[Cover/wrapper. Docket endorsement, rotated:] [undecipherable] Dalcho / [undecipherable] May 1800 / [undecipherable] Secretary / by [undecipherable] — [Stamp:] Received from State Dep't. [undecipherable] Accts Samuel Hodgdon Esq. &c Superintendent of Ordnance, and Military Stores U. S. Philadelphia Fort Johnson — South Carolina 1^st May 1800. By the General orders, just issued, I observe that all the supplies for the Hospital Department are to be furnished by you — I therefore take the liberty of addressing you on the subject. I have been in the Army near eight years, four of which, I have served at this Post. I am now on the eve of retiring, to practice in Charleston and to establish there on a large scale, a Druggists Shop. — My drugs &c are already arrived from London — and as I have received them warranted, so it is my intention, to sell them genuine & unadulterated. — As I import them direct from Europe, I can afford them on as reasonable terms, as any person in this country. — The numerous complaints which have been made by the Physicians of Charleston against the drugs, usually sold there, and the observations I have made on them, in my own practice, with the recommendation of some of my Medical Friends, was among the first causes which induced me to form the establishment. Should I be so fortunate as to succeed in this application, I will pledge myself to you, to supply the best medicines, at as reasonable a price, as they can be procured from any shop in the Country. Medicine chests, with Surgical Instruments &c complete, I will put up in any form or size, agreeable to the orders I may receive, and warrant the contents to be genuines. — I have the honor to be Sir Your very humble and Obed. Serv.^t Fred.^k Dalcho. Samuel Hodgdon Esq^re