Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon

From May 1861, soldiers passing through Philadelphia to and from the South would be welcomed at the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, which stood in a donated factory at Washington Avenue and Swanson Street. There they would receive a full meal, and, if needed, medical attention at the hospital next door.


On short notice the Saloon could seat 1,200 to 1,500, an entire full-strength regiment or multiple depleted ones, and it served over a million meals during the war, while receiving no funding from city, state or federal authorities. It was entirely an effort of the citizens of Philadelphia.

Soon after, later in May, a second such establishment opened nearby on Otsego Street (Water Street) called the Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.

The image above is from a page that has an entry of the Freeman Colby Diary at Live Free and Draw, done comic-style. The Refreshment Saloon makes an appearance on that page. If you want to start the delightful journal from the beginning go here.

Troops from New York and north rode the Camden and Amboy Railway, crossed the Delaware on the Kaign Avenue Ferry to its station at Washington Ave, then marched the short distance to the saloons for their refreshment. The Colby Diary mentions that this was the first food provided since starting out.

Then they rode the horsecar lines (the tracks are visible in the photo  above) or marched west on Washington to Broad Street and the huge station for the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Then onto trains south.

 

And it wasn't only Union troops who benefited from the Refreshment Saloons. Confederate prisoners of war also came through on the way to their "lodgings" at Fort Mifflin.

Camp-Follower Family Portrait

The image above is on the cover of the Western Pennsylvania History Magazine's Commemorative Issue from Summer 2013, which can be read online. Yes, families followed the father's camp and from the looks on these faces you could conclude that for this family it was not a hard call. It may have been their only move, depending on the situation at home. If not a necessity it might not be a stretch that it may have been framed as the 19th Century equivalent to the modern "working/vacation."

This could be a family portrait set up for when the family arrived in camp, and to show more about how they are than just what they looked like. Mother has a full basket of, probably, food. Dad poses with tools. Son has the dog and daughter a doll. This is who they are and what they do.

Also note the soldiers in the background. Since photos took so long to set up back then it was simple matter for them to do what today would be called a photo-bomb.

Here's the on-the-cover description about the image from the hard copy magazine: "Wives and even families sometimes accompanied soldiers to the front. In this 1861 photo (one of a pair of stereographs) the 31st (later the 82nd) Pennsylvania Infantry passes time at Queen's farm near Fort Massachusetts/Slocum , five miles north of the White House."

First Philadelphia Civil War Death

 

George Leisenring's grave.

George Leisenring, German immigrant, Fishtown resident and early volunteer, was a member of the unarmed, Philadelphia-recruited Washington Brigade that was set upon by anti-Union rioters as it passed thorough Baltimore in 1861. Leisenring was wounded (stabbed) and brought back to Pennsylvania hospital for treatment, where he died. He's buried at the Palmer Burial Ground, Palmer and Memphis Streets in Kensington.