delicate articles of food as our good people
supply _to the very bed-sides_ of the poor languishing soldiers, and
administering, with words of encouragement and sympathy, to their
pressing wants; such persons to co-operate with the surgeons in all
their efforts for the sick.' This plan of operations has been sanctioned
and adopted by the United States Christian Commission. There is one in
successful operation at Nashville, under the direction, I believe, of a
daughter of the Honorable J. K. Moorehead, of Pittsburg. The one here is
under the direction of Mrs. R. E. Conrad, of Keokuk, Iowa, and her two
sisters. They are doing a great and good work now in Knoxville. From
three to five hundred patients are thus daily supplied with delicate
food, who would otherwise have scarcely anything to eat. The success of
their labors has demonstrated beyond a doubt the practicability of the
plan of Mrs. Wittenmeyer. The good resulting from their arduous labor
proves that much can be done by these special efforts to rescue those
who are laid upon languishing beds of sickness and pain, and have passed
almost beyond the reach of ordinary means. The great need we have in
connection with these 'Diet Kitchens,' is the want of canned fruits,
jellies, preserves, etc. If our good people, who have already done so
much, will provide these necessary means, they will be distributed to
the most needy, and in such a way as to accomplish the most good."

The War Department is so well satisfied with the value of these Diet
Kitchens, in saving the lives of thousands of invalids, that it has
issued the following special Order:--

SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 362.

WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
WASHINGTON, D. C., _October 24, 1864_.
[EXTRACT.]

* * * * 56. Permission to visit the United States General
Hospitals, within the lines of the several Military Departments of
the United States, for the purpose of superintending the
preparation of food in the Special Diet Kitchens of the same, is
hereby granted Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer, Special Agent United States
Christian Commission, and such ladies as she may deem proper to
employ, by request of the United States surgeons. The
Quartermaster's Department will furnish the necessary
transportation.

BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR:
E. D. TOWNSEND,
_Assistant Adjutant-General._
OFFICIAL: