(Photo)
Army camps at the beginning of the war
were breeding
grounds for disease, and Hammond's
excellent work in
attempting to
clean up the camps and hospitals was
noticed by the
U.S. Sanitary Commission. In April 1862,
the
Sanitary Commission
succeeded in exerting enough political
pressure to
have Hammond appointed over less
competent senior
officers to the
post of surgeon general with the rank
of brigadier
general.
Hammond energetically began reforming
the army
medical service. He eliminated much of
the red tape
of the prewar medical
department, created the general
hospital service,
saw that competent medical men were
appointed to
high-level positions,
provided assistance and medical
information to
surgeons in the field, and oversaw the
establishment
of an efficient
ambulance corps. Hammond also created
two large
government operated drug laboratories to
produce
high quality medicines
for the army.
Hammond could be autocratic and
tactless, and he
clashed with Secretary of War Edwin M.
Stanton. As a
result, Stanton had
him court-martialed on a petty charge
and dismissed
from the army in August 1864. Hammond's
court-martial was overturned
after the war, and he was restored to
the rank of
brigadier general, he retired in 1879.
Maryland native William A. Hammond
graduated
from New York University's Medical
College in 1848
and entered the
U.S. Army the next year as an assistant
surgeon.
During his 10 year term of service he
served in the
West and at the
Military Academy at West Point and was
cited by the
American Medical Association for his
important
research on nutrition.
At the beginning of the Civil War,
Hammond was
assigned to duty as an inspector of
hospitals and
army camps.