e,
paying out over six thousand dollars for labor. Several other contracts
followed, particularly one for two hundred and sixty-one thousand yards
of bandages, for the rolling of which six hundred and fifty-two dollars
were paid. By these means and a judicious liberality, the Society
prevented a great amount of suffering in the families of soldiers. The
Benton Barracks Hospital, one of the largest in the West, to which
reference has been frequently made in this volume, had for its
surgeon-in-charge, that able surgeon and earnest philanthropist, Dr. Ira
Russell. Ever anxious to do all in his power for his patients, and
satisfied that more skilfully prepared special diet, and in greater
variety than the government supplies permitted would be beneficial to
them, he requested the ladies of the Union Aid Society, to occupy a
reception-room, storeroom, and kitchen at the hospital, in supplying
this necessity. Donations intended for the soldiers could be left at
these rooms for distribution; fruit, vegetables, and other offerings
could here be prepared and issued as required. Thus all outside bounty
could be systematized, and the surgeon could regulate the diet of the
entire hospital. Miss Bettie Broadhead, was the first superintendent of
these rooms which were subsequently enlarged and multiplied. Bills of
fare were distributed in each ward every morning; the soldiers wrote
their names and numbers opposite the special dishes they desired; the
surgeon examined the bills of fare, and if he approved, endorsed them.
At the appointed time the dishes distinctly labelled, arrived at their
destination in charge of an orderly. Nearly forty-eight thousand dishes
were issued in one year.

In the fall of 1863, the Society established a branch at Nashville,
Tennessee, Mrs. Barker and Miss H. A. Adams, going thither with five
hundred dollars and seventy-two boxes of stores. Miss Adams, though
surrounded with difficulties, and finding the surgeons indifferent if
not hostile, succeeded in establishing a special diet kitchen, like that
at Benton Barracks' Hospital. This subsequently became a very important
institution, sixty-two thousand dishes being issued in the single month
of August, 1864. The supplies for this kitchen, were mostly furnished by
the Pittsburg Subsistence Committee, and Miss Ellen Murdoch, the
daughter of the elocutionist to whom we have already referred, in the
account of the Pittsburg Branch, prepared the supplies with he