arranged on the barge occupied by Lieutenant-Colonel Cuyler, acting medical inspector-general, U. S. Army, as his headquarters, lying alongside the wharf, ere the wagons were there to receive them. All the medical supplies that could be gotten up to the wharf (i. e., those loaded in barges) were there, immediately adjoining the barge of the Sanitary Commission.

To supply the immediate wants of the wounded, so far as this department was concerned, a hospital tent was pitched on shore in charge of a steward, and filled from the steamers and barges with such supplies as were most likely to be needed, and from which the surgeon in charge of the hospital established on shore could draw in small quantities.

Not having been ordered down to Belle Plain until a subsequent date, and Assistant Surgeon Jaquett, U. S. Army, occupying virtually the position of medical purveyor at the time of my arrival, having most of the stores under his charge, it is not my province to debate further upon the subject. I cannot refrain, however, in this connection from attesting to the efficiency of the chief of the medical department in forwarding such ample supplies for the relief of the wounded and the untiring zeal manifested by the medical officers and their assistants in the execution of the multiplied duties devolving upon them. No one who was not present to witness it in person can form an adequate conception of the scene presented, and the astonishment of all was, with the difficulties under which we labored and the limited transportation at hand, that supplies were received in so short a time and in such quantities at Fredericksburg. No blame, therefore, can justly be attached to the medical department for the seeming delay in receiving supplies at that point, as they were promptly on hand at Belle Plain, and in sufficient quantities to meet any demand.

Having remained at Belle Plain until the morning of May 19, I was ordered by Lieutenant-Colonel Cuyler, acting medical inspector-general, U. S. Army, to turn over what remained of my supplies to Assistant Surgeon Jaquett, U. S. Army, and report to the Acting Surgeon-General, U. S. Army, at Washington.

I left Belle Plain May 19 and reported to the Acting Surgeon-General May 20. The same night the steamer Planter was ordered to report to me, and instructions received to load her with all the supplies then in the warehouse in Alexandria. Two barges were also sent me to load such stores as could not be transported by steamer. In addition to the above another barge was procured and loaded exclusively with portions of a requisition made by Asst. Surg. J. B. Brinton, U. S. Army, medical purveyor, Army of the Potomac, May 17, 1864. An extract from a letter accompanying the requisition I here quote:

It is also desirable that he procure a barge and load it with 3,000 iron bedsteads or wooden cots, 3,000 mattresses, 10,000 sheets, 7,000 pillows, and 100 brooms, 400 rubber cushions with open center, 10,000 pillow-cases, 5,000 suits hospital clothing, 2,000 blankets, 3,000 counterpanes, 500 wooden buckets, 20 cauldrons, 12 cooking-stoves with furniture complete, 10 barrels of ferri sulphas for disinfectant purposes, 200 pounds cocoa or chocolate, 200 pounds corn starch, 100 dozen bottles porter, 600 pounds oakum, and 1,000 bed-sacks. The above supply to be on a separate boat, and not to be used unless the emergency requires, which emergency will be the establishment of hospitals.

Having completed the loading of the steamer and barges, I was ordered on the morning of May 26, to proceed to Port Royal, Rappahannock River, Va., where I arrived on the evening of the 28th;