Comforts From Home On Sunday, August 15th, 2004, the Alta California Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission distributed their reproduction Comfort Bags to the Union Troops at Ft. Tejon, California.  These Comfort Bags were the result of several months work and the ladies of the Commission were very pleased to be able to present them to the men.

Two of the most illustrative period accounts that describe the contents of comfort bags are shared here. The passages clearly reveal both the contents of the bags and what they meant to the men who received them.

In every box was a good supply of stoutly made "comfort bags." A "comfort bag" usually contained a small needle-book, with a dozen stout needles in it, a well filled pinball, black and white thread, buttons, etc. These "little usefuls," as the boys called them, were invaluable to the handy fellows, who very often became skillful extempore tailors.

As whittling and woodcarving were among the prime amusements of the hospital, a jack-knife was added and generally a pair of scissors. Often a small Testament increased the value of the little bag, with the name and residence of the donor on the flyleaf.

If the comfort-bag contained no letter, with a stamped envelope, and blank sheet of paper added, its recipient was a little crestfallen. The stationary was rarely forgotten. Folded in the sleeves of shirts, tucked in pockets, wrapped in handkerchiefs, and rolled in socks, were envelopes with stamps affixed, containing blank sheets of notepaper and usually a pencil was added. The soldiers expressed their need of stationary in almost every letter they wrote. Most of the letters sent to the army contained stamped envelopes, and paper, for the men were without money so much of the time, that when the sutlers had stationary for sale at exorbitant prices the soldiers were unable to buy it.

William H. Reed, M.D.
Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac

W.V. Spencer, Boston, 1866

Every home influence which can be brought to bear upon a soldier's life in camp or hospital is needed to counteract the immoralities, the coarseness, and the manifold temptations with which they are surrounded. They derive pleasure from even a trifling remembrance, and the simplest gift is not without its influence. There was a distribution of "comfort bags," containing all the little conveniences which a soldier on the march or in the hospital is always glad to receive - needles, thread, pins, buttons, tape and yarn, together with little papers of pepper, ginger, cloves, even tea, and sugar, and tobacco; and in all my hospital experiences I have never seen anything which has given such real pleasure to the men. Those who were able to move gathered round the stoves in their wards, the cripples of all kinds crept up and sat up! on the adjoining beds, each waiting for his gift. As it was handed to him, he went to the bottom of it with the pleased curiosity of a little child searching the stocking for the gifts of Santa Claus on Christmas morning. "Look at that needle-book!" "Jolly! Heres a comb: Haven't had one since the Weldon Railroad!"

One little flaxen-haired lad, not yet sixteen, the skin of whose forehead was as white and transparent as an infant's yet very sick with typhoid fever, said to me, as he looked up holding feebly out his thread, and pins, and buttons, This will be my only Christmas present - it is so nice to be remembered."

The value of such gifts in their influence cannot be overestimated in rough army life, where each man has to look out for himself, and where he has everything to drive away the more softening influences of his home.

 

 

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Regimental Boxes

On August 20, 2006 the US Sanitary Commission - Alta California Branch made its 4th Annual Troop Presentation to the Union Brigade at Fort Tejon in California.  It was the culmination of a 7 month project, recreating crates of supplies representing what were actually on Commission supply lists which would have been sent to the men in field. During the war boxes of supplies were sent to local Commission Branches from ladies aid societies all over the North. These boxes were opened, repacked in a matter of hours and prepared for delivery to the men in the field by USSC wagons and agents.  The men would have been expected to distribute and share all the items in the boxes they received.  In August 2006 the Union troops at Fort Tejon in California had the opportunity to do the same. Each unit received its own crate.  Included in these crates were hand knitted and crocheted scarves made by the ladies of the USSC.

 

 

Some of the items in our boxes were:

ussanitarycommission@yahoo.com
1/21/2007