The Woman’s Auxiliaries of the Red Cross
By special authority from the American National Red Cross, these auxiliaries were organized under the auspices of the Relief Committee in New York, acting in conjunction with the Executive Committee of the Red Cross. Therefore, full reports of what they have accomplished have not been sent direct to the national headquarters. Among the woman’s auxiliaries it was the custom for each to organize for some special work, and devote their entire attention to it. It is a pleasure to be able to insert here, as an example of the manner in which these loyal women did their part in the work of war relief, the following from the report of Auxiliary No. 3, organized for the maintenance of trained nurses:
From the Report of Red Cross Auxiliary No. 3
At the request of the Women’s Committee on Auxiliaries, this auxiliary was organized on May 18, 1898, to provide funds for the maintenance of trained nurses. It was the original intention that these nurses should be placed on a hospital ship to be furnished by the National Relief Committee. It was not long, however, before this plan of specialized work was abandoned by the Relief Committee, and the Executive Committee of the auxiliary adapted itself to the change, by using its funds and devoting its energies in supplying and maintaining trained nurses in army hospitals, where, owing to the suddenness and greatness of the emergency, the supply and maintenance of an adequate number of nurses were not in the government’s power. This form of work was begun early in July, and on the 19th of that month was, with the concurrence of the Relief Committee, finally adopted as the chief purpose of the auxiliary. It is hoped that some estimate of the success achieved may be gained from this report.
Immediately on its organization, the important work of raising money was undertaken, systematic efforts were made to reach subscribers, associate members were enlisted, circulars were sent out, and personal appeals were made. From Paris alone, by the generosity of French and American friends, more than $21,000 was received. Suburban branches were also established, which, under the direction of separate committees, labored earnestly and contributed largely, both in money and in supplies. The chief of these branches were at Seabright, Elberon, Navesink, Orange, New Hamburg, Tuxedo, Tarrytown, Northern Westchester County, Riverdale, Rye and Harrison, White Plains, Lake George, St. Hubert’s Inn, Lenox, Wakefield and Narragansett and Bar Harbor. The Executive Committee met frequently to consider this question of ways and means, and the assistant treasurer, Mrs. Edmund L. Baylies, was soon able to report a generous response. As shown by her account, the sum of $107,785.12 has in all been collected, of which $72,101.64 has already been expended. Without this hearty support from the friends of the cause, the good accomplished by the auxiliary would have been sadly restricted. Indeed, when the critical time of arranging coöperation with the government came, we might never have felt justified in undertaking such a responsibility, had our actual contributions not been so large, and the assurance of further financial support so definite.
On June 30 the first call for nurses came in the shape of a telegraphic dispatch from Santiago, sent by Dr. A. Monae Lesser, chief surgeon of the American National Red Cross Society. Two days later, in compliance with this dispatch, a party consisting of twelve trained nurses, one immune nurse, and one assistant, was sent from New York to Tampa in charge of Miss Laura D. Gill, with orders to proceed to Santiago at the first opportunity. This party was reinforced by a second, consisting of three physicians and eleven nurses, who left New York on July 4 in charge of Miss Isabel Rutty. A third party of two physicians, thirty-two nurses, and six orderlies was sent forward the same week, and reached Tampa on the evening of July 9. The first available steamer for Santiago was the U.S. transport “Lampasas,” which was taking out Col. Black and his engineering corps, and through the kindness of General Coppinger and Col. Edmond Rice, five physicians, twenty-nine nurses, and two orderlies were given transportation upon that ship.
The “Lampasas” reached Santiago just after its surrender, but owing to the recent outbreak of yellow fever in the city, a strict quarantine had been established, and none but immunes were permitted to go ashore. The steamer thereupon proceeded to Porto Rico, and on reaching the harbor of Guanica was converted into a hospital ship. The plan of landing the nurses was abandoned, and they immediately devoted themselves to the care of the 112 soldiers, most of them typhoid fever patients, for whom accommodation was provided on the vessel. Two of these patients died at Guanica, two at Ponce, and four on the homeward voyage. The remaining 104 were safely landed at Fort Monroe early in August. Miss Mary E. Gladwin, who was with the party, spoke for all the nurses when she said that this “Lampasas” trip was the opportunity of a lifetime, and that the two weeks of absorbing work “were worth years of ordinary living.”
In the meantime the rest of our party at Tampa had embarked on another government transport, the “Nueces,” also bound for Santiago. But within a few hours after the “Lampasas” left the dock at Tampa, and before the “Nueces” could get away, a telegram was received telling of the outbreak of yellow fever in Cuba. By direction of the government, all of our party, except one trained nurse and four assistants, were thereupon removed from the “Nueces,” and left in Tampa to await further developments. The five excepted members of the party proceeded to Cuba, and some time afterwards returned to New York in attendance upon the patients who were brought home on the steamer “Concho.”
It was in Tampa, while these nurses were impatiently awaiting transportation to the front, that the sudden outbreak of typhoid fever in the camp there gave the first important occasion for their services. Four nurses, under the charge of Mrs. E.B. Freer, were assigned to the Division Hospital at Picnic Island, and continued their work until about July 27, when the sick men were removed and the island abandoned as a camp. The services of Mrs. Freer’s party were then desired by Colonel O’Reilly, chief surgeon of the Fourth Army Corps, and she was asked on Saturday, July 30, to superintend the opening of a new military hospital in West Tampa. Authority and funds were, on application to the auxiliary in New York, telegraphed her accordingly, and the effectiveness of the compliance with the chief surgeon’s request will appear when it is said that by evening of the next day (Sunday) a three-story brick building was selected for the hospital, thoroughly cleaned, equipped with cots and other necessary hospital appliances, and the cots themselves occupied by fifty soldiers suffering from typhoid and malarial fevers. The spirit of this auspicious beginning guided the conduct of the hospital until its last patient had been discharged on October 14. Five hundred soldiers, chiefly typhoid patients, were treated during those ten weeks, and only eleven deaths occurred. Even a modern city hospital might be proud of such a record.
Meanwhile the constant efforts of the auxiliary to send nurses to Cuba were thwarted by the appearance of yellow fever in Santiago. Notwithstanding our repeated offers, the government adhered to its determination to permit none but immune nurses at the front, and the extension of the auxiliary’s work seemed to be hopelessly checked. The situation with which we were confronted was most serious. We had sought and collected over $60,000 in money, and notwithstanding the great amount of suffering, and our conviction that if only permitted to do so we might relieve so much of it, we were nearly helpless. Happily, a speedy and most gratifying solution of the problem was found in the following manner: The Executive Board of the Relief Committee decided to send a committee representing itself and this auxiliary to Washington, to reach some positive understanding with the President and the surgeon-general of the army regarding the regular employment of our nurses.
On the evening of July 15, this committee, consisting of Mr. Howard Townsend, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid and Mrs. Winthrop Cowdin, was accorded a private interview at the White House by President McKinley, who listened with kindly attention to a brief explanation of the aims and purposes of the auxiliary, and expressed himself as entirely in sympathy with them. At his request, a conference at the White House between the committee, the Secretary of War and the surgeon-general was arranged for the following morning. That same evening the committee called also upon the adjutant-general, and was assured of his co-operation in their efforts. Owing doubtless to the limited time at the disposal of the surgeon-general, who was on his way to meet the hospital ship “Olivette” on its first journey North with a load of wounded from Santiago, no definite results were reached at the conference the next morning. The Secretary of War, however, said he would aid us to the extent of his power, and the surgeon-general promised another interview with the same committee at Mrs. Reid’s house in New York, Sunday afternoon, July 17. The result of this interview is thus stated in a letter from General Sternberg to Mrs. Reid:
I take pleasure in confirming by letter the arrangements made at our interview in New York on the 17th instant.
I am quite willing to employ female nurses vouched for by yourself as secretary of the Red Cross Society for Maintenance of Trained Nurses. I had previously made very satisfactory arrangements for the employment of trained female nurses through a committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution. As I said to you during our interview, I recognize the value of trained female nurses in general hospitals, and we expect to make use of their services to such an extent as seems to be desirable. But I do not approve of sending female nurses with troops in the field or to camps of instruction. It is the intention to transfer the seriously sick men from our field hospitals to the general hospitals as soon as practicable; and we wish our enlisted men of the Hospital Corps to take care of the sick in the Division Field hospitals and in camps of instruction, so that they may be fully prepared to perform the same duties when the troops are in active operations.
Among these privates of the Hospital Corps who constitute the Red Cross organization of the regular military service, and who are non-combatants in accordance with the terms of the Geneva Convention, we have many medical students and even graduates in medicine.
I have made an exception with reference to sending female nurses to Cuba in view of the outbreak of yellow fever in Santiago, and am now sending immune nurses, both male and female, for duty at the yellow fever hospitals. In accordance with our agreement, you are authorized to send ten female trained nurses, selected by yourself, to the Leiter Hospital at Camp Thomas, Ga.; ten to the U.S. General Hospital at Fort Monroe, Va.; and two to the hospital at Fort Wadsworth, N.Y., the understanding being that those at Fort Monroe and at Fort Wadsworth shall be boarded and lodged outside of the hospital.
Thanking you very sincerely for your earnest efforts in behalf of our sick and wounded soldiers, I am, etc.
This letter was accompanied by an order for twenty nurses to be sent at once to the hospitals in the city of Charleston.
As a result of this permission of the government, three men nurses were sent on July 21 to the Marine Hospital at Staten Island, and Miss Marjorie Henshall went with three women nurses to the Post Hospital at Fort Wadsworth, where a number of sick and wounded officers had just been landed from the “Olivette.” An example of the immediate benefit resulting from the increased powers of the auxiliary may be found in the case of one of the lieutenants in the regular army, who had been ill with fever for weeks in Santiago without proper care, and who had reached New York in an almost dying condition. The surgeons in charge attributed his recovery to the timely arrival of the nurses under Miss Henshall.
In further accordance with the surgeon-general’s permission, the nurses who were on waiting orders at Tampa were sent to the Leiter Hospital near Chattanooga, where ten were immediately placed on duty by the chief surgeon, Major Carter; and as they could not be provided for in the hospital building, Miss Gill went to Chattanooga to arrange for their maintenance in quarters near by. The service at the Leiter Hospital was peculiarly hard, and one of the nurses, Miss Phinney, died there as a result of the great mental and physical strain to which she was subjected.
Ten nurses were sent on July 22 to the General Hospital, Fort Monroe, in charge of Miss Lida G. Starr. As this hospital consisted largely of tents, it was necessary for the nurses to be maintained in hotels, in the neighborhood. Later, other nurses came, and soon the entire force, with two exceptions, had signed contracts with the government, but were maintained at the expense of the auxiliary. The total number of nurses maintained by the auxiliary in service at this place was at times as large as forty-five. Ten other nurses, maintained by the Woman’s War Relief Association, shared in the work there. In all seventeen hundred patients were treated at this hospital, of whom only thirty-four died. To Miss Starr is due much credit for the admirable management of the funds intrusted to her by the auxiliary, and for the sedulous care she bestowed upon the welfare of the nurses. Only this, as they themselves realized, made it possible for them to perform so remarkable a work,—a work of which Major De Witt, the surgeon in charge, said: “I am satisfied that whatever success we may have had in the treatment of our sick and wounded has been in great measure due to the skill and devotion of the female nurses.”
Our labor at Charleston involved somewhat different necessities. The city hospitals were crowded with soldiers who had been taken ill on their way from the camps to the transports. Additional nurses were thus greatly needed, and on July 24 twenty, in charge of Miss Martha L. Draper, were sent to meet the emergency. That their services were valuable and appreciated is shown by the testimonials granted them by the Board of Commissioners of the City Hospital of Charleston.
When, in early August, the steamship “Missouri” was bought by the government for a hospital ship, Mrs. Reid offered women nurses to the officer in charge, Major Arthur. As the construction of the ship did not afford accommodations which permitted the presence of women on board, this offer was changed. The department had allowed Major Arthur ten male nurses, but the government salary did not command the quality of service which the special work of superintendence required. It was therefore proposed to choose, under the advice of Dr. Fisher, of the Presbyterian Hospital, a small supplementary corps of exceptionally able nurses, who could assume the responsibility of the wards. When these men had been chosen, they impressed Major Arthur so favorably that he decided to dispense with the ten nurses allowed him by the government, take these selected men under contract, pay them the regulation salary, and leave upon the auxiliary the expense only of the additional salary necessary to command this superior nursing ability. The men retained the position of Red Cross nurses, and wore the special uniform provided by the auxiliary. Ten men made the trip to Santiago, but for the second and third trips the staff was increased to fourteen. The spirit and capacity of these men were severely tested on the first voyage by the unprepared state in which the emergency required that the “Missouri” be sent South, but they met their labors and hardships in a way which brought forth Major Arthur’s warmest praise.
Forty-two nurses have in the course of the summer been sent to Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, where, under the able management of Miss Marjorie Henshall, effective service has been rendered, giving absolute satisfaction to the surgeons in charge.
At Governor’s Island Miss Alice Marie Wyckoff and Miss Barker have represented the auxiliary. Early in July they were occupied on Swinburn Island in caring for the many patients who arrived on the “Concho;” and when those patients were transferred to Governor’s Island, Major Kimball, the surgeon in charge, asked that the nurses be sent there to assist his hospital corps. This request was granted, and additional nurses have since been supplied. He speaks in high terms of what these nurses have done to aid him, and of their conspicuous success in rousing apathetic patients to assist in their own recovery.
The situation of these two harbor hospitals, and of the hospital at Fort Hamilton, was especially favorable for the treatment of the very sick patients received from the transports directly from Santiago, or from the general hospital at Camp Wikoff. The remarkably small death-rate is directly attributable to the skill and devotion of the surgeons and nurses, to the carefully prepared food, and to the sea air blowing through the tents. “It has been most wonderful,” remarked Miss Ellen M. Wood, who was in charge of the nurses at Fort Hamilton, “to watch the soldiers grow young again” amid such surroundings. The part which Miss Wood and her assistants played in this beneficial change may be indicated by a quotation from a recent letter to the acting president of the auxiliary from Major and Brigade Surgeon Rafferty, commanding the General Hospital at Fort Hamilton:
Miss E.M. Wood, with five nurses, will report to you on Saturday, October 15, 1898. They have been on duty with me in the camp and wards of the United States General Hospital at this place for the past six or eight weeks, and have rendered me noble, efficient and conscientious work.
I wish you would express to your auxiliary for me my great appreciation of their efforts to ameliorate the suffering and sickness of our soldiers returning from the seat of war. Were I to choose the most worthy and successful body of workers from among all the generous people who have been rendering such beautiful aid to our sick and wounded, I should unhesitatingly point to your Auxiliary for the Maintenance of Trained Nurses.
Much has been accomplished by the mission of the special committee to the surgeon-general in July; but later in the month it became increasingly apparent that some simpler routine of co-operation with the government must be established in order to secure the more rapid placing of the nurses. Under the existing conditions, all nurses ordered to army hospitals were selected by the Daughters of the American Revolution Hospital Corps, consisting of Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee, director; Miss Mary Desha and Mrs. Francis G. Nash, assistant directors; and Mrs. Amos G. Draper, treasurer. This hospital corps did noble work for the cause, and its co-operation was highly appreciated by the auxiliary. Dr. McGee, on whose advice in these matters the surgeon-general greatly relied, was indefatigable in her efforts, working day and night and month after month.
But since Congress had provided no special fund for the transportation of nurses, considerable delay had always occurred before the nurses could reach the army hospitals; and as these hospitals were rapidly filling up with patients in consequence of the outbreak of typhoid and malarial fevers in the different camps, the effects of such delay became daily more dangerous. The acting president went again to Washington, and after conference with Dr. McGee and other members of this hospital corps, placed a fund of five hundred dollars in the hands of Mrs. Draper, as acting treasurer, to meet transportation expenses originating at Washington. This fund was most efficiently managed by Mrs. Draper, and was replenished from time to time until September 6, when $5425.80 had been so disbursed. Thereafter the government assumed the entire expense of transportation.
This general subject of transportation was one regarding which the auxiliary was able to render substantial service, and merits a few descriptive words. The pressure upon the Quartermaster’s Department at Washington during the summer made it impossible to becertain of immediate transportation for nurses to their posts of duty. Even after orders were received, the nurses might be delayed several days for the necessary transportation pass. Under ordinary circumstances this might have seemed comparatively unimportant; but when a new hospital is opened and scores of patients lie waiting for the care which can be given only by the expected nurses, it is a matter of vital importance whether they come in twelve hours or a week.
When the auxiliary acceded to the suggestion from Washington, and undertook to relieve this pressure by paying the transportation of nurses who could not otherwise be put into immediate service, quite a change in plan was made. A number of nurses were ordered to New York by Dr. McGee, and were held in readiness to respond to requests from any part of the country. These nurses, added to the numbers being constantly enlisted here, made a substantial reserve for sudden calls. In a few hours after a telegram asking for a given number of nurses was received, the nurses could meet at the railway station, find an agent of the auxiliary there, who would distribute the tickets and sleeping-car accommodations that had already been secured, check their trunks, provide for the payment of the incidental expenses of the journey, and see the party off for its destination. It is believed that the money, labor and thought expended in this way brought a rich return.
As the responsibilities of the auxiliary developed, the need of a permanent office became apparent. In the absence of the president and first and second vice-presidents, Mrs. Cowdin became acting-president, and from July 28 to September 20 headquarters for the auxiliary were maintained at her residence, No. 15 West Eleventh street. Since September 20 the office of the auxiliary has been at Mrs. Reid’s residence, No. 451 Madison avenue. The scope and interest of the work increased daily, and its details required the entire attention of the executive officer, her assistants, Miss Gill and Miss Wadley, a stenographer and a bookkeeper. In addition, Mrs. W. Bayard Cutting, Mrs. W. Lanman Bull and Mrs. Geo. F. Shrady, Jr., of the executive committee, though compelled to be out of town, were in frequent communication with the New York office, and, in town and out, labored constantly to render the auxiliary more effective.
On August 10, Miss Gill, who from the beginning gave herself completely to the work, and whose services were of inestimable value, went to Washington to clear up several points relative to the enlistment of nurses. Aside from the adjustment of some details, two important results were obtained. One of these was the appointment by the surgeon-general of the acting president of the auxiliary as direct superintendent of the nurses at Fort Wadsworth, Fort Hamilton and Governor’s Island, with full power to appoint, transfer and recall them; the other, to which fuller reference will be hereafter made, was permission for Miss Maxwell, of the Presbyterian Hospital, New York, to go to Chickamauga with a party of nurses chosen by her. The Red Cross Hospital in New York, from which the nurses had theretofore been enlisted, being temporarily closed, Miss Maxwell offered her office at the Presbyterian Hospital for the registration of nurses sent out by the auxiliary; and at her urgent request, Miss K.M. Pierce, superintendent of the Samaritan Hospital at Troy, who was then in New York, devoted her vacation to making arrangements for the registration and transportation of the large number of nurses called into the city. After September 1 this work devolved upon Miss Wadley, and was transferred to a separate bureau at No. 6 East Forty-second street, where, under her direction, it has reached a high degree of efficiency.
One of the largest fields of the auxiliary’s activity was at Chickamauga. The typhoid epidemic which broke out in all the camps of instruction where our troops were stationed severely taxed the resources of the division hospitals. The surgeons had to rely mainly on the services of untrained men, and while the great need for the services of women was apparent, their employment in military camps had not then been attempted. Nowhere were the conditions more threatening than at Chickamauga; and toward the end of July, Miss Maud Cromelien, an agent of the auxiliary, visited the Division Hospitals at Camp Thomas. The need for prompt relief there manifested was imperative; and, acting under authority from New York, she made the following offer on behalf of the auxiliary to Lieutenant-Colonel Hoff, surgeon-in-chief at the camp, namely: to supply at least one division hospital with nurses; to meet all expenses of maintaining the nurses; and to erect, equip, and supply tents for their occupation; to supply a competent supervising nurse, and to make the entire party subject to the orders of the chief surgeon. This offer was reported to the surgeon-general at Washington, and by his direction accepted. Through the kindness of the managers of the Presbyterian Hospital, the auxiliary had the great good fortune to secure the consent of the superintendent of their training school, Miss Maxwell, to take charge of this relief party.
Miss Maxwell at once threw herself into the arduous task, and having obtained twenty most capable nurses, with promises of many more to follow, selected Miss Frances A. Stone as assistant superintendent, and started from New York with the party August 7. In the meantime, under the supervision of Miss Cromelien, dormitories and other accommodations had been provided at Camp Thomas, not only for this party, but for the large number of additional nurses that were expected. Upon reaching the camp, Miss Maxwell inspected the division hospitals, and then, by arrangement with the government authorities, took charge of the nursing at the Sternberg United States Field Hospital, which had just been opened to receive the overflow of patients from the crowded division hospitals. The suffering of the patients, and the pitiable lack of almost everything necessary to their proper care, are described by Miss Maxwell as among the saddest sights in her long experience. Yet out of all this misery and chaos much alleviation of pain and admirable order were soon brought. Beginning with 136 patients, 900 were received during the four weeks of Miss Maxwell’s superintendence. Of these 470 were furloughed and 68 died. In all the auxiliary expended at Chickamauga, for buildings, equipment, nurses, supplies and maintenance, more than $9000. In concluding her report of the work to the managers of the Presbyterian Hospital, Miss Maxwell wrote among other things:
I cannot say enough in praise of the liberality and thoughtfulness of the auxiliary of the Red Cross in supplying us with eight dormitories, a bath-house, store-rooms, kitchen, dining-room, house-keeper, servants, and not only the necessities, but many of the luxuries of life.
This proposition of organizing a large field hospital with women nurses was at first generally looked upon as impracticable. It was urged that it had never been done, that women could not endure the hardships of field life, and that they would be an embarrassment in the camps, and so it was altogether as an experiment that the nurses were allowed to begin their work at the Sternberg Hospital. Something of the success of the experiment in changing the attitude of the surgeons toward the idea of women nurses in the field is shown by the following letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Hoff to Miss Cromelien, in which he says:
I desire to express my sense of obligation to you and the society you represent for the generous offer made on the 2d of August to supply Sternberg Hospital with trained nurses and meet all their natural wants, which offer, with the approval of the surgeon-general of the army, I accepted on the 3d instant.
A very short time after this you established a nursing service in this field hospital, which I venture to say is not surpassed in any hospital, and is equaled in few,—a service which already has brought to our sick soldiers untold comfort, and is aiding materially in their restoration to health and strength. Certainly no nobler undertaking could be inaugurated and carried out by the women of our country, and none deserving of greater appreciation.
The following tribute from Major Giffen, the surgeon in command at the Sternberg Hospital, is equally significant:
The Red Cross Society for the Maintenance of Trained Nurses can truly say, Veni, Vidi, Vici, for without their helping hand I would have been unable to have stayed the dread disease that has been raging in our camp. Their helping hand came in the hour of need, and the history of the future shall record each and every member of the Red Cross Society as the guardian angels of the Sternberg Hospital. My experience of years of hospital work has enabled me to judge of the abilities of nurses, and I am proud to say that this corps of nurses, under the excellent supervision of Miss Maxwell, has never before been equaled.
About the first of August the arrival of the transports from Santiago, and the opening of Camp Wikoff, at Montauk Point, afforded another great opportunity. The call, however, was sudden, and no chance was given to the auxiliary to provide tents specially fitted for the comfort of the nurses, as was done at the Sternberg Hospital. By special arrangement with the surgeon-general, the nurses ordered by him to Montauk reported to the acting president of the auxiliary and were sent forward immediately, or, as the occasion demanded, were cared for over night. Much has been said in criticism of the hospital conditions at Montauk, and too little of the fine service of the surgeons and nurses, who, under trying conditions, worked day and night to save the lives of their patients. Under the efficient management of Mrs. L.W. Quintard, of St. Luke’s Hospital, the nurses took up their labors with enthusiasm and with a determination to make the best of existing circumstances. By personal visits to the camp the acting president was enabled to ameliorate in many ways the hard conditions under which the nurses were so bravely working. Supplies of all sorts were sent down with the least possible delay.
In the Detention Hospital, at Camp Wikoff, the fifty nurses to whose special needs Miss Virginia C. Young devoted herself on behalf of the auxiliary, cared for nearly eighteen hundred seriously ill soldiers, many of whom had had yellow fever in Cuba, and were suffering, when brought to the hospital, from typhoid fever, pernicious malarial fever and dysentery. A few had measles or diphtheria. Sixty-two, or rather less than 4 per cent, of these patients died, a result which is believed to bear striking testimony to the quality and success of the care they received. In a graphic account of her experience at this hospital Miss Young writes:
I wish I could make the women of the auxiliary fully understand what their splendid generosity meant to us who had the joy of ministering in their name. For the fifty women who fought day by day that grim battle with disease and death could but have wrung their hands in hopeless impotence had it not been for the hundreds of other women by whose aid we were able to carry on our work. One could have no more eloquent testimony to this than that furnished by a walk through one of the fever wards of Detention Hospital, where the men lay on Red Cross cots, in Red Cross pajamas, covered by Red Cross sheets and blankets, and taking their Red Cross medicines or broth or delicacies from Red Cross cups and glasses at the hands of Red Cross nurses.
Through the energy of Mrs. M.H. Willard, agent for the auxiliary, and with the permission of Colonel Forwood, a diet kitchen was opened at the General Hospital, at Camp Wikoff, for the sick and convalescent soldiers. The expense of maintaining this kitchen was shortly afterwards entirely assumed by the government and by the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association. So successful was its operation under Mrs. Willard’s administration that four additional kitchens were opened. It is estimated that more than twenty thousand specially prepared meals for the sick and the convalescent have been served from these five kitchens.
When the rooms of the Long Island City Relief Station were opened, near the railroad station, this auxiliary offered to supply the services of a physician and nurses, and continued to do so until, by reason of the removal of the troops, the need for the relief station ceased. One does not soon forget the first days when the soldiers began to arrive, the kindly interest felt by every one in and about the railroad station, the eagerness of the small newsboy to show the soldiers where the “Red Cross” was. To the soldier himself, weakened by illness and the fatigue of the journey, the place seemed a veritable haven of rest. Arrangements were made by the ladies in charge to send the very sick men immediately to the hospitals in Brooklyn and New York. The others were given proper food and cared for until morning, or for the several days that sometimes elapsed until the soldier was able to continue his journey.
Through the efforts of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, and by the kindness of the president of the Wagner Car Company, the cars “Franconia” and “Wayne” were placed at the service of the auxiliary, and under its direction were fitted up and maintained as hospital cars. Surgeons and nurses accompanied these cars on the trips from Montauk, and ministered to those among the returning soldiers who needed special care. At Montauk itself the tents erected by the Red Cross Relief Committee at the railway station, a distance of two or three miles from the hospital and camp, were supplied with nurses by the auxiliary.
Some excellent emergency work was accomplished by the auxiliary at the time of the outbreak of typhoid fever at Camp Black. Twelve nurses were selected, and at the urgent request of the acting president, Miss Irene Sutliffe of the New York Hospital, consented to take them to the camp on September 4, and organize a hospital under conditions which would have daunted the courage of most women. Nothing but tents and beds were provided for the reception of the one hundred and fifty patients, most of whom were very ill. Supplies of all kinds, including a complete diet kitchen outfit, were sent to the camp by the auxiliary. Additional nurses were furnished, and every effort was made to aid Miss Sutliffe and her staff in their arduous labors. It is gratifying to learn that in this way much suffering, and perhaps loss of life, was averted. On September 20 the patients then remaining were transferred to the Nassau Hospital, Hempstead.
The destruction of Admiral Cervera’s fleet, and the landing of the Spanish prisoners at Seavey’s Island, Portsmouth, N.H., gave the auxiliary another opportunity for service. Learning that it was impossible for the government surgeons to obtain nurses in the neighborhood of Portsmouth, the acting president made a personal request to the surgeon-general of the navy to authorize the sending of six men nurses. This application was granted. In the two pavilions temporarily erected for the patients the nurses went to work with enthusiasm. They found the patients easily managed and always grateful for what was done for them. The nurses were able to excite feelings of such trust and confidence that these same patients, when placed upon the “City of Rome” for their homeward journey, asked that the Red Cross nurses should go with them to Spain. This request was granted, and Mr. Brayman, who was in charge of the party, reports that the nurses were treated with much courtesy and cordiality, and that the voyage was accomplished without the loss of a single patient. It will be remembered that at the time of the sailing of the “City of Rome” many of the Spanish prisoners were not expected to live to reach their native land. At Santander the nurses were warmly welcomed by the Spanish representatives of the Red Cross Society. Mr. Brayman speaks of meeting one of his former patients in the streets of Santander, still wearing the United States uniform. On inquiry, the man replied, “This blouse was given me with three stripes and two stars. I shall wear them all.” At Bilboa the nurses received an especially cordial reception, and the American and Spanish representatives of the society which bears for its emblem, “Neutrality, Humanity,” exchanged brassards. Mr. Brayman afterward sent the brassard which was received by such exchange to a representative of the auxiliary in New York, with a letter from which the following extract is taken: “It gives me great pleasure to tell you that I do not believe any country can boast of a truer or nobler son than the young Spanish gentleman who formerly wore this emblem. His mother expressed a wish that one of the nurses might become ill there, that she might show how an American would be cared for by her.”
Nurses were also sent by the auxiliary to the Eighth Regiment Home at Hunter’s Island, and to the Home for Soldiers opened by the citizens of Sag Harbor, Long Island.
Supplementing these various branches of hospital service, two homes for convalescent soldiers were established under the direction of the auxiliary. One of these, Eunice Home of Chapel Hill, beautifully situated at Atlantic Highlands, N.J., was offered to the auxiliary by the trustees of the Chapel Hill Fresh Air Mission. Miss M.E. Melville and Dr. G.R. Winder were placed in charge, with a staff of nurses and servants, and several hundred soldiers have been cared for. Through the liberality of the Church of the Incarnation, our other home, the Summer Home Rest at Peekskill, was opened September 19, and has, aided by the untiring efforts of Mrs. W. Lanman Bull, cared for forty-two convalescent men. Every effort has been made in these homes to make the men happy, and they have returned to their regiments greatly improved in health, and in many cases quite recovered.
But it was not the soldiers alone who demanded the aid of the auxiliary. The nurses themselves have also been objects of anxious care. Unless their capacity for efficient service had been maintained, all our efforts would have been paralyzed. While in New York awaiting orders, they were placed in excellent boarding houses, through a satisfactory arrangement made by the auxiliary with the Home Bureau of No. 15 West Forty-second street. At every camp and hospital where they were stationed we undertook to supply them with pure water and milk, with nourishing food, and such other comforts as would increase their efficiency and remind them of the support and sympathy they were receiving at home. When any nurse has succumbed to the strain and fallen ill, every effort has been made to relieve her suffering and to restore her speedily to health. And to aid that happy result, a home for convalescent nurses, through the generosity of Mrs. Alice Dean Ward, was opened early in November at Rowayton, Conn.