Editing Frederick Law Olmsted (section)

===U.S. Sanitary Commission===
In 1861, Olmsted took leave as director of Central Park to work in Washington, D.C., as Executive Secretary of the [[U.S. Sanitary Commission]], a precursor to the [[Red Cross]]. He tended to the wounded during the [[American Civil War]]. In 1862, during Union General [[George B. McClellan]]'s [[Peninsula Campaign]], he headed the medical effort for the sick and wounded at [[White House (plantation)|White House]] plantation in [[New Kent County, Virginia|New Kent County]], which had a boat landing on the [[Pamunkey River]].

He was one of the six founding members of the [[Union League Club of New York]].

He helped to recruit and outfit three African-American regiments of the [[United States Colored Troops]] in New York City.{{Citation needed|date=March 2021}} He contributed to organizing a [[Sanitary Fair]], which raised one million dollars for the [[United States Sanitary Commission]].

He worked for the Sanitary Commission to the point of exhaustion: "Part of the problem was his need to maintain control over all aspects of the commission's work. He refused to delegate and he had an appetite for authority and power."<ref name="masur"/> By January 1863 a friend wrote: "Olmsted is in an unhappy, sick, sore mental state ... He works like a dog all day and sits up nearly all night ... works with steady, feverish intensity till four in the morning, sleeps on a sofa in his clothes, and breakfasts on strong coffee and pickles!!!"<ref name="masur"/> His overwork and lack of sleep led to his being in a perpetual state of irritability, which wore on the people with whom he worked: "Exhausted, ill and having lost the support of the men who put him in charge, Olmsted resigned on Sept. 1, 1863." Yet within a month he was on his way to California.<ref name="masur">{{cite web |url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/olmsteds-southern-landscapes/ |title=Olmsted's Southern Landscapes |last=Masur |first=Louis P. |date=July 9, 2011 |website=New York Times |access-date=September 20, 2018}}</ref>