804 



UNITED STATES UNION COMMISSION. 



nnd fro over extensive regions of country bad 

 desolated them completely, seizing not only 

 garnered but growing crops, cattle, horses, and 

 mules, and destroying ruthlessly dwellings, 

 barns, and fences, often applying the torch to 

 those edifices which shot and shell had spared. 

 From these desolated regions, often infested 

 with guerrillas, whose murderous malignity 

 spared neither age nor sex, fled their wretched 

 inhabitants, mostly women and children, home- 

 less and penniless, nearly naked and often 

 starving, wearied, sick, and dying, seeking 

 shelter and sustenance within the Union lines, 

 at Nashville, Vicksburg, and Memphis. Mili- 

 tary necessity forbade their remaining in these 

 advanced posts of the Union armies; and render- 

 ing them what assistance could be spared in the 

 way of food, the Government shipped them to 

 Cairo, Louisville, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and 

 other points. Here they were landed, sick, 

 helpless, and friendless. Neither State nor 

 municipal charity could legally be bestowed 

 upon them, but that they might not perish 

 benevolent societies were organized which did 

 what they could to shelter, clothe, and feed 

 them, and provide places for them in the coun- 

 try. These organizations were local, called into 

 existence by the emergency, and had not any 

 central organization or means of mutual co- 

 operation. Meanwhile the demand -for help 

 was increasing with fearful rapidity. In June, 

 1864, the present President of the American 

 Union Commission, visiting the West with other 

 gentlemen as a delegate of the United States 

 Christian Commission, became deeply affected 

 with the sufferings and necessities of these poor 

 refugees, and after free conference with other 

 patriotic and benevolent men, east and west, 

 it was resolved to organize a Commission, hav- 

 ing for its object the care and welfare of these 

 refugees, and their eventual restoration, so far 

 as was possible, to homes and home comforts. 

 Most of these people were the wives and chil- 

 dren of Unionists, who had either been killed 

 or imprisoned for their loyalty, or were serv- 

 ing in the Union armies as soldiers of the na- 

 tion. To leave their families to perish would 

 have been unworthy of a great and noble peo- 

 ple. A small portion, under the teachings of 

 southern demogogues, were, in spite of their 

 Bufferings, still disloyal; but they, too, were 

 starving, and Christianity forbade refusing suc- 

 ccr to them. It was foreseen, too, that with the 

 close of the war would arise other needs no less 

 imperious, and demanding an enlarged and na- 

 tional charity. Industry must be revived in the 

 regions wasted by war ; desolated homes must 

 be rebuilt, and farms stocked anew and supplied 

 with the implements of husbandry and with 

 seeds for crdps. The confiscated lands must be 

 made accessible to settlers, and emigration of 

 the right character guided and stimulated. Free 

 schools must be organized and sustained for a 

 time in part by northern capital. Loyal presses, 

 too, must be established, and the social struc- 

 ture renovated and placed upon its new basis 



of freedom, order, and law. While this change 

 was going on, though superintended mainly, 

 and supported in part by persons who had pre- 

 viously resided in the regions to be reclaimed, 

 aid would be required for some time from those 

 sections which had not been despoiled by tho 

 ravages of war. To the various local refugee 

 societies letters were addressed and their co- 

 operation, counsel, and suggestions sought. 

 These organizations welcomed with great cor- 

 diality the new movement, and united with it 

 as branches, or entered into harmonious co- 

 operation with it. The American Union Com- 

 mission, as thus organized, has its headquarters 

 in New York City, but includes auxiliaries in 

 Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chi- 

 cago, Cairo, Memphis, Nashville, Charleston, 

 and other points. Its present officers are Rev. 

 Joseph P. Thompson, D. L\, President ; Eev. 

 Lyman Abbott, Corresponding Secretary; H. 

 G. Odiorne, Esq., of Cincinnati, Western Secre- 

 tary; H. M. Pierce, LL.D., Recording Secre- 

 tary; A. V. Stout, Esq. (President of Shoe and 

 Leather Bank), Treasurer; and an Executive 

 Committee of six members. Its fundamental 

 article, approved, as is the whole work and pur- 

 pose of the Commission, by the Government, 

 states that it " is constituted for the purpose of 

 aiding and cooperating with the people of those 

 portions of the United States which have been 

 desolated and impoverished by the war, in the 

 restoration of their civil and social condition 

 upon the basis of industry, education, freedom, 

 and Christian morality." 



About the 1st of October, 1864, the Commis- 

 sion was fully organized for its work, and found 

 at first abundant occupation in relieving the 

 immediate necessities of homeless refugees, who 

 were brought from the South in Government 

 transports and landed upon the wharves in the 

 most destitute condition. Nearly 100,000 have 

 thus been thrown upon the charity of the be- 

 nevolent during the past seven or eight months. 

 The Commission has gathered them into bar- 

 racks or "homes" at St. Louis, Cairo, Louis- 

 ville, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New York, and 

 other points in the North, fed, clothed, and 

 provided them with medical care, and where it 

 was possible procured for them places, where, 

 by their own industry, they could obtain a live- 

 lihood. Experience in other organizations has 

 proved that the retention of large numbers in 

 camps and barracks in a state of idleness, was 

 injurious alike to their health, their morals, and 

 their subsequent efficiency, and hence the Com- 

 mission has sought as speedily as possible to 

 place all who were able to work in situations 

 where they might obtain their bread by their 

 labor. The extraordinary campaigns of General 

 Sherman, and the sudden collapse of the rebel- 

 lion, rendered a different system necessary in 

 the Seaboard States. It was neither practica- 

 ble nor desirable to bring the thousands who 

 flocked into Savannah, Charleston, Wilming- 

 ton, Newbern, Goldsborough, Petersburg, and 

 Richmond, to the North. They must be aided 



