The War of 1812 is remembered for the Burning of Washington, and Francis Scott Key’s “The Star Spangled Banner,” but little else. It was a poorly funded war of relatively short duration and nebulous resolution. Under such circumstances, it is understandable that the “Second War of Independence” failed to produce many notable military or medical advancements. However, one surgeon took it upon himself to recount his experiences in the field. For his dedication to the art and science of medicine, James Mann deserves recognition

Anderson, MD, Eliza C.

Cowan, MD, Scott W.

Yeo, MD, Charles J.

English

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Thomas Jefferson UniversityJefferson Digital CommonsDepartment of Surgery, Gibbon Society HistoricalProfiles Department of Surgery6-1-2016James Mann, M.D. (1759-1832): Military Surgeonfor the "Second War of Independence".Eliza C. Anderson, MDDepartment of Neurological Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University, Eliza.Anderson@jefferson.eduScott W. Cowan, MDThomas Jefferson University, Scott.Cowan@jefferson.eduCharles J. Yeo, MDThomas Jefferson University, Charles.Yeo@jefferson.eduLet us know how access to this document benefits youFollow this and additional works at: http://jdc.jefferson.edu/gibbonsocietyprofilesPart of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, and the Surgery CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Jefferson Digital Commons. The Jefferson Digital Commons is a service of ThomasJefferson University's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The Commons is a showcase for Jefferson books and journals, peer-reviewed scholarlypublications, unique historical collections from the University archives, and teaching tools. The Jefferson Digital Commons allows researchers andinterested readers anywhere in the world to learn about and keep up to date with Jefferson scholarship. This article has been accepted for inclusion inDepartment of Surgery, Gibbon Society Historical Profiles by an authorized administrator of the Jefferson Digital Commons. For more information,please contact: JeffersonDigitalCommons@jefferson.edu.Recommended CitationAnderson, MD, Eliza C.; Cowan, MD, Scott W.; and Yeo, MD, Charles J., "James Mann, M.D.(1759-1832): Military Surgeon for the "Second War of Independence"." (2016). Department ofSurgery, Gibbon Society Historical Profiles. Paper 30.http://jdc.jefferson.edu/gibbonsocietyprofiles/30Brief ReportsBrief Reports should be submitted online to www.editorialmanager.com/amsurg. (See details online under ‘‘Instructions for Authors’’.) They should be nomore than 4 double-spaced pages with no Abstract or sub-headings, with amaximum of four (4) references. If figures are included, they should be limitedto two (2). The cost of printing color figures is the responsibility of the author.In general, authors of case reports should use the Brief Report format.James Mann, M.D. (1759–1832): MilitarySurgeon for the “Second War of Independence”The War of 1812 is remembered for the Burning ofWashington, and Francis Scott Key’s “The Star SpangledBanner,” but little else. It was a poorly funded war ofrelatively short duration and nebulous resolution. Undersuch circumstances, it is understandable that the “SecondWar of Independence” failed to produce many notablemilitary or medical advancements. However, one sur-geon took it upon himself to recount his experiences inthe field. For his dedication to the art and science ofmedicine, James Mann deserves recognition.James Mann was born in Massachusetts in 1759. Littleis known about his life before serving in the military. Hereceived a degree in arts from Harvard, after which hestudied medicine under Dr. Samuel Danforth, the fifthpresident of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He wasawarded two honorary Master of Arts degrees from Yaleand Brown Universities in the early 1780s, but it was notuntil 1815, after the resolution of the war, that Dr. Mannreceived an honorary degree in medicine from BrownUniversity. In 1779, at 20 years of age, Dr. Mann becamea military surgeon for the Continental Army during theRevolutionary War. He spent some time as a prisoner ofwar before returning to Massachusetts to practice medi-cine in 1781.1 In 1788, he married Martha Tyler, withwhom he raised five children.2 As the author of multiplemedical reports and for his eminence as a practitioner, hewas elected a fellow of the American Academy of Artsand Sciences in 1810.3Thirty-one years after the Revolutionary War, at theage of 52 years, he was appointed as the MedicalDirector of the Northern Army of the War of 1812.For this service, he was called the “most importantarmy surgeon in the field” during the war.4 Two futureSurgeons General of the United States Army, JosephLovell and Thomas Lawson, as well as the “father ofgastric physiology,” William Beaumont, all served asmedical personnel in the Northern Army under thedirection of Dr. Mann.1 He established hospitals atWatertown and Malone, New York, as well as multiple“flying” and tent hospitals during the course of thecampaign, while managing hospitals at Greenbush andPlattsburgh, New York, and Burlington, Vermont.1, 5In 1816, after the conclusion of the war, Mann pub-lished, as noted by Dr. Samuel D. Gross in his Manualon Military Surgery (until the publication of that doc-ument itself in 1861), the only literature on militarysurgery to come out of America.6 In the preliminaryobservations of his Medical Sketches of the Campaignsof 1812, 1813, and 1814, Mann laments the fact thatno revolutionary war surgeons had documented theirfindings and experiences. As Mann wisely counsels, “Arecord of incorrect practice, faithfully detailed, may beimproved, like a beacon to a mariner, to avoid dangersand erroneous tracks.”5 He maintained that the medicalknowledge of the day must be recorded in history, evenif proven incorrect in the future.Dr. Mann’s Medical Sketches (Fig. 1) are indeed animportant record of many aspects of the war. He writesdetailed descriptions of the maladies plaguing themilitary and how they were treated. He includes pul-monary autopsy specimens from soldiers who diedfrom pneumonia.4 He describes amputations accord-ing to the recommendations of the Napoleonic sur-geon, Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, detailing thetypes of injuries requiring such measures, as well ashow and when to proceed. Also included in theSketches are eloquent descriptions of the geographyand state of colonization that he observed whiletraveling with the Northern Army. Of his experience atNiagara Falls, Mann relates “When we cast our eyesdown on deep sounding caverns, or on yawning broadchasms below, all is apprehension … we tremble inevery joint; we seize on every bush, and cling to everytree… and still feel we may be precipitated in a mo-ment to the dreadful gulph. Such is the force of as-sociation of ideas, that the body irresistibly becomesthe sport of its influence.”5Address correspondence and reprint requests to Scott W. Cowan,M.D., Department of Surgery, Sidney Kimmel Medical College,Thomas Jefferson University, 1025 Walnut Street, Curtis Building,Suite 607, Philadelphia, PA. E-mail: scott.cowan@jefferson.edu.E123His writings show that Dr. Mann was forwardthinking in his approach to patient care in the early1800s. He denounced the use of mercury for treatingsyphilis as he observed its failure to cure the disease,describing the necessary excision of a patient’smaxilla after devastating erosion from treatment withcalomel (mercurous chloride).7 Dr. Mann recom-mended against giving alcohol as part of soldiers’rations, and noted that when the army is withoutfunding and soldiers do not have the means to pur-chase alcohol, their health improved significantly. Hedetails the rigorous standards of cleanliness kept atthe Burlington Hospital that decreased mortality,recommends separating patients with contagiousdiseases into a different ward,7 and states “cleanlinessis the life of an army, while filth and dirt are among itsdisease-generating causes.”5 Referencing the revolu-tionary “volantes,” as noted in the work of BaronLarrey, Mann introduced the concept of the ambu-lance for the first time to the United States,4 thoughhe did not have the resources to implement their use.No less important was his humanitarian position onthe treatment of prisoners of war: “The captive soldieris no longer viewed as an enemy. He receives from thevictor every attention which humanity dictates andcircumstances allow.”5Though Dr. Mann reveals himself to be a humbleleader throughout his Sketches, there were likely timesduring which his actions were directly responsible forthe preservation of hundreds of patients’ lives. Forexample, he orchestrated the evacuation and trans-portation via sleigh of 450 “sick and invalid” patientsover 70 miles of land “almost destitute of inhabitants”in the dead of winter. The procession of sleighs, be-ginning in Malone, New York, was three days long,and it was more than a week later before they hadall arrived at their destinations in Plattsburgh andBurlington. All but six patients survived the trip. Ofthis difficult feat, Mann merely stated “it was noinconsiderable task.”5Later that same year, in September 1814, the Battleof Plattsburgh took place, a land and naval confron-tation on Lake Champlain that would become oneof the last major battles of the war. The British oc-cupation of Plattsburgh before the battle forced,Dr. Mann to move his patients, numbering greaterthan 700, from the Plattsburgh Hospital to the smalland uninhabited Crab Island (Fig. 2). Over the courseof the fighting, all the wounded from the British andAmerican fleets, as well as the armies on land, weretransported to the island. Dr. Mann tended to thewounded on his own, being the only surgeon on theisland, with only the help of a sick surgeon’s mate. Infour days on Crab Island, he performed more than 30amputations, tended countless gunshot wounds, andcared for the hundreds of ill to the best of his ability,FIG. 1. Original book cover, 1816. Available from the UnitedStates National Library of Medicine; Research Publications EarlyAmerican Medical Imprints Collection. Film 633, reel 62, no. 1190at https://archive.org/details/2562025R.nlm.nih.gov.FIG. 2. “Macdonough’s Victory on Lake Champlain” withCrab Island observable in the upper left hand corner of the lake.Painted by Hugh Relnagle, 1816. Engraved by Benjamin Tanner.Available from the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004669105/.THE AMERICAN SURGEON June 2016E124 Vol. 82before finding the resources to transport them to theBurlington Hospital by boat.5With the signing of the Treaty of Ghent at the end ofthe war, the United States military establishment un-derwent several stages of reorganization, throughoutwhich Mann stayed on, though his post changed. Hewas likely passed over for the position of SurgeonGeneral due to his advanced age, and it is suggested thathis high regard for Joseph Lovell, as described in hisSketches, helped to secure the position for the youngerman.1 In 1819, at 60 years of age, he was named to theconsultant surgical staff of the Massachusetts GeneralHospital. By 1830, Mann was stationed on Governor’sIsland in New York, where he died two years later, at theage of 73 years.5The passing of time has not been kind to the memoryof this capable clinician and leader; one cannot evenfind a single portrait of Dr. Mann in the National Li-brary of Medicine, nor from university archives. Yethis humble and unfailing answer to the call of dutytime and time again in the service of a young UnitedStates, and his meticulous documentation of militarymedicine in his day, set an important example for themany great individuals who followed him.Eliza C. Anderson, B.S.Scott W. Cowan, M.D.Charles J. Yeo, M.D.Department of SurgerySidney Kimmel Medical CollegeThomas Jefferson UniversityPhiladelphia, PAREFERENCES1. Phalen JM. James Mann, surgeon, U.S. army. ArmyMed Bull1939;47:72–7.2. Brigham WIT. The Tyler Genealogy: Descendants of JobTyler, of Andover, Massachusetts. Plainfield, NJ: C.B. Tyler,Princeton University, 1912, pp 185–6.3. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Members of theAmerican Academy of Arts & Sciences: 1780–2014. Cam-bridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2015.Chapter M. p 363.4. Heidler DS, Heidler JT. Encyclopedia of the War of 1812.Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2004, p 337.5. Mann JMedical Sketches of the Campaigns of 1812, 13, and14: To Which Are Added, Surgical Cases; Observations on Mili-tary Hospitals; and Flying Hospitals Attached to a Moving Army;Also, an Appendix, Comprising a Dissertation on Dysentery;Which Obtained the Boyleston Prize Medal for the Year 1806; andObservations on the Winter Epidemic of 1815–16, DenominatedPeripneumonia Notha, as it Appeared at Sharon and Rochester,State of Massachusetts. Dedham, MA: H. Mann and Co., 1816.6. Gross SD. AManual of Military Surgery. Philadelphia, PA: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1861, p 16.7. Kampmeier RH. Venereal disease in the United States army:1775–1900. Sex Transm Dis 1982;9:100–3.No. 6 BRIEF REPORTS E125

James Mann, M.D. (1759-1832): Military Surgeon for the  Second War of Independence .

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James Mann, M.D. (1759-1832): Military Surgeon for the Second War of Independence .

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