jun 1, 1862 - Congress authorizes U.S. Sanitary Commission

Description:

-founded in 1861
An organization that supported the Union war effort through professional and volunteer medical aid. (clothes, food, medical services)

-June-Congress officially recognized/funded it

-male paid agents/spokesmen
-female volunteers, many were nurses (seen as a "disrespectable" job, male doctors did not like them, the nurses risked their lives and faced diseases)

-disease killed 2x those killed in combat, rural kids had it worse b/c they weren't exposed as much to illness.
-Sanitary Commission reduced the disease deaths, encouraging proper waste disposal and tending to the ill/wounded


-Confederate soldiers did not have this organization (lots of relief societies and volunteer female nurses, but less organized), they had lots of Scurvy

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