{"value"=>"<p>This series contains the combined \"letter of inquiry\" files compiled by the Washington Hospital Directory (1862-1865) and the New York Hospital Directory (1863 March-1864 February) in the course of investigating the location and status of over 9,000 soldiers and other individuals. The files include the following documents: letters or telegrams from families, friends, or other persons asking the Hospital Directory for confirmation of an individual's location, condition or death; staff notes recording an inquiry; USSC printed forms requesting information from regimental officers or surgeons, filled out and returned; and Adjutant General's Office printed forms regarding checks of enlistment and regimental rolls, as filled out by the USSC or AGO, with response by the AGO. The files may also contain Hospital Directory staff correspondence and telegrams regarding the search, and communications from officers, fellow soldiers, surgeons, chaplains, and other government, military or medical personnel concerning the individual. The files include inquiries received by both offices from the Philadelphia and Louisville Hospital Directories, and from each other. Over one-third of the files present concern soldiers from New York volunteer regiments.</p> <p>Most of the files are found in subseries \"Numbered Series, 1863-1865.\" In early 1863, the Washington Hospital Directory began assigning numbers to applications for information received in person which could not be answered by immediate consultation of the Directory registers, or which were received by mail or telegram (\"letters of inquiry\"). While the Washington Hospital Directory originally maintained its files in numerical order, the files are currently arranged chronologically by year and then alphabetically by surname. Files have been placed in individual folders with identifying information noted on the front. Many files contain attached documentation on more than one individual; those persons have been identified on the folder. Occasionally a brief list of inquiries for interoffice checking is found attached to an inquiry. Those names have not been recorded. The 1863 files may contain some early unnumbered letters of inquiry.</p> <p>The Inquiry files also contain individual inquiries for multiple persons from one unit or state, endorsed as \"Sundry Names\" or by state or regimental identification (\"16 Men of the 5th New York Cavalry\"). Those inquiries have been separated and will be found in subseries \"Sundry Names.\" Identified additionally by state and/or unit affiliation, the files are arranged chronologically by year, and alphabetically by state.</p> <p>Inquiries for late 1862-early 1863 were received by the office before the system of numbering inquiries was established, or printed forms were developed for correspondence with military officials. These unnumbered letters of inquiry and those from the closing months of the Washington Hospital Directory can be found in subseries \"Unnumbered Series, 1862-1865.\" These are arranged in chronological order by year(s), and then alphabetically by surname. Whenever possible, any unnumbered inquiry relating to a numbered file has been placed in that folder.</p> <p>The files are comprehensive, but apparently not complete. Athough the files include roughly 9,300 names, the register and index volumes of applications for the Washington office, which numbered inquiries received from other offices as well as their own, reach 9,538. The Washington Hospital Directory Archives also contain New York office letters of inquiry which were not forwarded to Washington.</p> <p>All letter of inquiry files in the Washington Hospital Directory records, whether numbered or unnumbered, have been indexed and entered into a searchable database, with the exception of a small number of \"additions\" (during 2013 processing) as noted. \"Sundry Names\" entries, which include state and/or unit designation, have also been entered.</p> <p>Readers will need to consult the database in order to identify all relevant files for an individual or unit (with the above exceptions) before requesting boxes. The box list for this series includes only the first individual listed on a file for multiple individuals, or the phrase \"Sundry Names.\"</p> <p>Arrangement Note:</p> <p>In a later 19th century arrangement, the 1863 records were sorted chronologically by year and alphabetically by surname. Records for 1864-1865 were sorted by first letter of the surname and then by month. In the present arrangement, all documents follow the 1863 sorting.</p>"}