THE LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMISSION.*

THAT wonderful organization of volunteer benevolence, the United States Sanitary Commission, has by this time evolved or evoked quite a literature of its own. "Three classes of publications," says the "Succinct Narrative" below referred to, "are comprised in the Commission's printed documents, 1st, Reports and essays relating to military hygiene, medicine, and surgery ; 2nd, Special reports upon the regular labours of the Commission relating to sanitary work, and to the business of relief ; 3rd, Circulars and various Rublic statements, also two semi-monthly periodicals." It has itself no " space " for "the catalogue of the current publica- tions" of the Commission. The publications of the second class, which are considered " permanent " documents, numbered already "between seventy and eighty" at the date of the "Succinct Narrative ; " and besides publications by the Commission itself, other works, such as the "sketch," have been published for it.

The "Succinct Narrative" (numbering over 300 octavo pages) is a really interesting, as well as valuable work. But it is so far excelled in point of literary effect by the "Sketch," that it will be sufficient to extract from it a single record of simple, homely heroism on the part of a Federal army surgeon, illus- trating well the momentous importance to the soldier's health of fresh vegetables, the withholding of which, through ignorance, carelessness, or some worse cause, from the Federal prisoners in Confederate hands has been one main cause of the shameful mortality among them. The scene here is laid in one of the Western armies :— "At the time when potatoes were exceedingly scarce and valuable, and when the Commission was furnishing the greatest part which were available for the army, the surgeon of—, who had just returned to his regiment, visited our rooms with his assistant, to ask us if we could do anything for him. On exhibiting his person, his legs and body were spotted and purplish, with as little elasticity to the flesh as to a piece of dough; an indentation from pressure would remain for many minutes. The symptoms of scurvy were clear and unmistakeable, and he had been distributing for weeks to the enlisted men under his char,qe vegetables from our stores—had thus banished scurvy from the tents of the men, and it remained only among the officers. When he was directed to use them for the officers also, as far as they needed them medicinally, he expressed surprise and gratitude both, for he supposed they were to be used sacredly for the enlisted men."

Written by a lady, the "Sketch" is none the less interesting because it exhibits much of a lady's want of sequency in the order- ing of its matter. Indeed the only portion of it which may hang heavy with the reader is the commencement, where the authoress tries to master generalization and statistics. As soon as she finds herself at home in the true female province of the concrete,

* The United States Sanitary Commission. A Sketch of its Purposes and its Work. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1863.

The Sanitary Commission of the United States Army. A Succinct Narrative of its Works and Purimsee. New York: Published for the benetit of the United Statet Sanitary Commission. 1861.

Medical, and Surgical Essays. Prepared for the 'United States Santary Commission. PhiLidelphia: S. B. Lippincott and Co. 18GL Narrative of Privations and Sufferings of United States Officers and Soldiers, while Prisoners of War to the Mande of the Rebel Authorities. Printed for the Caned States Sanitary Commission. Philadelphia. 1864.

La Commission Sanitaire des Slats Unis. Par Thomas W. Evans, D. deur en Ilkidecine. Paris: Dente. 186.

and begins to tell us what was done here and what was done there, nothing can be more vivid and often more happy than her descrip- tions; as when she says of the first operations of the Commission in the Virginian peninsula that patients were "fed, cleaned, and put

to'bed, in a droll state of grateful wonder," or shows us the Com- mission's boat, "the poor little Small . . . . kicked, and cuffed, and knocked round by all the big vessels," or notes the wonderful sight of "one man eating six pies at once," or observes, as an effect of the press of sanitary work, that "day and night had not at times their

proper meaning." This faculty of picturesqueness is so essentially in the sex, and not in the individual, that one can seldom draw a line in this respect between the authoress and the correspondents whom she quotes. Who but a woman could have thrown off such a scene as this in connection with such a work ?—

" We are now on board the Knickerbocker, unpacking and arranging stores, and getting pantries and closets in order. I am writing on the floor, interrupted constantly to join in a laugh. Miss— is sorting socks and pulling out the funny little balls of yarn, and big darning-needles stack in the toes, with which she is making a fringe across my back. Do spare- us the darning-needles Reflect upon us, rushing in haste to the linen closet, and plunging our hands into the bale of stockings. I certainly will make a collection of sanitary clothing. I solemnly aver that yesterday I found a pair of drawers made for a case of amputation at the thigh. And the slippers only fit for pontoon bridges r But the gem of the volume consists in an account by another lady's hand, quoted from a pamphlet entitled Three Weeks at Gettysburg, of which the twenty pages are in their vivid simplicity among the most interesting in the English language. We can only borrow a few pictures from them :— " ' Have you friends in the army, madam? ' a rebel soldier, lying on the floor of the car, said to me, as I gave him some milk.—' Yes, my brother is on —'s staff.-1 thought so, ma'am. You can always tell —when people are good to soldiers they are sure to have friends in the army.'—' We are rebels, you know, ma'am ?' another said ; 'do you treat rebels so ? ' It was strange to see the good brotherly feeling come over the soldiers, our own and the rebels, when side by side they lay in our tents. 'Hullo, boys ! this is the pleasantest way to meet, isn't it ? We are better friends when we are as close as this than a little farther off.' And then they would go over the battles together, We were here,' and Yon were there,' in the friendliest way."

A blessed pledge surely of ultimate reconciliation between the combatants. Men who can not only feel thus towards one another, but express their feelings in a common language, cannot remain estranged for ever. Beside these "rebels," the German Pennsyl- vanian is the true foreigner to the New Englander: "One of this kind came creeping into our camp three weeks after the battle. He lived five miles only from the town, and had never seen a rebel.' He heard we had some of them, and came down to see them. 'Boys,' we said, marching him into the tent, which happened to be full of rebels that day waiting for the train, boys, here's a man who never saw a rebel in his life, and wants to look at you ;' and there he stood, with his mouth wide open, and there they lay in rows laughing at him, —stupid old Dutchman! 'And why haven't you seen a rebel?' Mrs. — said, 'why didn't you take your gun and help to drive them out of your town?'—' A feller might'er got hit !' which reply was quite too much for the rebels ; they roared with laughter at him up and down the tent."

This delicious story stands in strong moral contrast with the next one, that of a certain heroic bakeress :—

" She lived in a little house close up by the field where the hardest fighting was done,—a red-cheeked, strong, country girL 'Were you frightened when the shells began flying ?'—' Well, no. You see we was all a-baking bread round here for the soldiers, and had our dough a-rising. The neighbours they ran into their cellars, but I couldn't leave my bread. When the first shell came in at the window and crashed through the room, an officer came and said, "You had better get out of this," but I told him I could not leave my bread, and I stood working it till the third shell came through, and then I went down cellar, but' (triumphantly) I left my bread in the oven.'—' And why didn't you go before?'.—' Oh! you see, if I had the rebels would 'a' come in, and daubed the dough all over the place.' And hero she had stood, at the risk of unwelcome plums in her loaves, while great holes (which we saw) were made by shot and shell through and through the room in which she was working."

Beside the last two humorous sketches one would fain place

the account of the death of a young Secessionist officer, "a fair- haired, blue-eyed young lieutenant, with a face innocent enough for one of our own New-England boys—I could not think of him as a rebel, he was too near heaven for that," which is simply one of the most pathetic narratives ever penned. But it is too long to be extracted, and too touching to be mangled. Let us take instead a glance at the race whose wrongs lie at the very

heart of this bitter contest :—

" In the field where we buried him a number of coloured freedmen, working for Government on the railroad, had their camp, and every night they took their recreation, after the heavy work of the day was over, in prayer meetings. Such an inferior race,' you know' They prayed with all their souls, as only black men and slaves can; for themselves, and for the dear, good white people who had come over to the meeting, and for 'Massa Lincoln,' for whom they seemed to have a reverential affeetion,—some of them a sort of worship which comprised Father Abraham and Massa Abraham in one general cry for blessings. Whatever else they asked for they must have strength and comfort and blessing for Massa Lincoln.' Very little care was taken of these poor men. They were grateful for every little thing. Mrs.—went into the town, and hunted out several dozen bright handkerchiefs, hemmed them, and sent them over to be distributed the next night after meeting. . . . Purple and blue and yellow the handkerchiefs were, and the desire of every man's heart fastened itself on a yellow one ; they politely made way for each other, one man standing back to let another pass up first although he ran the risk of seeing the particular pumpkin colour that riveted his eyes taken from before them. When the distribution was over each man tied his head up in his handkerchief, and they sang one more hymn keeping time all round, with blue and purple and yellow nods, and thanking and blessing the white people in their basket and in their store' as much as if the cotton handkerchiefs had been all gold leaf."

But one must tear oneself from the really fascinating "Sketch," to say a few words on the handsome and well-printed volume of Military, Medical, and Surgical Essays, consisting of seventeen papers by eminent American practitioners, on all subjects most important to the army surgeon, from "Military Hygiene and Therapeutics" to "The Excision of Joints," a work which lies in great measure out of the province of this journal, although much of it is at the same time of practical import to all. Here is a caution which may be of value in many a case of injury in civil life :—

" When a wounded soldier faints, his companions are too apt to leave the ranks and place him in the sitting position, sprinkle him with water, and endeavour by all the means in their power to excite him to C31118CiOUSILOSS. In this way syncope that might be only temporary is many times rendered permanent and fatal, for the formation of a clot in the wound, which is the man's only hope of stopping the flow of blood, is thus prevented, and the hemorrhage increased through acceleration of the circulation. If he were allowed to remain in the recumbent position, the coagalum which nature provides would prove an obstacle to the further loss of blood."

The last of the essays forming the volume (most of them re- markable for their good plain English) mentions a fact most creditable to the morals of the Federal army, that "in modern times there has never been collected so large a body of men" among whom a certain class of diseases, against which recent legislation amongst ourselves has been directed, "have prevailed to so small an extent."

The Narrative of Privations and Sufferings, the most crushing blow from which Confederate honour has had to suffer since the beginning of the war, has been dwelt on long ere this by The Spectator, and need only be referred to. In it the work of the Sanitary Commission rises from the sphere of social charity into that of retributive justice. And because its charity has never dis- tinguished between suffering friend or foe, it has a right to be listened to and believed when it tells us with what cold-blooded and barbarous cruelty the Confederate authorities have carried out such a distinction.

There remains to be noticed Dr. T. W. Evans's account, in French, of the Sanitary Commission, which in its brief compass of 175 pages contains perhaps more matter comparatively than either the " Sketch " or the "Succinct Narrative." In it will be found various interesting details not to be found in the other two works, including a sketch of the organization of the Federal military hospitals, and a dispassionate and friendly-toned notice of the sanitary associations of the Southern States. Dr. Evans, an American practising in Paris, but only lately returned from a visit to his native country, thus testifies to the moral change produced in American society by the war :—

"Since my last residence in the United States several years had elapsed, and I could not but feel deeply impressed with the wonderful transformation which society had undergone in its feelings and in its general spirit. The tastes and occupations of my friends and former ac- quaintances were singularly altered ; the same men who formerly were the most completely enslaved to their business, find now abundant time for the duties of patriotism and philanthropy ; women are no longer ab- sorbed in an endless series of frivolous visits and fashionable soirees, but are more or less occupied in preparing a multitude of articles for the Sani- tary Commission, unless indeed you should find them in the hospitals sit- ting by the bedside of the sick and wounded. . . This spirit of a large and universal benevolence had introduced a praiseworthy simplicity into the modes of life of the most intelligent and most cultivated persons. Ex- travagance in toilettes and in housekeeping seemed to belong exclusively to the very narrow class of newly-enriched parvenus, who can in nowise be considered as representing true American society."

A testimony perhaps all the more trustworthy, that it runs directly contrary to that of those commis-voyageurs of literature, the 'our own correspondents' sent out by such English journals as only care to 'drive a trade.'

The work of this noble association seems done in its own country, although the murderous deed recently perpetrated may leave behind it a trail of Wad which had not else been shed. But who knows how soon our own country may not have to study for its own needs the blessed example thus set forth?