overnment, the Red Cross, up to September 1st, furnished the greater
part of the hospital equipment. As the several heads of divisions have
said to me again and again. "The hospitals never could have equipped
themselves from their ration fund. They would have broken down utterly
without the aid of the Red Cross."

We have spent here over thirteen thousand dollars in cash for hospital
equipment and supplies of various kinds, including ice and milk, in
addition to the large quantities of goods sent from New York the cost of
which we do not know. And with all this, the need has not been met as
fully or as promptly as it should have been. The number of the sick
increased so greatly beyond the expectations of the officers in charge
that the supply has never, for any considerable time, been equal to the
demand. Even now, when the government has allowed sixty cents a day for
each patient in the hospital, and has recently so extended the order as
to include regimental as well as division hospitals, there is still
continuous appeal to the Red Cross for a variety of things, which those
in charge of the hospital fund do not feel warranted in buying, and as
yet few of the regiments have gotten their hospitals into shape to ask
for anything. As they move to Savannah in a few days, they will not be
in condition to draw any money for weeks to come. It is very fortunate
therefore, that your committee has seen fit to grant our last
requisition, for the goods you have shipped will be of great benefit to
the soldiers on their way to Cuba.

I have omitted to state that a most important part of the work of the
Red Cross has been the supplying of ice for the purpose of cooling the
drinking water of the camps. Our ice bills for camp and hospitals, at an
average of thirty-five cents per hundred pounds have been over six
thousand dollars, the Second Division hospital alone often consuming
from four to five tons a day. Our milk bills were also large, averaging
for some time over five hundred dollars a week, at a cost of forty cents
a gall