men in the army perform so great labors with so
little credit as the surgeons.

Lest the author should be accused of undue partiality for his own staff,
he will quote the words of an unprejudiced witness, who, in speaking of
the labor, the anxiety and the responsibility imposed upon the surgeons
after a great battle, says:

"The devotion, the solicitude, the unceasing efforts to remedy the
defects of the situation, the untiring attentions to the wounded, upon
their part, were so marked as to be apparent to all who visited the
hospitals. It must be remembered that these same officers had endured
the privations and fatigues of the long forced marches with the rest of
the army; they had shared its dangers, for one medical officer from each
regiment follows it into battle, and is liable to the accidents of war,
as has been repeatedly and fatally the case; that its field hospitals
are often, from the changes of the line of battle, brought under fire of
the enemy, and that while in this situation these surgeons are called
upon to exercise the calmest judgment, to perform the most critical and
serious operations, and this quickly and continuously. The battle
ceasing, their labors continue. While other officers are sleeping,
renewing their strength for further efforts, the medical are still
toiling. They have to improvise hospitals from the rudest materials, are
obliged to 'make bricks without straw,' to surmount seeming
impossibilities. The work is unending both by day and night, the anxiety
is constant, and the strain upon both the physical and mental faculties
unceasing. Thus, after this battle, operators had to be held up while
performing the operations, and fainted from exhaustion the operation
finished. One completed his labors to be seized with partial paralysis,
the penalty of his over exertion.

"While his duties are as arduous, his exposure as great, and the
mortality from disease and injury as large as among other staff officers
of similar rank, the surgeon has no prospect of promotion, of a brevet
or an honorable mention, to stimulate him. His duties are performed
quietly, unostentatiously. He does his duty for his country's sake, for
the sake of humanity."[7]

[7] J. H. Douglass, Assistant Secretary Sanitary Commission.

The labors of the medical officers had never been so great as at these
battles. Thousands of wounded men were stretched in and about the
several field hospitals, and long trains of ambula