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, Stillman 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 accommodate 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 following 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 representative 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

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 battlefield 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 beginning 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 appropriation 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 soliciting 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 provide 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 provide 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 headquarters at Louisville, as the most favorable point for superintending the operations 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

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 determining 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 prostrated and exhausted that his health was never perfectly restored.

The personnel of the central office at Louisville was as follows:

Secretary Western Department Sanitary Commission, Dr. J. S. Newberry; assistant secretary, Robert T. Thorne; chief clerk, Dr. N. E. Soule; cashier, C. S. Sill; superintendent hospital directory, H. S. Holbrook; superintendent warehouses, W. S. Hanford; editor Sanitary Reporter, Dr. G. L. Andrew; hospital visitor, Rev. F. H. Bushnell; superintendent hospital trains, Dr. J. P. Barnum; superintendent hospital and supply steamer, H. W. Fogle; claim agent, H. H. Burkholder. Of these officers Drs. Newberry and Soule and Messrs. Sill, Holbrook, Hanford, Fogle and Burkholder were from Ohio.

Free transportation over freight and express lines was generously given for the stores of the Commission, and the free use of private and military telegraph lines to all its agents who had depots of stores at every important post, and whose agents with supplies were present on nearly every battle-field. It established feeding stations and Soldiers' Homes so as to supply all the wants of the soldiers discharged at the most southern point reached by the army until he reached his home, in which also the friends of the soldier found ample accommodations. As an illustration of the extent and the benefits of these Homes one instance may be given: A woman from Central New York made her way to Chattanooga, Tenn., to visit her sick husband, but reached the place too late to see him alive. Her money was exhausted, for she expected to obtain from her husband means for her return. A childless widow who had given her all to the country she could not bear to leave the remains of her husband on her return home. appeal was made by the agent of the Commission to the military undertaker who had a lucrative business at that post, who readily consented to embalm the body and furnish a burial case without charge, and the express company forwarded it to its destination without charge. The agent furnished her with free transportation over the military roads to Louisville, and open letters to the superintendents of the Homes and to the railroad conductors stating the facts of her case and soliciting their interest in her behalf. At the Homes in Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Buffalo she obtained meals, and lunches to take into the cars; the conductors passed her free over their roads, and she reached Syracuse, N. Y., with the body of her husband and without any expense.

An

An important work new in military history was inaugurated, and made a marked success by the Ohio men in the Commission. When the Army of the Cumberland had raised the siege of Chattanooga, and in the winter of 1864 was preparing for a vigorous, aggressive campaign, it was evident the army was likely to suffer severely during the coming summer for the want of vegetable food. It could not be brought to so distant a point from the Northern States, and no dependence could be placed upon the adjacent country for a supply. Scurvy had prevailed to an alarming degree in this army during the previous summer when stationed at Murfreesboro, much nearer the base of supplies. An experiment had there been made in gardening, under the management of Mr. Harriman, a gardener detailed from the One-hundred-and-first O. V. I. in 1863, which was so far successful as to warrant, in the opinion of the agent at Chattanooga, a more extensive effort in 1864, and commensurate with the increased necessities of the

army. He immediately conferred with the medical director of the army, Dr. Perrin, and proposed with his co-operation and the approval of the commanding general, to establish a sanitary garden of sufficient extent to provide for all the probable wants of the sick and wounded.

The proposition was heartily welcomed as a probable solution of what had been regarded as an insolvable problem. He immediately approved a proposition prepared by the agent for submission to Gen. Thomas, proposing that if the general would authorize the Commission to take possession of abandoned lands suitable for cultivation, would provide for the protection of the garden, and furnish horses and necessary details of men, the Commission would provide a good market-garden, tools, seeds, and appliances for the work, and would undertake to supply all the hospitals at Chattanooga and the neighboring posts with all the vegetables needed, distributing the surplus to convalescent camps and regiments.

The general at once issued the necessary orders for carrying on the work; a body of land between Citico creek and the Tennessee river was selected, a detail put to work building a fence, so as to include within it and the two streams something over 150 acres, and a requisition forwarded to Dr. Newberry for seeds and tools. When these arrived application was made for horses, and it was learned that there were none at the post that could be spared for the work. An advertisement was inserted in the Chattanooga papers for the purchase of horses and mules, but none were offered. Then authority was obtained to impress from the country. The agent scoured the neighboring territory for some twenty miles on all sides of Chattanooga without finding anything to impress.

Returning somewhat discouraged from his last trip, he stumbled upon a corral of sick and disabled horses, and the difficulty was at once overcome. An order was secured directing the quartermaster to turn over fifty of these horses selected by the Commission and as many harnesses. There was no difficulty in finding horses unfit for military duty which would do fairly good work before the plow or harrow. They were put promptly at work. But during these delays the season had so far advanced that more tools were needed than were sent from Louisville. To meet this want some were impressed from the country and others made to order by the quartermaster; and soon the fifty horses and nearly a hundred men were actively employed under the supervision of Mr. Thomas Wills, of Summit county, who was sent by Dr. Newberry as head gardener. The work was pushed with energy during the whole season, much of the ground being made to yield two and three crops, all the articles raised in an ordinary marketgarden being cultivated. It happened that wagons were employed distributing the products to the hospitals on the day that the first of the wounded from the Atlanta campaign arrived, and from that time till the close of the season the supply was much in excess of all the wants of the hospitals, the large surplus being distributed to convalescent camps and regiments. As the season advanced the details of men fit for duty in the field were revoked, and details made from the convalescent camps. These men, placed in good quarters, abundantly supplied with vegetables, and moderately worked, were restored to health much faster than those left in the camps. The men were so well pleased with their position and their work that the prospect of a revoking of their detail for any insubordination secured strict discipline. At the close of the season voluntary testimonials were furnished by all the surgeons in charge of the hospitals of the great value of the work, and that it had been the means of saving the lives of thousands. The details for a guard and for work constituted as efficient part of the garrison of the post as if left within the camps, and there was with them an almost entire exemption from sickness. The horses from the sick corrals, well fed and cared for, rapidly recovered, and the whole practical cost was the price of seeds and tools, and the salary of the gardener. The fact was demonstrated that, at military post, when a garrison is to be maintained through the summer, an abundance of vegetable food can be raised by the garrison without any impairment of its efficiency and at a very trifling cost.

At the urgent request of all the surgeons of the post the general ordered a continuance of the work during the following year.

The whole work of the Commission was a novelty in military operations. Its

agents were every where-in hospitals, in camps, and on the battle-fields-cooperating with the medical officers in the care of the sick and wounded, and in precautions for preserving the health of the men; and the voluntary testimonials of the officers, surgeons, and privates to the value of their work would fill a volume. What is reproachfully called "red tape" in the army is system, method, a careful scrutiny of expenditures, without which the richest nation would be bankrupted by a short war; its hardships in individual cases are mitigated and almost entirely removed by such a voluntary association as the Sanitary Commission, with its agents in all parts of the army, harmoniously working with the medical officers, and provided with supplies of all kinds for the relief of the soldiers, which can be promptly distributed without formal requisitions, simply on the request of the surgeon and attendants, or wherever a needy soldier is found by the agents. They supplement the government supplies, and are a provision for every emergency when the government stores are not available or cannot be obtained in time.

This is a brief and imperfect sketch of the work of the United States Sanitary Commission in the Mississippi valley, in which the citizens of Ohio took so honorable and important a part.

First in the list of workers stands the name of Prof. John S. Newberry, who had general charge of the Western department. The entire work of organization and general superintendence was his, the selection of all agents, and the determination. of all their duties and salaries.

Before the war he had a national reputation as a geologist and paleontologist, and at its close returned to his favorite studies. He was appointed chief geologist for Ohio, and, with the aid of his assistants, prepared a report upon the geology of the State, alike creditable to him and to his assistants and to the State.

He was, while engaged in this work, elected as Professor of Geology and Palontology in the School of Mines of Columbia College, New York, a position which he now occupies. His scientific labors have given him not only an American but also an European reputation as one of the most prominent scientists of the age. The following extract from a recent number of an influential English periodical shows the estimation in which he is held in that country:

"A large circle of admirers, both English and American, will see with pleasure that the Murchirson medal of the Geological Society is to be conferred this year on Dr. J. S. Newberry, of New York, the well-known professor of Columbia College. Dr. Newberry, however, has been in his time active, and indeed distinguished in other matters besides geology. I remember,' writes a correspondent, 'meeting him by chance in Nashville in November, 1863, when he was at the head of the Western department of the Sanitary Commission, an immense organization, whose business it was to dispense for the benefit of the soldiers of the Republic great quantities of stores, consisting mainly of medicines, clothing, and comforts of all sorts subscribed by enthusiastic citizens of the Northern States. Dr. Newberry took me down with him from Nashville to the then seat of war on the boundary of Georgia, and I can bear witness to the workmanlike manner in which he administered his department, and the devotion with which he was regarded by all of his assistants.'

Dr. Newberry's office assistants were Charles Sill, of Cuyahoga Falls, treasurer; H. S. Holbrook, of Cuyahoga Falls, in charge of the hospital directory; H. M. Fogle, clerk, and W. S. Hansford, in charge of transportation, both also of Cuyahoga Falls; others were employed from time to time as clerks, but these remained inthis office till the close of the war. Mr. Sill and Mr. Fogle are now deceased. Mr. Holbrook retired from his work greatly debilitated, and never recovered his health.

Of the medical inspectors, Dr. A. N. Read, of Norwalk, leaving a lucrative practice, entered the service in Kentucky when our army first crossed into that State, was almost the sole representative of the Commission at the battle of Perrysville, followed the army to Nashville and Pittsburg Landing, and afterwards returned to Nashville, and made that his headquarters as chief inspector and general manager of the work of the Commission in the Army of the Cumberland. He followed the army to Chattanooga, worked assiduously in care of the