Born out of immense suffering during the American Civil War, the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC) was an innovative national soldier’s aid organization that closely collaborated with the United States military. Through this national level of collaboration, the competitive political friction caused by regionalism and “state-ish-ness” was discouraged to meet the larger goal of addressing the health needs of U.S. soldiers. With the rapid growth of the United States military in response to the secession of southern states, there were significant supply challenges. One of the ways in which the USSC alleviated this suffering, was through the manufacture, purchase, and distribution of clothing for soldiers in need.
Within its first month of organization in 1861, the USSC not only called for donated used clothing, but also began widely distributing published circulars that included construction specifications for garments such as shirts, undershirts, and drawers. These early garment construction specifications were inspired by what USSC volunteers were observing as necessary in military camps and hospitals. However, as the war progressed, construction specifications and patterns continuously evolved in adaptation to changing needs.
The information in these circulars was also re-published in newspapers and in the printed communication of partnering volunteer soldier’s aid organizations. Through widespread distribution, it is very likely that these construction specifications and patterns were available to sewists in nearly every existing northern community during the war. Once clothing construction specifications were distributed, there were a variety of ways the garments were sourced and provided to soldiers.
Sourcing of USSC Patterned Garments:
Several aid organizations attempted to follow elements of antebellum cottage industry readymade clothing manufacturing, in which kits were pre-cut from fabric and then provided to individuals or groups of sewists. The completed garments were then submitted by the sewists for distribution. This work was largely volunteer; however, there are accounts of wealthy parties providing garment kits to women in financial need on the home front in exchange for having the kits sewn for monetary compensation—quite similar to the manufacturing operations of many depots and contractors.
Some sewing entities cut out the garments themselves, through either reading the construction specifications or by following paper patterns that were provided by a larger organization. There were at times a lack of consistency with how some of these organizations operated, and minor variations of USSC patterns occasionally emerge in primary source documents.
In addition to the manufacture of USSC pattern garments, there were times in which open-market purchases of needed readymade clothing occurred with donated funds. Prior to December of 1863, approximately a quarter of a million dollars was spent by the organization on supplies that included clothing; according to one online inflation calculator, this amount in 2023 would be over six million dollars.
Distribution of USSC Patterned Garments:
One of the most widely understood ways in which USSC garments were distributed to soldiers was through hospital settings. After arriving at a hospital, soldiers would have their dirty and damaged clothing exchanged for USSC clothing. What USSC garments were supplied depended on the context of the illness or wound, with some clothing patterns having their design correlate to how the garment was anticipated to be used. An example being shirts that had the sleeves “open” on the outside seams with tie closures for providing access to wounds. However, many USSC patterned garments had potential usage outside of hospital environments, and there is ample documentation that this is exactly how they were at times utilized by soldiers.
A way in which USSC garments were utilized outside of hospital settings was through the policy that recovering soldiers leaving hospitals could purchase the USSC garments that they specifically wore while recuperating. An example would be a soldier hospitalized for rheumatic symptoms, who would be allowed to buy the red wool flannel undershirt that he wore in the hospital. There is also evidence that recovering soldiers were at times given wool garments as they left the hospital to provide protection from the elements and strengthen their health as they rejoined their regiments in the field. The reasoning behind this was that recently hospitalized soldiers rejoining their units in the field while wearing cotton underclothing could experience declining health when exposed to the elements while campaigning, resulting in rapid re-admittance to a hospital.
Of special interest to museum exhibit designers, living history interpreters, and visual storytellers is how USSC patterned garments may have been distributed to soldiers not in hospital settings. This type of distribution would occur either officially, or unofficially.
Official distribution of USSC patterned garments outside of hospital settings would typically take place through USSC field agents. After a delivery of supplies to a hospital, the agents would begin connecting with officers and non-commissions officers to see if they had men who were suffering for want of an item. An example being a soldier whose shirt or drawers were deteriorating from wear, could obtain a new article from the field agent. There are also documented cases of field agents driving down company streets and distributing supplies to those in need.
Additionally, there were times in which the U.S. military supply networks experienced temporary garment shortages that were authorized to be filled by USSC clothing. Once able to, the U.S. military would reimburse the USSC with the same number of items that were utilized by quartermaster activities. In this type of scenario, it would be potentially possible for a large number of men in a military unit to be wearing USSC patterned garments such as socks, shirts, or drawers. It would of course also be likely that there were depot, open market purchase, or contractor clothing from the government being reimbursed to the USSC.
The unofficial distribution of USSC patterned garments was a challenge for the organization in the 1860s and remains so today for researchers. During the war, non-cooperating aid organizations and informal sewing circles would manufacture garments and then ship them specifically to locally raised regiments or companies. By working around the USSC supply system, the aid entities were able to ensure that their garments were directly reaching loved ones in the military.
While in theory this unofficial distribution may have made sense, it unfortunately directed aid on emotion rather than need. Many soldiers who received USSC patterned garments through unofficial means experienced an overabundance of clothing, while others suffered. This extra clothing overloaded sentimental soldiers on the march who were resistant to abandon garments with a connection to home. These surplus garments also encouraged waste, as soldiers were unlikely to repair a damaged textiles when another USSC patterned garment was readily available through shipments from home. The problem grew so significantly, that there were periodically unsuccessful calls for USSC volunteers to stop manufacturing and distributing clothing and place a stronger reliance on the government supplying garments to soldiers.
Impact of USSC Patterned Garments
Even with the incomplete records of how many USSC patterned garments were manufactured during the American Civil War, the volume of clothing sewn and distributed was substantial.
During May of 1864 alone, the U.S. military in Virginia received nearly 20,000 woolen shirts and over 12,000 woolen drawers from the USSC while in the field. Then, a few months later, from July 1st through August 31, nearly 90,000 shirts were provided to the Army of the Potomac over a two-month period by the USSC. These numbers are not anomalies, as they compare favorably with earlier recorded amounts of clothing distributed by the USSC to the Army of the Potomac. It should be noted that the above numbers do not include shirts and drawers distributed through unofficial methods—such as those constructed by non-cooperating sewing entities, organizations that kept inadequate records, and individuals. It is quite possible that throughout the war hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of USSC patterned garments were distributed through official and unofficial means.
Currently, USSC patterned garments are often underrepresented and misunderstood in material culture studies of the American Civil War. These garments help tell the story of how nearly every existing community in the United States came together to ease the suffering of those fighting in the darkest days of American history. Now, through recreated and graded USSC garment patterns available from Civil War Patterns you can contribute to sharing this important story from the war through museum exhibits, living history interpretation, and the arts.
Visit the following link to check out patterns for authentically recreating examples of historic U.S. Sanitary Commission undergarments: