21st.—No grounds yet on which to base an opinion as to when or where we shall go. One day brings us assurances that our Division will in a few days go to Annapolis to join the mortar fleet bound South. The next we hear that we are to advance and take Manassas. To-day we hear that we are shortly to go to Kentucky, and join the fighting army under Buell. There is also a rumor here that the rebels are leaving Manassas in great numbers. If that be true (the President and Gen. McClellan both believe it), we shall probably advance on that stronghold and occupy it ourselves until we are ready for the “on to Richmond ” move. But why, if we have been staying here all winter to “bag the enemy” at Manassas, do we now lie still and permit them to leave? This “gives me pause” in my opinions. I do not like such doings, nor can I quite comprehend such Generalship. But it is not for me to criticise the plans of educated military leaders. I presume they know much better than I, what is best to be done, and I shall still confide in their judgment and wisdom.
This, morning Brigade Surgeon _____, of Brigade _____, made the following statement on the investigation of my hospital management and condition: “I was Surgeon of a Regiment in the three months service; since then I have been Brigade Surgeon of four Brigades;” (including 18 regiments) ” I have seen no hospital fund anywhere as large as that of this hospital; I have seen none managed with more economy, nor any patients made so comfortable. I have seen no Surgeon anywhere who seemed to feel so lively an interest in the hospital and the welfare of his Regiment; I have seen no Surgeon who devoted so many hours in the service of the sick, as this Surgeon.”
This statement, coming officially from a Surgeon whose duty it has been to supervise the care of the hospitals and the treatment of the sick; from an officer whose business has for the last ten months brought him in contact with half the hospitals of the army of the Potomac, and whose headquarters have been for several months within sixty feet of my hospital, was gratifying to me, and entirely satisfactory to those whose duty it was made to investigate, and they so expressed themselves in dismissing the subject.
