federate soldiers, if a roll of those deserving women and young maidens could be made, could be counted only by the hundreds of thousands. After the battles of Manassas, Forts Henry and Donelson, Fishing Creek and Shiloh, the women of Virginia and of the Great Central Valley, went to work systematically to aid the Confederate cause. They were present everywhere, when needed, at the bunk-side of the suffering soldier, heartily co-operating with the surgeons in their professional work. Those of them who were too distant from the sufferers to nurse and feed them at the bunk-side, prepared delicacies and sent them to the hospitals; and spinning wheels and hand looms were put into service to prepare thread for the knitting of stockings and the weaving of cloth with which to comfort the " boys at the front."

No wonder that General Sherman, in the spirit that characterized the brutal Heineau, who betrayed the patriotic Kossuth into the hands of his enemies, announced in a letter from Huntsville, Alabama, that the war for the Union must be waged against women and children as well as against organized troops, if the final success of the federal armies was to be realized.

The intelligent co-operation of the women of the South was secured after the battles above named; and thenceforth to the end of the war there was no clashing between outsiders, male or female, and the medical officers in charge of suffering soldiers.

After I took charge of the hospital department, there were only two conflicts as to the control of the medical treatment or discipline of disabled soldiers that engendered unkind feelings between surgeons and outsiders. These resulted in the vindication of the two surgeons. Demonstration of the necessity of organization under military rule, and its superiority as a means of aiding and comforting the suffering, convinced criticising people that their paroxysmal efforts were futile, and there was an universal and hearty yielding of public sentiment in favor of cheerful co-operation with the medical offcers of the armies and hospitals.

Throughout my service as a medical officer of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, circumstances not of my own creation, and assignments to particular duties always unsought by me, strongly impressed me that I was the subject of specia

providence. I was often awed while contemplating the gravity of the responsibilities thrust upon me, and I felt humbled by their weight. From the beginning of my military service, I zealously studied the requirements of the Regulations. All along from the beginning to the end of my service, I quietly criticised them, and endeavored to interpret them as to their intent, and during my administration as medical director, in the interest of the suffering soldiers, I administered them in their spirit rather than followed their letter. I never departed from the letter of the regulations save in the interest of the suffering and the wholesome discipline of the army. In all such cases I had the approval of the General-in-Chief and his Medical Director. But I often received “ raps upon my official knuckles" by the Surgeon General, who was too far from the field of operations of the Army of Tennessee to fully compre hend the many exigencies of the service in that field which differed much from those in Virginia. In the last-named State, nearly all the general hospitals were organized in Richmond and administered under the eye of the Surgeon General's office. It never seemed to enter the minds of officials in Richmond that that city would ever be evacuated by the Confederates. Hence, the general hospitals there at the time of the evacuation were so utterly immobile that they were lost to the service, and the Surgeon General had to order me to report to him at Charlotte, N. C., with as many of my hospital organizations as I could get transported. This was the last order I received from him.

The scenes witnessed at Nashville on the memorable Sunday of the surrender of Fort Donelson, and the almost utter confusion, not to say demoralization of the hospital service, strongly impressed me that the hospital service, as well as every other department of an army during war, should be mobilized, and so organized that the general hospitals in rear of every army could advance and retreat as the exigencies of the service might demand. General Bragg seemed to be earnestly determined to hold complete control at his headquarters of the army throughout all its departments.

Previous to his accession to the chief command of the Army of Tennessee, so uninformed were many of his subordinates as to their true relationship to the commander-in-chief, that it was

a common practice for subordinate officers to give furloughs and leaves of absence to officers and men under them without getting permission to do so from the headquarters of the army. Thus the Commander-in-Chief was unable to learn the exact number of effectives present in the field. Among the earlier complaints that came to me after I was assigned to the charge of the hospitals, was that many of the absentees were under treatment in the hospitals. On investigation I found that many more men were reported to be under treatment in the hospitals than there. were bunks for their accommodation. To vindicate the hospital service, on my suggestion of its necessity, General Bragg placed deputy provost marshals on every passenger train leaving the army and every hospital post to examine the papers of soldiers and officers leaving their posts of duty. Every permit not approved by the Commanding General was ordered to be taken up and turned over to me, to be compiled and submitted to the commanding general. After more than seven hundred irregular permits and orders had been collected, they were submitted to the General for his inspection. Among these papers was an order of a brigadier-general permitting a soldier to go to the rear, not having the approval of the commander-in-chief. That brigadier was court-martialed and suspended from duty for a brief period. This example put a stop to the irregularities touching furloughs and leaves of absence. The trap I sprung upon subordinate officers who were disobeying the General's command, produced a lively sensation, and vindicated the hos pital department. Little or no trouble touching irregular leaves of absence and furloughs was afterwards experienced by any general who commanded that army.

My long cherished scheme of mobilizing the general hospitals, was promptly approved by General Bragg and Medical Director Foard. Much to my gratification, I found that they had previously contemplated ordering me to mobilize the general hospitals of the department. Thus again my controling officers and I were in cordial agreement.

At the very outset of my administration of the hospital department, I was embarrassed by the persistent demand of Lieutenant-Generals Polk and Hardee that separate hospitals should be provided for the treatment of members of their commands,

and the recognition of hospitals under State patronage, officered by State authority. To administer the hospitals in the interest of all the suffering soldiers, was impracticable, if the policy of the Lieutenant Generals and that of the governors of particular States was adopted. The impracticability of the policy was due to the character and amount of transportation at command, the medical topography of the country, and above all, in my mind, the equal right of every Confederate soldier to receive the best care, treatment and food possible, regardless of the State he hailed from or the command to which he belonged. General Bragg and his medical director agreed with me in my views touching a division of control of the hospitals.

The system of brigade, division and corps hospitals is practicable in time of peace, but utterly impracticable during an active war. So, too, the principle of States rights, though a good political doctrine, could rationally find no apology for its enforcement or application in the control or movements of armies in times of war, or after battles.

Therefore, under my administration of the hospitals of the department in assigning a patient to hospital, I had reference to his ability to bear transportation and the number of empty bunks at each hospital, never as to what command he belonged or the State of his nativity or adoption. There was only one so-called State hospital in the department (the Florida), located at Newnan, Georgia, too far in the rear to be reached by a seriously wounded or sick soldier until convalescence had so far advaneed as to render safe his transportation thither. Soon the soldiers of the Army of Tennessee ceased to care whether they were assigned to any particular hospital or not. Whenever a patient expressed preference for assignment for treatment in a particular town, his wish was complied with provided his ability to bear transportation and his physical condition justified the risk of travel.

For the management, manner of control, and the benevolent care of its medical officers, were about the same at every post in the department where there were hospitals under my direction. A generous and intelligent rivalry early in my administration sprang up among the medical officers as to who could show the best managed hospitals and the best cared for, best fed, and most contented and grateful sick and wounded soldiers in the depart

ment. Ah! what noble, self-deny ing, skillful and devoted men were those officers!

In my next number I will ventilate my views about rank (only an assimilated one at best) among medical officers in the military service, and how I freed my administration of the embarrassments that threatened the harmony of the medical corps. Upon this subject I have what I think are rational convictions, contrary to usage and tradition, but which were. arrived at before I became a medical director, and which were vindicated by my vast experience and observation in active service.

Editorial.

NEW CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS OE THE NASHVILLE ACADEMY OF MEDICINE AND DAVIDSON

COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY.

ARTICLE I.

NAME AND TITLE OF THE SOCIETY.

The name and title of this organization shall be "The Nashville Academy of Medicine and Davidson County Medical Society."

ARTICLE II.

PURPOSES OF THE SOCIETY.

The purposes of this Society shall be to bring into one organization the physicians of Davidson County; so that by frequent meetings and full and frank interchange of views they may secure such intelligent unity and harmony in every phase of their labor as will elevate and make effective the opinions of the profession in all scientific, legislative, public health, material, and social affairs, to the end that the profession may receive that respect and support within its own ranks and from the community to which its honorable history and great achievements entitle it; and with other county societies to form the Tennessee State Medical Association, and through it, with other State associations, to form and maintain the American Medical Association.

ARTICLE III.

ELIGIBILITY.

Every legally registered physician residing and practicing in