91st PA--Sanitary Commission

Sanitary Commission

[for an introduction to the Commission, see 'United States Sanitary Commission' (in Wikipedia, accessed 22 April 2013)]

Robert Simpson (A) died in the Sanitary Commission Home in Washington, DC. He entered the Home on 20 March 1863, the day after he was discharged, and died three days later. His mother's pension file includes a letter from the Sanitary Commission, replying to a letter of 10 April from Mr + Mrs Simpson. When Robert died, he had his discharge and other papers, as well as $144.75, which the Sanitary Commission was sending to Robert's parents. The letter stresses that they collect the money without any expense to the soldier and will therefore forward it to the parents 'if you will write and specify in what way you will choose to have it sent'. The usual way to send it was 'by draft to the order of the soldier or if he be deceased previously to the parents or heirs' which was 'the safest and least expensive way'. They could also send it in bills by express. They would also forward articles from his knapsack when the parents let them know how to forward them. The letter seems to stress that they treated him well: 'At this "Home" he had everything comfortable, a nice bed, good food, and every want supplied and his remains were properly interred in the beautiful Government cemetery and the grave marked for identification'.

James McGuire (I) and John Walton (D) also died in the Sanitary Commission Home in Washington DC.

Andrew Brown (C) reported in a letter dated 31 May 1863 that someone from the 'Sanitary Committee' visited him in the Fifth Corps Hospital, and was going to arrange a leave for him, but it hadn't happened yet

W N Ashman, of the Protective War Claims Agency of the US Sanitary Commission, was the attorney for some applicants for pension, including Sarah Monteith, widow of John Monteith (E). When Alexander Earnest's widow applied for a pension, she initially used the Sanitary Commission. However, when she applied for the increase in pension for minor children under the act of 25 July 1866, the Pension Office noted a discrepancy in the reported dates of birth of her children. In the end, she ascribed the error to the "loose way of doing things at Sanitary Commission". (I do not know whether their error rate was higher than others'.)


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revised 27 Dec 14
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