<P> In addition to setting up and staffing hospitals, the USSC operated 30 soldiers' homes, lodges, or rest houses for traveling or disabled Union soldiers . Most of these closed shortly after the war . </P> <P> Also active in the association was Colonel Leavitt Hunt, (1831 - 1907), a New York lawyer and pioneering photographer . In January 1864, he wrote to 16th President Abraham Lincoln's secretary John George Nicolay asking that Nicolay forward him any documents he might have available with the President's signature . Hunt's mother, the widow of Vermont congressman Jonathan Hunt, planned to attach Lincoln's signature to copies of several casts of the President's hand, to be sold to raise funds for the war effort . Other fund raising events included the famous 50 pound sack of flour that was auctioned off by Reuel Colt Gridley . By auctioning off the same sack of flour, which was then re-donated to be sold again, Gridley eventually raised more than $250,000.00 for the Sanitary Commission . </P> <P> States could use their own tax money to supplement the Commission's work, as Ohio did . Under the energetic leadership of Governor David Tod, a War Democrat who won office on a coalition "Union Party" ticket with Republicans, Ohio acted vigorously . Following the unexpected carnage at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, it sent three steamboats to the scene as floating hospitals with doctors, nurses and medical supplies . The state fleet expanded to eleven hospital ships . The state also set up 12 local offices in main transportation nodes to help Ohio soldiers moving back and forth . </P> <P> The government constructed the Pension Building in Washington, DC to handle all the staff to process the pension requests and administer them . It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places . After the war, the USSC volunteers continued to work with Union Army veterans to secure their bounties, back pay, and apply for pensions . It supported the "health and hygiene" of the veterans . They had a Department of General Relief which accepted donations for veterans, too . The USSC organization was finally disbanded in May 1866 . </P>

Which of the following describes the purpose of the u.s. sanitary commission