Recreation and Rehabilitation

With over 600,000 people, Philadelphia was the southernmost northern metropolis, an industrial and financial powerhouse, and a major transportation terminus.

Philadelphia was host to tens of thousands of soldiers from throughout the northeast who came to Philadelphia for transportation south, by sea and by rail. Much as they had aided with recruitment, Philadelphians volunteered money, material, and time to establish the refreshment saloons where soldiers could relax and enjoy a hot meal. Our strong tradition of volunteer benevolent associations set the pattern, with male elites raising money and manning the boards of directors, and their wives doing the hands on labor. Soldiers praised the food and the hospitality and the efficiency of the female staff. The Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon often served up to 15,000 meals a day. The sick and the wounded also arrived here. Philadelphia was the nation’s major medical center and had over twenty hospitals in operation during the war years, from the eleven bed facility at the Cooper Shop Hospital to the 4,000-bed Mower Hospital in Chestnut Hill. About 157,000 men received medical care in Philadelphia’s hospitals.

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	Hospital Register Vol. 2, No. 1. August 29, 1863 (Philadelphia, 1863). The weekly newspaper of Satterlee Hospital, printed and published on site, carried little news, featuring moral and uplifting essays and short fiction for their readers’ general amusement.
	The Satterlee Boys to Uncle Sam. By Sergt Don Fitz Squizzle (Philadelphia, 1863?). Not everyone celebrated the benevolence of the hospitals. This song sheet in the voice of a pseudonymous soldier complains of “shoddy contractors,” bad and insufficient food, and corrupt sutlers: “the sutlers! they do not extort?/They do not get our wages,/but names of those, whom hell shall scorch/Would cover many pages.”
	Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and Hospital. Robert Newell. Albumen print photograph (Philadelphia, 1863).
	Fair, for the Sick & Wounded Soldiers! (Philadelphia, 1864). The Ladies of St. Thomas African Episcopal Church held this fair to raise funds for the African American soldiers at the Summit House Hospital in southwest Philadelphia. Conforming to the segregationist practices of the time, white soldiers had been relocated to make room for the African Americans.
	Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, illustrated card. McAllister’s inscription in the margins reads: “These cards were placed under soldiers’ plates at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.”
	McClellan Hospital, ward 14. John Moran, albumen print photograph, (Philadelphia, 1863).
	Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon and Hospital. Robert Newell. Albumen print photograph, (Philadelphia, 1863).
	*Robert P. King. An Appeal on Behalf of the “Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home”* (Philadelphia, 1863?).**
	Cooper Shop Soldier’s Home (Philadelphia, 1863).
	Hospital of the Cooper Shop (Philadelphia, 1863?).
	*Cooper Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, Attention Loyal Men and Women, Read. Reflect, and Govern Yourselves Accordingly* (Philadelphia, 1861).**
	Mower General Hospital. P.S. Duval & Son, Colored lithograph (Philadelphia, 1865).
	View of the Volunteer Refreshment Saloon. J. Queen, Colored lithograph(Philadelphia, 1861?).
	Satterlee U.S.A. General Hospital, West Philadelphia. Charles Magnus, Colored Lithograph (Philadelphia, 1864).

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