William Alexander Hammond William Alexander Hammond ( 28 August 1828 – 5 January 1900 ) was an American military physician and neurologist . During the American Civil War he was the eleventh Surgeon General of the United States Army ( 1862 – 1864 ) and the founder of the Army Medical Museum ( now the National Museum of Health and Medicine ) . He was the first American physician to devote himself entirely to neurology , the author of the first American treatise about neurology , and one of the founders of the American Neurological Association . Biography . Born in Annapolis ( Maryland ) , Hammond grew up in Harrisburg ( Pennsylvania ) . He received his M . D . from New York University at the age of 20 . After his internship and a few months in private practice he became assistant - surgeon in the American Army , serving from 1849 to 1860 . He was first sent to New Mexico and took part in the Sioux Wars . While on sick leave , he visited military hospital s in Europe . He conducted research over many years and the resulting paper was awarded a prize by the American Medical Association in 1857 . With a common interest in poisons acting on the nervous system ( among them snake venom ) , he wrote a paper with Silas Weir Mitchell that was published in 1859 . While serving at Fort Riley as medical director , Hammond also collected biological specimens . In 1860 he accepted a chair of anatomy and physiology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore and left the army . Civil War . When the American Civil War broke out Hammond spent some time at the Baltimore infirmary then joined the army ( without recognition of his past service ) on 28 May 1861 , a month a half after the beginning of the hostilities . Surgeon General Clement Finley soon transferred him to West Virginia under the command of General William Starke Rosecrans command " to lessen his visibility " . There Hammond met Jonathan Letterman . Hammond worked with Letterman and Rosecrans on the design of a new ambulance wagon . The atmosphere in the upper levels of medical services was then one of internal strife and personal conflicts . Hammond — a tall and imposing young man — was no man of intrigue , nor even , according to all accounts , a very flexible person . However , the situation offered him the possibility for advancement . When Finley , the 10th Surgeon General , was fired after an argument with Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton , Abraham Lincoln , against Stanton ' s advice and the normal rules of promotion , named the 34 - year - old Hammond to succeed him with the rank of brigadier general . Hammond became Surgeon General of the Army on 25 April 1862 , less than a year after rejoining the army . Surgeon General . Hammond launched a number of reforms . He raised the requirements for admission into the Army Medical Corps . The number of hospitals was greatly increased and he paid close attention to aeration . He created Satterlee Hospital ( which had up to 4 , 500 beds in hundreds of tents ) . Hospitals were ordered to maintain much more complete records . In Washington he founded the National Museum of Health and Medicine ( then called Army Medical Museum ) and put John H . Brinton in charge . Hammond proposed a permanent military medical corps , a permanent hospital for the military , and centralized issuance of medications . He recommended that " the service age of recruits be fixed by law at twenty years " . He successfully transferred the responsibility for sanitary trains from private companies to the government and personally oversaw the building of the wagons . He promoted Letterman and supported his reforms on the front . On his initiative , Letterman ' s ambulance system was thoroughly tested before being extended to the whole Union . Mortality decreased significantly . Efficiency increased , as Hammond promoted people on the basis of competence , not rank or connections , and his initiatives were positive and timely . Removal from office . On 4 May 1863 Hammond banned the mercury compound calomel from army supplies , as he believed it to be neither safe nor effective ( he was later proved correct ) . He thought it dangerous to make an already debilitated patient vomit . A " Calomel Rebellion " ensued , as many of his colleagues had no alternative treatments and resented the move as an infringement on their liberty of practice . Hammond ' s arrogant nature did not help him solve the problem , and his relations with Secretary of War Stanton became strained . On 3 September 1863 he was sent on a protracted " inspection tour " to the South , which effectively removed him from office . Joseph Barnes , a friend of Stanton ' s and his personal physician , became acting Surgeon General . Hammond demanded to be either reinstated or court - martial ed . A court - martial found him guilty of " irregularities " in the purchase of medical furniture ( Stanton " used false data " ) . Hammond was dismissed on 18 August 1864 . Neurology . With the help of friends Hammond established himself in New York City . He became professor of nervous and mental diseases at Bellevue Hospital in 1867 and at the New York University in 1874 . He served on the faculty of the University of Vermont at Burlington and was co - founder and faculty member of the Post Graduate Medical School of New York . In 1870s , he limited his practice to possible cases of nervous or mental diseases , the first American physician to do so . He conducted early experiments on the use of lithium for the treatment of mania . In 1871 he published his best - known work , " Treatise on diseases of the nervous system " . In early 1872 he traveled to California to visit his ailing friend Letterman . In 1874 he founded , with Silas Weir Mitchell and many others , the American Neurological Association . In 1878 " he was restored to the army [ . . . ] with the grade of brigadier general , without pay or allowances " . Hammond was the author of many books and articles , some of them published in a journal he had founded . He was energetic , sceptical , moderate , a believer in freedom , and a reformer . He enjoyed writing in his spare time , becoming a science journalist and a naturalist . He also wrote a short biography of Polydore Vergil . In 1888 he returned to Washington , where he founded a hospital for patients with nervous and mental diseases . He died in Washington on 5 January 1900 of heart failure and was buried with military honors at the Arlington National Cemetery . Hammond was married twice . On 3 July 1849 , the day following his first commission as an assistant surgeon , he married Helen Nisbet . They had five children , two of whom died in infancy . His second spouse was Esther Dyer ( d . 1925 ) , who is buried by his side . Hammond co - authored a novel with his daughter Marquise Clara Lanza . Spiritualism . Hammond was a critic of Spiritualism and attributed mediumship to suggestion and sleight of hand tricks . He explained the behavior of mediums as symptoms of hypnosis , hysteria , catalepsy and ectasy . His book " The Physics and Physiology of Spiritualism " ( 1871 ) is an early text on anomalistic psychology and was revised into a larger edition " Spiritualism and Allied Causes and Conditions of Nervous Derangement " ( 1876 ) . Hammond also argued that Spiritualism was itself a form of mental illness .