Although Benjamin Rush was not part of the first Continental Congress, as the war with Britain dragged on, he knew he had to contribute to the cause. Signing as the head of the military hospital of the Middle Department of the Continental Army, he was shocked by the condition of the soldiers. Not well fed, dressed or cared for, young men were showing up at Rush's hospital with diseases that Rush believed were easily avoidable through competent leadership. Not only was the treatment of the soldiers inhumane in Rush's opinion, but the constant illness was overthrowing Army morale. Taking him to the top, Rush filed a complaint of negligence and maladministration against his superior, Dr. William Shippen, with own General George Washington. That did not go the way Rush hoped. Washington, in turn, sent the complaint to Congress, which cleared Shippen of any irregularities.
The Union originally wanted to reunite the country, but after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the Union goal changed to include the abolition of slavery. The Confederacy had the same goal throughout the war: to incorporate all slave states and secede from the Union, survive, and defend its territory.
The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for white settlement of their ancestral lands.
