from The Webster Times, Nov 8, 1862 (Volume IV # 35), 
Ladies Soldiers Aid Society

The Ladies Soldiers Aid Society of this town are busy in preparing and forwarding hospital stores. A second box has been sent within a few days, containing the following items:
30 towels,
28 handkerchiefs,
8 pairs thin pants,
2 pairs woolen pants,
5 thin coats,
12 vests,
14 pair drawers,
29 cotton shirts,
3 woolen shirts,
8 pairs pillow slips,
1 pillow,
10 cotton sheets,
12 pair slippers,
5 wrappers,
2 pairs thin socks,
5 quilts,
1 comfortable,
2 ¾ pounds of compresses,
18lbs. cotton pieces,
8lbs. bandages,
2lbs. lint,
2 papers corn starch,
2 papers farina,
2 boxes mustard,
2 boxes Cayenne,
4 papers ginger,
sugar,
tea,
Cocoa,
Castile soap,
crackers,
cranberries,
dried apples,
peanuts,
sponges,
six dozen combs,
magazines,
pamphlets,
newspapers, ect.
Estimated value-$114 dollars.

Concerning this box the following correspondence transpired:
Webster Mass. Oct 18, 1862
L. P. Rowland Jr.
Sir By direction of the Ladies Soldiers Aid Society of this town, I have forwarded to your address this day (by freight prepaid) a box of hospital stores containing the following articles (enumerated above). We have followed the suggestions given in the letters received from you last week, and hope our patriotic sick and wounded soldiers will be benefited by the articles contributed.
Please acknowledge the receipt of box.
very respectfully
Mrs, R D. Brown, Sec. 

(The Reply)

Mrs. F. D. Brown, Sec.&ect.
Dear Friend. I would hereby acknowledge the receipt of the box of hospital stores which your Association have sent; and can say in return, God will bless the donors .I can but wish that they might go with them and distribute them to our brave sick and wounded soldiers, and hear their expressions of gratitude. I can but wish that you could see the joy expressed in their faces as they receive these comforts. I have just returned from the field. I was in the field hospitals in and around the late great battlefield of Antietam, and I took with me some forty boxes of stores and distributed them personally to the sick and wounded men. that is what our Commission do, and this is where it differs from any other organization, in that we have our agents with the army, who distribute personally all that is sent out by us, never giving it to the officers to distribute. I wish you could have heard the “god bless you, my friend” “God will bless you” ect. that fell from the lips of dying soldier boys. Go on my friends, in this work; send what you can, all you can. We will use it well. You shall hear from me again. I am, Yours in Jesus Christ
L. P. Rowland Jr.
Sec. Christian Commission
P, S. Apples are plenty: can’t you send us some? Can’t you get the people together to cut and dry some?


[The above mentioned box was sent by the Christian Commission to Annapolis Md. and its receipt there acknowledged in the following letter.]

Annapolis Md. Nov. 4,1862
Mrs. F. D. Brown:
Dear Madam I am happy to comply with the request made by the ladies of your aid society in Webster. the box with duplicate invoice of hospital stores arrived today, and was welcomed by the soldiers, especially the clothing, woolen shirts, slippers wrappers, towels handkerchiefs, and nice things to tempt the appetite. Let me state that lint is not wanted. Bandages from two to four inches wide are desirable, but there is more lint than we shall need for the war, as but very little is used.
Woolen shirts, drawers, socks, pants, coats, vests, caps, wines, and articles of nourishment, are very much needed for the poor men, from one to five of them die daily. With many thanks to the good ladies of Webster and to Hon. Geo. H. Stewart, of the Christian Commission, for directing your noble donations to us, I close in great haste..
Yours Truly
H. C. Herries 
of U. S. A. General Hospital.

 

15th Massachusetts VI