They are employed as nurses and attendants, both day and night, cooks, orderlies, clerks, in transferring the sick and wounded from ambulances and wagons to tents, and from tents to river transports; in pitching and policing tents, making temporary bedsteads, trenching the ground, digging wells, preparation of and cleaning sinks, filling and emptying bed-sacks, watering the avenues, cleaning the streets and alleys, erection of arbors, cutting and hauling of wood for kitchens, carrying provisions and supplies form the depots to the kitchens, unloading quartermaster's and subsistence stores from vessels and guarding the same; burying the dead, removal of offal and dead animals from the vicinity, both on land and water,&c. I am enabled to specify these various duties because the number of men, 770, appearing to be unnecessarily large, I examined the subject closely. I found that there were about 3,200 sick and wounded, and 900 tents, covering an area of several hundred acres, the police of which alone requires a large number of men, particularly in the absence of guards and sentinels, of which there are none now. The condition of the establishment, and my observation while in it, induce the belief that these duties are well performed, and that there are no idlers there. Indeed, a number of enlisted men having asked to be sent to their regiments for being, as they left, overworked, and being refused, left without permission. Stragglers and shirks are immediately turned over to the provost-marshal.

The concurrent opinion of all medical officers with whom I have conferred is against the employment of convalescents for hospital duty; while it is imperfectly performed, it retards their own complete recovery. My own observation shows this opinion to be correct. Few of the duties detailed above can be performed except by well and able-bodied men. It requires strength and activity to raise and carry wounded patients on stretchers from wagons to tents, and especially over the rugged and hilly road to the river transports; to pitch tents, to dig sinks, wells, and graves; to cut and haul wood, or even to raise a sick man to his bath, or to change his clothing in bed, particularly during the oppressive weather. Besides, some men would be found to have no fitness for such duties. This and experience should not be lost sight of in the employment of nurses and attendants.

The following table exhibits the number of sick and wounded in the six hospitals, and the name of the chief medical officer in charge of each, July 10, 1864:

R e m a i n i n g-

Sick. Wounded. Sick and Total.

wounded

officers.

Second Corps 679 85 11 775

Fifth Corps 365 90 --- 455

Sixth Corps 339 31 3 375

Ninth Corps 274 72 13 359

Cavalry 380 35 21 439

Colored 141 6 6 153

Total 2,178 319 54 2,551

Nurses,cooks,attendants, Surgeon in

guards,police-enlisted charge.

men.

Second Corps 278 Dr. Burmeister.

Fifth Corps 120 Dr. Faxon.

Sixth Corps 128 Dr. McDonald.

Ninth Corps 146 Dr. Wheeler.

Cavalry 83 Dr. Mitchell.

Colored 15 Dr. Tremaine.

Total 770

Remarks.-Since preparation of above the following numbers have arrived: Sixth Corps hospital, 295; Ninth Corps hospital,300; hospital