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The USCC played a vital role in Civil War. Here is a glimpse of what some of the day's most respected citizens had to say about the USCC.

My Dear Sir:

Your letter of the 11th inst and accompanying plan, both of which are returned as a convenient mode of connecting this with them, have just been received. Your Christian and benevolent undertaking for the benefit of the soldiers is too obviously praiseworthy to admit any difference of opinion. I sincerely hope that your plan may be as successful execution as it is just and generous in conception.

Your obedient servant,
Abraham Lincoln
Dec. 12, 1861

"Your letter of the 10th instant, announcing that the United States Christian Commisison is on the eve of closing its work is recieved. I hope the same labor will never be imposed on any body of citizens again in the country as the Christian Commission have gone through in the last four years. It affords me pleasure to bear evidence to the services rendered, and the manner in which they have been rendered. By the agency of the Commission much suffering has been saved on almost every battlefield and in every hospital during the late rebellion. No doubt thousands of persons now living attribute their recovery in great part to volunteer agencies, sent to the field and hospital by the contributions of our loyal citizens. The United States Sanitary Commission and the United States Christian Commission have been the principal agencies in collecting and distributing their contributions. To them the army feel the same gratitude the loyal public feel for the services rendered by the army."

Very respecfully, your obedient servant
General U.S. Grant
Headquarters Armies of the United States
Washington , D.C. 1866

My Dear Sir: (Rev. T.W.J. Wylie,D.D.)

I know not how to thank you for ringing, or the U.S. Christian Commission for sending, me the two Annual Reports, etc., which I received yesterday. I know not how to thank you for all the kind thought of me. All that I can say in return, is to express my admiration for the branch of the great work of alleviating human suffering which those reports disclose.

In the history of our time nothing more remarkable has occurred than the universal uprising, so to speak, of the Christian philanthropy of America, to lend its helping hand to the great struggle through which the country has passed. It is a new feature in the experience of humanity, and it is an inexpressible comfort to have been in an the least degree instrumental in forwarding so great a work.

I could not help reading through the volume of reports the first afternoon I received it, though suffering from wearing and increasing illness, from bereavement, and overwhelmed with business. It is, at such a time, the only thing I could have read, and I read it with tears in my eyes, - of sympathy, of reverence, and admiration.

I must trust to your kindness to make my acknowledgements to the United States Christian Commission in the first place. But I shall of course, as soon as I am able, endeavor to write them some feeble expression of what I felt when I received their packet.

Florence Nightingale
Sept 6, 1865
In a letter to Mr. Wylie after receiving bound volumes of USCC Annual reports and other documents.

Dear Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, informing me of the appointment, by the convention of the Young men’s Christian Associations, of a Commission to take active measures to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of our soldiers and sailors.

The objects of the Commission are such as meet my cordial approval, and will, if carried out in the proper spirit, prove of great value.

Very respectfully your obedient servant,
George B. McClellan
Commanding US General
January 8, 1862

“I beg that you will accept my most heartfelt thanks, for the devotion to the service of the sick and wounded soldiers of Gettysburg manifested by the Christian Commission and its agents. Owing to the military necessities of the occasion, the suffering would have been much greater than it was, but for the aid afforded the medical officers by the benevolent individuals who came to their assistance.”

William A Hammond
U.S. Surgeon General 1862-1864

“The aid afforded us by the Christian Commission has been immense. Your profuse generosity and indefatigable and kind attentions doubtless saved many lives and gladdened the hearts of thousands.”

Dr. John M. Cuyler
Medical Inspector of the Army

“That the people of the United States should have voluntarily contributed six millions of dollars for the moral welfare of the soldiers employed, in addition to other vast and other charitable contributions, is one of the wonders of the world.”

General W.T. Sherman
January 19, 1866

“It affords me great pleasure to bear testimony to the invaluable services rendered by the (Christian) Commission’s field agents"

General George Meade
January 17, 1866

“I can truly say that the country owes you and your associates (of the Christian Commission) an everlasting debt of gratitude, for your good works which have been so bountifully bestowed upon her soldiers in the field”

General A.E. Burnside
March 20, 1866

“I feel satisfied that no one would bear higher testimony in behalf of the Christian Commission than myself…"

Vice Admiral D.G. Farragut
January 18, 1866