Correspondence of the State Register.
CAIRO, Ill., April 6th, 1862
Allow me, through the medium of your paper, to inform the ladies of your section who are sending their hospital supplies to me, that I am receiving a large amount of supplies and disbursing them to the best of my abilities.
The hospital of the 1st Iowa Cavalry no at Sedalia is very comfortable and fully supplied. The wants of our sick and wounded down in Arkansas have been met and permanent arrangements made for their comfort in future, and I am now on my way to Pittsburg and Savannah with a heavy lot of hospital supplies to meet the wants of our sick up the Tennessee River.
We have now at Pittsburg Landing eleven regiments, viz: the 2d, 3d, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th.
Nearly all the Regimental Hospitals have been broken up and our sick are now quartered in miserable Post Hospitals at Savannah or on Hospital Steamers lying at Pittsburg, nine miles above.
There is a vast array at Pittsburg, nearly two hundred thousand including Buell’s forces, where are now mostly there, and the sick are numbered by thousands.
The provisions made for their comfort are very limited and the supplies of hospital comforts are altogether insufficient. Their food is of an inferior quality; they being subsisted mainly on dry bread and coffee, and their bread is oftentimes hard and mouldy.
This state of things exists partly on account of an inability to procure suitable articles of food in that barren and hostile country, but mainly on account of the inefficiency and heartlessness of those having charge of them.
All their crackers have to be obtained at Cairo or St. Louis, and oftentimes there is great neglect manifested.
Fresh butter, eggs, soda crackers, and fruits are very desirable for the convalescent patients, but they cannot be obtained in that section, and little effort is made to procure them elsewhere.
There is a great lack of Surgeons and Nurses, and many of our men die for want of attention.
Goods for the present may be directed to me at this place, care of Dr. Douglass, who will promptly forward them to me.
Letters may be addressed to me at Cairo.
The goods I now have on hand, will meet their wants for the present unless a battle occurs, which is now imminent. The struggle will no doubt be a most terrible one, and we ought to be fully prepared for it.
Very truly yours,
ANNIE WITTENMYER,
Cor. Sec’y. and Gen’l. Ag’t. S.A.S.
– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862
CAIRO, Ill., April 6th, 1862
Allow me, through the medium of your paper, to inform the ladies of your section who are sending their hospital supplies to me, that I am receiving a large amount of supplies and disbursing them to the best of my abilities.
The hospital of the 1st Iowa Cavalry no at Sedalia is very comfortable and fully supplied. The wants of our sick and wounded down in Arkansas have been met and permanent arrangements made for their comfort in future, and I am now on my way to Pittsburg and Savannah with a heavy lot of hospital supplies to meet the wants of our sick up the Tennessee River.
We have now at Pittsburg Landing eleven regiments, viz: the 2d, 3d, 6th, 7th, 8th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th.
Nearly all the Regimental Hospitals have been broken up and our sick are now quartered in miserable Post Hospitals at Savannah or on Hospital Steamers lying at Pittsburg, nine miles above.
There is a vast array at Pittsburg, nearly two hundred thousand including Buell’s forces, where are now mostly there, and the sick are numbered by thousands.
The provisions made for their comfort are very limited and the supplies of hospital comforts are altogether insufficient. Their food is of an inferior quality; they being subsisted mainly on dry bread and coffee, and their bread is oftentimes hard and mouldy.
This state of things exists partly on account of an inability to procure suitable articles of food in that barren and hostile country, but mainly on account of the inefficiency and heartlessness of those having charge of them.
All their crackers have to be obtained at Cairo or St. Louis, and oftentimes there is great neglect manifested.
Fresh butter, eggs, soda crackers, and fruits are very desirable for the convalescent patients, but they cannot be obtained in that section, and little effort is made to procure them elsewhere.
There is a great lack of Surgeons and Nurses, and many of our men die for want of attention.
Goods for the present may be directed to me at this place, care of Dr. Douglass, who will promptly forward them to me.
Letters may be addressed to me at Cairo.
The goods I now have on hand, will meet their wants for the present unless a battle occurs, which is now imminent. The struggle will no doubt be a most terrible one, and we ought to be fully prepared for it.
Very truly yours,
ANNIE WITTENMYER,
Cor. Sec’y. and Gen’l. Ag’t. S.A.S.
– Published in the Daily State Register, Des Moines Iowa, Saturday, April 12, 1862
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