The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was founded in 1861 as the American Civil War began. Its purpose was to promote clean and healthy conditions in the Union Army camps. The Sanitary Commission staffed field hospitals, raised money, provided supplies, and worked to educate the military and government on matters of health and sanitation. Over 15,000 women volunteered to work in hospitals, usually in nursing care. They assisted surgeons, gave medicines, fed soldiers, cleaned bedding and clothing, and comforted the wounded, sick, and dying. Prior to the Civil War, nursing and medical care was a field held by men only.
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
NPS
Women did the hard work of organizing fairs to bring in donations of food and supplies and oversaw the process of bringing those supplies to the army. Two US Sanitary Commission volunteers, Ann Hosmer and Carrie Tinkham of Chicago, Illinois filled several rail cars full of food and supplies and accompanied the train into hostile Middle Tennessee not once, but twice. Hosmer and Tinkham stayed in Murfreesboro for eleven weeks following the Battle of Stones River and nursed hundreds of men back to health. On their second journey south to assist the troops at Chattanooga their train was captured, and they were held captive for a short time, unable to complete their task.
Quote from Ann Hosmer’s diary about a soldier who she tended to in Murfreesboro before he died of wounds from the Battle of Stones River, “I never can forget his look when he took my hand and kissed it thanking me for his happiness…”
