Existing comment:
Civilians and the War:
Military medical services became overwhelmed by the vast numbers of sick and wounded soldiers who needed prolonged care and treatment during the conflict. Civilian volunteers provided much of this care. Nurses and contract doctors tended to patients recuperating in hospitals, while national aid societies such as the US Sanitary Commission helped transport and treat the ill and injured. Women organized fundraising fairs and bazaars, gathering money for clothing, bed linens, medical supplies, writing materials, and food.
"The Sanitary Commission is doing a work of great humanity, and of direct practical value to the nation in this time of its trial.... There is no agency through which voluntary offering of patriotism can be more effectively made."
-- Abraham Lincoln, September 30, 1861 |