In that first winter L.U.A.S. officers regularly visited 14
hospitals. It was said that L.U.A.S. members were known in streets by baskets
they carried.
The content of one basket was:
They organized the Sanitary Stores, took applications, wrote letters of acknowledgment, kept the accounts and distributed the supplies to hospitals, the sick in regimental camps in and around St. Louis and other spots in Missouri.
Miss Bettie Broadhead was in charge of the work at Benton Barracks. L.U.A.S. members systematized and distributed the outside bounty of donations so that the surgeon could regulate the diet of the patients.
Bills of fare were distributed every morning.The soldiers wrote their names on them and put numbers by the dishes they requested. The surgeon then examined the bills of fare and endorsed them. At the accepted time dishes, distinctly numbered, were delivered by orderlies
So sucessful were the ladies at Benton
Barracks that they began to operate a similar service in a Nashville hospital in
the fall 1863. L.U.A.S. sent 2 ladies, $500 and 72 boxes of supplies. However
they did not have the same warm reception that they had at Benton Barracks and
found that uphill battle due to hostile surgeons.
Rev. J. G. Forman, Secretary of the Western Sanitary Commission.
Credit to the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
the U.S. Army Military History Institute.
Mrs. Harriet R. Colfax. Served at 5th street Hospital in St. Louis, October 1861.
Served on the Hospital boat Louisiana, Jefferson Barracks until 1864.
Credit to the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
the U.S. Army Military History Institute.
Miss Maggie A. Eagen. Jefferson City, MO, October 1861 until March 1862 with the
Sisters of Charity. Paducah, January 1863 until March 1864; taken prisoner
and after the engagement escaped. Joe Holt General Hospital, Jeffersonville,
Indiana, October 1864 until July 1865.
Credit to the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
the U.S. Army Military History Institute.
Mrs. Caroline C. Hagar. Service in the hospitals of St.Louis du ring the greater
part of the war.
Credit to the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
the U.S. Army Military History Institute.
Miss Emily E. Parsons. After a course of special training entered Fort Schuyler
Hospital, 1862. Lawson Hospital, St. Louis, January, 1863. Head nurse Hospital
steamboat City of Alton. Superintendent of Female Nurses, Benton Barracks Hospital,
St. Louis until August 1864. Sanitary Commission work during 1864-1865. "Among
the sick and suffering she brought the sunshine of a cheerful loving heart, beaming from a
countenance expressive of kindness and good will and sympathy to all. Her presence
in the hospital was always a blessing.".
Credit to the Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and
the U.S. Army Military History Institute.
Rev. Dr. William Greenleaf Eliot encouraged the formation of the Western Sanitary
Commission and the Ladies Union Aid Society. His biographer wrote "In the Western
Sanitary Commission, which came into existence through his suggestion, he was always
a leader in collecting and applying the millions that flowed through its channels to the
relief of the soldiers in the field. His youngest brother (
Frank Andrew Eliot, Captain of the 114th Pennsylvania)
, a gallant oficer, was
killed at Chancellorsville (3 May 1864) at the head of his men. His brother, Thomas, in Congress,
became conspicuous for wisdom and ability in the difficult time of reconstruction."
This lithograph was published in 1904
in his biography, written by Charlotte Eliot, his grand-daughter. The lithograph is based upon
a daguerreotype taken in 1854 when he was 43 years old.
James E. Yeatman was a prominent banker in St. Louis before the Civil War.
His family roots were traced back to a large plantation owning family in
Tennessee, but his heart was with the Union cause and with abolition of slavery.
He founded the St. Louis Mercantile Library and was a generous patron to many
deserving causes. He was a major supporter of the Western Sanitary Commission and
the Ladies Union Aid Society.
This image is based upon an oil painting in the possession of the St. Louis
Mercantile Library.
