Preface
In writing The Army Medical Department, 1865-1917, I followed several precedents established in the first two volumes. As a result, I made no attempt to provide coverage of military operations beyond that necessary to an understanding of the challenges facing the Medical Department, and I observed the same principle in dealing with developments in the world of civilian medicine and in the armed forces of other major powers in Europe and Asia.
It is impossible to thank by name all the archivists, physicians, and historians from coast to coast whose efforts contributed significantly to this volume. My indebtedness is particularly great, however, to Dorothy Hanks, now retired, and Stephen J. Greenberg of the National Library of Medicine; to William E. Lind, also retired, William Grace, Robert W. Coren, Michael P. Musick, and Michael T. Meier of the National Archives and Records Administration; and to Col. Robert J. T. Joy, MC (USA Ret.), of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, who offered encouragement and shared his vast knowledge of military medicine both with me and with the peer review panel for the manuscript. John Parascandola, then on the staff of the National Library of Medicine, was kind enough to give the panel the benefit of his expertise, and I was fortunate that John Duffy, whose knowledge of public sanitation in the United States in the period covered by this volume is unequaled, was willing to read the manuscript.
I am also especially grateful to many of my colleagues and former colleagues at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. They include librarian James B. Knight, whose ingenuity and persistence eased my burdens; Brig. Gen. Harold W. Nelson, former chief of military history, who approved the manuscript for publication; and the members of the review panel-Graham A. Cosmas, who repeatedly shared his profound understanding of the history of the Army; Albert E. Cowdrey, now retired as chief of the Conventional War Studies Branch, who patiently reviewed version after version of the manuscript; Jeffrey J. Clarke, the chief historian; Col. Robert H. Sholly (USA Ret.), then the chief of the Histories Division; Lt. Col. William G. Bell (USA Ret.); Judith L. Bellafaire; and John W. Elsberg, the editor in chief. I am appreciative, too, of the support of Lt. Col. Richard O. Perry (USA Ret.), chief of the Histories Division when I started this volume, and Col. William T. Bowers, the present chief.
Among former members of the Center who made this volume possible are Col. William F. Strobridge (USA Ret.), who provided me with photocopies of articles that I would have otherwise missed and helped me to contact a research team studying the casualties of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906; Madeleine
Sapienza, who gave me the benefit of her skill as a tireless and imaginative researcher; and librarian Mary L. Sawyer, who greatly facilitated my research.
The manuscript also profited significantly as it approached publication from the unceasing and thorough work of senior editor Joanne M. Brignolo, from the resourcefulness of Howell C. Brewer and Beth F. MacKenzie in locating photographs, from the cartographic skill of Sherry L. Dowdy in creating the maps, from the eagle-eyed proofreading skills of junior editors W. Scott Janes and Troy D. Wolfington, and from the typography and design expertise of printing specialist Kenneth R. Kidd.
The assistance of two of my colleagues, William M. Hammond and Lt. Col. Adrian G. Traas (USA Ret.), when disaster by computer threatened should not be overlooked. Without their technical knowledge, I might well have rendered the manuscript for this volume as invisible as my expertise with electronic brains.
Finally, I wish to thank my daughter, Blakeney Gillett, who devoted many of her lunch hours to going over the papers of William C. Gorgas and his family at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and to photocopying pertinent documents.
In spite of the advice and assistance of so many, inevitably errors remain. I must ruefully accept the responsibility for each and every one.
Washington, D.C.
17 November 1994
MARY C. GILLETT
