But the fact that medical shortcomings, real or supposed, manifested themselves in the sensitive area of human suffering and death made all the more glaring every instance of ineptitude, inadequacy, inefficiency, or just plain indifference.
That there were such instances goes without saying. How could it have been otherwise, when a department set up to care for the medical needs of an army of 16,000 men, with all its methods geared to the slow tempo and small- scale demands of peacetime, suddenly found itself called upon to care for an army rapidly growing to the million mark and engaged in an active and hard- fought war?
A New Surgeon General
On 15 May 1861, the 80-year-old Thomas Lawson, Surgeon General of the Army since 1836, died. To succeed him, Clement Alexander Finley, veteran of more than 40 years' service in the Department, was named Surgeon General, to face the problems of an ever-expanding and hugely demanding war. In the opinion of the United States Sanitary Commission, an unofficial body with official recognition which was, in a sense, a forerunner of the American Red Cross, the new Surgeon General was too much devoted to routine, and lacked the flexibility of outlook, the largeness of concept, and the vigor in action which the situation required.
The Sanitary Commission pressed for passage by Congress of a bill enlarging and reorganizing the Medical Department of the Army, and likewise sought to have the 64-year-old Finley replaced as Surgeon General. In March of 1862, Finley fell afoul of the new Secretary of War, the imperious and irascible Edwin M. Stanton, and was forced to resign. In April, Congress passed, and President Abraham Lincoln signed, the bill reorganizing the Department and, on the 25th of the month, a new Surgeon General, William Alexander Hammond, was appointed (fig. 1).
The new Surgeon General, who was to become the father of the Army Medical Museum and, through it, of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, was less than 34 years old at the time of his appointment. His selection over officers who were his seniors in age, rank, and experience was due in large measure to the recommendation and persistent pressure of the Sanitary Com- mission, which had been impressed by the tireless energy and high administrative ability he had exhibited in the organization and operation of hospitals in Maryland and western Virginia.[1]
- ↑ Adams, George Washington: Doctors in Blue: The Medical History of the Union Army in the Civil War. New York: Henry Schuman. Inc.. 1052, pp. 28-31.
