Surgeon Generals are seldom associated with mega-events.

The Surgeon General

More than 200 years ago, the US Army created the position of Surgeon General, the ranking doctor of public health. 

By the time of the US Civil War, the position was a conglomerate of administrative duties along with active Medical care. The S.G. was the one consulted on a multitude of matters of importance to the army as a whole, and the physician in charge of signing off on a multitude of medical details. 

In actuality, while many people were aware of the office, very few knew the name of the officer himself. 

Dr. Joe: The CV

Joseph K. Barnes (1817-83) was a Pennsylvania fellow, born to a prosperous family happy to send their promising son to Harvard Medical School. Young Barnes withdrew for health reasons before graduation and returned to his family. Once recovered, he completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania, joined the US Army, appointed assistant surgeon, and sent to Florida in 1840, where he served for two years in various locations.

Then he was sent to Louisiana, for four years – until the War With Mexico, where he served with both General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott.

For the next twelve years, he was assigned to various posts, literally from sea to shining sea…Baltimore to San Francisco – and places in between. By the start of the Civil War, he was a Major, a full surgeon, and one of the highest ranking medical men in the Union Army.

Sent to Washington DC as the head medical officer in the capital, his introduction to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton was fortuitous. Stanton liked the young medical officer and promoted him to Lt. Colonel. Shortly afterwards, he was promoted to Colonel, and appointed Medical Inspector General. When the flinty Stanton had serious issues with his then-Surgeon General, he had him dismissed and Colonel-Dr. Joseph K. Barnes was appointed Surgeon General of the US Army in 1863. He was placed in charge of all the military hospitals, to include the military transport system and the medical boats.. He held the post for the next 18 years.

Barnes’ career would be punctuated by three sudden and monumental events.

The First Mega-Event

President Abraham Lincoln, his wife and their guests, had been enjoying an evening at Ford’s theater on April 14, 1865. A shot rang out, and within moments, the President was lying unconscious. A young doctor just graduated from his medical studies was the first to reach the stricken Lincoln and attended to the disaster, which included having him gently transported to the Peterson House across the street. The telegraph blazed the news immediately.

Of course Secretary of War Stanton was immediately alerted to both Lincoln’s assassination and the attempted murder of Secretary of State Seward. And naturally, Surgeon General Barnes was dispatched to the Peterson House as witness, consultant, and take-charge medical attendant to do whatever could be done. It was immediately determined that the wound was mortal and the President would not survive.

Four hours after Lincoln drew his last breath, an autopsy was performed, supervised by Surgeon General Barnes. Then he turned his attention to the wounds of Secretary Seward, and ministered to him, believing that he would recover.

With 24-hours of the assassination, it was discovered there had been a concerted plot against the senior Union political leaders, and the manhunt fanned out across several states.

The services for the slain President had barely been performed, and the long sad ride back to Springfield, IL had barely been completed, than the second mega event for Dr. Barnes came to pass.

The Secret Mega-Event

Less than three weeks after Lincoln was murdered, Dr. Barnes was instructed perform a secret autopsy aboard the steamship Montauk, which had just arrived at the Washington Navy Yard. The procedure would be under the most intense security.

The body itself was wrapped in blankets and practically unidentifiable. Gaunt, filthy, a bullet in his upper chest, a severely broken leg, and burns throughout. Dr. Frederick May, a Washington physician who had operated on the corpse two years prior was sent for, to provide positive identification. Maybe. Dr. May could barely identify the corpse. The man he had operated on earlier, removing a small tumor in his neck, was young, virile, in excellent health, and very handsome. But when the body was turned over, he recognized the scar from the surgery. It was distinctive, and undeniable.

The body was that of John Wilkes Booth, the prominent stage actor-turned-assassin. There would be no publicity for this autopsy, and scant information that the body was even retrieved. After the autopsy reports, the remains of Lincoln’s killer was buried in an unmarked grave on the grounds of the Old Penitentiary. Four years later, the Booth family had him buried in the Baltimore family plot.

The Pathetic Last Event

The Lincoln-Booth association guaranteed Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes’ place in “footnote” history. Yet eighteen years later, he was once again called upon in what today is considered a medical travesty.

In 1881, President James Garfield (1831-81), in office for only four months, was shot by an assassin. Charles Julius Guiteau, a certifiable lunatic and dissatisfied office seeker pumped two bullets into the body of the 49-year-old POTUS.

Garfield’s nomination, election, and brief presidency had been fraught with unceasing political turmoil, all within his own fractious Republican party. The pathetic part was manifold. Garfield did not die – right away. He lingered for ten weeks. Meanwhile the fractiousness of Republican politics paled in comparison with the fractiousness of Garfield’s “team of doctors.”

Surgeon General Barnes was part of that team, although his role had been demoted to low-level responsibilities. Dr. Willard Bliss, a childhood acquaintance of the President, and once highly regarded Army surgeon during the Civil War, had become Physician-in-charge. A poor choice. His personal skills were domineering, rude and condescending to his colleagues. Their collective disregard of well-respected sanitary procedures invited infection.

Even the assassin asserted at his trial, that he merely shot at the President. “The doctors killed him.”

Sources:

Kenneth D. Ackerman. The Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield. Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003

Pitch, Anthony K. – “They Have Killed Papa Dead!”: The Road to Ford’s Theatre, Abraham Lincoln’s Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance: Steerforth, 2009

Swanson, James L – Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer – William Morrow, 2006

https://achh.army.mil/history/surgeongenerals-j-barnes

https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln83.html