i

In the Interest of Truth: 

The Life and Science

of Surgeon General

George Miller Sternberg

by Stephen C. Craig

Colonel, Medical Corps, U.S. Army (Ret.)

Assistant Professor, Medical History

Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
ii The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 

Borden Institute

Daniel E. Banks, MD, MS, MACP

LTC, MC, US Army

Director and Editor in Chief

Editorial Staff: Marcia A. Metzgar

Volume Editor

Gayle Mueller

Layout Editor

Vivian Mason

Technical Editor

The opinions or assertions contained herein are the personal views of the author 

and are not to be construed as doctrine of the Department of the Army or the 

Department of Defense.

CERTAIN PARTS OF THIS PUBLICATION PERTAIN TO COPYRIGHT 

RESTRICTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

NO COPYRIGHTED PARTS OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED 

OR TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC OR 

MECHANICAL (INCLUDING PHOTOCOPY, RECORDING, OR ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM), WITHOUT PERMISSION IN 

WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER OR COPYRIGHT OWNER.

Published by the Office of The Surgeon General

BORDEN INSTITUTE

U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School

Fort Sam Houston, Texas 78234-6100

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Craig, Stephen C., 1955-

 In the interest of truth : the life and science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg / 

by Stephen C. Craig Colonel, Medical Corps, U.S. Army (Ret.) Assistant Professor, Medical 

History, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

 pages cm

 Includes bibliographical references and index.

 1. Sternberg, George Miller, 1838-1915 2. Medicine, Military--United States--History. 

3. United States. Surgeon-General’s Office--Biography. 4. Bacteriologists--United States-

-Biography. 5. Yellow fever--Prevention--History. 6. Tuberculosis--United States--History. 

7. United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Medical care. 8. Public health--United 

States--Biography. I. Title.

 UH223.C73 2013

 355.0092--dc23

 [B]

 2013017480
 

iii

For

My wife, Carolyn and 

friends, mentors, and colleagues,

Robert J. T. Joy and Dale C. Smith
iv The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 
 

v

Contents

Foreword vii

Preface ix

Chapter One 

 Palatines, Pietists, and Medicine 1

Chapter Two 

 From First Bull Run to Hospital Command 17

Chapter Three 

 The Kansas Plains 37

Chapter Four 

 A Career in Medical Science Begins 55

Chapter Five 

 Return to the Field 75

Chapter Six 

 Debut on the National Stage 91

Chapter Seven 

 Exiled to California 111

Chapter Eight 

 Dean of American Bacteriology 123
vi The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 

Section One: 

 Early Years (1838–1870) 137

Section Two: 

 Middle Years (1870–1893) 147

Section Three: 

 Later Years (1893–1915) 155

Chapter Nine 

 Yellow Fever Investigations 163

Chapter Ten 

 Immunology and Cholera in New York City 179

Chapter Eleven 

 Surgeon General of the Army 193

Chapter Twelve 

 War with Spain 215

Chapter Thirteen 

 Empire and Insurrection 245

Chapter Fourteen 

 Yellow Fever Loses Its Mystique 265

Chapter Fifteen 

 A Proper Progressive in Washington 287

Epilogue 307

Acronyms and Abbreviations xv

Endnotes xix

Bibliography xci

Index cxxxix
 

vii

Foreword

I am delighted that Dr. Stephen Craig authored this biography of George Miller 

Sternberg and chose to culminate his labors by permitting the Borden Institute of 

the Office of The Army Surgeon General to publish this exhaustive work. The words 

and deeds of George Miller Sternberg are a powerful historical example of Army 

Medical Department (AMEDD) strategic leadership and provide an exceptional 

study for contemporary and future military medical leaders. 

As an Army War College student seeking lessons on strategic leadership from 

among the pantheon of past senior military and civilian scientists, clinicians, and 

educators, Robert Joy, then Chairman of Medical History at the Uniformed Services 

University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), guided me to Sternberg. I was not 

disappointed by what I learned of this remarkable man and his work. Even stripped 

of the myth and hagiography that characterizes much of what is written about 

Sternberg and his feats, one is left with an appreciation for his accomplishments during a period of both conventional (American Civil and Spanish-American) and 

irregular (Indian) warfare, coupled with astonishing advances in science and 

medicine. A century before human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, pandemic influenza, and emerging infectious diseases spurned by globalization, Sternberg emerged as a national leader in the budding field of bacteriology. He did this 

while balancing the routine duties of frontier postings and the care of a lean and 

dispersed Army in the late nineteenth century.

Upon graduating from the War College, I was privileged to serve with thenColonel Craig and excited to learn of his extended scholarly study of this pivotal 

leader in Army Medicine. Steve worked tirelessly for almost a decade to find primary 

sources to definitively examine the life and career of George Miller Sternberg. He 

probed and dissected the amazing relationship between Sternberg and one of the 

most iconic figures in Army Medicine and international health: Major Walter Reed.

Serving as The Army Surgeon General during the Spanish-American War, 

Sternberg faced scandal, censure, and overwhelming challenges in the protection of 
viii The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 

soldiers in a rapidly mobilizing nation with a poorly organized logistics system and 

a rudimentary notion of preventive medicine. In the face of adversity, Sternberg’s keen 

vision and futuristic focus led him to send the Yellow Fever Commission under 

Reed to Cuba to resolve the question of the transmission of yellow fever. His leadership ultimately led to control of a disease that not only killed millions of people 

throughout the western hemisphere and Africa for the previous three centuries 

but also crippled economies and hampered progress on many fronts. Lessons 

learned from his leadership—together with parallel work in malaria transmission 

garnered from the work of Sir Ronald Ross in India and applied to the Isthmus of 

Panama by William Gorgas—ultimately opened the world to the United States. It 

changed the course of history.

Today’s practitioners of military medicine face devastating blast injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and deadly diseases such as HIV and pandemic influenza—all 

formidable issues—but Sternberg and colleagues tackled problems that decimated 

civilian and military populations and crippled the economies of entire countries. 

Dr. Craig’s brilliant text documents Sternberg’s heroic efforts to promote health 

and will be an important resource for future generations of leaders.

Lieutenant General Eric B. Schoomaker, M.D., Ph.D.

The Surgeon General and Commanding General

United States Army Medical Command
Preface ix

Preface

THE QUEST FOR GEORGE MILLER STERNBERG

The inspiration for this book has two sources. The first is the old Walter Reed 

Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). Although bearing Reed’s name, it truly is 

George Sternberg’s legacy to Army medicine. The Army Medical School—the first 

school of public health in the nation—that Sternberg created resided at a number 

of locations in Washington before moving into building 40 on the Walter Reed 

campus in 1923. What would become the WRAIR in 1955 required additions and 

name changes over the years to keep pace with its evolving educational and research 

functions. For 75 years, building 40 was the home of state-of-the-art military medical research, where military and civilian scientists worked shoulder to shoulder. 

The names of these men—Vedder, Strong, Craig, Buescher, Hilleman, Artenstein—

still echo through the cavernous main hall of the building, their ghosts move silently through the warren of passages and offices on the upper floors, and for 

many years Brigadier General George Miller Sternberg observed—with an intense 

steady gaze from his perch above the main entrance—all who entered.

As a resident in preventive medicine working on the second floor, I passed him 

every morning and began to hear of his accomplishments in my studies. He appeared to be a veritable godfather to military preventive medicine, but literature 

searches turned up only two biographies, one by Mrs. Sternberg and the other by 

John M. Gibson, and a few papers, the majority of which recapitulated the same 

tales rather superficially. The search for Mrs. Sternberg’s biography, my second inspiration, began and ended during a Saturday excursion through used bookstores 

in Georgetown. On the gilt-edged pages of her book from 1920, she inscribed the 

many accomplishments of a husband, whom she loved and respected, and the memories of a 50-year marriage. But her love, respect, and Victorian upbringing led her 

to produce a eulogy that described a hero in marble that she had known in the flesh, 

and only hinted at the depth and breadth of his character and his life. Undoubtedly, 
x The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 

he had desires and passions as well as disappointments to accompany the many and 

varied achievements of his long and productive life. Each of Mrs. Sternberg’s vignettes left me unsatisfied as to who George Sternberg really was, and so the quest 

for George Miller Sternberg, the man, began.

Finding primary and very useful secondary source material relating to my subject was not difficult—just time-consuming—in that there was so much of it to 

read and digest. At the time of his death in 1915, Sternberg was a nationally and 

internationally known and respected soldier, physician, scientist, author, administrator, humanitarian, medical community leader, and civic activist, who was—

with the exception of the military—still active in all of these venues. From his 

reports as an Assistant Surgeon during the Civil War to his last article published 

posthumously in 1916, he contributed voluminously to the medical and lay press. 

Written in an era when editorial censorship of content was less stringent, many 

of these articles contain references to Sternberg’s professional and personal feelings as well as collaborators in his research, dates, and places, and therefore were 

extremely valuable in fleshing out a number of the details of his career. John M. 

Gibson’s book, Soldier in White from 1958, is largely a recapitulation of Mrs. 

Sternberg’s biography. However, it is unique, and was valuable in my quest, for two 

reasons. First, Gibson gave a detailed bibliography of Sternberg’s publications, although he did not use many of them in preparing his book. Second, Gibson gained 

access to a number of letters between General and Mrs. Sternberg. This personal 

correspondence provided insights into their marriage, some of the more trying episodes in their life, as well as some of Sternberg’s elations and frustrations concerning his early work on yellow fever in Cuba. Although these letters have apparently 

disappeared, I did obtain a copy of a short autobiography written by Sternberg’s 

father, the Reverend Levi Sternberg, and a Sternberg family genealogy through 

the kindness of Mr. Albert Martin of Decatur, Alabama. Regrettably, Sternberg 

wrote little about himself, composing only two small autobiographical sketches 

for the army when he was a junior officer. These and other personal and professional—both medical and military—papers reside in the National Archives and 

the National Library of Medicine. Out of this not insignificant body of material an 

image began to emerge. Unshackled from the historical straitjacket of a single, set 

piece of accomplishments and failures, the image came into sharper focus as a man 

of humble yet uncommon origins; a man of intelligence, self-discipline, character, 

and courage; a kind and generous man with human flaws; and a physician, scientist, and soldier whose life was much more remarkable, more compelling, than his 

earlier biographers suggested.

The son of well-educated Lutheran evangelicals of limited means, Sternberg earned 

a medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1860, 

but failed to establish a medical practice on Long Island and took refuge in the Army 

Medical Department as shells fell on Fort Sumter. By the time Grant and Lee met at 

Appomattox Court House, he had established a reputation as a competent field surgeon and intrepid soldier. He moved west with the postwar army. At Forts Harker and 

Riley on the Kansas Plains, Sternberg struggled with cholera, Indian campaigns, and 
Preface xi

the monotony of routine sick call and administrative duties. In the large amount of 

unstructured time left over, Sternberg found an opportunity to satisfy his voracious appetite for scientific literature and inquisitive, experimental nature. Of 

particular interest was Joseph Lister’s work (1867) on the antiseptic treatment of 

fractures and abscesses, a technique based on Pasteur’s nascent airborne germ 

theory and the germicidal action of carbolic acid dressings. In the laboratory he 

fashioned in his quarters, Sternberg obtained a microscope and taught himself the 

fundamentals of microscopy, photomicrography, and the new science that would 

become bacteriology. He recognized that if Pasteur and Lister were correct then 

other disease germs and poisons might be found under the microscope and prohibited by disinfection.

Sternberg’s desire to pursue experimental medical research as a full-time duty 

assignment was frustrated by an Army Medical Department with too few physicians and too many posts to support. Over the next 20 years, Sternberg served 

at army posts from one end of the country to the other. With the exception of 

the Nez Perce War, in which he revalidated his field medical skills and won a 

brevet promotion to Lieutenant Colonel for gallantry at the Clearwater Battle, 

Sternberg pursued medical science relentlessly with a scientific conservatism and 

always “in the interest of truth.”1 His seminal work in the evaluation of commercial disinfectants; investigations into the etiology, treatment, and immunization 

techniques of yellow fever, and a variety of other bacterial and parasitic organisms; and his many valuable contributions to the professional literature made him 

an internationally respected bacteriologist and public health expert. He created 

and taught some of the first lectures in bacteriology at Johns Hopkins University, 

became the Director of the Hoagland Laboratory—one of the first bacteriological 

research laboratories in the country—in Brooklyn, New York, and published the 

first American textbooks on bacteriology.

In late May 1893, Sternberg’s selection as Surgeon General over 10 senior officers 

was not only an acknowledgment of his outstanding military service but also a sign 

of the times. The intellectual atmosphere among the captains of industry, politics, 

medicine, and the military who advocated Sternberg’s selection recognized him as 

the personification of the new medical science and professionalism of the emerging 

Progressive Era. Sternberg did not disappoint his supporters. In just a little over 

three weeks from the time he took office, the Army postgraduate medical school 

was established in the Army Medical Museum and Library in Washington. During 

his nine-year tenure as Surgeon General, the school became the cornerstone of a 

larger professionalization and modernization program for the Medical Department. 

The laboratory mission was expanded, a hospital construction and renovation program was begun, the modern combat medic was created, and a Nurse and Dental 

Corps were established.

Upon retirement from the Army in 1902, Sternberg continued to be active in 

medicine—particularly public health education and reform—in Washington, DC. 

Public health reform with its emphasis on sanitation—air, water, and milk free of 

contaminating germs, and clean city streets—was a natural ally of the social reform 
xii The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg 

movement of the era, particularly in the realm of tenement/slum eradication and 

urban planning. Sternberg brought his organizational, educational, and medical 

expertise to bear in a number of areas: teaching at George Washington University, 

working with the National Tuberculosis Association, directing local anti-tuberculosis activities in the nation’s capitol, and struggling to eradicate Washington’s 

alley slums. 

This book is the story of a remarkable man who strode across a broad stage in 

both the military and medical professions during an era of tremendous scientific, 

technological, and social change. His contributions to both professions were significant, enduring, and all in the interest of truth. 

I am indebted to a large number of individuals for their assistance in the production of this book. Special thanks go to Robert J. T. Joy, Colonel, Medical Corps, 

USA (Ret.), Professor Emeritus, and Dale C. Smith, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, 

Medical History, Uniformed Services University. We spent many profitable and 

enjoyable hours discussing 19th and early 20th century military medicine and 

medical history. Their enthusiasm for the project, encouragement, and mentoring 

as I proceeded, as well as the critical review of the manuscript, were invaluable.

I would like to thank Mr. Lambert A. Martin of Decatur, Alabama, for an autobiographical sketch of the Reverend Levi Sternberg and Sternberg genealogical data. 

My sincere thanks also go to Alan Kraut, Ph.D., Professor of History, American 

University, for his guidance in creating an informational prospectus for publishers, and to historians Robert M. Utley and Katherine Rogers for their assistance 

with Sternberg’s life in Kansas. 

Many archivists and librarians were tremendously helpful in my research. First, I 

would like to thank Stephen Greenberg and his staff at the National Library of Medicine for their patience and assistance. Mike Rhode, Otis Archives, National Medical 

Museum, and a variety of staff members at the National Archives, Library of Congress, 

and at the Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, also provided 

hours of invaluable assistance. I am grateful to Shelly Wallace, now retired, at Hartwick 

College, Oneonta, New York, for her fruitful research in the Hartwick Seminary 

Archives, and to Linda Lohr, Health Sciences Library, University of Buffalo School 

of Medicine; Stephen Novak, Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia 

Presbyterian Medical Center; and Lorinda Klein, New York University Medical 

Center, for their help in understanding Sternberg’s medical education. I must also 

thank Andrew Harrison, Alan M. Chesney Archives, Johns Hopkins University; 

George A. Miles, Beinecke Library, Yale University; Patricia Copeland, Tulane 

University Medical School; G. David Anderson and staff, Gelman Library, George 

Washington University; Jean Larson, Georgetown University Medical School; 

Beth Bensman, Jefferson Medical College; William R. Erwin, Special Collections 

Library, Duke University; Marilyn Pethe, University of Tampa; Wendy Jakobs 

and Andrea Ecklund, University of Maryland; Judith Salm, Forsyth Library, 

Fort Hays State University; Janet Bloom, William L. Clements Archives, University 

of Michigan, Ann Arbor; W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, University of 

Alabama, Tuscaloosa; Karla Pearce at the American Public Health Association, 
Preface xiii

Washington, DC; Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Historical Collections, New York 

Academy of Medicine; Kiplinger Research Library, Historical Society of Washington, DC; Mari Artzner-Wolf, Ramsayer Research Library, the McKinley Museum, 

Canton, OH; and Annick Perrot, Museum Curator, Institute Pasteur, Paris.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to express my appreciation to the state and 

county historical and genealogical societies that facilitated my work: Wayne Wright 

and Susan Friedlander, New York State Historical Society, Cooperstown, New 

York; Joy Whirling, Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Washington; 

the staff at the Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho; Wallace Van Houten 

and Martha Foland, Schoharie County Historical Association, Middleburgh, New 

York; Donna Bettenbrock, Ellsworth County Historical Society, Ellsworth, Kansas; 

and staff members at the Erie County Historical Society, Buffalo, New York; Fort 

Vancouver Historical Society of Clark County, Vancouver, Washington; Clearwater County Historical Society, Orofino, Idaho; Lewis County Historical Society, 

Kamiah, Idaho; Luna House Historical Society, Lewiston, Idaho; the Pensacola 

Historical Society, Pensacola, Florida; Montgomery County, Maryland historian 

David Newman; and Kathryn Lehman, Clerk, Washington Grove Town Hall, 

Montgomery County, Maryland.

1

GMS, Letter to the Editor, New Orleans Medical & Surgical Journal 8 (November 

1880):484, and Letter to the Editor, Medical News 41 (1882):332.
xiv The Life and Science of Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg