explained to the public that the Sanitary
Commission acted in aid of, and not in opposition to the government.

In January, 1863, all supplies had been exhausted by the battles of
Antietam and Fredericksburg. Everything was again needed. An able letter
of inquiry to secretaries of the auxiliary societies with a preliminary
statement of important facts, was drawn up by Miss Louisa L. Schuyler,
and issued in pamphlet form. Two hundred and thirty-five replies were
received, (all to be read)! which were for the most part favorable to
the Sanitary Commission with its Federal principle as a medium, and all
breathed the purest patriotism.

In February, the plan of "Associate Managers" borrowed from the Boston
branch was adopted. Miss Schuyler assumed the whole labor. It was a
division of the tributary states into sections, an associate manager to
each, who should supervise, control and stimulate every aid-society in
her section, going from village to village, and organizing, if need be,
as she went. She should hold a friendly correspondence monthly, with the
committee on correspondence (now separated from that on supplies)
besides sending an official monthly report. To ascertain the right
woman, one who should combine the talent, energy, tact and social
influence for this severe field, was the difficult preliminary step.
Then, to gain her consent, to instruct, and to place her in relations
with the auxiliaries, involved an amount of correspondence truly
frightful. It was done. Yet, in one sense, it was never done; for up to
the close, innumerable little rills from "pastures new" were guided on
to the great stream. The experience of every associate manager, endeared
to the Woman's Central through the closest sympathy would be a rare
record.

An elaborate and useful set of books was arranged by Miss Schuyler in
furtherance of the work of the committee "on correspondence, and
diffusion of information." Lecturers were also to be obtained by this
committee, and this involved much forethought and preparation of the
field. Three hundred and sixty-nine lectures were delivered upon the
work of the Sanitary Commission, by nine gentlemen.

State agencies made great confusion in the hospitals. The Sanitary
Commission was censured for employing paid agents, and its board of
officers even, was accused of receiving salaries. Its agents were abused
for wastefulness, as if the frugality so proper in health, were not
improper in sickness. R