Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/291

 Dr. Stunnd P. Moon'. 275

Des Moines, Fort Gibson, Mo., Fort Coffee, Kan., and numerous forts in Florida, until in 1843 he was stationed at camp Barrancas, Pensacola harbor, where he became acquainted with his future wife, her father being in command of a detail of the Seventh Regiment of United States Infantry, occupying the harbor defences Forts Pick- ens and McRae. In the August after his marriage he accompanied his command to Aransas and Corpus Christi, on the Texas boundary, the Neuces river, preparatory to the movement to the Rio Grande, and commencement of the Mexican war. For two years he was at Carmago, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande.

Having attained his promotion as surgeon at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., he was ordered to duty with the troops which went as advance guard across the plains before the great emigration of 1849, and was en route to, and on duty at, Fort Laramie, Ore., now Wyoming Territory, until August, 18.51. In January, 1852, he was again or- dered to Texas, under Division Commander General Persifer F. Smith; remaining a few months in San Antonio; thence to duty at Brownsville 'till November, 1854; then to Fort Columbus, Gover- nor's Island, New York harbor, until July, 1855, and thence to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he remained 'till April, 1860; subsequent to which, 'till his resignation, he was the medical purveyor at New Orleans, La.

Though a great lover of his country and his State, he was not a politician, and was greatly distressed in mind as to where his duty called, at the same time and in like manner with the agitation of the then Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the United States army; but when his State seceded he determined to resign his commission. He re- tired to Little Rock, Ark., with some intention of making that place his home, but the times were not conducive to repose, and trained officers were urgently required in all departments of the army and navy. Therefore, in response to the persistent appeals of his dearest friends, and from a high sense of duty, he concluded to answer the call made upon him as aji officer of recognized merit, by President Davis, and to accept appointment as the surgeon-general, in June, 1861.

He immediately devoted himself with great energy, patience and ability to the enormous work which he saw before him. The medi- cal men of that day in the South were fully the equals in knowledge and skill of their brothers in the other parts of the country, but all were untrained in military practice. They were physicians in civil life, unskilled in surgery and the conduct of hospitals, .save to very