RATIONS ISSUED TO FREEDMEN. 65 On April 6, 1869, Bvt. Col. and Surg. L. A. Edwards, at his own request, was relieved from the duties of chief of medical staff of Freedmen's Bureau, and was succeeded by Dr. Robert Reyburn. The number of hospitals had been reduced from 21 to 2, namely, the one at Richmond, Va., and the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington. Dr. Reyburn reports that a vast majority of the 302 patients under treatment at Washington were so helpless, either from old age or bodily infirmity, that they would require to be supported from some source during the remainder of their lives. He had also under his charge 71 colored patients at the hospital at Richmond, and recommended that a temporary building be erected at the Insane Asylum building at Washington to receive these patients. In the District of Columbia, from May to November, 1865, there were treated in the freedmen's hospitals 3,300 adult males, 2,810 adult females, 2,345 male children, and 2,520 female children. On October 30 there were remaining under treatment 275 adult males, 270 adult females, 105 male children, and 93 female children. The percentage of deaths in the District of Columbia was but 3 per cent, as against 49 per cent in North Carolina (where there was practically no medical attendance), 0.09 in Virginia, 0.04 in South Carolina, and an average of 13 per cent in all the Departments. In the District of Columbia, also, 41 schools, employing 91 teachers and having an attendance of 4,884, were organized to supplement the regular colored schools of the District. The freedmen first exercised the right of suffrage in the District on February 25, 1866. When the Freedmen's Bureau was broken up in 1869, Congress, at the instance of Dr. Reyburn,' passed an act2 authorizing and directing the Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees and Freedmen to continue the hospitals at Richmond, Va.; Vicksburg, Miss., and in the District of Columbia, including the asylum for aged and infirm freedmen and for orphan children. The expense was to be paid out of moneys theretofore appropriated for the use of the bureau; and it was provided that the hospitals should be discontinued as soon as practicable, in the discretion of the President.3 Under a special order of the War Department, dated January 21, 1867, the subsistence department of the Army was issuing rations to the inmates of the hospital and asylum at Washington, and certain parts of this ration were exchanged for other supplies. For example, butter was not in the ration, and if butter was wanted an overplus of some other article was ordered and exchanged for butter, a practice that was stopped by the subsistence department. The premises occupied by the hospital having come into the possession of Howard Uni 1 Senate Report 209, Forty-fifth Congress, second session, p. 281. 2 Act relating to freedmen's hospitals, approved April 7, 1869. 3 In a letter to the editor Dr. Reyburn states that employment agencies were established for colored people, and many persons were sent to different parts of the country, where they found remunerative employment. 1 versity, a lease was executed in 1874, and is still in force, by which the university agreed with Robert Reyburn, surgeon in charge of the Freedmen's Hospital for the Interior Department, to let the buildings and grounds known as the Freedmen's Hospital from the 1st day of July, 1874, to the 30th day of June, 1875, for the sum of $4,000. It was agreed by the surgeon in charge that he should furnish the light and heat for that portion of the main brick building used by the medical department of the university, and should allow the medical department to use a portion of the premises, and to have facilities for clinical instruction. The buildings were to be kept in repair by the lessees. The lease was signed by John M. Langston, vice-president and acting president of Howard University, and by Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Reyburn was in charge of the hospital from its organization and building in 1866 until March, 1875, when he was succeeded by Dr. G. S. Palmer. In his testimony taken by the subcommittee on appropriations (consisting of Senators Sargent, Allison, and Eaton) relative to the management of Freedmen's Hospital, in February, 1878, Dr. Palmer states that when he took charge of Freedmen's Hospital on March 20, 1875, as surgeon in charge he could find no statute law by which he was to be governed in its management. The hospital had been established by the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, transferred by act of Congress from him to the Secretary of War, and subsequently by the same authority to the Secretary of the Interior, and it had been supported since 1872 by annual appropriations from Congress.3 Soon after taking charge he went to the Secretary of the Interior for instructions. The Secretary gave him none, excepting that he must do the best he could with the institution, and never exceed the appropriation. He was then left to follow precedents, customs, and his own judg ment. He found some things to correct and corrected them, but in most respects it seemed to him that the hospital had been managed satisfactorily to the Government and for the best interest of the inmates. Hence he continued the general management the same as he found it. He continued the same custom of diet, with some improvements, and The hospital was transferred to Howard University by Secretary of War Rawlins, under an act of Congress giving him authority to make such transfer through the Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. 2 Dr. Palmer was graduated from the Maine Medical College in 1838. He practiced in the city of Gardiner, Me., until the war broke out; then went into the army and was first a regimental surgeon and then a surgeon of volunteers, and was assigned to duty in various parts of the Army. He had charge of the Lincoln Hospital in Washington, one of the largest hospitals at that time in the city. He served on the battlefield of Gettysburg, and then took charge of the hospitals in the Cumberland Valley under Dr. King. From there he went to St. Louis, and was superintendent of hospitals in the vicinity of St. Louis under Dr. Mills. He then went to Annapolis, and had charge of St. Johns College Hospital until the war terminated, and at the same time was on the board of examination of officers, performing the duties of medical officer. Senate Report 209, Forty-fifth Congress, second session, p. xxiii. 3 Senate Report 209, Forty-fifth Congress, second session, p. 238. TRANSFER TO THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 67 employed the same cooks, nurses, and the same employees generally. No money passed through his hands, but he approved bills for all articles purchased, and they were paid at the Interior Department every month. He also made a full return of all property, for which the surgeon in charge was accountable. On July 1, 1877, he discontinued the issuance of rations to patients in quarters, and also to the children of the Colored Orphan Asylum. They had always constituted part of the Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum, and he did not drop their names from the rolls of the hospital until the 1st of August, 1877. He also carried the names of patients in quarters to whom rations had been issued on the hospital rolls until the 1st of October, thus giving them an opportunity to come in when they chose. They all understood that they belonged to the hospital and that that was their home, but they had been permitted to live out in consequence of enjoying a large liberty and because this method was economical for the hospital. Dr. Glennan remained executive officer during the administrations of Drs. Reyburn, Palmer, and Purvis. He had been through the war as assistant surgeon. During Dr. Reyburn's term of office as surgeon in chief of the present hospital his assistants were Dr. G. S. Patterson, Dr. Joseph Tabor Johnson, Dr. C. B. Purvis, Dr. Mear, and Dr. J. D. Harris. This number was reduced so that his assistants were Drs. Glennan, Purvis, and Harris. During the administration of Dr. G. S. Palmer his assistants were Drs. Glennan, Purvis, and for a short time J. D. Harris, and then for a year Dr. A. T. Augusta. At the time he resigned there were but two assistants, Drs. Glennan and Purvis. Dr. Palmer resigned in October, 1881, and Dr. C. B. Purvis was appointed in his stead. The latter held the position until 1894, when he was removed by Secretary Hoke Smith. Freedmen's Hospital continued under the control of the Freedmen's Bureau until June 30, 1872, when it passed under the supervision of the Secretary of War. Under the act of June 23, 1874, the institution was transferred to the Interior Department. For the fiscal year 1872-73 Congress appropriated $74,000 for the support of Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum, including the pay of medical officers and attendants, medicines, medical supplies, and rations, clothing, rent of hospital building, fuel and lights, repairs and transportation. It was provided that no part of the appropriation should be used to pay the expenses of any patient to be admitted thereafter, unless from some other Government hospital. Of this appropriation but $72,000 was used. In 1874 the expense was $51,284.90; in 1875 it was $50,202.59; and in 1876 it was $45,000.2 The present surgeon in chief of the Freedmen's Hospital is Dr. Daniel H. Williams, who was appointed to the position in the spring of 1894 1 Act of June 10, 1872. Statutes at Large, vol. 17, p. 366. |