E 631 
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 .W52 
 Copy 1 
 
 REPORT 
 
 i#£0ta Junitaqr (ftttmmifflm, 
 
 N X H K 
 
 WHITE UNION REFUGEES OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO: 
 
 ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, NO. 10, NORTH FIFTH STREET. 
 PRINTED BY R. P. STUDI.EY AND CO. 
 
 1864. 
 
1 
 
REPORT 
 
 ifktftm ^anito ($0mintjSiistott t 
 
 WHITE UNION REFUGEES OF THE SOUTH, 
 
 THEIR PERSECUTIONS, SUFFERINGS, DESTITUTE CONDITION, 
 
 AND THE NECESSITY OF GIVING AID AND RELIEF 
 
 ON THEIR COMING TO OUR 
 
 MILITARY POSTS. 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO: 
 
 ROOMS WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION, NO. 10, NORTH FIFTH STREET, 
 PRINTED BY R. P. STUDLEY AND CO. 
 
 1864. 
 

 
REPORT 
 
 ®0 the (£lm$'tiM and humane people of the £Eopl States : 
 
 During more than three years of the present civil war, the 
 Western Sanitary Commission, besides its labors for the Armies of 
 the West, the Navy of the Mississippi, and the Freedmen of the South, 
 has been called to perform a work of humanity for the poor, des- 
 titute, white, Union Refugees, from the insurrectionary States, 
 and now begs leave to call a more particular attention to this branch 
 of its labors, and to appeal to all Christian and humane people for 
 aid, in clothing and money, to relieve the terrible destitution and 
 suffering of these people, who are constantly arriving at our military 
 posts in Missouri, and in this city, and casting themselves upon our 
 charity. 
 
 REFUGEES IN SAINT LOUIS. 
 
 Since the commencement of the war there have arrived in Saint 
 Louis many thousands of white, Union Refugees, from the troubled 
 districts of Missouri, Arkansas ; Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mis- 
 sissippi, Alabama, and Georgia .. The more energetic and capable 
 of them have gone on to various parts of the Western States, many 
 of whom we have aided with transportation. Another class, consist- 
 ing almost entirely of helpless women and children, widows, 
 orphans and half orphans, often sick or debilitated by disease, poorly 
 
clad and bare-footed, with a few bundles of bedding, on arriving 
 here, having no friends to go to, have fallen upon the charity of the 
 Commission and of the Government; for, having no residence here, 
 they did not come within the range of the charitable institutions of 
 the city. 
 
 For nearly two years the Western Sanitary Commission provided 
 a Refugee Home on Elm street, where, under the humane direction 
 of the late John Cavender, Esq., the necessities of this class of 
 persons were relieved. During this time, $3,800 in money, and a 
 large amount of clothing, were obtained for them by the Commission, 
 and a further sum of $15,000 was raised by an order of Major Gen- 
 eral Halleck, assessing the wealthy secessionists of Saint Louis for 
 this object; all of which was judiciously and faithfully expended by 
 Mr. Cavendei:. 
 
 In August, '63, there began to be further ai-rivals of destitute 
 refugees from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana 
 and Texas. Many of them were women, with small children, 
 poorly clad, often bare-footed, brought up the river on Govern- 
 ment steamers, and landed here, without the means of procuring 
 a place of shelter for a single night. Their husbands had been 
 killed in the war, had been murdered by guerrillas, had been 
 conscripted into the rebel army, or had died from the effects of 
 exposure, in lying out in the woods, in dens and caves of the 
 earth, to escape the blood-hounds of the rebel conscription. At 
 first, these poor refugee families fell into the hands of the police, 
 but the police station was not a fit place for them, although some 
 of them found shelter there. ; 
 
 One day, late in August, the /President of the Commission was 
 called to see what could be done for a poor blind woman, and 
 her family of six children, who had walked all the way from 
 Arkansas to Rolla, Mo., her little children leading her several 
 hundred miles by the hand, and from Rolla they had been brought 
 
on the cars to St. Louis as a charity. They were in an upper 
 unfurnished room of the Pacific Hotel, the woman and a boy about 
 twelve years old being sick, and she totally blind. They sat upon 
 the floor, clothed in rags, and presented a sight that would have 
 moved the stoutest heart to pity and to tears. 
 
 The children of this woman, whose name was Mrs. Hargrave, 
 were adopted by Rev. Dr. Eliot, and placed in the Mission school 
 on Eighth street, and the mother was sent to the St. Louis Hos- 
 pital, kept by the Sisters of Charity. Her youngest children she 
 had never seen, they having been born since she became blind. 
 The parting of the blind mother from her little ones was a touch- 
 ing scene. But she gave them up willingly, knowing it to be a 
 necessity, and for their good. At the Sisters' Hospital, her health 
 after several months was restored, and by a surgical operation of 
 Dr. Pope, the cataracts were removed from her eyes, and she was 
 able to see. Her children were then brought to her, and the 
 meeting can be better imagined than described. Quite recently 
 this poor woman has died of consumption, after having been 
 entirely restored to sight. 
 
 A little later, another refugee mother came, and with two little 
 children stood at the door of the Commission, on Fifth street, 
 having no place to go. They were bare-footed, dusty with travel, 
 and miserably clad. The mother told her sad story. 
 
 Her husband had been murdered by guerrillas, near Fort Smith, 
 Ark., and she had walked with her children to Rolla, riding part 
 of the way in Government wagons, and had reached St. Louis as 
 a place of refuge. She had to stay at the police station that night. 
 The next day, three women and children arrived from Jackson, 
 Tenn., in an equally destitute condition. There was no alternative 
 but to open another refugee home. 
 
 The President of the Commission rented the house, 39 Walnut 
 street, for this purpose, on the 1st of September, 1863, and from 
 
6 
 
 that date to September 1st, 1864, 322 men, 679 women, and 1163 
 children, in all, 2164 white refugees, were sheltered and provided 
 for, and many of them sent on their way to friends, or places of 
 employment in the free States. By an arrangement with Generals 
 Schofield and Rosecrans, rations and fuel were allowed from the 
 Government, and the rent was paid by the Quartermaster; but the 
 incidental expenses of the home, and the charities in clothing, money, 
 &c, were provided by the Commission. 
 
 This institution was conducted under the superintendence of 
 the Secretary of the Commission, Rev. J. G. Forman, who, hold- 
 ing a commission as Chaplain in the Army, and being assigned 
 to this work by the Commanding General of the Department, has 
 represented both the Government and the Commission. Larger 
 accommodations being found necessary, the Government, early in 
 the month of last June, appropriated a portion of the barracks at 
 Camp Benton to this use, and set apart a hospital ward for the 
 sick, at the request of the Commission. A new building is also 
 in progress in the southern part of the city, for the accommoda- 
 tion of two thousand persons, it being found desirable to bring 
 all the destitute refugees, now subsisting on the Government at 
 Springfield, Rolla, Pilot Knob, Cape Girardeau and elsewhere, to a 
 central point, where they can be more easily sent to homes and 
 places of employment; saving, also, the transportation of the 
 rations now allowed to them, and bringing them under a better 
 supervision than can otherwise be given.* 
 
 •Since the above statement was written, the buildings, in process of erection and 
 nearly completed, were accidentally burnt to the ground, and it is extremely doubtful 
 whether the Government will undertake to rebuild them. This is a great calamity to 
 the poor refugees, and to many destitute soldiers' wives and widows, for whom they 
 were intended. It now only remains to make the best use of the rough buildings at 
 Benton Barracks, which are a series of stables, originally erected as booths for horses 
 and cattle at the Agricultural Fairs, and afterwards used for a time by the cavalry 
 regiments for their horses. These have been further enclosed, floored, windows and 
 stoves placed in them, and now make a tolerable shelter for these poor families, though 
 far Irani comfortable. 
 
The number of destitute Union refugees received at Benton 
 Barracks up to the present date (Oct. 26th, '64,) is 104 men, 222 
 women, and 421 children, total 767, which, added to the number 
 received and provided for at the Refugee Home in the city from 
 September 1st, 1863, to September 1st, 1864, makes a total of 2931 
 refugees assisted in connection with the labors of the Western 
 Sanitary Commission during this period, not including those aided 
 by Mr. Cavender's labors during the first year and a half of the war. 
 
 The rations allowed by the Government to destitute Union refu- 
 gees and freedmen's families, not able to provide for themselves, 
 has been specially designated by an order of the War Department, 
 as follows: 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, 
 
 Washington, January 25th. 1864. 
 General Order, ) 
 
 No. 30. ) 
 
 The following is hereby established as the ration for issue by the Subsistence 
 Department to adult refugees, and to adult colored persons, commonly called " con- 
 trabands," when they are not employed at labor by the Government, and who may 
 have no means of subsisting themselves, viz: 10 oz. of pork or bacon, or 1 lb. of 
 fresh beef; 1 lb. of corn meal five times a week, and 1 lb. of flour or soft bread 
 or 12 oz. of hard bread twice a week ; and to every 100 rations, 10 lbs. beans, peas, 
 or hominy, 8 lbs. of sugar, 2 quarts of vinegar, 8 oz. of candles, 2 lbs. soap, 2 
 lbs. of salt, and 15 lbs. of potatoes when practicable. To children under fourteen 
 years of age, half rations will be issued ; and to women and children, roasted rye 
 cofl'ee, at the rate of 10 lbs., or tea, at the rate of 15 oz. to every 100 rations. 
 
 By order of the Secretary of War. 
 
 E. D. TOWNSEND, 
 
 Assistant Adjutant General. 
 
 An order from the Head Quarters of the Department of the 
 Missouri requires that the Chaplains, to whom the work of charity 
 is usually assigned, shall confine it to those who, without this aid, 
 would be " in danger of starvation ;" and that they should certify 
 on the back of the provision returns that the persons drawn for 
 are "unable to work." It also requires that the relief given should 
 be " temporary," and not permanent. 
 
The whole number of refugees for whom transportation has 
 been obtained from the Government, and from the railroads, and 
 steamboats, by the Commission, to assist them to reach their friends, 
 or places of employment, in the Western free States, from Oct. 
 17th, 1863, to Oct, 25th, 1864, is 202 men, 493 women, and 682 
 children, making a total of 1377 persons, besides many young 
 children under four years of age, who passed without any fare 
 being charged. 
 
 hi performing this charity the Commission is greatly indebted to 
 the North Mo. Railroad, whose President, Isaac Sturgeon, Esq., has 
 given many free passes for refugees; to the Pacific Railroad, whose 
 President, Geo. R. Taylor, Esq., and General Superintendent, T. 
 McKissock, Esq., have granted many similar favors ; to the Iron 
 Mountain Railroad, S. D. Barlow, Esq., General Superintendent, 
 to whom we are equally indebted ; to the Saint Louis, Alton and 
 Chicago Railroad, whose agent, J. L. Downs, Esq., has granted 
 a free pass in all needful cases of charity ; and to the Terre 
 Haute, Alton and St. Louis, and the Ohio and Mississippi 
 Railroads, whose Presidents, Superintendents and Agents — W. R. 
 Griswold, Esq., Col. H. C. Moore, F. M. Colburn, Esq., and IT. 
 D. Bacon, Esq., — have always been most liberal and obliging in 
 granting every reasonable request of this kind. Many favors of 
 the same kind have also been extended to us by the Northern Line 
 of Packets to Dubuque, Iowa, and the Illinois river packets, whose 
 officers have always been most obliging and humane in aiding these 
 poor people. About one-half of all the transportation furnished 
 them has been procured without charge to the Government, cither 
 by charity obtained in this manner, or by half fares paid by the 
 Commission. 
 
 Besides assisting the refugees in these several ways, the "West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission has furnished large supplies of clothing — 
 thousands of coats, pantaloons, under-clothing, women's dresses, 
 
9 
 
 shawls, shoes, comforters and other articles of bedding-, to the more 
 destitute. It has helped many families to commence housekeeping - , 
 purchasing for them cooking-stoves and the most necessary articles 
 of furniture, so that they might support themselves, and not become 
 a charge to the Government. It has also established a school at 
 Benton Barracks, for the children of the refugees, under Miss 
 Samantha Monroe as teacher, where 140 children have received 
 instruction since last June. 
 
 In all these labors in behalf of the refugees in this city, the 
 Commission has enjoyed the friendly sanction and active co-opera- 
 tion of all our Department and District Commanders — Major Gen- 
 erals Halleck, Curtis, Schofield, and Rosecrans, and Brigadier Gen- 
 erals Fisk and Ewing — who have granted every reasonable request, 
 in furnishing quarters aud authorizing the issue of fuel and rations 
 to all who were unable to provide for themselves, and who must 
 otherwise have suffered or perished. 
 
 PERSECUTIONS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE REFUGEES. 
 
 Of all the refugees who have applied to the Commission for 
 assistance, not more than one-tenth have been able to read and write. 
 They uniformly profess to be loyal to the Union, and many of them 
 give touching accounts of the manner in Avhich they have been 
 persecuted, driven from their homes by guerrillas, and their hus- 
 bands murdered, sometimes before their eyes. The picture of their 
 sufferings on arriving at St. Louis is often so sad and distressing 
 as to draw tears from eyes not used to weep. On a single boat 
 from the White river, in Arkansas, we have sometimes had an 
 arrival of fifty families of refugees, old, decrepid men, sickly and 
 feeble women, puny and diseased children, clothed in rags, lying- 
 in bundles of miserable bedding, landed on the levee, without food 
 or money to procure either food or a place of shelter for a single 
 night. This happened one day last summer, towards evening, and 
 
10 
 
 teams could not be had that night to convey them to Benton Bar- 
 racks. The President of the Commission (Mr. Yeatman) went 
 and provided them with bread and coffee for supper and breakfast, 
 and they remained all night on the levee, sleeping there with no 
 shelter but the starry sky. The next day a dozen Quartermasters' 
 teams conveyed them to the refugee quarters at Benton Barracks; 
 rations were procured for them ; the sick (being full half the 
 number,) were taken to a ward of the general hospital, set apart 
 for the purpose; and the Commission furnished shoes and clothing 
 to the most naked and destitute, and articles of necessity for the 
 hospital ward, with a matron and cook to assist in its management. 
 As these people recovered their health, they were assisted with 
 transportation to reach homes in the country, and directed to places 
 of employment; thus making room for others subsequently arriving 
 in the same condition. Many deaths, however, occur of the more 
 feeble and sickly ; and sometimes whole families of orphans are 
 left on our hands, by the death of their parents while they are 
 
 here. 
 
 REFUGEE ORPHANS. 
 
 Since the 1st of August, 1864, forty refugee orphan children have 
 been sent by the Commission to the Mission Free School, on Eighth 
 street, established and supported by the Church of the Messiah, 
 (Rev. Dr. Eliot,) in this city, and to the Protestant Orphan Asy- 
 lum, on Seventh street. Here they are cared for; and, if sick, 
 retained till they are restored to health ; instruction is given them 
 in the daily school, and homes are provided for them, by indenture 
 to suitable persons applying for them at these institutions. 
 
 A touching incident occurred last summer, in the case of a 
 family arriving from the White River country, in Arkansas. A 
 mother and her children were landed on the levee, with their few 
 articles of bedding ; and not being informed that she could be 
 assisted at the Sanitary Rooms by the Superintendent of Refugees, 
 
11 
 
 and being sick, she went, with her children, except the oldest boy, 
 directly to Benton Barracks, leaving- him behind to take care of 
 some bedding and household goods that she could not take with 
 her, and telling liim to wait there for her return the next day, 
 when she would come for him. The little fellow stayed all night 
 on the levee with the goods, and all the next day, without food; 
 but no mother came. At last, he was found by the Agents and 
 President of the Commission, and the sad information given him 
 that his mother was dead, having died the next morning after 
 she reached Benton Barracks. He gave way at once to heart-broken 
 sobs and tears, and would not be comforted. He, with the other 
 children, was afterwards taken to the Mission Free School. Another 
 touching case also occurred, in which a mother and eight children 
 were sent to the refugee hospital at Benton Barracks, where they 
 all died, except three of the children, who were also sent to the 
 Mission Free School. 
 
 Still another incident occurred, of much interest, in connection 
 with the refugee orphans. A mother, from Arkansas, having two 
 daughters, died at the Refugee Home, and left them on our hands. 
 They were taken to the Mission Free School, and informed the 
 Matron that they had an aunt in Wisconsin, who was in good 
 circumstances, and would give them a home if they could get to 
 her, but they did not know in what part of Wisconsin she lived. 
 She had once visited their parents' home in Arkansas, and they 
 remembered her name. The Secretary of the Commission sent an 
 advertisement to the Wisconsin papers, which met the eyes of persons 
 who knew their aunt, who was dead ; and the executor of the estate 
 wrote that a farm worth $2,000 was left, to which these children 
 were joint heirs with a nephew living on the farm. Transportation 
 was immediately procured for them, a little money given to pay ex- 
 penses on the way, and they were sent forward to their new home. 
 
12 
 
 AN INSTANCE OF PERSECUTION. 
 
 The following case of rebel persecution will afford an instance, 
 out of thousands, of what these people often suffer in the South, 
 and on their journey to a place of refuge. Last summer there 
 came to the Eefugee Home, a mother, with her four little children, 
 trying to reach her friends in Kentucky. She was an intelligent 
 woman, of the better class of refugees. She said she had lived 
 near Jacksonport, White Biver, Arkansas; that her husband owned 
 a farm, well stocked with cattle, horses and provisions, and was in 
 prosperous circumstances. He was known as a Union man, and 
 often had to lie out in the woods — called in the South "the brash" 
 — for weeks, to escape being conscripted in the rebel army or 
 murdered. Sometimes the guerrillas would come and take away 
 whatever suited them of his property — his horses, cattle, and corn, 
 as they pleased, and even the bed-clothes from their beds, and their 
 apparel. At last they caught him once at home, where he had 
 come to see his little family, and spend a few days with them 
 under his own roof. They called him out into his door-yard, told 
 him he was a d — d traitor to the South, tore him away with vio- 
 lent hands from his weeping wife and children, marched him a short 
 distance down the road, and murdered him in cold blood, the report 
 of their murderous weapons reaching his own doors. 
 
 After this they returned and told his weeping widow that she 
 had better pack up and go to Pilot Knob, where the Feds would 
 take care of her, or they would burn her house over her head. 
 Some days later, she yoked up the last ox team that had been left 
 them, and putting her bedding and her children in the wagon, 
 with their clothing and some of her husband's apparel that she 
 wished to keep, she started for Pilot Knob, a distance of about 
 two hundred miles. Traveling about fifteen miles a day, when she 
 had been nearly a week upon the road, and her little stock of corn 
 
13 
 
 meal and bacon was nearly exhausted, she was met by a band of 
 rebel marauders, who stopped her in the road, and inquired where 
 she was going. The poor woman, being much alarmed, answered 
 that her husband was dead, and she was trying to go to her friends 
 in Kentucky. 
 
 "Well," said they, "what have you got here ?" and they began 
 to rummage the wagon, from which they took her deceased hus- 
 band's clothes, and her bed quilts, and the corn meal and bacon 
 that was left, and then they unhitched the yoke of steers from 
 the old wagon, and said to her — 
 
 "We cannot allow you to take these * things into the Federal 
 lines. You say your husband is dead ; how did he die ? Put to 
 death for being a traitor ? G — d d — n him, served him right. 
 And you are going to your friends in Kentucky ? Union people, 
 eh ? Then you can travel on foot to Pilot Knob, and the Feds 
 Ml take care of you there. They'll give you more blankets and 
 clothes, and give you rations besides." 
 
 The poor woman pleaded with her tears, and her little children 
 crying around her, that they would leave her the team, and the 
 bedding and the little food she had, and let her go on her way; 
 but they jeered at her, mocked and laughed at her distress, and 
 took her team and everything she had, and left her with her chil- 
 dren crying on the road ; after which she pursued her way on foot 
 Avith the little children to Pilot Knob, and received free passage by 
 the Iron Mountain Railroad to St. Louis. 
 
 On their arrival at the Refugee Home they were kindly cared 
 for, and assisted to reach their friends in Kentucky, wnere the poor 
 woman and her children, as we afterwards learned by letter, found 
 her own father's house, and a welcome to the paternal home. 
 
 Hundi'eds of instances like this, differing only in the kind and 
 degree of persecution, might be narrated, but this must suffice. 
 
14 
 
 REFUGEES AT PILOT KNOB. 
 
 The number of Union refugees at this point has always been 
 very large, ranging from one thousand to fifteen hundred persons, 
 depending on aid from the Government in rations and places of 
 shelter. During the month of July, the number of persons assisted 
 in this manner was 1346, and in August, 1180. They are, with a 
 few exceptions, poor people from southeast Missouri and Arkansas, 
 ignorant, unable to read and write, accustomed to live in squalid 
 wretchedness, the poor "white trash" of the South, a class from 
 which the rebels have largely recruited their armies by conscription, 
 and left their families, widowed and orphaned, to find their way to 
 our lines to save themselves from starvation. They uniformly claim 
 to be Union people, are willing enough to take the oath of alle- 
 giance, but do not really understand what is essential to loyalty, or 
 the merits of the conflict in which we are engaged. Nevertheless 
 they are human beings ; and although in the lowest stage of civil- 
 ization, they are thrown upon our charity, and with their children 
 must be provided for, improved as much as possible, or be left to 
 perish. Another and better class of them, however, have been faith- 
 ful to the Government under every form of persecution, and are not 
 only refugees but soldiers' families, who deserve all the sympathy 
 and aid that can be given. No class have suffered more than these, 
 the special objects of rebel atrocity and outrage, and none have 
 been more loyal to their country's cause. 
 
 The number of rations issued by the Government to these poor 
 destitute people at Pilot Knob, during the month of August, of the 
 present year, was 16,915, and the value of them, $1,691.50, which 
 is a fair average of the charity of the Government at that post for 
 nearly the whole period of the war. 
 
 During the winter of 1863-4, the Western Sanitary Commission 
 forwarded to Chaplain A. "Wright, then Superintendent of Refugees 
 
15 
 
 at that post, large supplies of clothing and shoes for distribution, 
 glazed window-sash for new refugee buildings, and axes for women 
 to cut their own fuel (which many of them did that winter, carry- 
 ing it from the woods on their own shoulders), and medicines for 
 the sick, of whom there were very many at this post. 
 
 Active service was also rendered in their behalf by Brigadier 
 General Clinton B. Fisk, then commanding the District of Saint 
 Louis, and his noble wife, who procured several hundred dollars' 
 worth of material for clothing, as a donation from the merchants of 
 Saint Louis, went down with it to Pilot Knob and attended to 
 its distribution in person. It is impossible to estimate the value of 
 the contributions sent to this post for these people, but it is known 
 to have proved a most timely and providential relief to them. 
 
 The number of colored refugees assisted at Pilot Knob, in the 
 same way, during last July, was 160, and in August 125 ; the num- 
 ber of rations issued to them in August was 1280, and the value, 
 $128.00. Yet there were about as many colored refugees at Pilot 
 Knob as whites, but they have been far more self supporting, and 
 taken much better care of themselves. Last summer, colored refugee 
 women, of their own accord, planted their door-yards with vegeta- 
 bles, and kept them looking clean, and their children healthy, while 
 the white refugees utterly neglected any such efforts to help them- 
 selves, or improve their condition. Such has been the paralyzing 
 effects upon the industry of the poor whites of the South by their 
 contact with the system of slavery, rendering them a far less hope- 
 ful class of our population than the negroes whom they so much 
 despise, and affect to consider so much inferior to themselves. 
 
 The following incidents, furnished by Chaplain A. Wright, 
 Superintendent of Kefugees and Freedmen for this District, came 
 under his observation at Pilot Knob, while he was stationed at 
 that post : 
 
16 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., September 9th, 1864. 
 Kev. J. G. Forman, Secretary Western Sanitary Commission : 
 
 Dear Sir. — If the following incidents are sufficiently interest- 
 ing to be incorporated in your forthcoming pamphlet, they are at your 
 
 service : 
 
 Yours, truly, A. WRIGHT. 
 
 " The winter of 1863-4 will long be remembered by the inhabitants 
 of southeast Missouri as one of unparalleled severity. Cattle and horses 
 by hundreds died of starvation, and it was heart-rending to see the poor 
 beasts, that brought their miserable l-iders to the post of Pilot Knob for 
 the rations allowed by Government, gnaw the fences and boards where 
 they were tied, in a vain attempt to appease their hunger. Many 
 dropped down in the road, and died in a few minutes. Not a pound of 
 forage for beast, or food for man, could be bought at any price for hun- 
 dreds of miles from that post. 
 
 " On one of the coldest days of the winter, the widow of a soldier, 
 who died shortly after Ms discharge, leaving a family of eight children, 
 started for Pilot Knob, a distance of thirty miles, to obtain the pittance 
 of food allowed her. Her ox-team, all she had left of fruits of years of 
 toil, was nearly dead with starvation. With this team and an old wagon, 
 with some of the younger children, she journeyed a few miles through 
 the day, and camped in the woods at night. When she arrived at the post 
 she was benumbed with cold. One of the oxen had died within ten miles 
 of her destination, and, leaving the children — the youngest a nursing 
 babe — a t a hut, she came forward on foot. It was enough to melt a heart 
 of stone to hear her tale of woe. She could not leave her babe over 
 night; and after getting some refreshment, I engaged a team to take her 
 a part of the way home. She was a worthy woman, and had been driven 
 from her home in Arkansas after her husband enlisted in the Union army. 
 
 " Another, whose husband was a prisoner at Richmond for a long 
 time, came to my office during the cold month of March, carrying an 
 infant child, having walked thirteen miles and waded several streams, 
 
17 
 
 for in that mountainous region the streams are not bridged. Her shoes 
 were nearly worn from her feet, and her clothes to her knees were frozen. 
 With bitter tears she told her tale, showed me letters from her husband, 
 and when I asked her whether she did not wish her husband had never 
 enlisted, she said, < No, 1 would rather sutler a hundred times as much 
 as 1 have, than see my country overrun by such ruffians.' Noble wife 
 of a noble husband ! 
 
 " On another bitter day in January, three poor orphans were brought 
 to my office, covered with rags, their feet frozen, for they were bare- 
 footed, and terribly diseased for want of care. Their father had died in 
 the service. The mother, after a lingering illness in a miserable cabin, 
 with no care but such as her young children could give her, at last, 
 after putting her hands on their heads and commending them to God, 
 left them for her home in heaven. A neighbor, as poor as themselves, 
 brought them to me, and after a few days, homes Avere procured for 
 them. The oldest, a boy about twelve years of age, when a new pair 
 of boots was presented to him by a benevolent gentleman, burst into 
 tears and shook his head, saying, 'I can't take them.' 'Why?' he 
 was asked. ' I can never pay for them,' was the reply. But when 
 told they were a gift, his eyes sparkled with delight. A link in the 
 chain of evidence required in order to get their pension, was wanting, 
 and they, with many others, will never receive what is justly due them 
 from Government." 
 
 During the present month, (October, 1864,) the poor refugees 
 of Pilot Knob have been peeled and scattered by the capture of 
 that Post by the rebel General Sterling Price and his ruffian 
 hordes, who, for a time, occupied it. Hundreds of refugees from 
 that place who assisted Brigadier General Thomas Ewing to defend 
 it, have been in this city applying to the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission for aid, stating that they had been obliged to leave their 
 families — some of them secreted in the woods, others in rebel 
 hands— and escape for their lives. On one day sixty men with 
 it 
 
18 
 
 their German pastor from Pilot Knob, came, some of them without 
 jackets, or shoes, or a blanket, only half clothed, and received 
 additions of clothing and some rations to subsist upon till they 
 could go back and find their families*. Many families of women 
 and children have also found their way to St. Louis during this 
 month, and been provided by the Commission and the Government 
 with shelter and rations, and by the Commission with clothing to 
 protect their persons, and bedding for a covering at night. 
 
 REFUGEES AT ROLLA, MISSOURI. 
 
 During the war this military post has been a city of refuge 
 for many refugees from southwest Missouri. An average of three 
 hundred persons have been sheltered and rationed here by the 
 Government all the time, and thousands have reached this post 
 and passed on to St. Louis to scatter themselves through the free 
 States of the west. In August there were two hundred families 
 here drawing rations from the Government, and many sick. 
 
 The refugees of this post wei'e visited by Mr. Yeatman, the 
 President of the Commission, during the first summer, and finding 
 many refugee children there, with no public school they could at- 
 tend, the Commission on his return, established a school for them, 
 with Mrs. H. F. Hoes as teacher, and subsequently employed 
 Miss Alice F. Royce, from Wisconsin, as an assistant, the school 
 having reached the number of one hundred and fifty pupils. This 
 school has continued in successful operation ever since, and is doing 
 an important work. 
 
 A liberal supply of clothing for the destitute has also been sent 
 to this place, and distributed, through a committee of ladies, to 
 the most needy. Much assistance has been rendered in this by 
 
 *Note .— Since the above was written , the Western Sanitary Commission has sent a good 
 supply of clothing to Chaplain L. T. MeNeilly, Superintendent of Refugees at Pilot Knob, 
 for distribution to the destitute at that place, the Post being now re-occupied by our troops. 
 
19 
 
 the Superintendent of refugees at Rolla, Chaplain A. H. Tucker, 
 and hy Surgeon M. P. Hanson, and Dr. Robinson. 
 
 In a letter of Mr. Tucker to Rev. J. G. Forman, the Secretary 
 of the Commission and Superintendent of Refugees, August 20th, 
 1864, he says: 
 
 "Refugees are constantly coming in from the southwest. There 
 are now over two hundred destitute families here partly subsisted 
 by Government. There is a great deal of sickness among them, 
 and assistance by way of something nourishing for the sick to eat 
 is much needed. The school books and clothing were duly 
 received, and according to Mr. Yeatman's orders turned over to 
 Dr. Hanson, and the Ladies' Refugee Aid Society.'* 
 
 On the arrival of cold weather there will be great suffering 
 at this post, unless there should be forwarded a generous supply 
 of clothing for the destitute women and children, who have but 
 little opportunity of earning anything, and no means with which 
 to buy. 
 
 REFUGEES AT SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI. 
 
 At this distant outpost in southwest Missouri, thousands of 
 refugees have received temporary aid from the Government in 
 rations from the Commissary, and in clothing and money sent from 
 the Commission to Chaplain Frederick H. Wines, formerly Super- 
 intendent of these people at that post. They have not been 
 encouraged to remain there, and have generally found their way 
 in Government wagons to Rolla, and thence by cars to St. Louis, 
 scattering themselves in the free States of the west, where they 
 could And employment and a livelihood. Yet the number con- 
 stantly at Springfield, recruited by new arrivals from the troubled 
 regions of Arkansas, is always large. The preci.se number is not 
 known, but is supposed to reach an average of several hundred. 
 
20 
 
 A home arid school for orphan children, made such by the 
 war, many of them refugees, has been established here by benev- 
 olent ladies, in which the Hon. Mrs. John S. Phelps has taken an 
 active part. 
 
 Many of the families left destitute in southwest Missouri have 
 lost their husbands and fathers in the service of the Government, 
 for the southwest portion of the State had fewer slaves, and was 
 more loyal than the slaveholding region along the Missouri river, 
 and the Platte river country of western Missouri. 
 
 The following extracts of letters from Chaplain Wines, will 
 
 help to show the condition of the refugees of this part of the 
 
 country. 
 
 Springfield, Mo.. June 8th, 1804. 
 James E. Yeatman, Esq, 
 
 My Dear Sir: — I write to speak of the necessity that exists 
 that the Western Sanitary Commission should do something for the 
 multitudes of refugees who flock to this place from Arkansas and Texas. 
 They come in by scores daily. Every train from the south comes loaded 
 with them, and those who have wagons of their own, come in trains by 
 themselves. One hundred wagon loads of them crossed the White river 
 at Forsyth one week not long ago. 
 
 These poor creatures are for the most part entirely destitute. The 
 Government does nothing more for them than to keep them from starv- 
 ing. They are furnished with half a soldier's ration each, of flour, 
 bacon, beans, and hominy ; and when they die the Government provides 
 coffins for them. Coffee and sugar are not furnished, because if they 
 were, multitudes would draw rations to obtain these luxuries, who 
 could support themselves very well without help. No clothing of any 
 kind is given them. They are, however, attended gratuitously, and 
 furnished with medicine in case of sickness. 
 
 As an ordinary thing, refugees are not allowed to remain at tliis 
 post, on account of the impossibility of transporting provisions for such 
 
21 
 
 a multitude as would then be gathered together here, but are sent to 
 sonic post upon a river or railroad. 
 
 Oftentimes a little money would relieve a great deal of suffering, if 
 judiciously expended. For instance, there have been many who could 
 have made crops but could not purchase seed corn. The Government 
 cannot furnish seed corn. For the want of a few dollars many have 
 gone on, who would otherwise have become producers instead of consu- 
 mers. Often in case of sickness, and especially of childbirth, a little 
 money would procure necessary delicacies in the way of diet, which 
 might save lives otherwise certain to be lost. Often a man or woman 
 settles down to make a crop, but while the crop is growing cannot obtain 
 food and clothing both. A little clothing furnished him would take him 
 off the Government in point of dependence for food, which he could 
 then earn by his own exertions. 
 
 There is no fund here for the relief of such cases. Money is imper- 
 atively needed for them. General Sanborn says that $50,000 would not 
 be too much to relieve the distress of the community. Everything is 
 scarce and high. 
 
 Over $1,500 was sent from here to the Sanitary Fair. It has been 
 the universal expectation that all this and more would be reiurned here 
 for the relief of refugees. I write to enquire what the Commission 
 proposes to do for us. 
 
 -Hoping for an early reply, I am, with sentiments of sincere esteem, 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 FEED. Hi WINES, 
 Chaplain, and Superintendent of Refugees. 
 
 In subsequent letters, Chaplain Wines says: "I thank you 
 sincerely, in the name of the refugees, for your kindness in au- 
 thorizing me to draw on you for $250 for their relief."-^me 
 2ith, 1864. 
 
22 
 
 " I wish to express to you my sincere thanks and the thanks 
 of the sufferers at and around this post, for the relief which you 
 have sent them in the shape of goods. * * The Western 
 
 Sanitary Commission is doing a noble work, and every well-wisher 
 of his country must wish it God-speed. * * * There is 
 much sickness here, and the doctors frequently apply to me for 
 delicacies for their indigent patients. * * * The supplies 
 sent to the hospital were received and duly appreciated. I sup- 
 pose that the surgeon has duly acknowledged them. They relieve 
 a great deal of suffering. * * * The refugees coming 
 
 to this post, are, almost without exception, soldiers' families, — the 
 destitute wives and children of the U. S. Volunteers from the 
 State of Arkansas. They have been driven from their homes ; 
 they have been robbed of all which they once possessed ; they 
 have been set down in our midst, homeless, friendless, and penni- 
 less. Hundreds of them lie day and night by the roadside, 
 exposed to the scorching sun and the pelting storm, without so 
 much as a blanket to shield them from the sky. * 
 
 I ask where upon earth can families be found whose necessities 
 are so pressing as those of the naked and famishing wretches, who 
 arrive here by hundreds with every Government train from the 
 south ? They are not to be found." — August 2d, 1864. 
 
 REFUGEES AT CAPE GIRARDEAU. 
 
 Many refugees from southeast Missouri have also reached this 
 post, and been aided with rations from the Government. Chap- 
 lain N. N. Wood, D. D., has been the Superintendent there, 
 and his report for July and August shows a monthly average of 
 three hundred and forty persons assisted at that post. Many of 
 them, also, have husbands and fathers in the U. S. Military ser- 
 vice, or have been widowed and orphaned by the war. A liberal 
 
23 
 
 supply oi' clothing- lias recently been sent by the Western Sanitary 
 Commission to this place for these suffering people. 
 
 REFUGEES AT LEAVENWORTH AND FORT SCOTT. 
 
 The number of destitute Union refugees arriving at these two 
 military posts has been very large, amounting to thousands, and 
 Mr. J. R. Brown, Agent of the Western Sanitary Commission at 
 Leavenworth, and Chaplain Charles Reynolds, at Fort Scott, have 
 been indefatigable in their efforts to relieve these poor people, to 
 find for them support, and to assist them on their way. Being 
 without sufficient means of shelter, they have procured worn out 
 and condemned tents from the Government to shelter them from 
 the sun and storm, have issued to them clothing and sanitary stores, 
 and procured Government rations for their subsistence. 
 
 At Leavenworth Mr. Brown has established schools for the 
 children of the colored and white refugees, and has several teach- 
 ers; one of wdiom, Mrs. Nettie C. Constant, is supported in her 
 work by this Commission, besides the general aid given to Mr. 
 Brown in his great work. The Commission has sent to him over 
 1,000 school books for his schools, many boxes of clothing, a large 
 supply of medicines, and has appropriated $100 a month towards 
 his work, besides several special appropriations. 
 
 The following copies of letters from Messrs. Brown and Rey- 
 nolds will give a good idea of what they are doing, the number 
 of refugees needing assistance at these posts, and the extreme 
 urgency of the demand for further supplies of clothing, especially 
 this fall and winter : 
 
 Leavenworth, August 22d, 1864. 
 James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission, 
 
 Dear Sir: — I am in receipt of a communication from 
 Chaplain Reynolds in charge of refugees and freedmen at Fort Scott 
 a copy of which I enclose. Being pressed on every side for aid 
 
24 
 
 that I am powerless to render, I wish to advise with you what 
 coarse to pursue. Will you not confer with the Boston Mends 
 through Edward L. Pierce, Esq., Internal Revenue Office, Boston, 
 and, if possible, ascertain what disposition was made of the money 
 raised while I was in Boston for this object, and if this contribu- 
 tion has by any means been diverted from this channel, we must 
 try again for more aid, as our calls are more and more pressing 
 day by day. I have our Reception Home now in operation, and 
 am daily receiving new comers and sending out those who are 
 getting places for themselves. Try to help me through. 
 
 Yours very respectfully, 
 
 J. E. BKOWN. 
 
 Fort Scott, August YIth, 1864. 
 J. K. Brown, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir; — I am glad to hear that you have been east, 
 pressing the claims of the thousands of poor refugees and freed- 
 men who are being thrown upon our young State in a destitute 
 and suffering condition. Between 1,500 and 2,000 are on their way 
 from below, and will be at this post in a few days. Many of 
 them will have to remain here some time, as it is hard to pro- 
 cure transportation for them, and many of them will be compelled 
 to stay on account of sickness. The thousand souls whom I re- 
 ceived in June have mostly moved off in the country, and are now 
 taking care of themselves. A few helpless families, however, 
 remain, whom death is fast relieving. In Dr. Slocum I have a 
 faithful co-worker, and am happy to learn that you are sending 
 him a good supply of medicines, tents, «fcc. He is instant in 
 season and out of season, and never hesitates to visit the pallet of 
 sickness and distress. My time will be fully occupied as soon as the 
 train gets in, and I must leave to yourself and others the duty of 
 presenting the claims and wants of these poor creatures to the 
 
25 
 
 benevolent and loyal people of the east. Could our Mends in 
 the east, who are enjoying every comfort, but witness a tithe of 
 the distress that yon and I have to meet with every day, they 
 would give as they have never yet given to your " Commission," 
 which strives to be a faithful almoner of their bounty. 
 
 If possible come down yourself on the receipt of this, and let 
 us have the benefit of your long experience, on the arrival of the 
 train. 
 
 It is time to be preparing for our colored schools for the winter, 
 and your presence will greatly relieve and aid us. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 CHAKLES REYNOLDS, 
 
 'Id Kansas Cavalry, Acting Post Chaplain at Fort Scott. 
 
 Leavenworth, August 24th, 1864. 
 
 James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission, 
 
 Dear Sir: — I am happy to say that I have just received 
 notice from Win. Endicott, Esq., of Boston, that he had forward- 
 ed one thousand and fifteen dollars to you, — money raised for 
 the benefit of freedmen and refugees now coming into Kansas. 
 This very greatly relieves my mind, for I could see no way for 
 me to go forward without it. I will draw on you from time to 
 time as I am obliged to use it. I copy a letter just received 
 from Fort Smith. The old tents have just come, and I shall get 
 some of them forwarded to Fort Scott, as soon as possible, for the 
 use of the immense train just now coming in. I still hear of 
 more on the way up, and we are already more than full. I can- 
 not see what we are to do with them, but the Lord will open 
 the way, step by step. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 J. E. BROWN. 
 
26 
 
 Eort Smith, Ark., August oth, 1864. 
 J. R. Brown, 
 
 Dear Sir: — The sanitary goods which you shipped to me 
 about the last of June, arrived here on the 27th. 
 
 it really does me good to see how grateful the sick and 
 wounded soldiers and the destitute refugees seem to be when they 
 receive reading matter and supplies from the Sanitary and Christian 
 Commissions. I find a great amount of extreme destitution among 
 the refugees, both white and colored. I am convinced that if I 
 .should supply half the real wants, this wagon load would last but 
 a short time. Please send at your earliest opportunity a full supply 
 and general assortment of Sanitary and Christian Commission stores. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 WM. WILLSON, 
 Chaplain Qlh Kansas Cavalry Volunteers. 
 
 The following communication relates mostly to the colored refu- 
 gees, sometimes called " contrabands," but coming under the same 
 charity : 
 
 Leavenworth, September 1st, 1864. 
 James E. Yeatman, Esq., President Western Sanitary Commission : 
 
 Dear Sir: Enclosed, you have my report of receipts and 
 disbursements for August. We have our Freedmen's Home under 
 full operation, have a school in one part of one of the buildings, 
 and we can already see the benefit of our enterprise in many ways. 
 Our plan, in short, is to take in the worn down and helpless, just 
 up from below, suffering with all sorts of diseases, induced by 
 every exposure by the way. Our wash-house is the first apartment 
 to enter, where all filthy and infected clothing is removed, and a 
 thorough cleansing takes place. The office is the next place, where 
 names and particulars are recorded. Then the dining-room is 
 opened, and wholesome food is furnished, and then rest is allowed, 
 
27 
 
 and in one or two days, these tired, wretched beings look and ad 
 like men, women and children. We advertise to furnish help of 
 every kind desired, and when we have calls for it, we know just 
 who are in condition to go out, and such are called into the office, 
 and at first sight present a wiiolesome appearance, and are almost 
 sure to please. Then again, persons wishing to hire help, conn; 
 there expecting to pay a reasonable price, and put themselves under 
 obligations which they would not feel if they had picked up their 
 help in the street, or it had been urged on them by some poor, 
 starved seeker for work. Then again, we can feed, doctor, teach, 
 and shelter them, at less expense in this way than any other. 
 
 I draw for $400.00 of the Boston fund, to fit up the establish- 
 ment, and for $100.00, your monthly appropriation. After this, 1 
 shall try to use only enough to keep the institution going. 
 Yours, very respectfully, 
 
 J. E. BROWN. 
 
 Leavenworth, September \0th, 1864. 
 Rev. J. G. Formax, Secretary Western Sanitary Commission : 
 
 Respected Brother : 1 send you with this, copies of two let- 
 ters, showing you a part of our work better than I can tell yon 
 in my own language. * * * * 
 
 All our hospitals are well filled, but not to that extent that we 
 should expect, from the exposure of our soldiers, and the extreme 
 hot weather of the present season. Our Freedmen's Home works 
 to a charm. Oh, how I wish that we could establish others like 
 it ! We must do so, if possible. Tents and relief for the refugees 
 have been sent to Fort Scott. I find in Airs. Constant a most val- 
 uable and agreeable co-worker, and she cannot fail to do good. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 J. R. BROWN. 
 
28 
 
 Fort Scott, September 6th, 1864. 
 J. R. Brown, Agent, Sanitary Commission: 
 
 Dear Sir : Your agent, Mr. Want, whom you sent to aid 
 us in providing' for the last train of refugees and freedmen from 
 Fort Smith, is sick, and gone to his home at Mound City. I have 
 been able to get transportation for but few of these people north 
 as yet. I have now over 200 in camp, and they are in a most 
 deplorable condition. A severe storm arose last evening, which 
 continues this afternoon, with no prospect of abatement. Dr. Slo- 
 cum and myself removed about twenty of the sick to a hospital tent 
 in the Plaza, and I have a mother with her dying babe in my office. 
 The rest are still m camp, in a condition next to death. Most of 
 them have no shelter but what the trees afford, and their rations, 
 which I distributed yesterday morning, are ruined. The river has 
 risen over thirty feet and is still rising. I have communicated 
 with them twice to-day, by boat, and have sent over bread for the 
 living, and coffins for the dead. Your agent here has no funds, no 
 tents, nor clothing. Do for heaven's sake send something along 
 at once. 
 
 Dr. S. is worked down and perfectly discoui'aged ; and I may 
 add that I am so worked upon by seeing and hearing the cry of 
 distress, without the ability to relieve, that I am almost ready with 
 him to throw up my hands in despair. 
 
 AVhen the storm clears away, the weather will, without doubt, 
 be cold, and those poor creatures have not a dry garment nor a 
 dry bed-cover. What the result will be, God only knows, but I 
 fear that many will die. In my dilemma I sent this enclosed card 
 to the paper to-day, and shall hope for a little immediate aid, as 
 follows : 
 
 " 1 would respectfully call upon the ladies of this post, to aid 
 at once in relieving the sick women and children who are without 
 shelter and nearly naked. Two poor creatures died during last 
 
29 
 
 night's storm, and several others are very ill. Two sick children 
 are entirely destitute of clothing. Aid, to be of avail, must be 
 immediate. Send at once to my office in the Plaza. 
 
 "CHAS. EEYNOLDS, 
 
 •' Chaplain, Fort Scott." 
 
 The Commission has recently received a letter from Mr. Brown, 
 in which, after giving an account of the distribution of Sanitary 
 stores to the army at Leavenworth, and the great need of further 
 supplies at this time, he says : 
 
 "We must call loudly now for clothing. Cool and stormy 
 weather is upon us, and not a box of clothing has come. The 
 enclosed copy of a letter from Fort Scott only tells the tale of 
 many other places, and all are looking to me. What can I res- 
 pond, and how husband the resources so as to make them last even 
 till the settled cold weather arrives ?" 
 
 Fort Scott, Kansas, September 25th, 18fi4. 
 Bro. J. K. Brown, Agent Sanitary Commission. 
 
 I send you a condensed account of my disbursements for 
 the past season for freedmen and refugees. Number of women, 
 968; children, 1,292. Comforts, 463; sheets, 220; skirts, 318; shirts, 
 2,047; drawers, 397; dresses, 196; pairs shoes, 348; socks, 967. 
 There are quite a number of women and children here that are 
 very needy of clothing, and we have not a suit to give them. 
 Many of them have died during the season, and many more of 
 them are sick, and must die from exposure in coming up from 
 Dixie. Since they landed here, for weeks they were without 
 tents, until you sent them some from Leavenworth. Since that 
 they have had comfortable quarters, but they must have clothing 
 for the winter or perish with cold. 
 
30 
 
 The above report does not embrace all that I have received 
 from you and St. Louis, for there were hundreds of articles not 
 worth recording-. 
 
 Before I close I must tell you that many of these poor women 
 and children have not a shirt to their backs, nor dresses to hide 
 their nakedness. From the fact that everything is so high, it is 
 not possible for them to clothe themselves, therefore we ask you to 
 lay this distressed state of suffering before the friends of humanity, 
 and tell them not to . weary in well doing, for in due time they 
 shall reap if they faint not. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 T. T. INSLEY. 
 
 REFUGEES AT VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 In the spring of the present year the number of Union refugees 
 arriving at Vicksburg, in extreme suffering, destitution, and sick- 
 ness, from the interior of Mississippi was so great, that the agent 
 of the Western Sanitary Commission, Mr. N. M. Mann, felt it to 
 be an imperative necessity that efforts should be made for their 
 relief. The co-operation of the military authorities was solicited 
 by him, and with the aid of the Commission, a Refugee Home was 
 opened at that post, which has been maintained in successful opera- 
 tion to this time. An outfit of furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils. 
 &c, was sent from the Commission, a Matron was provided, and 
 a school for the refugee children opened in connection with the 
 home, a teacher being also sent by the Commission for this ser- 
 vice. The first teacher sent, was Miss G. D. Chapman, of Exe- 
 ter, Maine, whose health failed after a few months of faithful 
 service, and she was obliged to return home. Since she returned 
 to Exeter, she has sent the following interesting letter, giving :in 
 account of her experience in teaching the refugees : 
 
31 
 
 Exeter, Maine, October 10th, 1864. 
 J as. E. Ye atm an, Esq.: 
 
 Dear Sir : I have not forgotten that I am to give you some 
 account of my short term of labor in the Free School for Refugees 
 at Vicksburg, but have been waiting to get stronger, and to decide 
 about trying to finish, or, rather, continue a work but fairly well 
 begun. After seven weeks of anxious toil, I had succeeded in 
 awakening an interest in the school, and had the satisfaction 
 of seeing a marked improvement, both mentally and morally. It' 
 Southern temper is fast, the Southern intellect is very slow. I had 
 no difficulty in managing those under my care, but they had not 
 the slightest idea of order or discipline; and, like a boy we read 
 of, must be told a thing twenty times, because nineteen would not 
 make him remember. They thought me very strict, but did not 
 attempt to disobey. 
 
 We had just received our new books and crayons, with which 
 the pupils were much pleased, and were preparing to do a great 
 deal in the way of study, when unfortunately I was compelled by 
 sickness to suspend operations. It was with much regret on my 
 part ; and many of my scholars came daily to know when the school 
 would begin again, and if they should bring me some peaches or 
 apricots. I mention this because it was gratifying to see the inter- 
 est manifested, and, also, that, in spite of my " strictness," I had 
 their good will and regard. But these scholars were of a better 
 class of people — not the high nor the low. They had attended the 
 "pay schools," taught after the Southern fashion, which is neither 
 thorough nor correct. 
 
 My school commenced under difficulties. I had at first a room 
 in the Refugee Home, used also for chapel and charnel house. Often 
 two or three dead bodies were there at a time, and school must 
 be suspended. The first day there were but five scholars, all in the 
 A R C's' the next I went round conscripting, and impressed a 
 
32 
 
 few more, but it was like taking - them to prison; they had never 
 been to school ; their parents were deplorably ignorant and indo- 
 lent, and must have been for many generations, to transmit such 
 sluggish, inferior brains, as I found to deal with. Now and then, 
 one of this low class had been to school a trifle, or their parents, 
 knowing merely how to read somewhat, had taught them the alpha- 
 bet at home ; but these cases were the exception, the l-ule was stu- 
 pidity and ignorance. 
 
 Here is a note made May 30th, 'CA : 
 
 " Truly this is peculiar school-keeping. A refugee man, just 
 arrived, has fallen asleep on a bench in one corner, and in another 
 corner, on the floor, a man and child. Outside is a perfect Babel. 
 One hundred have come in since Saturday, and we hear that four 
 hundred more are coming between this and Wednesday. 
 
 "There are usually half-a-dozen recruiting officers looking in at 
 my window, though I do not see them. We are to have the vestry 
 of a church for school-room soon, and I shall be glad. It is rather 
 bordering on the awful here." 
 
 A few days after we moved up to the vestry, and scholars about 
 town began to come in. There was some feeling in regard to the " Free 
 School, and young Secesh came to annoy my poor little refugee 
 flock, and abuse their teacher by throwing brickbats and calling 
 names. When the storm of missiles had abated, and it was safe to 
 venture out, I quietly asked my scholars to keep their seats a few 
 moments, while I stepped over to the Soldier's Home. Mr. Mann 
 promptly sent a few of the boys out to my assistance, when, true 
 to their Southern instinct, the army from the "Pay School-' "ske- 
 daddled." While T was at dinner they came back, threw mud and 
 sticks at my children, drove them out of the house, and tossed their 
 books over the floor. Again the blue-coats went after them, and 
 threatened them so hard that they troubled us no more. Incipient 
 aristocracy takes the cue from the elders, and they would not lift a 
 
33 
 
 finger to save from starvation the whole tribe of what they term 
 "the nasty snuff-dippers.'"' 
 
 My average number of scholars after moving up to the vestry, 
 was from 35 to 40. At first I had two sessions a day, teaching 
 six and seven hours, but as the weather grew hotter, reduced it 
 to five; and finally, at Mrs. Plumincrs earnest request, to one 
 session of four hours in the morning. Had the season been fa- 
 vorable, I should have continued the five and six hour system. 
 because there was so much to do. 
 
 In regard to my sickness I will say a few words: JSTo one was 
 ever more determined to be well than I was, and think I could 
 have conquered the unfriendliness of the climate but for other 
 adverse influences. \ was not proof against the soul-sickening 
 wretchedness and misery everywhere before my eyes, while I was 
 powerless to remove it or in any way lessen the suffering. At 
 first my heart just ached all the time, and I would lie awake 
 thinking of the pitiful beings ai'ound me, and trying to devise some 
 plan for their relief. 
 
 Hoping and believing that the right will soon prevail, and 
 peace spread once more her white wings over this unhappy country 
 so long crimsoned with brothers' blood, I remain, with respect, 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 GKACE D. CHAPMAN. 
 
 Recently the Commission has sent Miss Sarah E. M. Lovejoy, 
 of Princeton, 111., a daughter of the late Hon. Owen Lovejoy, M. 
 C, to take charge of the school, and by this time it is no doubt 
 in successful operation again. The number of pupils has been 
 sufficient to make a large school, and the work of educating and 
 elevating the offspring of these poor people is deemed of the first 
 importance, as they must hereafter blend with the higher and 
 c 
 
34 
 
 better civilization of the free States, or become the vagrants and 
 pests of society. 
 
 The following extracts from Mr. Mann's first report to the 
 Commission will show under what circumstances and with what 
 material this work was commenced at that post : 
 
 "It is a fact that ought to be known, that many of these people 
 came from the North to seek their fortunes in the Southern States 
 before the outbreak of the rebellion, in which they have taken only 
 a compulsory part, and now come back to us as to their friends and 
 acquaintances. All the better part of those I have seen, are of this 
 class. They come in here singly and in families from all parts of the 
 Southwest, leaving everything behind, glad to escape with their 
 lives. 
 
 "Then there are hundreds of deserters from the rebel army of the 
 more intelligent class of poor whites who never had any interest in 
 the rebellion, and now, tired of the war, lay down their arms and 
 return to allegiance. This is a class, however, that is easily disposed 
 of, as there is good demand for male help, and all they need is a home 
 like the one we have established, where they can have food and shelter 
 until employed. 
 
 "The greatest distress prevails among a class known as "poor 
 white trash," who knowing nothing, are responsible for nothing, but 
 suffer all. Their condition is even more deplorable than that of the 
 negroes, for equally with them they have borne the curse of slavery 
 without acquiring the habits of industry which the negroes have so 
 severely learned. These are in a large proportion women and children, 
 who have been literally driven by famine into our lines. Hardships 
 and exposure bringing on desease, have heightened their calamities. 
 
 "These people have crowded into every vacant hovel in town. I 
 wish you could see a case which came to my notice yesterday, that 
 painfully illustrates the condition of many of them. Just a few steps 
 
35 
 
 above the Soldiers' Home I was called in by the post surgeon to see 
 a case of want. The foul air as I entered the door was sickening in 
 the extreme, and there, crowded into two small rooms, were twenty 
 persons. Of these, three were able to stand; one little child was dead 
 another dying, and the other fifteen sick upon the floor and on one 
 dirty bed ! This morning the child, thank God ! is dead, and another 
 that was born there last night is dead also. All these poor creatures 
 had to eat until yesterday was hard bread and bacon. In another 
 room I found a man lying upon a vile cot perfectly helpless, appar- 
 ently in the last stages of pneumonia. He was very weak, but I 
 learned from him that he was a native of Ohio, that his wife had 
 died in that room a few days before, and all he had left was a little 
 boy five years old. He was a fine looking man, and gave evidence, 
 in all this filth and misery, of culture and of better days. By the 
 kindness of the Medical Director, I had him removed to the hospital, 
 and the little boy we took to our -'Home" where he is cared for. 
 All this house full of sufferers that death does not take, will be taken 
 there as soon as they can be removed. Their filth and wretchedness 
 you may imagine. I cannot describe it. 
 
 " This is one case. Perhaps an instance of equal suffering might 
 be found in your own city, for the poor are everywhere. But you 
 have your regular organizations for their relief. Here, save that the 
 Government offers rations, they are literally left to die uncared for. 
 "Women, with their own hands out of rubbish from the street, make 
 boxes in which to coffin their babes ! I have instanced no isolated or 
 exceptional case. The suffering is general and wide-spread. The nu- 
 merous white refugees that followed in the wake of Sherman's return- 
 ing expedition are for the most part still in the city, though they no 
 longer lie in the streets or upon the open squares. They have crowded 
 into the vacant houses sometimes with authority and sometimes 
 without. There were a hundred and fifty on the Court House square 
 for several week after the expedition returned. The last of these, some 
 
. 36 
 
 twenty in number, wei-e taken into our "Home'" as soon as the house 
 was opened. 
 
 " I make these statements not because the recital of horrors is an 
 agreeable task, for I would gladly be spared it, but that you and the 
 good people of the North through you, may know something of the 
 wants of those who have been the immediate sufferers from the war. It 
 is impossible to remove this suffering ; the most we can do is to alleviate 
 it. My plan is to found an extensive home, which shall be an asylum 
 for those in want; where the homeless and helpless sick can be cared 
 for ; where the destitute unemployed can wait for work, the Govern- 
 ment and others needing help, as the institution becomes known, 
 coming here to engage laborers. In this way, it seems to me, charity 
 to these people will be most safely and wisely expended, and become 
 an incentive to industry instead of idleness. Beyond the building and 
 rations which the Government generously furnishes, the Home may 
 be conducted very economically, the labor of the house being 
 done in the main by the inmates themselves. 
 
 " Ever since the establishment of a home for refugees was made 
 certain, by the assignment of a building for the purpose, I have been 
 indebted to Mrs. Harvey, the ' soldier's friend,' (and every sufferer's, 
 too,) for many valuable suggestions. A nature too generous to en- 
 dure the sight of human suffering without laboring for its relief, has 
 led her to take a lively interest in a work so purely charitable, and 
 much that is comfortable and homelike, in our institution may be 
 accredited to her kindness and foresight. 
 
 " Providence seems to have favored me in sending me a young 
 man to be clerk and steward, and who combines in a remarkable 
 manner with the manly virtues all the gentleness and delicacy of 
 woman. He can write, or wash, or scour, or sew, or nurse with 
 equal facility. Neatness and oi-der are already coming out of filth 
 and chaos. Sixtv cots all clean and neat invite as many refugees from 
 
37 
 
 the cold pavement or from filthy dens, first to cleanliness and then 
 to sleep, and afterwards to invigorating - remunerative toil. 
 
 " Who is there that will not give at least their approval to this 
 work ? Let no charity be diverted from our noble army, but 
 beyond all we do for them as the redeemers and defenders of 
 our country, let us do something for these wretched beings who 
 have thrown themselves upon our mercy, and who have paid, in 
 suffering that can never be told, the penalties due to other and 
 guiltier heads. 
 
 "It is upon these poor whites that we are to depend largely 
 in the future, if Democratic State governments are ever establish- 
 ed in the south. Easily now in their hour of greatest need may 
 they be attached to our flag and our Government by an exhibi- 
 tion of our sympathy, and by Brining aid. The rich who have 
 taken an interest in the rebellion, and having something to lose % 
 have lost it, though they return to a formal allegiance, must, for 
 the most part, be always alienated at heart, and can never be 
 trusted. It is upon the common people, degraded as they now 
 are, that we are chiefly to rely, and it is to them, when they 
 come, with unmistakable evidences of loyalty, that we should 
 extend our welcome and our sympathy." 
 
 REFUGEES AT HELENA, ARKANSAS. 
 
 There have been many destitute Union Refugees at this post, 
 and important aid has been given to them through the humane 
 labors of Brigadier General Buford and his lady, who for many 
 months received and distributed large quantities of clothing sent 
 them by the Western Sanitary Commission, and by friends in New 
 England. The Commission has also provided a Refugee Home at 
 this post in charge of Mrs. Sarah Coombs, a benevolent lady of 
 Helena, and much good has been accomplished through her labors. 
 
38 
 
 AID SENT TO NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 Large numbers of Union refugees have congregated at this 
 point, and on application of Mrs. Mary E. Fogg, of the Refugee 
 -Relief Society, the Commission forwarded a generous supply of 
 clothing for distribution there in August and September of the 
 present year. 
 
 The following acknowledgment of this donation was received by 
 the Agent of the Commission at Nashville : 
 
 "Nashville, Tenn., June lid, 1864. 
 "Mr. A. Clark, Agent Western Sanitary Commission, 
 
 11 Dear Sir: — The following resolution was passed at a 
 meeting of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society held to-day : 
 
 "Resolved, That the thanks of the Nashville Refugee Aid Society 
 
 be tendered to the Western Sanitary Commission, for its generous 
 
 donation of clothing for the use of the unfortunate and destitute 
 
 in our midst. 
 
 "JOHN M. GANT, Secretary." 
 
 AID SENT TO CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE. 
 
 During the month of May an application was made by Rev. 
 Henry Douglas, of Chattanooga, recommended by Major General 
 W. T. Sherman, commanding the Western Division of the United 
 States Army, for aid to the refugees and destitute people of that 
 locality, and a donation of over two hundred barrels of flour, beef, 
 and potatoes, was forwarded through the agent of the Commission 
 at that post. 
 
 REFUGEES AT LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS. 
 
 During the past summer an urgent appeal has come from the 
 Arkansas Relief Committee of Little Rock, and from the Governor 
 
39 
 
 of that State for assistance to the destitute inhabitants and refugees, 
 to which the Commission has been unable to respond, in conse- 
 quence of its limited resources for this class of charities, and the 
 great number to be assisted at Saint Louis and neighboring 
 localities.* 
 
 In a report of the above Committee to Governor Murphy, 
 August 2d, they say : 
 
 "The refugees now here are from the several counties of the 
 State most devastated by a guerrilla warfare. We have heard of 
 hundreds of starving families in the country which the committee 
 are unable to reach, most of whom have been made thus desolate 
 and destitute by the savage butchery of their natural protectors, 
 for which they have no redress. A fearful responsibility rests 
 somewhere, both by those who initiated the war which has pro- 
 duced the present state of suffering, and those having the means 
 of alleviating their distressed condition in the future and do it 
 not. These walking skeletons, now fleeing from starvation and 
 death, are not responsible for their fall from a good estate. Un- 
 less provision is made speedily to enlarge the hand of charity, it 
 is to be feared that a fall and winter famine will so much de- 
 populate your State that little besides a bare territory will be left 
 to govern. 
 
 "After careful enquiry and investigation, we find that nearly, if 
 not all the suffering and destitution is occasioned by, or is the result 
 of, their being what is called " Union families, " or families of 
 Union men. Very many of the families receiving aid are the 
 wives and children of soldiers now engaged in the Union service, 
 many of them natives of the soil, and others who have long been 
 amongst our best adopted citizens." 
 
 •Note. — Since the above was written , the Commission has sent a donation of several 
 boxes, containing over 1500 yards of linsey-woolsey, cotton cloth, calico, check, flannel 
 and shoes and stockings for one hundred persons. But this will by no means furnish an 
 dequate relief to these poor people. 
 
40 
 
 The following letter of the Governor of the State to the 
 President of the Commission, shows still further the terrible des- 
 titution that exists in this afflicted State : 
 
 Executive Office, Little Rock, Ark., August 22d, 1864. 
 James E. Yeatman, Esq., 
 
 Dear Sir: — Enclosed I send you the report of the Refu- 
 gee Committee. It gives a very imperfect conception of the extent 
 of the destitution and suffering pervading the entire State. Since 
 Steele's retreat, the army has occupied a few posts, hut all be- 
 yond the pickets has been held at will by the rebels, and their 
 conscription has swept the country up to the picket lines, accom- 
 panied by the murder and pillage of all the loyal element outside 
 of the pickets. Families, stripped of everything, have fled to the 
 military posts, and to other States, for protection. Nothing, 
 scarcely, has been raised for food, in the State. Unless those 
 portions of our country which God has blessed with peace and 
 security come at once to our aid, Arkansas will be a wilderness. 
 May we not appeal to our brethren of other States, to come to 
 our aid, and save us from destruction. * * 
 
 With great respect, your friend, 
 
 ISAAC MURPHY. 
 
 VALUE OF AID GIVEN TO REFUGEES BY THE 
 COMMISSION. 
 
 The Commission has thus far expended in cash for these poor 
 people, since the commencement of the war, $26,400, in the pur- 
 chase of supplies for them, and $10,000 in clothing and material 
 for clothing, outfit for refugee homes, &c. These expenditures 
 have been made at St. Louis, Leavenworth and Fort Scott, Kan- 
 sas, Springfield, Rolla, Pilot Knob, Cape Girardeau, Helena, Vicks- 
 burg and Natchez. 
 
41 
 
 Besides the above amount, the issue of the charity ration of 
 the Government in St. Louis, ; .s made through the Commission, 
 and since September 1st, 1803, about 15,000 rations have been 
 issued, valued at $3,000. This does not include the issues of 
 the Government rations at other points than St. Louis, some esti- 
 mate of which has already been given, at such points as Pilot 
 Knob, Cape Girardeau, &c, in another part of this report, 
 
 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE REFUGEES. 
 
 During the past summer the Commission was so fortunate as 
 to have the voluntary aid of Mrs. Frances D. Gage, a noble and 
 philanthropic lady, in a visit of observation to the freedmen and 
 refugees along the Mississippi, to whose report it is indebted for 
 much valuable information. 
 
 Returning in August from her visit, her able and excellent 
 report, relating mostly to the freedmen, contains the following 
 observations upon the white refugees : 
 
 "Of the Union Refugees, as I found them in June, nothing 
 can be said but that their condition is deplorable. They were 
 sick, suffering and dying, in hovels, sheds, barns, caves, tents and 
 fields, helpless, and I might almost say, hopeless, with far less 
 power to help themselves than the negro, and far less will to do 
 so, yet everywhere, proud, arrogant and exacting. 
 
 " Since that time the Commandant of the Post, at Vicksburg. 
 has given one of the old hotels of the city, a large and commo- 
 dious building, to be used as a Refugee Home. Into this those 
 that have not been moved on to the north will be gathered. 
 
 « The Union Refugee despises rule, order and authority, and 
 boldly asserts, in many instances, that he would rather starve than 
 work. It will require many experiments with such a people be- 
 fore a folly satisfactory effect can be obtained. In the meantime 
 
42 
 
 they must be looked upon as the victims of the institution of 
 slavery, and degraded by its influence, and as such, their aged 
 people, their invalids and children must be cared for. The ques- 
 tion, what shall be done with the freedmen, he has answered for 
 himself. Help him to a start, and protect him from the white 
 man's injustice and cupidity, and he will sustain himself. 
 
 " But the great question now is, what shall we do with the 
 white refugees ? Time, and a careful selection of agents and teach- 
 ers, doctors and nurses, will soon show us favorable results. Prac- 
 tical common sense is a rare commodity, but we can illy afford to 
 spare it from these great enterprises. One law and one rule of 
 action must, as far as possible, be applied to all these cases. 
 Charity to the orphaned, sick and aged ; labor and compensation 
 for the well and strong ; reward for merit and punishment for 
 crime. All this, dealt out with even handed justice, will soon 
 bring harmony out of this terrible chaos. 
 
 "As every success is but partial failure, so every failure is 
 partial success ; and, while there is everywhere much to discourage 
 the friends of freedom and humanity, there is more to give hope, 
 impelling them with renewed energy to every good work. 
 
 "Among all the causes which should lead us to rejoice in the 
 downfall of slavery, none stands out to-day in bolder relief than 
 the condition of the non-slavehokling population of the Confed- 
 eracy. Truly the proclamation of emancipation that gave freedom to 
 the slaves of the rebels, did a mightier work than the President or 
 his Congress knew. It has broken the bonds of many thousands of 
 the white race, scarcely less slaves, and too degraded and ignorant to 
 feel their bonds. But now they begin to feel and to suffer, and 
 suffering will induce thought, thought will stimulate to action, and 
 action will very soon make them masters of themselves. When 
 there are no more slaves to make honest labor a disgrace, labor, 
 
43 
 
 the handmaid of virtue and prosperity will take her place of 
 honor, even among- these." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In concluding- this report, it is important to bring to view 
 the fact that this work of receiving and providing for the poor 
 and destitute Union refugees from southern tyranny and oppres- 
 sion, is becoming one of great magnitude. A work of Christian 
 mercy and charity, as well as of Christian civilization, must be 
 done for them, or they must be left to perish at our very doors. 
 Those who are at a distance from these scenes of suifering, can 
 have no conception of the task of relieving this distress. There 
 is no alternative to the humane and Christian heart but to help 
 them in their sore and terrible need. The freedmen have already 
 received much assistance, and associations for their relief extend 
 all over the free States. Millions of dollars in supplies of cloth- 
 ing and other necessaries, and in salaries of agents and teachers, 
 has already been contributed and expended wisely in this noble 
 work of assisting and elevating the emancipated bondman. The 
 "Western Sanitary Commission has gladly and cheerfully taken part 
 in these labors, among the earliest, and before any Freedmen's 
 Relief Associations were formed. Seeing this work so well under 
 way, it now has its attention powerfully drawn to the suffering 
 condition of these poor white refugees of the south-west, to 
 whom there is, as yet, no other association that gives its aid. 
 The question now is: Who will care for the poor white refugee, 
 equally the victim of a barbarous civilization with the oppressed 
 slave, more helpless and sorrowing, and whom none seems to 
 pity ? Who will give of his abundance to help take care of the 
 poor orphans of these people, and to aid in fitting them for the 
 better civilization of which they must hereafter form a part ? 
 Who will help the poor widows and their children who come to 
 
44 
 
 us in penury, in destitution and in rags, whose husbands have been 
 murdered by the fiends who roam the sparsely settled regions of 
 the south-west in guerrilla bands, and perpetrate their cruelties 
 with impunity, burning widow's' houses over their heads, and 
 driving them and their little ones from their miserable homes, to 
 seek the Federal lines, and cast themselves upon the charities of 
 the North? 
 
 The Western Sanitary Commission has already expended largely 
 more than it has received for the relief of freedmen and refugees, 
 through private charity and from the Mississippi Valley Sanitary 
 Fair, and has nothing with which to meet the increasing demands 
 that are pressing upon it this fall, and that will press still more 
 urgently as the winter approaches. It cannot properly use the 
 money and supplies given for the soldiers of our western armies, 
 and the sick and wounded in hospital, for this purpose, always 
 aiming as it has to make these humanities of the war a distinct 
 branch of its labors. In its present emergency, and the deficiency 
 of its means for this work, it now confidently and urgently ap- 
 peals to its friends and supporters everywhere, in New England, 
 the Middle States and the great "West, for aid in money and 
 clothing, ( material, or ready-made or second-hand, ) and shoes, and 
 bedding, with which it may meet the demands of this great 
 charity. Let this strong appeal be responded to by those to 
 whom this Commission has never yet applied for help in vain, and 
 the blessing of the poor, and of him that is ready to perish, shall 
 
 be theirs. 
 
 JAS. E. YEATMAN, 
 C. S. GREELEY, 
 GEORGE PARTRIDGE. 
 J. B. JOHNSON, 
 W. G. ELIOT, 
 
 Western Sanitary Commission. 
 J. G. FORMAN, Secretary, 
 
 Chaplain and Supt. of Refugees. 
 
 St. Louis, November 1st. 18(U. 
 
Note.— Donations f'>r the Refugees should be directed as follows: [James E. 
 Yeatman, Pres. Western Sanitary Commission, St. Louis, Mo.,] and on the 
 
 corner of the box or package should be added [From ■ (name of person 
 
 and place,) Fon Refugees.] 
 
. TRR«Y~OF CONGRESS 
 
 ■Iff, 
 
 013 744 «» ° '