, New 

 York City, and received an appropriation from 

 the State Legislature of $200,000, which com- 

 bines the character of a Soldiers' Home, hospi- 

 tal, and reading-room, and has its couriers on 

 each train on which New York and other sol 

 diers come from the Army of the Potomac, and 

 meets them coming from other points, by steam- 

 ers or otherwise, cares for the comfort of the 

 sick and wounded, administering, under the 

 direction of its surgeon, cordials and nutriment 

 while in transit, protects them from the sharp- 

 ers who would plunder them, and in every way 

 looks after their interests. It has expended 

 since its organization in June, 1863, about 

 $65,000 in money, and has distributed clothing, 

 etc., to the amount of over $10,000 more. It 

 has fed and lodged over 15,000 soldiers, and 

 given aid and counsel to thousands more. Tho 

 plan for establishing national cemeteries in the 

 vicinity of our great battle-fields, at Gettysburg, 

 Antietam, Chattanooga, etc., has been greatly 

 promoted by its earnest advocacy. 



One of the best of the institutions of this 

 class is " The New England Soldiers' Relief 

 Association," located at 194 Broadway, New. 

 York, and organized April 3, 1862. Its found- 

 ers and supporters were New England men and 

 women, but its doors have been opened to, and 

 its charities lavished upon, the soldiers of every 

 State. That a soldier was on furlough, or sick 

 or wounded, discharged, or in trouble, has been 

 ever a sufficient passport to its halls and its 

 sympathies. Since its organization it has re- 

 ceived, registered, lodged, fed, aided, and 

 clothed, sick and wounded or disabled soldiers 

 from thirty-one States, the District of Colum- 

 bia, the regular army, the navy, and the In- 

 valid Corps, to the number of about 45, 000, and 

 has fed or lodged, and rendered assistance to 

 many thousands more, who were not sick, 

 wounded, or. disabled. It has a Hospital Rec- 

 ord and Directory, very full and complete, of 

 the inmates of all the military hospitals of New 

 York and New England, which is kept up to 

 date by daily reports from each hospital, and 

 gives full particulars in regard to the location, 

 condition, and final disposition of each patient. 

 This register contains about 40,000 name*?, and 

 is so complete that the Sanitary Commission, 



