THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION
By Robert E. Denney
June 1, 1863
The Western Sanitary Commission, originally established on September 10, 1861, in St. Louis, Mo,, had by this date distributed more than 752,938 articles since November 1, 1861 (no records were kept during September and October, 1861). These articles, valued at $395,335.96, consisted of blankets, pillows, sheets, comforts, bed sacks, shirts and drawers, socks, slippers, towels, handkerchiefs, dried and canned fruits, jellies, pounds of butter, pounds of zwieback, pounds of crackers, packages of farina, bushels of vegetables, bottles of wine, brandy, and whiskey, etc.
The articles were provided as free gifts from the women and other agencies of the North and were distributed solely through the Sanitary Commission agents to hospitals i Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The fleet of hospital ships wasn't neglected in this distribution. Supplies were also furnished to the R.C. Wood, D.A. January, City of Memphis, Nashville, Empress, Imperial, City of Alton, and the Navy's hospital ship Red Rover.
Since September 1861, in excess of 42,776 sick and wounded had been inmates of the hospitals of St. Louis and vicinity, and about 30,000 had been transported on the hospital steamers. This, in addition to the more than 75,000 sick and wounded, who also benefited in the regimental hospitals from the Sanitary Commission largess, put the total number of men assisted to more than 150,000.
FROM: Civil War Medicine: Care & Comfort of the Wounded
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