“disputes and contentions,” and was highly unsatisfactory to the trained military eye of Washington. As soon as the Commander-in-Chief reached Cambridge, early in July, he wrote to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to urge the formation of a regular medical corps for the whole confederated army. On the 27th his wish was gratified, and a “Continental Hospital” was authorized. The chief of the department was styled the director-general. To save money the surgeons were reduced to four and the mates increased to twenty. Nurses, clerks, store-keepers, etc., were provided in due form. On the same day Congress unanimously elected as the first director-general, Dr. Benjamin Church, Jr., of the class of 1754.
If Church’s career had ended at this point Harvard would have had good cause to be proud of it, for it had been a brilliant one indeed. He was a native of Boston, but had studied medicine in London—a rare distinction in those days—and was accounted one of the most dexterous operating surgeons in Massachusetts. Politically he was a “high patriot,” in the very thick of the seditious cabals led by Hancock (his classmate), Adams, Revere, et al. He was an extraordinarily popular speaker and writer in the cause of liberty, one of the most prominent members of the Provincial Congress, and at one period its speaker pro tem. None of the Revo-
