Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-11-21

drawers. sent a. once about four hum :
dred. inelose g eommunics-
tion to the stamford Conn Advocate"
of September 25, received from some one
unknown to me.
Nh. EDIoR: There is in our village a
society called Soldiers Aid Society. In
its present plan believe auxiliary to the
Sanitary Commission, U. s. A. Within
the past eleven months l have had large
opportunities Of watching the practical
workings Of this institution in one Of its
outposts, and think perhaps the plain
statement of few facts, as have learned
them, might afford encouragement to the
ladies engaged in it.
Ny FIRST acquaintance with the Sanitary
Commission came through q small pam
phlet sent me by its agent soon after our
arrival at Camp Parapet Following up
the invitation contained in 1t, / made the |
acquaintance Of its agent and found that |
through him l could obtain, without cir |
cumlocution, the essentials for the house |
keeping department Of military hospital |
whether in active campaign, or guard DUTY |
or the more settled condition Of post or
city hospital, and whether the patients
were suffering from disease incident TO
the locality in which they were situated,
er from wounds received in battle. And,
Mr. Editor, wish to bear testimony to the
fact that, in all these various conditions,
/ the Sanitary Commission furnishes to the
suffering soldier just that kind Of delicacy
or substantial which judicious mother
or wife would furnish if they had oppor-
tunity. I have seen empty old buildings,
as by magic, assume in day the air OF
comfort and order Of arrangement Of long
established city hospitals. Not soon shall
cease TO warm over the recollection Of
some Of these transformations, fer example
men to the number Of several hundreds,
sf.er the fight at Bjslsnd, were brought to
Berwick City in fat-boats, skifs, and lit
tie steamers, wounded in every oanceiva-
bic manner. They had received all the
attention that good medical skill could af
ford amid the din and smoke of actual
conflict but we're 30 dirty, black, and un-
comfortable, as not to be recognized by
their most intimate friends, until the reno
vating hands of tender nurses had washed
away their blood and dust, and put on
them and their beds clean clothes; all
which, not excepting a piece Of soap, or
row of pins, were furnished by the model
department Of the Gull, and the Sanitary
Commission, sent thence eighty miles over
slow railroad, but in time TO do all
have intimated. And l must say,
that he who had looked, on the morn
| ing of April Is, at the interior Of that
deserted building in Berwick City, store
below and tenements above, its large and
small rooms, dusty, oobwebbed, gloomy,
and also at the large hall Of an adjoining
building in Che same condition, making in
all floor area Of about l, 500 yards, had
seen on the following morning every avail
able yard Of this space covered with wound
ed men, cur eotntTy'S braves, suffering an
euish such as a wounded soldier only knows,
Rithout the shadow Of comfort; on the
same evening again seen all these sufferers
/ arranged in trim rows, on iron bedsteads
and good mattresses, clean wounds, clean
i bandages, clean lint dressings, &c, clean
shirts, clean drawers, clean sheets and pill
low cases, clean wards, with towels, and
bowls and brushes, and rows Of pins in
their places, tables supplied with vases Of
! flowers, pitchers OF iee-WStsr, tumblers,
bowls, walls, packages, all in their places,
, and the poor sufferers sleeping quietly un-
der their murquito nets, all in order, all
cleanliness, all beautiful, at post hospital,
: No.2. Anybody, I say, that saw, as ! saw,
all this, Epd Ess not moved with deep
gratitude toward the Institution that fur
nished the means for all this magic change,
J is character for cage in a menagerie.
} This post hospital, No. 2, is but "a iilug-
trstion Of hos. ], 8, 4, a. Berwick City, at
lha same time. alan at BrasheAF CITY at
different times; also at Lafourehe Cross
ing In short, it but illustrates what may
be at svsry hospital, e1temporised or ap-
pointed, in the field or in the city, all over
the Department Of the Gulf, as no doubt is
the case in every department; and il all
: or any Of this is wanting in say casa, it
is due 10 negligence on the part Of officers
in charge Of hospitals, not TO want of
means furnished by Medical Department
and Sanitary Commission.
ain conclusion, would say TO friends
of the soldier everywhere, send your git 3
through the Sanitary Commission, always.
They are carefully hnsbsnded and judi
ciously distributed to those who need them
most. Not, as Ofen happens when other
wise sent, some articles ac5umulatiug to
the extent Of nuisance, in one place,
7 while other articles Of real comfort arS ga
tirsl7 absentI Gil unequal aud unsatisfao-
tory, TO say nothing of the greater liability
of the articles sent irregularly being de-
voured by the army gulls, men, sometimes
officers, having no interest in the hospital,
through whose hands they must pass.
nGod bless the Sanitary Commission, is
ever the exclamation Of those who know
it best.
"W. II. TROWBRIDGE,
"Ex Surgeon, 2Sd Regt. c. ""