Charles Stuart Tripler built a sterling reputation in the antebellum US Army. Veteran of the Seminole and Mexican-American wars, chief medical officer on the typhoid-ravaged voyage commanded by U.S. Grant, Tripler studied and lectured on advances in military medicine and wrote a standard US Army guidebook. Appointed Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac after First Bull Run, Tripler confronted the daunting task of building a medical infrastructure...