Xavier, New York City, from 293 to 570. As a rule, the professional schools flourished. The law school of the University of Michigan increased its attendance from 90 to 260 and the medical department from 164 to 414; the Columbia medical school increased from 260 to 465, and the law school from 101 to 158. The war was chiefly responsible for the decline in the attendance, large numbers of Southern students withdrawing at the opening of the war and numbers of those remaining volunteering in the Union armies. Princeton lost about 100 Southern students, Harvard 63 and Yale 33. Harvard College proper sent 529 men to the war and Yale 757. The 100 days' movement seriously affected the western colleges, particularly the small ones; practically all of the students of Iowa College enlisting, all but two from Shurtliff College, compelling the closing of that institution, the entire senior classes of Illinois and Beloit, and large numbers from Wisconsin. Oberlin sent 700 alumni and students; Wabash 275; Bowdoin 248; Williams 200; Madison University (now Colgate) 110; Beloit 33; and Iowa 65.

Of female colleges, or ladies' seminaries, there were many; the Methodist Church provided 126 of these institutions, while in Ohio alone there were 23. The progress of the newly created high schools was retarded by the war, for boys of school age considered themselves old enough to enlist in the army or to take the place of

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the older male members who had volunteered. Hence there was practically no increase in the attendance of pupils of this grade. In the elementary grades, however, the attendance grew grew rapidly, almost doubling in Chicago - from 16,000 to 29,000, and the teachers from 160 to 240. In Philadelphia the pupils increased from 63,000 to 74,000, and the teachers from 1,097 to 1,278; in Brooklyn 51,000 to 55,000 and 486 to 581 respectively; and in New York from 148,000 to 216,000. The teaching force changed rapidly, women supplanting the men in the work of the lower grades. The following figures show the change:

Night schools were well patronized, having 20,000 students in New York, 8,000 in Philadelphia, and 1,500 in St. Louis.* Equally popular were the business colleges. The Eastman Business College, established at Oswego in 1853, was moved to Poughkeepsie in 1861, and in 1865 had 42 teachers and 1,300 students. Four States (Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio) had normal schools when the war opened, and during the next four years six States established them

Maine, Maryland, Indiana, Kansas, Wisconsin, and California.

There

* These schools were first organized in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1842, in New York in 1847, in Philadelphia in 1851 and in Chicago in 1863.

were teachers' associations, which, with few exceptions, met regularly every year. The American Institute of Instruction, founded in 1830, did not miss a single meeting, but the National Teachers' Association, founded in 1857, omitted two. In 1865 the National Association of School Superintendents was organized.*

With the increase of prosperity during the last two years of the war came greater gayety and a larger attendance at places of amusement. Early in 1864 F. W. Seward described Washington as follows:

“Gayety has become an epidemic in Washing ton this winter, as gloom was last winter. There is a lull in political discussions; and people are inclined to eat, drink and be merry. The newspapers can furnish nothing more interesting to their readers than accounts of parties, balls, and theatres, like to so many court journals. Questions of etiquette are debated with gravity. People talk of society' who never before knew or cared about it. A year ago the Secretary of State was 'heartless' or 'unpatriotic' because he gave dinners; now the only complaint of him is that he don't have dancing. It is a sign of a changed state of feeling everything, that all the Northern cities have given up mourning and grumbling and are devoting themselves to festivities and fairs." +

On November 3, 1863, the London Times said:

"This war has brought the levity of the American character out in bold relief. There is something saddening, indeed revolting, in the high glee, real or affected, with which the people look upon what ought to be, at any rate, a grievous national calamity. The indulgence in every variety of pleasure, luxury, and extravagance is simply shocking. The jewelers' shops in all these cities have doubled or trebled their

*Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions, chap. ix.

Life of Seward, vol. iii., p. 207; Julian, Political Recollections, p. 371.

*

trade; the love of fine dresses and ornaments on the part of the women amounts to madness. They have the money, well or ill gotten, and must enjoy it. * There may be a great deal of empty bravado, of bluster and swagger, in all this apparent indifference to undeniable suffering, but it makes no pleasing impression on a sensitive stranger."

Never were the theatres more crowded than at the very height of the war, and they remained so until the end, save for short periods of depression following a disastrous defeat of an army.

Edwin Forrest and Edwin Booth never failed to attract crowds, while James H. Hackett, Laura Keene, Mrs. John Drew, and Joseph Jefferson were everywhere popular. Negro ministrels played to packed houses, and three theatres in New York, two in Philadelphia, and single ones in other cities were devoted exclusively to the blackened comedians. Grand opera enjoyed its share of prosperity. In the winter of 1863-1864 four leading opera companies toured the country; one company, Maretzek's Italian Opera Company, performed for nearly three months in New York and for shorter periods in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Another diversion was the exhibition of the dwarfs Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton) and his three companions, Thumb's marriage in Grace Church, New York, to Miss Lavinia Warren being one of the social events of the season of 1863. Barnum's museum and Van Amberg's menagerie contributed further to the gayety of New York.

Probably the greatest sporting interest was aroused by horse-racing. Prior to the war this sport was carried on chiefly in the Southern and border States, but when the sections became arrayed against each other, racing was revived in the North. The Chicago Driving Park was soon opened, as were others in Washington and Boston. The stakes were high, $20,000 being offered at the Laclede races in St. Louis, $5,000 at the Hartford Driving Park, $10,000 at the Union Course on Long Island, and other similar purses at Louisville, Chicago, Philadelphia, Paterson, Saratoga, Boston, and Washington. The enormous crowds attending the meets attest to the popularity of the track. There were also championship billiard matches at $1,000 a side, championship chess matches and the annual regattas of the yacht clubs.* Baseball, though

* In 1851 the America, representing the New York Yacht Club, went to England and won the race for the Royal Yacht Squadron cup, valued at $100. Mr. G. A. Cormack, secretary of the New York Yacht Club, has kindly given us the following summary of her history since that time. In 1851 she was sold by Commodore Stevens to Lord John de Blaquiere, an officer of the Indian Army, and raced from 1851 to 1852.

She was then sold to Lord Templeton and was laid up at Cowes from 1854 to 1859 when she was purchased by the owner of Northfleet Yard and practically rebuilt. In 1860 she was sold to H. E. Decie, renamed Camilla, cruised to the West Indies, and raced in England. In 1861 an unknown person of Savannah, Georgia, purchased her for the use of the Confederacy as a blockade runner under the name Memphis. In April of 1862 she was found sunken in the St. John's River by the Union gunboat Ottawa, was raised, her old name restored, and turned over to the Government for the use of the midshipmen at Anna

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played for many years, was unorganized and received little public attention; it was new in the colleges, and was introduced at some institutions after the war began. Football was not the spectacular game of the present, but resembled, rather, a free-for-all fight. The popular college sport was boating, and there was keen rivalry between Harvard and Yale for the racing championship. In 1855, 1859, and 1860 the races were won by Harvard;* in 1861, 1862, and 1863 no races occurred; and in 1864 and 1865 Yale emerged victorious.t

There were many protests at the thoughtlessness and levity of the people. On February 20, 1864, the Springfield Republican contained the following:

"I have been deeply afflicted over the sufferings of our boys, but have come to the conclusion that a soldier in the Army of the Potomac does not endure a severer strain on his constitution than a woman in society' in Washington. I don't believe that he is as utterly worn out at the end of a march as she at the close of a week of the season.' Think of it, shopping, dressing, calling, all day; parties, dancing, late suppers, late sleep, repeated week after week. If she is a good woman, trying to satisfy the demands of her conscience, as well as the claims of society, she visits

polis. There she remained for a number of years, taking part in the international races of 1870. On August 26, 1870, she was sold at auction to General B. F. Butler, was rebuilt in 1880, and again visited the West Indies in 1881-1882. Under Butler's ownership she took part in many important events, winning several races, and under her present owner, Hon. Butler Ames, has participated in club regattas and cruising runs.

*At a citizens' regatta, the day after the regular boat race, Yale won.

The World Almanac (annual) gives the record complete, with time. On the times in general see Fite, Social and Industrial Conditions, chap. x,

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hospitals, works for the fair, collects money for the soldiers, devotes at least some time to husband and children. Is it any wonder that at the close of a season she is thin, and yellow, and sick, and thinks Washington a horrid place?"

A correspondent of the Boston Journal, writing from Saratoga, New York, says:

"It makes one's heart sick to see the folly which reigns triumphant. Dancing, dressing, and flirtation are the chief diets of men, women, and children (if there be such creatures as the latter nowadays). One would hardly think after gazing on a $4,000 dress just from Europe,' on a woman professing to be a patriotic American, that the Sanitary Commission was in need of stores and that the country's heart was being torn asunder. Honest men may make money out of the government, but no man who has any respect for himself or regard for his country will revel at Saratoga when the times demand sobriety and economy. What the women spend in dress, the men spend in 'liquoring up,' until they can't stand, in horses and in gambling. Surely we are improving on the morals of our Puritan fathers."

*

*

*

*

*

William Cullen Bryant also lifted his voice in opposition in the New York Evening Post:

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*

*

Extravagance, luxury, these are the signs of the times; are they not evidence of a state of things unhealthy, feverish, threatening to the honest simplicity of our political life? What business have Americans at any time with such vain show, with such useless magnificence? Is there nothing worthier than personal adornment in which to invest their means? Are there no enterprises open to these men of fortune which would benefit the country and their fellows as well as themselves? One man spends two hundred thousand dollars on a dwelling house; but he might build with this sum a long row of decent cottages to rent to people in moderate circumstances; he might enable fifty or one hundred families of workingmen to live cleanly and respectably in New York, and thus make himself a public benefactor, and that without sinking his money where he can never recover it. Or instead of dressing a few children in silks and jewels, and robbing them of the freshness and charm of youth by these vanities, why not spend

the money in sending the homeless children of the city to comfortable farm houses in the West, where they will be trained to industry and virtuous conduct, and grow up good citizens?"

One of the few pleasant phases of the war was the manner in which the women of both sections of the country responded to the call from the armies. for aid. The war had hardly begun when meetings of women were held at various places in the North to discuss methods of relief work. Late in April of 1861 Dr. Henry W. Bellows, a prominent Unitarian clergyman, attended a conference in New York City, the result of which was the issuance of a call signed by 92 ladies for a meeting at Cooper Institute. At this gathering was formed the Women's Central Association of Relief, which constituted the nucleus of the United States Sanitary Commission. Realizing the frightful mortality among troops who were surrounded by unsanitary conditions, the organization petitioned the Government for official recognition and finally, on June 9, 1861, obtained it when an order was issued by the Secretary of War, with Lincoln's approval, constituting the organization as "A Commission of Inquiry and Advice in Respect of the Sanitary Interests of the United States Forces." The Commission was to serve without and was pay ascertain the sanitary condition of volunteers, to suggest means to preserve and restore health, and to insure the general comfort and efficiency of troops such as proper cooks, nurses,

to

hospitals, etc., and to correspond freely with the War Department and the Medical Bureau. Dr. Bellows was chosen president and Frederick Law Olmsted general secretary. At first the Medical Bureau assumed a cold and hostile attitude toward the Sanitary Commission, but on April 16, 1862, an act was approved "to reorganize and increase the efficiency of the Medical Department of the Army," and this, combined with the tactful work of Olmsted, soon won hearty approval from the medical officers, until the Commission became " a great machine running side by side with the Medical Bureau wherever the armies went." The relief system was divided into general and special relief, the first attending to the wants of the inmates of general, field, and regimental hospitals, and of men in camp and on the march; the second caring for the sick and needy at military depots, discharged men, paroled prisoners, and irregulars. The various agents of the Commission were paid a moderate salary, it being found best not to rely on volunteer agents. With each army was a medical inspector, relief agents, wagons and horses, transports, if necessary, and a supply depot at the base.

The enormous amount of work entailed may be judged by the reports of killed and wounded in action and of those who died or were disabled by disease.* When the Sanitary Com

*These figures vary so greatly that we give those which should be most nearly correct. Liver

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mission entered upon its work, it found in the army camps inefficient drains and police duty, overcrowded tents, offensive sinks, personal uncleanliness, poor and filthy clothing, badly cooked food, and a scarcity of green vegetables. By persistent efforts these deficiencies were remedied to a great extent. Supply depots were opened at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, and other cities, and the aid societies were requested to give whatever help was in their power, with the result that about

more (Numbers and Losses, pp. 6-8) says that from 1861 to 1865 the killed in battle numbered 67,058, the deaths from wounds 43,012, and deaths from disease and accident 249,458. Phisterer (Statistical Record, pp. 67-76) quotes the reports of several bureaus as follows: Provost-MarshalGeneral James B. Fry, in a report to the Secretary of War on March 17, 1866, gives the losses as 61,362 killed, 34,773 died of wounds, and 183593 died of disease or accident. The AdjutantGeneral reports on February 7, 1869, that 44,238 were killed in battle, 33,993 died of wounds, 149,043 died of disease, 11,845 of other known causes and 55,297 of unknown causes. According to the Surgeon-General's report of November 12, 1870, 35,408 were killed in action, 49,205 died of wounds and 186,216 died of disease. Phisterer concludes that the following figures would be as nearly correct as it is possible to come: killed in battle 44,238; died of wounds and injuries 49,205; suicide, homicide and execution 526; died of disease 186,216; died of unknown causes 24,184; total 304,369. There were 6,049,648 cases treated by the medical officers in the army hospitals, of which only 185,353 resulted in death. None of these figures embrace those who died of wounds or disease while prisoners of war or on furlough, leave of absence, or absent without leave. The figures given by General Marcus J. Wright, in the Photographic History of the Civil War, vol. x., pp. 142, 144, 148, differ widely from those given above. For many of the battles there were no reports for the Confederate side, and the official records are not complete for many others.