Annotation
[1] AES, Cherles Hemiton 1970. See LINCOLN to Joseph R. Smith, October 6, 1862, supra. LINCOLN's endorsement is written on a letter from Medical Inspector George Winfield Stipp to Townsend, June 22, 1863, asking that ``in consideration of my bad health . . . I may be assigned for duty, to the Department of Ohio, for a few months, in the hope & belief that a change of climate, water and diet, will aid materially, in restoring to me a measure of former health.'' Townsend referred the letter to Surgeon General Hammond, who recommended a leave of absence instead of the transfer, and on June 25 Townsend directed that a leave be granted. Lieutenant Colonel Stipp was assigned as medical inspector of the Department of the Gulf on December 19, 1863(OR, I, XXVI, I, 867).