use it in securing the right of colonization and in the payment of the necessary expenses of removal.1

Under the provisions of the colonization law one person exiled himself in 1862; in 1863 the sum of $28,420 was expended, and in 1864 this amount was increased by $9,809.93, making a total expenditure of $38,329.93 out of appropriations aggregating $600,000. It was quite evident that the dependent freedmen preferred to continue dependent on the Government that had freed them rather than to seek new homes in countries where they would have to look out for themselves. Therefore it was necessary to make special provisions for the aged, the orphans, and the sick. For the aged and the sick the Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum was established. The National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children was also the outgrowth of the conditions described.2

The Freedmen's Bureau doubtless had its origin in an interview held in January, 1865, by Gen. W. T. Sherman and Secretary Stanton with the representatives of the colored men of the coast region of Georgia and South Carolina, as a result of which interview certain islands and rice lands were set apart for the settlement of negroes freed by the war, and Gen. R. Saxton was made inspector of settlements and plantations to carry out the schemes of colonization embodied in General Sherman's special orders, No. 15, dated January 16, 1865.3

1 Stat. L., vol. 12, pp. 378, 582.

2 The Freedmen's Hospital is an outgrowth of the late civil war. During and after the war large numbers of freed people drifted into this city and remained here. Many of them were chronic invalids, insane, idiotic, etc., and required medical attendance. The local authorities refused to provide for them, and the Freedmen's Hospital was established for that purpose.

During the existence of the Freedmen's Bureau, of which Dr. Robert Reyburn was the chief medical officer, 56 hospitals and 48 dispensaries were established at various points in the Southern States. During the period of "reconstruction" all of them were turned over to the local authorities of the Southern States by Chief Medical Officer Reyburn except the one located at Richmond, Va. At this point so many of the freed sick, crippled, and idiotic congregated the city authorities of Richmond refused to care for them, and they were brought to this city and provided for by the General Government in the Freedmen's Hospital.-Dr. Busey's Reminiscences, p. 218.

3The advance of our armies had brought within our lines great numbers of negroes, formerly slaves, and individuals and associations interested in their welfare pressed on Congress the importance of a special department in the Government charged with the duty of aiding and protecting them during the transition period. The House passed, March 1, 1864, a bill, reported by Eliot of Massachusetts, which established a freedmen's bureau under the War Department. Sumner's committee, to which it was referred in the Senate, reported a substitute, which placed it under the Treasury Department, already charged with abandoned lands in the insurrectionary districts, which were at the time, or likely to be hereafter, largely occupied by the freedmen. Sumner pressed it with his characteristic pertinacity and it was

*

carried June 28.

*

*

*

*

In February, 1865, a committee on conference reported a bill creating an independent "Department of Freedmen and Abandoned Lands." This passed the House, but Sumner was unable to carry it in the Senate, where Hale

INFLUX OF FREEDMEN TO WASHINGTON.

63

The march of events, however, brought the war to a close more speedily than was anticipated by General Sherman and the Secretary of War; and before the fall of Richmond Congress was forced to establish the Bureau of Freedmen, Refugees, and Abandoned Lands, and had committed to the new establishment the freedmen who had been wards first of the War and afterwards of the Treasury Department. The Bureau was attached to the War Department; and inasmuch as no appropriation was made to carry out the provisions of the law, Mr. Stanton solved the difficulty by assigning army officers, providing buildings then in the possession of the Government for military purposes, and furnishing them by requisitions on the Quartermaster's Department. In May, 1865, the President appointed Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, then in command of the Army of the Tennessee, to be the head of the Bureau, with the title of Commissioner.1

General Howard appointed ten assistant commissioners, with one exception all army officers in actual service. For the District of Columbia Bvt. Brig. Gen. John Eaton, jr.,2 was selected. Surg. C. W. Homer, 3 the chief medical officer of the Bureau, had general supervision over all medical matters connected with the freedmen, and the instructions were to make the medical department self-supporting so far as possible. The breaking up of the old plantation system, the frequent expulsion of the aged, sick, and infirm from the plantations by their former masters, the flocking of the freedmen to cities and military posts greatly increased the sickness and mortality among them.

When, in 1862, a large number of freedmen and refugees poured into Washington, Dr. Daniel Breed called the attention of the Secretary of War to the importance of having some hospital where the sick contrabands could be treated; and he obtained authority to open a hospital in some rooms on Capitol Hill. Subsequently this work was moved to a piece of ground on the square bounded by Twelfth and Thirteenth and R and S streets. A company of soldiers under command of a Captain Barker had been encamped there, and the place was then known as Camp Barker. There the hospital continued until the winter of 1864. of New Hampshire and Lane of Indiana joined Grimes in opposition. On the last day of the session another committee of conference agreed on a bill which placed the Bureau in the War Department, limited its term to one year after the war, and reduced its scope. In this form it passed without debate or division, and was one of the last acts approved by Mr. Lincoln. Gen. O. O. Howard was appointed Commissioner. The Bureau became a distinctive part of Republican policy, and a year later it was found necessary to enlarge its powers and strike out the limitation of its term. The Bureau was maintained till January 1, 1869, and did good service as “a bridge from slavery to freedom."-Edward L. Pierce's Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, vol. iv, pp. 178, 179. See also Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, vol. iii, pp. 455-504.

1 The American Annual Cyclopædia, 1865, 1866, 1867.

2 General Eaton was relieved by Brig. Gen. J. S. Fullerton December 4, 1865, the latter was relieved by Brig. Gen. C. H, Howard February 7, 1866.

3 Surg. L. A. Edwards succeeded in 1866.

and

Dr. Breed resigned, and Maj. A. T. Augusta was appointed in his stead. The latter was succeeded in 1864 by Acting Asst. Surg. William P. Powell. In May, 1864, Dr. C. B. Purvis was appointed hospital dispensary steward under Dr. Powell. In August, 1864, being prostrated with typhoid fever, Dr. Purvis obtained his discharge, and returned to the North. He afterwards recovered, returned to the Cleveland Medical College, graduated, and was appointed acting assistant surgeon of the United States Army, under Medical Director Abbott.

During the winter of 1864 Camp Barker was razed to the ground, and hospital buildings were erected at the intersection of Vermont avenue and Fourteenth and M streets, where the residence of Senator Justin M. Morrill now stands. In August, 1865, the hospital was transferred to the buildings known as Campbell Hospital, now the present site of the Le Droit Park. These buildings would accommodate 1,500 patients. The major portion of the buildings were used as quarters for freedmen and refugees, under the control of the Freedmen's Bureau. The hospital was in charge of Assist. Surg. Patrick Glennan. His immediate assistants were Drs. William P. Ellis and A. P. Abbott, two colored men. Dr. Purvis was assigned to attend to the freedmen and refugees who were quartered in different parts of the city, and to hunt up the smallpox cases and transfer them to what was known as the Kalorama Hospital. He was transferred from Medical Director Abbott to the Freedmen's Bureau, under Medical Director Edmunds, in August, 1865.

The Freedmen's Bureau erected new buildings on a plot of ground north of Campbell Hospital, on part of the farm of Mr. Smith. They were completed in 1868, and patients transferred from Campbell Hospital to the new institution, which is the present Freedmen's Hospital.

The general supervision of all the medical work of the Bureau in the District of Columbia was in charge of Dr. Robert Reyburn,1 who reported that for 1866 fourteen medical officers were on duty in his division. The cities of Washington and Georgetown were divided into five districts, and an acting assistant surgeon was assigned to each to attend patients at their homes. An extra diet kitchen, under the charge of ladies who gave their services, provided food for those who were sick at home. In the District 22,798 patients were treated, of whom 21,239 were pronounced cured and 752 died. The average mortality was 33 in 1,000.

1 The Freedmen's Bureau had three hospitals-one in Washington, one at the Freedmen's Village, under the charge of Dr. M. Stovell, and L'Ouverture, at Alexandria, in charge of Dr. Lewis Heard. Both doctors were acting assistant surgeons in the Army. Five contract surgeons were also employed to attend freedmen and refugees at their homes in the cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, and in the Freedmen's Village at Arlington. They were Drs. H. N. Howard, A. C. Tabor, J. H. Bushnell, C. B. Purvis, and Washington Kilmer. (Toner's Medical Register, 1867.)