One general kitchen provided the food for all—the sick, the wounded, and the dying, as well as the nurses and convalescents.
Where there were women nurses in a hospital, and they could get a little stove of their own, special dishes were prepared for the worst patients; but there was no general system of providing dainty and suitable diet for the thousands in need of delicate food in home-like preparation.
The supplies coming from the generous people of the North occasioned great anxiety.
The surgeons forbade their distribution at the bedside of the patients, on the ground that something might be given which would endanger their lives or retard their recovery, and ordered them turned over to the commissary. Often supplies thus turned over failed to reach the sick or wounded.
It was under these trying circumstances that the plan of a system of special-diet kitchens came to me,—clearly and definitely, as a flash from the skies,—like a divine inspiration.
It was in December, 1863, that the thought came to me, and I hastened at once to put the plan into execution.
Everybody seemed to accept the plan with enthusiasm; and the Sanitary and Christian Commission, and the officers and surgeons of the army, all hastened to co-operate with me in inaugurating and accomplishing this great reform.
The plan in itself was very simple and practical, and was entirely satisfactory to all parties.
1. The food for those needing special diet was prescribed by the ward surgeons. A bill of fare was provided, with the name of the patient and the number of his bed, for every patient put on special diet; and on this bill the surgeon prescribed his diet by making a mark opposite the articles the patient was allowed. This plan gave the sick or wounded man a chance to express his own wants in regard to food, which was a great advantage.
2. These bills of fare were consolidated by the ward-master, and a copy sent to the superintendent of the special-diet kitchen, and the bills were returned to their places again. So with these consolidated lists before them, the managers of the special-diet kitchen knew just what to cook, and just the quantity.