in operations in a day; such is not the case. If there were a hospital corps, surgeons, matrons, attendants, &c., in reserve the task would not be so difficult as it is at present, as the only attendants given to hospitals are disabled and incompetent soldiers, and to these the line officers invariably object as well as to negroes. If there should be a deficiency of hospital accommodation for the sick and wounded of our armies on whom will the odium fall? Not, surely, on General Lee, but on the chief of the medical department. The want of hospitals was terribly felt in 1861, and I dare not assume the responsibility of having such scenes acted over again. Whenever it is to the interest of the service to close hospitals it has been done. At present it is not deemed advisable to discontinue any more.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. P. MOORE,

Surgeon-General, C. S. Army.

[Inclosure Numbers 1.]

CIRCULAR, SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE, C. S. ARMY, Numbers 134.
Richmond, Va., August 11, 1863.

The attention of the examining boards established by virtue of General Orders, Numbers 69, Confederate States Adjutant and Inspector General's Office, for the purpose of granting furloughs and recommending discharges to sick and wounded soldiers in hospital, will be specially called to paragraphs I and II of General Orders, Numbers 96, of July 8, 1863, from the Adjutant and Inspector-General's Office, and they are hereafter required to examine, at least once in each month, all enlisted men (exclusive of hospital stewards appointed by the Secretary of War) who have been detailed for any duty in hospital, and all white males subject to conscription who may be therein employed, and will return for duty to their commands, or will report to the enrolling officer for conscription, all such as are not positively disqualified for field service. A special report of all such thus found capable of bearing arms will be made monthly to this office.

S. P. MOORE,

Surgeon-General, C. S. Army.

[Inclosure Numbers 2.]

SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE, C. S. ARMY,

Richmond, Va., January 25, 1864.

Surg. WILLIAM A. CARRINGTON,

Medical Director, Richmond:

SIR: Owing to the exigencies of the service, the following-named hospitals in Richmond will be temporarily closed and the patients transferred to the hospitals herein designated: General Hospital Numbers 1 and Winder Hospital, patients to be transferred to Jackson Hospital; Howard's Grove Hospital, patients to be transferred to Chimborazo. The property pertaining to these hospitals (Numbers 1, Winder, and Howard's Grove) will be carefully examined, and such repairs made as are necessary, and packed away for future use at the respective hospitals, placed in charge of a guard under the direction of the surgeons in charge of those hospitals. You are instructed to communicate with Colonel Stevens and ascertain if he can employ the negroes now in the hospitals about to be temporarily closed on