Third report concerning the aid and comfort given by the Sanitary Commission to sick soldiers passing through Washington / by Frederick N. Knapp.

  • Knapp, Frederick Newman, 1821-1889.
Date:
[1862?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Third report concerning the aid and comfort given by the Sanitary Commission to sick soldiers passing through Washington / by Frederick N. Knapp. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    some very sick. If their lack of money has arisen from any fault of theirs, it is almost invariably the fault of ignorance. The course which I adopt in regard to these men is this : I inform myself, by examining their papers of discharge at the Pay Office, that the men are destitute owing to causes not in their own control—that is, that they have not re- ceived their pay and spent it. Next, that there is no one able to furnish them money upon whom they could reason- ably call for it. Then, no such help being at hand, I take them to the cars and buy a ticket for them to their homes, first seeing that they are comfortably provided with clean flannels, &c. If a man is very sick, so that he evidently needs support and care, I engage some trustworthy per- son travelling to the same point to see him safely returned to his home. And where no such fellow-traveller is found who is willing to take the responsibility, some reliable per- son in the employ of the Commission is sent expressly to deliver the sick man to his friends. Previously to our helping them, (as I afterward found,) some poor discharged soldiers had been waiting in this place many days and weeks trying to collect the means to get home. They were men whom we did not happen to get hold of when they were discharged. But now, with our new Lodge near the Paymaster's office, we are informed of the condition of almost all who present their papers there. The amount of relief which has thus been given by this new method of action, I am confident, has been great, and the money expended well applied. It is something more than bestowing food and clothing, or alleviating pain—it is relieving a mental anxiety. Some of the saddest men I