but partially recovered from their great fatigue, the soldiers moved again with cheerful promptitude. The morale of the corps was admirable. Many of the regiments had belonged to the corps previous to its suspension; all were of more than two years' service, and had ordinarily been successful in battle. Most had fought in the same battles, so that a considerable degree of esprit de corps was manifest. The scorbutic taint existing in some regiments had nearly disappeared. The troops were of rebut, full habit, showing high health. The supply of ambulances, of hospital tents, and hospital wagons was in accordance with Order Numbers 24, headquarters Army and Division of West Mississippi. Regimental officers were instructed to keep medical supplies for thirty days constantly on hand. Each division hospital carried as large a supply of the articles usually required by the exigencies of battle as the amount of transportation would permit.

At the siege of Spanish Fort the troops of the corps were disposed in ravines and under the crests of hills at distances from the fort varying from 600 to 800 yards. The skirmish line was daily pressed forward and the working parties pushed in behind it. Until the soldiers covered themselves by bomb-proofs the wounds were principally from solid shot and shell. After the construction of covers and the pushing of skirmishers near the fort the number of proportion of casualties from artillery fire greatly decreased. The wounds received in the rifle pits and on the skirmish line were usually from ball; those in the trenches were nearly equally divided between musket and cannon shot. In the course of the siege several casualties occurred from the explosion of torpedoes buried at the crossing of the creek which passed through our lines, and after the occupation of the fort from those which were placed around it near the abatis and in the roads leading to the fort. The litters and litter-bearers were kept with the main line of troops, with which medical officers were always on duty. Those wounded in the trenches and at this reserve line were immediately carried off. Those wounded and the bodies of those killed at the skirmish line were left until dark and were then brought off. The fire from the rebel rifle-pits prevented any one from reaching the skirmish line or from returning from it except at night. After the first three days' operations of our line against Spanish Fort those killed on the field were buried in division burying grounds and the graves properly marked. At the suggestion of officers, immediately upon the closing in of the troops around the fort sinks were dug and attention paid to those sanitary precautions which might serve in the case of long siege to prevent or delay the appearance of those disorders which so frequently occur in the camps of besieging troops. The division ambulance trains were kept with their respective divisions, and a sufficient number of ambulances were stationed as near the camps as they could find shelter from the enemy's fire, which swept every hill and many of the ravines. The wounded were conveyed by ambulances from the field to the division hospitals, which at first, situated in rear of the line, were afterward pitched upon a hill on the extreme left of the line, on the road to Starke's Landing, where wounded were transferred to steamer, a point not more than two miles and a half from any portion of the line and in the vicinity of a plantation house surrounded by trees, where water of excellent quality and fuel were abundant. Bunks were made and filled with fine straw for the accommodation of the wounded, and when hay was received at Starke's Landing it was furnished to the hospitals by the quartermaster upon requisition, but arrived too late to be of service at this point. The division wagons furnished the hospitals an ample supply of beef extract, condensed milk, and stimulants.