Hospital Perplexity.
— To add to other troubles, amid the confusion of this great army of
sick, it is almost impossible for a stranger to find any friend or relative, unless he has the patient's
address to start upon. Besides the directory printed in the newspapers here, there are one or two
general directories of the Hospitals kept at Provost's headquarters, but they are nothing like
complete; they are never up to date, and, as things are, with the daily streams of coming and
going and changing, cannot be. (I have known cases, for instance, such as a farmer coming here
from Northern New York to find a wounded brother, faithfully hunting round for a week, and
then compell'd to leave and go home without getting any trace of him. When he got home he
found a letter from the brother giving the right address in a hospital in Seventh street here.)
