United States Sanitary Commission

The United States Sanitary Commission was created by executive order of President Abraham Lincoln on 13 June 1861. Its organization was the idea of a group of women and men who wanted to help the Union cause by developing a response to the inadequacy of the Army Medical Bureau in coping with the medical and sanitary needs of the army. On 29 April Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first U.S. woman to earn an M.D., had organized a meeting of 3,000 women in New York City to form the Women's Central Association for Relief (WCAR), devoted to women's volunteer relief efforts. The WCAR would become the nucleus of the Sanitary Commission. But women, acting on their own, could not at that time hope to convince government to form a new national organization, so a group of men led to Washington by the Unitarian minister Henry Whitney Bellows convinced government officials to form the commission. Bellows was appointed president and Frederick Law Olmsted, the future designer of Central Park, was general secretary.

The commission worked through local affiliates. By 1863 there were 7,000 such branches throughout the north, all composed of and administered largely by women. Blackwell and the noted mental health reformer Dorothea Dix were early involved in recruiting volunteer nurses, but lost their influence as men took control of the commission. The commission's 500 paid agents were men, while tens of thousands of women labored as unpaid volunteers. These volunteers held bazaars and organized Sanitary Fairs to raise money to purchase medical supplies, clothing, and food to send to army camps and hospitals and to support the 3,000 women who served as army nurses. The work of the Sanitary Commission eventually helped to make nursing a respectable profession for women, advanced medical care within the army, and taught many women the organizational skills they would apply to founding thousands of women's voluntary groups after the war.

Bibliography

Giesberg, Judith Ann. Civil War Sisterhood: The U.S. Sanitary Commission and Women's Politics in Transition. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000.

McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

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The United States Sanitary Commission was an official agency of the United States government, created by legislation signed by President of the United States Abraham Lincoln on June 18, 1861, to coordinate the volunteer efforts of women who wanted to contribute to the war effort of the Union states during the American Civil War.

Arising from a meeting in New York City of the Women's Central Relief Association of New York [Stille, 1866], the organization was also inspired by the British Sanitary Commission of the Crimean War. The volunteers raised money ($25 million), collected donations, worked as nurses, ran kitchens in the Army camps, administered hospital ships, made uniforms, and organized Sanitary Fairs to support the Federal army with funds and supplies.

The USSC worked with Union Veterans after the war to secure their bounties, back pay, and apply for pensions, until it was finally disbanded in May 1866.^[1]

Henry Whitney Bellows, a Massachusetts clergyman, planned the USSC and served as its only president. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Its first executive secretary was Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed landscape architect who designed New York's Central Park."^[1] George Templeton Strong, New York lawyer and diarist, helped found the commission and served as treasurer and member of the executive committee.^[2]

Contents 1 See also 2 Notes 3 External links 4 References

See also

• List of Sanitary Commission Hospital Ships
• Hospital Ships of the Sanitary Commission

Notes

1. ^ "US Sanitary Commission historical website". http://www.forttejon.org/ussc/ussc.html. Retrieved on 2005-12-23. 

External links

• NYPL, USSC Civil War Soldiers Inquiry Database

• Santiary Commission history, civilwarhome.com.

References

1. ^ Dugan, Ianthe Jeanne, "Civil War Letters Shed Light on Pain Of Troop's Families," Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2007; Page A1, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118245751055343871.html
2. ^ Nevins, Allan and Thomas, Milton Halsey, editors, "The Diary of George Templeton Strong: Young Man in New York, 1835-1849" Vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan Company, 1952), pages v-xli, at America's Civil War: George Templeton Strong

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