Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-28
| COL. ALDEN'S RETIREMENT
CLOSES HIS ACTIVE SERVICE IN THE
ARMY.
End of a Long and Creditable Career
in the Medical Depart
ment.

Colonel Charles H. Alden, assistant sur
geon general. who closed his active connec-
ton with the army today by operation of
law on account of age has had long and
creditable career in the army. Born in
Philadelphia April g. 1896, he received
thorough education at Brown University.
and at the Pennsylvania Medical College.
He was first employed in the medical de-
partment under contract in June, 1859, and
was commissioned an assistant surgeon in
June. 1860. Since then he has gone through
various grades of the department until he
reached his present grade of assistant sur
geon general December 4. 1892. In March.
1865 he was brevetted major and lieuten-
services in the war
In July. 1855 he accompanied troops from
Carlisle barracks, Pa, to Fort Defiance,
New Mexico, and served in the Navajo
campaign in the fall of that year. In July,
1861, he was taken prisoner by the con-
federates near Las Cruces, New Mexico,
with Major Lyndes command, after an
engagement near that place, but was sub
sequently released on parole, and was or
dered to duty in the surgeon generals Of
flee in this city. In 1862 he organized
Georgetown College Hospital in this city
to receive the wounded from the second
battle of Bull Run. Being released from
parole in October. 1862. he Joined the Army
of the Potomac, and took part in the bat
tie of Fredericksburg. where he was in
charge of the transportation of wounded
soldiers from Falmouth to Aqua creek and
to hospitals at Point Lookout and Wash
ington. In the following year he had COM
mand of Turner's Lane general hospital at
Philadelphia, Pa, and was also on duty
in that state in connection with the drafts
of 1863 and 1864. While assistant to the
mo- mn a plrhi n
he was responsible for all the medical
property at that depot, and had charge
of the closing of nineteen general hospitals
in the state of Pennsylvania.
In 1867 he was in the field in Wyoming
with the Both Infantry, which regiment was
protecting the building of the Union Pacific
railroad against hostile Indians. After de-
tached service with troops in the field in
various parts of the west he accompanied
the Nez Perez expedition in 1877 and was
present at the battles of Clearwater and
Kamiah. Coming east in November, 1877,
he was on duty with the army medical
board in New York until the spring of 1852.
and, after a short service in Dakota and
Minnesota, he went to the West Point Mil
itary Academy.
Having been promoted to the rank of
lieutenant colonel in 1888, he was made
medical director of the department OF the
Dakota, at that time one Of the largest and
most important frontier departments. He
was a delegate to the tenth international
congress at Berlin in August, 1890, and in
November, 1896, he was a delegate to the
Pan-American medical congress in Mexico.
He was elected president of the Association
of Military Surgeons Of the United States in
Kansas City, Mo-, in September 1899.
Since August, 1893, he has been stationed
in Washington as principal assistant to the
surgeon general of the army, and was in
charge of the hospital corps and supply di-
vision of that bureau. He the first
president of the Army Medical School,
founded by Gen. Sternberg in 1898, and his
lecture on the Duties of Medical Officers
is regarded as standard by the service.
Although his plans have not been fully de-
termined, it is probable that he will make
his future home in Massachusetts.