Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Massachusetts in the Army and Navy during the war of 1861-1865, vol. 2

‘ [592] that Massachusetts had her own sons in the field, mainly in the departments of the South and of the Gulf and in the armies of the Potomac, and that it was improbable that a dollar of all the large contributions from Boston would benefit one Massachusetts soldier, no one can fail to appreciate the disinterested patriotism and benevolence which helped the western commission over many a hopeless emergency.’

One Boston woman, Mrs. Thomas Lamb, set apart a ‘Missouri room’ in her house, for the reception of hospital supplies of every kind. She notified all her friends of her readiness to become the almoner of their patriotic gifts, assuring them that money was as acceptable as supplies. As fast as boxes were filled she forwarded them to St. Louis, until her shipments of goods exceeded $17,000, while in money she forwarded as much more.

Miss Maria R. Mann, a near relative of the Hon. Horace Mann, first secretary of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, left her pleasant New England home during the first year of the war, and went to St. Louis to aid in the work of the western commission. She remained till near the close of the war, engaged in most arduous work in the hospitals, and among the colored people and white refugees of Helena, Ark. She was sustained in her work by the contributions of New England women, mostly in Massachusetts, who not only supplied her with money, but with several thousand dollars' worth of garments, material for clothing, furniture, medicines, stoves, etc., Rev. Dr. Eliot at St. Louis acting as treasurer of a special fund for this purpose.

‘The Boston Sewing Circle’ was organized in Boston, November, 1862, and maintained a membership to the end of the war of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred workers. The sewing circle raised $21,778 in money,—about $4,000 of it for the white refugees in western Tennessee,—and it made up 21,592 articles of clothing, flannel and cotton.

In eight months the women of Massachusetts forwarded to the western commission 223 large cases of sanitary stores, miscellaneous in character but of the very best quality.

In November, 1863, an appeal was sent to Massachusetts from the western commission in behalf of the freedmen depending on St. Louis for aid, and who were in extreme destitution. Contributions amounting in value to over $30,000 were promptly forwarded, consisting of clothing, material for clothing, shoes and other necessary articles. In addition, $13,000 in money were collected in Boston for the same purpose. The names of men and women are intermingled in the list of donors on this occasion, and a small portion of the supplies came from other New England States than Massachusetts.

On one occasion, when some special need demanded it, the sum of $9,000 in money was collected in Boston and sent forward to the commission in St. Louis. A few months later, when there was desperate fighting in the south-west and along the Mississippi, and St. Louis seemed destined to become a city of hospitals, as boat after boat unloaded its freight of wounded men on the levees, an appeal was sent broadcast for help to meet the emergency. Rev. Dr. Eliot of St. Louis appealed to Boston in behalf of the western commission, and the city responded generously, and with promptness, in a gift of $50,000.