Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon

Civil War Women: Anna Maria Ross, Cooper Shop

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Not long after the Civil War started, Philadelphia citizens realized Union troops passing through their city needed to be fed. Two refreshment saloons were established there in 1861—Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon of Philadelphia and Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon.

Wounded soldiers also arrived in Philadelphia, prompting local women to open a hospital. Anna Maria Ross worked there as Lady Principal. The 12-bed Cooper Shop Hospital received the first patients on October 29, 1861. The Cooper Shop was located at 1009 Otsego Street below Washington Street.

Day and night, Anna dressed soldiers’ wounds. She also made certain that discharged soldiers received a donation to tide them over until receiving their army pay.

Union troops passed through Philadelphia at all hours. A signal gun fired when regiments came. Women living near the Navy Yard—many responsible for their own families—responded to the signal. They walked to the refreshment saloons, day or night, to cook for the soldiers.

The Cooper Shop alternated days with the Union Volunteer Shop. The 24-hour daily period ended at 6 pm. Even if it wasn’t their day to serve, shop leaders could divide the soldiers and send them to the other shop if more than 200 men needed meals.

Wounded from Gettysburg arrived in July and August of 1863, crowding the saloon hospitals. Hospital trains passing through Philadelphia also benefited from supplies at the saloon hospitals. Shop volunteers, like Mrs. Eliza G. Plummer, gave the wounded toast and tea.

Anna was one who saw a need for a Soldiers’ Home to care for Civil War veterans. Along with others, she planned a fundraising fair in June of 1863, which provided enough money to obtain a building. Then they needed to furnish it.

Anna traveled in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to gain support, raising around $2,000. The Soldiers’ Home was dedicated December 22, 1863. Unfortunately, Anna caught a chill and died before the dedication.

She can be proud of her efforts. Throughout the war, the Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon fed about 400,000 soldiers. Its hospital treated about 7,500 wounded. Most patients were temporary though not all. For instance, their annual statement for the year ending May 25, 1864, reported that 85 patients remained from 1 week to 1 year.

The Grand Army of the Republic gave her a posthumous honor–Post 94 in Philadelphia.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Brockett, L.P. MD and Vaughan, Mary C. Woman’s Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience, Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., 1867.

Edited by O’Brien, Kevin E. My Life in The Irish Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs of Private William McCarter, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry, Savas Publishing Company, 1996.

Moore, Frank. Women of the War, Blue/Gray Books, 1997. (originally published 1866).

“Ross, Anna M.,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/33456.

Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, foot of Washington St., Philadelphia, by Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, 1861.

 

Civil War Refreshment Saloons

/ sandramervillehart / 2 Comments

Barzilai Brown, a grocer at the corner of Washington Avenue and Swanson Street in South Philadelphia, had a heart for weary Union soldiers marching past his store in the spring of 1861. He saw a lot of them from his location near the Navy Yard at the waterfront and also departing for the South on the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad.

Brown decided to do something. He gave food to traveling soldiers. His generosity grew and on May 27, 1861, the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon was established to distribute drinks, food, paper, and stamps. Seeing a need to not only feed troops, the saloon added a hospital to its services in September, 1861.

Another saloon also established in 1861, Cooper Shop Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, was located at 1009 Otsego Street near the railroad.

These volunteer establishments provided soldiers far from their loved ones with comforts of home: washing facilities, meals, writing materials, sleeping areas, directions, information on places of interest, army contacts, and hospital care. Dining halls contained long tables and dining bars where soldiers stood to eat.

Troops passed through Philadelphia at all hours of the day and night. “Fort Brown,” a cannon outside the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon, fired a signal shot to call women volunteers living near the Navy Yard to the saloon when regiments were expected.

Most of these ladies, though responsible for their households, came to the refreshment saloons to cook meals and wash dishes. They worked long hours—often all night—to feed soldiers, sailors, freedmen, and refugees.

The Cooper Shop Refreshment Saloon fed 400,000 men and cared for about 7,500 patients. Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon served 1,025,000 meals to over 800,000 men with nearly 15,000 hospital patients. All this was paid for with donations—no government funds.

To think that one man started all this by doing what he could to meet the needs of exhausted troops. They were hungry—he had food in his grocery store.

Barzilai Brown sought to feed heroes … and became one himself.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Brockett, L.P. MD and Vaughan, Mary C. Woman’s Work in the Civil War: A Record of Heroism, Patriotism and Patience, Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., 1867.

“Civil War Volunteer Refreshment Saloons,” The Library Company of Philadelphia, 2017/07/03 http://digital.librarycompany.org/islandora/object/Islandora%3ACVVRS?display=list.

“Samuel B. Fales collection of Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon papers,” The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 2017/07/03  http://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid1580fales.pdf.