ned permanently at the
Commission's headquarters in the Peninsula. Their position and duties
were in many respects more trying and arduous than those who accompanied
the sick and wounded to the hospitals of the cities. The Daniel Webster,
which, as we have said, reached York River April 30, discharged her
stores except what would be needed for her trip to New York, and having
placed them in a store-house on shore, began to supply the sick in camp
and hospital, and to receive such patients on board as it was deemed
expedient to send to New York. These were washed, their clothing
changed, they were fed and put in good clean beds, and presently sent
off to their destination. The staff then commenced putting the Ocean
Queen, which had just been sent to them, into a similar condition of
fitness for receiving the sick and wounded. She had not, on her arrival,
a single bunk or any stores on board; and before any preparation could
be made, the regimental and brigade surgeons on shore (who never would
wait) began to send their sick and wounded on board; remonstrance was
useless, and the whole party worked with all their might to make what
provision was possible. One of the party went on shore, found a rebel
cow at pasture, shot her, skinned her with his pocket-knife, and brought
off the beef. A barrel of Indian meal, forgotten in discharging the
freight of the vessel, was discovered in the hold and made into gruel
almost by magic, and cups of it were ladled out to the poor fellows as
they tottered in, with their faces flushed with typhoid fever; by dint
of constant hard work, bunks were got up, stores brought on board, two
draught oxen left behind by Franklin's Division found and slaughtered,
and nine hundred patients having been taken on board, the vessel's
anchors were weighed and she went out to sea. This was very much the
experience of the party during their stay in the Peninsula. Hard,
constant, and hurrying work were the rule, a day of comparative rest was
the exception. Dividing themselves into small parties of two or three,
they boarded and supplied with the stores of the Commission, the boats
which the Medical officers of the army had pressed into the service
filled with wounded and sent without comfort, food or attendance, on
their way to the hospitals in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe;
superintended the shipping of patients on the steamers which returned
from the North; took account of the stores needed by these boats