THATfrom the appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars “for providing for the comfort of discharged soldiers who may be landed at New Orleans or other places within the United States, so disabled by disease or by wounds received in the service as to be unable to proceed to their homes, and for forwarding destitute soldiers to their homes,” contained in an act making appropriations for the support of the army and of volunteers for the year ending thirtieth June, eighteen hundred and forty_eight, and for other purposes, approved second March, eighteen hundred and forty_seven, the Secretary of War be and he is hereby authorized to apply a sum not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars to the erection, at or near the United States barracks below New Orleans, of a wooden hospital commensurate with the probable wants of the service, also, of temporary quarters for the accommodation of United States troops and volunteers during their proper detention at that post when going to or returning from Mexico, and for the purchase of additional ground, if any shall be necessary, to execute advantageously the objects herein specified.