July 2016
Alamo City
Guards Camp
#1325
FROM HEADQUARTERS, Russ Lane
Let’s all keep working to help the SCV continue to grow. If you are aware of any recruiting opportunities being held this Summer, please notify 2Lt Commander Dave Kunz at [email protected], He has
been asked to find opportunities for us to educate and recruit in surrounding communities. We will conduct
our first Gun Show recruiting event on 23-24 July. Recruiters get credit for new members, new Cadets, new
Friends, reinstating members and transfers. Consider giving a membership as a gift to your eligible family
members who are not already members. Current recruiting results are on page 6. The Recruiter of the Year
Award will be presented at our August meeting.
Our speaker last month was Scott Woodard. He portrayed a Contract Surgeon and spoke about
“Medicine during the WBTS: A View from Both Sides.” This week we had Erik La Presta speak on the
“Brazilian Confederates.” It was a fascinating look into a little known part of Southern history. Let 1Lt Commander Raymond Reeves, [email protected] know if you can make a presentation or recommend
someone for future meetings. Remember dues become payable in July. Texas Division dues were increased
at the Division Reunion. Look for your notice in the mail and send in your dues as soon as possible, please.
Nine of us are scheduled to attend the National SCV Reunion in Richardson, RX 13-17 July and it is an election year. Details and forms for are available on the Texas Division web site, www.scvtexas.org. If you plan to
attend and have not notified the Commander, please let him know so he can insure that you are recorded on
the Credentials Form.
We participated in the Leon Valley 4th of July Parade again this year with 20 members and friends. All
along the route we were greeted with support. We continue to seek ideas on worthy projects that we may
want to support financially. Submit your ideas and details to the Commander at [email protected].
We conducted our final trash pick-up under the Adopt-a-Highway Program on 25 June. Thanks to everyone
who participated. The Confederate Heroes Day Planning Committee continues their work. Details for the 14
January 2017 event are expected soon. Mark the date on your calendar.
DEO VINDICE!
Sons and Roses at the 2016 Leon Valley 4th of
July Parade.
(Courtesy of Martin Callahan)
Page 2
July 2016
Confederate Medical Services
-----------------------------------Scott C. Woodard
[My hope in writing these thoughts is to put pen to the words spoken at last month’s meeting discussing the
state of medicine in the Confederacy. I often refer to it being a “small world” when we research our ancestry.
One of those is exhibited in the source for this article. COL (ret.) “Rocky” Farr, MD, the author of my main
source, is actually a member of our camp!]
Like many Confederate Army practitioners of
physic, Samuel Preston Moore, began his career and
proved his worth in the US Army Medical Department in
the years prior to the War Between the States. He graduated from the Medical College of South Carolina in 1834
and after a thorough board validating his competency,
was appointed the rank of captain as an assistant surgeon in 1835. During the Mexican War in 1846 he became acquainted with an officer named Jefferson Davis
whose meeting proved to be quite fortuitous. A decision
point for many US Army officers came in early 1861 and
Dr. Moore resigned his commission and was eventually
appointed as the acting Surgeon General by that former
Army officer, now Confederate President. From his previous reputation, now Surgeon General Moore, continued
as a well-organized disciplinarian which many
“militarized” civilian physicians took offense.
The Confederate Medical Department during
Moore’s term was lauded as the “best-run department in
the government,” as well as, viewed with fear for his strict
“old school” manners. Surgeon General Moore created a
medical department from zero. In combatting the lack of
peer-reviewed standardization within the medical school
communities, he developed a medical board tasked with
evaluating the education and potential for doctors vying
Samuel Preston Moore, MD.
for appointments as Confederate medical officers. He
(Waring Library, Medical University of South Carolina)
established hospital boards to review surgical cases and
regulate surgical care. Bright men were recruited as Hospital Stewards to specifically provide medical services in coordination with physician and nursing staffs. These young men were given the same pay as a sergeant major. They were provided classes at the Richmond Medical College and, if proven academically viable, were commissioned into the medical corps. Eventually the Confederate medical corps reached about
3,000 doctors. In addition to these numbers, Moore maintained a reserve surgical corps that worked within
army hospitals. These men, could then be, mobilized for service in the battlefield during emergencies.
Many products from overseas were prevented entrance by the Federal blockade around the South.
Medicinal items were included in this strangulation of supplies. To mitigate the now shortened supply stream,
the Confederate Medical Department established an agency in London to procure badly needed medical supplies and run them through the Bahamas. Additionally, the Surgeon General tasked scientist and physicians
to begin foraging and identifying indigenous plants and products to provide the desperately needed medicines. The seminal work from this effort was Charlestonian Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher’s aptly named,
(continued on page 3)
Page 3
July 2016
(continued from page 2)
Victorian stereotype, Resources of Southern Fields and Forests,
Medical, Economical and Agricultural, Being Also a Medical Botany
of Southern States with a Practical Information on the Properties of
the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs in 1863. Laboratories to produce
medicines were established throughout the Confederacy. Moore began a campaign instilling the ladies of the South to fulfill their patriotic
duty and grow poppies and harvest them for direly needed opium for
pain relief. Medical Department distilleries produced medicinal alcohol at a rate of 600 gallons a day. This was augmented by moonshiners, as well! Ironically, because of the blockade, many Southern
soldiers benefitted serendipitously from required changes in former
medical procedures. Scarce sponges were no longer re-used in surgery and were replaced with fresh cotton. Silk sutures were replaced
with horse hair. In order to soften the material, it was boiled. The
fresh “sterile” cotton prevented sepsis and the boiled horse hair killed
the yet-proven germs and prevented infections from the handling of
silk from far-away Asia.
Dr. Porcher’s seminal work commissioned by Surgeon General Moore.
Just like General George Washington variolated his troops
during the American Revolution, Surgeon General Moore multiplied
combat strength by vaccinating the entire Confederate Army against
smallpox in six weeks. His leadership and mark are still present in
the professional association he instituted. The Association of Army
and Navy Surgeons of the Confederate States formed in 1863 eventually merged with the Association of Military Surgeons of the United
States in 1914 and still exists today known as AMSUS. Moore created a journal entitled The Confederate States Medical and Surgical
Journal which predated the AMSUS journal, Military Medicine.
His modular “hospital hut” allowed for 32-bed structures to be
added as required to form hospitals. Sizes ranged by population and
command requirements. Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond is still
lauded as the largest hospital ever built in western history. Confederate regulations required that all Confederate soldiers were cared for by Confederate military officers commissioned, at least, in the rank of captain.
As an adherent to his own strict military discipline, he pushed for the commissioning of Sally Louis Tompkins
in 1861 to administer her already proven hospital. She was the only female commissioned in the war, to include, the US Army. Lastly, Dr. Moore realized the vitally important role dental hygiene and maxi facial repair
plays in the health of soldiers and commissioned dentists with special pay as members of the Confederate
Medical Department.
(University Library, The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill )
These remarkable achievements were conducted under a military authority of “technical control.” Surgeon General Moore was not a commander, and thus, his influence is incredible. Surgeons in the field were
under the command authority of their field commanders. The emergence of a professional corps of medical
practitioners, organized for efficiency and want of supplies is a story of great initiative and stern resolution.
One of the best decisions made by President Jefferson Davis was to appoint Samuel Moore Surgeon General.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Source: Farr, Warner Dahlgren. “Samuel Preston Moore: Confederate Surgeon General.” Civil War History
41 (March 1995): 41-56.
Page 4
July 2016
Ancestor Highlight:
Dr. Charles de Ganahl
-----------------------------------Scott C. Woodard
Compatriot Ted Walker’s great, great-grandfather is featured
in this month’s newsletter. Charles de Ganahl is one example of the
practitioners of the healing arts guided by the technical supervision
of Surgeon General Samuel Moore discussed in the previous article.
Dr. Ganahl was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1829 and his education reveals him as a well-educated and affluent member of Southern society. He was educated in Heidelberg, Germany and Sorbonne, France and served as a professor of principles and practice
of surgery at Oglethorpe Medical College before the war. His father
had immigrated earlier from Austria, but he soon moved to a more
favorable climate in Texas to ease his tuberculosis affliction. He
signed the Texas Ordinance of Succession for Kerr County and was
soon posted as a surgeon for the Confederate Army. Dr. Gahahl
served in the 3rd Texas Infantry Regiment and the Texas 2nd Division.
Charles de Ganahl, MD, photograph
Present at Fort Brown [named for Surgeon General Moore’s
taken in Matamoras, Mexico, post war. father-in-law, Major Jacob Brown, for his defense of the fort in the
(Courtesy of Ted Walker)
Mexican-American War] during the Battle of Palmito Ranch, he refused the Oath of Allegiance and emigrated to Matamoras, Mexico.
He eventually returned to Texas and continued to practice medicine until his health deteriorated forcing him to
settle back to his ranch in Kerr County. Here he died in 1883 and was buried in the family cemetery. According to family tradition, as a friendship token, General John B. Magruder gave the family a bell from the USS
Harriet Lane from Battle of Galveston fame.
Dr. Ganahl’s grave marker. [Note the
birthdate discrepancy. Ted believes
Charles’ children and wife knew the
date of their father’s birth.]
(Courtesy of Ted Walker)
Capture of the “Harriet Lane,” January 1st, 1863.
(History of the Confederate States Navy, 1887)
Page 5
July 2016
Historical print by Don Troiani,
“Confederate States Medical Service"
I will commence to
whoop up any
y’all that don’t go
to a reunion this
year!
Page 6
July 2016
"To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we submit the vindication of the Cause for
which we fought; to your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier's good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles he loved and which made him glorious and which you also cherish.”
 Lt. General Stephen Dill Lee, Commander General, United Confederate Veterans, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1906
Camp Officers
Commander— Russ Lane, [email protected]
1Lt Commander— Raymond Reeves, [email protected]
2Lt Commander— Dave Kunz, [email protected]
Adjutant— Jim Evetts, [email protected]
Past Commander— Rudy Krisch III, [email protected]
Genealogist– Joyce Manuel, [email protected]
Judge Advocate— Dick Evins, [email protected]
Chaplain— John Carleton, [email protected]
Color Sergeant— Scott Davis, [email protected]
Web Master— Michael Climo, [email protected]
Communications Officer— Russ Lane, [email protected]
Newsletter Editor— Scott Woodard, [email protected]
RECRUITER OF THE YEAR STATUS
Total recruited since 1 August 2015
(New, Reinstated, Cadets, Transfers and Friends): 42
Communications Officer (Not eligible for the award): 16
Adjutant (Not eligible for the award): 5
David Calandra
Marc Mabrito
Dave Kunz
Rudy Krisch
Joyce Manuel
Bill Manuel
4
2
2
2
2
2
Charles Manley III
Ron Rakun
Mason Deering
Hollis Rutledge
Egon Tausch
Raymond Reeves
Scott Woodard
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Upcoming Events
13-17 July, National SCV Reunion, Richardson, TX
23-24 July, Gun Show Recruiting Event
Meetings are on the first Thursday of the month at Luby’s Cafeteria, 911 N. Main at I 35 South in
San Antonio. Visitors are always welcome. We meet to eat and visit at 6 PM; meetings start at 7
PM. Bring a family member, a friend or another potential recruit.
Remember, the Confederate Battle Flag is the internationally recognized
symbol of resistance to tyranny. Fly it proudly and defend it!