A Private Comments on the Christian and Sanitary Commissions

John Hartwell

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About all I have read about these institutions seems to originate from civilians, high ranking officers, or the Commissions themselves. Never from the rank and file soldier.

I have just finished reading My Diary of Rambles with the 25th Mass. Vol. Inf, by D. L. Day (1884): a chatty, generally good-natured account of the day to day experiences of the ordinary soldier. He observes: "I have read a great deal in the papers of the Christian and Sanitary commissions, of the noble and humane work they were doing, and the immense amount of money contributed for their support by the people of the north and west."

Though he had been serving since Sept. 1861 (mainly in NC), he had never encountered any such commission until July 1864, when he was at the convalescent camp near the XVIII Corps Hospital at Point of Rocks, Va. Both Christian and Sanitary Commissions were located between the camp and the hospital; and both seem to have worked in the same way.
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"I find they are little else than sutler's shops, and poor ones at that. These places are said to furnish without money ... such little notions and necessities as we have been accustomed to buy at the sutler's." And so they did, but apparently accompanied by intrusive interrogation and frequent lectures on "the bad habits of young men."

"After answering all the questions they are pleased to ask we are given one thin slice of lemon, a half sheet of paper, or a single chew of tobacco" (never any for later -- you have to come back).

"I seldom solicit any favors, and those are granted so grudgingly I almost despise the gift." One day he asked for a pencil, "I was handed a third of one. I got out of writing paper ... and was given a half sheet. By the time I finished my letter I had been to the Christians six times." Each time receiving a lecture on his "sins."

All in all, he decided he would rather buy what he needed from the sutler. It seemed less costly.

"I notice the officers fare better; they get in fair quantities about anything they call for." An enlisted man might be told they were all out of some item, yet "in a little while after some officer would call for the same thing and get it."

He concludes: "If the whole system of it throughout the army is conducted as niggardly as I have seen it here, there must be some superb lying done by somebody to account for all the money that is being contributed for its support."

My question is this: Was his experience unusual? What accounts do we have from private soldiers about the Commissions activities elsewhere?

Certainly it was not unusual for officers to receive superior treatment -- and the 'commonality' surely could not be trusted with more than a bare minimum (give him two pinches of tobacco & he'd probably sell one!) And religious do-gooders always accompany good deeds with sermons. But, was there ever a real accounting of donations received and services rendered?
 
Both Christian and Sanitary Commissions were located between the camp and the hospital; and both seem to have worked in the same way.
but apparently accompanied by intrusive interrogation and frequent lectures on "the bad habits of young men."
We do know that he visited the "Christian Commission" but, he doesn't say he visited the Sanitary Commission for sure. Am sure he got the lectures at the CC. But, from reading, half way so far, Livermore's My Story of the War, I don't get any idea that men got lectured to when asking for items. But I could be wrong.
Anyway, we have no idea if the site/s were full of supplies or in short supply for specific materials.
I skimmed over " History of the United States Sanitary Commission: Being the General Report of Its Work During the Civil War
https://archive.org/download/historyunitedst01commgoog/historyunitedst01commgoog.pdf 54 pages which is a quick review of the commission, which gives a short history of what work the Commission did.
In The United States Sanitary Commission, https://archive.org/download/101179010.nlm.nih.gov/101179010.pdf In a section on finances, I found a report from the main Headquarters on monies collected, but also explains that the value of all contributions are not known, mainly from the smaller groups thru out the country which did not report, but a estimate is attempted.
 
Now will follow some of Mrs. Livermore's memoirs on the Commission:

After the battle of Antietam, where ten thousand of our own wounded were left on the field, besides a large number of the enemy, the Commission distributed “ 28,763 pieces of dry goods, shirts, towels,bed-ticks, pillows, etc.; 30 barrels of old linen, bandages, and lint; 3,188 pounds of farina; 2,620 pounds of condensed milk; 5,000 pounds of beefstock and canned meats; 3,000 bottles of wine and cordials; 4,000 sets of hospital clothing; several tons of lemons and other fruit; crackers, tea, sugar, rubber cloth, tin cups, chloroform, opiates, surgical instruments, and other hospital conveniences.” After the battle of Shiloh, in the West, where nearly as many wounded men were left on the field as at Antietam, the Commission distributed “ 11,448 shirts; 3,686 pairs of drawers; 3,592 pairs of socks; 2,777 bed-sacks; 543 pillows; 1,045 bottles of brandy, whiskey, and wine; 799 bottles of porter; 941 lemons; 20,316 pounds of dried fruit; 7,577 cans of fruit; and 15,323 pounds of farinaceous food.”
Whence came these hospital supplies, or the money for their purchase? They were gathered by the loyal women of the North, who organized over ten thousand “ aid societies ” during the war, and who never flagged in their constancy to the cause of the sick and wounded soldier. As rapidly as possible, “ branches ” of the United States Sanitary Commission were established in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Chicago, and other cities—ten in all. Here sub-depots of sanitary stores were
maintained, and into these the soldiers’ aid societies poured their never-ceasing contributions. The supplies sent to these ten sub-depots were assorted, repacked, stamped with the mark of the Commission, only one kind of supplies being packed in a box, and then a list of the contents was marked on the outside.
The boxes were then stored, subject to the requisitions of the great central distributing depots, established at Washington and Louisville. Through these two cities, all supplies of every kind passed to the troops at the front, who were contending with the enemy.
 
Here [Chicago] were packed and shipped to the hospitals or battle-field 77,660 packages of sanitary supplies, whose cash value was $1,056,192.16. Here were written and mailed letters by the ten thousand, circulars by the hundred thousand, monthly bulletins and reports. Here were planned visits to the aid societies, trips to the army, methods of raising money and supplies, systems of relief for soldiers’ families and white refugees, Homes and Rests for destitute and enfeebled soldiers, and the details of mammoth sanitary fairs. pg 157
 
Mr. John Freeman was nominally the shipping clerk; but if there was any kind of work connected with the rooms at which he did not lend a hand, I have yet to learn what it was. He attended to the boxes, to the packing, to the shipping; helped soldiers to obtain transportation back to their regiments, or assisted them, when feeble and wounded, to reach their homes' pg 158

Besides all this, Mrs. Livermore went with the supplies to Vicksburg, while the army was still opposite Vicks and minister to the sick, and even was able to get some of the sick men discharged and sent home, with her going along to help them on the trip.
 
The Sanitary Commission certainly did wonderful, tireless work for the hospitals and soldiers' rest saloons ... in the "big" things. I'm sure the Christian Commission did, too, though there was a lot of wrangling in the newspapers between different Christian denominations over control of the organization. D.L. Day's comment is the only one I've found regarding private soldiers' experience with them. And, yes, while he mentions both but only speaks of the CC.
 
My guess would be there were the same glitches in the system as in any sprawling enterprise, however good it was across the board. It could have depended on where and who, we don't know. There was some snarking between them- I ' think ' it was Aunt Becky who was working for the CC when she kinda disses the SC over a tendency to be ' grand '. If I'm remembering the right memoir, she's annoyed seeing visitors from the SC wearing fashionable clothes when she'd just made her own out of bed ticking. Like I said, seems to have been some friction there.

It's a fair question. We know without both these organizations the war's death toll would have been even more unimaginable, work done was beyond vital. Still, hearing from the little guy, the regular soldier inside any of this seems important. He'd be the one actually contributing the most to the war and we rarely pay a lot attention to him.
 
I quoted from a skeptical soldier's letter to his hometown newspaper in my book:

I know of my own knowledge and from good information and belief that much of what the good ladies of the Union donate for the sick and wounded soldier never reaches them—their object is good, but the Machinery by which the stores are conveyed is imperfect. It would be better to express direct to the soldier or some one of the company, or else in selecting Chaplains, Doctors or persons about hospitals for agents, to entrust those only with the luxuries that are honest. It would be well for the Sanitary Societies of Iowa to look into this matter and ascertain if the clothes and nice provisions sent to the Soldiers Home in Memphis, Cairo and elsewhere on the River, are not too frequently used by Hospital pimps and women that do not deserve to be called ladies.

Orville Burke, “From the 14th Iowa,” written to the Anamosa (IA) Eureka from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Sept. 19, 1864. From my book Not Till Then Can the World Know: Replacement Companies of the Fourteenth Iowa in the Trans-Mississippi, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0868DMWSS/?tag=civilwartalkc-20 .
 
I quoted from a skeptical soldier's letter to his hometown newspaper in my book:

I know of my own knowledge and from good information and belief that much of what the good ladies of the Union donate for the sick and wounded soldier never reaches them—their object is good, but the Machinery by which the stores are conveyed is imperfect. It would be better to express direct to the soldier or some one of the company, or else in selecting Chaplains, Doctors or persons about hospitals for agents, to entrust those only with the luxuries that are honest. It would be well for the Sanitary Societies of Iowa to look into this matter and ascertain if the clothes and nice provisions sent to the Soldiers Home in Memphis, Cairo and elsewhere on the River, are not too frequently used by Hospital pimps and women that do not deserve to be called ladies.

Orville Burke, “From the 14th Iowa,” written to the Anamosa (IA) Eureka from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Sept. 19, 1864. From my book Not Till Then Can the World Know: Replacement Companies of the Fourteenth Iowa in the Trans-Mississippi, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0868DMWSS/?tag=civilwartalkc-20 .

Yes, you'd have to guess as with any massive undertaking oversight would have been necessary and incredibly difficult. Bickerdyke was wonderful when it came to abusing the various systems, she'd sure sail in with corrective measures.

A further guess would be that because most involved in these outreaches had sterling motives and themselves behaved beautifully, it may have been too easy to trust that everyone else was doing the same thing?
 
It really isn't surprising to think that the system had glitches - don't most if not all? Every once in a while you come across a soldier from WW2 complaining about how stingy the Red Cross was. Probably in part expectation v. reality. But also a reflection of a genuine experience - a soldier goes needing something basic and doesn't get it, despite having been told they would.
 
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