a few days as a receiving ship for slight cases, and was then turned over to the quartermaster's department, the bedsteads, bedding, and hospital stores on board being transferred to the hospital. The boats of the medical purveyor were brought to the hospital wharf, and as no further necessity existed for the train of thirty-five wagons, the stores were placed on the purveyor's boats, and the wagons turned over to the quartermaster's department.

The hospitals at City Point were fairly organized and in good working order by the end of June. For a time they were overcrowded, the capacity of the hospital tents when properly filled amounting to 4,500 beds, while 6,000 men were present, as shown by the consolidated daily report annexed. Supplies and stores of all kinds were abundant, and the hospital quartermaster and commissary kept everything in their departments in good order. The cooking arrangements were ample and worked well. The extra diet kitchens were under the supervision of ladies, whose services in this manner were made available, and who were of much more use than when employed as nurses in the wards. The want of medical officers was great at first, but soon as it became evident that there would be a cessation of active movements of the army, six medical officers from each corps were sent to Dr. Dalton, and from this time (June 28) there was no further lack. Upon application of the medical director an order was issued by the provost-marshal-general directing that the negro women who should be brought within the lines of the army should be sent to the depot hospital to act as laundresses. The men employed as cooks and nurses in the depot hospitals were in part the regularly detailed attendants who came in with the trains, but by far the greater number were stragglers and malingerers, made useful by the surgeons as they came in. To obviate the evils arising from this practice, a detail of a sufficient number of attendants was obtained in the latter part of June. The water for the use of the hospitals was at first obtained from springs in the river bank; wells were afterward dug, and the water thus obtained was of excellent quantity. The weather was very hot and sultry, and the dust soon became a great nuisance in the hospitals. The main road from City Point to the front, by which all the supply trains moved, passed close to the hospitals, and clouds of dust were constantly settling over the tents. To obviate this a number of water-carts were procured, and the ground freely sprinkled. Screens and arbors of evergreens were also erected as fast as possible. The wounded suffered very little in their transit from the front, but their general health had been much impaired, and secondary hemorrhage, erysipelas, pyaemia, &c., were observed. Few or no cases of true hospital gangrene occurred, although there were a number of sloughing phagedenic wounds. Disinfectants were freely used, the sulphate of iron being the article preferred for the latrines. The police of the hospitals became bad during the first week, as the number of patients to be cared for was so great that every available man was required for nursing and to load the boats; a detail of dismounted cavalry was finally obtained, and the police improved rapidly. During the first week in July 3,000 iron bedsteads were obtained, and placed in the hospital. Two fire engines, two steam pumps, and a reservoir were also received and used. The supply of water was from that time abundant and convenient, and the plague of dust in a great measure abated. One hundred and sixty adult contrabands were kept employed in the hospitals as cooks, laundresses,