cious, endangering the lives of those who might otherwise recover. The houses occupied as hospitals could have been retained, and surgeons detailed to wait on them until recovery had so far advanced as to render removal comparatively safe. The hurry of moving, the necessary or careless displacement of dressings, the pain inflicted by incessant jarring must add fearfully to the already dangerous condition of the wounded. If necessary, surgeons and nurses in sufficient numbers would volunteer to render every service to those who were injured in defense of their government. Had dangers of an attack or of falling into the enemy's hands existed, the necessity of removal would have been imperative, but no such danger existed. It is greatly to be feared that the mortality will be fearfully increased, more especially when steamboats crowded with the wounded, as was the case with the steamer Tuts, were sent off without a single surgeon. Dressings would necessarily be displaced, requiring immediate readjustment, and secondary hemorrhage likely to occur, which is always alarming, and especially when the patient is in motion. There were surgeons belonging to this division anxious to attend the wounded on their perilous journey whose services would have been cheerfully dispensed with by their regiments, but they were refused, and ordered to join their regiments, and the wounded sent without medical attention. Imperative duty compels me to report these facts, unpleasant though it be. That they were suffered to occur can be attributed alone to incapacity or willful neglect on the part of those having charge.

Most of the forenoon on the day of battle I was busily engaged at the hospital on the extreme right, in a narrow valley near the scene of action, where the wounded from General McClernand's division were rapidly crowding in. Here the slightly wounded, the mangled, the dying, and the dead presented a scene which baffles description; and, adding to the difficulties and dangers of our position, hundreds of armed soldiers rushed in, and remained until a volley of musketry from the enemy caused them to seek other and safer quarters.

It was my fortune to administer to Lieutenant-Colonels White and Erwin, of the Eleventh and Thirty-first Illinois Regiments, in their last moments. They died without a murmur and without a struggle - Colonel White, if I mistake not, from a shot in the neck, and Colonel Erwin, in the side. When the hospital was fired on, Surgeon Thompson, of Illinois, and myself retired, with all the wounded that could be moved, to hospitals farther in the rear. Since the surrender, officers of the rebel army have informed me that the fire on the hospital was accidental and ceased the moment the flag was seen. About noon I established a general hospital on the extreme left, in the headquarters of General Grant, who very kindly and generously offered them for that purpose. Notwithstanding the abundant supply of hospital stores which the medical director informed me were on hand, nothing was sent us, neither medicine nor food, neither bandage nor plaster. The field service of the surgeons and such articles as could be pressed into service constituted our supply, and the little food obtained was secured by dint of perseverance from regimental quartermasters. That hospital stores and provisions were not supplied under such circumstances involves criminal neglect or incapacity on the part of those in charge of this department.

Kind and careful attention to the wounded soldier is a high and most sacred duty. Surgeon Sexton, of [52d] Indiana Regiment, and Assistant Surgeon Christy, of the Thirty-second Illinois, were aiding me at the hospital. Surgeon Marsh, of the Second Iowa, and Assistant Sur-