The United States Christian Commission was formed in 1861 to respond to soldiers’ needs after the First Battle of Bull Run. Five thousand volunteer delegates distributed millions of dollars’ worth of supplies to battlefields, camps, hospitals, and prisons. Walking among still-unburied soldiers and horses after the Battle of Gettysburg, A. C. Barber distributed tracts and writing paper to wounded Confederate soldiers, wrote letters to the relatives of those who had died in battle, and recorded his observations in this Christian Commission notebook. General Manuscripts Bound, no. 132, Manuscripts Division.

FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION: See this item’s catalog record.