(A.) We were "stampeded" last night. A train arrived, and the ladies
were at the kitchen ashore getting tea ready. Dr. Ware went to the cars,
as usual, and two or three wounded men were brought down on litters, to
be put on the _Elm City_. The doctor coming along with them said, "These
men were shot on the train, just before arriving here." After they had
been taken on board, M. said to me, "Do you know they are getting ready
to take in the gang-plank, and are firing up on the _Elm City_?" I went
on board; could not see the captain; the engineer was having the fires
pushed, and said the orders had come from Colonel Ingalls, commander of
the post, to fire up and get away as quickly as possible. All our boats
had received the same. I went out, and with difficulty got the ladies to
go on board. M., who had gone up to head-quarters to see if there was no
mistake, came back with the message, "Drop down below the gunboats, at
once, and look out to keep clear of vessels floating down on fire." We
of course obeyed orders, knowing nothing of the reasons for them, and in
half an hour all our boats were anchored a mile below, with steam up. As
soon as this was accomplished, I took a yawl, and pulled back to the
railroad landing, where I found everything quiet, Ware and H. taking
care of the sick who had been left in the tents. Walking on to the post
head-quarters, I found all the camp-followers, teamsters, sutlers,
railroad and barge men, organizing in companies, and arms and ammunition
serving to them. M., who had volunteered for this duty, had a company. I
found the Provost-Marshal, who told me that the enemy had suddenly
appeared, apparently in considerable force, about three miles from here,
simultaneously on the river and the railroad. A wagon train had been
captured, two or three schooners burned, the telegraph cut. It was
presumed that it was an expedition designed to play havoc with this
post, where there is an immense amount of army supplies of all kinds,
with a force absurdly inadequate to its protection,—in fact, but a weak
regiment of infantry, and a weaker one of horse; but some artillery was
landing, and before daylight they would have two capital batteries of
Napoleons ready, and were gathering supports. I got permission to send
for the _Small_, which is short enough to be quickly handled at the
landing, and to put on her the sickest of the men who had been brought
down during the day to be sent to the post hospital, and who were still
in tents near the landing, as it seemed to me they would suffer less
disturbance afloat than ashore in case the attack was made. It was
daybreak before I got them at anchor below again. At sunrise I was
allowed to bring all the boats up; but as there was a standing order
against the shipment of sick at this time, (in order to reserve the
transports for the wounded,) we kept our patients on the _Small_ for
some days, the post surgeon not being able to receive them. The women
were greatly annoyed and indignant at being sent, with the boats, out of
harm's way.
* * * * *
(N.) We sat on deck ... watching the fleet of transports,
hospital-ships, and supply-boats hurrying after and past us, and the
signaling from gunboat to gunboat, which seemed done by a lantern at the
end of a long pole, dashed up and down through the darkness. It was
midnight when a messenger came in the yawl, with orders to bring the
_Small_ back to the railroad. All the way up we worked, getting ready
for as many sick as could be taken on her. Forty-five beds filled every
corner of the boat, and beef-tea, punch, and gruel were ready by the
time we reached the railroad-bridge. Dr. Ware and H., who had not run
away, had selected the sickest of the men in the tents, and had them all
ready to put on board, and with the help of the _Spaulding's_ nurses,
whom we called for on the way up, we took them on board that night, and
the next day and the next we had them in our little boat,—some of the
sickest men I ever saw,—crazy and noisy, soaked, body and mind, with
swamp-poison, and in a sort of delirious remembrance of the days before
the fever came,—days of mortal chill and hunger,—screaming for food, for
something "hot," for "lucifer matches" even. Two of these men died on
board, not able to give their names.
The fright about the raid having somewhat subsided, we settled down
again, as we supposed, into our daily routine of fitting up transports,
and of receiving and feeding the sick who arrive on the trains. All
sorts of messages and people are constantly coming to our tent;—surgeons
from the front, to have requisitions filled for lemons and onions,[8]
beef-stock, and brandy; orderlies, for officers sick, and just arrived
to take the mail-boat, needing refreshment; and miscellaneous crowds,
who have constantly to be instructed that we are not free sutlers.
Captain —— had kindly provided a wall tent for our use, and Dr. Ware, in
thought for our comfort, has it pitched close by our kitchen, and the
sickest men arriving by train are put into it, and we are able to care
for them without hurrying across the railroad track with our hot gruel.
Here I found myself the other day, spoon-feeding, with a napkin under
his chin, the pleasant chaplain who came down on the _Daniel Webster_ to
join his regiment on the first day we started as a hospital company. His
turn had arrived, poor fellow, and he came back to us with a blister on
each temple, and symptoms of typhoid. We had in the tent at the same
time five or six officers, all sick. Our little comforts, fans,
slippers, mosquito-netting, napkins, cologne, are great comforts to the
sick men, though to be sure one man did say to me to-day, when I put a
few drops from my bottle, "_Gegenüber dem Julichs Platz_," on his
handkerchief, "O my! how bad that smells! I don't mind it much, but
perhaps you have spilt some of that medicine you have in your bottle!"
My cologne of cologne!
Footnote 8:
As scorbutic symptoms had been reported in certain regiments, the
Commission was sending small quantities of fruit and vegetables by
every returning hospital transport. It afterwards sent whole cargoes,
as will be seen by reference to Appendix D.
* * * * *
The _St. Mark_ arrived about this time, a splendid clipper
East-Indiaman, and, after her, the _Euterpe_, both first-class new
sailing vessels, entirely reconstructed interiorly by the Commission, as
model hospital-ships, and having their own corps of surgeons, dressers,
&c. Drawing too much water to come up the Pamunkey, they anchored at
Yorktown, and the sick were taken down on steamboats to them, and they
made the voyage round to New York in tow of steamers.
* * * * *
(A.) _June 27th, 1862._ I was intending to go down to the _St. Mark_
last night. We had had some rumors the day before that Stonewall Jackson
was making a dash to get in our rear, and take this post. I did not mind
them, but about three o'clock, P. M., yesterday, Captain S., the active
executive here, came to me, and said, privately: "Get away from this as
soon as you can; the enemy is here again; our pickets are driven in, and
I think we shall be obliged, within three hours, to burn everything that
can't be run down the river. Give what help you conveniently can to the
vessels on the river as you go down, but don't stop this side of
Cumberland." I called in our men and women, found that our machinery,
which had been repairing for two days, was in such disorder that it
could only be used at all by the exertions of three men supplying the
place of certain fractured iron, with their arms; and then but very
slowly, and with great care, of course. We were in no condition to help
anybody else. I pushed off, however, in quarter of an hour, taking the
_Wissahickon_ and _Elizabeth_ in company. One or two boats started
before us, and several immediately after. As we passed down, we found
the gunboats with their boarding-nettings up, and all ready for action,
and the skirt of wood along the shore of the White House grounds cut
away to allow a sweep to their guns. We left our consorts at Cumberland
to take forage vessels in tow down, and went on slowly to West Point,
where we anchored. Soon after noon to-day the Captain reported his
machinery repaired, and we started to return to White House. The river
was full of vessels coming down. We could learn nothing from them except
that everything had been ordered to "clear out." We got here about
sunset, and found almost everything gone,—a remarkably orderly and
successful removal of a vast amount of stores. Among what remained,
whiskey and hay were distributed, and everything was ready for firing.
Stonewall Jackson had not come down upon us as we had supposed, but our
right wing had been turned, and the enemy was hourly expected to be
pushing into White House. The authorities at "Head-quarters" were by no
means as much surprised as we were at it all. Every preparation had been
quietly making for several days for the arrival of the enemy, and the
evacuation and repossession were effected in as neat and complete a
manner as if the affair had been arranged between the parties by the
penny-post.
The _Knickerbocker_, and other of our boats, just as they were, were
used as retreats for railroad-men and straggling Northerners, exclusive
of sutlers. The government boats, with the _Commodore_, _Daniel
Webster_, &c., were ordered up, and the fifteen hundred sick men from
the shore hospital put on board. The Sisters of Charity, who had been
for a few days occupying the White House, were distributed through the
different government craft, glad now to do what they could; and so, all
in good order, the hospital ships, one after another, departed, the
_Wilson Small_ lingering as long as possible, till the telegraph wires
had been cut, and the enemy announced by mounted messenger to be at
"Tunstall's," worried constantly in his advance by Stoneman with his
cavalry, till all should have got safely off, when he would fall back
towards Williamsburg, and the rebels would walk into our deserted
places.
So we came away,—watching the moving off of the last transports and
barges, and of the _Canonicus_, head-quarters' boat, with Colonel
Ingalls and Captain Sawtelle and General Casey and staff.... But by far
the most interesting incident was the spontaneous movement of the
slaves, who, when it was known that the Yankees were running away, came
flocking from all the country about, bringing their little movables,
frying-pans and old hats and bundles, to the river-side. There was no
more appearance of anxiety or excitement among them than among the
soldiers themselves. Fortunately there was plenty of deck-room for them
on the forage boats, one of which, as we passed it, seemed filled with
women only, in their gayest dresses and brightest turbans, like a whole
load of tulips for a horticultural show. The black smoke began to rise
from the burning stores left on shore, and now and then the roar of the
battle came to us, but they were quietly nursing their children and
singing hymns. The day of their deliverance had come, and they accepted
this most wonderful change in absolute placidity.
* * * * *
All night we sat on the deck of the _Small_, slowly moving away,
watching the constantly increasing cloud, and the fire-flashes over the
trees toward White House; watching the fading out of what had been to
us, through these strange weeks, a sort of home where we had all worked
together and been happy,—a place which is sacred to some of us now, from
its intense, living remembrances, and for the hallowing of them all by
the memory of one who through months of death and darkness lived and
worked in self-abnegation,—lived in, and for, the sufferings of others,
and finally gave himself a sacrifice for them.
Appendix.
APPENDIX A.
See page 23.
"_The Commission is at this time actually distributing daily, of
hospital supplies, much more than the government._"
This refers to a temporary emergency alone, for, notwithstanding the
recognized necessity for volunteer aid, it is believed that the
aggregate of all hospital supplies voluntarily furnished by the people
through the Sanitary Commission and otherwise, great and unparalleled as
this gratuitous supply is, is but about one tenth as much as is
furnished by government. This fact ought to be kept in mind, as there is
a natural tendency on the part of those who are rendering volunteer aid
to exaggerate the relative magnitude of their own labors, while the
permanent and vastly larger provisions of government are underrated, and
a habit of unjust censure indulged in, in speaking of deficiencies which
have to be supplied. The character of this censure generally indicates
complete ignorance of the failures of other governments when engaged in
war, and a careless estimate of the immense labors involved, and
difficulties which invariably have to be overcome, in providing for the
constant necessities and exigencies of a great army. It is the opinion
of those whose sympathies with the suffering of the soldiers on the one
hand, and whose careful study of facts on the other, ought to give
weight to their judgments, that never before, in the world's history,
was an army so well cared for in all its departments, Quartermaster's,
Commissary, and Medical, and that never before, when deficiencies were
discovered, were they, on an average, as speedily remedied. In every
great trial, by war, of a nation, it has been found necessary to employ
a very large number of men in positions of the gravest responsibility,
for which they were not adapted by nature or by training. This involves,
of course, not only incompetency for duties assumed, but necessarily
opens a door to continued neglect of trusts, frauds, and peculations,
which, under ordinary circumstances, would seem to be of stupendous
magnitude. This is always a part of the cost of war, and, so far from
being the peculiarity of a republican form of government, or of the
present occasion, in no modern war have frauds and inefficiency of
administrative service been anything like as slightly manifested in the
condition and efficiency, under all circumstances, of the troops in the
field; and this, whether we have regard to their food, clothing,
equipments, transportation, or, finally, to the provision which has
existed for the sick and wounded. The sustained average health, vigor,
and good spirits of our several grand armies, in the great variety of
circumstances in which they have been placed, tells of a virtue and a
vital force in our people and in our institutions, which, rightly
understood, should put to shame much customary cavilling of flippant
critics.
The writer of this note has recently travelled through a region larger
than the whole of England, which a year before his visit was held by one
hundred and fifty thousand rebels in arms, and with advantages for
defensive warfare such as no country of equal extent in Europe
possesses. In every mile of this road he saw traces of the desperate
fanaticism of personal ambition and pride, reckless of the life and
property of others, with which its defence had been conducted. And
beyond it he found those who were re-establishing the supremacy of
republican law in this land. He spent more than a week with them, and in
that time he heard no complaint so frequent or so bitter as that against
the whimperers and mischief-makers they had left behind. The health and
patience of the men was a matter of profound astonishment to him. That
the officers were many of them exceedingly unfit for their
responsibility cannot be denied. In what army are not many of the
officers found to be so? But even this was chiefly to be attributed to
the very influence which, in its worst form, was made the cloak of the
conspiracy which brought about the rebellion, and was commonly felt and
said to be so. And thus the army, fighting the open, fights also with
the insidious enemies of the country, and when it returns both will have
been conquered. But if incompetency is common among State-appointed
officers, what evidence does the condition of the army give of the
action of great talent, integrity, industry, and patriotic zeal, in the
manner in which it is provided for! Nowhere did the writer fail to find
the men clothed and fed as never were soldiers clothed and fed in the
pettiest frontier war before. He reached a division in the extreme
advance; bivouacked in a swamp, its wounded picket-guardsmen were being
brought in and cared for, methodically, and well; not with the
refinement of a civilized home, but as wounded soldiers seldom have been
in the history of wars, under the most favorable circumstances, before
in the world. There was nothing which, thus situated, the surgeon could
wish to have with him, which he had not. This division, since it came to
the war, had marched over four thousand miles, and fought six great
battles, and now here in the swamp, wading from hammock to hammock, the
enemy in force in the next really dry land, the men looked as well in
health, and as cheerful in spirits, as a company of harvesters at their
nooning. They were carefully examined. Were they in want of clothing?
No. Were they well shod? Yes. Were they well fed? They had full rations,
and could ask for nothing better. What did they want? "To finish up the
business they came here for, and go home." Nothing else. It was actually
so there at the advanced post in the swamp, and it was so—it is so at
this moment—wherever, on sea or ashore, the seven hundred thousand men
now employed by our government are scattered at their work. By what
despotic power was a machine ever made that could have accomplished
this, in two years?
F. L. O.
APPENDIX B.
See page 42.
REGULATIONS FOR
FLOATING HOSPITAL SERVICE
OF THE SANITARY COMMISSION,
FOR THE CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA.
TERMS OF SERVICE.
The Sanitary Commission, being itself under military authority, in order
to meet its responsibilities, must require of all persons who engage in
the hospital service of the army under its direction, that they place
themselves, for the time being, entirely at its disposal.
Those who volunteer their services gratuitously being supposed to do so
fully and in good faith, no distinction can be known between them and
those who may be paid for their services, it being understood that these
services, in both cases, once engaged or accepted, are to be claimed
equally of right by the Commission.
ADMINISTRATION.
An agent of administration for the Commission will be appointed for each
hospital vessel, who will be regarded by those on board as responsible
for her fittings and supplies.
WARDS.
Each vessel will be divided into hospital wards, designed each for the
accommodation of from fifty to one hundred and fifty patients. In case
of convalescents, a larger number will be properly included in a ward.
SURGEONS.
A surgeon in charge will be appointed to each vessel, who will be
responsible for the reception, classification, and distribution of
patients in the wards. He will sign any necessary official medical
reports of the vessel. Each ward will be placed under the especial
charge of one surgeon, and, if practicable, there will be a surgeon for
each ward.
ASSISTANTS TO SURGEONS.
An assistant to the surgeon (with the title of Ward-master) is to be
constantly on duty in each ward. Under instructions from the surgeon of
the ward, he will superintend and be responsible for the entire
treatment of the patients of the ward, during the hours in which he is
appointed to be on duty.
NURSES.
Two or more nurses are to be constantly on duty in each ward. They will
perform any and all duties necessary in the care of the patients, under
instructions from the surgeons received through the ward-masters.
DISPENSARY.
A dispensary will be established on each vessel, and one or more
apothecaries will be placed in charge of it. They will be responsible
for the medical stores, and for their proper compounding and issue upon
requisitions of the surgeons through the ward-masters.
HOSPITAL PANTRY AND LINEN CLOSET.
These will be in charge of ladies, who will issue to ward-masters or
nurses, or themselves administer and dispense, under proper control of
the surgeons, special diet and drink, and articles of bed and personal
clothing for the patients.
WATCHES.
Ward-masters and nurses, and all who have part in duty of a constant
character, will be divided into two watches, which will be on duty
alternately, as follows:—
1. From 7 A. M. to 1 P. M. A
2. " 1 P. M. to 4 P. M. B (dog watch.)
3. " 4 P. M. to 7 P. M. A " "
4. " 7 P. M. to 1 A. M. B
5. " 1 A. M. to 7 A. M. A
6. " 7 A. M. to 1 P. M. B (second day.)
TIME OF MEALS.
BREAKFAST.
One watch at 6.40 A. M. (being then off duty.)
The other at 7 A. M. " "
DINNER.
One watch at 12.30 P. M. " "
The other at 1.15 P. M. " "
TEA.
One watch at 6.40 P. M. " "
The other at 7 P. M. " "
HOUSE DIET.
BREAKFAST.
_To be ready at 7 A. M._
Bread (or Toast) with Butter.
Coffee or Tea.
DINNER.
_To be ready at 1.15 P. M._
Beef Soup and Boiled Beef or Beef Stew.
Boiled Rice or Hominy.
Bread or Crackers.
TEA.
_To be ready at 7 P. M._
Bread or Toast or Crackers, with Butter.
Coffee or Tea.
When practicable, the house diet will be served at tables to such
patients as are able to come to them. When not practicable to arrange
tables, such patients as may be designated by the surgeons will be
divided into squads of forty, and a squad-master appointed to each, who
will receive and distribute to the rest the prepared diet, as may be
found most convenient. Patients not able to leave their beds will not be
included in these squads, but house diet will be served to them by the
nurses of their wards, if ordered by the surgeon.
SPECIAL DIET.
The surgeons will ascertain from the administrative agent, or from the
ladies, what articles of diet are available on the vessel, and in their
morning rounds direct what choice shall be made from these for the diet
of each patient, for whom the house diet would not be suitable, during
the succeeding twenty-four hours. The ward-master on duty at the hour
for surgeons' morning rounds will, in regular order, be on duty at each
meal-time during the following twenty-four hours, and will consequently
be able to direct the entire diet of each patient from verbal
instructions. He should, as soon as possible, notify the proper person
(no rule in this respect being practicable for all vessels) of the
quantity of each article of special diet which will be required at each
meal in his ward, and at the proper time should (if necessary) send the
nurses for it, and see it properly distributed.
SURGEONS' ROUNDS.
Surgeons' rounds should commence at 9 A. M., and at 6 P. M. The
ward-master on duty will closely attend the surgeon, and receive his
instructions as he passes through his ward. The ward-master off duty may
also attend the surgeon at this time, for the benefit of receiving
instructions directly. The surgeon may make this a duty, otherwise it
will be optional.
ALL HANDS.
In receiving and discharging patients, or in any emergency which makes
it necessary, ward-masters and nurses may be required to do duty in
their watches off. In cleaning, fitting, or repairing the vessel for
hospital purposes, they will act under orders of the administrative
agent.
RECEIVING AND DISTRIBUTING PATIENTS.
Before patients are taken on board, the vessel should be properly moored
or placed, gangways or other means of entrance arranged, and, if
possible, all duties completed, for the time being, in the performance
of which the crew of the vessel are required. The surgeon, who should
have previously informed himself of the character of the accommodations
for patients in all parts of each ward, should detail a sufficient
number of guides and bearers to convey the patients, and of all
necessary attendants at the gangway, and within the wards. These should
remove their boots, and each squad of bearers should be instructed that
all orders will be given them by their guide alone, and that no one else
is to speak aloud while carrying a patient, or passing through the
wards. All persons not having a specified duty to perform in receiving
patients, should be put where they will not be in the way or disturb the
patients, but where they can be readily called on if the force engaged
is found insufficient.
As each patient is brought on board, he will be examined by the surgeon
in charge, who will direct where he shall be taken; at the same time
notes will be taken, as follows:—
_Number_, _Name_, _Company_, _Regiment_, _Residence_, _Remarks_.
The administrative agent will, at the same time, cause a corresponding
number to be placed on the effects of the patient, which he will take
care of, to be returned to the patient on his leaving the vessel. If
practicable, the patients may, before being taken to their berths or
cots, be washed and supplied with clean clothing.
It will not usually be in the power of the surgeon in charge to select
patients for his vessel. It may, however, be proper for him to protest
against taking patients whose illness is not of a sufficiently serious
character to warrant their withdrawal from the seat of war, or those for
whose cases there is less suitable provision on the vessel than in the
hospitals they are leaving, or those already in a dying condition, whose
end will have been accelerated or whose suffering aggravated by their
removal; also, when going to sea, against taking cases of compound
fracture of the lower extremities.
FRED. LAW OLMSTED, _Gen'l Sec'y_.
White House, Virginia, May 20, 1862.
SANITARY COMMISSION.
_Atlantic Hospital Transport Service._
THE REGULATION OF DIET FOR PATIENTS.
The simplest possible arrangements should be made for the diet of
patients which will be consistent with their proper treatment.
At the outset, the cook may be ordered to prepare daily for breakfast,
to be ready at 7 A. M., ten gallons of tea and fifteen loaves of bread
in slices, with butter, for every hundred patients on board; for dinner,
ten gallons of beef-stew made with vegetables, and fifteen loaves of
bread, for every hundred patients on board; for tea, the same as for
breakfast.
Orders for special diet should, as far as possible, be confined to
beef-tea, arrow-root or farina gruel, milk-porridge, and milk-punch.
Quantities of each of these articles, except the punch, may be prepared
by the cook once a day, and delivered to the matron, under whose care
they should be warmed in portions over spirit-lamps, as required at any
time during the day or night.
As a general rule, for each hundred patients on board, there should be
prepared, for twenty-four hours,—
2½ gallons of beef-tea,
4 gallons of gruel,
½ gallon of milk-porridge.
Where the patients are chiefly suffering from illness, especially if
from fevers, the above quantities will be found larger than is
necessary. Where a large proportion of them are severely wounded, they
may need to be slightly increased.
By estimating the quantity of each article which will be required for
the twenty-four hours, as thus instructed, the surgeon in charge will
find it best to give his orders to the cook for everything at once, one
day in advance.
If the quantities ordered prove too small, the deficiency can be made
good by the matron with crackers, tea, canned meats, or meat essence,
&c., in the pantry; it being best, if possible, to avoid any call upon
the cook or the ship's kitchen for this purpose.
If the quantities prove too large for one day, the saving can be used
the next. Whether too large or too small, a proper modification can be
readily made in the order to the cook for the remainder of the trip. The
surgeon in charge will in this way be relieved of the necessity of
giving further consideration to this department of administration,
which, if not thus simplified, will be found to be a source of much
trouble and anxiety, greatly withdrawing his attention from surgical and
medical duties proper. Associated surgeons should be careful to make no
demands for diet, inconsistent with this arrangement.
Milk-punch is best made with cold water in the pantry. This and all
other cold drinks can be made under the superintendence of the matron,
without any call upon the cook. The cook should, however, be required to
keep a supply, as large as convenient, of hot water, constantly ready to
meet any demand from a surgeon or the matron.
APPENDIX C.
See page 97.
_Copy of Letter to the Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac._
White House, Va., June 3, 1862.
MY DEAR SIR:—There must be some frightful misunderstanding at the bottom
of what is occurring here, in your department. It is obvious from the
tenor of your telegraphic communications to me, that you are altogether
wrongly informed about it. The Sanitary Commission, let me say at once,
has not only obeyed every order, no matter how irregular or
disrespectful the mode of its transmission, but has in good faith
endeavored to carry out, at every point it could reach, what was judged
to be _your intention_, supplying the absence or neglect of other agents
on whom you appeared to depend, as it best could. Till night before last
it made itself subordinate to the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania, who
assumed to act as your aid, and, under positive orders given by him in
your name, it refrained from pursuing a plan previously approved by you,
and by following which it is now obvious that a much greater and safer
transport of the wounded would have occurred. From Sunday night to the
present time, the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania has not been seen
here; a thousand wounded men have, in the mean time, arrived, and, as
far as I am informed, not the slightest provision of any kind has been
made for them under order from you, or by any one whom you have regarded
as under your orders, except the Sanitary Commission. After waiting some
hours yesterday morning for the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania (who
till then had been in charge of the railroad wharf) to act, finding men
fainting in the sun ashore, I assumed the responsibility of taking
eighty of them upon our little boat, and of having the remainder brought
on the _Daniel Webster_ No. 2. After doing so, I found one Dr. ——, very
hard at work dressing wounded, &c. By advice of Captain Sawtelle and
myself, he took provisional medical charge, and I then telegraphed you,
advising that Dr. —— or Dr. —— should be placed in general charge, with
discretionary powers.
We were doing what we could with men and women who could be spared from
our boats, which were all full of wounded, to provide for those on the
_Webster_ and ashore. Before night, the _Spaulding_ having arrived, I
brought up fourteen fresh men and the ladies, with two physicians, and
they have been steadily at work, and up to this time (noon of Tuesday)
operating, dressing, feeding, and, with the assistance of other
volunteers, bringing the wounded from the cars to the boat.
The _Vanderbilt_ came more than a week ago, empty, and assigned to
hospital service. She came to the wharf that had been built, at my
request, for the use of the Sanitary Commission, refused to leave at my
request, and has occupied it to our exclusion ever since. She has had
surgeons and a large detail of soldiers on board, and I had been
informed that she was reserved for the transportation of wounded, by
your orders. Neither those on board of her nor those at the camp
hospital appeared at the railroad, or lent any assistance, to my
knowledge, to the care of the wounded, until, under advice from Captain
Sawtelle and myself, Dr. ——, who had received your telegram
disacknowledging him as having any official position, requested the
surgeon in charge to bring the _Vanderbilt_ to the railroad wharf.
Having our boats and the removal of the wounded in ambulance trains to
attend to, I did not think it necessary to inquire if she were prepared
for hospital duty, knowing that she had been a week idle, and previously
in hospital service; but late this morning I was informed that she had
not any commissary, or even necessary medical stores on board, and
nothing whatever was being prepared for the sustenance of the patients.
We have provided bread and molasses, for the want of anything else
ready. We have been also called upon for, and are providing, lint and
bandages, &c., &c.
The _Elm City_ and _Knickerbocker_ are both off, the _Spaulding_ is yet
to discharge the commissary stores with which she came loaded, and there
is not a boat here now which can carry wounded, nor is there a tent
pitched for them.
I have no time to be more full and exact. I have called on Colonel
Ingalls to establish a cooking arrangement on shore, and shall try to
get beef for soup.
I hear that more wounded are arriving. God knows what will be done with
them.
As the telegraph refuses to send any messages to you to-day, being fully
occupied with the General's business, I shall, if possible, send this to
you this evening by a special messenger.
I am very faithfully, &c.
_Copy of a Letter to the Surgeon-General._
Steamboat _Wilson Small_,
Off White House, Va., June 17, 1862.
(A.) MY DEAR GENERAL:—Your prompt action, of which I am notified by your
telegram of this date, in securing the shipment of large supplies of
anti-scorbutics to the Army of the Potomac, without waiting for the
Medical Director to assume the responsibility of ordering them, leads me
to hope that you may think it right in like manner to interpose for the
protection of the army from other evils, for which the remedies are
equally obvious, and more readily attainable.
I therefore urge that tarpaulings, old sails, felt, or canvas in bolts,
with means of putting it together, be sent here immediately, in
quantities sufficient to form a shelter for ten thousand wounded men.
The materials for extending and supporting it in the form of sheds can
be found in the woods immediately in the rear of the line of operations,
where the shelters should be placed. I should propose that at least one
depot for wounded should in this way be prepared for each army corps.
Water should be secured in its vicinity, and means for providing large
quantities of beef-tea or soup.
I know that such an arrangement would have saved many hundred lives
after the battle of Fair Oaks. Nearly all of those with whom I
conversed, of the first three thousand wounded men who received aid at
this point from the Sanitary Commission, assured me that they had been
without shelter from sun or rain, and without nourishment, from the time
they fell until they came into our hands. This would be a period of from
one to four days. The men seemed sincere, and their appearance was such
as to lead me to the conclusion that, in many cases, at least, they
asserted no more than the truth.
If, without waiting for a demand from the Medical Director, or the
convenience of the Quartermaster's staff of this army, it would be in
your power to order it, it seems to me that a provision of the kind I
have indicated should be made within a single week. Everything necessary
should be sent here; canvas, nails, tools, laborers, kettles, beef,
pans, spoons, cooks. The smallest service for hospital purposes cannot
be procured here now by the most energetic and persistent surgeons in
less than a fortnight from the time they undertake to secure it. I have
called three times a day, for ten days, for a detail of ten men to
police the landing-place of the hospital boats; and though constantly
promised me, and though the need for the work is acknowledged to be very
great, I do not yet succeed in getting them.
_Memorandum of Arrangements proposed by the Secretary
of the Commission, to prevent a recurrence of the confusion
in the Transport Service which occurred after the
Battle of Fair Oaks._
The following is a list of Transports understood to be at present
available for hospital service for the Army of the Potomac:—
_Sea Steamers, fitted for long passages outside._
S. R. Spaulding,
Daniel Webster No. 1.
_Coast-Steamers, which must make a harbor on the approach
of bad weather, and which should not be sent beyond
Philadelphia, unless the necessity is urgent._
Elm City,
State of Maine,
John Brooks,
Commodore,
Kennebec,
Daniel Webster No. 2.
_Coast-Steamers which should not be run outside._
Vanderbilt,
Whilldin,
Louisiana,
Knickerbocker.
_Sailing vessels adapted to be used as Stationary Hospitals,
or to be towed outside._
St. Mark,
Euterpe.
The aggregate capacity of these vessels is equal to the accommodation of
four thousand (4,000) patients, and may be increased to five thousand
(5,000) if the necessity is urgent.
From the time a boat leaves, until she can be prepared to leave again,—
will be, if she runs to New York, 7 days,
" " " to Philadelphia, 6 days,
" " " to Washington, 4 days,
" " " to Annapolis, 4 days,
" " " to Baltimore, 4 days,
" " " to Old Point, 2 days.
If, in the event of a general engagement, all the wounded sent from
White House are taken to the nearest hospitals, until these are full,
there will be occupation for but few of the boats; four of them, for
instance, would take seven hundred (700) a day to Fortress Monroe
continuously. Having filled the nearer hospitals, however, all the
vessels would be insufficient to sustain a continuous movement to those
more distant. Moreover, most of the transports are unfit to convey
patients to the most distant hospitals. It is, therefore, necessary that
the business should be so arranged that transports may, from the
beginning, run both to the nearer and the more distant hospitals, and
that the limited number of sea-going vessels should be run only to the
distant seaports.
To accomplish this, I suggest that the different transports be formed
into _lines_, as follows:—
1. For _Virginia_ hospitals.
(Fortress Monroe, Newport's News, Portsmouth, and Point Lookout.)
2. For _Maryland_ hospitals.
(Washington, Alexandria, Annapolis, and Baltimore.)
3. For _Pennsylvania_ hospitals.
4. For _New York_ hospitals.
As two of the sea-going vessels cannot come up to White House, and
these, to be used effectively, must be towed by the other two, the New
York line would be best employed in preventing too great an accumulation
at Fortress Monroe,—running only from Fortress Monroe to New York.
If it be assumed that seven hundred (700) will arrive daily at White
House, they may be disposed of according to the accompanying schedule
with regularity, and with no necessity for crowding.
_Plan for the Disposition of Patients to be sent in Hospital
Transports from White House._
┌───────┬──────────┬──────┬─────┬─────┬───────┬───────┬───────────────┐
│_Days._│_Hospital_│_Men._│_Md._│_Va._│_Penn._│_N. Y._│ │
├───────┼──────────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼───────┼───────┼───────────────┤
│1st day│Va. │ 300│ │ 300│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│ 400│ │ │ │1st day, 700│
│2d " │Penn. │ 400│ │ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │ 600│ │ 600│ 2d " 1,400│
│3d " │Md. │ 400│ 800│ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │ 300│ │ │ 3d " 2,100│
│4th " │Md. │ 400│1,200│ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │ 135│ │ │ 4th " 2,800│
│5th " │Md. │ 400│1,600│ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │ 435│ │ │ 5th " 3,500│
│6th " │Md. │ 400│2,000│ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │ 735│ │ 1,665│ 6th " 4,200│
│7th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,035│ │ │ │
│ " " │Penn. │ 400│ │ │ │ │ 7th " 4,900│
│8th " │Va. │ 300│ │ 735│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│2,400│ │ 800│ │ 8th " 5,600│
│9th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,035│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│2,800│ │ │ │ 9th " 6,300│
│10th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,335│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│3,200│ │ │ │ 10th " 7,000│
│11th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,170│ │ 2,130│ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│3,600│ │ │ │ 11th " 7,700│
│12th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,470│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│4,000│ │ │ │ 12th " 8,400│
│13th " │Va. │ 300│ │1,770│ │ │ │
│ " " │Md. │ 400│4,400│ │ │ │ 13th " 9,100│
│14th " │Penn. │ 400│ │ │ 1,200│ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │2,070│ │ │ 14th " 9,800│
│15th " │Md. │ 400│4,800│ │ │ │ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │2,370│ │ │ 15th " 10,500│
│16th " │Md. │ 400│5,200│ │ │ 2,730│ │
│ " " │Va. │ 300│ │2,070│ │ │ 16th " 11,200│
├───────┴──────────┼──────┼─────┼─────┼───────┼───────┼───────────────┤
│ Total, │11,200│5,200│2,070│ 1,200│ 2,730│ 11,200│
└──────────────────┴──────┴─────┴─────┴───────┴───────┴───────────────┘
To carry out the foregoing plan, the _Kennebec_ and _Daniel Webster_ No.
2 should be run exclusively to the Virginia hospitals,—one daily, each
carrying three hundred (300) patients at a trip.
The _Commodore_, _Vanderbilt_, _State of Maine_, and _Louisiana_ should
be run exclusively to the Maryland hospitals, each carrying four hundred
(400) patients at a trip, one daily, the round trip being four days.
The _Elm City_, being the best of the coast boats for outside work,
would run to the nearest outside post, Philadelphia, once every six
days, conveying four hundred (400) at each trip.
The _John Brooks_, the _Whilldin_, and the _Knickerbocker_ would be
surgical receiving hospitals, or reserve boats, to take the place of any
detained by grounding or other accident.
The vessels of the New York line can be diverted to Philadelphia as
often as it is thought desirable.
After the wounded have ceased coming to White House, the vessels of the
New York line can be run to other more Northern and Eastern ports, until
the nearer hospitals are emptied.
The above presumes that cases of light wounds and of extremely severe
wounds will not be allowed to come to White House at all.
Respectfully,
(Signed,) FRED. LAW OLMSTED,
_Gen'l Sec'y San. Com._
APPENDIX D.
See page 130.
Shortly after the battle of Fair Oaks, the new and vastly more
provident, liberal, and wisely economical policy introduced into the
medical service, with the appointment of Dr. Hammond as Surgeon-General,
and of the new corps of Medical Inspectors, began to be felt in the army
of the Potomac,—and although many of the agents necessary to the perfect
success of that policy were unable at once to accommodate their habits
to the required change, the Commission, scrupulously adhering to its
purpose to do nothing which the properly responsible officials in any
department evinced any readiness to do without its assistance, had the
satisfaction of seeing the necessity for its special service, in
connection with the hospital transports, grow gradually smaller and
smaller. Under the dry, taciturn, and impenetrable manner, promising
nothing, of the new Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, who,
just after the battle of the Seven Days, relieved a predecessor of
precisely the opposite qualities, was found to be concealed some
influence by means of which whatever had before been impossible began to
be thought possible, and to be tried for, after a few judicious
dismissals had been made; and, after a few visits of influential friends
to Governors and Senators in behalf of the dismissed had resulted in
nothing but an incomprehensible failure of their purpose, the
Commission's occupation was more than half gone with that army. But
where so many agents are to be depended on, and such sudden new
dispositions and reorganizations must be made, as after those terrible
seven days, it is impossible that any demand of a large army should
always be promptly and fully met. Anxiety for the well, that they might
be saved from disease, soon outweighed anxiety lest the sick should not
be tenderly cared for, and in more than one direction an opportunity was
found to supply temporary deficiencies, which otherwise would have told
severely upon the health of many thousand men. During the month after
the army reached and intrenched itself on the James River, the vessels
managed by the Commission probably did a better service in what they
brought to the army, than in the comfort they secured to the sick who
were sent away upon them. The following extracts will serve to give the
reader a more complete understanding of its ruling spirit and purpose,
and show its continued action to the time of the withdrawal of the army
of the Potomac from the Peninsula.
* * * * *
(A.) _Norfolk, June 30, 1862._—We were driven from White House Friday P.
M.; arrived at Old Point yesterday. Being unable to get coal there, came
here this evening. Shall coal to-night and leave at daybreak for
Harrison's Bar, on James River, where the gunboats are said to be. We
hope to get further up, but are advised by General Dix that we cannot
safely attempt it at present.
* * * * *
(A.) _Off Berkeley, James River, July 1, 1862._—We felt our way up the
river slowly, and with some difficulty, having no pilot, and seeing no
vessel under way after passing out of sight of Newport's News until we
reached this point. Here there was a gunboat and three small
steam-transports, each of which afterwards left, so that for a short
time we were alone. Transports soon began to come up, however, and
to-night there are a dozen or more about us.
We have Colonel ——, Colonel ——, and a few other wounded officers on
board. They were sent to us by General McClellan's own ambulance, half
an hour after we arrived. The General had been here, and left only as we
were coming to the wharf. The officers he saw here converse with us
freely, and we have had officers on board from most of the army corps,
who have also talked, apparently without reserve, with us. Yet reports
and opinions are so contradictory, that we are in singular uncertainty
as to what has happened and as to what we have to expect
The officers and soldiers all show the influence of intense excitement;
they acknowledge the gravest anxiety; they are terribly fatigued, yet
generally seem in good spirits. They speak much of the bravery of the
men.
* * * * *
(A.) _Chesapeake Bay, July 4, 1862._—I left our anchorage off
Head-quarters of the Army of the Potomac, where I wrote you last, about
four o'clock yesterday afternoon, and am running to Washington, by
request of the Medical Director, to advise the Surgeon-General of the
sanitary condition of the army, and to secure the immediate supply, as
far as possible, of its most urgent surgical and medical wants. As the
rebels have put out the lights, and we could get no pilot, we were all
night feeling our way down the river, and shall not be able, with all we
can do, to get to Washington till late to-night. I hope to get what is
most necessary, and leave on our return before night to-morrow. I
telegraphed from Old Point to have everything advanced.
I have seen and conversed freely with many staff officers, and been
among the men, wounded and well—if any can be called well, where all are
feverish with seven days and nights of fatigue and exhaustion and
starvation and excitement. One, a Major-General, said, "I have not been
asleep, nor have I tasted food, in five days. I have only sustained
myself with coffee and cigars." As to the men, the following is a fair
sample of statements commonly made: "My regiment has had, for the last
five days before arriving here, two days' rations; what has been eaten
of this has been uncooked; during that time it has made five hard
marches, and fought five battles; one third of it has fallen in killed
or wounded, and not one man has been shot in the back. One third of what
remains is now on picket duty in the woods, which the enemy is shelling;
the other lies yonder, in the mud, sleeping on its arms." This was
during the rain, which fell in such torrents day before yesterday.
Yesterday the enemy was attacking again, and the whole army in the line
of battle up to the time we left.
The exultant confidence of the army in itself is beyond all verbal
expression. It has grown out of the experience of its ability to resist
and foil and terribly punish desperate assaults made upon it, as is
supposed with forces greatly superior in number. It says, proudly, "All
that men can do, we can do." But there is also the consciousness of a
terrible strain upon its energies, of an unnatural strength, and the
reflection is frequent that there must be a limit to every man's
endurance.
Rest and recuperation,—how are they to be had? The first only by the
relief of reinforcements; the second only by good diet and favorable
hygienic circumstances. Eastern Virginia is all malarious,—the banks of
James River notoriously so; the army is chiefly upon a moderately
elevated, slightly undulating table-land; the river on the south side;
swampy ground at no great distance on the other sides. It is open, airy,
dry,—a healthful point, upon the whole, as any that could be selected
east of Richmond. But the sun will lie exceedingly fierce upon it, and
it is supposed the army has lost two thirds of its tents. Probably a
majority of the men have lost also their knapsacks and blankets. Many
were without caps or shoes. The area held is small, and will be crowded.
If the enemy is active, as it would appear his policy to be, the
officers will be too much occupied with the immediate military
necessities of the position to give much attention to police duties.
Even if they should be well disposed, the excessively fatigued and
exhausted condition of the men, and the necessity of reserving their
strength from day to day for the struggle with the enemy, will forbid
the constant labor which would be necessary to prevent a terrible
accumulation of nuisances, until at least reinforcements shall arrive so
large that no more than the ordinary quotas will be required for guard
and picket duty. After such tension and trial, a rapid reduction of
force must also occur from sickness, and those not on the sick-list will
suffer from the lassitude of reaction from excitement. Under these
circumstances, all our experience shows that it will be hardly possible
to enforce requirements, the observance of which must be essential to a
healthy camp.
Unless large reinforcements speedily arrive, then, not only must the
army feel that its heroism is unappreciated, and the object for which it
struggled is to be lost by the neglect of others, and thus become
dejected, dispirited, and morally resistless to the dangers of disease;
but it will be physically impossible to establish such guards against
these dangers as are most obviously and directly called for.
There is, in general, a large degree of confidence that, with the aid of
the gunboats, which are throwing shell on the flanks at frequent
intervals, we can hold the position till sufficient reinforcements come
to place it beyond question; but no one speaks with entire confidence,
and the nearer to the head the graver seems the apprehension,—though
with all there is that strange exultation—ready to break out in
laughter, like a crazy man's. There are some few who are utterly
despondent and fault-finding. But there is less of this than ever
before, and fewer stragglers and obvious cowards,—nothing like what was
seen after Pittsburg Landing. Of what we saw after Bull Run there is not
the slightest symptom. In short, we have then a real grand army, tried,
enduring, heroic,—worth all we can give to save it.
* * * * *
(C.) On Saturday we commenced the distribution of the cargo, and it has
been going steadily on since in a very gratifying manner, every one
concerned throwing off his coat, and working with a will, these
intensely hot days,—surgeons, quartermasters, and other officers, always
giving us every possible assistance in their eagerness to get this
agreeable addition to their fare into the camp-kettles as soon as
possible. The salted fish was a grand hit. It seems to have a peculiar
attraction for languid appetites this hot weather. We have met, thus
far, with but one man inclined to throw any obstruction in the way of
the distribution,—a brigade commissary, who seemed to think any unusual
indulgence of a soldier's whims of appetite must be demoralizing. Word
of our intention had gone through the brigade, however, before he
interfered, and the eagerness of the surgeons and of the soldiers took
him very quickly out of the way without any efforts on our part.
Regimental transportation was quickly at the wharf, with the thanks and
compliments of the colonels, and each received its quota.
... The promptness with which the cargo—nearly a thousand barrels—would
have been discharged, will be somewhat affected by the inability of some
of the regiments of Heintzelman's corps to send transportation, on
account of a movement for which they are ordered to stand in readiness
to-day.... The sudden orders given yesterday for the immediate
transportation of several thousand sick, have caused an influx of sick
to the landing, overrunning all that the exertions of the Medical
Director could do to provide for them.... This morning we found five
hundred and sixty convalescents on board the transport _Cahawba_, with,
to use the language of the ——, "not a bit of a thing aboard for 'em to
chaw upon." As the poor fellows, many of them just getting up from
fever, had been, in most cases, finding their way from the camps to the
landing on foot, during the night, their want was urgent. Fortunately,
we had a good supply of the concentrated beef of Martinez's preparation,
and were not long in getting ready an excellent breakfast for them. It
is in just such cases as this, where misery is massed, and where what is
done tells not only for the relief of misery, but for the strength of
the army and the putting down of the rebellion, that we find the
greatest satisfaction in stepping in with the gifts of the people. Many
of these men were in just the condition in which a set-back would be
likely to lead to a relapse and lingering illness, and in which again,
if they were well cared for, they might be built up rapidly, and soon be
sent back to their muskets.
On account of the movements to-day, I shall ride out to the camps this
afternoon, and make some change of arrangements for the further
distribution of the anti-scorbutics. The gunboats were playing very
lively at sunrise, a little way down the river. This is as much as I
should say to-day, but you will hear of something that you hardly expect
by the next mail-boat.
[Illustration]
Cambridge: Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, & Co.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
1. Added Table of Contents.
2. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical
errors.
3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
End of Project Gutenberg's Hospital Transports, by Frederick Law Olmsted