Part One: "On the 18th of May, 1861, Messrs. Henry W. Bellows, D.D., W.H.
Van Buren, M.D., Elisha Harris, M.D., and Jacob Harsen, M.D.,
representatives of these three associations, drew up and forwarded
to the Secretary of War a communication setting forth the propriety
of creating an organization which should unite the duties and
labors of the three associations, and cooperate with the Medical
Bureau of the War Department to such an extent that each might
aid the other in securing the welfare of the army. For this purpose
they asked that a mixed commission of civilians, military officers,
and medical men, might be appointed by the Government, charged
with the duty of methodizing and reducing to practical service
the already active but undirected benevolence of the people towards
the [36] army, who should consider the general subject of the
prevention of sickness and suffering among the troops, and suggest
the wisest method which the people at large could use towards
the comfort, security, and health of the army. They referred to
the commissions, which followed the Crimean and Indian Wars, and
brought to light the vast amount of suffering which had been needlessly
endured there, and begged that, in this case, the organization
might precede the war, and prevent so far as possible the suffering which would
otherwise ensue. They suggested, also, the appointment of cooks
and nurses for the army, and stated that the 'Woman's Central
Association of Relief' stood ready to undertake the training of
both in their duties. . . ." from Philanthropic Results of the War in America (1864) Peter Hall: The organization of the United States Sanitary Commission was, from a philanthropic vantage, the turning point of the war. Led by powerful, well-connected businessmen, lawyers, and physicians who shared the conservative non-humanitarian ideology of the metropolitan upper classes, this group took it upon itself to consolidate the babel of voluntary efforts into a nation-scale coordinated bureaucratic enterprise. In so doing, it created the prototype for the kind of federated national charities that would characterize American philanthropy in the twentieth century. The Commission was distinguished not only for the scale of its operations in supervising public health and medical relief services on the battlefield and behind the lines, but also for its extraordinarily thorough mobilization of civilian resources, not only tapping into existing associational networks, but also conducting mass solicitations of money and goods on an unprecedented scale. Doing this required an astonishing degree of organizational sophistication and, while the Commissioners did not come at the task with a master plan, their commitment to trained expertise and centralized bureaucratic organization, their extensive previous organizational experience, and their willingness to carefully think through the organizational implications of their actions, turned the Commission into a remarkable workshop for organizational innnovation. The solutions to a surprising number of fundamental managerial problems familiar to today's nonprofit managers--ranging from the problems of defining and maintaining mission and dealing with disaffected constituencies, through the challenges of corporate fundraising-- were initially worked out by the administrators of the United States Sanitary Commission. The story of the Commission is best told by the Commission itself, in the remarkable series of Reports and Documents that it published between its inception in 1861 and its demise in 1866. Although usually found today bound together as volumes, they were originally issued as circulars whose purpose was to assure communication between the central office of the Commission and its far-flung branches and the influential associate members who represented its interests in the states and cities. The initial impulse for organizing the Commission came from the
Women's Central Association of Relief for the Sick and Wounded
of the Army, an organization of upper class New Yorkers established
in the spring of 1861. Wishing advice on how to proceed, they
turned for advice to a group of prominent men who, in turn, put
together a Commission of Inquiry and Advice in respect of the
Sanitary Interests of the United States Forces. In May of 1861,
this group sent a delegation to Washington to offer their services
to the War Department and lobby for a voice in the conduct of
the conflict. At this point, the group's goals were fairly modest,
restricting themselves primarily to information-gathering and
advising. Subsequently, the scope and scale of the Commission's
ambitions would enlarge considerably, as they recognized both
the needs that had to be met and the opportunities that meeting
them could provide the providers. No. 1. AN ADDRESS TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR TO THE SECRETARY OF WAR: SIR: The undersigned, representing three associations of the highest
respectability in the city of New York, namely, the Woman's Central
Association of Relief for the Sick and Wounded of the Army, the
Advisory Committee of the Boards of Physicians and Surgeons of
the Hospitals of New York, and the New York Medical Association
for furnishing Hospital Supplies in aid of the Army, beg leave
to address the Department of War in behalf of the objects committed
to them as a mixed delegation with due credentials. These three associations, being engaged at home in a common object,
are acting together with great efficiency and harmony to contribute
towards the comfort and security of our troops, by methodizing
the spontaneous benevolence of the city and State of New York
; obtaining information from the public authorities of the best
methods of aiding your Department with such supplies as the regulations
of the Army do not provide, or the sudden and pressing necessitities
of the time do not permit the Department to furnish; and in general,
striving to play into the hands of the regular authorities in
ways as efficient and as little embarrassing as extraofficial
cooperation can be. These associations would not trouble the War Department with any
call on its notice, if they were not persuaded that some positive
recognition of their existence and efforts was essential to the
peace and comfort of the several Bureaus of the War Department
itself. The present is essentially a people's war. The hearts
and minds, the bodies and souls, of the whole people and of both
sexes throughout the loyal States are in it. The rush of volunteers
to arms is equalled by the enthusiasm and zeal of the women of
the nation, and the clerical and medical professions vie with
each other in their ardor to contribute in some manner to the
success of our noble and sacred cause. The War Department will
hereafter, therefore, inevitably experience, in all its bureaus,
the incessant and irresistible motions of this zeal, in the offer
of medical aid, the applications of nurses, and the contribution
of supplies. Ought not this noble and generous enthusiasm to be
encouraged and utilized? Would not the Department win a still
higher place in the confidence and affections of the good people
of the loyal States, and find itself generally strengthened in
its efforts, by accepting ill some positive manner the services
of the associations we represent, which are laboring to bring
into system and practical shape the general zeal and benevolent
activity of the women of the land in behalf of the Army? And would
not a great economy of time, money, and effort be secured by fixing
and regulating the relations of the Volunteer Associations to
the War Department, and especially to the Medical Bureau? Convinced by inquiries made here of the practical difficulty of
reconciling the aims of their own and numerous similar associations
in other cities with the regular workings of the Commissariat
and the Medical Bureau, and yet fully persuaded of the importance
to the country and the success of the war, of bringing such an
arrangement about. The undersigned respectfully ask that a mixed
Commission of civilians distinguished for their philantrophic
experience and acquaintance with sanitary matters, of medical
men, and of military officers, be appointed by the Government,
who shall be charged with the duty of investigating the best means
of methodizing and reducing to practical service the already active,
but undirected benevolence of the people toward the Army; who
shall consider the general subject of the prevention of sickness
and suffering, among the troops, and suggest the wisest methods,
which the people at large can use to manifest their goodwill towards
the comfort, security, and health of the Army. It must be well known to the Department of War that several such
commissions followed the Crimean and Indian wars. The civilization and humanity of
the age and of the American people demand that such a commission
should precede our second war of independence--more sacred than the first. We
wish to prevent the evils that England and France could only investigate
and deplore. This war ought to be waged in a spirit of the highest
intelligence, humanity, and tenderness for the health, comfort,
and safety of our brave troops. And every measure of the Government
that shows its sense of this, will be eminently popular, stregthen
its hands, and rebound to its glory at home and abroad. The undersigned are charged with several specific petitions, additional
to that of asking for a Commission for the purposes above described,
although they all would fall under the duties of that Commission. 1. They ask that the Secretary of War will order some new rigor
in the inspection of volunteer troops, as they are persuaded that
under the present State regulations throughout the country a great
number of underaged and unsuitable persons are mustered, who are
likely to swell the bills of mortality in the Army to a fearful
percentage, to encumber the hospitals, and embarrass the columns.
They ask either for an order of reinspection of the troops already
mustered, or a summary discharge of those obviously destined to
succumb to the diseases of the approaching summer. It is unnecessary
to argue the importance of a measure so plainly required by common
humanity and economy of life and money. 2. The committee are convinced by the testimony of the Medical
Bureau itself, and the evidence of the most distinguished Army
officers, including the Commander-in-Chief, Adjutant General Thomas,
and the acting Surgeon General, that the cooking of the volunteer
and new regiments in general is destined to be of the most crude
and perilous description, and that no preventive measure could
be so effectual in preserving health and keeping off disease as
an order of the Department requiring a skilled cook to be enlisted
in each company of the regiments. The Woman's Central Association,
in connection with the Medical Boards, are prepared to assume
the duty of collecting, registering, and instructing a body of
cooks, if the Department will pass such an order, accompanying
it with the allotment of such wages as are equitable. 3. The committee represent that the Woman's Central Association
of Relief have selected, and are selecting, out of several hundred
women, suited in all respects to become nurses in the General
Hospitals of the Army. These women, the distinguished physicians
and surgeons of the various hospitals in New York, have undertaken
to educate and drill in a most thorough and laborious manner; and the committee ask that the War Department consent to receive
on wages, these nurses, in such numbers as the exigences of the
campaign may require. It is not so proposed the nurses should
advance to the seat of war, until directly called for by the Medical Bureau here, or that the Government should be at any expense until they are
actually in service. 4. The committee ask that the Secretary of War issue an order
that in case of need, the Medical Bureau may call to the aid of
the regular medical force a set of volunteer dressers, composed
of young medical men, drilled for this purpose by the hospital
physicians and surgeons of New York, giving them such subsistence
and such recognition as the rules of the service may allow under
a generous construction. It is believed that a Commission would bring these and other matters
of great interest and importance to the health of the troops into
the shape of easy and practical adoption. But if no Commission
is appointed, the committee pray that the Secretary will order
the several suggestions made to be carried into immediate effect,
if consistent with the laws of the Department, or possible without
the action of Congress. Feeling themselves directly, to represent large and important constituencies, and indirectly, a wide-spread and commanding public sentiment, the committee would most respectfully urge the immediate attention of the Secretary to the objects of their prayer. Very respectfully, HENRY W. BELLOWS, D.D. W. H. VAN BUREN, M.D. D. ELISHA HARRIS, M.D. J. HARSEN, M.D. WASHINGTON, May 18, 1861. Peter Hall: The group's offer was welcomed by a beleagured President
Lincoln and his Secretary of War, Simeon Cameron, who were struggling
to assemble an army from a small core of professionally-trained
officers and more than a hundred thousand "volunteers" called
up in proclamations of April 15 and May 3, 1861. Everyone in the
North anticipated a short conflict: the bulk of the volunteers
had been called for only three month enlistments; and the advantages
of the North, with its population of 23 million and its advanced
inudustrial economy over the South, with a population of 5 million
whites and a backward agriculturally-based economy, seemed to
assure a quick resolution. The Commission's almost obsessive proceduralism was evident from
the beginning. Its detailed plan of organization and, in particular,
its elaborately rationalized committee structure, was unprecedented
for the period. This plan would undergo several revisions in the
course of the war, as leadership and day-to-day responsibilities
devolved increasingly on the Executive Committee and as the staff
of the Commission grew in numbers. |