Chalmette National Cemetery and the United States Sanitation Commission

Chalmette, Louisiana is the home of both the Chalmette Battlefield and the adjoining Chalmette National Cemetery.  While the battlefield is known as the site of the 1812 Battle of New Orleans, the cemetery is mainly associated with the Civil War. 

My visit was to the grave of my ancestor, Private Dewit Hulbert of the New York 2nd Cavalry, from Turin, Lewis County, New York. He was wounded in action in Alexandria, Louisiana and died six weeks later in a New Orleans hospital. He lies in a small, peaceful cemetery with graves on both sides of the one tree lined road that cuts through the center of the area separated from the world by a five foot brick wall.

Hulbert was one of many soldiers documented by the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC). The USSC was a private humanitarian organization whose duties of caring for the health and well being of Union soldiers was created by federal legislation 18 June 1861. As part of their mission they collected:

• Hospital records including administrative correspondence, registers, lists of deaths, burials, and prisoners of war as well as files on individual soldiers including letters from relatives, friends, military and hospital staff;
• Claim files for pensions, back pay, county, rations, seamen’s prize money and other monies owed to the individual by the federal government. Files may contain letters, affidavits proving marriages, births or deaths, and applicable correspondence.
• Camp inspection reports, supply records and correspondence;
• Contributions or donations made by local communities.

Those records are now part of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) collection housed at the New York Public Library in New York City. Rather than detailed indexes collection guides are the key to the types of records that exist, how they are arranged and what they contain (http://archives.nypl.org/mss/3101). Spending the time to understand what is available is well worth it! There is a good chance you will find information on how your ancestor lived and or died.
 
Most records are not digitized and may be viewed on-site at the Archives and Manuscripts department at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Access to these records do require a request from and a valid library card although non-residents may be issued a temporary three month card. 
 
More information about the USSC holdings may be found at https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/knowledgebase/newly-accessible-civil-war-era-resource-nypl’s-united-states-sanitary-commission.