The Atlanta (Georgia) Campaign: May 1 - September 8, 1864., Part I: General Report.
Maj. George B. Davis, Mr. Leslie J. Perry, Mr. Joseph W. Kirkley, Ed.

[179] in East Tennessee during a portion of the winter, and these had been furnished with marching rations only. This was the case with the Fourth Corps and a portion of the Twentieth. The Third Division, ofi the Twentieth Corps, was composed of either new troops, or those brought from the garrisons in the rear, and in this division more sickness occurred than in any other in the army. The men, unaccustomed to the rough usages of a campaign, wilted away, while the veteran troops around them were enjoying good health. Previous to entering upon the campaign every brigade in the army had been furnished with a medicine wagon filled and two Government wagons to carry canvas and appurtenances for the brigade field hospital. An operating staff had been detailed and everything systematized, so that during an action the wounded might receive prompt and efficient attention. The field hospitals were always kept well to the front, and in time of action pitched as near as the safety of the wounded would permit of.

The ambulance corps, organized under the new system, had been untried, but the trial given it was scarcely a fair one, for the animals furnished it were of the poorest character. They consisted of the animals which had been almost starved at Chattanooga during the siege of that place, and had scarcely recuperated ere they were turned over by the quartermaster's department to the ambulance corps to perform the hardest duty in the army, and for which the strongest and best conditioned animals are required. For these mules and horses there is no time of rest, their services are needed as much during the night as in the day, and I will venture to assert that the animals belonging to the ambulance trains have passed over twice as much ground as those of any other train in the army.

It was, too, with difficulty that suitable persons could be procured as stretcher-bearers. Regimental and company officers seem to have conceived the idea that weak, sickly, and trifling men are those best suited for detail in the corps. This at first caused the detail of many such, who had soon to be relieved in consequence of their incapacity. Many of the officers who cherished the above ideas by sad experience have learned that strong, healthy, and agile men are required to perform the duties belonging to the stretcher-bearer.

The men of the ambulance corps have done their duty well and faithfully, and under the heaviest fire they have faltered not, but calmly and carefully carried the wounded to the ambulance depots. The ambulance wagons were, I am informed, not in good order when leaving Chattanooga, but by careful management on the part of the officers and by repairs made when practicable, they have served the campaign through and are now in condition to enter upon another.

Until the middle of June the Fourteenth and Twentieth Army Corps were virtually without directors. Surg. R. H. Gilbert, U. S. Volunteers, who entered upon the campaign as medical director of the Fourteenth Corps, in consequence of illness, was compelled to go to the rear. Surgeon Otterson, U. S. Volunteers, in charge of the Twentieth Corps, resigned in the latter part of May and left when the army was in the neighborhood of Dallas, Ga. About the middle of June Surgs. C. W. Jones, U. S. Volunteers, and John W. Foye, U. S. Volunteers, were, respectively, assigned as medical directors of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.

Surg. J. Theodore Heard, U. S. Volunteers, has been the director of the Fourth Army Corps from the opening of the campaign, and still occupies the position. The condition of the medical department