OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 769 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <044901bf2810$e4178e40$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War --Pt 9 - B Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Thursday, November 04, 1999 12:35 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know Your Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War --Pt 9 - B Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley Nov 3, 1999. *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio From the diaries of S.L. Kelley Know Your Ohio By Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Women in The Civil War -- Part 9 -B United States Sanitary Commision-- The Beginnings--- After the publication of the newspaper article of the meeting scheduled for Monday next, in New York of 1861, there were in New York alone, scores of relief societies. soldier's aid societies, ladies aid societies, and etc., all independant of each other with no system or method, no economy or co-operation. Virtually every church, parlor, school and even nursery was alive in making and collecting goods for the boys at the front. But this labor and zeal were valueless without discipline and direction. An informal meeting of the ladies of New York was held on April 25th, at the infirmary for Women; an appeal to the women was drawn up and signed, and was published in the papers of Monday. April 29. After stating the importance of concentration and system and asserting that they had no desires to lead or claim precedence over others, the ladies signed this appeal proposed to meet in the Cooper Institute, to confer and appoint a general committee. This committee would have the power to organize all into a common movement. To accomplish this it seemed necessary to keep two objects in mind; 1-- the contribution of skill, labor and money in the preparation of lint, bandages, and stores, and 2-- the offer of personal service as nurses. With regard to the first, it would be important to obtain and disseminate exact official information onthe wants of the Army. The committee gathering this information should be in communication with other associations throughout the country. As to the second, experience had shown that only picked and skilled women would suffice as nurses, so that the zeal of 99% of the women should be directed at finding the 1% of the women who should be sent. The meeting was held, the hall overflowing with a large body of clergymen, physicians, lawyers, philanthropists, women of all denominations and aid societies. Mr. David Frost was chairman and set forth the object of the meeting. The Rev. Dr. Henry Bellows spoke of the importance of female action-- Dr Wood of Bellevue Hospital stated that they were ready to help by either rendering advice or training nurses.-- Dr. Mott remarked that the lint that had already been gathered could not be consumed in a war of seven years ad suggested that a continuance of that particular labor was unprofitable. Following other addresses a committee was appointed to prepare a plan of operation and reported several " articles of Organization". Among the Articles was the formation of a Board of Management, containing, among others, the names Henry W. Bellows, D.D. and Frederick Law Olmstead. These two names are important to the history of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. Delegates visited Washington toward the middle of May, and on the 18th addressed a letter to the Secretary of War upon the special measures of Prevention of Diseases in the now rapidly developing army and the utilization of voluntary contributions from the people. Four days later the Acting Surgeon-General of the Army stated the following to the Secretary of War after pointing out that the demands on his bureau had been unexpectedly severe: The Medical Bureau would be in my judgement derive important and useful aid from the councils and well directed efforts of an intelligent and scientific commission, to be styled " A commission of Inquiry and Advice in respect to the Sanitary interests of the United States Forces" , and acting in co-operation with the bureau, with reference to the diet and hygiene of troops and the organization of Military hospitals". In the plan put before the Secretary of War, the delegates affirmed that they wised no legal authority, but only official sanction and 'oral countance' of the government to further its inquiries. and permission to correspond and confer on a confidential basis with the Medical Bureau and the War Department upon all topics connected with their duties. The commission would inquire with scientific thoroughness into the subjects of diet, cooking, cooks, clothing, tents, camping grounds, transports, transitory depots, and their exposures, camp police, with reference to settling the question how far the regulations of the army proper are or can be practically carried out among the volunteer regiments, and what changes or modifications are desirable from their peculiar character and circumstances. Ever thing appertaining to outfit, cleanliness, precautions against damp, cold, heat, malaria, infection; crude unvaried, or ill-cooked food, and a irregular or careless regimental commissant, would fall under this head. The commission would inquire into the organization of military hospitals. general and regimental; the precise regulations and routine through which the services of patriotic women of the country could be made available as nurses; the nature and suffciency of hospital supplies; the question of ambulances and field services, and of extra medical aid; and whatever else relate to the care, relief and cure of the sic and wounded. The official warrent creating the commision was issued by the War Dept on June 9. 1861, though not signed by the President until June 18th. It named te President of the Commission. Rev Henry W. Bellows, D.D. New York. Put in charge of the Central office as General Secretary of the Commission was Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead. It is to Mr. Olmstead's powers of organizaton that a large share of the success of the Commission must be attributed. Notice that the Commission was formed prior to the First Battle of Bull Run, making it the first history that an organization of this type existed before the major engagement of the war. U.S. Sanitary Commission-- Cleveland, Ohio-- Was organized April 20th, 1861 to provide aid and medical care for the solders of the Civil War. The Cleveland Branch served as a model for the institution of smaller aid societies in other villages and towns in Ohio and was the first permanently organized branch of the Commission and the first to enter the field. It operated under the supervision of the parent U.S. Sanitary Commission. It grew from a neighborhood sewing circle and expanded to represent 525 branch organizations distributing hospital supplies of over $ 1 million. The Cleveland Branch ( Central Office located at 95 Bank St ) began with $ 2 in gold and ended with $170,000 in 1864. Funds were raised by conducting "Sanitary Fairs" at which historical items, artifacts, and Civil War mementos were displayed. The Northern Ohio Sanitary Fair held in Cleveland in Feb. 1864 raised $ 100,000 in 2 weeks. A Solders' Home was established in 1862 and a hospital was built at Union Station called the "Union Hospital ." The Depot Hospital cared for sick soldiers who came to Cleveland by train but were too sick to be moved to other facilities inthe city. The hospital was a large building made of rough boards built just west of Union Station on a long pier extending into Lake Erie. A hospital directory of sick and wounded soldiers was compiled to aid in locating missing and wounded soldiers. The Commission was created and managed by Cleveland women including officers Rebecca Rouse, Mrs. John Shelley, Mrs Wiiliam Melhinch, Mary Clark Brayton, and Ellen Terry. The Commision was disbanded in 1864. The Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio, was part of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. This was organized as the Ladies Aid Society to assist soldiers serving in the Civil War. With the National Organization, it demonstrated the protential contribution of philanthropy in wartime. A group of women from various Cleveland churches first met as the Ladies Aid Society on April 20,1861 and organized a " blanket raid " to collect quilts and blankets for troops being mustered at Camp Taylor. *********************************************** To be continued in Part 9 - C- The women of Ohio in the Civil war. ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Fri, 5 Nov 1999 23:42:21 -0500 From: "Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <044f01bf2811$50c05400$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Bio History -- Know You Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War Pt 9 - C Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: kathi kelley To: Sent: Thursday, November 04, 1999 4:54 PM Subject: Bio History -- Know You Ohio -- Ohio in the Civil War Pt 9 - C Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley Nov 4, 1999 *********************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio From the diaries of S.L. Kelley Know Your Ohio By Darlene E. Kelley *********************************************** Ohio Women in the Civil War --part 9-C Quilts-- In times of National emergency, Ohio quiltmakers mobilized to make quilts for relief.During the Civil War they transformed their church sewing circles into Soldiers' Aid Societies to collect and make clothing, quilts and bandages for Union soldiers. Thes groups affiliates of regional branches of the U.S. Sanitary Commission ( forerunner of the American Red Cross and an organization of Northern women who contributed needed articles of food and clothing to the Union Troops), were admirally effective. They organized immediately and efficiently, since their goals and structure as charitable sewing societies had existed for years. The Strongsville society, for instance, simply changed a few words in its consitution, retained its membership, and instantly became a soldiers' aid Society, fifty eight members strong. The need for bedcoverings in military camps and hospitals was so great that Soldiers Aid societies began by collecting existing quilts from their communities. A week after the war began and two months before the Soldiers Aid Societies officially organized, Cleveland women collected 729 quilts, comforters, and blankets in a single day to answer an emergency at nearby Camp Taylor. In the first fifteen months of its existence the Cleveland Soldiers Aid Society, to which Strongville and other nearby communities sent their work for disbursal, received 6,830 comfortables and blankets, the category that included quilts. Northern women contrbuted more than 250,000 quilts to the Union cause. The figures for Cleveland and Cincinnati alone totaled 27,369. As is true of other quilts contributed directly for benevolent causes, we found none of those thousands given by ohio women to the Sanitary Commission and know about them only by written records. " I particularly noticed a large invoice of quilts from your society, received here just when fly-blown blankets could not be endured another day, and one of the most timely of your favors." Surgeon A.G. Hart to U.S. Sanitary Commission, Cleveland Branch ( Cuyahoga County, Ohio ) 1862" ********************************************* Secretary's Report of Ladies Aid Society. Arnsville, Ohio From Sept 16th 1862, to June 15th 1863. In the fall of 1862 some of the ladies of Arnsville, and vicinity, feeling desirous to cast their might for our country's defense in the hour of her peril, began to cast about in their minds to find what would do the most good, and finding that the lows of the land, and their own feelings pre-vented their entering into a struggle now going on, but knowing that to comfort and cheer was their legitimate sphere, they concluded that they could render the most efficient service by working for those who are so nobly standing as a living wall between " their loved homes. and war's desolation." and seeing that it would be unwise to rely on the spasmodic efforts of a community as put forth in times of excitement as that would soon become wearisome, and not be a steady good. So they determined to form an association to be called the Ladies Soldier's Aid Society of Arnsville, Ohio and to send their contributions to the Cincinnati Branch U.S. Sanitary Commission. The Society was formed a Mrs Mary Henry's Sept. 1862. Mrs Mary Henry was elected President, Miss M. A. Rice, Secretary, Annie L. Dean, Treasurer. There was also a committee of three appointed whose special business it was to solicit funds for the Society. Mrs Ida Boyd, Misses E.C. Rice and S.E. McCollom. The members paid an admittance fee of .05 each for a time, but was discontinued Dec 23rd,1863. The committee, and society generally worked with a will and with determination that now, they had embarked in an enterprise to carry it forward. Some looked with distrust upon our efforts, who would ( we think ) have helped us had they fully understood our objects and aims, but still the society has movd forward although some of its best friends and helpers have all been called away are providentialy detained from meeting with us so that through the winter the attendance was very small, still we have suceeded in sending two valuable boxes to the Sanitary Commission, an account of which will be found in the Treasurers report. We constantly receive from the Society Commission their Monthly Bulletin, a report of their receipts and expedtures. We constantly read of the great good they are enabled to do by means of the contributions of the Soldier's Aid Societies in different parts of the country,we take courage and strive to do all we can. We would call upon everyone to aid in this great work, all have a personal interest in this as there are but few who have not friends away in a enemies country an ( Happen ) to fall a victim to the missiles of their foes or the ravages of disease. Come then and help us. There is a great call upon everyone to aid in this great work. There is a great call for vegetables. Will you give them? Let every family form themselves into companies and pick and dry fruits. They call for dried fruits rather then canned. See to it that there are pickles prepared to send in abundance and you who have friends or sons in te Army, will you not pick out your longest row of potatoes and cultivate them nicely and when ripe, dig them and send to the Sanitary Commission. Or any other vegetables, you may have, will be acceptable. Bring them on, we will send them for you. Any contributions can be left at Mr. A.B. Glazer's store so they will go safely and you will have no expense. Will you help us and prove that it is more blessed to give then to receive.!!! Annie L. Dean Sec. Pro Temp. Many Ohio Societies and covered needs-- Societies sprung up all over Ohio, all working for one goal; to ease the burden on their husbands and sons and relatives. Bandages were made by specific instructions. Splints and canes carved by those who could. Children learned to knit so they could help knit socks. All collected yarns. Woolen or cotton flannal for bed gowns, wrappers, undershirts and drawers; small, hair and feather pillows and cushions for wounded limbs and slippers. Delicacies for the sick-- such as farina, corn starch, cocoa, condensed milk, and nicely dried fruit, jellies strewn with white sugars half an inch thick and stout paper ( not brandied) pasted on top. Checkers and backgammon boards for the amusement of the wounded men, books, magazines, and illustrated papers, served to while away many a weary and idle hour. Poppies grown for the medicinal effect for easing pain, Letters, long and newsy to fill the need of home. Quilts and blankets to warm the body and ease the cold. Dried Cheese and beans, and potatoes helped fill the hunger of hungry men. Money for needed supplies and to help in some of the costs. Candies to fill the need of sweetness. Jerkies for the much needed protein. Homemade lotions to protect from the weather. Tea's for warming the stomach. The women all came together and helped as much as they could, knowing full well their loved ones could come home maimed or crippled, or not at all. Then there were the ones who volunteered their time to help organize all the effort and pack the boxes and transported them to where they were needed to be sent. The women who visited the local hospitals to help to wash the clothes and give aid where needed. Time was all they could give and the women of Ohio did give. As President Lincoln once stated " He knew he could count on Ohio to give their all." ********************************************** To be continued in part 10. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #769 *******************************************