CHAPTER XLII.THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

The Secretary-of-War—His Duties—The Department of the Navy—Efficiency of the Army—The Custody of the Flags—Patriotic Trophies—The War of the Rebellion—Captured Flags—An Ugly Flag and a Strange Motto—“Crown for the Brave”—Sic Semper Tyrannis—The Stars and Stripes—The Black Flag—No Quarter—The Military Establishment—The Adjutant-General’s Office—The Quartermaster-General’s Office—The Commissary-General’s Office—The Paymaster-General—The Surveyor-General—The Engineer’s Office—The Washington Aqueduct—Topographical Engineers—The Ordnance Bureau—The War Department Building—During the War—Lincoln’s Solitary Walk—Secretary Stanton—The Exigencies of War—The Medical History of the War—Dr. Hammond—Dr. J. H. Baxter—Collecting Physiological Data—The Inspection of Over Half a Million Persons—Who is Unfit for Military Service—Various Nationalities Compared—Curious Calculations Respecting Height, Health, and Color—Healthy Emigrants—Remarkable Statistical Results—The PhysicalStatusof the Nation.

The first recorded legislation of importance upon the military affairs of the nation, is the Act of Congress, of the twenty-seventh day of January, 1785, entitled “An Ordinance for ascertaining the Powers and Duties of the Secretary of War.”

By this Act the duties of the Secretary are defined; and amongst them is a provision requiring him to visit, “at least once a year,” “all the magazines and deposits of public stores, and report the state of them, with proper arrangements, to Congress.”

Immediately after the confederation of the States, bythe adoption of the Constitution, this legislation was superseded by an Act of Congress, approved on the seventh day of August, 1789, defining the duties of the department, which was again modified by the fifth Congress, in the Act of the thirtieth day of April, 1798, “To establish an Executive Department, to be denominated the Department of the Navy.” Of the efficiency of this department, and its services to the Republic, there can be no better testimony than that which has been extorted from history, in the following words: “The United States, from the peace of Independence, in 1783, achieved by war, and merely acknowledged by treaty, have always (?) lost by treaty, but never by war.”

This sentiment, which is not as true now of our relations with Great Britain as in 1814, contains within it a compliment to the Department which, with limited means, and encountering the natural jealousy of civism, has so administered its scanty finances that the army has been made not only a defence for the frontiers, but a recognized national force, equal to the direst emergency, a nucleus around which, in any peril, the strength and bravery of the Republic may safely rally.

By the Act of the fourteenth of April, 1814, the Secretaries of War and of the Navy were placed in custody of the flags, trophies of war, etc., to deliver the same for presentation and display in such public places as the President may deem proper. Although many trophies, which a monarchical power would have jealously preserved, have been lost, or at least detached from their proper resting-place, there are still enough in both departments to stir the patriotic emotions of all who take the trouble to inquire for them.

The war of the Rebellion greatly increased these trophies. The Rebel flags taken in battle, and in surrender, and the Union flags, re-captured from the Confederates, now occupy large apartments in two buildings belonging to the War Department; and are all placed under the supervision of the Adjutant-General. In “Winder’s Buildings” hundreds of these flags are deposited, and many hundreds more in the Adjutant-General’s office on Seventeenth street. The front and back rooms on the lower floor of the latter house are exclusively devoted to their preservation. A polite “orderly” is in waiting, with a record-book, which gives the name and history of every flag in the building. The front room is devoted to the Union colors which were re-taken from the rebels. The back room is filled with Confederate flags of every device and hue. Here is the first Confederate flag adopted—an ugly rag, thirteen stars on a blue field, with white and red bars. Its motto: “We will collect our own revenues. We choose our own institutions.”

The colors of the Benjamin Infantry, organized April 24, 1861, bear the inscriptions: “Crown for the brave.” “Strike for your altars and your fires.”

An Alabama flag, of white bunting, with broad cross-bars of blue, sewed on by women’s hands, is inscribed: “Our Homes, our Rights, we entrust to your keeping, brave Sons of Alabama.”

“Sic Semper Tyrannis,” says a tattered banner of fine silk, presented in the first flush of rebellion-fever, with the confidence of assured victory, “by the ladies of Norfolk, to the N. L. A. Blues.” Again, says Virginia: “Our Rights we will maintain.” “Death to Invaders covered with blood.” “Death or Victory,” cries the Zachary Rangers—and again: “Tyranny is hateful to the gods.”

BLOOD-STAINED CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAGS, CAPTURED DURING THE WAR.Sketched by permission of the Government from the large collection in possession of the War Department, at Washington.1.Black Flag.4.State and Regiment unknown. [Captured at the Battle of Gettysburg, by the 60th Regiment of New York Volunteers]2.Alabama Flag.3.Palmetto Flag.5.State Colors of North Carolina.

BLOOD-STAINED CONFEDERATE BATTLE FLAGS, CAPTURED DURING THE WAR.Sketched by permission of the Government from the large collection in possession of the War Department, at Washington.

1.Black Flag.4.State and Regiment unknown. [Captured at the Battle of Gettysburg, by the 60th Regiment of New York Volunteers]2.Alabama Flag.3.Palmetto Flag.5.State Colors of North Carolina.

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With the exception of the State colors, the Union flags bear fewer mottoes. Many are fashioned of the finest fabrics, touched with the most exquisite tints. They need no florid and sensational sentence. Enough, that they bear the potent and silent stars of indissoluble union:

“When Freedom, from her mountain height,Unfurled her standard to the air,She tore the azure robe of night,And set the stars of glory there;She mingled with the gorgeous dyesThe milky baldrick of the skies,And striped its pure celestial whiteWith streakings of the morning light;Then, from his mansion in the sun,She called her eagle-bearer down,And gave into his mighty hand,The symbols of her chosen land.”

“When Freedom, from her mountain height,

Unfurled her standard to the air,

She tore the azure robe of night,

And set the stars of glory there;

She mingled with the gorgeous dyes

The milky baldrick of the skies,

And striped its pure celestial white

With streakings of the morning light;

Then, from his mansion in the sun,

She called her eagle-bearer down,

And gave into his mighty hand,

The symbols of her chosen land.”

Beside this Flag of the Republic, the Black Flag, borne at Winchester, with its hideous yellow stripe, and hellish sentence, “No Quarter,” needs no comment. From floor to nave, they droop everywhere, faded, tattered, bullet-riddled, the flags of Freedom, and the ensigns of Slavery, defiant, yet doomed. On one side of the apartment, cases, divided into minute boxes, rise to the ceiling. Each one is large enough to take a flag tightly rolled. Over all hangs a curtain; and here these rags, which have outlasted the wasting march, the sore defeat, wait to tell their story in silence to coming generations.

The War Department is now divided into the following Bureaus:

Secretary’s Office: The Secretary of War is charged, under the direction of the President, with the general control of the military establishment, and the execution of the laws relating thereto. The functions of the several Bureaus are performed under his supervision and authority. In the duties of his immediate office he is assisted by a chief clerk, claims-and-disbursing clerk, requisition-clerk, registering-clerk, and three recording-clerks.

The Adjutant-General’s Office is the medium of communication to the army of all general and special orders of the Secretary-of-War relating to matters of military detail. The rolls of the army, and the records of service are kept, and all military commissions prepared in this office.

The Quartermaster-General’s Office has charge of all matters pertaining to barracks and quarters for the troops, transportation, camp and garrison-equipage, clothing, fuel, forage, and the incidental expenses of the military establishment.

The Commissary-General’s Office has charge of all matters relating to the procurement and issue of subsistence-stores in the army.

The Paymaster-General’s Office has the general direction of matters relating to the pay of the army.

The Surgeon-General’s Office has charge of all matters relating to the medical and hospital service.

The Engineer’s Office, at the head of which is the Chief Engineer of the army, has charge of all matters relating to the construction of the fortifications, and to the Military Academy. At present, the Washington Aqueduct is being built under its direction. The Bureau ofTopographical Engineers, at the head of which is the Chief of the Corps, has charge of all matters relating to river and harbor improvements, the survey of the lakes, the construction of military works, and generally of all military surveys.

The Ordnance Bureau, at the head of which is the chief of ordnance, has charge of all matters relating to the manufacture, purchase, storage, and issue of all ordnance, arms, and munitions of war. The management of the arsenals and armories is conducted under its orders.

The present building, still used for the War Department, is utterly inadequate to its necessities. Already its Bureaus are scattered in several transient resting-places. In a few years they will be again concentrated in the magnificent structure now going up, for the combined use of the State, War and Navy Departments.

With the present War Department building will be obliterated one of the oldest land-marks of the Capital. All through the war of the Rebellion, it seemed to be the temple of the people, to which the whole nation came up, as they did to the temple at Jerusalem. What fates hung upon the fiats which issued from its walls! Hither came mother, wife, and daughter, to seek their dead, and to supplicate the furlough for their living soldier. What times those were, when the very life of the nation seemed suspended upon the will of the great War Secretary. I cannot look at the trees which arch the avenue between the War Department and the President’s house, without thinking of those days when Lincoln took his solitary walk to and fro to consult with Stanton, his step slow, his eyes sad, over-weighted with responsibility and sorrow. And going down Seventeenth street, who thatever saw him can fail to recall the image of Stanton as he paced up and down before the door of the War Department for his half-hour’s exercise, when he held himself a prisoner within its walls.

All will soon be gone—the old familiar places as well as the old familiar faces. The grating of the trowel, cementing stone on stone, the ceaseless click of the hammer foretell how speedily the august stone structure, with graceful monoliths and turreted roof stretching over the vast square, will take the place of the old War Department.

The exigencies of war not only augmented the business of the War Department to gigantic proportions, but they created important Bureaus which have survived to flourish in times of peace; of these, none are so interesting, both to scientists and to citizens, as those connected with the medical history of the war. It may not be universally known to the public, but the medical profession has long been aware that the immense collection of cases and treatment, recorded in the field and hospital experiences of the late war, was being examined, condensed, tabulated, and the valuable conclusion, deducible therefrom, prepared for publication, under the direction of the Surgeon General of the army.

During the past few years “circulars” or detached portions of the work, of special interest, have been issued, and this spring two quarto volumes, being the first parts of the first two volumes of the entire work, have been given to the world.

THE NEW BUILDING NOW BEING CONSTRUCTED FOR DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, ARMY, AND NAVY.—WASHINGTON.

Part I. of Volume I. is devoted tomedicalhistory, and has been compiled by Dr. Woodward, an assistant-surgeon of the army. This is a volume of eleven hundredpages, and is divided into two parts and an appendix. The parts give the statistics of disease and death, respectively, of white and colored troops. The appendix consists of reports and statements of medical officers and their superiors.

Part I. of Volume II. commences thesurgicalhistory, and is the work of Dr. Otis, also an assistant-surgeon of the army, and well known as the curator of the Army Medical Museum. It contains nearly eight hundred pages, and is illustrated by numerous photo-lithographs of gunshot wounds, stumps of amputated limbs, and various other injuries of the human body—all evidences of the cruelties of war.

The merit of the conception of this vast undertaking, is due to the former Surgeon-General, Dr. Hammond, now the distinguished physician of New York city.

In 1862 he devised the form and routine for copious and precise returns of hospital treatment, and under his energetic supervision, Dr. Brinton of the volunteer corps, and Doctors Woodward and Otis, commenced the “Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion.”

The work was ably continued by Dr. Barnes, the former Surgeon-General, and the result of all these labors is, so far, seen in the two volumes described, for the publication of which an appropriation was made by Congress in June, 1868. It is supposed that the entire work will reach six, and perhaps eight, such parts, and it certainly will be, when completed, a noble evidence of the liberality with which the Government provided for its sick and wounded soldiers, who fought for its preservation, and of the patriotism of the men who suffered in supporting such Government.

Brevet Major-General Joseph K. Barnes, Surgeon-General of the United States Army, was born in Pennsylvania, and appointed Assistant-Surgeon United States Army from that State, June, 1840, and stationed at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., until November of that year. He served in the Florida war against the Seminole Indians to 1842; at Fort Jesup, La., to 1846; in the war with Mexico to 1848; at Baton Rouge, La., and in Texas the same year, at Baltimore, Md., to 1851; in Missouri, to 1854; again at the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y., to 1857; in California and at Fort Vancouver, W. T., to 1861; at the head-quarters of General Hunter, Western Department and Department of Kansas to 1862.

He was promoted to be surgeon in the United States Army, August, 1856; Lieutenant Colonel and Medical Inspector, February, 1863; Colonel and Medical Inspector-General, August, 1863; and was assigned duty as Acting-Surgeon-General, United States Army, in the same month; appointed Brigadier-General and Surgeon-General, United States Army, August, 1864; Brevetted Major-General, United States Army, for faithful and meritorious services during the war.

Another medical report, perhaps equal in value to the Surgeon General’s, has issued from the medical branch of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau, under the supervision of Dr. J. H. Baxter.

Dr. Jedediah H. Baxter, Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief Medical-Purveyor, United States Army, was born in Strafford, Orange County, Vt., May 11, 1837. He was graduated at the University of Vermont, both in the academical and medical departments, and in 1860 served as assistantprofessor of anatomy and surgery in that University. He was house surgeon in “Bellevue Hospital” at the “Seamen’s Retreat,” Staten Island, and on “Blackwell’s Island.”

He entered the Twelfth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers in April, 1861, was commissioned assistant-surgeon of the Regiment, May 13, 1861, and promoted to be surgeon, June 19, 1861. Served as post surgeon at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor, until July 26, 1861, when, with his regiment, he was mustered into the United States service and ordered to join the forces then forming under Gen. N. P. Banks at Sandy Hook, Md., opposite Harper’s Ferry. He was Acting-Brigade-Surgeon, until April 4, 1862, when, promoted to Brigade-Surgeon of Volunteers, he was ordered to report for duty to Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, and served on the staff of that officer during the Peninsular campaign, as Medical Director of Field-Hospitals and the transportation of sick and wounded of the Army of the Potomac.

Disabled from field service by the “peninsular fever,” he was ordered to hospital duty in Washington, D. C., August 1, 1862, and was in charge of Judiciary Square United States General Hospital until September, 1862, when he was ordered to superintend the building of Campbell United States General Hospital, Washington, D. C., of which Hospital, when completed, he was placed in charge, where he remained until January 5, 1864, when he was relieved and ordered to report for special duty to the Provost-Marshal-General of the United States, who assigned him to duty as “Chief Medical Officer of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau.” In this capacity he served, having the management of all medical matters pertaining to the recruitment of the army, until the close of the war, havingbeen Brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel of the United States Volunteers in March, 1865, and Colonel of the United States Volunteers in January, 1866.

When the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau was abolished, he was placed on special duty by an Act of Congress, in preparing a report of the medical statistics of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau. On July 20, 1866, he was commissioned Assistant-Medical-Purveyor, United States Army, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and was Brevetted Colonel “for faithful and meritorious services during the war.” He was promoted to the position of Chief Medical Purveyor of the United States Army, March 12, 1872, in which position he has supervision of the purchase and distribution of all hospital and medical supplies required for the use of the army.

On being called to the charge of the medical branch of the Provost-Marshal-General’s Bureau, Dr. Baxter soon perceived that, in the several Acts of Congress devolving upon the Provost-Marshal-General the duty of recruiting by voluntary enlistment, conscription and substitution, the vast armies called out to suppress the rebellion, lay the means of obtaining such a view of the physical state and military capacity of the nation as had never before and might never again be obtained. After an examination of such material as had already accumulated under the limited operation of the draft and recruiting Acts, he prepared and issued to the surgeons of the enrolling boards, in the several congressional districts, blank forms and instructions designed to afford the means of tabulating from the reports of individual examinations of recruits, drafted men and substitutes, the statistics illustrating the relations between disease and nativity, residence,age, complexion, height, and size, social condition and occupation in the sex on which the principal physical burdens of life fall.

The accumulating records of the medical department of the army could be utilized for the benefit of military surgery and hygiene by showing the varying facts of disease and wounds among soldiers, and the records of pension applications and the regularly recurring examinations of invalid pensioners would give the results of non-fatal wounds and disease upon the disabled soldier returned to civil life. But Dr. Baxter saw that a separate and important field of study and action was left to his own bureau, if its current records could be reduced to a system of fulness, accuracy and uniformity. This was successfully done, and the results will soon be before the public. From advance sheets of the volume, many interesting facts have been drawn for this article. The work is based on the reports made of the medical inspection of about 605,000 persons subject to draft, and minuter descriptions of the fuller examination of 508,735 recruits, substitutes and drafted men.

Of the whole number examined, a little over 257 in each thousand were found unfit for military service. The largest number found disqualified through any specific class of diseases were those affected by diseases of the digestive organs, the ratio of unfitness to the whole number examined being a little more than sixty in a thousand. Fifty nativities are embraced in the report, the ratio of unfitness in each thousand being, for American whites, 323; American colored, 225; Canadians, 258; Irish, 337; Germans, 400; Scandinavians, 294; English, 325; and Scotch, 308.

From these ratios it will be seen that the Negroes, Canadians and Scandinavians were the healthiest, and the Germans and Irish the unhealthiest. The relative position assigned to the negro by these figures is not in accord with the general opinion upon the subject, but the healthiness of unskilled occupations and his simple method of life in the South accounts for the fact. The report also shows that a larger proportion of civilians are fit for military duty in this country than in Great Britain or France, and probably Germany, though the figures to prove the proposition in the latter case are not at hand.

Of the recruits, conscripts and substitutes under twenty years of age, the ratio of rejection and exemption was 268 in the thousand, including those too young for service; between twenty and twenty-five years, the ratio was 245; between twenty-five and thirty, the ratio was 330; it was 411 between thirty and thirty-five; between thirty-five and forty it was 462, and over forty years it was 607 in a thousand, including all rejected for dotage.

This table bears out the common experience that infirmities grow with age. Of the native whites, 663 in a thousand were of light complexion; of Canadians, 661 in a thousand; of English, 705; of Irish, 702; and of German, 694—indicating, by the lower ratio of fair complexion, a greater admixture of races in this country than in the parent countries. Of persons of light complexion, 385 in the thousand were unfit for service, while the dark complexions show the healthier ratio of 332 in each thousand. The average height of Americans is found to be 5 feet 7½ inches, of Canadians 5.5, 5.1, of Irish and Germans 5.5, 5.4, of Scandinavians and English 5.6, 0, and of French one-fifth of an inch lower than the last named.All under five feet were rejected or exempted, as the case might be; and the rejections under 5 feet 1 inch were 582 in the thousand, between 5.1 and 5.3 they were 443, between 5.3 and 5.5 they were 322, between 5.5 and 5.7 they were 303, between 5.7 and 5.9 they were 313, between 5.9 and 5.11 they were 326, between 5.11 and 6.1 they were 350, and they were 358 in all over 6 feet 1 inch. The healthiest persons were those of the average height of 5 feet 7 inches.

The chest measurements, at moment of respiration, averaged 33.11 inches for Americans, 32.84 for Irish, 33.56 for Germans, 33.01 for Canadians and 32.93 for English. The detailed statistics of height and size bear out the statement that, as a rule, only healthy foreigners migrate from the Old to the New World and healthy natives from the old to the new States; both conclusions are quite reasonable, when the anticipated and real hardships of migration are considered.

Considering the figures relating to occupation, it is found that the ratio of unfitness for army life was 409 in a thousand among persons engaged in in-door pursuits, and only 349 in a thousand, in persons of out-door callings.

Taken by trades and professions, it appears that of journalists 740 in a thousand were disqualified, physicians 670, clergymen and preachers 654, dentists 549, lawyers 544, tailors 473, teachers 455, photographers 451, mercantile clerks 416, painters 392, carpenters 383, stone-cutters 376, shoe-makers 362, laborers 358, farmers 350, printers 335, tanners 216, iron-workers 189. The average ratio of disability among professional men was 520 in a thousand, merchants 480, artisans 484, and unskilled laborers 348 only.

The journalists, doctors and clergymen were the unhealthiest professional men, and teachers and musicians the healthiest. Brokers were the unhealthiest of the mercantile class, and shop-keepers and peddlers the healthiest. Iron and leather-workers were the healthiest of the artisans; in the first occupation, partly, because only robust men can follow it. Paper-makers, tailors and upholsterers appear to have been the unhealthiest trades. Of unskilled occupations, so-called, for the purposes of this work, miners and mariners were the healthiest, and watchmen, bar-keepers and fishermen the unhealthiest. Explanation is found in the case of watchmen, in the number of old and broken-down men following that vocation. The ratio of single men found disqualified was 393 in a thousand, and of married men 447 in a thousand; the difference, however, being no argument against marriage, as the latter class embraces a larger proportion of men beyond middle age.

Congress has provided liberally for the publication of Dr. Baxter’s medical statistics of drafts and recruitments, and the volume will contain shaded maps and diagrams, to aid in exhibiting and contrasting the results of his unique studies of the physical status of the nation.

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