Description:

Richard Yates
Springfield, IL, August 20, 1862
Illinois Governor Richard Yates Appeals to Citizens to Contribute Food for Soldiers
Printed document

RICHARD YATES, Printed Document, Proclamation to the People of Illinois re State Sanitary Bureau, August 20, 1862, Springfield, Illinois. 2 copies. 1 p., 7.5" x 9.875". Expected folds; light soiling on verso; very good.

In this interesting proclamation to Illinois citizens, Governor Richard Yates appeals for fruits and vegetables, chickens, eggs, and butter to be sent to the State Sanitary Bureau for distribution to Illinois Volunteers in the South. Praising the Sanitary Commissions, Yates asks his fellow citizens to do more to fill up weekly shipments to Illinois troops by sending these items to Springfield, from which the State Commissary General would ship them through Cairo in southern Illinois via railroad to the troops.

Excerpts
"Although the general health of our army in the South has very much improved since last spring, the sick and well are alike in need of fresh vegetables, fruits, and those articles of food which cannot be obtained in the States in which they are quartered, but of which we at home have a great abundance. The want of these necessary articles is more especially painfully felt by the soldiers confined in hospitals."

"Our Sanitary Commissions have done and are doing a great and noble work.... Still, the necessities of our brave volunteers demand greater efforts in their behalf.... Let us save them from those tortures and sufferings of disease which are more to be dreaded than the perils of the battle-field itself."

"I therefore appeal to one and all of my fellow citizens to contribute of their stores, liberally and continuously."

"The articles more especially needed at this time are: Fruits of various kinds, Potatoes, Onions, Chickens, Eggs and Butter, &c. Canned Fruits, except Apples, are preferred."

Historical Background
After the pivotal Battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing in early April 1862, Governor Richard Yates chartered a steamboat and arrived at the battlefield within a week after the battle. He supervised the transport of more than 1,000 wounded soldiers to hospitals in Illinois. Moved by this experience, Yates determined to establish a State Sanitary Bureau to supply the state's soldiers with fresh fruit and vegetables and other foods they could not acquire at the front.

Yates selected Col. John Williams, the State Commissary General, to take charge of the State Sanitary Bureau. On September 1, 1863, Williams reported that during the first eight months of its operation, the state bureau arranged for free transportation of contributions to specific regiments or companies before turning to a more general method of assistance. In his report, Williams noted that "The chief want is and will be for appetizing articles of diet, such as vegetables and fruit—fresh, pickled, green and dried.... Good reading matter is wanted by all our intelligent soldiery, both in camp and hospitals, and should be furnished more liberally than heretofore."

Richard Yates (1815-1873) was born in Kentucky and graduated from Illinois College in Jacksonville in 1835. He studied law in Jacksonville and at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Yates began practicing law in Jacksonville in 1837 and served as a Whig in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1842 to 1846 and from 1848 to 1850. He represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 to 1855. He joined the Republican Party and supported John C. Fremont for president in 1856 and Abraham Lincoln for U.S. senator in 1858. In 1860, he was elected governor as a Republican and strongly supported the Lincoln administration's conduct of the war. When the Democratic state legislature proved uncooperative, Yates dissolved the legislature on June 10, 1863, and governed the state on his own. At the end of his term in 1865, Yates won election to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1865 to 1871. There, he supported radical reconstruction and the conviction of President Andrew Johnson.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.5" x 9.875"
  • Medium: Printed document

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