Women's Work

At near the close of April, a large number of the best women of New York city, met at the Cooper Institute and formed The Women's Central Association for Relief, with the late Dr. Valentine Mott as President. Auxiliary associations of women were formed all over the free-labor States; and very soon there was such a perfect system of relief organized, that all demands were promptly met. As the war went on it was discovered that a better system was needed, to have an official connection with the War Department; and after much effort, The United States Sanitary Commission was organized, with Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., as president. Out of this spontaneous movement of the women at the beginning, also grew The United States Christian Commission, a sturdy outgrowth of the Young Men's Christian Associations of the country. A brief history of these commissions will be given hereafter."

A great work of Christian benevolence, begun at this time in Philadelphia, went on through the war. That city lay in the pathway of troops going to Washington from the East. They crossed the Delaware at Camden, landed at Washington avenue, and took cars for the South. Many of them sought in vain for food before leaving on the railway trains. One morning, the wife of a mechanic, living near where the soldiers landed, touched by their condition, went out with her pot of coffee and a cup and distributed its contents among them. The generous hint was a prolific germ of charity. Other women in the neighborhood imitated the example of the mechanic's wife; and very soon they formed a Committee of Relief to give refreshments systematically to passing soldiers. Gentlemen in the neighborhood interested themselves in procuring supplies, and these were distributed in the shade of trees near a cooper-shop. Then the owner (Mr. Cooper) generously gave the use of his shop for a refreshment saloon, and very soon whole regiment were fed there at tables bountifully supplied with food and coffee by the contributions of the citizens of Philadelphia. The room was not spacious enough, and another "saloon" was opened the next day after that at the cooper-shop, and called the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. The generous citizens of Philadelphia supplied these saloons so liberally, that a bountiful meal was furnished to every soldier who applied, during four years. The number fed at the two saloons was about twelve hundred thousand. Of that number, seven hundred and fifty thousand soldiers were fed at The Union Volunteer Saloon. Full forty thousand had a night's lodging there, and fifteen thousand refugees and freedmen were cared for and employment found for them. A hospital was attached to the saloon, and in it twenty thousand soldiers had their wounds dressed. At all hours of the day and night devoted women were in readiness to prepare meals and wait upon passing soldiers, whenever a little signal-gun, warning them of the approach of troops, was fired. Who can estimate the vast sum of relief afforded during the war by the hands of patriotic, warm-hearted, sympathetic women?

The firemen of Philadelphia also did noble work. When sick and wounded soldiers began to be brought to the Government hospitals in Philadelphia, the Medical Department often found it difficult to provide vehicles to take them from the vessels to their destination, and there was much suffering on account of delays. The sympathetic firemen of the city made arrangements to give a signal when invalid soldiers arrived, when they would turn out with wagons to convey them to the hospitals. Finally, the Northern Liberties Engine Company had a fire-ambulance constructed for the purpose. Other fire companies of the city followed the example; and in these ambulances, one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers were conveyed tenderly from vessels to the hospitals, during the war.