Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/1089

Rh years in the service of the Seaboard air line railroad, and since 1893 he has been superintendent of the Portsmouth street railway.

Hunter Holmes McGuire, M. D., LL. D., one of the most distinguished surgeons of the South, and prominent in the medical service of the Confederate States army as chief surgeon of the Second corps of the army of Northern Virginia, was born at Winchester, October 11, 1835. He was the son of the late Hugh H. McGuire, M. D., in his time one of the most noted physicians of Virginia. His family has resided in the valley of Virginia since the coming of his ancestor, Edward McGuire, from Ireland, in the latter half of the last century. On the maternal side his ancestry is also of Irish origin, and in this line was Hunter Holmes, whose name he bears, who fell in battle at Mackinaw, in 1814, his gallantry eliciting the presentation of a sword to his family by the legislature of Virginia. Dr. McGuire devoted himself to the study of medicine from an early age and was graduated by the Winchester medical college in 1855. He continued his studies at the university of Pennsylvania and Jefferson medical college at Philadelphia, and became professor of anatomy at Winchester medical college in 1856. Returning to Philadelphia, in 1858, he met with success as an instructor in surgery until at the time of the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry, becoming justly offended by the comments regarding that affair, he organized a movement which resulted in all the Southern medical students at Philadelphia, over three hundred in number, leaving that city and entering the medical college of Virginia. The expenses of this transfer were met by the city of Richmond, whose people welcomed the students with a great popular demonstration. On completing his studies at Richmond, Dr. McGuire returned to Winchester, in 1860, and, in the following year he volunteered as a private in Company F of the Second Virginia regiment, with which he marched to Harper's Ferry. In May he was commissioned surgeon and assigned to duty as medical director of the department at Harper's Ferry, then under command of Gen. T. J. Jackson. Upon the organization of the Stonewall brigade, Dr. McGuire was assigned to that command, at Jackson's request, as brigade surgeon, and he continued on the staff of that famous leader, next as medical director of the army of the Valley, and finally as chief surgeon of the Second corps of the army of the Virginia, until Jackson fell at Chancellorsville. He ministered to the beloved general in his mortal illness, and was at his bedside when his heroic spirit passed away. During this service under Jackson, Dr. McGuire took part in the arduous but glorious Valley campaign of 1862, the battles before Richmond, the Manassas and Maryland campaigns of 1862 and the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Early in this career, at the battle of Winchester, he was presented with a sword by Jackson, as a token of his appreciation, and his service throughout was such as to justify his selection for important position by the great leader. Dr. McGuire continued as chief surgeon of the Second corps under General Ewell, serving in the defeat of Milroy at Winchester, the battle of Gettysburg and the campaign against Grant, from the Wilderness and Spottsylvania to Cold Harbor. Subsequently he acted as medical director of the army of the Valley under General Early, participating in the movement through