about 10.30 p. m. of the 16th instant, where he encountered the enemy and halted until daylight, before which time Lee withdrew.

Being obliged to keep my picket-line established I was able to take but 2,100 men of the Second Division and 700 of Kautz's. General Kautz recovered some fifty head of cattle left on the road.

As soon as received I will forward nominal lists of casualties, which have been called for.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. E. DAVIES, JR.,

Brigadier-General of Volunteers, Commanding Second Division.

Major General A. A. HUMPHREYS,

Chief of Staff, Army of the Potomac.

Numbers 231. Report of Asst. Surg. Elias J. Marsh, U. S. Army, Surgeon-in-Chief, of operations July 30-December 12.*

During the night [July 30] the whole division moved back toward Prince George Court-House, at which place the Second Brigade went into camp, while the First Brigade encamped between this place and Lee's Mill. The wounded were sent to City Point. We remained here until August 5, when we moved back to our old camp near Light-House Point. At Prince George I established a temporary hospital, under Surgeon Weidman, using the tent-flies which I had in the ambulances, and having others as well as more hospital stores brought up from the train. On August 5, when we moved, I had all the patients, forty-five in number, sent to City Point. At this time the First and Third Divisions of the Cavalry Corps were sent to the Shenandoah Valley, leaving this the only cavalry division in the Army of the Potomac. After going into camp near Light-House Point I undertook to organize a permanent division hospital, as during the previous part of the campaign merely temporary ones had been established after every battle. On cavalry marches and expeditions, medical supply wagons are rarely taken along, and we are obliged to rely on such shelter and supplies as can be extemporized or carried in ambulances. It had been customary to have a hospital at the most convenient base for the entire corps, and organized as the Cavalry Corps hospital. This had hitherto been under the charge of Surg. S. B. W. Mitchell, Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and during the present season had been converted into aa depot hospital at City Point. I determined, therefore, to organize a division hospital for service in the field. I found on hand eleven hospital tents, and the usual supplies for two brigades, but none especially appropriate for a hospital. By direction of the general commanding the division, I located the hospital near cavalry depot, as this would be a comparatively permanent camp and not subject to the frequent movements of the rest of the division. I selected a large open plain about half a mile back from the river. The ground was sodded, flat, though admitting of drainage, and surrounded by woods, but sufficiently open to allow fresh breezes. Cavalry depot was on James River at the mouth of Bailey's Creek and about two miles below City Point; the depot was organized to receive all the dismounted men of

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*For potion of report here omitted, see Vol. XL, Part I, p.616.

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