Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1865-03-21
THE SANITARY OOMAIISsION.
Testin,ODy to its E1lcIesey and value.

communication in reference to alleged
abuses in the appropriation of stores for
wsrded blythe Sanitary Commission, by Off
cers to the exclusion of soldiers, we are Of
course ready to afford to the public, testi-
mony on the other side. Itis, s,therefore, with
pleasure that we print the following letter,
from Surgeon Clemons, of the 18th o. s.
@. L, received few days since by Mrs.
Harris, the Vice President of the Oleve-
land Aid Society. Surgeon Clemons is a
citizen of Erie County, and is personally
known to many Of our readers. His expe-
rience as medical officer since the summer
of 1852 renders his testimony peculiarly
valuable.
HEADQUARTERS 17TH 0. s. G. REG'T., /
NASHVILLE, Tenn, Feb. II, 1865. J
To hrs Hgris. Tioe-President Of the CIevsland Aid
Society,", Branch EaHitary Commission:
DEAR MRS. HARRIS The memory of q
promise made to you long ago hsunts me
to day like Bsnquo's ghost, and ss it will
not down at my bidding" will ease my
conscience at least by fulfilling my promise
to you of giving you my experience and
views of the usefulness and efficiency of
the United States Sanitary Commission.
But where to begin is more than can tell.
1 have been in the Army of the Cum
berland" from the siege of Cincinnati by
Kirby Smith, TO the siege of Nashville by
Hood, and during all that time L have
been constant witness Ol the workings of
the Commission. What can say of it
that has not been better said before?
During the early days of my soldier life
1 did not know what aid I could obtain
from this agency to help soften the hard
lot of the sick soldier, (and smooth IS it may
be, it is wretchedly hard lot, but after our
army had received its fiery baptism at
Stones river, and was living on its very
scarce and scsnt ration of hard crackers,
coffee, and meat; when one hundred and
twenty of my regiment, the 99th Ohio,
were lying sick in the Regimsntsl Hospi-
tal tent, and in their quarters, with not
even straw for q bed, nothing but the one
blanket, and the damp ground, and the
nauseating hard crackers and coffee, then
it was that first learned to appreciate the
Sanitary Commission. Well do remem-
Der the little dark room, away in one cor
ner of the Square at Murfreesboro, where
the agent of your Commission first exposed
to view the "love offerings" of Northern
homes TO the sick and weary soldier; and
well do remember the first barrel Of po-
tstoes took to camp and offered to the
sick soldier. How eagerly and wistfully
they received them, with a weary, weak
Joy that was pitiful to behold. None but
those who have been in their places and
condition can appreciate their feelings. and
the desire one feels for change of diet.
In those days the Commission was not
giant in its benevolence ss at present.
Ever since that time 1 have been con-
slant beggar from that agency, and have
yet TO see the time that ever left its doors
without substantial benefits, leither in pos
session or in prospect) TO the sick in my
| regiments for during that time l have
been connected with two regiments.
] wish thst you could have seen the
sight 1 saw the first day or two that our
army lay in the trenches around Nash
vile. You will remember that the 23d
and the 4lh Corps had been fighting and
marching from Pulaski, almost night and
day, until they reached misplace. I have
crossed the terrible field of death they made
at Franklin, and the graves are as thick
as 'sutumnal leaves that strew the ground
in leafy Vallambross." Well, they reach
ed this place after one day of terrible fight
ing and two nights OF marching, and
exhausted they dropped down upon their
guns in the trenches OF Nashville, and,
shiveriDg with the cold, they slept, as only
such weary man can sleep and when they
swoke the next morning, the agents of the
United States Sanitary Commission were all
along the line with baskets of apples, and
fruita, and clothing, and paper, and enVel-
opes, and everything that men in their
condition could make useful or agreeable,
and how glad the poor weary fellows werel
All these things saw, aye, and felt deeply
too, for had loved brother among those
"unwritten heroes" who don't wesr stars,
or esgles, or bars on their shoulders.
And l could tell you, too, of my own
regiment in its pursuit of Hoods army /;
how we left our dead without graves,
trusting to charity to bury them, while we
went, as ordered, awsy down in Alabama,
where Cor days wehsd only corn Issued to US
in the ear for rations, and subsisted on it by
hsvii g it psrched-how, when our mission
was ended, we came back to Nashville
with thirty men having frozen feet or
hsnds-how went to the agent of the
Sanitary Commission, told him my neces-
sites and my wants, and how bountifully
he supplied them. like 10 tell you of
these things, because I know that your
heart is engaged in the work.
AS look back over my lite in the army
as surgeon, think the sunuiest and
hv1f .hfn5k -, m khasa ~
permitted to gladden. the heart of the sick
and weary soldier, through the aid of the
Sanitary Commission. have nothing to
say of the abuses of these charitfes. That
there is such, have no doubt, just as there
are even in regard to the drugs and medi-
cines that are received from the United
States Government. There will always
be abuses and dishonesty as long as there
are rsscals. But must stop, although
have not told you half 1 wished.
Not four miles from where am writing
this letter, are two houses that, not two
months ago, were filed with wounded and
dying men, and the only one to attend to
those men, who came In at the rate of
thirty an hour, was the writer of this, un-
til he found two agents of the Sanitary
Commission, who came there and kindly
volunteered to aid, and they did aid most
materially, so that in q short time we
brought order out of chaos. And then they
would do all the light and minor dressing
while I gave my attention to the more se-
we're cases; and al this was done, not IN
some quiet, secluded, sheltered spot, but
within thirty rods of our front line of battle,
and we could see from our elevated po-
sition the whole range Of the battle field,
and many times while we were there did
the shells of the enemy's guns light in the
yard of our hospital-shells aimed at the
battery in front of us, but which out-resch-
ed their mark. Of such stuff are the men
made who have this thing in charge. May
God bless them Their works are silent
and done quietly, and may never be her
aided by the blare of trumpets OF the
thnndap of rrr,pv and ,ubav I'D