THE NEW BUILDING NOW BEING CONSTRUCTED FOR DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, ARMY, AND NAVY.—WASHINGTON.
Part I. of Volume I. is devoted to medical history, and has been compiled by Dr. Woodward, an assistant-surgeon of the army. This is a volume of eleven hundred pages, and is divided into two parts and an appendix. The parts give the statistics of disease and death, respectively, of white and colored troops. The appendix consists of reports and statements of medical officers and their superiors.
Part I. of Volume II. commences the surgical history, and is the work of Dr. Otis, also an assistant-surgeon of the army, and well known as the curator of the Army Medical Museum. It contains nearly eight hundred pages, and is illustrated by numerous photo-lithographs of gunshot wounds, stumps of amputated limbs, and various other injuries of the human body—all evidences of the cruelties of war.
The merit of the conception of this vast undertaking, is due to the former Surgeon-General, Dr. Hammond, now the distinguished physician of New York city.
In 1862 he devised the form and routine for copious and precise returns of hospital treatment, and under his energetic supervision, Dr. Brinton of the volunteer corps, and Doctors Woodward and Otis, commenced the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.”
The work was ably continued by Dr. Barnes, the former Surgeon-General, and the result of all these labors is, so far, seen in the two volumes described, for the publication of which an appropriation was made by Congress in June, 1868. It is supposed that the entire work will reach six, and perhaps eight, such parts, and it certainly will be, when completed, a noble evidence of the liberality with which the Government provided for its sick and wounded soldiers, who fought for its preservation, and of the patriotism of the men who suffered in supporting such Government.
Brevet Major-General Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon-General of the United States Army, was born in Pennsylvania, and appointed Assistant-Surgeon United States Army from that State, June, 1840, and stationed at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., until November of that year. He served in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians to 1842; at Fort Jesup, La., to 1846; in the war with Mexico to 1848; at Baton Rouge, La., and in Texas the same year, at Baltimore, Md., to 1851; in Missouri, to 1854; again at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., to 1857; in California and at Fort Vancouver, W. T., to 1861; at the head-quarters of General Hunter, Western Department and Department of Kansas to 1862.
He was promoted to be surgeon in the United States Army, August, 1856; Lieutenant Colonel and Medical Inspector, February, 1863; Colonel and Medical Inspector-General, August, 1863; and was assigned duty as Acting-Surgeon-General, United States Army, in the same month; appointed Brigadier-General and Surgeon-General, United States Army, August, 1864; Brevetted Major-General, United States Army, for faithful and meritorious services during the war.
Another medical report, perhaps equal in value to the Surgeon General’s, has issued from the medical branch of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau, under the supervision of Dr. J. H. Baxter.