Camp
Supplies
U. S.
Sanitary Commission
New York
. Nov. 8. 1861
Dear Friend: You ask me two very important
questions, which I am glad to have an opportunity of answering
directly.
1st. Does the sanitary commission at present charge
itself with the distribution of articles of clothing among the
soldiers in general, or with only the distribution of hospital
supplies for the sick?
Answer. The sanitary commission charges itself only with the
distribution of articles of clothing and other supplies among the
sick and wounded, in general and regimental hospitals. The
demand is so great in this quarter, that the commission sees no
prospect of being able to spare much from its store house for any
other purpose, excepting always emergencies afterward to be
described.
We consider every army hospital, general or regimental,
as having a right to call upon us for whatever the government is
unable or fails to supply. And to be prepared to meet this
call, we must accumulate and hold in readiness a large amount of all
kinds of hospital clothing and stores medicines excepted. The
women of this country need not fear the overdoing of this business.
If three wagon loads of hospital supplies (one a four horse U. S.
army wagon ) were required from our store houses to meet the
deficiency in the government supply, for the wounded men in our late
glorious but heart rending affair at Ball’s Bluff, what would be
the drain occasioned by a general battle on the Potomac in Missouri,
in western Virginia? Nothing in the way of blankets, quilts,
shirts and drawers, dressings, gowns, stockings, slippers, can come
amiss, or be otherwise than a very needed contribution to (
refresh?) our stockpiles.
It is to be asked why the government does not meet the wants
itself, the answer is, that with the vast business on its hands, the
government has not time enough, force enough, money enough, wisdom
enough, to meet any of the wants of the country adequately, and that
its inevitable deficiencies toward the comfort of the sick and
wounded, are the very ones which we cannot leave to the slow
correction of the authorities, but in the name of Mercy and Charity
must instantly provide for. There is nothing peculiar,
however, to our case. It has been so in every great war.
The women of the country have in all modern struggles supplied
largely the wants of the hospitals. Doubtless every month will
reduce the inadequacy of the governmental system, and increase the
efficiency of medical bureau, but in a war conducted chiefly by
volunteer force, volunteer supplies in the hospitals will be
required as long as the war lasts.
2d. How far is desirable that private and volunteer
labor should take the direction of providing extra supplies of
clothing for fighting men actually in the field? And is this
in any degree expedient, what the best way of reaching the wants of
this class of soldier, so that both waste may be avoided and every
real necessity met? And will the sanitary commission in future
undertake the equitable distribution of articles of clothing which
may be furnished them for this purpose?
Answer: Undoubtedly there is a great though a steady
diminishing destitution of warm clothing among men in the field.
The government with its greatest exertions, has not been able to
find in the country cloth enough, nor blankets enough to cover the
army. It is importing cloth and blankets and buying up every
decently suitable fabric at home. There will be work enough
for all our mills, as long as the war lasts; and the foreign
importations will not seriously affect their business. This it
is which has kept our men in the field without overcoats, or warm
uniforms, in some cases without blankets. Of course it was
important before the soldiers received their pay, where the actual
destitution of a regiment was known, to supply it at once by
contributions of clothing from the region where it was recruited.
But this necessity has chiefly passed away with the appearance
of the paymaster. The soldier is not a pauper, and shall not
be treated as one. He makes as much by his new trade as by his
old one, and should cloth himself out of his own wages, if he wants
more than the regulation supply. The same is true of the
support of his family. A proper allotment system, facilitating
the assignment of a due proportion of the soldiers wages to the use
of his family, is as important to the self respect of the soldier
himself, as to the maintenance of independence in the feeling of a
class not accustomed to charity, and whom it would be a permanent
injustice to bring into the demoralizing position of receivers of
the public alms. Those who are so generously interesting
themselves in the support of the families of the volunteers, should
turn their united attention to the best and speediest means of
getting the soldiers wages ( spent too often in ways that do him no
good ) into the hands of his family.
But to return to the subject of clothing for the men in the
field. The evil is too great for much alteration by private
means; and it is rapidly disappearing under governmental energy.
Under the enlightened, conscientious, and energetic chief of the
quartermaster’s bureau, Gen. Meigs, there is probably to be,
before the severity of the winter is upon us, an adequate supply of
warm clothing provided for al the regular wants of the army.
Meanwhile the sanitary commission is willing to do its best as
a agent of those who wish to help particular regiments in the field
to bear the probable or possible exposure from the want of warm
clothing, for the next six weeks. Any clothing sent to them
for this purpose will be will be safely and promptly forwarded to
its destination. We prefer, however, to have all clothing and
supplies put at our descretion, as we know better than those not on
the ground where the worst wants exist. It often occurs, that a
week’s destitution in a company of stockings, overcoats, fresh
bread or beef, occasions fifty letters home with complaints, which,
long before they could be alleviated by any action there, are
relieved by the regular course of government routine.
It is to meet the irregular wants of the army that we need
considerable quantities of ordinary army clothing, wants occasioned
not by the negligence or penuriousness of the government, but by
loss the of baggage, the accidents of war, unavoidable
separation from their supplies, the dropping of knapsacks in pursuit
or flight, wants which will always require to be met by some extra
official resources; and these the sanitary commission hope to
accumulate, and will endeavor to serve out at their best discretion.
For instance, at Ball’s Bluff, it was not only the sick and
wounded soldiers who required our ministry, but wet and blanketless
soldiers, who had escaped barely with their lives.
Emergencies of this kind ( and they will be frequent and
serious ) we hope to always be prompt in meeting to the utmost
extent of our resources. And to meet these cases, and not the
ordinary wants of ill clothed regiments in the field, a business to
vast for private benevolence, we ask the women of the land, without
diverting their chief attention from hospital supplies, to furnish
us, besides, with outside and undergarments ( of army pattern,
although this is not indispensable ) for soldiers in the field under
the circumstances here given.
It helps in the field in a most effectual manner to release
blankets from hospital use and allow them to be turned to ordinary
service. Increase hospital supplies in any way, and it leaves
just so much more to go to the soldier in the field. Nor need
there be any fears that the government will do less because the
people do more. both may exert their utmost ability in this
vast war, and still there will remain abundant stimulus to exertion
on both sides.
I sent you the “Report” of our “Woman’s
Central Association of Relief,” a branch of the commission, which
will answer all other questions you may be asked in regard to the
nature and form of hospital supplies and the methods of forwarding
them. I will order a package of them to be sent to Dr. S. G.
Howe’s address,
Boston
, where they can be had by circles of relief or other associations
wishing further information.
Very Cordially
Henry W. Bellows,
President of the
U. S.
Sanitary Commission.
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