Surgeon-General will be necessary. It was my intention to ask for the appointment of Dr. John Neill, of Philapdephia, as brigade surgeon, and to place him in charge of the whole Philadelphia establishment, giving him for assistants a suitable number of young physicians, to be employed by contract. These can be procured in Philadelphia at $50 per month each. The economy and efficiency of the whole arrangement I hope will be perceived. * * *

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

CHAS. S. TRIPLER,

Surgeon and Medical Director Army of the Potomac.

General S. WILLIAMS,

Assistant Adjutant-General, Army of the Potomac.

[Appendix K.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
Medical Director's Office, January 28, 1862.

GENERAL: In obedience to instructions in your letter of January 21 I have the honor to submit the following report:

Having the reports of the inspectors of hospitals as to the sanitary condition of nearly all the divisions of the army in this vicinity, showing their conditions at periods varying from December 5 to the present date, and having also the weekly reports of the brigade surgeons of nearly all the brigades up to January 18, for the purpose of laying before the general what I conceive to be the true state of the hospitals of this army, I hasten to present this letter in anticipation of the completion of all the inspections ordered. The importance of the subject seems to me to demand this, in order to allay unnecessary apprehensions and to afford an opportunity for correcting certain existing irregularities, as well as to offer suggestions as to the means of preventing as far as practicable any increase of disease during the winter and spring.

I am able from the reports in my hands to compare the true sick lists in brigades with those sent in to the Adjutant-General's Office. Among the brigades to which my attention was directed are the following. I arrange them in tabular form, to show how widely the reports of the brigade surgeons differ from those in the table appended to your letter:

Brigades. General Brigade Date.

Williams' surgeon's

table, January report.

10.

Per cent. Per cent.

Slocum's 14.34 6.8 January 21

Howard's 12.44 9.3 January 18

Richardson's 11.19 6.7 January 18

Jameson's 10.95 6.4 January 18

French's 9.6 6.3 January 11

Morell's 9.17 3.4 January 18

Hancock's 17.1 10.9 January 18

Brooks' 29.75 14.52 January 11

Brannan's 9.36 5.82 January 11

Steinwehr's 11.8 5.2 January 18

Palmer's 12.56 6.5 January 22

Sykes' 9.95 6.5 January 25

.

The above are sufficient for my present purpose, which is to show