THU VASIi
At the close of the Fair last evening the vote
upon the $5,000 silver vase stood as foilows :
Union League 324, A. Lincoln 180, John
Welsh 111, Admiral Farragut 50, General
Meade 31, General Hancock 30, Governor
Curtin 26, Ur. Bellows 15, S. P. Chase 12,
General Grant 12, Bishop Wood 16, Bishop
Simpson 46, Bishop Potter C, General McClel
lan 12, General Sherman 6, John Bright 6,
Union Volunteer Kefreslimcnt Saloon 3, Scott
Stuart 31, Admiral Dupont 4, E. M. Stanton 2.
THE SWORI),
At ten o’clock the sword vote stood as fol
lows: General Meade 1,644, General Hancock
1,350, General McClellan 155, General Grant
104, scattering 62—total 3,321.
HOW THE SANITARY IS WORKING IN
THE FIELD.—No. 4.
[From onr Correspondent with the Army of the Potomac.]
White House, Ya., June 6, 1864,
I propose to present in this letter some ac
count of the “Auxiliary Relief Corps,” which
is a very important arm of the Sanitary Com
mission service. It is organized in accordance
with the following idea: As all the work of the
Commission is supplementary, it must, in the
construction of its several departments, corre
spond as nearly as possible with the army ar
rangements. For example, at this base there
are seven corps-hospitals, and there must,
therefore, be seven corps-stations of the Com
mission, if each hospital is furnished with
suitable care. You will not understand me to
mean dwelling-houses or barracks when I
speak of hospitals, as there are but few houses
within sight of this place, and they are rude,
dilapidated log huts. A hospital here, is,
wherever there are sick and wounded men,
whether they are under shelter or not. As
soon as practicable they are covered with
some sort of defence from the sun or rain, but
hundreds of them are oftentimes obliged to re
main out of doors during the night. Such
was the case last night.
Those who are not able to be sent away, or
those who will recover here as readily as they
would in a Northern hospital, are kept in
camps which represent, byname and number,
the several corps of the army. Along the
line of battle there are camps of well men,
divided into separate corps, under corps com
manders. At the “ water-base” there are
camps of sick and wounded men, divided into
separate corps, under the command of sur
geons. There arc thus seven corps hospitals,
and seven supply stations of the Commission
—one for each hospital, and, beside these, two
feeding stations to supply the wants of soldiers
who are on their way to hospitals, or who
do not need more than rest, nourishment and
surgical dressing, before being taken on board
steamers for Washington. To these stations
there is assigned a squad of relief agents, with
a supply of stores for the use of the hospital,
and any others who may chance to pass by
OITB ID .A. ILY IF 1 -A. IR lE.
and need care and comfort. One or more com
petent “dressers” are associated with the
squad, whose duty it is to be always ready
with bandages, lint, &c., to dress wounds.
Hundreds and hundreds are thus, day by day,
made more comfortable, and their recovery
hastened.
The relief is thus given to the men directly
in every emergency, and the store or supply
sent is always on the spot, and open to meet
the current daily want.
An idea may be formed of the contents of a
Commission Corps tent, by the following state
ment, which I copy from a requisition just now
tilled:
200 pounds sugar, 192 cans milk, 240 cans
beef, 144 cans tomatoes, 48 cans peaches, 10
gallons pickles, 1 barrel bandages, rags and
lint, 6 dozen splints, 80 pairs slippers, 100
pairs socks, 114 shirts, 140 pairs drawers, 1
ream paper (writing,) 100 envelopes, 30 can
dles, 5 boxes lemons, 1 cask porter, 4 boxes
whiskey, 2 boxes brandy, 1 box blackberry
cordial, 2 boxes sherry, 25 feeding tubs, 1
roll patent lint, 1 box jamaca ginger, CO pairs
crutches, 10 pounds castile soap, 100 towels,
96 handkerchiefs, 12 lead pencils, 2 stretchers,
1 rubber blanket, 2 haversacks, 1 pound can
dles.
A two-horse wagon is kept for transporting
supplies from the supply boat (which you know
is a barge on the Pamunkey) to and from all
the corps and feeding stations, that every want
may be met, so far as it may be practicable to
do so.
In addition to the supplies distributed to the
hospitals, &c., here, I present the following
transcript of a requisition filled this day for
the front. The goods will be placed in the
hands of the Relief Agent there, who will
send them to the different hospitals, and cause
them to be suitably divided :
1600 shirts, 1200 pairs drawers, 24 boxes
milk, 8 boxes brandy, 10 boxes Jamaica rum,
8 boxes sherry, 400 pounds smoking tobacco,
8 boxes lemons, 800 tin cups, 800 towels, 8
half barrels bandages, 8 half barrels rags,
48 pounds pepper, 8 gross matches, 8 gross
Jamaica ginger, 8 barrels soft crackers, 40
pounds chloroform, 48 bottles morphine. Four
days forage for each team.
These are for the General Hospitals on the
battle field, but in order that there may be no
drain upon them, to meet the wants of
wounded men who are forwarded to this place,
a special train is sent to supply them, and
special agents accompany it with empty bottles,
canteens, and other conveniences, that any who
may be found by the way r shall be served, as
well as those w ho may be met at the field; the
object being chiefly to furnish milk punch, and
crackers in the wagons. The last load con
sisted of the following:—10 boxes of Whiskey;
10 boxes of Milk; 10 barrels Crackers; 50 lbs.
Sugar; 2 boxes JamaciaGinger; 1 doz. Shirts;
1 doz. Towels; 1 doz. Handkerchiefs and 3
Buckets, besides a large quantity of Cups,
Ladles, Slings, Cushions, Reading Matter and
Stationary. The reading may be enjoyed on
the way, and stops and rests furnish opportu
nities for writing a few lines to friends at
home, which are forwarded by the Commission
free of expense.
This leads me to notice the Post Oifice de
partment, which has proved to be of such
magnitude as to require much of the time of
one man. An average of from two to
three bushels of mail matter, (mostly let
ters), are accumulated at the various offices
every day. At each feeding station, and each
supply tent, it is arranged to have a post
oftice, and the person in charge acts as post
master. The letters, &c., are accumulated
daily, and sent to the central office, where
they are put in charge of a special messenger,
and sent to Washington daily. At the office
of the Commission there, they are stamped
and forwarded without cost to the soldiers
Imagine a hospital with a thousand patients
in it. They are visited daily. Dressers bind
up their wounds, nurses administer cordials
and comforts, write for them, or furnish them
with the means of writing; they find a post
office within their own camp, through which
they may send letters free, and then think that
this opportunity is furnished to every hospital
in the field, and to every man in the army,
and that these are all distributing points for
letters to the soldieis from their homes, and
you may judge of the value of the postal ar
rangements of the Commission, both as a sup
plementary service, and as a great individual
benefit to the soldier and his friends.
The more I see of this work the more I am
satisfied with the wisdom of its conception, the
completeness of its plan, and the broad Chris
tian benevolence which inspires its labors. It
has its faults. Its chief fault lies in the
imperfection of its laborers. So few men are
capable of measuring themselves by the stan
dard of an unselfish reality in what they do,
that when human infirmity attempts to grasp
the great, the broad, the Divine genius which
moves to generous effort, they find themselves
unequal to the work. It is the experience of
all true men who engage in the Commission
with a determination to know it, that it grows
upon them, and that they must grow with it.
Those who complain of the imperfections of a
great and good cause are those who find most
reason for self-complaint, over their own im
perfect conceptions of the true and compre
hensive. The history of the Sanitary Com
mission, when it shall be written, will be a
grand demonstration of the fact, that the no
blest impulses of human nature, and the purest
teachings of Christianity have been joined in
a league of benevolence and love, which has
only failed to reach its climax of good because
of the imperfect ions which are the inheritance
of our race.
PRINTED by Ri.nowalt A Bkown, 111 A 113 South 4th
Street, Philadelphia, for the Great Central Fair in
aid of the United States Sanitary Commission.