With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American EffortHungerford, Edward
History
With the Doughboy in France: A Few Chapters of an American Effort
Hungerford, Edward
American National Red Cross; World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
From this most modest nucleus there was both steady and rapid growth
until, at the time of the signing of the armistice, there were not three
but eight of the American Red Cross Military Hospitals: the three of
which you have just read; Number One in Neuilly; Number Two (Dr.
Blake's) in Rue Piccini; Number Three (the Reid Hospital) in the Rue de
Chevreuse; Number Five, the tent institution which sprang up on the
famous Bois de Boulogne race course at Auteuil; Number Six at Bellevue;
Number Seven at Juilly; Number Eight at Malabry (these last three in the
suburbs of Paris), and Number Nine in the Boulevard des Batignoles,
within the limits of the city itself.
The so-called American Red Cross hospitals were generally somewhat
smaller. They were Number 100 at Beaucaillou, St. Julien in the Gironde,
Number 101 at Neuilly, Number 102 at Neufchâteau, Number 103 also at
Neuilly, Number 104 at Beauvais, with an annex at Chantilly, Number 105
at Juilly, Number 109 at Evreux, and Number 113, the Czecho-Slovak
Hospital, at Cognac. In addition to these there was a further group of
smaller hospitals, which were operated in the same way as the American
Red Cross military hospitals. These included Number 107 at
Jouy-sur-Morin, Number 110 at Villers-Daucourt, Number 111 at
Château-Thierry, Number 112 in the Rue Boileau, Paris, Evacuation
Hospital Number 114 at Fleury-sur-Aire in the Vosges, Base Hospital
Number 41 at St. Denis, and Base Hospital No. 82 at Toul. While outside
of all of these lists were three small institutions in Paris, operated
in coöperation with the French, but far too unimportant to be listed
here.
There were twenty-six of these American Red Cross hospitals of one form
or another established in France through the war. Yet, impressive as
this list might seem to be at a first glance, it, of course, falls far
short of the great total of the regular base and evacuation hospitals
set up by the Medical Corps of our army throughout France and the
occupied districts of Germany. Yet even these, as we shall see
presently, were constantly dependent upon the functioning of our Red
Cross. And, after all, it was chiefly a question of the mere form of
organization.
"Form?" said Colonel Burlingame to me that same evening as we sat
together in Paris. "What do you mean by form? There is no such
thing--not in war, at any event. When they used to come to me with their
red tape tangles I would bring them up with a quick turn, saying: 'See
here, the Red Cross is not engaged in winning the war for the Allies, or
even for the good old U. S. A. We are here to help the United States win
the war.'"
Not such a fine distinction as it might first seem to be.
"That was our principle and we stuck by it," continued Burlingame. "And
any one who deviated from it got bumped, and bumped hard."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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