New York Hospital and Civil War: U.S. Sanitary Commission

Four doctors from New York Hospital were members of the U.S. Sanitary Commission: William Van Buren, Cornelius Agnew, James McLane, and A. Brayton Ball. Valentine Mott was a consultant for the war department.

The number one cause of death of the Civil War soldiers was communicable diseases caused by unsanitary conditions in the camps and hospitals. In 1861 the U.S. Sanitary Commission was formed in New York City at a meeting held by the Women's Central Association of Relief. The civilians led by Henry Whitney Bellows, minister of the First Congregational Church were concerned about the sanitation conditions of the Union camps. In 1861 Bellows and Van Buren along with Jacob Harsen and Elisha Harris went to Washington DC to lobby the Commission's cause. There were many that felt that civilians should not be involved in the war effort. Lincoln approved of the Commission activities for the volunteer troops only. Bellows chose 11 prominent men to be on the Commission: Alexander Dallas Bache, George Templeton Strong, Elisha Harris, William Van Buren, Cornelius Agnew (who was also the surgeon general for the New York State Militia), George Washington Cullum, Alexander Eakin Shiras, and Robert Crooke Wood. The head of the Commission was renowned landscape designer Frederick Law Olmstead.

By the end of the war, the Commission had organized hundreds of auxiliary branches in the U.S. and in Paris, London, Montreal, and Toronto. The volunteers worked as medical inspectors visiting the camps and hospitals. Other volunteers operated soldier's homes. The majority of the volunteers furnished medical supplies, food, clothing, and nursing care for soldiers in the camps and hospitals. Finally, the leaders of the U.S. Sanitary Commission were instrumental in lobbying the government for the need to reform the U.S. Medical Department, develop an effective transport ambulance system, and improve the sanitary conditions of the hospitals and camps. The Commission was disbanded in 1866.