or by our medical officers. Hundreds of the men of our
division lay sick with typhoid fever and other equally dangerous
maladies. These were all taken to the hospital which had been commenced
a day or two previous, about a mile and a half from our camp. The whole
day was occupied in removing these men. Of those sent to this hospital,
as of the many previously sent to the hospital at Young's Mills and
Fortress Monroe, few ever returned.

CHAPTER VI.

WILLIAMSBURGH.

Battle of Williamsburgh--The army not organized--The medical
department--Hooker's gallant fight--Hancock's charge--McClellan
at Yorktown--Night on the battle-field.

Early on the morning of the 5th skirmishing commenced. The division of
Hooker was posted on the left of the road from Lee's Mills to
Williamsburgh, and our own division held the road, stretching mostly to
the right of it. Fort Magruder was directly in front of us, commanding
the road. All that part of the army which had advanced on the right,
that is, on the road from Yorktown, were massed as fast as they arrived,
awaiting orders. Great delay was experienced in getting the troops in
position, as there seemed to be no harmony of action. Every general of a
division seemed to do what pleased him, without orders from higher
authority.

General Sumner was in command of the troops on the field, but from some
cause seemed not to be able to combine his forces in such a manner as to
bear effectually upon the lines of the enemy. One of the serious
difficulties was getting artillery to the front. The roads had become
very muddy from the rain during the night, and were blocked up with the
immense multitude of wagons, so that artillery could not pass. Here was
sadly exemplified the grand defect of our army--the want of
organization.

Our army was an enormous heterogeneous mass, without any pretense of a
system to centralize and harmonize its movements. An army is not
organized by throwing it into brigades and divisions; this is but the
first and easiest step. The _departments_ must be so organized that each
performs well its part, without interference with another. In this case
the quartermaster's department sadly interfered with the others. Every
regimental quartermaster was for himself, and, as a natural result, the
immense trains were thrown into great disorder, impeding the movements
of all the other branches of the service. No one seemed at liberty to
bring order out of this c