Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 28.djvu/275

 McQwrt, M. !>., LI,. 1>. i'J!

directed by his father, to whom the development of his mind and his skill ;is a surgeon were largely due. He received his medical educa- tion at Winchester Medical College, whence he graduated in 1855, and soon afu-r wards he left for Philadelphia, where he entered as a student of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson College, Philadelphia, and matriculated at both in 1856; but, being seized with a violent attack of rheumatism, he was compelled to re- turn to his home, in Winchester, and, consequently, was unable to graduate. He was Professor of Anatomy at Winchester Medical College, 1 856-' 58, and in the latter year, feeling the need of greater clinical advantage, he resigned his chair and went to Philadelphia, where, assisted by Drs. Lockett and W. H. Pancoast, he held a very large "quiz" class a private class in operative surgery. He attended, also, the regular lectures at Jefferson Medical College.

When the body of John Brown (of the Harper's Ferry infamy) was taken through Philadelphia a great outcry was raised against all southern people, and popular feeling running very high against them, all the southern students proposed to return to the South, and Dr. McGuire telegraphed to Richmond to know upon what terms the Medical College of Virginia would receive them. The author- ities replied that no fees would be demanded, and that all expenses would be paid. Upon this, in December, 1859, Dr. Hunter McGuire started from Philadelphia with over 300 students. He had saved nearly $2,000 by teaching, and with this money he paid the fares of the students from Philadelphia to Richmond. The students marched to the place of their departure in a body. All were armed, for they had been led to fear violence on account of threats.

On their arrival they were received with great demonstration, during which Governor Henry A. Wise made a stirring speech and the city refunded the railroad fare of all the students. Drs. Lockett and McGuire finished the course with the students at the Medical College of Virginia in March, 1860, when Dr. McGuire went to New Orleans and established another quiz class. Upon the secession 01 South Carolina, seeing the inevitability of war, he hastened home to offer his services to Virginia. Dr. McGuire volunteered in Company F, 2nd Virginia Regiment, and marched with the regiment from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, on April 17, 1861, the day Virginia seceded. He was commissioned May 4th of the same year as surgeon in the provisional army of the Confederate States, and \ias immediately assigned to duty as medical director of the Department of Harper's Ferry, known as the Army of the Shenandoah, and