_Memorandum of Arrangements proposed by the Secretary of the Commission, to prevent a recurrence of the confusion in the Transport Service which occurred after the Battle of Fair Oaks._
The following is a list of Transports understood to be at present available for hospital service for the Army of the Potomac:—
_Sea Steamers, fitted for long passages outside._
_Coast-Steamers, which must make a harbor on the approach of bad weather, and which should not be sent beyond Philadelphia, unless the necessity is urgent._
Elm City, State of Maine, John Brooks, Commodore, Kennebec, Daniel Webster No. 2.
_Coast-Steamers which should not be run outside._
Vanderbilt, Whilldin, Louisiana, Knickerbocker.
_Sailing vessels adapted to be used as Stationary Hospitals, or to be towed outside._
The aggregate capacity of these vessels is equal to the accommodation of four thousand (4,000) patients, and may be increased to five thousand (5,000) if the necessity is urgent.
From the time a boat leaves, until she can be prepared to leave again,—
will be, if she runs to New York, 7 days, " " " to Philadelphia, 6 days, " " " to Washington, 4 days, " " " to Annapolis, 4 days, " " " to Baltimore, 4 days, " " " to Old Point, 2 days.
If, in the event of a general engagement, all the wounded sent from White House are taken to the nearest hospitals, until these are full, there will be occupation for but few of the boats; four of them, for instance, would take seven hundred (700) a day to Fortress Monroe continuously. Having filled the nearer hospitals, however, all the vessels would be insufficient to sustain a continuous movement to those more distant. Moreover, most of the transports are unfit to convey patients to the most distant hospitals. It is, therefore, necessary that the business should be so arranged that transports may, from the beginning, run both to the nearer and the more distant hospitals, and that the limited number of sea-going vessels should be run only to the distant seaports.
To accomplish this, I suggest that the different transports be formed into _lines_, as follows:—
(Fortress Monroe, Newport's News, Portsmouth, and Point Lookout.)
(Washington, Alexandria, Annapolis, and Baltimore.)
As two of the sea-going vessels cannot come up to White House, and these, to be used effectively, must be towed by the other two, the New York line would be best employed in preventing too great an accumulation at Fortress Monroe,—running only from Fortress Monroe to New York.