May 9.—We are in daily expectation of a battle; and we are completely out of rags—a very necessary article at this time. We have just received two boxes, both from Mobile. The good people of that place could not have sent us any thing more acceptable. We also received a dispatch from there requesting transportation for some laundresses, who are coming on. We are much in need of them. There are numbers of poor people here, but many seem to be unfit for any thing. They are the most miserable looking beings I have ever met. Reading or writing with them is out of the question. I expect, if I were to ask them about education, they would scarcely know what I meant. I hope the people we see here are not a fair specimen of the poorer class of country people in Tennessee. I also received a letter from a relative, informing me that the military aid society had some medicines they would send us, if we needed them. I asked Dr. Patterson, and he replied that nothing would be more acceptable, as many of our men have died for want of them.
Strange to say that although the government does not provide near enough of medicines, it will not permit us to spend our hospital fund for them, and we find it impossible to spend what we have on edibles, as they are not to be bought.
