he
humblest contributor from the most distant branch, as it were, into
immediate communication with the front is a work most desirable to be
done. I do not wish to glorify the Commission, nor to theorize about it,
nor to discuss its relative merit as compared with that of kindred
organizations,--but rather to tell just what it is doing, precisely
where the money goes, and exactly what kinds of good are attempted.

* * * * *

The work of the Sanitary Commission may be naturally and conveniently
classed under five heads.

First, the work undertaken for the prevention of sickness and suffering.

Second, the Special Relief Department.

Third, the Hospital Directory.

Fourth, the assistance given to stationary hospitals.

Fifth, the grand operations in the front, on or near the actual
battle-field.

* * * * *

The efforts for the prevention of suffering and sickness are first in
order of time, and possibly first in importance. When this war
commenced, we had no wounded and we had no sick. What we did have was a
crowd of men full of untrained courage, but who knew little or nothing
about military discipline, and as little in regard to what was necessary
for the preservation of their health. What we did have was hundreds and
thousands of officers, taken from every walk of life, who were, for the
most part, men of great natural intelligence, but who did not at all
comprehend that it was their duty not only to lead their men in battle,
but to care for their health and their habits, and who had never dreamed
that such homely considerations as what are the best modes of cooking
food, what are the most healthy localities in which to pitch tents, what
is the right position for drains, had anything to do with the art of
war. What we did have was surgeons, many of whom had achieved an
honorable reputation in the walks of civil life, but who, on this new
field, were alike inexperienced and untried. The manifest danger was,
that this mass of living valor and embodied patriotism would simply be
squandered,--that, as in the terrible Walcheren Expedition, or in the
Crimea, the men whose strength and courage might decide a campaign would
only furnish food for the hospital and the grave.

Who should avert this danger? The Government could not. It had no time
to sit down and study sanitary science. It was bringing together
everything, where it found--nothing. Out of far