344 
A. A. HOLCOMBE. 
1879, I have not been able to obtain. My knowledge of some of 
them has been derived from a correspondence with those who still 
remain in the army, and from the testimony of persons who were 
acquainted with them. 1 can learn of but two of these who were 
graduates, Samuel G. Going and William H. Going, brothers, and 
both graduates of the Royal Veterinary College of England. 
They received their appointments from the Secretary of War in 
1875. The former was assigned to the First Cavalry, then sta¬ 
tioned at Benicia Barracks, Cal., the latter to the Third Cavalry, 
then as now serving in the department of the Platte. 
I think it may justly be said that these two Veterinary Surgeons 
were the pioneers of army veterinary medicine. They entered 
the service without the excitement and glamour attendant on 
war, when so much is expected and ofttimes won, with a full 
knowledge that serving on the Indian frontier was not unattended 
with dangers. 
They took their lives and training as Veterinary Surgeons into 
an army with which they could have had no sympathy, either by 
birth or education, and there as representatives sought to elevate 
their profession, which they found without status, while their 
services were without adequate compensation. Few perhaps 
appreciate the extent of the sacrifice which these Veterinary Sur¬ 
geons made. The opportunities of the Veterinary Surgeon in civil 
life in this country are and have been many, and they as gradu¬ 
ates of several years standing and experience had but little to 
contend with in obtaining establishments of their own, had they 
seen fit to make the attempt. In the army they could have no 
hope of earning a competence, even during a long life of service, 
and yet we find[them persisting in their course, struggling for 
the rights of their profession without assistance, in a case that to 
them must at that time have looked hopeless indeed. 
Samuel G. Going made the first report on record in the War 
Department ever made by a qualified Army Veterinary Surgeon. 
It bears date October 11, 1875, and gives the history of an out¬ 
break of glanders in the First Cavalry, which lasted about two 
years. When he arrived at the post, shortly after his appoint¬ 
ment, he at once recognized the nature of the disease, and out of 
