n removed, and with two others--one of which perpetuates the memory
of the adventurous Herndon--stands here. The wharf built for the
embarkation of the Burnside Expedition in 1861 is also here. About sixty
brick buildings, comprising the chapel, post-office, dispensary, and
laundry, with long rows of tents stretched across the grassy spaces,
afforded accommodation for patients varying from five hundred to
twenty-two hundred in number.

In the summer of 1863, Dr. B. A. Vanderkeift was appointed surgeon in
charge of the U.S. General Hospital, Division I., at Annapolis, more
frequently called the Naval School Hospital. Dr. Vanderkeift, from his
uncommon energy of character, his large experience, and rare executive
ability, was admirably fitted for his position. By day and night he
never spared himself in the most watchful superintendence of all
departments of the hospital; no details were too minute for his care, no
plan too generous which could tend to the comfort of the suffering.
Absolute system and punctuality were expected to be observed by all who
came under his military rule. The reveille bugle broke the silence of
early dawn. Its clear notes, repeated at intervals during the day,
announced to the surgeons the time for visits and reports, and to the
men on duty--such as the guards, police, nurses, and cooks--the time for
their meals. One of the most original of the Doctor's plans was the
establishment of a stretcher corps. At one time there was daily to be
seen upon the green in front of head-quarters a company of men,
ward-masters, nurses, and cooks, performing the most surprising
evolutions, playing alternately the parts of patients and nurses,
studying by experiment, under the eye and direction of skilful surgeons,
the most comfortable method of conveying the helpless. In this way the
stretcher corps acquired an amount of skill and tenderness which was
brought into good use when the long roll on the drum summoned them to
meet an approaching transport, bringing either the wounded from the last
battle-field, or the emaciated victims who had been held as prisoners of
war at the South.

Shortly after Dr. Vanderkeift came to the hospital, he invited "Sister
Tyler" to take the head of the ladies' department. She will always be
remembered as identified with the war from the very beginning. She was
the only woman in Baltimore who came forward on the 19th of April, 1861,
when the men of our Massachusetts Sixth were massa