White House, Va., June 3, 1862.

My dear Sir:—There must be some frightful misunderstanding at the bottom of what is occurring here, in your department. It is obvious from the tenor of your telegraphic communications to me, that you are altogether wrongly informed about it. The Sanitary Commission, let me say at once, has not only obeyed every order, no matter how irregular or disrespectful the mode of its transmission, but has in good faith endeavored to carry out, at every point it could reach, what was judged to be your intention, supplying the absence or neglect of other agents on whom you appeared to depend, as it best could. Till night before last it made itself subordinate to the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania, who assumed to act as your aid, and, under positive orders given by him in your name, it refrained from pursuing a plan previously approved by you, and by following which it is now obvious that a much greater and safer transport of the wounded would have occurred. From Sunday night to the present time, the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania has not been seen here; a thousand wounded men have, in the mean time, arrived, and, as far as I am informed, not the slightest provision of any kind has been made for them under order from you, or by any one whom you have regarded as under your orders, except the Sanitary Commission. After waiting some hours yesterday morning for the Surgeon-General of Pennsylvania (who till then had been in charge of the railroad wharf) to act, finding men fainting in the sun ashore, I assumed the responsibility of taking eighty of them upon our little boat, and of having the remainder brought on the Daniel Webster No. 2. After doing so, I found one Dr. ——, very hard at work dressing wounded, &c. By advice of Captain Sawtelle and myself, he took provisional medical charge, and I then telegraphed you, advising that Dr. —— or Dr. —— should be placed in general charge, with discretionary powers.

We were doing what we could with men and women who could be spared from our boats, which were all full of wounded, to provide for those on the Webster and ashore. Before night, the Spaulding having arrived, I brought up fourteen fresh men and the ladies, with two physicians, and they have been steadily at work, and up to this time (noon of Tuesday) operating, dressing, feeding, and, with the assistance of other volunteers, bringing the wounded from the cars to the boat.

The Vanderbilt came more than a week ago, empty, and assigned to hospital service. She came to the wharf that had been built, at my request, for the use of the Sanitary Commission, refused to leave at my request, and has occupied it to our exclusion ever since. She has had surgeons and a large detail of soldiers on board, and I had been informed that she was reserved for the transportation of wounded, by your orders. Neither those on board of her nor those at the camp hospital appeared at the railroad, or lent any assistance, to my knowledge, to the care of the wounded, until, under advice from Captain Sawtelle and myself, Dr. ——, who had received your telegram disacknowledging him as having any official position, requested the surgeon in charge to bring the Vanderbilt to the railroad wharf. Having our boats and the removal of the wounded in ambulance trains to attend to, I did not think it necessary to inquire if she were prepared for hospital duty, knowing that she had been a week idle, and previously in hospital service; but late this morning I was informed that she had not any commissary, or even necessary medical stores on board, and nothing whatever was being prepared for the sustenance of the patients.

We have provided bread and molasses, for the want of anything else ready. We have been also called upon for, and are providing, lint and bandages, &c., &c.

The Elm City and Knickerbocker are both off, the Spaulding is yet to discharge the commissary stores with which she came loaded, and there is not a boat here now which can carry wounded, nor is there a tent pitched for them.

I have no time to be more full and exact. I have called on Colonel Ingalls to establish a cooking arrangement on shore, and shall try to get beef for soup.

I hear that more wounded are arriving. God knows what will be done with them.

As the telegraph refuses to send any messages to you to-day, being fully occupied with the General's business, I shall, if possible, send this to you this evening by a special messenger.

(A.) My dear General:—Your prompt action, of which I am notified by your telegram of this date, in securing the shipment of large supplies of anti-scorbutics to the Army of the Potomac, without waiting for the Medical Director to assume the responsibility of ordering them, leads me to hope that you may think it right in like manner to interpose for the protection of the army from other evils, for which the remedies are equally obvious, and more readily attainable.

I therefore urge that tarpaulings, old sails, felt, or canvas in bolts, with means of putting it together, be sent here immediately, in quantities sufficient to form a shelter for ten thousand wounded men. The materials for extending and supporting it in the form of sheds can be found in the woods immediately in the rear of the line of operations, where the shelters should be placed. I should propose that at least one depot for wounded should in this way be prepared for each army corps. Water should be secured in its vicinity, and means for providing large quantities of beef-tea or soup.

I know that such an arrangement would have saved many hundred lives after the battle of Fair Oaks. Nearly all of those with whom I conversed, of the first three thousand wounded men who received aid at this point from the Sanitary Commission, assured me that they had been without shelter from sun or rain, and without nourishment, from the time they fell until they came into our hands. This would be a period of from one to four days. The men seemed sincere, and their appearance was such as to lead me to the conclusion that, in many cases, at least, they asserted no more than the truth.

If, without waiting for a demand from the Medical Director, or the convenience of the Quartermaster's staff of this army, it would be in your power to order it, it seems to me that a provision of the kind I have indicated should be made within a single week. Everything necessary should be sent here; canvas, nails, tools, laborers, kettles, beef, pans, spoons, cooks. The smallest service for hospital purposes cannot be procured here now by the most energetic and persistent surgeons in less than a fortnight from the time they undertake to secure it. I have called three times a day, for ten days, for a detail of ten men to police the landing-place of the hospital boats; and though constantly promised me, and though the need for the work is acknowledged to be very great, I do not yet succeed in getting them.

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 should not be run outside.

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:—

1. For Virginia hospitals.

(Fortress Monroe, Newport's News, Portsmouth, and Point Lookout.)

2. For Maryland hospitals.

(Washington, Alexandria, Annapolis, and Baltimore.)

3. For Pennsylvania hospitals.

4. For New York hospitals.

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.

If it be assumed that seven hundred (700) will arrive daily at White House, they may be disposed of according to the accompanying schedule with regularity, and with no necessity for crowding.

Days.	Hospital	Men.	Md.	Va.	Penn.	N. Y.
1st day	Va.	300		300
" "	Md.	400	400				1st day,	700
2d "	Penn.	400
" "	Va.	300		600		600	2d "	1,400
3d "	Md.	400	800
" "	Va.	300		300			3d "	2,100
4th "	Md.	400	1,200
" "	Va.	300		135			4th "	2,800
5th "	Md.	400	1,600
" "	Va.	300		435			5th "	3,500
6th "	Md.	400	2,000
" "	Va.	300		735		1,665	6th "	4,200
7th "	Va.	300		1,035
" "	Penn.	400					7th "	4,900
8th "	Va.	300		735
" "	Md.	400	2,400		800		8th "	5,600
9th "	Va.	300		1,035
" "	Md.	400	2,800				9th "	6,300
10th "	Va.	300		1,335
" "	Md.	400	3,200				10th "	7,000
11th "	Va.	300		1,170		2,130
" "	Md.	400	3,600				11th "	7,700
12th "	Va.	300		1,470
" "	Md.	400	4,000				12th "	8,400
13th "	Va.	300		1,770
" "	Md.	400	4,400				13th "	9,100
14th "	Penn.	400			1,200
" "	Va.	300		2,070			14th "	9,800
15th "	Md.	400	4,800
" "	Va.	300		2,370			15th "	10,500
16th "	Md.	400	5,200			2,730
" "	Va.	300		2,070			16th "	11,200
Total,		11,200	5,200	2,070	1,200	2,730		11,200

To carry out the foregoing plan, the Kennebec and Daniel Webster No. 2 should be run exclusively to the Virginia hospitals,—one daily, each carrying three hundred (300) patients at a trip.

The Commodore, Vanderbilt, State of Maine, and Louisiana should be run exclusively to the Maryland hospitals, each carrying four hundred (400) patients at a trip, one daily, the round trip being four days.

The Elm City, being the best of the coast boats for outside work, would run to the nearest outside post, Philadelphia, once every six days, conveying four hundred (400) at each trip.

The John Brooks, the Whilldin, and the Knickerbocker would be surgical receiving hospitals, or reserve boats, to take the place of any detained by grounding or other accident.

The vessels of the New York line can be diverted to Philadelphia as often as it is thought desirable.

After the wounded have ceased coming to White House, the vessels of the New York line can be run to other more Northern and Eastern ports, until the nearer hospitals are emptied.

The above presumes that cases of light wounds and of extremely severe wounds will not be allowed to come to White House at all.