Charles Stuart Tripler, U.S. Surgeon-- Part 3: Wrote Medical Books

He was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.  His wife and others supported him for a promotion to brigadier general and President Andrew Johnson did so, backdating it to March 1865.  In 1920, the hospital at Fort Shafter in Hawaii was renamed Triplet Army Medical Center in his honor.

His military career was not considered remarkable while he was living.  But in 1858, he wrote the "Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United States" which outlined the basic physical requirements for army recruits and it was almost immediately accepted by the Army.

In 1861, he wrote "Handbook for the Military Surgeon" which standardized many Army medical practices to include administration, hygiene and surgery.

Tripler is also credited with inventing the first army four-wheeled medical ambulance.

--Old Secesh

Charles Stuart Tripler, U.S. Surgeon-- Part 2: Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac

During the Mexico City Campaign, Tripler  was assigned as medical director of General David E. Twiggs division and afterwards was ordered to organize and command the army's  general hospital in that city.  After the war, he continued serving in New York, Michigan, Kentucky and California.

On an expedition to  to Panama, the soldiers began to get sick from a variety of ailments which alerted Tripler to the inadequate medical procedures being used.

In the Civil War, he was appointed  Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac in August 1861.  He came under fire by the U.S. Sanitary Commission during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 and was replaced by Jonathan Letterman.

He was allowed to chose his next post and he chose Chief Surgeon of the Department of the Lakes and stayed at that position for the rest of the war.

Death came to him in 1866.

--Old Secesh

Charles Stuart Tripler, Union Surgeon-- Part 1

As long as I am on the subject of Union surgeons, I will write about this man.  In the last post, I mentioned that he preceded Jonathan Letterman as chief surgeon of the Army of the Potomac.  Another man whom I had never heard of before this month.

From Wikipedia.

CHARLES STUART TRIPLER

(January 19, 1806 - October 20, 1866)

United States brigadier general and surgeon.

Posthumously appointed brigadier general by President Johnson in 1867.  The Tripler Army Medical Center in Oahu, Hawaii, is named for him.

Graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City in 1827, served as a resident at Bellevue Hospital and then became an assistant to the West Point post surgeon and was commissioned an army assistant surgeon in 1830.

He served all over and then in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican War.

--Old Secesh

Jonathan Letterman-- Part 4: Battle of Antietam a Shining Moment In His Career

Charles Stuart Triplet preceded Jonathan Letterman as the head of medicine in the Army of the Potomac.

William A. Hammond was surgeon general of the United States.

The Battle of Antietam was probably the shining moment of Letterman's career.  He scoped out sites for hospitals.  Within 48 hours Letterman had most Union casualties off the battlefield.

Clara Barton began her work at Antietam.  Confederate casualties were treated in Union hospitals as well as Union casualties being treated in Confederate hospitals.  Once you were wounded or hurt on the battlefield, you were no longer the enemy.

Being a registered Antietam tour guide, Mr. Dammann knows there are four witness trees at the battlefield.

After Antietam, Jonathan Letterman was not as involved  with the Army of the Potomac, partly because McClellan, a big supporter, was removed from command.

At Chancellorsville, Letterman and Confederate surgeon Lafayette Guild got together and worked out an exchange of casualties.

After the war, Letterman moved out west and died, but his body was brought back east and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old Secesh