Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 29

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006

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And while it would take many essays to show what Ohioans have accomplished in art, none can afford to be ignorant of the lives and works of the world-famous

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Thomas Cole and Hiram Powers, or of the achievements of America's first ani- mal painters, James H. and William H. Beard, or of the noble works which adorn so many of our parks and cities of this country's greatest sculptor, Quincy Ward, whose "Indian Hunter," "Shakespeare," "Washington " and "Equestrian Thomas" will live a thousand years after all that now has life shall have perished.

I close this appeal for the study of our State's history by reminding all that Ohio can lay full or partial claim to four Presidents of the United States, Harri- son, Grant, Hayes and Garfield; to one Vice-President, by birth, Hendricks ; and one Speaker of the House, Keifer ; to two Chief-Justices, Chase and Waite, and four Associate Justices, McLean, Swayne, Matthews and Woods; to one Sec- retary of State, through fourteen years' residence, Lewis Cass ; to five Secretaries of the Treasury, Ewing, Corwin, Chase, Sherman and Windom ; three Secretaries of War, McLean, Stanton and Taft ; to three Secretaries of the Interior, Ewing, Cox and Delano; to two Attorneys-General, Stanbery and Taft, and to three Postmasters-General, Meigs, McLean and Dennison.

If all these men have not done enough to command your interest and studious attention, set to work, gentlemen of the Ohio Society, and do something to honor the Buckeye State yourselves !

THE WORK OF OHIO IN THE U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION IN THE CIVIL WAR.

BY M. C. READ.

MATTHEW CANFIELD READ was born in Wil- liamsfield, Ashtabula county, Ohio, August 21, 1823, of New England parents, who were among the early pioneers. In those days of few books a circulating library of standard works gave him in bis early boyhood a taste for solid reading, and a copy of Goldsmith's " Animated Nature," which at the age of ten years he had read and re-read till it was substantially memorized, exerted an important influence upon his subsequent studies ; when twelve years of age his parents removed to Mecca, Trumbull county, where he remained working upon the farm and attending district school until eighteen years of age, when he com- menced preparations for college at Western Re- serve Seminary, in Farmington, Trumbull county, which was completed at Grand River Institute, in Austinburgh, Ashtabula county. He entered the Freshman class of Western Reserve College, Hudson, in 1844, and graduated in 1848, subse- quently receiving the degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater.

The early bias given by " Goldsmith's Animated Nature " led him to devote much time during his preparatory and college course to the study of the natural sciences, and most of his leisure during this time was occupied in acquiring a knowledge of the fauna and flora, and the geology of the neighborhood. His vacations were given almost wholly to these studies, to which very little time MATTHEW C. READ. was given in the prescribed course of study. The knowledge thus obtained in hours which ordi- narily go to waste with the college student, was fully as valuable to him in after life as the regular college course. After graduation he taught school in Columbus and in Gustavus, Ohio, and read law with Chappee & Woodbury, of Jefferson, Ashtabula county.

He was married August, 1851, to Orissa E. Andrews, youngest daughter of William Andrews, Esq., of Homer, N. Y., and soon after was called to Hudson to edit The Family Visitor, published by Saw- yer, Ingersoll & Co., and which was started by Profs. Kirtland and St. John, with the design of fur- nishing a family, scientific, and literary paper of a high order, containing nothing of the obnoxious matter found in many papers. During one year while editing this paper he had sole charge of the preparatory department of the Western Reserve College. After he had edited the paper for a little over two years its publication was suspended because of the financial failure of the publishers.

He then commenced the practice of his profession as attorney in Summit county, and had acquired a lucrative practice when the war of the Rebellion commenced. Soon after the organization of the United States Sanitary Commission he was appointed a general relief agent in that organization by Prof. Newberry, who was in charge of the Western department, and continued in the service of the Com- mission till the close of the war. A severe sunstroke after the battle of Pittsburgh Landing and sub- sequent exposure so impaired his health that he was never able to return to full practice in his profession. He served for a time as deputy-collector of internal revenue, and upon the organization of the geological survey of Ohio was appointed assistant geologist, and contributed largely to the final report. He has since done a large amount of work in the examination of mining property in the States and Territories and the Dominion of Canada, and contributed many articles to the scientific journals on ornithology, entomology, archaeology, geology, forestry, etc. He had charge of the archaeological exhibits of Ohio at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, and the Centennial Exposition at New Orleans. Quite a full report made by him of the latter has recently been published by the Historical Society of Cleveland. For several years before the removal of the Western Reserve College to Cleve- land he held the position in that institution of Lecturer on Zoology and Practical Geology.

He still maintains his position at the bar, doing as much work as his health will permit, dividing his time between the practice of law and scientific studies and pursuits.

THE history of Ohio's services in the war of the Rebellion would be incomplete without a sketch of its work in the United States Sanitary Commission.

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OHIO'S WORK IN U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

This was an organization proposed by some of the best medical men of the country, and at their request authorized by the general government. Its primary object was the systematic inspection of camps and hospitals, for the purpose of aiding the medical department of the army in the adoption of such sanitary measures as would best preserve the health of the army and promote the recovery of the sick and wounded.

The part that Ohio took in this work assumed more prominence than that of any other of the Western States. This is to be attributed largely to the fact that the secretary selected to take charge of the Western department was a citizen of the State, and to his exceptional qualifications for the work.

Prof. John S. Newberry, now of the School of Mines of Columbia College, in New York, and then in the government service at Washington, was appointed a member of the Sanitary Commission, June 13, 1861. He immediately resigned his position at Washington, returned to Ohio, and entered with characteristic earnestness and zeal upon his new work of extending the organization of the Commission over the valley of the Mississippi. He established branches of the Commission at Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, as well as others at Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburg, Chicago, Louisville, etc., and gave such unity and efficiency to the Commission's work that he was appointed secretary of the Western depart- ment, an office which he held with honor to himself and the Commission till the end of the war. In the meantime, the patriotic revival that was carrying the best young and middle-aged men into the army was sweeping into its current almost all the women of the North, who were organizing "Soldiers' Aid Societies " in all the cities, villages, and hamlets of the loyal States, for the purpose of prepar- ing and collecting necessities, comforts, and luxuries for the soldiers in camp and hospital. There was an urgent necessity of a general organization, which could gather all these rivulets and streams into one channel, and provide for their sys- tematic and economical disposition. This work naturally devolved upon the Sanitary Commission-authorized by the government, national in its purposes, regardless of State lines, and solicitous only for the comfort and health of the entire army, and for its success in the struggle.

With the natural desire in each locality to collect and forward supplies to the soldiers enlisted in that locality, and of the officers of each State to make special provision for its own soldiers, it was a difficult task to educate the people into the idea that the soldiers of each regiment and of each State could be best cared for by systematic provision for the whole army. This result was substantially accomplished through the skilful management of the secretary, aided by the unselfish patriotism of the managers of the local societies, so that the transporta- tion and distribution of these stores was mainly, and especially in Ohio, intrusted to this Commission. Very rapidly an organization was perfected, some of the best and most experienced physicians selected, who were commissioned and dis- patched to their work. Among the first of these were Dr. A. N. Read, Dr. W. M. Prentice, and Dr. C. D. Griswold, all of Ohio, who immediately entered upon their duties-followed the army into the field, inspecting camps and hospitals, looking after the distribution of stores, and when battles occurred assisting in the care of the wounded.

Other inspectors from Ohio were Drs. Henry Parker, of Lorain county, M. M. Seymour, of Painesville, T. G. Cleveland, at first surgeon of the Forty-first O. V. I., and R. C. Hopkins, of Cleveland. These all labored with a zeal and intelligent devotion to their duties which commanded the highest encomiums of the medical and general officers of the army. Their work was of a delicate nature, requiring much tact and skill, and was of the greatest importance. The medical and gen- eral officers had a very inadequate estimate of the importance of sanitary precau- tions for the preservation of the health of the men, and at the beginning the deaths from preventable diseases were many times in excess of those resulting from casualties in battle.

These medical inspectors, representing the best medical skill of the State, with their associates from other States, supplied with suggestive circulars prepared by the best medical men of the nation, furnished very material aid to the officers of the army in securing the adoption of sanitary precautions for the prevention of sickness, that resulted in saving the lives of many thousands of soldiers. No

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OHIO'S WORK IN U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

statistics can be compiled which will measure the value of this work, but those who watched its progress can to some extent appreciate it, and long before the close of the war it secured the adoption of the best sanitary measures that were ever adopted in any army.

While the Commission was primarily organized for this sanitary work other important duty was rapidly crowded upon it. The women of the entire North were working for the soldiers, and societies were established in every city, with local societies auxiliary to them in every village and township. This was par- ticularly true in Ohio. Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus organized branches of the United States Sanitary Commission, and secured the greater part of the contributions of the local societies, assorting, re-packing, and marking them, and entrusting their distribution to the Commission.

The Branch at Cincinnati organized with the following members :

Cincinnati-R. W. Burnett, Charles F. Wilstach, James M. Johnson, Joshua H. Bates, C. C. Comegys, M. D., Edward Mead, M. D., Samuel L'Hommedieu, M. D., Rev. E. T. Collins, A. Aub, O. M. Mitchell, E. G. Robbins, J. B. Stallo, Larz Anderson, Micajah Bailey, E. S. Brooks, Charles E. Cist, David Judkins, M. D., W. H. Mussey, M. D., Rev. W. A. Sniveley, Henry Pearce, Thomas G. Odiorne, Mark E. Reeves, B. P. Baker, Robert Hosea, George Hoadly, S. J. Broad well, A. G. Burt, Charles R. Fosdick, John Davis, M. D., George Mendenhall, M. D., Rev. M. L. P. Thompson, George K. Shoenberger, Bellamy Storer, W. W. Scarborough, Thomas C. Shipley, F. C. Briggs. Dayton-B. W. Steel, J. D. Phillips, James McDaniel. President, R. W. Burnett ; Vice-President, George Hoadly ; Recording Secretary, B. P. Baker; Corresponding Secretary, Charles R. Fosdick ; Treasurer, Henry Pearce.

This branch sent out inspectors and relief agents into all parts of the Missis- sippi valley occupied by the Union army, who kept its officers thoroughly in- formed as to the wants of the soldiers, and the manner in which its contributions were distributed. In addition to the large amount of stores contributed the society raised in money $330,769.53, of which $235,406.62 were the net avails of " The Great Western Sanitary Fair " held at Cincinnati in the month of Decem- ber, 1863. The most of this large fund was used in the purchase of supplies of the best quality, which were sent to all parts of the army as the wants of the sick and wounded required. The United States Sanitary Commission contributed to this branch $15,000.

The success of the fair of 1863 was at the time unprecedented. At the head of the roll of managers was the name of General Rosecrans, and nearly all the prominent ladies, business men and merchant princes of the city combined their efforts to make it a success.

This branch established and maintained at Cincinnati a "Soldiers' Home " at an expense of $64,131.86, in which it furnished lodgings to 45,400 and meals to the number of 656,704.

The Cleveland Branch of the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio was organized on the 20th day of April, 1861, five days after the first call by President Lincoln for volunteers to put down the rebellion. It was organized by the appointment of the following officers : President, Mrs. B. Rouse ; Vice-Presidents, Mrs. John Shelley and Mrs. Wm. Melhinch ; Secretary, Miss Mary Clark Brayton ; Treasurer, Miss Ellen F. Terry.

Two hundred and seventy-nine of the Cleveland ladies enrolled themselves as members of the society, and without constitution or by-laws, with only the verbal pledge of the payment of a monthly fee, and to work while the war should last, they furnished an illustrious example of the patriotism, as well as the efficiency of Ohio women. The officers of the society gave their whole time to the work until the close of the war, asking and receiving no salaries and drawing nothing from the treasury for travelling or other expenses, even when absent on the neces- sary business of the society. They secured the active and cordial support of 525 auxiliary .societies, the members of most of them meeting weekly to work for the soldier. And the influence of that work is not to be measured by the articles prepared or the gifts contributed.

Every such local society was a school of patriotism : it made patriotism the fashion ; everywhere the wives and daughters of the most bitter opponents of the

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OHIO'S WORK IN U. S. SANITARY COMMISSION.

war were drawn into these societies, caught the dominant spirit, and carried its influence into their homes. These societies gave a moral support to the soldier in the field, and were worth more than thousands of bayonets in preserving peace at home. The names of the women engaged in the work of this central society and its 500 auxiliaries who deserve prominent mention would fill many pages of this volume, and it would be unjust to the others to record the names of a part of them; but all will concur in giving the first place to good Mrs. Rouse, the president of the society, who in feeble health and with a devotion that only a mother can exhibit gave her whole time to the work; a model example of womanly Christian patriotism. Her recent death at a ripe old age has emphasized her worth.

In June a number of the most patriotic and influential citizens of Cleveland were appointed associate members of the United States Sanitary Commission, and in October of the same year they united to organize a branch commission for the accomplishment of the same objects that engaged the attention of the branches elsewhere, and to lend to the already flourishing Soldiers' Aid Society whatever aid might be necessary in the execution of its work. The gentlemen who joined in this movement are as follows :

T. P. Handy, Joseph Perkins, William Bingham, M. C. Younglove, Still- man Witt, Benjamin Rouse, Dr. E. Cushing, A. Stone, Jr., E. S. Flint, Dr. A. Maynard.

The first duty which suggested itself to them was to provide a military hospital for Northern Ohio, which should receive the sick of the regiments quartered at Cleveland for whom no other asylum had been opened. By application to the Secretary of the Treasury a part of the marine hospital at Cleveland was placed at their command. This was fitted up by the co-operation of the ladies of the Aid Society, and continued to meet the wants of the class it was intended to accom- modate until the building of the Cleveland Soldiers' Home removed the necessity for its continuance (see Dr. Newberry's report on the Sanitary Commission in the valley of the Mississippi). These gentlemen co-operated heartily with the ladies in their work and contributed largely to its success. In addition to those whose names are given above Dr. Newberry makes special mention of Mr. L. M. Hubby, president of the C. C. & C. R. R. Co., and Mr. H. M. Chapin, who were especially active and efficient.

The general work of this society is admirably and concisely stated in the fol- lowing extract from the final report of its officers :

The foregoing pages are a brief sketch of the work that loyalty prompted one small district to do for the soldiers. They are submitted in the hope it may not be uninteresting to trace the history of a society which was the first permanently organized, one of the first to enter the field, and the last to leave it ; which began with a capital of two gold dollars and closed with a cash statement of more than $170,000 ; which grew from a neighborhood sewing circle to become the repre- sentative of 525 branch organizations in disbursing hospital stores valued at nearly $1,000,000; which built and supported a Soldiers' Home and conducted a special relief system and an employment agency from which 60,000 Union soldiers and their families received aid and comfort, and a claim agency which gratuitously collected war claims aggregating $300,000 at a saving to the claimants of over $17,000.

The ladies close their report with the following words :

All who had a part in the beneficent work in which it was woman's peculiar privilege to serve her country must feel abundantly rewarded in having been able to do something for those who gave health, manly strength, worldly prospects, ties of home, and even life itself in the more perilous service in the field.

As already sweet flowers and tender plants creep over and half conceal the battle foot-prints, but lately left on many a field and hillside of our land, so sweet charities and tender memories come to envelop the gaunt figures, and veil the grim visages of war, that must forever stand a central object upon the canvas that protrays the history of these memorable years.

A single instance may be added illustrating the efficiency and devotion of these noble workers in the Soldiers' Home established at the railroad station in

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Cleveland. On the 29th of July, 1864, telegrams announced that a full brigade of hungry soldiers would reach the Home that night; special preparations were immediately made for their comfort, and when after long hours of weary waiting the train steamed into the depot bringing the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Wisconsin and the Twenty-seventh Michigan, 1,350 men, a sumptuous repast was awaiting them, which would have been a credit to any of the hotels of the city. In the memory of these men and of the many thousands of others who were thus provided for, the good works of these Cleveland women are permanently enshrined.

The Columbus Branch was organized in October, 1861, with the following members :

Governor Wm. Dennison, F. C. Sessions, J. B. Thompson, M. D., S. M. Smith, M. D., P. Ambos, Robert Neil, Rev. Dr. Fitzgerald, W. M. Awl, M. D., T. J. Wormley, M. D., S. Lovering, M. D., J. H. Riley, Rev. Joseph M. Trimble, D. D., Hon. John W. Andrews, Joseph Sullivant, Francis Carter, M. D., Francis Collins. Officers : President, W. M. Awl, M. D .; Vice-President, J. B. Thompson, M. D .; Secretary, F. C. Sessions ; Treasurer, T. J. Wormley, M. D.

Five thousand dollars was appropriated to this branch by the United States Sanitary Commission, and several thousand dollars was subsequently contributed to aid in the equipment and maintenance of the Soldiers' Home. In co-operation with this branch a Ladies' Aid Society was organized embracing most of the patriotic women of the city, with Mrs. W. E. Ide as the first president and Mrs. George W. Heyl the first secretary. The records of the amount of contributions of this branch are not accessible, but they found their way to nearly every battle- field and hospital in the Mississippi valley. Mr. Sessions was early in the field as a volunteer in the care of the sick and wounded, and continued his labors to the close of the war.

Dr. Smith was subsequently surgeon-general of the State, and from the begin- ning to the close of the war was an indefatigable and judicious worker. The location of this branch gave it an unusual amount of local work, which was always efficiently and faithfully done. Here as well as elsewhere in the State the names of those deserving special mention cannot be given without the appro- priation of more space than can be given to this sketch.

By the work of local societies, the aid of sanitary fairs, and the labor of solicit- ing agents, a corps of whom were organized and put in the field by Dr. Newberry, the supplies came in in continuous streams and the Commission received in the aggregate $807,335.03 in money and stores for distribution of the estimated value of $5,123,376. At first there was a natural tendency in each locality to provide for regiments organized in the locality, and then to attempt in each State to pro- vide for the soldiers of that State; some continuing this attempt to the close of the war. But it was soon seen by those in the field that the readiest way to pro- vide for any particular regiment was by a united attempt to provide for all. Ohio was quick to learn this fact, and the broad patriotism of its people was shown by an almost universal disregard of localities and State lines, and by devoting all their energies to the relief of the Union soldier wherever found. Its contributions to this end largely exceeded those of any other State in the Mississippi valley, a fact in which every citizen may take laudable pride.

After the field work was well organized Dr. Newberry established his head- quarters at Louisville, as the most favorable point for superintending the opera- tions of the Sanitary Commission in the Mississippi valley. He selected Charles S. Sill of Cuyahoga Falls as treasurer and H. S. Holbrook of the same place to organize and manage a hospital directory, which grew into a bureau of information for all having friends in the army. The local agents of the Commission after every battle obtained promptly lists of the killed and wounded, and daily reports from all the hospitals, showing admissions, discharges, deaths and transfers to other hospitals, which were all copied into the local registers of the Commission. Then the originals were forwarded to Mr. Holbrook, who embodied the facts into his records in such a manner that he could promptly give the location and hospital history of every patient and the date and place of every death in the western army so far as was known. Frequently and especially after every battle parties who failed to hear from their friends in the army, becoming anxious about their

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safety, would send to this bureau for information, and sometimes these inquiries by letter and telegram would number hundreds in a day. If in the hospital or on the list of killed a reference to the records would furnish full information; if not the inquiry was forwarded to the agent of the post where the regiment was stationed. The records there were searched and if they afforded no information the regiment was immediately visited, the companions of the missing man found and questioned, and in a large majority of cases the desired information obtained. Under Mr. Holbrook's excellent management this work was so perfected that these records were largely used by the officers of the army in locating or deter- mining the fate of missing men. The number of names on Mr. Holbrook's records was 799,317; the number of deaths recorded 81,621, and the number of inquiries received and answered 24,005. Mr. Holbrook with the persevering industry of a man and the overflowing sympathy of a woman was admirably adapted to this work, but it wore him out faster than service in the field, and though able to keep his post till the close of the war, its close found him so pros- trated and exhausted that his health was never perfectly restored.

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Historical collections of Ohio in two volumes, an encyclopedia of the state, Volume I, Part 29

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893 Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio Number of Pages: 1006

Author: Howe, Henry, 1816-1893
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Cincinnati : Published by the state of Ohio
Number of Pages: 1006