On August 2, 1861, the Board of Assistant Aldermen proposed the appointment of a Volunteer Relief Committee to make a plan for the relief of the families of volunteers in the service of the Confederate Army. This was approved by the Board of Aldermen on August 7, 1861, as resolution #5726. Prior to this approval the Committee (composed of four members of each of the two aldermanic boards) met and issued a report on August 5. This report called for an appropriation of $10,000 to be used for the relief of needy families of volunteers absent or killed in the Confederate service. Special care was to be taken to insure that only the truly needy were entered on the books.

As hostilities progressed the initial funds were apparently exhausted and the Board of Aldermen, through its Finance Committee, sought new means of assisting the needy families. These efforts culminated on March 25, 1862 in the creation of a new committee organized on a ward basis to carry out functions similar to those of the original agency. This new body was called the Committee on Subsistence to Families of Volunteers. Presumably all such relief activities on behalf of Confederate families came to an end following the capture of the City by Federal forces.