have reports of the use of chloroform 28,000 times. Dr. Hunter McGuire says 41,000 times in our army without a death, while present statistics show one death out of every 2,500 from chloroform and one death out of every 14,000 from ether.

When you consider the impurity of the article frequently obtained, the inexperience of the administrators, and the frequent very feeble condition of the soldiers from loss of blood and imperfect feeding, I look upon it as miraculous. Can it be that the angel of mercy hovered over the weaker side?

With our present knowledge of the subject, when I look back to my hospital experience during the war, I am amazed at the success we had in the treatment of bone resections, amputations, and gunshot wounds, generally with hot and cold water.

The records of our surgical work during the war were lost at the surrender and destruction of Richmond, or, I dare say, they would compare favorably with the records of any army in the world prior to the introduction of antiseptic surgery and small calibre rifles. We have no public record left of the brave, unflinching, self-sacrificing duties performed by our medical veterans during that memorable four years' war; neither have we left any record of cowardice or failure to perform medical service, however dangerous. We have left with each one of us the individual conscientiousness of having faithfully and unflinchingly discharged our duty.

We, comrades, were not the tails to the kites of the military heroes, whithout which they could scarcely fly. It is true, after the smoke and carnage of battle, to us was left the sad duty of binding up the broken limbs and dressing the lacerated wounds, staunching the life current, receiving the last messages for absent wife and friends, interpreting the moving lips as they whispered their last prayer to the throne on high, in behalf of the noble spirit soon to follow, and closing the bright eyes as they took their long last, lingering look into eternity.

This was not, however, the "be all" and "end all" of the medical veteran. They were private heroes and we know full well from tradition of the heroic bravery and personal daring shown on every field of carnage in that four years' war in the discharge of their arduous medical duties.

I can only speak knowingly in commendation of the medical

officers of the Army of Tennessee, though from our accomplished surgeon, General S. P. Moore, throughout all the armies, I claim no arm of the service had more faithful, conscientious, and efficient officers than the medical department.

As we are now making history, I trust I may be pardoned for recording and speaking the truth of the living who are pres. ent. I see before me an old comrade, friend, and medical veteran, who has grown gray and feeble since we last met many years ago, whose hand is steady and his handwriting still natural; his eye is bright, his mind and memory clear, in spite of his fourscore years. He deserves as much honor and credit as any general officer commanding any army in the Confederacy. I know what I now state, as I was on the ground and in his office a great deal, and am perfectly familiar with his perplexities, his trials, and his limited resources. I know there is no man, general, colonel, or private, with his resources, who could have done more, or who did his duty more faithfully, unflinchingly, or efficiently than our former worthy Medical Director of Hospitals of the Department of Tennessee, though it was the largest hospital department in either army. I allude to Surgeon S. H. Stout, of Dallas, Texas. God grant him many years of health and strength yet on earth, and finally, a high seat in the seventh heaven, and a brilliant crown of glory, emblazoned upon it in letters of living light, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

On the 16th day of April, 1865, made memorable by the cruel assassination of President Lincoln, and before we were aware of the surrender of General Lee's army on the 9th, I arrived with hospital tents, supplies, and employees from Auburn, Ala., at West Point, Ga., on the Chattahoochie River, flying from a brigade of Wilson's cavalry, commanded by Colonel La Grange, who were raiding that section of country. The railroads on either side of the river at that point, were of different gauges, requiring the unloading and transfer of our property. The cavalry were rapidly approaching, and we were sorely pressed for time. I approached General R. C. Tyler, a brave Confederate officer, then on crutches from the loss of a leg at Missionary Ridge, and asked if he could not man Fort Tyler (a small earthwork thrown up to protect the bridge) with what few

citizens he could get, and what volunteers I could furnish him from my maimed hospital employees, and hold Colonel La Grange's cavalry until I could get my hospital property across the river. I offered to go into the fort with him. He promptly replied, like the brave, true soldier he was: "I will try, but you must not go into the fort, but must hurry up the transfer of your property as rapidly as possible. Dr. Thomas S. Bradfield, of La Grange, Ga., will go."

I called for volunteers, and my maimed hospital employees all stepped into line, and I had to go down the line and order out all who were unable to bear arms. I shall never forget an Irish ward master, John Gallagher, who had lost his right arm at the shoulder joint, as one of the first men in the line. I ordered him to get out and go superintend the transfer of the hospitai property. As I progressed on down the line, on approaching its end, I found Gallagher again, and ordered him out the second time. He wept bitterly because I would not permit him to go into the fort and get even with the enemy for the loss of his right arm. Where will you find, gentlemen, a grander display of true moral courage than was shown by that poor maimed Confederate? Such was the material the Confederate army was composed of at that time. Sixty-four brave Confederate officers and men entered the fort, including my volunteer hospital em. ployees and my gallant volunteer and temporary commandant of my post, Lieut. L. B. McFarland, of Memphis, Tenn., as General Tyler's adjutant. With a few old rusty muskets and three inferior cannon they fought a picked brigade of dismounted cavalry 60 to 1, armed with repeating Spencer rifles and a section of a battery of elegant rifle guns all day. Finally their cannon were disabled and the musket ammunition exhausted. Still Lieut. McFarland would not permit the white flag hoisted, and when the enemy got into the ditch around the fort, the fuses of the remaining shells were cut to suit and they were rolled over the parapet among them, their muskets were clubbed as the enemy came over the parapet, and they fought most desperately.

Colonel La Grange, a gallant Union officer, on finding the helpless condition of the Confederates and no white flag, called upon them to surrender and ordered his men not to fire upon

such brave men. Colonel Fannan was the last in command of the fort.

Colonel La Grange was utterly amazed on finding that he had been fighting only sixty-four Confederates all day, and remarked: "With a corps of such men I could whip Sherman's army." Alas, poor General R. C. Tyler, Captain Gonzales, and several others were killed.

One of our brave Memphis boys, Charles G. Locke, lost an arm at the shoulder joint in this fight. So you see, gentlemen, my maimed hospital employees and my gallant Post Commandant, and Dr. Thomas S. Bradfield, partially composed the force that made one of the last gallant fights of the war, and fired the last gun of that unfortunate four years' struggle, even after General Lee had surrendered. The hospital employees and fort never surrendered-they were overpowered.

In my official capacity as Surgeon in charge of large hospital posts, it was my duty to come in contact with and treat many general officers and privates of the army. I must bear witness to their true fortitude and uncomplaining courage under many depressing circumstances. I shall never forget the many pleasant hours spent while treating the heroic Generals Gregg and Granbury, of Texas, who were inmates of my hospitals; nor shall I ever cease to remember, with pride and pleasure, the true, brave, untiring, and efficient medical officers who composed my Hospital Corps during the war. They called forth the commendation of the Medical Director and the personal recognition of the Surgeon General for their efficiency. They fully deserved. both. I know they discharged their full duty. God never made a truer or nobler set of men.

I was one of the physicians of General N. B. Forrest in his last illness. In his will he says: "I commit my body, after death, to my family and friends, with the request that it may be interred among the Confederate dead in Elmwood Cemetery near Memphis, it being my desire that my remains shall rest with those of the brave men who were my comrades in war and shared with me the danger and peril of the battlefield, fighting in a cause we believed it our duty to uphold and maintain. Item 7th. I give and bequeath to my son, William M. Forrest, the sword and pistols with which I fought in the Confederate Army,

with the injunction to use them whenever called on to do so in the honorable service of his country."

After many months of pain, suffering, and emaciation from ulcerative colitis, like a caged eagle beating the bars of his prison, his courageous spirit went out, he silently turned his face to the wall, surrendered to the King of Terrors," and breathed his gallant, fearless life away.

"Leaves have their time to fall,

And the flowers to wither at the north wind's breath.

The stars to set, but all

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death."

TO OUR FRIENDS.

This number of this journal will go to the press about the time the General Re-Union at Dallas and the annual meeting of the Association of Medical Officers of the Army and Navy of the Confederacy will be held. Our work on it was necessarily completed before leaving home to meet again our comrades and associates of most eventful days. We sincerely hope that the Dallas meeting will result in the highest satisfaction and utmost degree of enjoyment possible to all who may participate therein.

To our friends who have so kindly contributed to these "Records, Recollections and Reminiscences' our most sincere thanks are due. And while we have not been able to secure as much matter relating to the Medical Records of a great civil war as we desired, we have placed before our readers everything we could secure, and from numerous letters received during the year, and from personal communications, have every reason to believe that this addition to THE SOUTHERN PRACTITIONER has very materially added to its large number of friends, this addition being made from a class of men most worthy of the highest esteem. In our next issue we hope to be able to continue the publication of yet more important data than have hitherto been placed on the printed page.