Charles Stuart Tripler was born Jan. 19,
1806, in New York City. He graduated from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons in New York in 1827 and served in the city's Bellevue Hospital. He
entered the Army at West Point, New York, and received a commission as an
assistant surgeon in 1830.
In 1860, at the beginning of the Civil
War, Tripler became the first medical director of the Army of the Potomac.
Tripler is the author of one of the most widely read manuals in Army medical
history, the "Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army of the United
States," has left a legacy of his works that still serve as an inspiration
to the current operations in Army Medical Departments. In 1861, Tripler wrote, "Handbook for the
Military Surgeon," with Dr. George C. Blackman. He received $350
for the first 750 copies of the first edition of the manual from the War
Department. He intended to revise the book but failed to have the original
copyrighted before he died in 1866. In
1860, at the beginning of the Civil War, Tripler became the first medical
director of the Army of the Potomac.
It was only after his death,
following repeated petitions friends and Tripler's wife [Eunice
Hunt-Tripler] that President Andrew Johnson promoted Tripler to a brigadier
general. The orders, signed by Johnson, on March 7, 1867, gave the
date-of-rank as March 13, 1865. On June 26, 1920, the Department
Hospital, Territory of Hawaii, was redesignated "Tripler Army Hospital" in
honor of Charles Stuart Tripler, Brig. Gen. MD.
Blackman, George Curtis, surgeon, born in Newtown,
Connecticut, 20 April 1819; died in Avondale, Ohio, 19 July 1871. He was
graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons, New York City, in 1840,
and in 1854 became professor of surgery in the medical College of Ohio, at
Cincinnati. During the war he served as an army surgeon. He was a bold and
skilful operator, and an able writer and lecturer. He translated and edited
Vidal's "Treatise on Venereal Disease" (New York, 1854), edited a new
edition of Mott's translation of Velpeau's "Surgery," with notes and
additions of his own, and was a frequent contributor to medical journals. He
was a member of the society of physicians and surgeons in London.
Information from Rutkow: History of
Medicine, p. 44
