Speech of the Rev. Dr. Bellows, President of the United States Sanitary Commission, Made at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia

Tuesday Evening, Feb. 24, 1863

The Rev. Dr. Bellows, President of the United States Sanitary Commission, addressed a large number of the citizens of Philadelphia, at the Academy of Music, Tuesday evening, February 24, 1853, in explanation of the operations of that Commission.  He spoke of when the war [Civil War] began, the care of the sick and wounded soldiers was in the hands of the Medical Department of the United States Army.  How was the medical staff recruited?  It had to be recruited from the civil medical service of the country.  He spoke of enlightening the army in the field on the importance of taking every possible means of preventing a waste of precious life.  A great proportaion of the waste of life in the army was owing to ignorance of the laws of health, and the consequences of those particular exposures and dangers that are peculiar to an army in the field. They sent into the army a set of experts, selected from the very best medical talent in the country.  The object of the Sanitary Commission is to make every soldier feel that he has an equal share in the bounty with which this nation supplies its soldiers.  

United States Sanitary Commission

1863, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, 32 pp.

ISBN:  9780788475108

101-U7510