An order had been obtained from the Quartermaster for the planks and boards of some rebel platforms, with which to put up bunks, etc., and a gang of contrabands were set at the business. While this was going on, a visit was made to the surgeon in charge of the shore hospitals, with whom, after debate, it was agreed that the _Elm City_ should be made ready by two o'clock to take on the sick who were waiting transport near the shore. The _State of Maine_ was at the same time to be supplied and made ready to follow without delay. Going on board the _Small_ again to carry out these arrangements, A. was met by a note from the Quartermaster enclosing a telegram from the Medical Director of the army at Williamsburg, demanding a boat provided with "_straw and water to be ready to take on two hundred sick and wounded within two hours at Queen's Creek_." The despatch concluded, "This is of the utmost urgency. See the Sanitary Commission." The only boat in the fleet that had a fair supply of water on board was the _Elm City_, already assigned for other duty, and she had no stores of food. There was about one day's supply of provisions for two hundred men on the _Small_, and A. wrote at once to the surgeon in charge of the shore hospitals, that, to meet an order of the Medical Director, it had become necessary to change the arrangements just before made with him. He would have to withdraw the _Elm City_, but as supplies could be sent immediately to the State of _Maine_, she could be got ready before night to take her place. The _Small_ was then put in motion, and first the _Elm City_ was hailed in passing, with orders to "fire up and heave short, and be all ready to move in half an hour," thence to the _Alida_, which was sent with the supplies to the _State of Maine_, and then back past the _Elm City_, ordering her to follow, and so in good time up to the mouth of Queen's Creek, by the side of the _Kennebec_, loading with wounded Secession prisoners, brought out of the creek by light-draft stern-wheelers. The process of embarkation, witnessed at a point some distance up the creek, was rude, careless, and quite unnecessarily painful; the miserable wretches of rebels being made to climb a plank, set up at an angle of forty-five degrees, which they could only do by the aid of a rope thrown to them from the deck. Strange to say, they themselves made no complaint, but appeared to think that they were well treated. So much for habit. The only assistance the Commission could render was to make the pathway less slippery by nailing cleats closely together across the steep planks. To do this, nails were bought of an old man near by, who at first asserted decidedly that not a nail could be found on his premises, until he was offered one dollar for twenty-five, when an abundant supply was discovered.