USA > Massachusetts > Massachusetts in the army and navy during the war of 1861-65, vol II pt 2 > Part 34
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It sent into the army inspectors, always medical men, who investigated and reported on all matters of importance relating to the health and efficiency of the army. It caused the preparation, by the best medical talent of the country, of 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 battlefield.
It put trained nurses into the hospitals ; invented soup-kettles on wheels, with portable furnaces attached, for use during battle ; and hospital cars for the trans- portation of the wounded, in which the bed was suspended by stout tugs of india- rubber, to prevent jolting.
It maintained all along the route of the army and over the field of war " sol- diers' homes," which were free hotels for any man wearing the army or navy blue, if he was separated from his regiment, or passing back and forth, without money, rations or transportation. It entertained 800,000 soldiers in them, and furnished 4,500,000 meals and 1,000,000 nights' lodgings.
It established a " claim agency," which secured the " bounty money " of the . soldiers when for some reason it had been kept back. It opened a " pension agency," whose name explains its office, and a " back-pay agency," which took the defective papers of the soldiers, regulated them, and in a few hours drew their pay, - sometimes $20,000 a day.
It maintained a " hospital directory," through which information could be offi- cially obtained concerning the siek and wounded in the 233 general military hospi- tals of the army. On its books were recorded the names of over 600,000 men, with the latest information procurable concerning them. It methodized a system of " battlefield relief," whose agents were always on the field during an engagement, with surgeons, ambulances and store wagons loaded with anæsthetics, surgical instruments, nourishment, tonics, stimulants and every species of relief.
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Two large central offices of the commission, with depots of supplies, were located at Washington, D. C., and Louisville, Ky., through which gateways supplies of all kinds went to the army. Ten branch commissions were established at ten cities of the North, all of them subordinate and tributary to the central offices, and all managed by women, - one of them being located at Boston. It is the aim of the following chapter to narrate the history and the work of this branch commission as fully as possible from the meagre sources at command.
The women of Boston and Massachusetts responded promptly to the call of the country at the very beginning of the war, and soldiers' aid societies, sewing circles for the soldiers and relief societies sprang up simultaneously with the organization of companies and regiments in the State. But it was not until near the close of the year 1861 that these scattered philanthropic efforts were combined in the Sanitary Commission, and order emerged from the chaos of benevolence.
On November 28 of that year a few ladies met in a private parlor in Boston to listen to an address from Dr. HI. W. Bellows of New York, president of the United States Sanitary Commission, who urged the immediate organization of a New England branch of the commission, with headquarters at Boston. A committee was appointed to take this proposition into consideration, who reported favorably and advised the prompt formation of the auxiliary branch. A constitution was adopted ; an executive committee appointed, to take general superintendence of affairs ; an industrial committee, to cut and superintend the manufacture of hospital clothing and bedding ; and a finance committee, for the collection of funds.
Connecticut and Rhode Island in a very short time drew out from the New England society, as it was more convenient for them to send their supplies to the New York branch for shipment to the army. As the work proceeded, the cities of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont frequently did the same thing, as New York was more accessible to them than Boston, and the route thither shorter and more direct. It is not possible, therefore, to make an exact statement of the sanitary work accomplished by the women of Massachusetts. The Boston branch drew its supplies from a very populous district, which was well cultivated. It established "centres of collection " in the lesser cities, into which from every town and village the supplies flowed, when the work done was that of an immense ship- ping business.
The supplies were sorted, repacked, marked with the stamp of the "United States Sanitary Commission," and held subject to orders from the central office at Washington. When there was an urgent demand from any field of action for immediate and extra relief, the specified needs were telegraphed from Washington to the branches, through them to their affiliated societies, and in a few hours the women of the remotest districts were at work to supply them ; and, as every branch telegraphed weekly an account of its supplies on hand, the central office knew at any moment what available resources were at its disposal.
During the first year of its work the Boston branch organized 475 societies, and corresponded with 275 more already in existence. The receipts of the year were $32,313.30, which was spent for materials for garments and bedding and their man- ufacture. There were eut and made during the year 34, 142 articles of clothing, - bed-sacks, quilts, sheets, pillow sacks and slips, cushions, wrappers, shirts and
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
drawers, both cotton and flannel, etc. They were made by auxiliary societies, and poor women who were paid for their work by benevolent people. All work was vol- untary and done by women, mostly from Boston, and no one was paid from the treasury of the commission except a porter, who was a hired assistant. Even the spacious rooms they occupied at 22 Summer Street were rent free. In addition to the garments manufactured the first year, they purchased and shipped, on requisi- tion from Washington, hospital edibles, like farina, condensed milk. beef stock, tea, sugar, cocoa, jellies, fresh and dried fruit, wines, syrups, tamarinds, etc. ; and hos- pital supplies, like surgical instruments, washing-machines, soap, sponges, mutton tallow, cologne, bay rum, lint, bandages, fans, oiled silk, combs, stationery, games, handkerchiefs, caps, hats, towels and books, - in all costing $10,231.54.
When the army of the Potomac was employed in the unfortunate peninsular campaign, in a low, swampy, malarious region, it was found that large hospital steamers were necessary for the reception and transportation of the sick and wounded. The same humane arrangements were demanded by the western cam- paign, whose passion was the reopening of the Mississippi. The Sanitary Commis- sion applied to the Secretary of War for the use of steamers for this purpose, and the Quartermaster-General immediately ordered as many detailed to the service of the commission, large enough to carry a thousand men, as were needed.
The first vessel assigned was the " Daniel Webster," which was speedily fitted up for hospital service, and in June, 1862, it steamed to Boston with its sorrowful freight of sick and wounded men. The poor fellows were tenderly transferred to hospitals in the vieinity, the storehouse of the Boston commission was drawn upon freely for whatever was necessary to their comfort and well-being, and over $1,600 were spent in the purchase of hospital delicacies. Then the commission again refitted the steamer, shipped on board a complete assortment of supplies and despatched it on its return errand to White House, Va., where another congrega- tion of sufferers was awaiting its arrival. In this relief work, which was repeated again and again, the women of the commission received the hearty and prompt co-operation of men.
The outline of one year's work of the New England society and the Boston branch commission indicates the service rendered by these organizations through- out the war. The receipts of the year 1863 were 867,877.72 ; there were spent for materials for hospital clothing $26,761.69. The articles manufactured numbered 28,722. They helped. disabled men returning to their honies to obtain their dis- charge papers, back pay, pensions, rations and transportation. They sent agents to accompany those who could not go alone ; sent the last messages of the dying, with the little souvenirs in their possession, to surviving kindred and friends ; and, whenever it was possible, maintained communication and sent supplies to our brave men shut up in Southern prisons.
In April, 1863, a temporary " soldiers' home " was established in Boston, at 76 Kingston Street, opposite the United States Hotel. It was open day and night for the reception and entertainment of soldiers and sailors going to or from the front, who for some reason were travelling alone, and must stop by the way. It enter- tained 54,046 soldiers before the close of the war, at a cost of $65,770.98, the aver- age cost of each man, including hospital-car service, being a little over 80 cents.
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
The hospital-car service was established between Boston and New York, under the direction of the soldiers' home committee. Two first-class cars were appropri- ated and fitted for the purpose by the several companies forming the railroad line, via Worcester, Springfield, Hartford and New Haven. Each car was furnished with nine portable litter beds, suspended by stout rubber bands ; twelve folding easy hospital chairs ; twelve ordinary railway car seats ; a hospital store closet, supplied with medicines, stimulants and other appliances for the medical and surgi- cal treatment of soldiers, a culinary apparatus and a supply of hospital clothing.
One of these ears left Boston and New York daily, in charge of a military hospital steward and a nurse, for the conveyance of soldiers. The necessary funds for the support of this special relief service were drawn from the treasury of the Boston branch, and at one time $10,000 were donated for the same purpose by the New England society. These hospital cars transported from Boston to New York' 21,729 soldiers, and furnished them 57,413 meals.
In December, 1863, the women of the New England society held a large sani- tary fair in Music Hall, Boston, which netted them nearly $146,000. Preparations for the fair had been going on for months. The canvassing, soliciting, advertising and correspondence taxed the members of the society very heavily, for 1,050 cities and towns eo-operated in this fair. But all the while the regular work of relief and supply for the soldiers was steadily continued, with no remission of effort.
As the people at large had a very inadequate conception of the great work of the Sanitary Commission and its needs, the New England society sent out lecturers who had been engaged in the active service of the commission among the soldiers in the field. They were welcomed by the people, who listened to them with intense interest. Between two and three hundred of these lectures were delivered in Massa- chusetts in three months. . They were productive of much good. Churches of all denominations exerted themselves to increase the treasury of the society. Many schools made special efforts in its behalf ; the directors of railroads, express com- panies, newspapers and business firms befriended them most liberally ; and private individuals of both sexes, all ages and conditions, volunteered their help in ways too numerous to mention.
In April, 1864, the society was obliged to change its quarters to 18 West Street, where generous friends offered them, rent free, a central and suitable office. The work of the industrial department had so increased that it had become necessary to. separate it from the executive department, and it was furnished with rooms perfectly suited to its needs, free of rent, in the Savings Bank building, Temple Place, Boston. The receipts of the year were $179,622.93. There were spent for materials $48,325.40, and 39,664 garments were manufactured.
The receipts of the year 1865 were 841,163.78, of which $28,630.69 were spent for materials, and 29,285 artieles were made from them. The total receipts of the New England society were $314,874.07. In addition to the regular hospital sup- plies, the society distributed in the hospitals 168,476 books and pamphlets.
A vast deal of relief and supply work was done by Massachusetts women during the war, besides that accomplished under the auspices of the Sanitary Com- mission. The same is true of men, not only in Massachusetts, but throughout the North.
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591
MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN TIIE CIVIL WAR.
In the autumn of 1861, Miss Anna Lowell, now Mrs. Woodbury, with other Boston ladies, organized the "Union Hall Association of Boston," which was formed to give employment to the wives of the volunteer soldiers. Among the ladies interested with Miss Lowell were Mrs. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Mrs. James T. Fields. These ladies took large contracts of army clothing at the govern- ment price, and obtained contributions of money from wealthy people, which enabled them to pay good wages to the sewing-women. Over 900 women were employed by this association the first year, and more than 70,000 garments of different kinds were made in that time by these needy wives of soldiers. During the four years of the war they made 346,715 garments, mostly shirts and drawers, and the sum of $20,033.78, raised by donation, was paid as additional wages to the work-women.
Later in the war, Miss Lowell helped to organize, and personally managed, the special diet kitchen in connection with the Armory Square Hospital, in Washington. In 1865, in connection with Miss Annie Buttrick, Miss Mary Felton and Miss Annette Rogers, she organized the "Howard Industrial School," in Cambridge, Mass. This school received and provided for several hundred colored people, sent North by Gen. Charles Howard and Gen. S. C. Armstrong. This was one of the earliest industrial schools, and exerted a wide influence. Situations in Northern families were found for the colored women, while the girls and children were kept in the school and instructed to read, write, cook, sew and do household work. The school continued for three years, and stimulated the establishment of others like it, which have been enlarged and improved to meet emergencies continually arising.
One of the ten branch commissions was located at St. Louis, Mo., and was called " The Western Sanitary Commission." Its organization was the result of circumstances growing out of the war in Missouri, and the necessity for it was sudden and unexpected. The city of St. Louis had become the "headquarters of the military department of the west." During the summer of 1861 half a dozen desperately fought battles occurred in the State, within easy railroad distance of the city, and the number of killed and wounded was very great. The wounded, num- bering over seven hundred, were taken to St. Louis, where they were not expected ; no preparation had been made for them, and the hospital accommodations of the whole city were insufficient for them. This was but the beginning of things. Large detachments of sick and wounded men continued to arrive daily ; and the care of them, with the fitting up of extemporized hospitals, improvising means of relief and subsidizing nurses and supplies, were mainly left to the loyal people of St. Louis by the acting medical director.
It was at this juncture that the " Western Sanitary Commission " was called into existence. The loyal people of St. Louis and the State rallied to its support, but they were unequal to the situation, generous and patriotic as they were. It became necessary for the commission to send its appeals for aid outside the geo- graphical territory assigned it. Every loyal State answered willingly and with more or less generosity. "But among all the States of the Union which have given to the Western Sanitary Commission," wrote its secretary at the close of the war, " none have surpassed Massachusetts. And, though operating in a wholly western field, the western commission is free to acknowledge that its largest and most munifi- cent contributions have come from the old Bay State. When it is remembered
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
that Massachusetts had her own sons in the field, mainly in the departments of the South and of the Gulf and in the armies of the Potomac, and that it was im- probable that a dollar of all the large contributions from Boston would benefit one Massachusetts soldier, no one can fail to appreciate the disinterested patriot- ism and benevolence which helped the western commission over many a hopeless emergency."
One Boston woman, Mrs. Thomas Lamb, set apart a " Missouri room" in her house, for the reception of hospital supplies of every kind. She notified all her friends of her readiness to become the almnoner of their patriotic gifts, assuring them that money was as acceptable as supplies. As fast as boxes were filled she forwarded them to St. Louis, until her shipments of goods exceeded $17,000, while in money she forwarded as much more.
Miss Maria R. Mann, a near relative of the IIon. Horace Mann, first secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, left her pleasant New England home during the first year of the war, and went to St. Louis to aid in the work of the western commission. She remained till near the close of the war, engaged in most arduous work in the hospitals, and among the colored people and white refugees of Helena, Ark. She was sustained in her work by the contributions of New England women, mostly in Massachusetts, who not only supplied her with money, but with several thousand dollars' worth of garments, material for elothing, furniture, medi- cines, stoves, etc., Rev. Dr. Eliot at St. Louis acting as treasurer of a special fund for this purpose.
"The Boston Sewing Circle " was organized in Boston, November, 1862, and maintained a membership to the end of the war of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred workers. The sewing circle raised $21,778 in money, - about 84.000 of it for the white refugees in western Tennessee, - and it made up 21,592 articles of clothing, flannel and cotton.
In eight months the women of Massachusetts forwarded to the western com- mission 223 large cases of sanitary stores, miscellaneous in character but of the very best quality.
In November, 1863, an appeal was sent to Massachusetts from the western commission in behalf of the freedmen depending on St. Louis for aid, and who were in extreme destitution. Contributions amounting in value to over $30.000 were promptly forwarded, consisting of clothing, material for clothing, shoes and other necessary articles. In addition, $13,000 in money were collected in Boston for the same purpose. The names of men and women are intermingled in the list , of donors on this occasion, and a small portion of the supplies came from other New England States than Massachusetts.
On one occasion, when some special need demanded it, the sum of $9,000 in money was collected in Boston and sent forward to the commission in St. Louis. A few months later, when there was desperate fighting in the south-west and along the Mississippi, and St. Louis seemed destined to become a city of hospitals, as boat after boat unloaded its freight of wounded men on the levees, an appeal was sent broadcast for help to meet the emergency. Rev. Dr. Eliot of St. Louis appealed to Boston in behalf of the western commission, and the city responded generously, and with promptness, in a gift of $50,000.
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Another contribution of $35,000 in money was forwarded to the St. Louis com- mission from Boston in the winter of 1863, of which Governor Andrew of Massa- chusetts gave $1,000 "from private funds placed in his hands," and Mrs. N. I. Bowditch of Boston gave another $1,000. Almost as many names of women as of men appear in the lists of the contributors to these Boston donations. Sometimes there is an absence of individual names when the donations of women are recorded, but, by their own wish, they are reported as " eight ladies of Salem, $100 each ;" " seven ladies of Fitchburg, $50 each," etc. Massachusetts was as intent on reliey- ing the suffering of western soldiers as she was in caring for her own sons. And when the wounded dependent on the western commission swelled to a ghastly army, and their sufferings seemed almost immitigable, the devotion of the old Bay State rose to a passion, and she poured out her benefactions with a heartiness and a . munificence that fired the patriotic zeal of the unflagging workers to the utmost.
In this imperfect narration it has not been possible wholly to separate the sani- tary work of the women of Massachusetts during the war from that of men. They worked together in almost every department, except that of cutting and manufact- uring hospital clothing and bedding and collecting sanitary stores ; that remained in the hands of women throughout the war. Women were also the managers, creators and organizers of the great sanitary fair of Boston, which yielded almost $150,000, men assisting, under the direction of women. The same is true of all the sanitary fairs of the country, which yielded the commission between three and four million dollars. It never seemed to occur to these patriotic women that they were making history, for they kept only the most meagre records of their splendid work, and were so indifferent to the preservation of these reports that a copy was discovered only by persistent and laborious search. They manifested most thorough business ability in details, systematic methods from which they never deviated, and so thorough and hearty a co-operation with men that no record was made of " the work of men," or " the work of women," - only records of " work accomplished."
Boston was filled with patriotic women during the war. "To name them all would be almost like publishing a directory of the city." It is not easy to make special mention of a few, where all were alike devoted and untiring. But no one can remember that coterie of gifted Boston women, whose philanthropie services were invaluable to the Sanitary Commission, without immediately recalling Miss Abby W. May, the leader of the New England society from the first, the recognized exceutive head of the Boston commission. She was a native of Boston, and was educated in the best schools of her native city. She rendered valuable services, when quite young, to the anti-slavery movement, and at the very commencement of the war gave herself most heartily to the work of relieving the sufferings of the soldiers. In the spring and summer of 1862 she served in the hospital transport service of the Sanitary Commission, where her labors were very arduous. After her return she was prevailed upon to take the chairmanship of the executive committee of the New England society, which she retained to the close of the war. Rapid and accurate in her despatch of business, prompt and unerring in her judgment on all difficult questions, earnest and eloquent in her appeals to the auxiliaries, she was signally successful in her management of affairs, and brought the New England society to the highest stage of efficiency.
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MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN IN THE CIVIL WAR.
Mrs. C. R. Lowell, who gave two sons to the war, both of whom were slain at the head of their commands, was herself one of the most zealous laborers in behalf of the soldier, in Boston or its vicinity. Like many others east and west, she took a contraet from the government for the manufacture of army clothing, that she might provide work for the families of soldiers, preparing the work for them, and paying them more than the goverment paid her. Her daughter, Miss Anna Lowell, served on one of the hospital transports in the peninsula. On arriving at Harrison's Land- ing, where she was to take charge of a ward on a hospital steamer that was trans- porting sick and wounded men to the North, she received the sad news that her beloved brother had fallen at the head of his men in one of the seven days' battles that had occurred in her vicinity. Almost crushed with the blow, she buried her sorrow in her own bosom, went on board the steamer when it stopped at the Land- ing, nursed, fed, bathed and comforted the patients assigned to her care, appearing to them the sunniest and most sympathizing nurse on board.
When the men were removed to the hospitals to which they were assigned she returned to Washington, and from the summer of 1862 till the close of the war was in charge as " lady superintendent" of the Armory Square Hospital, Washington.
Other women of Boston, hardly less active, were Mrs. Amelia L. Holmes, wife of the poet and essayist, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes : Miss Hannah E. Stevenson ; Miss Isa E. Loring ; Mrs. George II. Shaw ; Mrs. Martin Brimmer ; Mrs. George Ticknor and Mrs. William B. Rogers ; Miss Mary Felton of Cambridge, Mass., who served in the same hospital for a long time with her friend, Miss Lowell. Mrs. Ticknor was president of the Boston sewing circle, which raised nearly 822.000 in money for material for hospital clothing, and manufactured from it over 21,000 garments, mostly flannel, for the siek and wounded. Mrs. Ticknor was also presi- dent of an organization formed for the relief of the Second Regiment of Massachu- setts Infantry, and which afterward included other soldiers. This society raised nearly $4,000 in money, and sent to the men 4,969 articles of clothing, one-third of which were flannel.
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