April 30, I ordered the assistant medical purveyor to discontinue his sub-depot at Burke's Station, and proceed with train and supplies to City Point and report to Medical Purveyor Brinton. The Sixth Corps was then at Danville, where it remained some time. Other corps of the army marched for Alexandria early in May.

The depot hospital Army of the Potomac, at City Point, was ordered to be reduced 2,500 beds April 30, and to be moved to Alexandria May 4, and again to be finally discontinued May 25. After the cases had been properly disposed of (by transfer to general hospital in Washington, and to Alexandria for discharge from service) the establishment ceased to exist. The purveying department, which was reduced in May, was terminated and the property turned in at Washington in June. The contracts of acting assistant and acting staff surgeons were canceled on the breaking up of the army. On the 30th of June, 1865, the Army of the Potomac ceased to exist as an organization.

The non-receipt of many sub-reports makes this necessarily incomplete. As I may be unable hereafter to give proper attention to the subject, I deem it advisable not to delay rendering what is now available.

Of the hospital fund in my hands, accruing from tax on the sales of newspapers in the Army of the Potomac, I have applied to the purchase of luxuries for the hospitals and necessary articles for the transactions of the business of the medical department since last report, $5,070.35. The amount received from such tax since June 1, 1865, has been $6,384. On hand December 31, 1864, last report, $9,025.04. The balance remaining in my hands upon breaking up of the Army of the Potomac, June 29, 1865, $10,339.04. This balance, pursuant to proceedings and recommendations of the Board appointed by Special Orders, No. 163, headquarters Army of the Potomac, approved by the commanding general, was turned over by me July 1, 1865, to the Surgeon-General, in trust, to be made a donation from the Army of the Potomac to the National Asylum, created by act of Congress approved March 3, 1865. (See appendix.)

The strength of medical department and ambulance corps for the period embraced in the report has been as follows:

The accompanying reports of ambulance officers afford additional information.*

*Omitted.

Hospital stewards.

Officers.

Men.

Officers.

Men.

The following statement exhibits the extent of the charge exercised by the medical department and changes therein during the half year ending June 30, 1865:

Number of sick and wounded remaining in Army of the Potomac Decem

ber 31, 1864, and to be accounted for, viz:

'In the field...

In depot hospital.

In Northern U. S. general hospitals (approximative),

Number taken sick and wounded from January 1 to June 30, 1865

Returned from furlough and desertion:

To field hospitals..

To depot hospitals

Total

2,560

2,895

17,816 75, 418

77 138

215

98, 904

Of these the following disposition has been made so far as reported:

Aggregate

Under the operation of general orders those remaining in U. S. general hospitals whose physical condition will permit will be discharged from the service as soon as such action can be correctly and properly effected. The number (17,816) in U. S. general hospitals December 31, 1864, being approximative, the 22,458 yet to be accounted for is an approximate estimate also. Comparison of the numbers received in the Depot Field Hospital, Army of the Potomac, City Point, since January, 1865, 26,244, with the number reported as sent to general hospital from the field, 17,673, shows a difference of 8,571. This is attributable to the fact that the Depot Hospital, Army of the Potomac, at City Point, admitted the wounded and sick of the other co-operative armies, from which I received no report. The number is large also because many men, unable to accompany their commands upon the return march to the Potomac, who under other circumstances would not have been detached from their regiments, were sent to City Point to be transported by water. The number sent North from City Point was 15,606. The difference between number reported sent to general hospital and number received at City Point, in the several months, were for January, 94; February, 903; March, 1,365; April, 5,611; May, 928-which indicate the principal discrepancies as occurring during the period of most active operations and from the cause above stated.

In this connection it will be observed that the number of gunshot wounds in the Army of the Potomac from January to June 30, 1865, according to the monthly reports received, was 6,833, whereas the number of gunshot wounds actually admitted at City Point was 9,137. The number of wounds and injuries (Class V) reported admitted in the

field hospital Army of the Potomac during the same period was 9,959. The number of wounds and injuries (Class V) admitted at City Point from January 1 to May 31, according to inspectors' reports from this and other armies, is 11,395.

With an army in campaign, errors and omissions are to be expected in the reports. The present, however, are more complete and correct than I anticipated, inasmuch as many regiments, and officers were mustered out of service and changes of organizations rapidly made, especially in that period between the return of the army to the Potomac and its dissolution.

The statistical reports appended furnish interesting details.*

A few obvious clerical errors have been made, viz, typhus fever, eleven cases, and yellow fever, two cases, are reported, figures which should have been entered in the column, "typhoid or typho-malarial," next adjoining, but the errors are retained in the consolidations rather than have alterations made in otherwise accurate tables. From the discontinuance of very many general hospitals (since the date for which this report is rendered), and the rapid reductions made in the number of inmates of the few that remain, it is certain that of the "number (22,458) yet to be accounted for" (as stated in the preceding summary) thousands have been discharged; and but a small proportion remain.

The condition and operations of the Ambulance Corps have been such as to reflect credit upon the officers charged with its command, and to evidence how essential an element it is to the efficiency of the medical department and the line of the army as well. An army that has witnessed its beneficent provisions is prepared the more to appreciate the justice and wisdom of committing to the medical department trusts and powers in some degree commensurate with duties imposed, and which it can best perform.

I desire to invite special attention of the commanding general to the successful management of the affairs of the medical department in the discharge of their official duties by the following officers: Lieut. Col. Charles Page, medical director Second Corps, formerly the assistant and at times acting medical director of this army; Lieut. Col. S. A. Holman, medical director Sixth Corps; Lieut. Col. T. R. Spencer, medical director Fifth Corps; Lieut. Col. E. B. Dalton, medical director Ninth Corps; Surg. G. B. Parker, successor of Surgeon Dalton as chief medical officer of Depot Field Hospital, Army of the Potomac; Asst. Surg. J. B. Brinton, medical purveyor of the army.

To my immediate assistants, .Surg. J. A. Lidell, inspector of the medical and hospital department of this army, and Asst. Surg. J. Sim Smith, attending surgeon at headquarters, to whom I am indebted for valuable assistance in discharge of special duties committed to them; Asst. Surg. E. J. Marsh, U. S. Army, surgeon-in-chief of the Second Cavalry Division, passed to the command of General Sheridan the day preceding the campaign. He has performed all duties while under my direction with signal ability.

In closing this report of the last campaign of the Army of the Potomac, I desire to acknowledge the cordial co-operation which has been extended to me by the chiefs of the staff departments of this army, and the agreeable relations which have continued throughout eighteen months of duty as its medical director. The medical officers, generally, animated by high personal, professional, and patriotic motives, have manifested a practiced skill and great devotion to duty. My anxieties * Omitted.

and responsibilities, lightened by their labors, have now ceased in the success of military operations, and I experience the pride of past membership with them in the veteran army.

I am, general, with much respect, your obedient servant,
THS. A. MCPARLIN,

Bvt. Col. and Surg. U. S. A., Late Med. Dir. Army of the Potomac.

Bvt. Brig. Gen. GEORGE D. RUGGLES,

Asst. Adjt. Gen., Mil. Dir. of the Atlantic, Philadelphia, Pa.

[Inclosure No. 1.1

CIRCULAR,

No. 9.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
MEDICAL DIRECTOR'S OFFICE,
March 24, 1865.

SIR: You are directed to instruct the surgeons in charge of hospitals to require officers treated therein to furnish their own subsistence and that of their servants, if present in hospital. No other charge will be exacted from these officers. General Orders, No. 26, Army of the Potomac, series of 1864, published in Special Orders, 44, of June 28, 1864, from the headquarters Army of the United States, authorized officers of this army to draw two rations in kind per day, subsistence for them to be drawn as for troops, but on separate returns. Attention is invited to the provisions of paragraph 2, War Department General Orders, No. 13, of February 6, 1865, which authorized officers actually in the field, who are without the means of paying for subsistence stores and have over one month's pay due, to draw from the commissary for themselves and servants one regular army ration per day, on ordinary ration returns.

It is believed that the authority above given provides all that is necessary to enable the surgeons to take care of sick and wounded officers.

THS. A. McPARLIN,

Surg. U. S. Army, Col. and Medical Director Army of the Potomac. (To medical directors of corps and chief medical officers of independent commands.)

[Inclosure No. 2.]

Consolidated statement of wounds in the Army of the Potomac.

Consolidated statement of wounds in the Army of the Potomac-Continued.

REMARKS.-The Second Cavalry Division joined its corps on the 27th, and the surgeon-in-chief rendered his report to the medical director of the corps. The Ninth Corps failed to render any reports of aggregate strength, &c., for this month.