The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-07-14
Farewell Of the United States Sanitary

,ued - n
:, WASHINGTON, ID. c., July a, 1885,
10 the Branches and Aid Societies of
the United States Sanitary Commits
sion I'm circular mo. 9O) issued from
This office May Is, you were called on to
continue your labors in collecting and
forwarding supplies up to the present
date. For the alacrity you have shown
In complying with this request under
so unfavorable- to zeal, we
tender you special thanks Your con-
tinued support has enabled us to extend
a generous assistance to our armies gath
cred at Washington, Louisville, and
elsewhere, before being finally mustered
out of service. When you have for
warded to our receiving depots such sup
plies as you have on hand, we shall find
our storehouses sufficiently recruited to
meet all remaining wants Of the service.
In the Eastern department our work of
supply. is substantially done, with the
exception of small service still reuuir-
ed in the neighborhood of Washington.
In the Western department 1t may con-
tinue, on very diminished scale. a
couple of months longer. In Texas and
the Gulf, possibly, the supply service
may last all summer. But, BY economy
of our stores In hand, we feel authorized
to say that after collecting what is al
ready In existence, we shall be able to
meet all just demands made upon us.
We, therefore, in accordance with our
promise, notify our branches that their
labors in collecting supplies for US may
finally cease from this date. We shall
make no further acquisitions upon them,
except in regard to supplies already in
their hands, or on their way to them
We hope our branches will use all dill.
gence in forwarding to our receiving de-
pots, through the accustomed channels,
whatever stores may reach them from
their Sanitary Aid Societies, or any they
have in hand. All balances in cash left
In the branch treasures, after settling
up ther local affairs, will be forwarded
to g. i. Strong, Esq, treasurer of the
United States Sanitary Nommission.-
So far as any Of our branv IS are engag-
ed in other portions of our ork than in
collecting and forwarding - pplies, their
labors will continue 80 long as those of
the Commission itself may last. ~
But the supply of work is over, and
of the land in furnishing hospital clo-
thing and comforts for sick and wound
ed soldiers, are completed. Hencefor-
ward, during the few months of exist
ence still allotted to the Sanitary Com
mission to complete its work of collect
ing the pensions and back pay of the
soldiers, in which it already has one
hundred and twenty-seven offices es-
,tablished, to make up its scientific re-
cord and close up its widely extended
affairs, there will be no probable neces-
sity for addressing the women of the
country, and this circular may be our
last opportunity, until the final report
of the Commission is made, of express
ing the gratitude of the board for their
patient, humane, and laboriOus devotion
to our common work. rstt
For more than four years the. United
States Sanitary Commission has depend
ed on its branches, mainly directed and
controlled by women, for keeping alive
the interest in it's work in all the viii
lagos and homes of the country, for es-
tablishing and banding together the
Soldiers Aid Societies which in thOus-
ands have sprung up, and united their
strength in our service. By correspon-
dence and by actual visitation, as well
as by a system of canvassers, you, at the
centres of influence, have maintained
your hold upon the homes of the land,
and kept your storehouses and ours full
of their contributions. By what syste-
matte and business-like devotion of your
time and talentsy you have been able to
accomplish this, we have been studious
and admiring observers. Your volun-
teer work has had all the regularity of
paid labor. In sense of responsible
ty, in system, in patient persistency, in
attention to wearisome details, in vic
tory over the fickleness which common
ly besets the work of volunteers, you
have rivalled the discipline, the patience,
and courage of soldiers in the field, SOL
diers enlisted for the war. Not seldom,
indeed, your labors, continued through
frosts and heat, and without intermis-
sion for years, have broken down your
health. But your ranks have always
been kept full, and full too, of the best,
most capable and noble women in the
country. uo 20. goo
Nor do we suppose that you, who have
controlled and inspired our branches,
and with whom it has been our happi-
ness to be brought into personal contact,
are, because acting as a larger sphere,
more worthy of our thanks and respect
than the women who have maintained
our village Soldiers Aid Societies: In
deed, the ever-cheering burden OF your
to us has been the
DTdlSc duu AONC lHnPAtCu AZ W. ~ 800
devoted patriotism, the self-sacrificing
zeal of the Aid Societies, and their In
dividual contributors. Through you we
have heard the same glowing and tear
moving tales of the sacrifices made oy
humble homes and hands in behalf OF
our work which we 80 often hear from
their comrades of privates in the field,
who throughout thewar have often won
the laurels their officers have worn, and
have been animated by motives or pure
patriotism, unmixed with hope OF pro-
motion ordesire for recognition or praise,
to rive their blood and their lives for
the country of their hearts. To you,
and through you TO the Soldiers Aid So
cieties, and through them to each and
every contributor to our supplies, 70
every woman who has sewed seam or
knitted stocking in the service OF the
Sanitary Commission, we now return
our most sincere and hearty thanks
thanks which are not ours only, but
those of the camps, the hospitals, the
the. prisons, the pickets ana
HE lines, where your love and labor
have sent comfort, protection, relleI, ana
sometimes life itself. +0
II ia not too much to say that the
army of women at home has 1uily
in patriotism and in sacrlhGes
he army of men in the field. me
mothers. sisters, wives and daughters OF
A n,arics have been worthy OF the sons
md brothers, husbands and fathers VINO
,ara fighting their battles. After having
" tu;L,,tod their living treasures TO the