At Fort Myer nearly four hundred patients were suffering with typhoid and no provision existed for preparing a special diet. Canned soup was heated up and served to those just leaving a strictly milk diet, and the so-called chicken broth, which was served wholly unsatisfactorily to both physicians and nurses. When the diet kitchen was completed, beef, mutton and chicken broth, made fresh daily in the manner best calculated to bring out the nutritive value of the meat, were prepared. Mutton broth was made from hind quarters only, and beef broth from solid meat, with no waste. Albumen, so necessary to repair the waste of the system by fevers, was supplied in the palatable form of rich custards, as ice cream and blanc mange—gelatine made into jellies with port and sherry wines—and albumen jelly, all nourishing to the irritated linings.
During the month of September from the seventh instant, 55c orders, averaging fifteen portions each, or 8250 portions, were filled in the diet kitchen. Physicians, nurses and patients unite in saying the aid they secured from this work is of inestimable value, not only in saving lives, but in hastening the recovery of all. Major Davis, as the surgeon in charge, has expressed his high appreciation of the good results obtained by establishing the kitchen, and the methods pursued in conducting it.
In response to suggestions from the general committee in New York, a special committee was sent to Fortress Monroe to meet the first wounded, who came up from the battlefields of El Caney, San Juan and Guasimas. The surgeon in charge, Dr. DeWitt, stated their immediate needs, and supplies were sent one day after they were called for, consisting in part of 500 pairs of pajamas, twenty-five pairs of crutches, 200 pairs of slippers, 350 yards of rubber sheeting, large quantities of antiseptic dressings, five dozen gallons of whiskey and brandy, 200 cans of soup, granite-ware basins, pitchers, dishes, etc.
Several other visits were made to this point, resulting in the employment of additional trained nurses, with proper provision for their maintenance. Arrangements were also made on behalf of the general committee for supplying ice for the use of troops on board the transports going south, and also for the sick on their journey northward. Mr. Bickford was afterward designated to take charge of the work of the Red Cross at this point, so further work on the part of our committee was unnecessary.
The branch of the work, which has been really one of the most difficult to conduct, was the looking after soldiers, who passed through the city mostly from Southern to Northern camps, and those who were going home. There was such a general demand on the part of the men for coffee, bread and other supplies, and it was so hard to limit our service to the sick soldiers alone, that we soon determined to feed not only the convalescent, but all who were hungry. Soldiers from the following organizations were fed and supplied, the well men receiving bread and butter sandwiches:
Parts of the 5th and 6th Artillery, 25th Infantry, two troops of 1st Cavalry, 12th, 16th and 17th Infantry, portions of the 8th, 9th and 10th Cavalry, all United States troops, and the following volunteer forces: 22d Kansas, 3d and 4th Missouri, 1st Maine, 2d Tennessee, 7th Illinois, 1st, 8th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th and 17th Pennsylvania, 1st Connecticut, 5th Maryland, 2d, 3d, 8th, 9th, 14th and 65th New York, 1st and 2d New Jersey, two brigades of United States Signal Corps, and detachments from a number of other regiments, in all about 40,000 men.
Very frequently the committee furnished handkerchiefs and soap, as well as reading matter. The sick were given soup and milk packed in ice, fruit, medicines, etc. Forty-five were removed from the trains and taken to the hospitals in Washington. We used, in this connection, not only the services of trained nurses in the employ of the Red Cross, but Dr. Bayne was detailed by the War Department, and rendered most efficient service, as he was always ready and willing to do everything in his power, day or night, for the relief of the sick.
The War Department ordered for the use of the committee the erection of two tents in close proximity to our rooms, which were at 915 Maryland Avenue. One of these tents was filled with fully equipped cots, on which the invalids were placed while waiting the arrival of ambulances, and the other was used as a general depot for supplies. The War Department paid for the bread we used in this work, and, also, for 4346 loaves furnished to the Pension Office Relief Committee, which was engaged in the same kind of work. Many donations of food and material were received, and as stated, nearly forty thousand men were fed, and how some of them did eat not only as if they were making up for the fasts of the past, but for any which might occur in the future.
Mrs. James Tanner had charge of this work, which was very exacting, and she had been appointed a committee to secure reading matter for the different camps, before the Red Cross Committee was organized, and collected several wagon loads of books, magazines, and other periodicals, which were sent to Camp Alger, Fort Myer, Point Sheridan, Fort Washington, Chickamauga, Tampa and Santiago. Distribution of this reading matter was also made at the Red Cross quarters at 915 Maryland Avenue and handed to the soldiers who passed through the city on trains.
All bills for ice furnished to Point Sheridan, Va., Washington Barracks, and to the Diet Kitchen at Fort Myer have been paid by the Red Cross Ice Plant Auxiliary of New York, which also furnished the large ice chests for the latter point.