Alfred Alexander Woodhull Alfred Alexander Woodhull ( April 13 , 1837 – October 18 , 1921 ) was an American army surgeon . In 1885 , he received the gold medal of the Military Service Institution and in 1907 the Seaman essay prize . Woodhull was the first to call to the attention of the service the necessity of co - operation between the medical and line officers in the promotion of military hygiene . Early life . Woodhull was born at Princeton , New Jersey , on April 13 , 1837 , to Dr . Alfred Alexander and Anna Maria ( Salomons ) Woodhull . One of his ancestors was John Witherspoon , a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence . He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1856 from the College of New Jersey . In 1859 , he received his Master ' s degree from the College of New Jersey and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania . He practised medicine in Leavenworth , Kansas , and then at Eudora , Kansas . Military career . When the Civil War began , he helped recruit a troop of militia and was commissioned as a lieutenant . He was appointed to the Medical Corps on September 19 , 1861 , and served for the duration of the war . He was medical inspector for the Army of the James from 1864 to 1865 , and was breveted lieutenant - colonel in March 1865 . After the war ended , he was assigned to the Army Medical Museum in Washington , D . C . , where he prepared the " Surgical Section " of the " Catalogue of the United States Army Medical Museum " in 1866 . In 1868 , he published " A Medical Report upon the Uniform and Clothing of the Soldiers of the United States Army " . On December 15 , 1868 , he married Margaret Ellicott from Baltimore , Maryland . He was a member of the Surgeon - General ' s office . In 1875 and 1876 , he wrote papers advocating the use of sub - emetic doses of ipecacuanha in the treatment of dysentery . His duties included instruction in military hygiene at the Infantry and Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas , from 1886 to 1890 and command of the Army and Navy Hospital at Hot Springs , Arkansas , from 1892 to 1895 . In 1881 , he wrote " Quarter Century Report of the Class of 1856 of the College of New Jersey " . He was awarded the gold medal of the Military Service Institution for his paper on " The Enlisted Soldier " , which was published in its Journal for March 1887 . In 1891 , he travelled to England to study the British Army ' s medical care and published a report in 1894 . In 1895 , he was appointed medical inspector of the Department of the Colorado . In 1899 , he became chief surgeon of the Department of the Pacific at Manila . He wrote " Provisional Manual for Exercise of Company Bearers and Hospital Corp " in 1889 , and " Notes on Military Hygiene for Officers of the Line " . He was retired in 1901 and , in 1904 , he was promoted to brigadier - general on the retired list . After retirement from the U . S . Army . After his retirement , he returned to Princeton , where he was a lecturer on personal hygiene and general sanitation from 1902 to 1907 . He also wrote " Personal Hygiene : Designed for Undergraduates " in 1906 . In 1907 , he received the Seaman prize for an article about hygiene and sanitation instruction in military and naval service schools , that was published in the Military Service Institution ' s Journal in the March – April 1908 issue . In 1913 , he wrote a tactical study of the Battle of Princeton . He died in Princeton on October 18 , 1921 .