Philadelphia Volunteer Soldier " Saloons ", No Beer, Much Love

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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As usual, Frank Leslie's ' traveling photographers ' left us an inside look at one of the ' saloons '. This is Cooper's one of two in Philadelphia. Men and relief as far as the eye can see. Five hundred men could be fed! 400,000 passed through Cooper's alone.

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On Washington Street, Cooper's operated by providing stations- note the water station- for a good wash, too!
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Inside the water station men just literally lined up to be clean. Well, and it must have paid off if you got to meet ladies afterwards.

If we think travel in 2017 uncomfortable, a trek off to war in 1861 ( and beyond, and back ) would wear the bejammers out of a gazelle. March, embark, unembark, march with no I-81's taking anyone South. Or North.

As ever, citizens did not sit around waiting for government services. Taking due note as men passed through Philadelphia, expected to make journeys of 100's of miles subsisting on tooth-breakers in knapsacks, dirty, thirsty, home a letter or photograph stuffed inside pockets, women itched to get motherly hands on them.

So they did. Sister organizations sprang up. " Relief Stations ", " Union Volunteer Refreshment Stand and Hospital " and " Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon ". Massive? Goodness. In typical Victorian super-achiever fashion, both dot orgs massively staffed, provided for, watched over, fed, washed and all but massively tucked-in for the night grubby, weary and massively appreciative soldiers. Some were put to bed- I'm not sure they're not still there 150 years later, so massive was the compassion. Someone should go look.

Part of a letter, a more than grateful soldier.
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Between Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, NYPL, LoC and various ancient Hathi sources there are an incredible amount of sources documenting these hands in Philadelphia. " Union Saloon " is more famous in my opinion because that awesome eagle dominates both the ' saloon ' and adjoining hospital.
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Pretty sure this NYPL ( from a stereotype ) image is from its opening ceremonies? Surely no one is firing that canon.

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Unsure date? Building the canon had been pointing towards lacks signage?
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Inside one of these hospital buildings.

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Back to Cooper's massive feeding lines. Crazy! Thank you Frank Leslie for your determination to illustrate this war.

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" Cooper " shop was not making barrels. Cooper was co-owner of the building's former business.

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This is confusing because the picture looks like ' Cooper ', perhaps not. It seems to be a certificate of gratitude. I did find at least one account of a nurse dying after contracting illness while nursing here. Volunteering was serious stuff.

https://digital.librarycompany.org/...7c1fcec0f&solr_nav[page]=0&solr_nav[offset]=0

More on Cooper's at this site from Philadelphia's Library System? Very cool stuff, fair warning- it's a very cool site, too. You'll get lost in it.
 

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Really do not mean to draw attention to specific threads for any agenda- in another thread there's much talk on women and value? Tough topic- I'm unsure anyone will ever know how massive was the ' War Effort '. North and South. These ' saloons '- also had hospitals attached, were ' manned ' 24/7, men ate in shifts, standing up, water stations included bathing, and veritable battalions of women came out of the woodwork to glue it all together. The Wayside system in the South, from what I can glean, began in an old RR station- as one of these.

Rats, very short on time, have more on some of these- pretty massive affairs.
 
I continue to be amazed at the organized effort of the North, including their women, to provide for the basic needs of their soldiers. Sure, the South had their services too, but nothing seemed to have been this well-orchestrated.

Just reading this post, and seeing the images, made my womanly instinct to nurture surge into overdrive. Yes, I would be somewhere helping somehow, if alive during that era.
 
I continue to be amazed at the organized effort of the North, including their women, to provide for the basic needs of their soldiers. Sure, the South had their services too, but nothing seemed to have been this well-orchestrated.

Just reading this post, and seeing the images, made my womanly instinct to nurture surge into overdrive. Yes, I would be somewhere helping somehow, if alive during that era.


Tell you what's frustrating is lack of cohesive information in the South, since we know these were sure there, too- problem being as cities fell, were evacuated, supplies made impossible to get, their services were limited. Thought I'd found a marvelous lead, where some young girls had begun a relief station at the RR depot ( Richmond? ). Got as far as that apparently becoming the seeds for the massive ' Wayside ' system- but not more on that relief station itself. Rats! There was a lot of damage to records- unsurprising it is tough finding more but would love to see the Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta- etc., stations.

OH you'd have been there, to be sure Gladys! Must find one of the accounts , post battle in the South ( and won't say where in case I'm wrong from the top of my head? ), where citizens showed up in the craziest, most wonderful collection of buggies and carriages to take wounded men home, to nurse. It caused concern since conditions inside those nice homes were luxurious compared to camps- would men become too pampered? So funny. Guessing no, they did not- just had some great stories to tell and new friends.
 
There are so many stories to try to uncover. This is off the subject of this post, but I would like to know more about the "Nashville warehouse", where the wives of slaves, who were conscripted into the Union Army, were said to be sent. Nashville was under Union occupation at that time. I read a brief sentence mentioning this place, telling of the disease and death there.
Also, I would like to know more about conditions of the place where women, captured by the Union at a mill in Rome, Georgia, were sent to in Missouri. Why did these women, black or white, need to be sent and keep confined as prisoners anyway? What happened to their children in their absence? Only God knows.
 
Came across yet another era article on the Philadelphia rest stations. You just cannot wrap your head around the amount of volunteerism in Philadelphia alone. This one's Cooper again.
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Found a reference to a ' Union Orphanage ' while reading more on these two relief stations. It was brand, new information to me. Does anyone know anything more please?
 
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