Today in History:

233 Series I Volume XLIX-I Serial 103 - Mobile Bay Campaign Part I

Page 233 THE MOBILE CAMPAIGN.

trenches. The weather during the whole period was fine, neither too hot nor too cold, with very little rain. Water and supplies were considerably abundant and good, and the general health of the command preserved the usual average. During the siege all men who were wounded were conveyed on stretchers or carried by hand to the medical depot in the rear of the trenches, whence, after the proper attention, they were transferred to the division field hospital farther in the rear, where the proper amount of water and shelter could be obtained. Each division hospital was capable of accommodating 200 men, and was provided with bunks, bed-sacks, or leaves, on which the wounded were placed. The wounded were almost daily transferred by steamer to the general hospitals at New Orleans, and at no time were the field hospitals crowded. Medical and hospital supplies were amply sufficient and provisions in reasonable quantity. There were the usual variety of gunshot and shell wounds. But few of the wounded died in hospital, and the whole number treated in the field hospitals was about 500.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. H. THOME,

Surgeon, U. S. Vols., Medical Director, Sixteenth Army Corps.

Colonel E. H. ABADIE,

Chief Medical Officer, Army and Div. of West Mississippi.


No. 43. Report of Brigadier General John McArthur, U. S. Army, commanding First Division, of operations March 19-April 9.


HDQRS. FIRST DIVISION, SIXTEENTH ARMY CORPS,
Near Blakely, Ala., April 12, 1865.

COLONEL: I have the honor to report the duty performed by my command during the campaign against Mobile, Ala., resulting in the capture of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely:

The division embarked on board transports, part going by se and part by way of Lake Pontchartrain, the whole command arriving at Fort Gaines, Dauphin Island, Ala., on the 7th ultimo. On the 19th again embarked on steamers and proceeded to the head of navigation on Fish River, where they debarked and entrenched their camp. On the morning of the 25th again moved forward in advance of the army, skirmishing and driving the enemy easily. Entrenched again for the night; moved again next day and encamped within three miles of Spanish Fort. One the morning of the 27th advanced on the fort, skirishing with the enemy and driving them into their works, taking a position about 400 yards from the fort, and constructed the first parallel of works, behind which the men encamped during the continuance of the siege. The Second Iowa Battery was put in position in a strong work constructed for it 400 yards from what was called the Red Fort; the Third Indiana Battery of Rodman guns in a work about 1,000 yards distant, and to the left of the Second Iowa. The brigades were in line according to their number from right to left, each commencing a sap toward the enemy's works, which were again united by a second parallel, from which a harassing fire was kept up on the enemy's works. The sap was again continued and pushed to within seventy-five yards of the fort, when an attack by the right brigade


Page 233 THE MOBILE CAMPAIGN.