Louisiana,
Knickerbocker.
Sailing vessels adapted to be used as Stationary Hospitals,
or to be towed outside.
St. Mark,
Euterpe.
The aggregate capacity of these vessels is equal to the accommodation of four thousand (4,000) patients, and may be increased to five thousand (5,000) if the necessity is urgent.
From the time a boat leaves, until she can be prepared to leave again,—
| will be, if she runs | to New York, | 7 days, |
| " " " | to Philadelphia, | 6 days, |
| " " " | to Washington, | 4 days, |
| " " " | to Annapolis, | 4 days, |
| " " " | to Baltimore, | 4 days, |
| " " " | to Old Point, | 2 days. |
If, in the event of a general engagement, all the wounded sent from White House are taken to the nearest hospitals, until these are full, there will be occupation for but few of the boats; four of them, for instance, would take seven hundred (700) a day to Fortress Monroe continuously. Having filled the nearer hospitals, however, all the vessels would be insufficient to sustain a continuous movement to those more distant. Moreover, most of the transports are unfit to convey patients to the most distant hospitals. It is, therefore, necessary that the business should be so arranged that transports may, from the beginning, run both to the nearer and the more distant hospitals, and that the limited number of sea-going vessels should be run only to the distant seaports.
To accomplish this, I suggest that the different transports be formed into lines, as follows:—