MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OP THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY. 
By John Cochrane. 
Mag.of Am.Hist. 
Sept.1884. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
A century has elapsed since the American Revolution, and in the in- 
terim much has been written and published concerning it. But there is 
still something to be supplied. Comparatively little has ever been accessi- 
ble to the public concerning the medical department of the army of 
Director General 0/Military Hospitals. 
patriots. The historian seems only to have considered this feature of the 
war in a general way, while dealing with other subjects in detail. Reasons 
for this possibly exist ; the records may have been destroyed by the British 
in 1814. Whatever the cause, certain it is that there is a lamentable 
absence of information about an arm of the public service of no secondary 
Vol. XII.—No. 3.—16 242 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
importance. Fortunately, the letter-book of its official head, Dr. John 
Cochran, has been preserved,* and in the belief that a few extracts from 
its centennial pages will be of interest to the reader, and serve to throw 
fresh light upon obscure passages in our history, this paper has been pre- 
pared. 
In the year 1570 John Cochran, of kin to the Earl of Dundonald, emi- 
grated from Paisley, in Scotland, to the north of Ireland. James, his 
descendant in the sixth generation, crossed the sea to America, and in the 
early part of the eighteenth century settled in Pennsylvania. His third 
son, born at Sadsbury, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1730, was Doctor John 
Cochran of the Revolution, who was educated for a surgeon by Dr. 
Thompson, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Having received his diploma, he 
on the outbreak of the French and Indian war entered the English service 
as surgeon’s mate in the Hospital Department, and remained with the 
Northern Army to the close of hostilities. When General Bradstreet 
marched against Fort Frontenac in the summer of 1758, he joined him, 
together with Major (afterward General) Philip Schuyler. In the cam- 
paigns of this war he acquired the medical proficiency and the surgical 
expertness for which he was afterward celebrated. On the 4th of Decem- 
ber, 1760, he was united in marriage at Albany, New York, to Gertrude 
Schuyler, the widow of Peter Schuyler, and the only sister of General 
Philip Schuyler. He afterward removed to Brunswick, New Jersey, where 
he practiced his profession, and was one of the founders of the New 
Jersey Medical Society in 1766, succeeding Dr. Burnet as its President 
in 1769. His residence at Brunswick terminated when the British burned 
his house in the first years of the war. At the close of the winter of 1776 
he volunteered his services in the Hospital Department of the Army of 
the Revolution, and Washington, in a letter written in the beginning of 
1777, in which he spoke of his experience and services in the French war, 
recommended his name to the favor of the national legislators. Congress 
having, April 7, 1777, resumed the consideration of a report on the hos- 
pitals, plans modeled after those of the British army were submitted by 
Dr. Cochran and Dr. William Shippen, which, being duly approved by 
General Washington, were on that day adopted, and prevailed till re- 
* The letter-book in the possession of Gen. John Cochrane, the grandson of Dr. John Cochran, 
from which these extracts are made, covers the period from January, 1781, to June in 1782, and 
furnishes an authentic official statement of the condition of the Medical Department of the Army 
of the Revolution during that time and to the end of the war. The letter to Jonathan Potts, given 
under date of March 18, 1780, was written while Dr. Cochran was Surgeon-General of the army, 
and is undoubtedly a not overdrawn account of the condition of the department during the Revolu- 
tionary war. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
modeled by Congress September 30, 1780. On the 11th of April, 1777, 
in pursuance of His Excellency’s recommendation, Dr. Cochran received 
the appointment of Chief Physician and Surgeon-General of the Army. 
After nearly four years of service in this position, he was, on the resigna- 
tion of Dr. Shippen, promoted by the appointment of Congress (17th of 
January, 1781) to that of Director of the Military Hospitals of the United 
States, in which capacity he continued to the end of the war. I he docu- 
ments handed down to us—his entries, memorandums and letters—partake 
of the authority of an official record. They also disclose the many and 
distressing difficulties of the situation. During this exciting period the 
country passed through the severest of trials. There have been other wars 
of greater magnitude and of longer duration, but none, I think, so heroic 
as this. The war of 1861 was to preserve the government—the govern- 
ment established by the Army of the Revolution in the birth-throes of 
pain and tribulation. The Army of the Union was organized with formida- 
ble numbers, an abundant commissariat, speedy transportation, adequate 
supplies, a thoroughly appointed medical department, and every equipment 
requisite to the conduct of modern war. In these essentials, certainly it 
was superior to its enemy; and though justly deserving the meed of 
praise, its proudest laurels are by no means concurrent with the heroism 
of the Army of the Revolution, as the effort of a people in their incipi- 
ence to establish a government is more heroic than the effort of a people 
at their maturity to prevent its overthrow. 
The Medical Department, as re-arranged October 6, 1780, consisted of 
a Director of the Military Hospitals of the Army, stationed at headquar- 
ters, a Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army, stationed with the army, 
three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals, stationed variously 
at the principal hospitals, a purveyor and assistant, with their clerks, an 
apothecary and five assistants, fifteen hospital physicians and surgeons 
and twenty-six mates, detailed to different hospitals as required, nine stew- 
ards, three storekeepers, one clerk of the magazine, seven ward masters, 
seven matrons, thirty nurses and orderlies detailed from the ranks, or other- 
wise employed, as occasion demanded. As already stated, Dr. Cochran 
was appointed Surgeon-General of the Army April 11, 1777, and commis- 
sioned October 6, 1780, Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army, with 
Dr. William Shippen his superior as Director of the Military Hospitals. 
He continued in that capacity until the resignation of Dr. Shippen, when, 
January 19, 1781, he was advanced to the head of the medical department. 
Dr. James Craik, previously the first in order of the three chief physicians 
and surgeons of the hospitals, was given the place of Chief Physician and 244 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
Surgeon of the Army, vacated by Dr. Cochran, and Dr. William Burnet, 
one of the fifteen hospital physicians and surgeons, was promoted to his 
place. The remaining two chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals 
were Drs. Malichi Treat and Charles McKnight. Dr. Thomas Bond was 
the purveyor and Andrew Cragie the apothecary. Military necessity de- 
cided the location of the hospitals. The most prominent were at the 
artillery huts near New Windsor, the Robinson House, West Point bar- 
racks, Morristown, Albany, Philadelphia, New Hampshire huts, New Bos- 
ton, Fishkill, Yellow Springs, Williamsburgh and Trenton. An additional 
flying hospital accompanied the army, and small-pox hospitals were estab- 
lished as needed. The hospitals at the artillery huts, the barracks at 
West Point and the Robinson House, appear to have been designated by 
Congress. Returns from all of these, so frequent as to enable a statement to 
be tabulated and transmitted every month either to the chairman of the 
Medical Committee of Congress, the Board of War, or the Secretary of 
War, represented with periodical accuracy the physical condition of the 
army. The columns, which show for each month the treatment in hospital 
of an average of fifty of the wives and children of soldiers, happily disclose 
to the observation of the curious an exceptional benevolence in the usage 
of war. 
The scale of compensation was at the extreme of moderation. In 
no degree, however, in the absence of value to the currency in which it 
was rated, could pay have been invested with the attraction of reward. 
Yet, it is submitted as not devoid of interest. To the office of director of 
the military hospitals was attached the pay of $150 per month, 2 rations, 
1 for servant and 2 of forage ; to that of the chief physician and surgeon 
of the army, $140 per month, two horses and wagon, and 2 rations of for- 
age ; to each of the three chief physicians and surgeons of the hospitals, 
$140 per month and 2 rations; to the purveyor, $130, and his assist- 
ant, $75 per month ; to the apothecary, $ 130 per month, and his two assist- 
ants, $50 per month each; to the fifteen hospital physicians and surgeons, 
$120 per month each, and to each of the 26 mates, $50 per month. The 
stewards received each $35 per month, the clerks and storekeepers $2 per 
day, the seven matrons a half dollar each, and a ration per day, the 
thirty nurses each two shillings and a ration a day, and the orderlies, if 
soldiers, one shilling and a ration, and if citizens, two shillings and a ration 
a day. 
The department at the South was organized by resolution of Congress 
of the 15th of May, 1781, with David Oliphant, of South Carolina, deputy 
director; Peter Fayssonx, chief physician of the hospitals—pay, $140 per MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
month, 2 rations, and 2 of forage; James Browne, chief physician of the 
army—pay, $140, 2 rations, and 2 of forage; Robert Johnson and Wm. 
Reed, hospital physicians, with pay of $120 each per month, 1 ration, and 
1 of forage; and Nathan Brownson, deputy-purveyor, all of whom were 
stationed in South Carolina. Subsequently, on the 20th of September, 
1780, were appointed by resolution of Congress, Drs. Thomas, Tudor, 
Tucker and Vickars, physicians and surgeons, for the Southern Depart- 
ment, David Smith, deputy-purveyor, and John Carne, assistant deputy- 
apothecary. 
Such was the medical department, to the administration of which Dr. 
Cochran was chosen because of his comprehensive experience and intimate 
knowledge of its details. The language of his letter from New Windsor, 
March 25, 1781, to Dr. Peter Turner, hospital physician and surgeon, “ My 
appointment was unsolicited, and a rank to which I never aspired, being 
perfectly happy where I was,” attests the modesty of his nature in the 
acceptance of an unsought and unexpected distinction. The fortunes of the 
country were then at their darkest—a helpless Congress, an empty treas- 
ury, and an exhausted people. Yet, he unhesitatingly undertook the 
responsibilities of the station, and cheerfully devoted his energies to the ser- 
vice of his country. Writing from New Windsor, March 26, 1781, to Dr. 
George Campbell, he said : “ Whether my present station will contribute 
to my future happiness time only must discover. But if I have no better 
success than my predecessors, my lot must be unfortunate indeed. A de- 
termined resolution to conform to the rules of right, and that support 
which I have some reason to expect from every gentleman of the depart- 
ment will, I hope, protect me against the malevolence of my enemies, if I 
have any. I say, if I have any, for sure I am that I never put a thorn in 
any honest man’s breast.” 
The temerity often generated by self-sufficiency was alien to his nature. 
When assuming his official responsibilities, he in appropriate words refers 
his conduct to the support he may deserve and receive from his official sub- 
alterns. “ I thank you,” he wrote to Dr. Binney, March 25, 1781, “ for your 
very polite congratulations on my appointment, and the favorable senti- 
ments you are pleased to entertain of my disposition, and the willingness 
you express of serving under my superintendence. In return, I only 
wish to act such a part as will entitle me to a continuation of your appro- 
bation, and that of every gentleman in the department.” In a letter to 
Dr. Thomas Waring Morris, dated February 28, 1781, he said : “ The gen- 
tlemen of the corps which I have the honor to superintend may be assured 
that every endeavour of mine shall be exerted to render them as happy as 246 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
possible.” But his native benevolence was not consumed with the benefi- 
cent phrase of amiable intentions. His charities were conversant with the 
affairs of the humblest, and wherever misfortune interfered with the duties 
of dependents, or oppressed the deserving, his offices were interposed to 
alleviate or remove. Strong, however, as were these humane dispositions, 
they were duly subjected to the superior obligations of official responsibil- 
ity, and their exercise duly restricted within the sphere of official trust. 
From New Windsor, February 28, 1781, he wrote to Dr. George Steven- 
son, of Morristown : “ Dear Sir, I was favoured with yours of the 19th inst. 
yesterday, and thank you for your congratulations on my appointment to 
the Directorship of the Hospitals. Whether I shall answer the expecta- 
tions of the public in general, or of my friends in particular, will greatly 
depend on the gentlemen of the department, by a faithful discharge of their 
duty, and a strict observance of the rules laid down by Congress in the 
plan for conducting the Hospital Department. I believe that you are 
persuaded that you have my patronage and every good intention to your 
welfare. Therefore I should be very sorry that your situation should ever 
be such as to put it out of your power to comply with any orders you may 
receive from your superior. It is very evident that you cannot live on the 
air, and unless money is furnished, you cannot proceed to Virginia, where 
1 do not believe that you will be ordered. But should you be so unfor- 
tunate, as it so badly accords with your circumstances, on application to 
Dr. Treat, I am persuaded he will order another in your place, you first 
making known to him your particular situation.” 
But in a letter to Dr. James Craik, the life-long friend and personal 
physician of Washington, Dr. Cochran expressed in the candor of mutual 
friendship sentiments which, under the circumstances, reflect honor on 
them both. “ New Windsor, March 26, 1781. Dear Craik: The enclosed 
act of Congress appointing you Chief Physician and Surgeon of the Army 
in my room, came to hand a few days since, under cover from the Presi- 
dent of Congress. Give me leave to offer my congratulations on this 
appointment, as I know it is more agreeable to yourself than your former 
station, and more acceptable to the Commander-in-Chief and the whole 
army. You will not think me guilty of adulation, when I assure you that 
I would rather have complimented you on the occasion of your being 
appointed Director, than where you are, for many reasons ; and I believe 
that every member of Congress will do me the justice to acknowledge that 
I gave you the preference upon every interview I had with them when con- 
versing upon the subject. I know of none dissatisfied with my appoint- 
ment. * * * I hope to act such a part as to be out of the power of MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
247 
friend or foe. * * * I shall be happy to see you once more with us. I 
purpose to be the greater part of my time in the field. Perhaps, you will 
say, no thanks to you, for that a resolve passed a few days after you left 
Philadelphia ordering the Director to repair to Head Quarters, and to 
make that the chief place of his residence.” The presence of the medical 
staff in the field indeed was demanded. In all the war, the doctor had 
been with the army, alleviating its sufferings, in the rigors of Valley Forge, 
and stimulating its convalescence in the camp at Morristown. The ter- 
mination of the war found him at his post near the headquarters of the 
army. 
The following letter, written while he was surgeon-general, to Jonathan 
Potts, then purveyor to the hospitals, represents concisely the condition 
of the hospitals, and the routine of their neglect during the period of the 
war, anterior to his accession to their care and direction. 
“ Morristown March 18, 1780. 
Dear Sir: 
I received your favour by Dr. Bond, and am extremely sorry for the 
present situation of the Hospital finances. Our stores have all been ex- 
pended for two weeks past, and not less than six hundred regimental sick 
and lame, most of whom require some assistance, which being withheld, are 
languishing and must suffer. I flatter myself you have no blame in this 
matter; but curse on him or them by whom this evil is produced. The 
vengeance of an offended Deity must overtake the miscreants sooner or 
later. It grieves my soul to see the poor worthy brave fellows pine away 
for want of a few comforts, which they have dearly earned. I shall wait 
on his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and represent our situation, but 
I am persuaded it can have little effect, for what can he do ? He may refer 
the matter to Congress, they to the Medical Committee, who will probably 
pow-wow over it awhile, and no more be heard of it. The few stores sent 
on by Dr. Bond in your absence have not yet arrived. I suppose owing to 
the badness of the roads. If they come, they will give us some relief fora 
few weeks 
Compliments to all friends and believe me 
Dear Sir yours very Sincerely 
John Cochran ” 
At no time did the army abound in medical stores. In the year 1781, 
however, they were nearly extinct. Untended wounds or languishing dis- 
ease filled hospitals destitute of medicines, and swelled the daily returns 248 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
of death. Scarcely was convalescence a boon, when the lack of subsist- 
ence faced the soldier in the hospital, and compelled him to beg in the 
streets for the necessaries of life. A crisis more strenuous and an hour 
more appalling can hardly be conceived than when want and nakedness 
vainly craved mercy from frigid skies, and the delirium of fever reproached 
the physician with the futility of his art. In a letter to Dr. Treat from 
New Windsor, March 25, 1781, Dr. Cochran said: “The state of our 
finances is such that it will be impossible to lay in a magazine for the 
campaign. Therefore we must, in a great measure, depend on purchasing 
as we go.” February 28, 1781, he wrote from headquarters near New 
Windsor, to Dr. Thomas Waring Morris : “The want of necessary stores 
for our Hospitals affords a gloomy prospect and again on, the same day 
wrote to Abram Clark, Chairman of the Medical Committee in Congress: 
“We have few deaths yet. The poor fellows suffer for want of necessary 
supplies, which I hope soon will be afforded them. Otherwise there will 
be little encouragement for physicians and surgeons.” To Samuel Hun- 
tington, the President of Congress, he wrote from Philadelphia, May 24, 
1781: “The Hospitals are in the utmost distress for want of necessaries 
for the sick. In some of them we have not stores, and in others the sup- 
plies are so trifling and insignificant as to be of little or no service. I am 
sensible of the difficulties and embarrassments of Congress, but am also 
sensible that unless some speedy and effectual measures are taken to re- 
lieve the sick, a number of the valuable soldiers in the American Army 
will perish through want of necessaries, who would soon be serving their 
country in the field could they be supplied. The surgeon who has the 
care of the Hospital at Boston writes me that his sick are in great want, 
and that he is not in a situation to procure any relief. At Albany the 
only article of stores is about sixty gallons of vinegar, and the sick suffer 
extremely at times for want of provisions. The other Hospitals are in a 
similar condition.” He repeated to Abram Clark, April 30, 1781, from 
New Windsor, his previous admonition of the 28th of February of that 
year: “I have from all quarters the most melancholy complaints of the 
sufferings of the sick in the hospitals for want of stores and necessaries 
that you can conceive, and unless some speedy remedy is applied, the 
consequence must be very fatal. Dr. Warren, who has charge of the 
Boston hospital, represents his situation in a very distressed condition, 
and prays most earnestly for relief ”—a picture gloomy enough, but 
scarcely as dark as that drawn in the following words to the purveyor, Dr. 
Thomas Bond, from New Windsor, March 25, 1781 : “I was favored with 
yours of the 20th February, about fifteen days ago, on my way to Albany, MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
249 
which accounts for my not answering you until now—as I only returned last 
night. I am sorry to inform you that I found that Hospital entirely desti- 
tute of all kinds of stores, except a little vinegar, which was good for 
nothing—and frequently without bread or beef for many days—so that the 
doctor, under those circumstances, was obliged to permit such of the pa- 
tients as could walk into town to beg provisions among the inhabitants. 
* * * I pity our distressed condition on the score of money, and un- 
less a sufficiency can be procured at the opening of the campaign we are 
undone.” If to these instances of official decrepitude is added the sig- 
nificant request made to Dr. Thomas Bond, purveyor at Norwich, no 
evidence will be wanting of the penury of the medical department, in all 
that appertains to an effective or even tolerable arm of the public ser- 
vice—Camp near Dobb’s Ferry, July 26, 1781 : “Could you not, by ad- 
vertisement, be able to procure a quantity of old linen from the good 
ladies of your city—I was obliged, after the last skirmish, when fifty men 
were wounded, to give every sheet I had in the world, but two, to make 
lint.” 
It has been seen that he alluded in his letter to Samuel Huntington, 
the President of Congress, to the failure of Congress to exert the effort 
required to relieve the deplorable condition of the medical service. Sev- 
eral valuable physicians and surgeons had resigned since the new arrange- 
ment of the department went into effect. He suggested to Congress, in 
his letter to Samuel Huntington, May 24, 1781, that there were “several 
vacancies for Hospital Physicians and Surgeons, occasioned by resignation, 
and that in case we should have an active campaign, the department may 
suffer for want of a proper number of assistants. The eldest mates are 
qualified to fill their places, and if they could be appointed by Congress 
with propriety, it would have a tendency to promote the good of the ser- 
vice.” In a letter to the Board of War, from New Windsor, July 4, 1781, 
he represents that these vacancies “leave us only eight Hospital physicians 
and surgeons out of the fifteen established by Congress,” three of whom 
being employed respectively at Boston, Philadelphia and Yellow Springs, 
“there will remain only five to do the whole duty of the Hospitals of the 
army, a number very inadequate to the service. The four eldest mates whom 
I recommended to Congress are very uneasy, and unless promoted, I have 
too much reason to believe will leave the service very soon; and this, together 
with other mates who have resigned since my arrival in camp, will deprive 
us of a great part of our medical aid.” A disregard of this recommenda- 
tion seems to have been productive of much inconvenience and disorder. 
Evidently the political necessities of his position did not dispose the 250 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
average congressman to supply a vacancy with the candidate best qualified 
for the place, to the exclusion of an incompetent candidate of his own. 
The glimpse thus had of the influences which dominated the public ser- 
vice of the Revolution reflects a very exact resemblance upon those which 
impress the public service now, and unpleasantly imply the painful truth 
that even in conjunctures of greatest hazard, private interests are apt to 
obstruct the public weal. The course urged upon the Board of War in this 
communication, if continuously pursued, might perhaps have obviated the 
necessity of reform in the civil service of the Government to-day; for in 
the same letter occur these words: “ I am altogether averse to any regu- 
lar succession of promotion of physicians and surgeons in the Hospital 
Department; for the situation of the medical gentlemen in our service is 
very different from other services. The medical officers in the former 
have been pushed up as occasion required, many of whom were not the 
least qualified (to say no worse of them), while those of the latter undergo 
a strict examination, and in general are every way qualified; and I would 
further observe, particularly in the British service, there is no regular suc- 
cession, but such are generally promoted in the Hospital Departments as 
are more capable and attentive, whether from the Regimental Surgeons or 
Hospital Mates.” The effect of these persistent official derelictions is thus 
announced to the Board of War, August 29, 1781, from Headquarters, east 
side of Hudson River: “ Dr. Marshall, one of our most valuable mates, 
has resigned within a few days, which will be followed by several others 
who have been long in service, and acted some years in a superior capacity 
under the old arrangement, and accepted of mates’ stations with an ex- 
pectation of promotion. A favorable opportunity offered to retain these 
gentlemen in service by promoting them to the present vacancies, but it 
appears as if Congress had forgotten that either Hospitals, sick or wounded, 
had any existence.” 
Deficient, however, as was the medical department in the means of ad- 
ministering to the health or comfort of the army, there comes to us, among 
the causes, a remarkable instance of personal obliquity, in strong contrast 
with the ardor of self-sacrifice which characterized the patriotism of the 
time. In a letter to Abram Clark, Chairman of the Medical Commit- 
tee, Dr. Cochran said: “ I have a letter from Dr. Cragie, our chief 
apothecary, now at Boston, informing me that Dr. Foster, the former 
Deputy Director to the Eastward, has absolutely refused giving up the 
medicines, instruments, &c., purchased by him for public use, which de- 
ranges us much. There is a quantity of Hospital stores at Windsor and 
Danbury, in Connecticut, in the same circumstances, which he has refused MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
251 
also. I have taken a short cut, and by stealing a march on him, may 
probably obtain part, if not the whole. It appears very extraordinary 
that a public officer, purchasing stores, &c., on public credit, shall, when 
out of office, retain large quantities of those articles in his hands, in pre- 
tence that his accounts are not settled, when perhaps the public owe him 
nothing, and the sick are perishing for want of these very stores.” The 
“short cut” appears to have been the device of despatching Dr. Ledyard, 
the assistant purveyor at Fishkill, upon a stolen march to Danbury for 
the medicines and stores, the failure of which scheme is subsequently thus 
recorded in the letter to Mr. Clark, which announces the abstraction: 
“ Since sitting down to write, I received a letter from Dr. Ledyard, our 
Assistant Purveyor at Fishkill, telling me that he could not possibly pro- 
ceed to Windsor, in Connecticut, in quest of the stores already mentioned, 
for want of money, not being able to raise as much as would put a hoop 
on a cask, or a board on a box, if it was wanting.” 
But the doctor was not thus to be baffled, as we learn by his letter sub- 
sequently to Dr. Ledyard, from New Windsor, March 24, 1781 : “I know 
not what to advise you. I hope you have sent some one with the officer 
to Danbury, to take charge of the stores. Those at Windsor must take 
their chance until some method can be fallen on to raise the wind, to carry 
our scheme into execution. In the mean time, either from public or pri- 
vate credit, you can proceed to the business. I will be accountable for 
the expense attending the procuring the stores.” On the 25th of the same 
month, a letter to Dr. Thomas Bond, the purveyor, announces: “The 
stores from Danbury have arrived at Fishkill.” Thus the extreme of self- 
ishness was confronted and defeated by a prompt beneficence, worthy of 
the cause to which it was devoted. 
Such was the destitution which paralyzed, and very nearly extirpated, 
the hospitals during the greater part of the war. Under the recuperating 
effects of its foreign alliances, the country emerged slowly from its indi- 
gence, and the medical department gradually expanded to its full functions 
in the dispensation of the supplies procured from France. A letter from 
New Windsor, February 2, 1782, directs Dr. Isaac Ledyard, assistant pur- 
veyor, to “order Dr. Johonet, the assistant apothecary, to take such quan- 
tity of the medicine lately received from France as will be necessary for 
supplying the Hospitals;” while an earlier letter of September 1, 1781, 
from Headquarters, east side of Hudson River, to Dr. Bond, the purveyor, 
thus joyously announced the vigor imparted by France to the energy of 
the war, and her generous ministration to the exhausted resources of the 
country: “Colonel Lawrence, who passed through camp last night, on his 2 52 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
way to Philadelphia, has put us in good spirits from the supply of money 
and everything else requisite, arrived in Boston from our good and gen- 
erous ally, in consequence of which I hope we shall soon be in high Blast.” 
But desperate as was the condition of the medical department, that of 
its officers was not less afflictive. It could not be otherwise, that when 
the sources of general prosperity vanished, individuals should be oppressed 
with the utmost penury. We have seen the soldier begging for bread; 
we shall see the officer in quest of clothing. The ordinary uses of life 
were circumscribed by the blight of indigence. It extended to all sta- 
tions, and affected all classes. Calamity impended over families, and want 
intensified the rigor of war with menaced starvation. The outline of the 
picture startles, but its lineaments revolt. In the letter previously quoted, 
to Abram Clark, President of Congress, February 28, 1781, Dr. Cochran 
said: “ I hope some pay is ordered to be advanced to the officers of the 
department, without which it cannot much longer exist. Many of us have 
not received a shilling in near two years, nor can we procure public 
clothing.” 
From New Windsor he wrote, March 26, 1781, to Dr. Craik: “We are 
so squeezed for paper, that I can only afford you a half sheet for cover 
and all.” From New Windsor, March 25, 1781, he wrote to Dr. Peter 
Turner, Hospital physician and surgeon, Norwich, Connecticut: “Several 
of the Hospital physicians and surgeons have resigned since the new ar- 
rangement took place, owing, I believe, principally to their not being able 
to subsist themselves in the service, for it is upwards of two years since 
many of us have received a shilling from the continent, and there is as lit- 
tle prospect now of pay as there was two years ago.” Again, under date 
of April 2, 1781, he wrote: “Neither myself nor any of the gentlemen 
who have served with me have received a shilling from the public in 
twenty-three months, which has, as you reasonably may suppose, reduced 
us to some difficulties. * * * Paper is so scarce that I am obliged to 
take a leaf out of an Orderly Book.” 
To Abram Clark, President of Congress, he wrote from New Windsor, 
April 30, 1781 : “ I have sent the originals (Hospital returns), not having 
paper enough to transcribe them into form. Several of the Hospital phy- 
sicians and surgeons complain that they have not paper sufficient to make 
out the necessary Hospital returns; therefore, are obliged to omit them.” 
To Robert Morris, from the camp near Dobb’s Ferry, July 26, 1781, he 
wrote: “For God’s sake, help us as soon as you can. Most of our officers 
have not received one shilling of pay for upwards of two years.” To Mr. 
Nitchie, formerly hospital commissary, Headquarters Peekskill, he wrote MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
253 
Augsut 25, 1781 : “I am sorry you have not been able to keep your family 
from starving, but on credit. Your situation is like many others in our ser- 
vice, for I have not received one shilling as pay in twenty-eight months, and 
there are few among us who have been in better circumstances.” In the 
following passage from a letter to Dr. Treat, from New Windsor, March 25, 
1781, we are admitted to a pathetic scene relieved by a gleam of illu- 
sive fortune, as quickly quenched in disappointment: “ Dr. Young showed 
me your letter enclosing a resolve of Congress, respecting the depreciation, 
&c., which made him happy; and, poor fellow, he wanted comfort as much 
as any man I ever saw. His situation is truly pitiable, and I hope some- 
thing will turn up which will give him relief.” 
It is true that Congress at length issued warrants for the pay of the 
army. But the warrants were as worthless as the credit of Congress, and 
utterly incapable of relief. He wrote to Dr. Thos. Bond, camp near 
Dobb’s Ferry: “ Am very sorry that there is no probability of our receiv- 
ing money on the warrants obtained for the use of our department, the 
want of which you may reasonably suppose has a bad effect, both with 
respect to the officers and the poor suffering soldiers, who deserve a better 
fate.” 
As may be supposed, the destitution of the army, both of officers and 
men, occupied attention largely with efforts to mitigate it. The evil ob- 
viously was incident to the occasion, and inherently the chief obstacle to 
the successful conduct of the war. As we have seen, the distress fell 
heavily upon the medical department. Its necessities were, in truth, but 
the total of those of the army, concentrated in effect upon its health, and 
expressed in representations of the deplorable want of every appliance 
essential to the preservation of life. The complaints of the sufferers 
were importunate and ceaseless. As the head of the department, Dr. 
Cochran, while the recipient of numberless petitions, rarely caused disap- 
pointment to the expectations of the petitioners. In his letter (without 
date) to Dr. Thomas Bond, after stating that “ Dr. Wilson urges his com- 
ing to Philadelphia to assist in adjusting some matters relative to the de- 
partment,” he said, “ I only wait for the arrival of Dr. Craik to set out, 
but I wish my presence could be dispensed with, for I am most heartily 
tired of shilling my way so often to that place without one shilling in my 
pocket;” and in the following paragraph of his communication, while in 
Philadelphia, May 24, 1781, to “ Samuel Huntington, Esq., President of 
Congress,” he alludes to the personal expense and the official inconven- 
ience he incurred, in redressing complaints, by importuning Congress for 
their relief: “ Should Congress wish any further or more particular informal 254 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
tion on the subject, I shall be ready to furnish it, and would be obliged to 
your Excellency to have the matter taken up as soon as possible, that the 
distresses of the Hospital may be relieved, and that I may be enabled to 
return to the army, as neither my finances nor my duty will permit me to 
remain longer in this city.” 
But “ the pay ” of the officers and men was a theme of more serious 
anxiety. The magnitude and extent of its arrears were grave causes of 
apprehension. While it buoyed the hopes of the enemy, it occupied unre- 
mittingly the deliberations of Congress. Its amount was not in dispute. 
The default was in the depreciation of the currency in which it was paid. 
At length Congress determined to draw its warrant, for the depreciation, 
on the credit of the State where the officer served. It seems, however, 
that a frivolous and impertinent distinction was made by the Legislature 
of New York against the officers of the medical line. The ire of the 
department was aflame, and not in the most courtly phrase discharged in 
the following terms, used at New Windsor, J uly 5, 1781, to Dr. Bond, one of 
the sufferers: “ The State of New York has refused the warrant in your 
favour drawn by Congress, and have refused to comply with the requisition 
of Congress for making up the depreciation to the officers of the Medical 
line. They are most certainly an execrable set of —. A new Assembly 
is called, which may probably think better of the matter, and do justice.” 
In a letter to Dr. Treat, from Camp near Dobb’s Ferry, July 18, 1781, 
occurs this passage : “ I have been uneasy about the Marquis’s situation.” 
Doubtless this was the occasion referred to by the Marquis in his letter to 
him from St. Jean d’Angely, June 10, 1799, in which he says: “ My health, 
dear doctor—that very health you have almost brought back from the 
other world, has been since as strong and hearty as possible * * * 
As during my fit of illness the watch I then had was of great service to you 
for feeling the pulse, I thought such a one might be convenient, which I 
have intrusted to the Chevalier de la (name illegible), and I beg leave to 
present you with. I did fancy that adorning it with my heroic friend’s 
picture would make it acceptable.” 
An incident cursorily stated in his letter to Dr. Craik, of March 26, 
1781, from New Windsor, while affording an inkling of the difficulties of 
land carriage, admits us to a view of the affluent hospitality of the landed 
gentry of New York a century ago, and yet more agreeably surprises us 
with an intimation that in all “the time that tried men’s souls,” the rug- 
gedness of war was smoothed and its asperities refined by the amenities 
attendant upon the presence of wives and daughters in camp. “ I am just 
returned,” he says, “ from an eighteen day’s tour up the North River to MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
255 
attend Mrs. Washington. We had an agreeable jaunt, excepting the bad- 
ness of the roads. But we met with so much hospitality wherever we went, 
that compensation was made for the difficulty of travelling.*' 
.Probably, the “agreeable jaunt" was to the manor of Livingston, and 
terminated at the hospitable manor-house of its proprietor, Walter Liv- 
ingston, the husband of Mrs. Cochran’s daughter Cornelia, by her first hus- 
band. After the destruction of their domicile at Brunswick by the British, 
Mrs. Cochran spent much of her time, during the presence of her husband 
at the headquarters of the army, with her daughter; and it may have been 
that the hospitable entertainment of Mrs. Washington on this occasion 
was not disconnected with the invitation of the General, over a year before, 
to Mrs. Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to partake of the dinner which, 
in his letter to the Doctor, he thus humorously imagines and describes: 
“West Point, August 16, 1799. Dear Doctor: I have asked Mrs. 
Cochran and Mrs. Livingston to dine with me to-morrow; but ought I 
not to apprise you of their fare? As I hate deception, even when imagi- 
nation is concerned, I will. 
“ It is needless to promise that my table is large enough to hold the 
ladies—of this they had ocular demonstration yesterday. To say how it 
is usually covered, is rather more essential, and this shall be the purport 
of my letter. 
“Since my arrival at this happy spot, we have had a ham, sometimes a 
shoulder of bacon, to grace the head of the table. A piece of roast beef 
adorns the foot, and a small dish of green beans—almost imperceptible— 
decorates the centre. When the cook has a mind to cut a figure, and this 
I presume he will attempt to-morrow, we have two beefsteak pies, or 
dishes of crabs in addition, one on each side of the centre dish, dividing 
the space, and reducing the distance between dish and dish to about six 
feet, which, without them, would be nearly twelve apart. Of late he has 
had the surprising luck to discover that apples will make pies; and it is a 
question, if amidst the violence of his efforts, we do not get one of apples, 
instead of having both of beef. 
“ If the ladies can put up with such entertainment, and submit to par- 
take of it on plates once tin, but now iron, not become so by the labours 
of hard scouring, I shall be happy to see them. 
“ Dear Sir, Yours 
George Washington.” 
Quaintly is revealed the peculiar prejudice of the revolutionary period 
against the parasites of royalty and its scions. The conflict of our ances- 256 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
tors with British oppression extended to the persons of those who repre- 
sented it. It is not singular, therefore, that the appearance in America 
of William Henry (subsequently William IV.) one of the sons of George 
III. and then a midshipman under Admiral Digby, should have provoked a 
flood of popular derision. It is curious to observe the spirit in which the 
apparition was discussed by those whose lives had been dedicated to the 
service of their country. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the 
opinions of the camp were reflected by the sense of the people. From 
camp, near Peekskill, October io, 1781, Dr. Cochran writes to Dr. Craik: 
“ Digby is arrived at New York with 3 ships of the line and some frig- 
ates. With him came one of the Royal Whelps from Great Britain. The 
address from the Governor and Council with his answer you will see in the 
public papers. A young lad who came out of New York some days ago, 
being examined before General Heath, was asked if he saw the young 
Prince. He answered yes—he saw many get a look at him and he thought 
he might as well see him as the rest. He was asked what he was like, and 
what he thought of him. He said he expected to have seen something 
more in him than other people, but was disappointed, excepting his being 
the ugliest person he ever saw, with a very large nose. His eyes resembled 
those of a wall-eyed horse, and his legs, being all of a thickness, from his 
knees to his ankles ; but that he had a fine gold coat. A pretty representa- 
tive the fellow will make to cause a rebellion to sink at his approach. I 
think from the description given of him, he is much better calculated to 
cause an abortion in the fair sex than to quell a rebellion : ” 
But when domestic treason incurred the popular displeasure, the indig- 
nation of the army was intense. The crime of Arnold not only was the 
theme of denunciation ; his very name was proscribed. “ Ledyard,” wrote 
Dr. Cochran, October 1, 1781, to Thomas Bond Purv’r, “has gone to New 
London, where he has sustained the loss of an uncle and brother killed, 
and another brother taken by that infamous scoundrel Arnold.” 
In an application to Samuel Huntington, President of Congress, while 
in Philadelphia, May 24, 1781, Dr. Cochran thus expressed himself; 
“ I have also to request that the Hospital Officers should be entitled to 
receive their letters free from the expense of postage, as well as the officers 
of the line. The propriety of this will be evident when I mention that 
returns are to be sent from every part of the continent to me as Director, 
and the expense of Postage would nearly swallow the whole of my pay.” 
The result of the application is thus recorded : New Windsor, June 30, 
1781, Doctor Townshend, Albany. “All letters to and from me are post- 
free. This I accomplished when in Philadelphia, though I had not interest MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
257 
to obtain the like for the department in general, which was my desire. I 
labored hard for that purpose.” 
A serious oversight had forbidden to the disabled and deprived inmates 
of the hospitals the solace of religious instruction during the term of the 
war. Dr. Cochran, from the camp at Fishkill, October 9, 1781, thus directed 
the attention of Thomas McKean, President of Congress, to the subject: 
“ Before I conclude permit me, Sir, to suggest that while we are endeavor- 
ing to provide for the care of the body, should we not pay some attention 
to the comfort of the souls of our sick soldiers in the Hospitals, by appoint- 
ing a Chaplain to perform that duty. The Brigade Chaplains, either find 
it inconvenient, or have not an inclination to officiate in that capacity. It 
is customary to have a Chaplain to the Hospitals of other nations, to whom 
we would not wish to yield in point of Christianity.” There is no record 
that the suggestion was acted upon. But it is certain that chaplains 
devoted to the welfare of the sick, wounded, and dying, in hospitals or 
field, have never since been wanting in our wars. 
On the 30th of April, 1781, he announced to Abram Clark, chairman of 
the Medical Committee, from New Windsor : “ As soon as my strength will 
enable me, I propose setting out for Philadelphia. On the 5th inst. I was 
taken with a pleurisy, which has confined me till yesterday, and has left me 
very weak.” On the 23d of March, 1781, from New Windsor he writes 
Dr. Craik that “his poor little boy lies ill of a fever.” New Windsor, 
30th June, 1781, he requested Dr. Townshend of Albany, to give his love 
to his son, “ and give him some of your pious advice. You will oblige me 
much in enquiring of his tutor how he comes on, and acquaint me in your 
next. He has been hitherto too much neglected, which causes me more 
anxiety than perhaps I otherwise might feel.” From Albany, 17th March, 
1782, he informs Di. Bond that he came there three weeks before “ to settle 
my boys at school, and to endeavour to dispose of some of my property 
for their and my subsistence. From Head Quarters east side of Hudson 
River, Aug. 29, 1781, he communicates to the Board of War: “ Our Army, 
till within a few months, has been remarkably healthy. But Dysentery, 
Intermittent and remittent fevers, with a few putrid diseases begin to pre- 
vail, and again, Sept. 26th of the same year, from the Camp at Peekskill, 
that “ the chief part of the sick in the Army and hospitals, is composed of 
the new levies and the three months men.” 
From these letters we catch glimpses of the man—a type of that hero- 
ism that consists in the consecration of self to duty, and in its beneficial and 
conscientious performance. The heroism of the soldier is eclipsed by the 
heroism of the surgeon ; and however public sentiment may adopt the 258 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
captain of war as the hero of the day, the emancipator from the thraldom 
of prejudice and ignorance, the vindicator of humanity in the persons of 
its oppressed and suffering children, the steadfast disciple of the divinity 
of manhood, and the martyr to its assertion in adversity and persecution— 
these shall survive as the heroes of the world, when the fame of the war- 
rior shall have slaked and his laurels have withered in the light of a higher 
civilization. And so he who treads the endangered plain to alleviate and 
not to inflict, to retrieve and not to dissipate the crushed energies of 
life, who sedulously devotes his whole of man to the attainment of honor 
by a just comprehension of life’s obligations, and by their thorough dis- 
charge becomes the heir of a glory truer and more consummate in the 
realms of time than the illusory gleam of the conquering sword. Dr. 
Cochran was of stately presence, of fair and florid complexion, features 
which testified his Scots-Irish descent, and an expression indicative of 
genial and benevolent qualities. His reliance was on the merit of which 
he was conscious, his credentials the evidence furnished by his deeds. 
The volunteer surgeon’s mate of the French war, and the volunteer 
physician and surgeon of the war of the Revolution, became the head 
of the medical department of the army by superior expertness in the 
functions confided to him, and superior alacrity in their performance. An 
unusual degree of personal modesty precluded the expectation and quelled 
the desire of official preferment. Not only was his promotion unsolicited, 
but it was a surprise to the sincerity with which he had urged the undeniable 
qualifications of his friend and advocated his claims to the position. The 
separate trials to which he was exposed were but the enumerated perils 
that lay in the path of the Revolution. The necessities which paralyzed 
the officer were lamented only as impediments which prejudiced the ser- 
vice. The malignity which committed his dwelling to the flames, and the 
disease which afflicted his little son and prostrated himself, he suffered only 
in the contraction of his usefulness to his country. He pawned his 
personal credit to restore to the public service the property withheld 
from its use. The last sheets from his bed were bestowed on the 
exigencies of the wounded. A glowing humanity intensified his attention to 
the sick, and with an executive capacity as thorough as rare, he was author, 
adviser and director of multifarious reforms in the army. He was the sup- 
port and buttress of the languishing and suffering medical department. He 
ineffectually appealed to Congress that exemption of the officers from 
liability to postage should remove from their correspondence an odious duty 
on their domestic affections. His effort was strenuous to compensate to both 
officers and men the depreciation of their pay, and having accomplished MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
259 
the full circuit of their temporal wants, he contributed to their spiritual 
welfare a tender and fervid appeal to the President of Congress, that the 
consolations of religion should be extended to the inmates of the hospitals 
by chaplains appointed for the purpose. With enviable patience, under 
troubled dispensations, and with faith in the rectitude of the cause of the 
people, he witnessed the return of health to the army, of prosperity to the 
country, and the establishment of a free and permanent government in a 
new world. 
Such and like considerations are necessary to the comprehension of 
the true proportions of the war of the Revolution. Interesting and by no 
means uninstructive research might educe from the social condition and 
domestic relations of the people an important factor in the problem of 
rebellion. A country of unrestricted extent was sparsely occupied with a 
primitive and hardy race. In the far removed centers of population and 
wealth, social intercourse partook naturally of the habits engrafted by the 
early and intimate association of the colonies with the mother country. 
Fortunate opulence asserted against indigence the privileges of class, and 
forthwith intrenched itself in the pretentions, and assumed the cognizance 
of an aristocracy. Courtly English customs were reflected in the inter- 
course which regulated their life, and the interval between the people and 
the great families, when established, increased with their growth in signifi- 
cance and strength. Confessedly, the germ of American Independence 
found no root in the houses of the great. It sprang from the rugged 
bosom of the people. It was indigenous there. Not that it was unfaith- 
fully protected or negligently cultivated by the magnates of the land. It 
was theirs by adoption ; not indeed in the primal vigor and purity of its 
uncomplying inception, which demanded separation, but in the subsidiary 
of compromise, which contemplated adjustment. Hence it is true, that 
the march of Revolution was vigorous and united ; but the consummate 
flower of Independence sprang rather from the humble homes of the 
tillers of the soil, than from the stately mansions of its opulent aristocracy. 
In the light of a century it is difficult to exaggerate the grandeur of the 
victory. Popular institutions, responsible for the good government of mill- 
ions engaged in the innumerable pursuits which construct the material 
prosperity and constitute the social and moral character of a people, an 
expansion of enterprise boundless except by the limits of the possible, an 
intensity of purpose concentrated upon the attempt, and devoted to the 
accomplishment of gigantic undertakings in every industrial department, 
and a position achieved in science, literature, and the arts, competing 
with European schools, reflect an extraordinary lustre upon the armies and 260 
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 
their leaders, that raised us to an equality with the governments of the Old 
World, and made us first among the governments of the New. 
But it is-not this consummation that Americans should consult when 
measuring the proportious of the Revolutionary War. The magnitude of 
the conflict is more truly expressed in the condition of the opposing forces 
that waged it. A century had not sufficed to render practicable commu- 
nication between the thirteen colonies, which, though of coincident bound- 
aries, were separated by tracts of dense wilderness and ranges of impassable 
mountains. Population, grouped principally in isolated spots, near the 
sea-board, was small, but its area large and sparsely settled. In most part 
exposed to a rigorous climate, it suffered both the ravage of an inhospitable 
winter and the onset of a more inhospitable foe. The tillage of the soil 
made niggard return to the labor of the farmer. Individual subsistence 
depended on daily labor, and the want of public revenue implied an empty 
Treasury. Ignorant of arms, save as required by the exposure of frontier 
life, without military training, and destitute of the equipment, the stores, 
and the ammunition of war—a people thus unprovided, unprepared, and 
defenceless, were precipitated into war' with a nation of vast and avail- 
able resources, of incalculable power in the cabinet and field, with veteran 
armies and navies at command, and distinguished with the renown of 
enemies vanquished and victories won. Eight years the struggle con- 
tinued. Its ruthless proportions were not remitted to the alleviation of a 
noble and generous nurture, nor were the resources of a high civilization 
counted in reserve among the energies of the Revolutionary army. The 
flame they followed by day, that warmed them by night, that lighted their 
darkness and guided all their way, was the flame of liberty, inextinguishable 
in their bosoms. This was their reserve, and to it must be ascribed the 
issue of the war—to the unquenchable patriotism of the commonalty of 
America.