In the American Civil War, army surgeons did hold officer commissions. For example: The Surgeon General, before 1861, held the rank of Colonel; after 1862, he held the rank of Brigadier General. The Medical Director of 2 or more corps held the rank of Colonel. A brigade surgeon held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. A regimental surgeon (such as the surgeon in FORT APACHE) had the rank of Major or Captain, while a regimental assistant surgeon was a Captain or First Lieutenant.
One of the first female doctors in the United States, Dr. Mary Walker, served the Union army as a nurse and then as a contract surgeon, neither of which had any rank. In 1864 she received an army commission as an assistant surgeon, along with the rank of Captain. She thus became the first woman commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. She also became the first woman to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I know that the army changed during and after the Civil War, and to be honest, I am not familiar with the post-war army, but, having studied the Civil War for my masters and re-enacting the war as a Union contract surgeon, I can say that during the war surgeons were commissioned officers and that their uniforms showed that rank. I offer as support the book CIVIL WAR MEDICINE: CHALLENGES AND TRIUMPHS by Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D., published by Galen Press, Ltd., Tucson, Arizona, copywright 2002.
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Kennyjbaran
14 years ago
Very interesting, thanks for the quick history lesson. Am watching this movie right now on my DVR, still holds up for me.
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oldblackandwhite
14 years ago
ljspin:
All right. My source for this is fuzzy, and I can't find it now, so I should not have stated it with any certainty. I find it hard to believe they changed this after the Civil War. I had thought I remembered reading that one of the reforms the Army made to its medical corps following its dreadful performance in the Spanish American War was to make surgeons commisioned officers. I must have misunderstood or forgotten. Perhaps it refered only to the contract surgeons. Thank you for the correction. I am deleting this from my post.
I hope I am right about the 2ond lt. uniform. I can't find that now.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
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ljspin
14 years ago
Oldblackandwhite,
I did some checking with a re-enactor friend who is up on the Indian Wars and found out that we were both right.
During the Civil War Union Army surgeons held commissions as captains or majors and wore shoulder boards on their uniforms to designate this. However, this was done away with in the post-war years and, as you said, was not re-enstated until the Spanish-American War.
Calling the surgeon Captain may have been an error; but, considering that many of these men knew each other from the war, they may have called him by his former rank, as that was how they first knew him. It is also possible that he wore his old shoulder boards, even though his commission was no longer recognized. While I think it is entirely possible that others called him by his former rank, Colonel Thursday was such a stickler for regulations, I highly doubt he would allow the old shoulder boards.
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oldblackandwhite
14 years ago
ljspin:
Thank you for telling me this. I still have not been able to find where I read this. Actually, I think it said after the Spanish-American War, because of the bad show the medical corps made in that war. The doctor in Ft Apache refered to himself as a commisioned officer at the beginning of an address at the non-commissioned officer's ball..."We, the commissioned officers of Ft Apache..."
But as an interesting side to this, Leonard Wood started in the army as surgeon, helped capture Geronimo, became a regular officer, and eventually the Commanding General of the Army by the time of WWI. President Wilson refused to let him go to France with the AEF because he had had the bad form to campaign for Wilson's opponent Justice Hughes in the election of 1916. I mention this to illustrate that there must not have been much of a distinction between the warrent officer surgeons and the commissioned officers if Wood could make the switch and already be a col. by the time of the Spanish-American War.
The only book I have read on the Indian War Army is one called The Old Army, written by a character known as "Gallopping Jim" Parker, who served under Mackenzie, was in on the Geronimo chase, and served in the Philippino Insurrection. He was a West Pointer with "strong opinions, freely expressed" (translation: big mouth) which frequently got him into trouble. His memior is a well-written, colorful, detailed picture of that era. It is short on technical details, but it does have photos, some showing what the actual western forts looked like -- not much like the ones in the movies, of course.
He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good... St. Matthew 5:45
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