Statement of the object and methods of the Sanitary Commission : appointed by the Government of the United States, June 13, 1861, / published by its Direction.
- United States of America. Sanitary Commission.
- Date:
- 1863
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Statement of the object and methods of the Sanitary Commission : appointed by the Government of the United States, June 13, 1861, / published by its Direction. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL BELIEF. The necessity of this work became apparent as soon as our vohmteer forces began to assemble. It was first undertaken at Washington, in August, 1861, and its results there soon led to the establishment of agencies for the same purpose at other points. It is now in operation throughout the country. The General Kelief System, of which some account has just been given, assists the soldier when in camp or in hospital, by strengthening and supplementing the military system with which he is then in close connexion, and on which it is his right and his duty mainly to depend. The Department of Special Relief deals mainly with the waifs and estrays of the Army, and relieves the individual soldier when temporarily out of connexion with the Military system. It gives him shelter, food, medical treatment and transportation when it is impossible for him to obtain them from Government. At points like Washing- ton or ]Sashville, for example, there may be daily found scores or hundreds of men separated from their regiments and anxious to rejoin them, but unable to obtain transportation, and without legal title meanwhile to quarters or rations, or any kind of recognition or aid from any Government officer within reach. Some are returning after a furlough, but find that their regiment has moved. Their little stock of money has given out, and they must beg through the streets for aught that any official has the power to do for them. Others are sick, but no Hospital can admit them without a breach' of regula- tions. Others are waiting to get their back pay, but there is some technical defect in their papers for which they are not re- sponsible, and they must wait a week for a letter to reach their regiment and be answered, before they can draw a dollar from the Paymaster, and subsist as they can meanwhile. These seem at first to be serious abuses, but they are, in fact, merely inevitable incidents of the rigorous system of detail](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24758681_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
