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| Seal of the Sanitary Commission. |
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the clouds to visit wounded soldiers on the battle-field.
Such was the origin of the United States Sanitary Commission. Frederick Law Olmsted was chosen to be the Resident Secretary, which was a post of the highest importance, for that officer was really the General Manager of the affairs of the Commission.1
We may not here give the details of the workings of the Sanitary Commission.
The reader is ref erred to Mr. Stille‘s History for that information.
Its labors were confined to the avowed object of its organization.
It was not intended to substitute itself for any organization of the Government, such as the Medical Bureau, nor to interfere with the duties and
responsibilities of any Government officer.
It was only to supplement Government deficiencies.
This was well understood.
The Commission appealed to the people, and the met by a most liberal response.
Supplies and money flowed in in sufficient volume to meet all its demands.
All over the country, men, women, and children, singly and collectively, were working for it and contributing.
to it. Fairs were held in. large cities, which turned immense sums of money into its treasury.2 Branches were established; agents were employed; corps of nurses were organized; ambulances, army wagons and steamboats of its own were employed in the transportation of the sick and wounded and supplies.
It followed the armies closely in all campaigns.
Its vigilant ear listen ed for the sounds of battle everywhere, and before the smoke of conflict had fairly been lifted from the battle-field, there was the Sanitary Commission, with its wagons, supplies, tents and nurses, ready to afford instant relief.
It was like a guardian angel to the soldier — always at his side in moments of greatest need.3 When the war ceased and the record of the
1 Its first officers were Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., President; Professor A. D. Bache, Ll.D., Vice-President; Elisha Harris, M. D. Corresponding Secretary; George W. Cullum, Alexander E. Shiras, Robert C. Wood M. D., Wolcott Gibbs, Cornelius R. Agnew, M. D., George T. Strong, Frederick Law Olmsted, Samuel G. Howe, M. D., and J. S. Newberry , M. D., Comsissioners. To these were subsequently added , Horace Binney, Jr., Right Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D. D., Hon. Joseph Holt, R. W. Burnett, Hon. Mark Skinner, Rev. John H. Heywood, Professor Fairman Rogers, Charles J. Stile, and J. Huntington Wolcott. There were about five hundred associate members, in all parts of the country. It is due to Mr. Olmsted, to say, that to his extraordinary powers of organization must be attributed a large share of the success which attended the Commission. He gave his time wholly to that work. Dr. Bellows was its faithful and untiring chief from the beginning to the end.
2 Fairs for the benefit of soldiers and their families were held in Lowell, Chicago twice, Boston, Rochester, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, Albany, Cleveland, Poughkeepsie, New York, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Dubuque, St. Paul, St. Louis, and Baltimore, in the order here named. In a single fair, in the city of New York, the net receipts, over the expenses, were $1,181,500. In other places the receipts were in equal proportion to the population. In the little city of Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, whose population was then about 16.000, the net profits of the fair were over $16,000.
3 The Government supplied all regular rations, hospital stores, et cetera, to the full extent of its power. The Sanitary Commission supplied the sick and wounded with delicacies, ice, stimulants, fruits, &c., in abundance, with trained nurses, which the Government could not well supply.
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