reception in camp. The bewildered soldiers stood for hours under
broiling southern sun, waiting for rations and shelter, while ignorant
officers were slowly learning their unaccustomed duties. At night they
were compelled to lie wrapped in shoddy blankets upon rotten straw.
Under such conditions these brave volunteers suffered severely and camp
diseases became alarmingly prevalent. But the miserable makeshifts used
as hospitals were so bad that sick men fought for the privilege of dying
in camp with their comrades rather than undergo the privations, and
sometimes the brutality of inexperienced and careless attendants in the
crowded and poorly equipped quarters provided by the government. The
largest hospital available contained but forty beds, and not one
afforded a trained, efficient, medical staff. Competent nurses, sanitary
kitchens, proper medicines, means of humanely transporting the sick and
wounded, all were wanting during early months of the war.

This condition which the government did almost nothing to remedy led to
the organization of the United States Sanitary Commission. Strangely
enough the founder of this most necessary and timely organization, Rev.
H. W. Bellows, of New York, encountered the opposition of high officials
who deemed the whole plan quixotic. Even President Lincoln at first
regarded the Commission unnecessary and called it "a fifth wheel to the
coach." Brief experience, however, demonstrated that the government
could not provide all that was necessary for the soldier, either in
sickness or in health, and the Sanitary Commission became often the only
hope of brave men in dire distress. In fact, at this day, it is
difficult to see how the Northern cause would have triumphed at all but
for the widespread and wholly helpful activity of the army of Sanitary
workers.

The greatest difficulty encountered by the leaders of this noble