1862 Civil War U.S. Sanitary Commission Letter to Frederick Law Olmsted from Frederick N. Knapp on Sick Soldiers Passing through Washington, DC
Washington, DC: U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1863. 2nd Edition. 8vo. Very Good. Item #17438
An 1863 2nd Printing of U.S.S.C. Report No. 59.
"Fourth Report Concerning the Aid and Comfort Given by the Sanitary Commission to Sick Soldiers Passing Through Washington."
This report consists primarily of a lengthy letter from Knapp, the Special Relief Agent for Washington, DC to Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed landscape architect and co-designer of New York City's Central Park who served during the war as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the Red Cross.
In his letter Knapp outlines the duties performed by USSC volunteers for sick and wounded soldiers from March 20, 1862 to December 15th of the same year, and provides related statistics to Olmsted, such as number of individual soldiers who received care (8249), total number of nights stayed (22,698), number of meals served (55810), a state by state census of where the soldiers were from, etc....In addition, he breaks down similar number from the inception of the USSC, and also provides job descriptions and duties of the various USSC volunteer positions.
22pp. Wraps. Disbound with the spine reinforced with a thin strip of early tape. Clean interior. Little wear.
"Frederick Newman Knapp was a key player in the United States Sanitary Commission. His efforts to relieve the suffering of literally thousands of sick, hungry, and wounded soldiers were indeed heroic but all behind the scenes, involving supply trains and soldiers’ relief stations. As one eulogist wrote after Knapp’s death, “If the good done by Mr. Knapp in this way were known, the news of his death would lead Congress to adjourn and the bells would toll throughout the land.” Another colleague referred to him as a “Minuteman of God.”
"Shortly after the Civil War erupted in 1861, Knapp was drawn into the service of a new and revolutionary organization: the United States Sanitary Commission. The USSC would take on an unprecedented relief agenda including the distribution of supplies, food and medicine to soldiers, the outfitting of hospital ships, soldiers’ homes and relief lodges, the mounting of tremendous fairs back at the home front to raise funds, among many other undertakings.
"Bellows became the Sanitary Commission’s president. He recruited Frederick Law Olmsted, the well-known landscape architect who was in the process of building New York’s Central Park, to become Executive Secretary. Olmsted’s impressive administrative skills would be needed to handle the operations of such a far-reaching organization. Bellows also reached out to his cousin, Frederick Newman Knapp, and recruited him to become an agent for the USSC.
"On August 9, 1861, while in Washington City, Knapp was working to help soldiers at a key point of arrival, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot just north of the Capitol. In a set of idle cars, he found 36 men from an Indiana regiment who were too ill to move. Their regiment had arrived in Washington, disembarked and marched off, leaving behind those who were too weak to walk. The men had been in the cars for 24 hours with nothing but a few crackers to eat. The army at that time really had no way to deal with this sort of situation. The regimental surgeon was all but helpless as he tried in vain to convince various officials at army hospitals to come to their aid. But the army surgeons had more urgent problems.
"Knapp immediately went into action. He begged from a nearby boarding house two pails of tea and plenty of soft bread and butter. The next day, he found 30 more men from another regiment abandoned at the station. He somehow found a way to get a meal to them.
"So began Knapp’s service as head of the Special Relief Service of the USSC." - historicaldigression
Overall an exceptional piece of Civil War medical history painting a clear picture of the communication between two of the Sanitary Commission's crucial players.
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