of war. Whoever has at any time had a sick or wounded friend
in the army knows how difficult it often is to obtain any intelligence
about him. I have in mind a poor woman, who exhausted every resource in
seeking to ascertain the whereabouts of a sick son, and who never
received any tidings of him, until one day, months after, he came home,
worn-out and broken, to die. The regiment is in active service and
passes on, while the sick man goes back. He has several transfers,
too,--first to the corps hospital on the field, then to the army
hospital at City Point, then to Washington, and very possibly again to
some hospital in Baltimore, Philadelphia, or other city or town farther
north, and on that account believed to be more healthy. Meanwhile, amid
all these changes, the man may be delirious, or from some other cause
unable to communicate with his friends. How shall they get information?
The Commission undertakes to keep a correct list of all the sick and
wounded men who are in regular hospitals. They obtain their information
from the official returns of the surgeons. I do not mean to say that
these lists are absolutely correct. They approximate as nearly to
correctness as they ever can, until surgeons are perfectly prompt and
careful in their reports.

The amount of work done is very great. Seven hundred thousand names have
been recorded in this Directory, between October, 1862, and July, 1864.
From ten to twenty-five applications for information are made each day
by letter, and from one hundred to two hundred and fifty personally or
through the various State agencies. Branch offices, working upon a
similar plan, have been established at Louisville and elsewhere.

* * * * *

The subject of assistance to regular hospitals may be despatched in a
few words,--not because the gifts are insignificant, but because the
method of giving is so regular and easy to explain. Whenever the surgeon
of any hospital needs articles which are extras, and so not supplied by
the Government, or which, if allowed, the Government is deficient in at
the time, he makes a requisition upon the Commission; and if his
requisition is deemed to be a reasonable one, it is approved, and the
goods delivered on his receipt for the same. As to the amount given, I
can only say that something is sent almost every day even to the
hospitals near Washington and the great cities, and that the amount
bestowed increases just in propo