Practice, Status, Public Health, and the Army Medical Officer, 1818–1890

“A few medical officers had long seen the need for an improved military status for themselves and their fellow, and by their insistence upon military forms, titles, salutes, drills, and other outward symbols they incurred no little ridicule,” wrote Colonel Percy Moreau Ashburn, U.S. Army Medical Corps, about his onetime mentor and friend, Major John Van Rensselaer Hoff. ¹ Described as an eccentric “tin-soldier” by critics and friends alike, Hoff embodied the medical officer in his struggle for legitimacy and status. He and others like him cared little for the comments of others as they sought recognition within the Army community. Yet, as Ashburn noted: “To those who did know them, whether in the field or in garrison, their abilities, courtesy, learning, high character, efficiency, and dignity were such as to stifle ridicule. Without shadow of turning they held their way.” ²