THE SPECIAL-DIET KITCHEN WORK.
NO part of the army service was so defective, during the first two years of the war, as the cooking department in the United States government hospitals.
Few of the men employed as cooks in these hospitals were trained or skilled; most of them had obtained their knowledge of cookery after being assigned to duty, under most unfavorable circumstances, and without the proper facilities for doing their work.
One general kitchen provided the food for all—the sick, the wounded, and the dying, as well as the nurses and convalescents.
Where there were women nurses in a hospital, and they could get a little stove of their own, special dishes were prepared for the worst patients; but there was no general system of providing dainty and suitable diet for the thousands in need of delicate food in home-like preparation.
The supplies coming from the generous people of the North occasioned great anxiety.
The surgeons forbade their distribution at the bedside of the patients, on the ground that something might be given which would endanger their lives or retard their recovery, and ordered them turned over to the commissary. Often supplies thus turned over failed to reach the sick or wounded.
It was under these trying circumstances that the plan of a system of special-diet kitchens came to me,—clearly and definitely, as a flash from the skies,—like a divine inspiration.
It was in December, 1863, that the thought came to me, and I hastened at once to put the plan into execution.
Everybody seemed to accept the plan with enthusiasm; and the Sanitary and Christian Commission, and the officers and surgeons of the army, all hastened to co-operate with me in inaugurating and accomplishing this great reform.
The plan in itself was very simple and practical, and was entirely satisfactory to all parties.
1. The food for those needing special diet was prescribed by the ward surgeons. A bill of fare was provided, with the name of the patient and the number of his bed, for every patient put on special diet; and on this bill the surgeon prescribed his diet by making a mark opposite the articles the patient was allowed. This plan gave the sick or wounded man a chance to express his own wants in regard to food, which was a great advantage.
2. These bills of fare were consolidated by the ward-master, and a copy sent to the superintendent of the special-diet kitchen, and the bills were returned to their places again. So with these consolidated lists before them, the managers of the special-diet kitchen knew just what to cook, and just the quantity.
3. The food thus ordered was prepared in the special-diet kitchen, which, although under separate management, was a part of the hospital, and as completely under the control of the authorities as any other part of the hospital.
The kitchens were fitted up with ranges and other suitable conveniences, and were under the management of suitable ladies employed by the surgeons in charge. A storeroom conveniently near or adjoining was provided, where the commuted rations of soldiers put on special diet were stored, also the supplies furnished by the Sanitary and Christian Commissions; and the woman in charge of the special-diet kitchen carried the keys.
4. These dietary nurses werenot cooks; they only superintended the work. Many of those who worked in these kitchens were soldiers who were somewhat disabled, or convalescent soldiers who were not able to join their regiments.
In large hospitals, where one thousand or fifteen hundred were furnished meals three times a day, the work was divided up, and each man had his part of the work, and soon became an expert in it.There were in the large kitchens from twenty-five to thirty men required to do the work.
The food thus systematically prepared under the watchful eyes of women competent to govern such a force and direct the work, was brought to the bedside of the patients in home-like preparation.
No mistake would likely be made in the distribution, as each patient had at the head of his bed the list of articles of food prescribed by the surgeon of his ward.
The first kitchen was opened at Cumberland Hospital, Nashville, Tenn.
The Christian Commission of Pittsburg, Pa., sent me the lumber to build a kitchen, storeroom, and a ladies’ room, and two of the largest ranges in the market.
Mary E. Moorhead, a wealthy lady of that city, daughter of Hon. J. K. Moorhead, at that time a member of Congress, and one of Pittsburg’s most honored citizens, and Hannah Shaw, who has since distinguished herself in missionary work in China, took charge of that kitchen. Miss Moorhead has since the close of the war devoted herself to benevolent work.
The change wrought in that hospital was so marvellous that all the leading surgeons from Louisville to Chattanooga were anxious for the establishment of special-diet kitchens in connection with their hospitals. Many of them could notbelieve the wonderful stories circulated as to the great reform wrought in Cumberland Hospital, and, like the Queen of Sheba, came long distances to see for themselves as to the truth of the matter, and, like her, confessed that “the half had not been told them.”
I was most generously sustained in this work by the Christian Commission, who turned all their supplies into these kitchens, and paid all the expenses of this service. I was chosen superintendent of the special-diet kitchen work, which rapidly extended all along the lines from Vicksburg to Petersburg.
The surgeons accepting this help, agreed to employ the women selected by me, and allow them to have charge of the supplies furnished for use in the special-diet kitchens, from the government and the Sanitary and Christian Commissions. The surgeons had charge of the kitchen, appointed these women, and directed their work, as in all parts of their hospitals.
There was no opposition to this work. Mr. Lincoln, Secretary Stanton, Surgeon-General Barnes, and Assistant-Surgeon-General Wood, gave me their indorsement and all the aid I needed. It soon became an admitted fact that thousands of lives were being saved by this supply of better food, which many of them needed more than they did medicine.
Surgeon-General Barnes became so enthusiasticover the plan that he appointed a commission of United States army surgeons to consider it, with a view of adopting it and ingrafting it upon the United States general hospital system.
I was invited by the surgeon-general to meet with them. The committee received me most graciously at their regular sittings in Washington, D. C., and listened with great respect to my explanations; and after carefully considering my plans, adopted them as a part of the regular United States hospital system.
To give some idea of the magnitude of the work, out of over one hundred special-diet kitchens established by me, I give the amount of food in rations issued from sixteen special-diet kitchens, a record of which I happen to have now on hand for February, 1865.
This was the regular bill of fare in all the special-diet kitchens. If any one of these articles could not be obtained, they were marked off. Turkey was only on the list occasionally. It will be seen by the great variety that the appetites of the patients were consulted. Nothing, however, was issued without it being ordered by the surgeon in attendance upon the patient.
Some of the articles furnished on the above list may seem unfit for sick men; but when we take into consideration that there were many wounded men who were allowed by the surgeons to eat anythingthey might choose, and others who were homesick, or hopelessly ill, or dying, who in the loneliness of suffering remembered and craved something because a kind mother’s hand had once prepared such dainties for them, it is no longer a matter of wonder.
And since the loved ones at home could not cheer them with their presence and love in their dark hours of suffering, it was a delightful task for these noble women to substitute home food and words of cheer.
It is the verdict of history that this system of special-diet kitchens saved thousands of lives. During the last eighteen months of the war, over two million rations were issued monthly from this long line of special-diet kitchens, established, many of them, almost under the guns.