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Creator
United States Sanitary Commission
Call number
MssCol 18592
Physical description
4.33 linear feet (7 boxes, 7 volumes)
Preferred Citation

United States Sanitary Commission records. Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Sponsor
The conservation, arrangement and description of the collection was made possible by generous funding from the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust.
Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates (ECBA) was officially organized on April 1, 1863 as a department of the United States Sanitary Commission’s special relief service. It provided transportation, lodging, clothing, meals, medical attention, and aid in obtaining pay for those soldiers in the Boston area who were either discharged, on furlough, sick, or disabled, and in need of assistance. The Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives, 1863-1866, document the work of Executive Committee secretaries John S. Blatchford and James Barnard to coordinate and report on the Committee's special relief services, including their coordination with the New England Women’s Auxiliary Association and other relief organizations, and the work conducted by the superintendent and his staff at the office’s relief rooms. Records include correspondence, reports, meeting files, registers identifying services provided to over 50,000 servicemen, additional notes on relief provided, a Hospital Directory register, and a surgical and medical record of soldiers receiving treatment under ECBA’s care. Two scrapbooks of newsclippings provide further information on USSC activities in Boston.

Biographical/historical information

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates (ECBA) was officially organized on April 1, 1863 as a department of the United States Sanitary Commission’s special relief service. The Executive Committee provided transportation, lodging, clothing, meals, medical attention, and aid in obtaining pay for those soldiers in the Boston area who were either discharged, on furlough, sick, or disabled, and in need of assistance.

When the USSC was established in June 1861, it was administered by an executive board that supervised all USSC operations and a standing committee composed of six members who controlled USSC affairs when the board was not in session. These two committees were supported by influential men in communities throughout the United States, known as associate members, who assisted the USSC in developing local supply organizations to gather and forward supplies to soldiers in need. Associate members were asked to promote the establishment of auxiliary associations, to help direct the work of those that had already formed, and to help manage supply depots in larger cities. The associate members in Boston worked to accomplish those goals, and were able to transfer the supply work to the New England Women’s Auxiliary Association (NEWAA), which was organized in November 1861.

In March 1863, Dr. J. Foster Jenkins, associate secretary of the USSC, wrote a letter to the associate members in Boston encouraging them to organize themselves in order to expand the Commission’s special relief work into Boston. Boston associates met on March 9, 1863 at the NEWAA office on 22 Summer Street in Boston to address Jenkins’s letter. As a result, the Executive Committee of Boston Associates was established to serve as the representative body of the Sanitary Commission in its local relief work in Boston, and to act in an advisory role concerning the proper organization of services for soldiers who were disabled, on furlough, or permanently discharged from the army.

The Executive Committee was made up of H. B. Rogers, James M. Barnard, John S. Blatchford, and J. Huntington Wolcott. Rogers was designated the chairman and Blatchford became the secretary and treasurer of the Executive Committee of Boston Associates. As secretary, Blatchford was responsible for the management of special relief services in Boston and worked with other members of the Executive Committee and the USSC, army officials, and others to coordinate supplies, transportation, and other services for soldiers. He also reported at monthly meetings of the Committee and compiled statistical statements and other materials from the superintendent’s reports showing the comparative results for the special relief services they provided, and prepared quarterly and annual reports for publication.

Blatchford served in these positions until May 1865, when he was appointed the general secretary of the USSC. At this time, Barnard took over as secretary and Wolcott served as treasurer until the office closed in April 1866. Wolcott was also referred to as the treasurer of the Boston Branch of the USSC. (References to the “New England Branch” and the “Boston Branch” are found the records; they may be colloquial names.) All funds needed to support ECBA’s special relief work were to be drawn from the treasury that Wolcott oversaw.

On April 1, 1863, the Executive Committee of Boston Associates, which referred to their work as the Special Relief Service of the Commission in Boston, officially opened its doors at 76 Kingston Street in Boston. Following the brief tenure of E. B. Phillips, Charles F. Mudge served as superintendent of this office, and with the aid of assistants was responsible for the daily operations of the relief rooms, which included a dormitory and a sick ward. NEWAA provided bedding and other necessary supplies needed by soldiers who passed through their rooms. Mudge was also in charge of correspondence concerning individual special relief cases, maintaining accounts of relief monies, documenting the individuals served and the kind of help given, and preparing weekly and monthly reports for the secretary. He remained in this position until November 1865 when he was replaced by Samuel E. Mudge.

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates provided aid to soldiers in the Boston area by offering lodging, meals, clothes, medical attention, and transportation to soldiers on their way back to their camps or their homes during their furloughs or after being discharged from the army. Special relief services also included helping soldiers with reenlistments, obtaining their back pay and pensions, arranging their papers and helping to overturn any unfair accusations of desertion. In August 1863, ECBA organized a hospital car service to transport sick and disabled soldiers between Boston and New York. There were two cars appropriated for this service which were equipped with beds, seating, medical and supply closets, cooking supplies, and hospital clothing. One of these trains left Boston or New York each day to head to the other city.

When the Civil War came to an end in April 1865, the Executive Committee of Boston Associates continued their special relief work to serve the large number of soldiers returning home. By October 1, 1865, ECBA had ceased its hospital car service and closed their rooms at 76 Kingston Street. They then took up a small office at 53 ½ Summer Street in Boston, which they shared with the local office of the USSC’s Army and Navy Claim Agency. Here they provided temporary aid to resident soldiers and their families, and assisted soldiers who came into Boston during the winter of 1865-1866. The Executive Committee of Boston Associates brought their affairs and services to a close on April 1, 1866.

Scope and arrangement

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives, 1863-1866, document the efforts of this committee to provide special relief services to soldiers in the Boston area. The records illustrate the work of Executive Committee secretaries John S. Blatchford and James Barnard to coordinate and report on these services, as well as the work conducted by the superintendent and his staff at the office’s relief rooms, where transportation, lodging, clothing, meals, medical care, and aid in obtaining pay was provided for soldiers in need of temporary assistance, whether discharged, furloughed, sick, or disabled.

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives comprise three series: I. Secretary’s records, II. Superintendent’s records, and III. Scrapbooks.

The secretary’s records primarily reflect the activities of John S. Blatchford through correspondence, Executive Committee meeting files, statements, and miscellaneous documents. Blatchford’s incoming correspondence was received from USSC staff members, members of the New England Women’s Auxiliary Association, individuals affiliated with other relief associations, state officials, army officers, merchants, and soldiers and their relatives. Letters and telegrams concern the operations and policies of the USSC, orders and requests from USSC officers, ECBA’s special relief services, the work of other relief organizations, and the preparation and publication of reports. Outgoing correspondence is addressed to similar parties. Letters written to and by James M. Barnard and Charles F. Mudge are also found within the secretary’s correspondence. Also present are Blatchford’s reference files for Executive Committee meetings; statements classifying the type and amount of special relief services provided by the Executive Committee, and expenses for same; and miscellaneous documents. These include employee rosters, accounts, lists of permanent members and associate members, memoranda, and items from Barnard, Blatchford and Samuel E. Mudge.

Superintendent’s records include correspondence, record books, reports, notes on relief to soldiers and other materials documenting the work of Charles F. Mudge and Samuel F. Mudge, and the services provided under their direction at the relief rooms. Incoming correspondence generally concerns the status of individual soldiers under their care, and requests from soldiers and their relatives for assistance. Also included are receipts regarding supplies purchased by ECBA for relief work. Their outgoing correspondence, of a similar nature, also includes letters by Barnard and Blatchford.

The superintendent’s record books and reports convey the scope and magnitude of special relief work performed by this organization. Registers of relief to soldiers identify over 50,000 individuals who passed through their rooms, and the type of aid provided to them. Notes on relief to soldiers highlight the cases of particular soldiers listed in these registers as well as family members helped through their work; some of these stories were used in published reports. Similar services are reflected in a Hospital Directory register documenting inquiries from soldiers’ families and friends concerning their condition or whereabouts, and a surgical and medical record of soldiers receiving treatment under ECBA’s care. Administrative tasks are represented in the superintendent’s weekly and monthly reports on services provided, as well as a cash book. Also present are a small amount of soldiers’ military and personal papers, and ephemera.

Lastly, two scrapbooks contain newspaper clippings, circulars, and printed reports regarding the work of ECBA, NEWAA, USSC, and major developments in the war.

During the USSC’s 1878 arrangement some items, including journals, special relief volumes and receipts, a laundry account book, and a volume listing supplies drawn from NEWAA, were identified as destroyed and presumably discarded. Also at that time, financial records and reports that were originally part of this record group were relocated to the USSC Accounts and Vouchers record group (MssCol 18820). As a result, a small amount of records grouped and numbered I-XVI by John S. Blatchford at an earlier date are no longer complete or in order.

The United States Sanitary Commission records. Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives are arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Donated by the United States Sanitary Commission to the Astor Library, 1879

Processing information

Compiled by Elizabeth Delmage, 2013

Revised December 2013

Related Material

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Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

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