The Army Medical Department 1865 1917

The Army Medical Department, 1865-1917, is the third of four planned volumes that treat the time of revolutionary change in the organization of the U.S. Army and in medicine. Mary C. Gillett traces major developments for the Medical Department—from its rebirth as a small scattered organization in the wake of the Civil War, through the trials of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, to the entrance of the United States into World War I.

The Army Medical Department, 1865-1917, is the third of four planned volumes that treat the time of revolutionary change in the organization of the U.S. Army and in medicine. Mary C. Gillett traces major developments for the Medical Department-from its rebirth as a small scattered organization in the wake of the Civil War, through the trials of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, to the entrance of the United States into World War I.

The third in a four-volume work that covers the history of the Army Medical Department from 1775 to 1941, this volume traces the development of the department from its rebirth as a small, scattered organization in the wake of the Civil War, through the trials of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, up to the entrance of the United States into World War I.A time of revolutionary change both in the organization of the U.S. Army and in medicine, the period climaxed with the golden age of Army medicine, when U.S. medical officers played a leading role in research that developed new and effective weapons in the war against epidemic disease. --Foreword.

The third in a projected four-volume work that will cover the history of the Army Medical Department from 1775 to 1941, this volume traces the development of the department from its rebirth as a small, scattered organization in the wake of the Civil War, through the trials of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection, up to the entrance of the United States into World War l. A time of revolutionary change both in the organization of the U.S. Army and in medicine, the period climaxed with the golden age of Army medicine, when U.S. medical officers played a leading role in research that developed new and effective weapons in the war against epidemic disease. The Army Medical Department, 1865-1917, continues the contributions to the history of military medicine initiated by the preceding volumes.

The Civil War's chief legacy to the Medical Department was an increase in the traditional peacetime burdens of the Surgeon General's Office. In the years that followed the surrender at Appomattox, the office would be asked to create both a medical museum and a medical history using specimens and case histories gathered during the conflict; in response to a congressional mandate, to provide Civil War veterans with prostheses and the information needed for pension applications; and, for a briefperiod, to manage the medical care of freed slaves. As a result, for decades after the end of the conflict, the Army's surgeon generals dealt with war-related challenges while carving out the department's historic mission of guarding the Army's health.

From the Book's Foreword: Long-awaited, Mary C Gillett's final work The Army Medical Department, 1917-1941, complete her four-volume study covering the years from 1775 to 1941. Although the Medical Department had improved medical standards and practices because of the latest advances in scientific medicine and was making significant progress toward creating an organizational structure and a supply system able to handle the demands of a conflict of any size, its reserves of trained personnel and supplies were seriously inadequate when the nation entered world War I in the spring of 1917. The narrative first describes the struggle of an unprepared department to meet the myriad demands of a war unprecedented size and complexity, then follows postwar efforts to meet the needs of the peacetime army during nearly two decades of continental isolationism and budgetary neglect, and finally covers the brief period of growing awareness of America's involvement in another major conflict and the intensive preparation efforts that ensued.

CMH 30-10-1. Army Historical Series. Provides a long-needed in-depth analysis of the Army Medical Department's struggle to maintain the health and fighting ability of the nation's soldiers during both World War 1, a conflict of unexpectedd proportions and violence, and the years that preceded World War 2.