respectfully recommend that the bread and meat rations be increased, or that the order for the march should prescribe a certain number of camp-kettles to be carried by hand by each company, sufficient to make coffee and soup in.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN P. HAWKINS,

First Lieutenant, Second Infantry, A. C. S.

Captain H. F. CLARKE,

Commissary of Subsistence, Washington, D. C.

Numbers 14. Report of Surg. William S. King, U. S. Army, Medical Director.

ARLINGTON, DEP'T NORTHEASTERN VIRGINIA,

July 26, 1861.

SIR: Being chief of the medical staff serving with the Army in the Department of Northeastern Virginia, I have the honor to make the following report of so much of the results of the action on the 21st at Bull un as came within my charge. As the officers of the medical staff were attached to the different regiments and on duty with them, I deemed it proper to remain with and accompany the general commanding and staff from the beginning to the termination of the battle, in order that I might be present if any were wounded, and also that I might be enabled to visit in this way every part of the field where the killed and wounded might be found.

After the action had fairly commenced and the wounded and the dead were seen lying on the field in every direction, I dispatched Assist. Surg. D. L. Magruder to the rear, with directions to prepare a church (which I had observed as we passed before arriving at the scene of action) for the reception of our wounded, and also to send the ambulances forward as rapidly as possible to pick up the wounded and dead. In a very few minutes the ambulances made their appearance, and continued throughout the day to visit every part of the ground which was accessible, so as to be within reach of those parts of the field where the fighting was going on and wounded were to be found. It is due to the ambulance drivers to say that they performed their duties efficiently, and the results of their operations also show how absolutely necessary these means of conveyance are to the comfort and relief of the wounded, in giving them shelter and water when ready to perish with heat and thirst. By means of the ambulances also the men who go to the relief of their wounded comrades are separated but a short time from their companies, as, having deposited them in the ambulances, they can return to their proper positions.

As the general commanding visited almost every part of the ground during the conflict, with a view to encourage or direct the movements of the troops, my position as a member of his staff gave me every opportunity of seeing the results of the action. I therefore embraced the opportunity thus offered to give directions when needed to the drivers of the ambulances where to find the dead and wounded, and also to those carrying off the wounded where they could find the needed conveyances. The stretcher were found very useful and comfortable to the wounded, and were in constant requisition, conveying them to the nearest ambulances.