After the first confusion incident to the establishment of the camp, the Red Cross extended its field to include a visit to the regimental hospitals, which were discovered to be in great need of food and equipment suitable for sick, particularly in the hospitals of the infantry divisions. The assistant agent, Dr. Brewer, and Mr. Samuel Parrish, of Southampton, N.Y., devoted themselves particularly to daily visits to the regiments, and were able to materially help the regimental surgeons in their discouraging work, hampered as they were by lack of medical stores and equipment.
The auxiliary for the maintenance of trained nurses sent to the camp Mrs. Willard, a dietary expert, who, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association, and with the assistance of Dr. Prescott, established diet kitchens in the various hospitals, and supplied the patients with such satisfactory diet that the government agreed to pay the expense of this part of the work.
Another branch of work was carried on by the Red Cross and which appealed particularly to the sick, which was an attempt made to answer, each day, inquiries from all parts of the country concerning men from whom their relatives and friends had heard nothing perhaps since the army left Cuba.
Another division of the work was that concerning the feeding of the sick and hungry men arriving on the transports. Dr. Magruder, the chief quarantine officer, gave much of his time to this part of the service, carrying continually in his boats stores of Red Cross provisions and delicacies with which he supplied those ships that were in quarantine and suffering most from lack of food. At the quarantine dock, where the sick men were landed, Captain Guilfoyle of the Ninth Cavalry rendered most efficient service in helping the sick, while at the same time enforcing the quarantine regulations.
At the railroad dock an important part of this work was carried on. There Dr. and Mrs. Valentine Mott were stationed day after day as the transports unloaded their men. Captain Edwards, of the First United States Cavalry, had already volunteered to aid and, by order of Major-General Young, he was permitted to have his men assist. Every regiment that landed stacked arms, and in single file passed by a tent, erected by the military officials, where each man was given a glass of milk, or a cup of beef tea, and in some instances the men volunteered the statement that they were too weak to have marched to the hospital, and could have gone no further but for this friendly help at the dock.
In the meantime, at the railway station, the men going on sick furlough frequently collapsed just before the departure of the train, or became faint through want of food. Here the Red Cross arranged that every sick man should be supplied with milk, and, where it was necessary, given a few ounces of whiskey, so as to enable him to continue his journey. The increasing number of furloughed men required the establishment of an emergency hospital near the railway station, and this was installed in two tents erected for the Red Cross by the army officers.
These tents at times sheltered for the night as many as twenty sick men who were unable to catch the train, and who would otherwise have been obliged to sit up in the station until morning. This work, and the emergency hospital, were under the charge of Miss Martha Draper.
Owing to the cheerful recognition given to the Red Cross, when the camp was first opened, due to the courtesy of Major-General Young, the Red Cross was able to enter into a far broader sphere of usefulness than would otherwise have been possible. We are also particularly indebted to Captain Chase, of the Third Cavalry, Captain Guilfoyle, of the Ninth Cavalry, and Captain Fuller, of the First Cavalry, for their constant endeavors to aid the representatives of the Red Cross in carrying out their work of supplementing the efforts of the government, to relieve the suffering and in ministering to the comfort of the men and officers of the Fifth Army Corps.