SKETCH OF GEORGE M. STERNBERG. 117 



attention of all young Americans "vvas directed toward the mili- 

 tary service. Among these was young Dr. Sternberg, who, having 

 passed the examination, was appointed assistant surgeon May 28, 

 1861, and was attached to the command of General Sykes, Army 

 of the Potomac. He was engaged in the battle of Bull Run, where, 

 voluntarily remaining on the field with the wounded, he was taken 

 prisoner, but was paroled to continue his humane work. On the 

 expiration of his parole he made his way through the lines and re- 

 ported at Washington for duty July 30, 1861 — " weary, footsore, 

 and worn." Of his conduct in later campaigns of the Army of the 

 Potomac, General Sykes, in his official reports of the battles of 

 Gaines Mill, Turkey Ridge, and Malvern Hill, said that " Dr. Stern- 

 berg added largely to the reputation already acquired on the dis- 

 astrous field of Bull Run," He remained with General Sykes's 

 command till August, 1862; was then assigned to hospital duty at 

 Portsmouth Grove, R. I., till Xovember, 1862; w^as afterward at- 

 tached to General Banks's expedition as assistant to the medical 

 director in the Department of the Gulf till January, 1864; was in 

 the office of the medical director, Columbus, Ohio, and in charge 

 of the United States General Hospital at Cleveland, Ohio, till 

 July, 1865. Since the civil w^ar he has been assigned successively 

 to Jefi^erson Barracks, Mo.; Fort Harker and Fort Riley, Kansas; 

 in the field in the Indian campaign, 1868 to 1870; Forts Columbus 

 and Hamilton, New York Harbor; Fort "Warren, Boston Harbor; 

 Department of the Gulf and Xew Orleans; Fort Barrancas, Fla. ; 

 Department of the Columbia; Department Headquarters; Fort 

 Walla Walla, Washington Territory; California; and Eastern sta- 

 tions. He was promoted to be captain and assistant surgeon in 

 1866, major and surgeon in 1875, lieutenant colonel and deputy 

 surgeon general in 1891, and brigadier general and surgeon general 

 in 1893. He has also received the brevets of captain and major in 

 the United States Army " for faithful and meritorious services 

 during the Avar, and of lieutenant colonel " for gallant service in 

 performance of his professional duty under fire in action against In- 

 dians at Clearwater, Idaho, July 12, 1877." In the discharge of 

 his duties at his various posts Dr. Sternberg had to deal with a 

 cholera epidemic in Kansas in 1867, with a "yellow-fever epi- 

 demic " in New York Harbor in 1871, and with epidemics of yel- 

 low fever at Fort Barrancas, Fla., in 1873 and 1875. He served 

 under special detail as member and secretary of the Havana Yel- 

 low-Fever Commission of the National Board of Health, 1879 

 to 1881; as a delegate from the United States under special in- 

 structions of the Secretary of State to the International Sani- 

 tary Conference at Rome in 1885; as a commissioner, under 



