Sanitary Commission, Washington, D. C.
Treasury Building, Aug. 17th, 1861.
Miss Woolsey: In absence of Mr. Olmsted I answer your note in regard to supplies for the 25th N. Y. We will give immediate attention to this Regiment, and will gladly furnish them any supplies we have on hand for their comfort. There are now no beds or cases to fill with straw in the store-room of the Commission (but very few have ever been sent in). Mr. Olmsted, however, has sent for two hundred to be forwarded from New York as soon as possible, and when these arrive a supply shall be furnished to the 25th.
It has been the endeavor of the Secretary to send notice of the existence and objects of the Commission to the surgeon of each regiment: it may not have reached some, but the visits of the inspectors, now in progress, will ensure this notice to all.
Mr. Olmsted wishes to make the Regimental Hospital comfortable, but not to induce the regimental surgeons to retain patients who ought to be sent to the General Hospital.
I am glad to be able to add, that there is a reasonable prospect that a new General Hospital will be immediately established in or near Alexandria for the sick of the regiments in that vicinity.
Pardon haste,
With sincere regards,
Your obedient servant,
F. N. KNAPP, for
Fred’k Law Olmsted.