town was filled, and, being unfamiliar with the routine of military discipline, they could exercise no sufficient command or control over the soldiers.

The wounded from the front arrived, as a general rule, in very good condition, those in the trains of the 11th and 13th being excepted for reasons already stated. A large number of sick and slightly wounded, many of the latter self mutilated, did not go to the field hospitals nor accompany the regular trains, but straggled to Fredericksburg and thence to Belle Plain, relying upon the agents of the Sanitary Commission and other commissions for food, and keeping as much as possible out of the way of the medical officers. About 5,000 of these men were in Fredericksburg at different times, and to the tales invented by them for the purpose of exciting the compassion of citizens and strangers may be traced many of the false reports of suffering and destitution which for a time were prevalent at the North. Nearly all the slightly wounded passed directly through to Belle Plain, from which place they were sent to Washington as fast as boats could be procured, and at the rate of about 1,500 per day. From information received from Surg. R. O. Abbott, U. S. Army, medical director Department of Washington, it appears that 14,878 wounded had been received into the Washington hospitals by the evening of the 18th of May. About 600 malingerers and stragglers had also been received and turned over to the provost-marshal for safe keeping. These malingerers probably passed up in the first boats, succeeding in getting off by the aid of bloody bandages and judicious limping. After the first three days all men were carefully examined by a medical officer before they were allowed to pass on the boats.

Lieutenant-Colonel Cuyler, acting medical inspector-general, U. S. Army, came to Belle Plain with the first boats and remained directing operations at that point until all the wounded were sent away. A camp was formed of the sick and slightly wounded, and rations drawn for them by Colonel Cuyler, which were cooked and distributed by the Sanitary Commission. The obstacles to the removal of the more seriously wounded by way of Belle Plain were very great, and it would certainly have caused the death of a large number had the removal been attempted. The road between that point and Fredericksburg was to a considerable extent corduroy and very rough, nor could it be improved by any means then available. But one small wharf existed at Belle Plain, and over this all the supplies of the army had to be landed. These facts were duly represented to the authorities at Washington, and the more serious cases, such as compound fractures, & c., retained at Fredericksburg until the Rappahannock was rendered passable by gun-boats, which was effected by the 20th, and the railroad to Aquia Creek was put in running order, which was completed by the 22nd. Two light-draught steamers with barges were used to remove the wounded by the river, the larger hospital transports remaining below at Rappahannock, where the wounded were transferred to them. These hospital transports were the steamers Connecticut and State of Maine. They were completely fitted up with beds, cooking apparatus, and everything pertaining to the care and comfort of the sick.

The necessity for a large and complete hospital organization soon became apparent, and on the 15th requisitions were forwarded for 500 hospital tents and a corresponding amount of bedding and hos-