Aunual Report.] 208 [May 1, 



joined the command of General Shields in the same depart- 

 ment, in the capacity of Medical Director. While engaged 

 in this service he received a severe injiary of the knee from 

 his horse falling with him on icy ground. From this acci- 

 dent he suffered many months, part of the time being con- 

 fined to his bed in extreme pain, and much of this period 

 being unable to set his foot to the ground. His injury was 

 so severe that the question of amputation was at one time 

 entertained ; yet during the whole of this term of service 

 he continued on duty and did not ask for leave of absence 

 until his convalescence was fully established. It was while 

 suffering in this way that he organized the military hospitals 

 in Winchester in addition to his other arduous duties. He 

 accomjtanied General Shields' command to Fredericksburg 

 in August, 1862, and in the same month was ordered to take 

 charge of a small military hospital near Wasliington, known 

 as Cliffburn hospital. Having thoroughly organized it, and 

 put it in successful operation, he left it, by orders from Gov- 

 ernment, for Washington, December 23d, 1862, where he 

 took charge, on the 30th, of the Lincoln Hospital, one of 

 the first of the large army hospitals, at a time when the 

 elaborate system under which so many wei-e subsequently 

 planned and put in operation by the Medical Department of 

 the army w\as as yet in embryo. Upon him individually, 

 therefore, rested the whole labor of planning and putting 

 into execution the multitude of details involved in so re- 

 sponsible an experiment. That his efforts were crowned 

 with the most complete success is the verdict of every medi- 

 cal man Avho had an opportunity of visiting his well-ordered 

 establishment. In fact the Lincoln Hospital under his ad- 

 ministration was regarded as a model hospital. But here, as 

 on every occasion before, where he had been exposed to the 

 exhaustion attendant upon close confinement and excessive 

 mental labor, his strength and health failed him, and finally, 

 completely broken down, he w^as compelled to throw up his 

 commission and resign his place in the army in the month of 

 May. 



A characteristic extract from a letter to a friend, dated 



