possible, representation of the facts was made to the Surgeon-General, and the following order was soon after issued by the War Department:

GENERAL ORDERS,
WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Numbers 222.
Washington, July 4, 1864.

Medical directors of armies in the field are authorized to employ, under contract, as acting staff surgeons, regimental surgeons of two years' experience, who are specially recommended by their medical directors, and whose term of service has expired. The rate of compensation will be the same as pay and emoluments of regimental surgeons, with use of one public horse and equipments and forage for the same.

By order of the Secretary of War:

E. D. TOWNSEND,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

Very few surgeons, however, were found willing to accept contracts upon the terms above given, as those whose services were really valuable could obtain a larger income by private practice, and all wished to visit their friends and families. During the evening of the 26th, the Second Corps moved to the north side of the James. A large number of sick (538) were sent to City Point in the morning, the most of them being slight cases, but such as were thought by the medical officers to be incapable of making a forced march, and they were sent to the depot hospital to remain until the movement of the Second Corps should have been accomplished. Twenty ambulances followed each division during the movement, and were speedily filled with exhausted men, the number of stragglers being very large. A temporary hospital was established on the north bank near the pontoon bridge, where the few men wounded in the morning of the 27th at Strawberry Plains were dressed and operated upon. The wounded during the day were removed to the south bank, where complete field hospitals were established, and on the 28th they were taken to City Point by the quartermaster's transport Iolas, the total number being 64. The corps returned during the night of the 29th, and its hospitals were established around the Burchett house. As soon as it was known that the line in front of the Ninth Corps would be sprung, and an assault made on the morning of the 30th of July, the ambulances of the Sixth Corps, which had been left in part near City Point when the corps moved off on the 9th, were ordered up and stationed in rear of the Fifth Corps, and preparations were made to remove the wounded as rapidly as possible when the engagement should commence. For the first two hours after the assault, however, very few wounded could be brought in, as the covered ways leading to the front were blocked up by the supporting columns of troops, and only a part of the wounded were brought in from the field before the ground was abandoned to the enemy. The total number of wounded collected and brought in to the field hospitals from this affair was as follows:

Second Army Corps....................................... 27

Fifth Army Corps........................................ 34

Ninth Army Corps........................................ 1,435

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Total................................................... 1,496

Depot field hospitals of the army, near City Point.-When the boats and barges containing the depot hospital organization from White House arrived at City Point on the morning of the 18th of June, everything was found in confusion. The construction of