APPENDIX D.
See page [130].
Shortly after the battle of Fair Oaks, the new and vastly more provident, liberal, and wisely economical policy introduced into the medical service, with the appointment of Dr. Hammond as Surgeon-General, and of the new corps of Medical Inspectors, began to be felt in the army of the Potomac,—and although many of the agents necessary to the perfect success of that policy were unable at once to accommodate their habits to the required change, the Commission, scrupulously adhering to its purpose to do nothing which the properly responsible officials in any department evinced any readiness to do without its assistance, had the satisfaction of seeing the necessity for its special service, in connection with the hospital transports, grow gradually smaller and smaller. Under the dry, taciturn, and impenetrable manner, promising nothing, of the new Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, who, just after the battle of the Seven Days, relieved a predecessor of precisely the opposite qualities, was found to be concealed some influence by means of which whatever had before been impossible began to be thought possible, and to be tried for, after a few judicious dismissals had been made; and, after a few visits of influential friends to Governors and Senators in behalf of the dismissed had resulted in nothing but an incomprehensible failure of their purpose, the Commission's occupation was more than half gone with that army. But where so many agents are to be depended on, and such sudden new dispositions and reorganizations must be made, as after those terrible seven days, it is impossible that any demand of a large army should always be promptly and fully met. Anxiety for the well, that they might be saved from disease, soon outweighed anxiety lest the sick should not be tenderly cared for, and in more than one direction an opportunity was found to supply temporary deficiencies, which otherwise would have told severely upon the health of many thousand men. During the month after the army reached and intrenched itself on the James River, the vessels managed by the Commission probably did a better service in what they brought to the army, than in the comfort they secured to the sick who were sent away upon them. The following extracts will serve to give the reader a more complete understanding of its ruling spirit and purpose, and show its continued action to the time of the withdrawal of the army of the Potomac from the Peninsula.
(A.) Norfolk, June 30, 1862.—We were driven from White House Friday P. M.; arrived at Old Point yesterday. Being unable to get coal there, came here this evening. Shall coal to-night and leave at daybreak for Harrison's Bar, on James River, where the gunboats are said to be. We hope to get further up, but are advised by General Dix that we cannot safely attempt it at present.
(A.) Off Berkeley, James River, July 1, 1862.—We felt our way up the river slowly, and with some difficulty, having no pilot, and seeing no vessel under way after passing out of sight of Newport's News until we reached this point. Here there was a gunboat and three small steam-transports, each of which afterwards left, so that for a short time we were alone. Transports soon began to come up, however, and to-night there are a dozen or more about us.
We have Colonel ——, Colonel ——, and a few other wounded officers on board. They were sent to us by General McClellan's own ambulance, half an hour after we arrived. The General had been here, and left only as we were coming to the wharf. The officers he saw here converse with us freely, and we have had officers on board from most of the army corps, who have also talked, apparently without reserve, with us. Yet reports and opinions are so contradictory, that we are in singular uncertainty as to what has happened and as to what we have to expect
The officers and soldiers all show the influence of intense excitement; they acknowledge the gravest anxiety; they are terribly fatigued, yet generally seem in good spirits. They speak much of the bravery of the men.