CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA,

SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE, WAR DEPARTMENT,

Richmond, Va., August 6, 1864.

Surg. Joseph Jones is directed to institute an extended investigation upon the causes, pathology, and treatment of fevers and the relations of climate and soil to disease.

Surg. Joseph Jones will visit those parts of the Confederate States and prosecute his investigations in those cities, armies, and regimental and general hospitals which he may deem necessary as affording suitable fields of the establishment of the results indicated in this order.

Medical directories of the field and hospitals and chief surgeons of corps, divisions, districts, and brigades, and surgeons and assistant surgeons of regiments and general hospitals will afford every facility to Surgeon Jones to carry out these instructions, and will respond, as far as possible, to his inquiries by letter and circular, and will furnish him with copies of all field and hospital reports which he may deem necessary for the illustration of the subjects of inquiry indicated in this order.

Surgeon Jones will embody the results of his labors relating to the diseases of the Confederate Army in substantial volumes, and will deposit them in the Surgeon-General's Office for the use of the Medical Department of the Confederate Army. *

S. P. MOORE,

Surgeon-General C. S. Army.

CHIEF SURGEON'S OFFICE,

Andersonville, Ga., August 6, 1864.

Brigadier General JOHN H. WINDER:

GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the sanitary condition of C. S. military prison:

Medical topography of the station. - The location is high and well drained, the soil light and sandy. Near the stockade, in a southward direction, is a creek whose margins are muddy and boggy. Through the center of the stockade passes a smaller stream of similar character. The condition is favorable to the development of malarious diseases, but the report of sick and wounded for the month of July exhibits a small ratio of this class of disease. Out of 10,621 cases treated only 505 are of a malarious character. This cause appears to have acted more on the garrison than on the prisoners. Out of 1,603 cases treated 145 malarious diseases are reported.

The climate. - The climate is hot, and the prisoners coming from a much higher latitude have been influenced greatly by this agency.

Nature of barracks and hospital accommodations. - The prisoners are without barracks or tents, 30,000 men being densely crowded together, sheltered only by blankets and low hovels densely and irregularly arranged, preventing free circulation, engendering foul and noxious vapors, and precluding any system of police. The men are exposed during the day to the rays of the sun and to dews at night, and many are unprotected during the rains. The hospital accommodations are utterly inadequate to accommodate the large number of sick. The hospital is located in a grove on the banks of the creek, southeastward from the

---------------

* See "Observations, &c.," published at the end of May, 1865, Vol. VIII, this series, and Jones to Moore, October 19, p. 1012.

---------------