Volunteer refreshment saloons.
Working in harmony with the organizations of the United States Sanitary commission and Christian commission (
qq.
v.), were houses of refreshment and temporary hospital accommodations furnished by the citizens of
Philadelphia.
That city lay in the channel of the great stream of volunteers from
New England after the call of the
President (April 15, 1861) for 75,000 men. The soldiers, crossing
New Jersey, and the
Delaware River at
Camden, were landed at the foot of Washington Avenue,
Philadelphia, where, wearied and hungry, they often vainly sought for sufficient refreshments in the bakeries and groceries in the neighborhood before entering the cars for
Washington.
One morning the wife of a mechanic living near, commiserating the situation of some of the soldiers who had just arrived, went with her
coffee-pot and a cup and distributed its contents among them.
That generous hint was the germ of a wonderful system of beneficent relief to the passing soldiers which was immediately developed in that city.
Some benevolent women living in the vicinity of this landing-place of the volunteers imitated their patriotic sister, and a few of them formed themselves into a committee for the regular distribution of coffee on the arrival of soldiers.
Gentlemen in the neighborhood interested themselves in procuring other supplies, and for a few days these were dispensed under the shade of trees in front of a cooper-shop at the corner of Otsego Street and Washington Avenue. Then the coopershop (belonging to
William Cooper) was used.
The citizens of
Philadelphia became deeply interested in the benevolent work, and provided ample means to carry it on. Whole regiments were supplied.
The cooper-shop was too small to accommodate the daily increasing number of soldiers, and another place of refreshment was opened on the corner of Washington Avenue and Swanson Street, in a building formerly used as a boat-house and rigger's loft.
Two volunteer refreshment-saloon committees were formed, and known respectively as the
Cooper-shop and the
Union.
They worked in harmony and accomplished wonderful results all through the period of the war. In these labors the women of
Philadelphia bore a large share.
The citizens of
Philadelphia so generously supplied these committees with means that during the war almost 1,200,000 Union soldiers received a bountiful meal at their saloons.
In the
Union Saloon 750,000 soldiers were fed; 40,000 were acommodated with a night's lodging; 15,000 refugees and freedmen were cared for, and employment found for them; and in the hospital attached the wounds of almost 20,000 soldiers were dressed.
The refreshment-tables and the sick-room were attended by women.
At all hours of the night, when a little signal-gun was fired, these self-sacrificing women would repair to their post of duty.
