* Untitled
LEWIS HEERMANN, SURGEON IN THE UNITED STATES NAVY (1779-1833)
By F. L. PLEADWELL, CAPT., AND W. M. KERR, LIEUT. COMM.
UNITED STATES NAVY
general reader, as a rule, is but moderately interested in minor historical details.
■ Secure in a conventional preference of the spirit to the letter, he professes to be indifferent whether the grandmother of an exalted person was a “Hugginson” or a “ Blenkinsop”; and he is equally careless as to the correct Christian names of his cousins and his aunts. In the main the general reader is wise in his generation. But with the painful biographer, toiling in the immeasurable sands of thankless research . . . these trivialities assume exaggerated proportions; and to those who remind him, as in a cynical age he is sure to be reminded, of the infinitesimal value of his hard-gotten grains of information he can only reply mournfully, if unconvincingly, that fact is fact, even in matters of mustard seed.1
With these words of Austin Dobson in mind we propose to set down a few facts concerning the life of one whose very existence is unknown to many who follow in his his footsteps.
Lewis Heermann, whose career in the United States Navy extended from 1802 to 1833, was born in Cassel, Germany, August 3, 1779. He was baptized Adolph Ludwig, but upon reaching the land of his adoption he dropped the Adolph and anglicized the Ludwig to Lewis.
The date of Dr. Heermann’s arrival in the United States is not definitely known, but as he was only twenty-three years of age in 1802, when he entered the navy, and presumably did not receive his medical education in this country, it is probable that he had been here but a few years prior to the date of his commission as surgeon’s mate.
His father, Johann, was a property owner in Hesse-Cassel, and upon his death
1 Dobson, Austin. Fresh Facts about Fielding, an essay contained in “De Libris,” Macmillan and Co., London, 1908.
Dr. Heermann appears to have been his sole legatee, and to have inherited a considerable estate. On March 27, 1821, Dr. Heermann married Eliza Potts of Norfolk, Virginia. Of this union live sons were born. The third son, Valentine Mott Heermann, was an artist by profession, having studied in Paris and Rome. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Valentine aligned himself with the South and receiving a commission as captain in the engineer corps of the Confederate Army, served with distinction on the staffs of General John B. Hood, and General J. E. Johnston, Army of Tennessee. Of Valentine’s three daughters, one married, lived and died in New Orleans. Another married and went to live in Suchcn, Hanover, Germany; while the third is now resident in New Orleans. The only male descendent of Dr. Lewis Heermann is now living in that city, the son of the daughter last mentioned. It is of interest to note that the fourth son of Lewis Heermann, Theodore, adopted his father’s profession. The fifth son, Adolphus Lewis, was joined by Theodore in later years in a stock-raising enterprise near San Antonio, Texas. Both Theodore and Adolphus died at San Antonio without issue.2
As one may judge from his portrait, Dr. Heermann was of military appearance and bearing. He had the reputation of being a
2 The writers desire to acknowledge their indebtedness to Dr. Heermann’s granddaughter, Mrs. E. B. Briggs of New Orleans, for her generous assistance in furnishing much information relating to Dr. Heermann’s family history, and for the gift of the portrait of the doctor which is reproduced in this article. To Lieutenant Commander W. II. Short, and Lieutenant H. L. Barbour, M. C., U. S. Navy, and Pharmacist H. L. Frey, U. S. Navy, the writers are under obligation for valuable assistance in securing information relating to Dr. Heermann which they found in official records and the libraries of New Orleans. strict disciplinarian, but with this characteristic he combined extreme affability and courtesy. According to the standards of his times, he was highly educated, and stood above the general level of the community in this respect. His associations were with those who possessed education and culture to a high degree and his tastes were decidedly literary. Impressed with the value of a liberal education he was solicitous that his children should also receive this benefit, and it was mainly with this end in view that he went to New Haven in the year, 1828.
In the original “acceptance” of Dr. Heermann’s commission as a surgeon’s mate in the navy, which is still to be seen in the archives of the Navy Department, he subscribed himself as Lewis Heer
mann and the state or territory in which born, he connoted thus: “Politically (by adoption), Virginia; physically, Hessc- CasscI, Germany.” This document also reveals the fact that he was appointed from Virginia, but in later years he considered himself a citizen of Louisiana.
Nothing is known of the incidents of Heermann’s early life prior to his arrival in the United States.
It is presumed that he received his
general and medical training in Germany, but that a period of time was spent in London studying medicine, is suggested by the discovery in the Yale University Library3 of two volumes of notes in Heermann’s handwriting of lectures on physiology given by Dr. John Haighton4 at St.
Thomas’ and Guy’s Hospitals, subsequent to the year 1789. It is possible, of course, that Heermann merely transcribed these notes from a similar manuscript to which he had access during his travels in Europe in the years, 1830- 31-
Dr. Hceimann was appointed a surgeon’s mate'
3 M r. Alfred Keogh, librarian of Yale University Library has furnished this information regarding Heermann’s notes on Haighton’s lectures. The writers are indebted to Mr. Keogh for his earnest efforts to find
material relatingto Heermann’s early connection with Yale College and with the Yale Medical School.
4 Haighton, John (1755-1823), English physician and physiologist; demonstrator of anatomy under Henry Cline at St. Thomas’ Hospital, and lecturer in physiology and midwifery at St. Thomas’ and Guy’s Hospitals. He was known as the “merciless doctor,’’ owing to the roughness of his manner toward his patients. In 1798, he became the joint editor of Medical Records and Researches, and in 1790, he was the silver medalist of the London Medical Society because of a paper he wrote on “Deafness.” in the Navy, February 8, 1802, and
reached the grade of surgeon, November 27, 1804. No record indicating the nature or the place of his first duty has been found, and the earliest reference to him in official correspondence is contained in a letter from the secretary of the Navy, dated March 15, 1805, transmitting his commission as surgeon. As this letter is addressed to “Dr. Heermann, on board the Enterprise, Mediterranean,” it is apparent that he sailed in one of the ships of Commodore Preble’s squadron which left the United States for Mediterranean ports during the latter months of the year, 1803. However the probability is that he sailed on the Argus with Lieutenant Stephen Decatur' in command as the Argus and the Enterprise exchanged commanding officers upon the arrival of the former ship at the station. It is believed that Heermann followed Decatur to his new command. The Enterprise had been in the Mediterranean for some time in command of Lieutenant Isaac Hull.
It will be recalled that the depredations of the corsairs of the Barbary States upon American commerce had reached such a pass in the period from 1801 to 1803 that the United States was forced to take vigorous action. The chief offender was Tripoli, but Morocco also was in a recalcitrant mood. In 1801, a squadron under Commodore Richard Dale had been sent to the Mediterranean to uphold our rights. Dale was followed by Commodore Richard V. Morris, and Morris by Preble. Commodore Preble’s squadron comprised the Constitution, Philadelphia, Nautilus, Vixen, Siren, Argus and Enterprise.
Upon his arrival at Gibraltar, Preble found it necessary to overawe the ruler of Morocco by a display of force, and sailed to Tangier with most of his squadron. Meanwhile the frigate Philadelphia, under Captain Bainbridge, and the Vixen were sent to blockade Tripoli. On October 31, 1803, while cruising alone off the coast of Tripoli, the Philadelphia ran upon an unchartered
shoal. Numbers of the enemy’s gunboats emerged from the harbor, surrounded and attacked the helpless ship. The ship’s situation after grounding, having heeled over to port and in consequence being unable to bring guns to bear, made effectual resistance impossible. Bainbridge threw overboard most of his guns, flooded the magazines and after a vain attempt to scuttle the ship, hauled down the flag. The Tripolitans swarmed aboard, plundered the officers and crew, and took them ashore as prisoners for what proved to be a long and trying captivity.5
The loss of the Philadelphia with the capture of more than three hundred prisoners who had high ransom value, gave great moral support to the enemy. The Bashaw of Tripoli thus encouraged, decided to put forth renewed resistance, and another circumstance supported him in this measure. Two days after the grounding of the Philadelphia, a strong northerly breeze set in, and so increased the depth of water over the ledge of rocks on which the Philadelphia rested that the Tripolitans were able to haul her off, take her into harbor, and anchor her under the guns of the fortification. They soon fished up her anchors and guns, and so had in their possession a most powerful vessel which they might use soon with effect against the forces of the United States. The danger of leaving the frigate in the possession of the enemy was so menacing that Commodore Preble determined to destroy her. It is a matter of dispute as to whom the credit is due for originating the plan of destruction. Captain Bainbridge had suggested the idea to Commodore Preble, but Lieutenant Stephen Decatur in command of the Enterprise, was given charge of the undertaking. About this time
5 A full account of this disaster and of the subsequent captivity of the officers and crew of the Philadelphia will be found in the article by the present writers on “Jonathan Cowdery,” which appeared in the U. S. Nav. M. Bull, for July, 1922. Cowdery was a surgeon on the frigate, Philadelphia at the time of her loss. Decatur had captured the ketch Mastico from the Tripolitans. She was on her way to Constantinople with a present of slaves and other articles for the Grand Vizier. The plan was for Decatur to sail the Mastico, now called the Intrepid, into the harbor of Tripoli at night, set fire to the Philadelphia, and then, if the Intrepid was still afloat, to make his escape. Lieutenant Charles Stewart in the brig, Siren, was to remain off the harbor and assist in covering the Intrepid’s retreat or in rescuing the survivors in case the Intrepid was destroyed, an event considered as not at all improbable. The Intrepid was fitted out at the American naval base at Syracuse. She was manned with seventy-four officers and men, and sailed for Tripoli on February 3, 1804. Combustibles had been prepared, and a stock of provisions sufficient to last for three weeks was taken aboard. The officers selected for this duty were Lieutenant Decatur, commanding; Lieutenants Lawrence, Joseph Bainbridge, and Thorn; Midshipmen McDonough, Izard, C. Morris, Laws, Davis and Rowe, and Surgeon Heermann. A Maltese, Salvadore Catalano, who afterwards became a sailing master in the Navy, accompanied the expedition as a pilot.
The ketch arrived off Tripoli on the 10th of February, but there were indications of an approaching gale, and after a brief reconnaissance in a boat off the mouth of the harbor by Midshipman Morris and the pilot, the Intrepid and Siren sailed to the northward so as to be out of sight of the town by daylight. The gale continued for five days, and this bad weather, together with the crowded condition of the ketch made the situation on board far from comfortable. The Intrepid was only of about sixty tons burden, and accommodations for seventy-four individuals were scanty. The following description of the conditions on board is taken from the “Autobiography of Charles Morris.”6
6 Soley, J. R. The Autobiography of Commodore Charles Morris, U. S. Navy, Boston, 1880.
The commander, three lieutenants, and Surgeon Heermann, occupied the very small cabin. Six midshipmen and the pilot had a platform laid on the water casks, which surface they covered when they lay down for sleep, and at so small a distance below the deck that their heads would reach it when seated on the platform. The marines had corresponding accommodations on the opposite side, and the sailors had only the surface of the casks in the hold. To these inconveniences were added the want of any room on deck for exercise, and the attacks of innumerable vermin, which our predecessors, the slaves, had left behind them. The provisions proved to be decayed and offensive.
By the morning of the 16th of February, Tripoli was again in sight. Pleasant weather and a smooth sea prevailed. The light winds enabled the Intrepid, by the skilful use of drags, to retard her headway so as to keep up an appearance of wishing to make the harbor, but without intending to do so before nightfall. The Siren kept well out at sea. At dark the ketch was within two miles of the harbor entrance. All the crew stayed below, except six or eight to work the ship, and these were in Maltese dress. The final arrangements were now made, combustibles in bundles were all ready and each officer and man had been assigned his duty. To continue with Commodore Morris’ account:
As the evening advanced our drags were taken in, so that we were within two miles of the eastern entrance at dark, the Siren being some three miles without us. The concerted arrangements were for the ketch to wait for the boats of the Siren to join us after dark, that they might accompany us to the attack; but as the sun descended the wind grew fainter, and there was good reason to apprehend that any delay in waiting for the boats might render it very difficult for the ketch to reach the ship. Decatur, therefore, determined to proceed without waiting, and accompanied his decision with the remark: “The fewer the number the greater the honor.” One boat from the Siren, with six men, had joined us a few days before, and was still with us. The final arrangements were now made, and the respective duties of the several officers, which has been previously allotted, were again specified and explained. The presumed number of our enemy was stated, and the necessity for our utmost exertions enjoined upon us. The watchword “Philadelphia” was issued, to be used as a means of recognition; and as we advanced into the harbor strict silence was enjoined and observed. The injunction, however, appeared to be unnecessary. No one seemed disposed to enter into conversation, but to be absorbed by his own reflections. My own thoughts were busy, now reverting to friends at home, now to the perils we were about to meet. Should I be able to justify the expectations of the former by meeting properly the dangers of the latter? How was I prepared for the death which might possibly be my fate? These, with others of a somber character, mixed with calculations to secure a prominent position when boarding, passed rapidly through my mind; and the minds of others were no doubt employed on similar subjects. The officers and crew were directed to conceal themselves as much as possible, excepting some six or eight. Most of the officers could be distinguished by their dress, and they required concealment more than the sailors. Fortunately owing to the loss of some articles, which had been replaced by a Ioan from the crew, my own dress corresponded to theirs, which enabled me to keep near Decatur, whom I supposed would naturally be among the first to leave the ketch. The wind wafted us slowly into the harbor, the water was smooth, and the young moon gave light enough to distinguish prominent objects. One battery was passed, the Philadelphia was in view near several smaller vessels, and the white walls of the city and its batteries were before us. We steered directly for the frigate, and at last the anxious silence was broken by a hail from her, demanding our character and object. Then might be seen the eager movements of the heads of the officers and crew who were stretched on the deck, ready to leap forward at the word of their commander, but still resting in silence. A conversation was kept up between the frigate and the ketch through our pilot, acting under the dictation of Decatur. We alleged the loss of our anchors during the last gale, which was true, as a reason for wishing to make fast to the frigate till morning, and permission was
obtained; but just as the ketch was about coming in contact with the frigate the wind shifted, blowing lightly directly from the frigate, and it left us at rest abeam and about twenty yards from her. This was a moment of great anxiety. We were directly under her guns, motionless and powerless, except by exertions which might betray our character. The Siren’s boat was, however, in tow, and was leisurely manned, and took a rope to make fast to the ship. She was met by a boat with another rope, when both were united, and each boat returned to its vessel. This rope was passed along the deck and hauled upon by the crew as they lay stretched upon it, and the vessels gradually brought nearer each other. When nearly in contact the suspicions of the enemy appeared to be aroused, and the cry of “Americanos!” resounded through the ship. In a moment we were near enough, and the order “Board!” was given; and with this cry our men were soon on the decks of the frigate. The surprise had been complete; there was no time for any preparation, and the enemy made scarcely a show of resistance. A few were killed, one was made prisoner, and the remainder leaped overboard and probably reached their cruisers which were anchored near the ship. In less than twenty minutes the ship had been carried, the combustibles distributed and set on fire, and all our party again on board the ketch. By great exertions, the two vessels were separated before the fire, which pouring from the ports of the ship, enveloped the ketch also.
Up to this time the ships and batteries of the enemy had remained silent, but they were now prepared to act; and when the crew of the ketch gave three cheers in exultation of their success, they received the return of a general discharge from the enemy. The confusion of the moment probably prevented much care in their direction, and, though under the fire of nearly a hundred pieces for half an hour, the only shot which struck the ketch was one through the topgallant sail. We were in greater danger from the ship, whose broadside commanded the passage by which we were retreating, and whose guns were loaded and were discharged as they became heated. We escaped these also, and while urging the ketch onwards with sweeps, the crew was commenting upon the beauty of the spray thrown up by the shot between us and the brilliant light of the ship, rather than cal culating any danger that might be apprehended from the contact. The appearance of the ship was indeed magnificent. The flames in the interior illuminated her ports and, ascending her rigging and masts, formed columns of fire, which, meeting the tops, were reflected into beautiful capitals; whilst the occasional discharge of her guns gave an idea of some directing spirit within her. The walls of the city and its batteries, and the masts and rigging of cruisers at anchor, brilliantly illuminated, and animated by the discharge of artillery, formed worthy adjuncts and an appropriate background to the picture. Favored by a light breeze our exertions soon carried us beyond the range of their shot, and at the entrance of the harbor we met the boats of the Siren, which had been intended to cooperate with us, whose crews rejoiced at our success, whilst they grieved at not having been able to participate in it.
The plan of attack prescribed by our commander was for united action to obtain possession of the ship, with the exception of a boat to intercept communication to the shore, and for the surgeon and a few men to secure the ketch to the ship. When possession was secured, each lieutenant, with a midshipman and specified men, was to receive a portion of the prepared combustibles, and distribute them in designated parts of the berth-deck and in the forward storerooms, and a smaller part under a midshipman to do the same in the cockpit, and there await orders to set fire, that all might be done at the same time and give all a chance for safe retreat. The party for the cockpit was assigned to my charge. My object in keeping near Lieutenant Decatur, when we were approaching the ship, was that by watching his actions, I could be governed by these rather than by his orders when the boarding should take place. It was well that this course was taken for Decatur had leaped to the main chain plates of the frigate, before the order to board was given, I had leaped with him, and, probably more favored by circumstances, was able to reach the deck by the time he had gained the rail. The enemy was already leaping over the opposite side and made no resistance; but Decatur, under the supposition that he was first on board, was about to strike me, when I accidentally turned and stayed his uplifted arm by the watchword and mutual recognition. On the way to my station, after examining the cabin, and when
passing forward, we met again under similar circumstances. Passing through the wardroom, which I found deserted, I awaited in the cockpit the men who had gone for the combustibles. These were so delayed that we had none when the order was given to set fire; but, as they came a moment after, they were distributed, and fire communicated before we left our station. In the meantime the fire on the deck above us had communicated so rapidly that it was with no small difficulty and danger that our party reached the spar-deck by the forward hatchways. All the others had already rejoined the ketch, except Decatur, who remained on the rail till all the others were on board; and the bow of the ketch had already swung off from the ship when he joined us by leaping into the rigging of the ketch.
The above account of the burning of the Philadelphia is of paramount interest when viewed in relation to our narrative because it makes a definite reference to Dr. Heermann’s connection with this exploit. In describing the “plan of attack” the surgeon’s duties are plainly specified, and the surgeon was none other than Heermann. We are fortunate in securing an additional verification of the association of Heermann with Decatur upon this occasion. This is to be found in the historical publication dealing with the Navy which appeared from the pen of Charles W. Goldsborough in the year 1824.
Soon after the outfit of the ketch Intrepid had been commenced by Lieutenant Lawrence, under the direction of Lieutenant Decatur, the latter informed Dr. Heermann, in confidence, of the object and destination of the vessel, and desired an official report from him of any officers or men on board the United States’ schooner Enterprise (under Decatur’s command) who from physical causes, or from frequent liability to indisposition, might be unfit to accompany such an expedition; as he desired only young and active men, who could be fully depended on when wanted. “The brig Siren,” he continued, “is intended to accompany us, to give succour, if required, and cover our retreat, if necessary. I shall want you, Doctor, to go with me; but before I go into the harbor, I shall put you on board the brig.” Dr. Heermann replied that he felt himself bound to submit to any arrangement that might be made; but could not refrain from expressing an earnest wish that he might be permitted to accompany the expedition into the harbor, where, in his opinion, his professional services might be most useful. Lieutenant Decatur discouraged this idea, observing “the expedition is of a character altogether too dangerous to expose a surgeon; and suppose, Sir, you should be killed or wounded, it would reflect on me.” The doctor persevering in his application, replied: “My life, Sir, is not more valuable than that of any of the other brave officers and men who are to accompany you; and should I be killed or wounded, the officers and crew would be as well provided for after their achievement by Dr. Marshall alone, as by him and myself united. Again, Sir, allow me to observe, with all due deference to your better judgment, and with a perfect consciousness of the bravery of your officers and men who have volunteered to accompany you on this expedition, that the presence of a professional man to assist the wounded, might save many valuable lives, which may be sacrificed from loss of blood, for the want of a surgeon, conversant with the most effectual means of staunching it, and will not sailors more regardlessly expose themselves, when they know that professional aid is near at hand? Should you have many wounded, would not some confusion arise, to impair your effective force?” To all which Lieutenant Decatur replied: “Well then, Doctor, you may go with me; but be sure that you get into a place of safety on board the vessel in the moment of danger.” The doctor replied: “I am under high obligations to you, Sir, and shall consider the permission you have given me to go in the ketch as an order.” A day or two before the expedition was undertaken Lieutenant Decatur, who found the doctor by no means disposed to seek a place of safety in the moment of danger, observed to him: “Doctor, the Intrepid is a mere shell, and can afford you no place of safety. In the distribution of my officers to different parts of the ship, I find that I fall short, and cannot spare any one in whom I have entire confidence, to command the ketch while we board the frigate. I shall leave her in your charge with seven men, and as the enemy, when pressed hard, will be apt to retreat from the spar deck and board the ketch from the gun
ports of the frigate, and as boats may be sent from the shore to their assistance, your safety will consist in giving no quarter. Should you be attacked by boats, send me the earliest notice; and, as the preservation of the ketch may depend, in a great measure, upon the successful issue of the expedition, I shall expect of you, at all events, to defend her to the last man. When the ship is taken, you will station your lookouts fore and aft and see that the combustibles, on being required from the ketch, are transferred with the utmost expedition and in good order: and if it should be necessary to defend the ship, you will have arms and ammunition in readiness for the occasion.”
These orders were faithfully executed by the gallant doctor. Near the close of the scene, a Turk jumped on board the ketch, from the gun deck of the ship; but as he was severely w’ounded, and the motive for taking no prisoners no longer existed, the doctor spared his life, and was applauded for it by his commander7.
After getting clear of the Philadelphia, the Intrepid joined the Siren and the two vessels lay near each other for about an hour, when a strong and favorable breeze sprang up, and they sailed for Syracuse, which port they reached, February 19, 1804. Here the party was received with salutes and congratulations by both the Americans and Sicilians. The latter were also at war with Tripoli at this time. The success of this enterprise added much to the prestige and reputation of the Navy both at home and abroad. Great credit was due to those who planned it and to Lieutenant Decatur and his associates who volunteered to execute it. Decatur’s resourcefulness, coolness, self-possession and intrepidity contributed in a large degree to its success.
7 Goldsborough, Charles W. U. S. Naval Chronicle, 1824, p. 257. Charles W. Goldsborough was for many years chief clerk of the Navy Department. Goldsborough’s connection with the Navy Department continued over a period of forty-four years. He was chief clerk under Secretaries of the Navy Stoddert, Smith, and Hamilton, and Secretary of the Navy Board of Commissioners until the separate Bureaus were established, when he was appointed chief of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, the first individual to hold that office. On the return of the Intrepid and the Siren to Syracuse, the officers resumed their former duties. The vessels of the squadron by turns blockaded Tripoli and spent short periods of time at Syracuse. Commodore Preble, in the Vixen, visited Malta in January to arrange for sending letters and supplies to Bainbridge. He and his officers were shown much attention by officers of the British Navy and Army there, and formed a pleasant acquaintance with Sir Alexander Ball, the Governor of Malta. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet, was secretary to the governor, and it is not unlikely that the visiting officers met Coleridge at this time. On August 3, 1804, preparations for an assault on the Tripolitan fortifications having been completed, the force under Decatur and Somers launched a successful attack against the enemy gunboats, capturing three. On the 7th of August an attack was made on the town by the bomb vessels and gunboats. There is no direct evidence that Dr. Heermann was present during these operations, but it is presumed that he was, and that he contributed his share of service toward their success. About this time the frigate, John Adams, arrived from the United States. She brought a captain’s commission for Lieutenant Decatur as part of his reward for destroying the Philadelphia. As there was no appropriate ship for him in his new rank he continued in command of the gunboats and Heermann remained with him. Commodore Samuel Barron shortly afterwards relieved Commodore Preble and on the 3rd of September another bombardment of Tripoli was made. On the following day Lieutenants Somers and Wadsworth, and Midshipman Israel and their associates lost their lives in the gallant attempt to damage the enemy by blowing up the Intrepid. This vessel was piloted in, well charged with explosives, with the idea of doing damage to the fortifications or to enemy ships by blowing her up near them, the officers and crew to escape in boats after lighting the powder trains. The maneuver failed. It is
supposed that the explosion was premature and accidental. All the personnel on board perished and the exact circumstances of the disaster are a mystery to this day.
The season was now too far advanced for further operations off Tripoli, and a large proportion of time during the winter was idly and unprofitably spent in Syracuse, where, apparently, there were few objects of interest or means of rational enjoyment. For several weeks during this season Washington Irving was a guest in the wardroom mess of the President, and it is possible that Dr. Heermann may then have met the man who later became the celebrated author. On May 23, 1805, Commodore Barron was relieved by Commodore Rodgers, and on the 3rd of June, a peace was concluded with Tripoli by Colonel Tobias Lear, who had been authorized to negotiate by President Jefferson.
Shortly after the Treaty with Tripoli was signed, Commodore Barron returned to the United States in the frigate, President, so that the wardroom mess had twenty-two officers, an unusual number for the accommodations of a single ship of those days. Having so many unemployed persons in the mess, the officers of the President apprehending inconvenience from late evening sittings, requested and obtained an order requiring that lights should be extinguished and quiet observed in the wardroom after ten o’clock. This was the origin of a practice which was soon adopted in the service as a general rule and it has persisted to the present day, although not always uniformly observed.
An official communication indicates that Dr. Heermann arrived home at Norfolk in November, 1805, and that he had been promoted to the grade of surgeon in the Navy.
Norfolk, November 14, 1805. Sir:
I have the honor to report to you my arrival in this place on board the U. S. frigate, Congress, domestic occurrences having compelled me to solicit from the Commander-in- chief in the Mediterranean a return to the United States. As there was no surgeon’s mate attached to the Congress I volunteered my services to Dr. Wells and shall continue to assist him until honored with your orders. I wait for your permission to make my respects in person and proffer on this occasion my thanks for the confidence you have been pleased to repose in me by sending me a surgeon’s commission.
With sentiments of profound respect I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obt. & humble svt.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble,
Robert Smith,
Secretary of the Navy.
How Doctor Heermann employed his time in the interval immediately following his return to the United States does not appear from any available records. Apparently animated by a desire to improve himself professionally, and broaden his outlook on life by travel and observation, after the lapse of a few months, we find him writing to the secretary of the Navy as follows:
Norfolk, June 26, 1806.
Sir:
Emboldened with the pleasing hope that you will pardon my intrusion on you, and the request that accompanies it, I have ventured to entreat your leave for absenting myself from the service and the United States for the space of eighteen months. It is my attention to profit during that period by attending the hospitals in Europe in order to obtain that improvement which those seminaries offer to professional men, and which is so necessary to the officers who devote their services to their country. I decline to comment on the advantages arising from such indulgences; your zeal for the department over which you preside makes it unnecessary. Suffer me then to hope for your sanction to this application; and I have the
honor to be with sentiments of profound respect,
Sir,
Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann.
Robert Smith, Secretary of the United States Navy.
That this request was granted we know for well in advance of the expiration of leave abroad, he writes again to the secretary soliciting orders for a return to the United States. This letter of request, however, does not show that he is overanxious to abandon his studies in Europe and in a subsequent correspondence we learn that his leave was extended for another year:
London, October 20, 1807.
Sir:
A zealous desire to fulfill my duty preponderating over self-interest and the advantages that are offered to me in a professional point of view impells me to solicit your orders for my immediate return to the United States if the nature of the service is likely to demand my presence before the expiration of my present furlough.
No consideration would induce me to relinquish these advantages but an apprehension of leaving a void in the obligations that are imposed on me as an officer.
And should this liberty of importuning you, Sir, not correspond strictly with the rules of propriety, I can only hope from your goodness that the motives for taking it will be permitted to plead my excuse and by their intercession to obtain your pardon.
I have the honor to be with the greatest respect, Sir,
Your very obt. & humble svt.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble,
Robert Smith,
Secretary of the United States Navy.
London, May 11, 1808.
Sir:
The short stay of the Osage in this country having disappointed my hopes of returning in her to the United States, I conceive it my duty to take advantage of the first opportunity that offers, and shall take passage accordingly in the ship, Union, which is expected to sail on the 20th instant for New York.
The impossibility of conveying my baggage to Falmouth in due time and a scarcity of vessels for the United States will exculpate me, I hope, from a very probable, but slight transgression on the very indulgent furlough with which you have condescended to favor me.
I have the honor to be with the greatest respect,
Your very obt. & humble svt.
Lewis Heermann. The Honble, Robert Smith,
Secretary of the United States Navy.
From now on the story of Dr. Heerman’s activities in the Navy, the incidents of his residence in Norfolk, later of his travels between New Orleans where he was on duty for many years and New Haven where he had placed his children to be educated, and finally of his last cruise in the Mediterranean, must be obtained almost entirely from official correspondence. Fortunately for the success of our narrative, his letters, as official letters, are more elaborate of detail than the average modern letter of this character. They often contain references of a personal nature, which give a reflection of the writer’s character and indicate the nature of his many interests, some wholly unconnected with his naval duties.
New York, August 3, 1808. Sir:
I honor myself by reporting to you my return from Europe and beg that you will not upbraid me for a deviation from exactness, since no exertion of mine could have contributed to my earlier arrival and the slightest lapse of this kind is in itself mortifying to an officer.
The opportunity, Sir, you have given me of adding to my professional information will ever be remembered by me with most grateful acknowledgment, and I hope that the intention of your valued favor will not be disappointed in the discharge of my duty.
I purpose to await your orders in this city and in failure of receiving them by the return mail, I shall proceed to Norfolk where I reside.
I am with the most distinguished respect, Sir, Your very obt. and humble svt.
Lewis Heermann. (Address to
Doctor J. A. Smith,8 Professor of Anatomy, 18 Robinson St.,
New York.)
The Honble Robert Smith, etc., etc.
Norfolk, August 22, 1808.
Sir:
Not having been honored with any orders from you in answer to my report of the 3rd instant, and finding the surgeoncy of the navy yard at Gosport vacated by the departure of Dr. Cowdery in the Argus, I beg leave to offer my services, and shall conceive myself particularly obliged by your orders to join this station.
With sentiments of profound respect, Sir, Your very obt. and humble svt.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble,
Robert Smith.
Norfolk, November 18, 1808.
Sir:
Having been informed by some of the officers that during my’stay in England a second requisition has been made on them towards the payment of the naval monument erected in Washington, I take the liberty to request that you will have charged against my account the additional amount then required.
I also acknowledge to you, Sir, my obligation for your attention in having remitted to me my commission and since it was not accompanied by a letter from the honorable secretary I have not acknowledged to him the receipt of it.
Permit me to assure you of my esteem and I have the honor to be
Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann.
Charles W. Goldsborough, Esq., Washington, D. C.
8 Smith, John Augustine. Lecturer on anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. This college was established in the year 1807. Prof. Smith was made professor of anatomy and surgery in 1808, and professor of anatomy, surgery, and physiology in 1811. The letter just quoted contains a reference to the naval monument which was erected' as a memorial to those who fell in the Tripolitan War and which is now known as the Tripolitan Monument. The history of this monument is of interest.
Largely through the influence of Captain David Porter a subscription was started in the Mediterranean Fleet towards the end of the Tripolitan War, and when some three thousand dollars had been raised he was authorized to contract for a suitable monument to be erected to the memory of the six officers who had lost their lives during that war.
Accordingly, Porter took advantage of a visit of the squadron to the Italian coast to make arrangements with a sculptor named Micali of Leghorn for the design and execution of the memorial for the sum of about three thousand dollars. About the time the work was finished the U. S. S. Constitution was ready to sail for the United States and permission having been given for its transportation, the monument was crated and placed on board that distinguished vessel in the fall of 1807. The crated memorial was landed at Newport, R. I., and transhipped by another vessel to Washington where it was landed unceremoniously at the Navy Yard9 after Congress had refused to admit it free of duty.
The placing of the monument was entrusted to Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who was at that time the civil engineer of the Navy Department, as well as surveyor of public buildings in the District of Columbia. Writing of the monument he said:
On its arrival, it became a question where it should be erected. The Capitol of the United States was pointed out as the proper place. But the unfinished state of that building and the size of the monument were objections. However, Congress was appealed to for the sum of a thousand dollars to defray the expenses
9 The National Intelligencer of Monday, February 8, 1808, stated that: “The monument to be erected to the memory of officers who fell in the Mediterranean has arrived and is now at the navy yard.”
of putting it up. The application, though renewed in various shapes, proved altogether vain. The idea of placing it in the Capitol of course was given up and the navy yard, originally considered the most proper situation, was chosen. To defray the expense of its erection, which could not be much less than eight hundred dollars, a further subscription by officers of the Navy was also made to which other citizens contributed, the Navy Department also gave every aid and facility to the work which could legally be afforded and in the year, 1808, the monument was placed where it now stands fat the time Latrobe was writing], the principal object of view to all those who enter the yard either by land or water.
The monument stood immediately inside the main gate of the yard flanked by two captured bronze guns. In 1814 it was mutilated by British marines who formed part of the expedition which destroyed so much public property in Washington during the short period of the city’s occupation by the enemy.
A quarter of a century after its erection in the yard, the question of its removal to the Capitol grounds was again considered.
It must be gratifying to our fellow citizens to learn that the beautiful monument in the Navy Yard ... is now undergoing a complete repair. The mutilated and destroyed ornaments are to be replaced, and the whole is to be removed and fixed upon the oval plot of ground on the upper glacis immediately west of the Capitol. It will there form an object of more conspicuous interest than in its former situation, and will, besides, add much to the beauty of the edifice.10
The second session of the twenty-first Congress appropriated the sum of twenty- one hundred dollars for the removal of the monument (1831) which in 1808 they had refused to admit free of duty and for which they had declined to appropriate the cost of its erection.
When the transfer of the memorial to its new site was completed the monument stood just west of the west wing of the Capitol and was placed in the midst of an oval basin
10 United States Weekly Telegraph, May 12, 1831. containing water running in from a large pool nearby in which swam numerous goldfish. The basin which was of freestone was surrounded by an iron railing and was ornamented by shrubbery. It appears that as time went on the monument with its limpid pool, shrubbery and goldfish was neglected and allowed to become bedraggled in appearance for we learn of Captain Porter’s disgust and bitter comments when he returned to the United States from a cruise and found the monument removed from the Navy Yard. In some correspondence concerning it he remarks: “And, to cap the climax of absurdity, the naval monument had, as an evil omen, I presume, been placed in a small circular pond of dirty fresh-water, not large enough for a duck paddle to represent the Mediterranean Sea.”
Many people appear to have agreed with him. In 1834 Sessford in his “Annals of Washington” says: “The fountain is neat and ornamental, but too confined. The naval monument loses its effect from being so near the Capitol. Were it removed to the island in the botanic garden, properly elevated, with a sufficient sheet of water around it, it would be seen to more advantage.”
Probably all interested were gratified when it was finally determined to remove the monument to the grounds of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. In i860 it was once more taken down, crated, and placed on board a vessel at the navy yard for transportation to Annapolis. In November of that year the monument reached a place where it was welcome and where in the congenial atmosphere of the Naval Academy we trust it will abide undisturbed. It stands today between the Officers’ Mess and Sampson Hall.
It is regrettable that no additional record of Dr. Heermann’s observations while abroad in 1806-08 can be found. None of his papers in the hands of living descendents in this country contain information of this period of his life.
As we have seen from his letters to the secretary of the navy written immediately after his return from Europe, Dr. Heermann traveled from New York to Norfolk, Va., where some members of his family resided. On his arrival he made a request for duty in that locality. That this request was granted is apparent from succeeding correspondence from which we establish the period of his residence in Norfolk to August, 1811, when he was transferred to New Orleans, La.
As we may judge from Dr. Heermann’s correspondence with the department during his tour of duty in Norfolk, he was one of those who early appreciated the advantages to be derived from the establishment of naval hospitals in the principal ports along the Atlantic coast.
Congress passed a law establishing naval hospitals on February 26, 1811. However, much before that date provision had been made for the treatment of the sick and disabled seamen of both the navy and merchant service. Following the War of Independence, the number of American seamen had become so great that Congress passed an act for the relief of the many sick and disabled among them. By this act, twenty cents per month were deducted from the wages of each seaman in a merchant vessel of the United States, the directors were appointed at the various ports to administer the money so collected as a hospital fund. This was the beginning of the Marine Hospital Service, under which disabled seamen could find refuge in certain civil hospitals designated by the directors. On March 2, 1799, the act was extended so as to embrace the naval service, the Secretary of the Navy being authorized to deduct twenty cents each month from the pay of every officer, seaman, and marine. The benefits and advantages were to be the same as those accorded to the crews of merchant vessels of the United States.
However, as may be seen from Dr. Heermann’s letters, it was soon apparent that the Navy could not, without many disadvantages, depend upon civil hospitals for the treatment of its sick. The men passed from the control of their officers, lingered in these hospitals for considerable periods and in many instances finally disappeared. Such men as Heermann, Barton11 and Cutbush soon became of the opinion that the good of the naval service demanded that it should have its own hospitals and it was largely through the efforts of these men that the act of February 26, 1811, creating naval hospitals, was passed.
Norfolk, January 19, 1810. Sir:
Flattering myself that no request will be deemed officious which tends to greater perfection of our naval service, I have prevailed upon myself to address you on the subject of hospitals. The inconveniences arising from a want of them have been so frequently felt that the utility of the very limited establishments we now have, is so universally acknowledged that upon this ground alone, I hope to be pardoned when I solicit your condescension in considering the propriety of extending the benefits of a naval hospital to this station.
The intermixture of sailors in the United States and in the merchant’s services is incompatible in many respects; and the objections of our commanders to commit their sick to the marine hospital are so numerous, that by referring to them, the defects of the original intention will readily be detected. I should do injustice to the gentlemen who superintend that hospital here, were I to make any general observations that might call their professional talents in the assiduity of performing their duties in question; I have a great regard for them; and would last of all slander them. The house that has hitherto been assigned to me for accommodating the sick of the navy yard, of the marine detachment, and of the ships and vessels that frequently rendezvous here, is too confined; and many of the comforts entirely wanting, that within a well regulated hospital are requisite; and it likewise appears
11 See “William Paul Crillon Barton, Surgeon, United States Navy, A Pioneer in American Naval Medicine,” by Captain F. L. Pleadwell, M. C., United States Navy, Annals of Medical History,
from the observations of Captain Shaw12 and Mr. Garretson (late purser on this station) that some permanent and improved system should be pursued in issuing rations to the sick in order to obviate any difficulties that might attend the settlement of the provision account of the yard. If the suggestions I have taken the liberty to make, should be worthy in your opinion of being investigated more minutely, and if my personal attendance at Washington can facilitate it, I beg to be honored with your orders to that effect.
Dr. Blair,13 who has offered himself to deliver this letter, presents himself as a candidate for promotion. The correctness of his general deportment and his attention to his duty, whilst my assistant, leave no doubt in my mind that he is well qualified for a higher station.
I have the honor to be
With sentiments of the greatest respect, Sir, Your very obt. and humble Svt.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble Paul Hamilton,
Secretary of the United States Navy.
At the instance of Captain John Shaw, United States Navy, Dr. Heermann requested duty at New Orleans as may be seen from the following curious letter.
Norfolk, August 2, 1810. Sir:
Impressed with an idea that the hospital establishment at New Orleans offers a greater field for important practice, and is established on a footing more respectable and lucrative than the one I have here superintended, I have yielded to the desire of Captain Shaw and solicit your approbation to accompany him.
I should charge myself with incorrectness of conduct on this occasion were I to propose conditions to the department, and I hope that
12 Shaw, John. Born in Ireland. Appointed a lieutenant in the United States Navy, August 3, 1798; commander, May 22, 1804, captain, August 27, 1807; died at Boston, Mass., September 17, 1823.
13 Blair, Samuel. Appointed surgeon’s mate in the United States Navy, March 9, 1809. Dr. Blair terminated his connection with the navy shortly after this letter was written, probably as the result of failure to attain the promotion mentioned. His name does not appear in the Navy Register after 1809. the provisions it has already made for the superintending hospital surgeon there, renders it unnecessary in me to petition for such extra allowances in addition to the usual pay, as on comparison between that station and any other in the Atlantic States it appears requisite for the support of an officer, and the greater responsibility that is devolved on him. Independently however of pecuniary considerations, it is a duty I owe to my feelings to be informed whether in my department I shall stand uncontrolled by a senior medical officer and whether the hospital there will, with the proper assistance of a mate, be entrusted to my own management.
Flattering myself that the expectations I have formed will be found admissible I claim your indulgence and hope that they will be realized.
I have, etc.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble,
Paul Hamilton.
His request was granted and as was the custom in those days he made the journey in a sailing vessel to Louisiana Territory which had been acquired from France only seven years previously.
The New Orleans to which Lewis Heermann was introduced in the fall of 1810 was a small city of some fifteen thousand inhabitants then passing through the most romantic period of its history. Facing the Mississippi was the sun-flooded Place d’Armes and about it everything of importance was collected:the Cathedral Church of St. Louis, the convent of the Capuchins, the government house, the colonial prison and the old Spanish barracks. Immediately around the square stretched the leading shops and restaurants. On one side was the market where all manner of wares were sold.
Indeed the Place d’Armes was the religious, military, industrial, commercial and social center of the city; here the militia paraded on fete days and here even the public executions took place. Here on holidays, all the varied heterogeneous population of the town gathered; negroes of every hue; domineering river men; fiery Louisiana Creoles ready to avenge the slightest insult to their honor; babitans fresh
from Canada; plain unpretending ’Cadians from the Attakopas, arrayed in their homemade blue cottonade and redolent of the cattle they had brought to the city to sell; leisurely emigre nobles, banished to this new world for taking an indiscrete interest in the politics of France or the love affairs of their King; yellow sirens from San Domingo, speaking a soft, bastard French, and looking so Ianguishingly out of the corners of their big, black, melting eyes, that it was no wonder they led both young and old astray and caused their cold, proud sisters of pur-sang many a jealous heart ache.14
Half of the trade of the town was itinerant, and in the Place d’Armes and along the narrow streets were to be found peddling merchants, mainly Catalans and Provencals with their wares in little barrows; colored marcbandes selling callas, cakes and the sugar pralines for which in after years New Orleans was noted; the milk and coffee women carrying their stock in trade in jars well-balanced on their turbaned heads. All through the day went up the never- ceasing cry of the street vendors, from the callas tous chaud! in the early morning, to the belles cbandelles that was heard as twilight deepened, coming from the sturdy negresses who sold the only light of the poorer households, dimly-burning, ill- smelling and smoky candles, made at home from the green wax myrtle.
The houses in the principal streets were of brick, sometimes two stories in height with small, narrow balconies and corrugated roofs of red tile, but often only a story and a half with low, overhanging eves. The streets were unpaved, a wooden drain served as a gutter and the sidewalks were of wood or brick.
At the time of Dr. Heermann’s arrival, and indeed for some years afterward, the town was lighted by means of oil lamps suspended from iron brackets attached to the sides of buildings or suspended from wooden posts. The light from these tiny
14 Coleman, William H. Historical Sketchbook of New Orleans, New York, 1885. flames only penetrated a short distance and it was the custom to carry a lantern when out at night. Drinking water and that used for cooking or the washing of clothes was taken from the river and carried throughout the city for sale in hogsheads. The yellow, earthern, mosquito-breeding water jars kept in the vine-draped courtyards lent a touch of picturesqueness to the house.
The town was woefully deficient in promenades, drives and places of public amusement. The favorite promenade was the Levee with its Chemin des Tchoupitoulas along which stretched a row of Louisiana willow trees in whose shade were wooden benches upon which people sat in the afternoon, sheltered from the setting sun. Outside the town limits was the Bayou Road “with all its inconveniences of mud and dust,” leading to the small plantations forming the Gentilly district and to those of the Metairie ridge. It was the fashion to spend an hour or two in the evening on this road, riding on horseback or in carriages of more or less elegance. This was a favorite diversion of Dr. Lewis Heermann and he is said to have presented a striking appearance mounted upon a white horse which he purchased shortly after his arrival in the city.
Dr. Heermann found New Orleans to be extremely cosmopolitan. The population was increasing rapidly and the number of inhabitants had been recently augmented by French refugees from the West Indies. Of the population less than half were white. Among those not native to Louisiana were Frenchmen, Spaniards, English, Americans from the northern states, Germans, Italians, refugees from San Domingo and Martinique, emigrants from the Canaries and a number of gypsies.
The mass of the Frenchmen were small shopkeepers and cultivators of plantations; the Spaniards kept shops or drinking houses; the commercial class comprised chiefly the Americans, the English and the Irish; the Italians were fishermen, the Canary Islanders were market gardeners and sup
plied milk, chickens, and eggs; the gypsies, who led a wandering life, were nearly all musicians or dancers.
A picturesque and important portion of the floating population of the city was comprised of the Kaintocks, sturdy men who came periodically to New Orleans in flatboats, floating laboriously down the river and bringing with them produce from the banks of the Ohio and Illinois, and returning on horseback to their northern homes, by way of the river-road, after having disposed of their wares.
In Heermann’s day the steamboat had not yet arrived and flatboating was a business of immense proportions. “The flatboatman was a distinct character, like no one else in the world, and disposed to believe himself a superior being. Rough as he was, the city owed a great deal to him: He was the only medium of trade with the Northwest; and his real importance was, perhaps, not overrated even by himself.”15
The crews of the flatboats, after a passage of many weeks, during which they underwent hardships of which we know nothing in these days, were disposed to enjoy themselves at the end of their journey, and their idea of enjoyment was in harmony with their rough lives. When they came on shore they spent their money recklessly. They resented interference and were disposed to protest their rights by physical force. They had frequent battles with the authorities and many a flatboat man found his way into the old calaboose which used to stand in the Rue St. Peter.
The old Creole of Louisiana was fond of dancing which was the principal amusement of the period of which we write; he had not yet been introduced to the dissipations of the “flush times” which were to come in later years. Dr. Heermann must have been familiar with several of the ballrooms in existence then, and must have known old Jean Louis Ponton who conducted a hall for dancing on the Rue Conde between St. Anne
15 Coleman, William H. Historical Sketchbook of New Orleans, New York, 1885. and Du Maine, where the youth of the city could indulge in “the fatiguing pleasures of the contre dances of that day.”
Tradition has preserved the memory of many quarrels and affrays that originated in or were developed from Ponton’s ballroom. Some of these quarrels ended in duels with fatal results and one visiting the old cemeteries of the city today may still stumble across a few weather-worn tablets bearing the simple epitaph: Victime de I’honneur!
“To tread upon one’s toes, to brush against one or to carry off by mistake the lady with whom one was to dance, was ample grounds for a challenge.”
The cordon bleu balls were most productive of these duelling encounters. The quadroon women from whom these balls take their name, were probably the handsomest race of women in the world.
Of them and of these balls it has been written:
During the first quarter of the present century, the free quadroon caste of New Orleans was in its golden age. Earlier generations sprung, upon the one hand, from the merry gallants of a French colonial military service which had grown gross by affiliation with Spanish-American frontier life, and, upon the other hand, from comely Ethiopians culled out of the less negroidal types of African live goods, and bought at the ships’ side with vestiges of quills and cowries and copper wire still in their head-dresses, these earlier generations with scars of battle or private rencontre still on the fathers, and of servitude on the manumitted mothers, afforded a mere hint of the splendor that was to result from a survival of the fairest through seventy-five years devoted to the elimination of the black pigment and the cultivation of hyperian excellence and nym- phean grace and beauty. Nor, if we turn to the present, is the evidence much stronger which is offered by the gens de couleur whom you may see in the quadroon quarter this afternoon, with “Ichabod” legible on their murky foreheads through a vain smearing of toilet powder, dragging their chairs down to the narrow gateway of their close-fenced gardens, and staring shrinkingly at you as you pass, like a nest of yellow kittens.
But as the present century was in its second and third decade, the quadroones (for we must contrive a feminine spelling to define the strict limits of the caste as then established) came forth in splendor. Old travelers spared no terms to tell their praises, their faultlessness of feature, their perfection of form, their varied styles of beauty (for there were even Caucasian blondes among them), their fascinating manners, their sparkling vivacity, their chaste and pretty wit, their grace in the dance, their modest propriety, their taste and elegance in dress. In the gentlest and most poetic sense they were indeed the sirens of this land, where it seemed “always afternoon,” a momentary triumph of an Arcadian over a Christian civilization, so beautiful and so seductive that it became the subject of special chapters by writers of the day more original than correct as social philosophers.
The balls that were gotten up for them by the male pur-sang were to that day what the carnival is to the present. Society balls given the same nights proved failures through the coincidence. The magnates of government, municipal, state, federal, those of the army, of the learned professions and of the clubs; in short, the white male aristocracy in every thing save the ecclesiastical desk, were there. Tickets were high-priced to insure the exclusion of the vulgar. No distinguished stranger was allowed to miss them. They were beautiful! They were clad in silken extenuations from the throat to the feet, and wore, withal, a pathos in their charm that gave them a family likeness to innocence.16
Among writers who have dealt with old New Orleans, George W. Cable andLafcadio Hearn have both left us charming descriptions of the place and its inhabitants. The originals of the characters which appear in the pages of these two gifted authors were, in Dr. Heermann’s time, living men and women and he must have known them.
There was Bras Coupe, he of the one arm, who used to lead the negroes on Sunday afternoons through their strange, wild, jungle dances in Congo Square; Pere Antoine, “a good and benevolent and saintly man”
16 Cable, George W. Old Creole Days, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1879. who died in 1829 and who “during the forty or fifty years he lived in New Orleans, must have baptized, married and buried two-thirds of the persons who were born, married and died there in that time.” There was crippled Thiot who kept a little cafe on the Rue St. Philip between Chartres and the old Levee where a delectable beverage known as “Ie petit Gauave” was dispensed; Dominique You, the corsair of the Gulf, the terror of the Carribean Sea, whose pompous epitaph today adorns a mausoleum in the old St. Louis Cemetery; Jean Baptiste Sauvinet, the banker of the Brothers Lafitte; Jean Victor Moreau, the hero of Hohenlinden and an emigre of the ancien regime; Cadet, the baker, who used to be Pere Antoine’s purveyor of bread for the poor; Jean Gravier the owner of the tract of land which became the Faubourg St. Marie, and who died a pauper; Monsieur Raffignac, the Mayor par excellence of New Orleans; Jean Louis Chabert, “Docteur de la Faculte de Montpellier; ancien medecin ordinaire des Armees Fran^aises” who in 1821 published his “Reflexions Medicales sur La Maladie Spasmodico-Lipyrienne des Pays Chaud, vulgairement appelee Fievre Jaune”; John McDonogh; Madam de Pontalba; Judah Touro; General Jean Robert Marie Humbert; Claiborne, the first governor, and a host of others.
When Lewis Heermann first came to New Orleans the market on the Levee near the Place d’Armes, the Cathedral of St. Louis facing the river, the Ursuline Convent on the Rue d’Armes, the Cathedral of St. Louis facing the river, the Ursuline Convent on the Rue Chartres and the Spanish Barracks on the Rue Royal had already acquired a respectable age and many of the little cafes of the place even then had attained a certain reputation.
It is not at all improbable that he became quite familiar with La Bourse de Maspero of which some one has written:
Take any bright September morning . . . before the day of hotels, with a fresh south wind blowing across the river, dashing the spray
on the hugh flatboats lying along the Levee, and frisking the tails of the little Creole ponies like pennants, as they pranced along the city front—take such a morning, and about eleven o’clock drop in at the corner of St. Louis and Chartres Streets. Then it was only a two story building, with a front on Chartres Street, and running down St. Louis Street about ninety feet. A large and elegantly fitted up cafe occupied the lower floor, the full length of the building, and about the large room were scattered a score or so of little tables with their complement of chairs. This was “La Bourse de Maspero,” or as the Americans called it, “Maspero’s Exchange,” and thither at this hour most of the commercial and professional men gathered daily. Playing dominos at the different tables were the sons of the old Creole planters in the city on a visit, sipping their claret and ice as they drew for the double six. There over in one corner was a sort of private circle. This was the press. Those assembled there were the editors of the Louisiana Advertiser, Mercantile Advertiser, St. Rome's Courrier de la Louisiane, the Argus and the Bee. The mail then was distributed only at eleven o’clock at night, necessitating the postponement of closing up the newspaper forms until that hour, and it was the next morning that the gentlemen of the quill would meet to discuss the late hurricanes or the affairs in Europe, then twenty days old. Lounging about, picking up here and there bits of knowledge about cane prospects and the condition of the indigo, were the merchants all congregated at Maspero’s. When the conversation on crops weakened, politics were taken up.
Many were the duels, the preliminaries of which were arranged here, and many a jovial guest has taken his glass of eau sucree over that counter to go out to greet the morning sun with the flashing of his rapier. It was an uncommon thing in those days for a week to pass without some little event of this kind occurring and it was at Maspero’s that old enemies met after their sword practice to shake hands and wipe off old scores with a bottle of wine.17
It is quite likely also that Dr. Fleermann sometimes stepped into the Cafe des Refu- gies which stood on the corner of the Rue St. Anne and the Rue Royale. Perchance,
17 Coleman, William H. Historical Sketchbook of New Orleans, New York, 1885. he was acquainted with the old “Cafe des Exiles” which stood on that street of romance, the Rue Burgundy, “an antiquated story and a half Creole cottage sitting right down on the banquette, as do the Choctaw squaws who sell bay and sassafras and life-everlasting,” and on his professional rounds he must often have seen the following:
The unpretentious portals of the old cafe, with her children for such those exiles seemed . . . dragging their rocking-chairs out, and sitting in their wonted group under the long, outreaching eaves which shaded the banquette of the Rue Burgundy ... As its white- curtained, glazed doors expanded, emitting a little puff of [the host’s] cigarette smoke, it was like the bursting of catalpa blossoms, and the exiles came like bees, pushing into the tiny room to sip its rich variety of tropical sirups, its lemonades, its orangeades, its orgeats, its barley-waters, and its outlandish wines, while they talked of dear home, that is to say, of Barbadoes, of Martinique, of San Domingo and of Cuba.18
On his arrival at his new station, Lewis Heermann found himself the senior medical officer of the federal government in New Orleans and he immediately became busy with the affairs of his office. Soon after establishing a residence he purchased a very desirable property facing the Levee (then called the Promenade Publique) between the Rue de la Paix and the Rue de Caza- Calvo which he fitted up for hospital purposes. Up to that time those who had been taken sick in the Navy had been treated in dilapidated quarters in the Faubourg de la Course, and as the owner of these buildings persistently refused to make necessary repairs, Dr. Heermann rented his recently acquired property to the Government for the sum of one hundred and forty dollars a month and installed the sick under his care in the buildings upon it. This property was used as a hospital site for some years. In fact in the first directory of New Orleans
18 Cable, George W. Old Creole Days, New York, 1879.
which appeared in 1822, it is spoken of as the Naval Hospital.
It appears that in addition to the hospital property Dr. Heermann purchased sundry negroes which he hired out to the Government as hospital servants. Furthermore, he seems to have engaged in a certain traffic in drugs and to have sold to the Government the medicines and surgical supplies used in the hospital. As we shall see later these business enterprises resulted in an annoying investigation. It should be remembered that Dr. Heermann’s salary at this time was only “fifty dollars a month and two rations daily.” Apparently he was at first denied the privilege of private practice and it is not unnatural that he should endeavor to increase his income by any means considered legitimate at that period.
From the following letters we learn of Dr. Heermann’s status in the naval organization in New Orleans, of the yellow fever which prevailed in that city during the summer of 1811, of the extremely small pay allowed him and of his restriction from private practice.
New Orleans, August 2, 1811. ' Sir:
I am grateful for the honor I enjoy in superintending one of the most important naval hospitals, perhaps in the United States; but on taking a comparative view, it is truly desponding that the acquirement of a scientific profession at a vast expense and never ceasing toil, is so scantily remunerated as to place it in point of profit below the level of the most menial journeyman mechanic in this part of the country.
The Navy will ever be indebted to you, Sir, for your benevolent exertions to diffuse relief and comfort to the diseased seamen by erecting hospitals in several of the Atlantic States and the services to be rendered by the medical officers superintending hospitals cannot be I trust a secondary consideration. Congress, you will permit me to observe to you, has justly appreciated the importance of that office, when, in enacting a law in April, 1808, for raising for a limited time an additional military force, it has therein allowed to an Army hospital surgeon one hundred twenty-three dollars per month, independently of the usual allowance for house rent, fuel, etc. This amount, it stands confessed is not more than the actual service and the dignity of a professional man deserve; and flattering myself that the inequality of reward in the Army and Navy cannot be traced to a preponderance of professional merit, I depend upon the guardianship of the honorable secretary and pray that my pay or emolument may be augmented.
The comparatively trifling value of money at New Orleans is a prima facie evidence in itself that the small allowance of a navy surgeon simply is a very inadequate compensation for the superintendence of an extensive hospital establishment in its various branches of domestic management and of medical attendance, and, if, Sir, you will permit me to add, that by a strict confinement to the hospital, agreeably to Capt. Shaw’s orders, I am entirely exluded from the benefits of private practice, your kindness will perhaps excuse the liberty I have taken of intruding on you with my solicitations; and I humbly beg that your disposition to favor and your authority to decide will induce you to condescend to reflect on the reasonableness of my request, and to honor me with your determination on the subject.
I will not trespass on your kindness to trouble you with marked opinions, respecting the disadvantages of renting private houses for a naval hospital but having had an opportunity of late on the removal of this establishment from the Fauxbourg de la Course to the Fauxbourg Marigny, to be convinced that it is impossible to command a proper choice of local situations and of unexceptionable accommodations for a hospital, I have presumed to touch on the subject as a matter of your future consideration.
With sentiments of profound respect,
I have..............etc.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble,
Paul Hamilton.
United States Naval Hospital, New Orleans, November 28, 1811.
Sir:
The great mortality that has prevailed in this city during the last season, would have induced me to offer you a summary report of the appearance and treatment of the malignant bilious fever of this country, had not the
accidental and contemporaneous illness of the surgeons of the U. S. brig, Syren and of the marine barracks devolved on me at this time a pressure of additional duties. It gives me however much pleasure to be enabled to refer you to Dr. Evans,19 whose abilities render him in every respect competent to give the most correct information on the subject.
An entire ignorance of every officer on this station of the particulars of a law that has been passed by Congress relative to hospitals, and upon which I am directed to act by order of Capt. Shaw, obliges me to appeal to the department for that law as a guide for my official conduct.
Not having had the honor as yet to receive your answer to a duplicate letter, in which I solicited an augmentation of pay or emolument, I beg leave to repeat my solicitation and I hope that the grounds upon which I then took the liberty of advancing it, will exonerate me from your censure on the present occasion.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your very obt. and humble svt.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble’
Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the United States Navy.
The “great mortality” of 1811 which was only a forerunner of what was to come in future years, made such an impression on Dr. Heermann that he wrote two long letters to the secretary of the Navy describing the sanitary condition in New Orleans and the yellow fever as it appeared to him. His explanation of the cause of the disease was the accepted one in his day and the treatment outlined by him was that in general use. Unfortunately the length of these letters precludes their publication in an article of this sort.
At the time of which we are writing, the pay and allowances of naval officers appears to have been determined to some extent
19 Dr. Amos A. Evans, born in Maryland, was appointed surgeon’s mate, September i, 1808, surgeon, April 20, 1810. He served on the U. S. S. Independence during the years 1815-16, and at the marine barracks, Charleston, Mass., until 1819, when he was placed on furlough. He remained in this status until April 15, 1824, when his resignation was accepted. by the nature of the duty performed by them. The following two letters indicate the dissatisfaction which existed, at least on the part of Dr. Heermann, with this arrangement and record his attempt to secure greater remuneration for medical officers entrusted with the responsibility of hospital management.
New Orleans, March 22, 1812. Sir:
I am highly sensible of the great difficulties the department encounters from importuning petitions on various subjects; but doubts having arisen in my mind of the safe arrival by mail of a duplicate letter, addressed to you, Sir, I have presumed to inclose a duplicate extract of the same, and to which I solicit the favour of your attention as the broad basis of my request.
In justification of the liberty I take on the present occasion, I beg leave to advance (upon the authenticity of the information of officers) that the amount of pay and emoluments received by Drs. Marshall20 and Ewell21 far exceed the fifty dollars and two rations a day, that I have been restricted to whilst in a similar situation. On investigating also the privileges of every other class of officers, it may not be improper to observe, that a naval officer or marine staff and subaltern officer whilst entrusted with a detached command on shore, is entitled to double rations; a commissioned sea lieutenant, commanding a gunboat only, to an addition of pay and a ration, and a midshipman to the pay and rations of a master; whereas the surgeon, whether inexperienced and directly
20 Samuel R. Marshall was born in Pennsylvania and was appointed surgeon’s mate, May 14, 1799, surgeon, January 16, 1800. Early navy registers show that he was in charge of the naval hospital at New York from 1814 to the date of his death, May20,1828.
21 Thomas Ewell was born May 22, 1785, at Belle Air, Prince George County, Va. and died there May 1, 1826, on his farm. He was the son of Col. Jesse Ewell and brother of Dr. James Ewell. He began to study medicine with Dr. Weems of Georgetown, D. C. and graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania in 1805, with a thesis “The Stomach and Its Secretions.” He began the practice of medicine in Washington and married Elizabeth, daughter of the Hon. Benjamin Stoddert of Maryland, then secretary of the Navy. Appointed a surgeon in the Navy on January 16, 1808, he was stationed at the navy yard, Washington, remaining
subordinate, or whether elevated from the requisite qualifications to the superintendence of a hospital and on a footing in point of discretionary power and responsibility of office, with a distinct command, is deprived of those advantages.
I do not exaggerate Sir, when I assure you that the multifarious duties, I am called upon to perform in the city, on the river, at Bayou St. John and beyond the sphere of the hospital are actually more arduous than that of any two surgeons on this station; and that these calls and excursions are attended occasionally with pecuniary disbursements, and have subjected me to considerable losses.
In confidence of the zeal you have manifested for the naval service, I am suffered to hope for a favourable disquisition on the merits of my request. And I have the honor to be with sentiments of profound respect,
Sir,
Your very obt. and humble svt.
Lewis Heermann.
Having no hesitancy in writing to the secretary of the navy regarding affairs which concerned the naval surgeon, it is regrettable that Dr. Heermann did not write of his experiences on the “glorious eighth of January, 1814.” when the nondescript forces under Andrew Jackson successfully repelled the veteran British troops which had attempted to invade the quiet precincts of New Orleans. He is silent on this great event. That he took part in the defense of there until he resigned on May 5, 1813, to enter private practice in Washington. He was the author of a volume on “Domestic Medicine” which was popular in its day. In one edition of this work, Dr. Ewell incorporated a vivid description of the Battle of Bladensburg in which he took part. At the time of the battle he lived in a house located on the site of the Congressional Library. In this house after the battle he established a temporary hospital. Later he built a residence at No. 14 Jackson Place, which still may be seen overlooking Lafayette Square. Correspondence on file in the navy department shows that he was interested at one time in the manufacture of gun-powder for the government. It is said that he was the first to use ice internally in dysentery. In 1820 he tried to have a general hospital established in Washington but could not raise the necessary funds. New Orleans and that General Jackson used his house as headquarters we know from certain of Dr. Heermann’s letters.
Dr. Heermann was not a writer for publication. In fact only one of his literary efforts has come down to us in print. In the Library of the Surgeon-General of the Army in Washington, D. C., reposes a small pamphlet entitled “Directions for the Medicine Chest” prepared by Lewis Heermann, New Orleans, printed by John Mowry and
Purges,” “Suppurative Ointment” and the lancet have prominent places.
Then follow “Directions,” etc., lor the use of the various medicaments, covering some twenty pages, followed by fifteen pages devoted to treatment of prominent diseases, in which the medicines previously mentioned J^are ^referred to by number.
The technique of bleeding is carefully described, and bleeding holds a prominent position in treatment of the conditions
Co., 1811. On the flyleaf in the handwriting of Dr. Heermann is the following:
To the Honble Paul Hamilton,
Secretary of the United States Navy.
The following sheets, intended for the use of the gunboat service on the New Orleans station are presented, with sentiments of the most distinguished respect and the highest consideration,
By the Author.
Turning the pages we note an “Index of Diseases” and “Contents of the Chest.” About fifty items are mentioned among which “Pewter P. Syringes,” “Ipecac Vomit,” “Cooling Powder,” “Spanish Flies,” “Toothache Tincture,” “Calomel
mentioned in the pamphlet. The value of the lancet is stressed particularly in the following conditions:
Apoplexy, immediate and large bloodletting; spitting of blood, if the quantity lost has not reduced too much the pulse and strength of the patient, bleed; convulsions, bloodletting in sufficient quantity; cough and cold, according to the degree of illness, bleed and purge; dysentery or flux, whenever the pulse is full and hard, and the skin feverish, immediate bleeding is sure to give relief; St. Anthony’s Fire, if the pulse is full and hard, bleed; eyes inflamed, if necessary, bleed; fever, inflammatory, bloodletting of a pint or more gives uniformly relief at the onset of the disease; fever, remitting or bilious, a full and hard pulse in the commencement of the fever imperiously demands the interposition of the lancet; headache, if from foul stomach, puke; if from too great a fulness of blood, bleed; head, injuries of, bleed largely and repeatedly, etc.
The following letter indicates that a copy of this pamphlet was also presented to Benjamin W. Crowninshield who in December, 1814 succeeded Paul Hamilton as secretary of the Navy.
New Orleans, June 8, 1815. Sir:
In honoring myself to tender to your acceptance the accompanying pamphlet, I hold in view the uniform interest you have testified for the welfare of the Naval service; and although the “Directions for a Medicine Chest” is an essay too limited to claim particular attention, the utility in a local point of view is obvious on this station, where small vessels are often and necessarily detached on separate service, without the advantage of medical and chirurgical assistance.
Dr. Barnwell,22 whom I have entrusted with the delivery of the same is so deserving a gentleman, that to withhold from him the mead of praise would be doing manifest injustice to his zeal as a medical officer and to his unexceptionable conduct while placed under my observation; and if an expression of his merits can aught avail in his favour I humbly beg leave to recommend him to the notice of the department.
I have the honor to be, Sir, Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann. The Honble,
Benj. W. Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy.
A singular custom of Dr. Heermann’s time was to bring the sick from the country districts to New Orleans by the physicians of the town. It is probable that much of the wealth which he accumulated in later years was the result of this practice. Coming as he clid fresh from the hospitals of Europe
22 Barnwell, William J. Appointed surgeon’s mate July 28, 1810; resigned, 1823.
he was able to compete successfully with the practitioners of the day, and, as his correspondence reveals to us, he built up an extensive consultation practice. His professional and financial success in New Orleans appears to have excited the jealousy of Surgeon Robert Morrell, United States Navy, then stationed in that city, as that gentleman on the 20th and 31st of July, 1813, addressed letters to the Navy department charging Dr. Heermann with certain financial irregularities. The secretary of the Navy caused an investigation of the charges to be made with the result that Dr. Heermann was exonerated, as we learn from the following letters which not only explain Dr. Heermann’s attitude in the affair but throw some light on business affairs in that distant day and his professional reputation.
New Orleans, December 22, 1815. Sir:
Informed of particular inquiries made by a gentleman who is attached to one of the offices of the Navy, I am led to infer that an insidious attempt has been made in this country to traduce my character. However consoling it is to my feelings to learn, that the unknown gentleman alluded to had not been infected by the baseness of his informer, it is a duty which I owe to the department and to myself, if possible to trace the source, to scan the motive, and brand with execration an attempt at intrigue with persons employed about the Navy department for the vile purpose of converting them into instruments wherewith to stab the reputation of an officer.
Owning the houses occupied as a hospital, also slaves, employed in inferior offices therein; and having furnished drugs and medicines to the Navy, are said to have rendered my character questionable.
In exoneration of any censure, that by a distortion of these several facts might possibly attach itself to me, I beg leave to show that: Official representations to Mr. Hamilton, the then secretary of the Navy, the solicitude of the several commanding officers since, on this station, and the individual exertions of the navy agent and of myself to obtain suitable houses for a hospital, having alike proved abortive, my whole attention continued riveted to the subject as all-important to the service; and determined (contrary to the advice of prudent friends) to direct my own funds into that channel rather than submit to the disadvantages, that opposed my notions of creditably conducting a hospital, I succeeded in 1813 and subsequently, in cheaply purchasing a most valuable situation, which in point of locality, salubrity and pleasantness, of internal comfort and of susceptibility of further improvement, with regard to additional accommodations, and the observance of policy could not be objected to by skepticism itself. From the delicate apprehensions of the heads of departments on this station, the hospital was not removed to this property till last April, at a moment when advantageous offers had been made me of leasing it, or of selling out at a considerable advance upon the first cost; and when the old establishment was actually no longer tenable, the landlord having uniformly resisted every importunity of completing the repairs of injuries, sustained in the memorable hurricane of 1812.
I have taken the liberty to enclose for your examination drafts of the property drawn by the city surveyor; and in adverting to the description accompanying them I trust that the honorable secretary will do me the justice to believe, that a zealous pride to promote the welfare of my department and not a covetous interest for gain has swayed my conduct.
Of the attendants employed by me in the hospital, are the cook, the carter and one orderly man. Owing to the extreme difficulty in this country of hiring good domestics for these offices, I have been much embarrassed. Their wages are precisely the same that others did receive who preceded them and would be greater if their services were disposed of in any other way.
On the subject of medical supplies, I beg leave to observe that the pecuniary advantage arising from them is small; and has in some measure been considered as an additional compensation for the extraordinary and very arduous duties of the hospital surgeon on this station. There are precedents in favour of the practice; and I have never concealed from the department this, or any other moneyed transaction I ever had with it. On the ground of being an officer, my conduct toward the Government stands doubly pledged; and conscious of the
dignity of my station at the head of my department in this section of the Union, 1 challenge the most subtle scrutiny of medical officers junior to me, to tarnish the reputation for strict integrity which 1 have invariably supported.
Mr. Smith, Navy agent, as he happily is within call of the Department will be able to dilate upon many of the circumstances touched upon; and relying also for support upon an impartial declaration, which I have solicited of Commodore Patterson,23 I fear not the shafts of malice, which self-devouring envy only can have levelled against my official standing; and against my personal respectability, daily promoted by a blameless conduct in private life, and the prosperous exercise of my profession.
I have the honor to be with sentiments of profound respect
And the highest consideration,
Sir,
Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann The Honble,
Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy.
New Orleans, December 29, 1815. Sir:
I do myself the honor to transmit enclosed herewith a letter from Dr. Lewis Heermann, Naval Hospital Surgeon of this station, the subject of which I feel it my duty as commanding officer to notice.
Dr. Heermann’s letter points out the nature of the accusation, the covert mode in which it has been preferred and the manner in which he has become acquainted with it. The motive of the author is clearly evinced by his resorting
23 Captain Daniel T. Patterson, United States Navy, was born in New York in 1781 and died in Washington August 25, 1839. He was appointed a midshipman, August 20, 1800 and was attached to the frigate, Philadelphia, when she ran upon a reef off Tripoli and was captured by the Tripolitans. Patterson remained a prisoner in Tripoli until 1805. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, January 24, 1807; master commandant, July 24, 1813 and captain, Feburary 28, 1815. He served on the board of navy commissioners from 1828 to 1832 and in command of a squadron in the Mediterranean from 1832 to 1835. In 1814 he commanded the naval forces at New Orleans, and cooperated so ably with General Jackson in the defense of that city that he received the thanks of Congress. to misrepresenting and distorting facts calculated to convey impressions prejudicial to the reputation of Dr. Heermann.
Dr. Heermann’s letter is so full and so distinctly states the facts as they really exist, and which statement I confirm in every particular, that I beg leave to refer you thereto and to the plan of the hospital which accompanies it.
But as commanding officer it becomes necessary that I should also remark upon the facts on which the accusation alluded to appears grounded, viz., his owning the houses occupied as a hospital, employing his own slaves in the inferior offices therein and supplying the Navy with drugs and medicines.
On the first, I beg leave to state that in consequence of complaints made to me of the dilapidated, unfit state of the former hospital, which I found on examination to be the case, and the landlords positively refusing to make the necessary repairs, I directed the Navy agent to endeavour to procure a suitable building for that purpose to remove to, this he endeavoured to do for a considerable time but without success, Dr. Heermann then consented to lease us his, which after finding none other suitable could be obtained for the rent offered, viz., the same which was before paid, was leased subject to the pleasure of the department, with the promise that such additions, alterations and improvements as were found necessary should be made, all which has been complied with, with the exception only of the building, marked in the plan maison projettee and which he is now preparing to erect. The advantages the service has derived from the exchange, are great and numerous and sensibly felt by the patients therein accommodated.
Whose slaves the attendants of the hospital were, or whether they were slaves, I never deemed it necessary to enquire; the surgeon, being in my opinion the most competent person to select those most suitable, was authorised to select them; I simply confined the hospital to the same number employed during the command of my predecessors which were found necessary and that their pay should be the same, but it is extremely difficult to hire persons suitable to these offices, and which difficulty has been occasioned by it, nor do I presume there can be any impropriety in hiring the slaves of an officer, to fill a place which in this country can only be filled by one, and particularly when
his are the best qualified for the office, as is the case in this instance.
On the subject of the purchase of drugs and medicines, when taking command of the station I enquired of the Navy agent, who informed me that he procured them of Dr. Heermann, and had done so since his first arrival here, and with the sanction of my predecessors, and also that he furnished those articles at a more moderate price and of a better quality than he could procure them elsewhere and that as Dr. Heermann was the only person he could call upon for advice on the subject it was judged in every respect most advisable to procure them from him, which for these reasons I sanctioned, and as the Navy agent alone is authorised to make the purchase of the various articles required, I have never attempted to control him.
I have thus, Sir, stated the facts which are known to me in their true color, and trust that it will have the effect of protecting from the pestiferous breath of calumny the character of a most meritorious officer.
I have the honor to be
With great respect,
Your obt. svt.,
Daniel T. Patterson. The Honbl“ ’
Benjamin Crowninshield, Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
New Orleans, January 19, 1815. Sir:
The justice and the generous sentiments of the navy department towards its officers militate against the opinion that it should view honorable exertions to aspire to wealth and honor in any other than a favorable light; and if fortune has been propitious to me, I have in courting her smiles undergone greater fatigue and privations than fall to the share of the generality of men to bear. Active by day and devoted by night to the discharge of my professional duties, I succeeded in acquiring that reputation as a physician in private life, and with that compensation for my services which has raised me above want, and I trust beyond the reach of suspicion. Frugality having secured what industry had acquired, a judicious application of my funds and the revenue arising therefrom has certainly improved my finances and placed me in a state of competence as far removed from penury as it is from affluence. By the law, Sir, of this state conventional interest may be carried as high as ten per cent per annum which rate can most readily be had at all times on good real security within this city, and a mortgage can be foreclosed in this state and the property sold in about forty-five days. Ten per cent is the common commercial interest, and a person who lends at twelve and fifteen per cent per annum is not considered a usurer. This proves the value of money in this country; and now, Sir, if I had purchased cotton in the war at eight and ten cents and at the conclusion of peace had sold it at from twenty-two to thirty-two and one-half cents, could it any more have been said “that by unjust speculations I had acquired much money” than in purchasing real property below its intrinsic value?
Within one hour of my speculation in the corporation lots nos. 11 and 12 with the improvements thereon I was offered five hundred dollars for the transfer of my bargain by W. Oliver. Not long after W. Harmon, now cashier of the Louisiana Bank, offered me two thousand dollars profit in Planters’ Bank stock; and before the first instalment became due W. Rochelle (merchant) without having examined the interior of the house persuaded me to receive for it the whole amount of purchase with an addition of one thousand dollars upon the first cost. I declined, however, the acceptance of either of these offers made in the war and before New Orleans was considered as safe, knowing well the value of the property to be not only greater, but having predetermined also of riding my hobby (if even it should be at a loss) in doing honor to the hospital which I superintended.
General Jackson on his first arrival at New Orleans chose it for his headquarters, and during and after the invasion it was occupied by Colonel Hayne,24 the inspector general, and other officers of General Jackson’s staff. I was also importuned to lease it by Mr. Albin Michet for his family mansion, at the very time that the hospital was removed to it, and not until then, and with no other view than of
24 Hayne, Arthur P. Soldier and statesman. Born Charleston, S. C., 1790, died there in 1867. Grand nephew of Col. Isaac Hayne, Revolutionary patriot. He joined the army in the War of 1812, and was at the Battle of New Orleans.
accommodating the hospital did I purchase lot no. 157 and about six months ago 1 also added to it by purchase for the same purpose lot no. 158; and in consideration for which 1 had conceded ten dollars additional rent, whereas the common rent of the house on said lot in the War was twenty-five and would be at present not less than thirty dollars.
More fully to elucidate the foregoing observations, I beg leave to submit and exhibit herewith three separate statements accompanied by a plot of elevation for more easy reference.
With these I hope so fully to satisfy your own mind as to exonerate me to the honorable secretary of the Navy from the foul charges of a malicious accuser, and to establish my character in such a manner, as in your opinion is thought fit, and corresponds with the injury I have sustained in the temporary tarnish of my reputation.
I have the honor to be,
(With sentiments of great respect) Sir, Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann.
Dani. T. Patterson Esq.
U. S. Naval Forces, New Orleans, Station.
Newr Orleans, January 26, 1816. Sir:
Without presuming on the sentiments of patronage which, with great kindness, you have been pleased ere this personally to express to me, I take the liberty in an unofficial manner to inform you that since my last address to the navy board, my books have passed the ordeal of a critical inquiry of druggists, and the opinions have been taken by disinterested gentlemen of unquestionable character on the subject of the present hospital establishment and of the slaves hired to the Government as hospital attendants.
The choice of these measures and the selection of the individuals devolved on Commander Patterson in whom the authority was vested by Mr. Crowninshield to investigate and to establish my character thereby terminating my correspondence with the department.
The result, as I had a right to expect, has been favorable to the support of my character and will have the effect, I hope, of exposing calumny to the ignominy of the department and the calumniator to the remorse of his conscience and disappointed expectation.
As my official and personal conduct in the navy has by slow degrees acquired for me the best wishes of every commander, so has my professional course in this community introduced me to the esteem and confidence not only of the most distinguished members, but of all descriptions of society; hence my private practice is not only lucrative and extensive but my reputation has acquired much ascendency that with confidence of success, cases hitherto deemed incurable are entrusted to my care, and I am importuned for advice by medical men in doubtful cases at the distance of several hundred miles from this city, regarding my opinion as the result of judgment matured by experience.
Nor is my eminence hindered by this limited space as physicians in the Atlantic States of whom I never heard and some of them of note not only address me on professional matters but my correspondence is courted by learned societies abroad, and without solicitation on my part, am elected a member of their bodies. On the full tide therefore of honor and renown and gathering the harvest of the close application of my earlier years, I am not at a loss to account for the disgraceful attempt that has been made
25 Commodore John Rodgers, United States Navy, was born at Havre de Grace, Md., in 1771, and died in Philadelphia on August 1, 1838. Entering the Navy as a lieutenant, March 9, 1798, he was the executive officer of the frigate, Constellation, when she captured the French frigate, L’Insurgente, off Nevis, February 9, 1797. Promoted to the rank of captain, March 5, 1799, he cruised in the Maryland on the West Indies Station. In 1802 he was appointed to the command of the John Adams with which he successfully attacked in June, 1803, a Tripolitan cruiser and several gunboats at anchor near Tripoli; in 1804 he was in command of the Congress in the squadron employed against Tripoli under Commodore Barron, whom in 1805 he succeeded in command. After the peace with Tripoli, he proceeded with his squadron to Tunis, where he engaged in negotiations which resulted in the establishment of friendly relations.
In the spring of 1811, when in command of the President, then off Annapolis, he heard that a seaman had been impressed off Sandy Hook by an English frigate; sailing for that point without delay on May 16 he hailed a vessel of war, but received no answer. After some delay, the stranger hailed and
to the department to injure me, and although conviction ought not to be admitted as evidence still I believe that envy or personal enmity has been the agent in this affair and that under an expectation of the creation of the grade of hospital surgeon, during this session, one of the objects was to thwart my promotion to that office.
That heaven may perserve you to our service, our country, one not less honorable than the other is distinguished, is my most ardent wish that I have the honor to be with the highest consideration, Sir,
Your very obt. svt.
Lewis Heermann.
John Rodgers,25 Esq.
It appears that this attempt to bring discredit upon the subject of our sketch resulted in the separation of Dr. Morrell from the Navy as his name appears last on the Navy Register for 1815.
It must be remembered that when Dr. Lewis Heermann used the term naval hospital, or United States Naval Hospital, he did not have in mind the naval hospital with which the medical officer of today is familiar. Although the Act of Congress passed on February 26, 1811, authorized followed with a shot which entered the President’s mainmast. After a short engagement in which the opponent was much crippled, Rodgers ceased firing and on the following morning boarded the vessel and discovered her to be H.M.S., Little Belt. This encounter widened the breach which already existed between Great Britain and the United States. On June 21, 1812, receiving official intelligence of the declaration of war against Great Britain, Commodore Rodgers sailed from New York in command of a squadron; on June 23, while chasing the British frigate, Belvidere, during a running fight, a gun burst killing or wounding sixteen men, Commodore Rodgers being among the wounded. In a subsequent cruise he took the British packet, Swallow, with a large amount of specie. Appointed to the command of the new frigate, Guerriere, on June 14, 1813, he rendered important service in the defense of Baltimore. From April, 1815 to December, 1824, he Served as president of the board of Navy commissioners. He served as acting secretary of the Navy in 1823. From 1824 to 1827 he was in command of the Mediterranean squadron. On his return he served once more on the board of Navy commissioners, which duty he relinquished in 1837. the establishment of naval hospitals, little was done toward their establishment by the commissioners of naval hospitals appointed by the Act for at least ten years. These commissioners were the secretaries of the Navy, Treasury and War and to them the hospital tax (twenty cents per month) accruing from the Navy was paid, together with all fines imposed upon officers, seamen and marines.
This fund was increased by the sum of fifty thousand dollars appropriated out of the unexpended balance of the old marine hospital fund, this being considered the amount belonging to the Navy from payments made prior to the passage of the Act. The commissioners were authorized to procure sites for hospitals and where suitable buildings could not be purchased with the sites to cause such to be erected.
Mr. Paul Hamilton, when secretary of the Navy, was very anxious to carry out the terms of the Act and had plans of a naval hospital drawn by Mr. B. H. Latrobe who was then the civil engineer of the Navy department. The other two commissioners were not in sympathy with Mr. Hamilton’s ideas and the subject of the establishment of naval hospitals for the time being was dropped.
It was not until 1821 or ’22 that the commissioners began to carry out the real intent of the law by which they had been created. Land was purchased at Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk, and appropriations were made for buildings. The three commissioners worked together with difficulty and this fact led Congress, on July 10, 1832, to invest the secretary of the Navy with all the powers of the “Commissioners of Navy Hospitals.” The work of establishing the naval hospitals then progressed more rapidly and the Navy was provided with institutions for the care of the sick in keeping with its promising future. But that was after Dr. Heermann had passed from the scene of his earthly labors.
When Dr. Heermann wrote “ I am grateful for the honor I enjoy in superintending
one of the most important naval hospitals perhaps in the United States,” he referred to an institution of his own creation, a hospital whose proper functioning depended entirely upon his own professional ability. Great credit is due the medical officers of the Navy who, in the first decade of the last century, established small hospitals at various navy yards and stations with the means they had at hand.
Dr. Heermann remained on duty at New Orleans until the summer of 1823 when as we see by the following letter, he came north because of ill health.
Philadelphia, August 10, 1823. Sir:
I had in duty contemplated my personal respects to you immediately upon recovery from the fatigue of a tedious and very unpleasant passage from New Orleans, but as the immediate object of my leave of absence from that station is the improvement of my health, and I am anxious in due season to avail myself of the benefit of the springs [Saratoga] I hope that the procrastination of my original intention may in this instance meet your indulgent concurrence.
Any orders from the Department will reach me with most certainty through the channel of Dr. Valentine Mott26 in New York, whom I shall keep advised of my movements.
I have the honor to be, etc., etc.
Lewis Heermann.
Honble’
Smith Thompson, Secretary of the Navy.
26 Dr. Valentine Mott was horn at Glen Cove, Oyster Bay, Long Island, August 20, 1785. His father was Dr. Henry Mott. After receiving his degree at Columbia College in 1806, he went to Europe. In London he became a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper and in Edinburgh he consorted with men like Hope, Playfair and Gregory. In the spring of 1809, he returned to New York and succeeded in obtaining permission from the trustees of Columbia College to lecture and demonstrate on operative surgery, being the first in New York to give private lectures in this branch.
In 1811 he was elected professor of surgery at Columbia College which post he retained when the medical faculty of that institution was merged into that of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. The following year (1824) found Dr. Heermann once more in New Orleans but somewhat broken in health. “As the state of my health, greatly impaired by a long course of arduous service in this country, demands a more temperate climate” he writes to Samuel L. Southard, then Secretary of the Navy, “I trust, Sir, to your goodness in locating me in the middle states; though in the choice I could neither presume to be proscriptive, nor wish to injure others; yet a long continuance in this southern latitude, I hope may somewhat entitle me to your indulgence.”
No change of duty came from this request but in the summer of 1826 we find that Dr. Heermann was granted an extensive leave of absence. He spent the winter of ’26 and ’27 at his home in New Orleans during which time he appears to have been placed on “waiting orders.” In the spring he journeyed up the Mississippi to Louisville, Ky. where he spent the summer. The fall and winter months of 1827 were passed at Cincinnati, O. Having determined upon a “professional tour of Europe” in the spring of 1828, he went to Washington, as we He continued to occupy the chair of surgery until 1826 when he resigned, owing to certain difficulties with the trustees, and with some able associates founded Rutger’s Medical College.
The enviable reputation which Dr. Mott enjoyed was due mainly to his original operations and the boldness with which he faced surgical problems hitherto unsolved. Sir Astley Cooper said of him: “He has performed more of the great operations than any man living.” And all this before the advent of anesthesia.
When Rutger’s Medical College finally closed in 1831, Mott was reappointed professor of operative surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, but his health failing, he resigned in 1834 in order to travel in Europe. He returned to New York after six years and accepted the chair of surgery in the University Medical College. It is said that “his experience was so vast, his observations so acute, his enthusiasm for surgery so undying that his lecture hall was always crowded with students and physicians anxious to profit by his teaching.”
He received many honorary titles and made valuable contributions to surgical literature.
learn from the following letter, with the evident intention of settling certain claims against the department; the proceeds of which were to be used in defraying the expenses of the proposed tour.
Washington, March 13, 1828. Sir;
In anticipation of the probable failure of success to my application for active employment I had formed the design of a professional tour of Europe, with a view to gaining the greatest range of information on the principal hospital establishments in Paris, and other large cities on the Continent.
This undertaking, should it be esteemed on the ground of expediency or utility to the Naval service of sufficient value, to merit the patronage of Government, I can pledge the best efforts in the pursuit which a zealous devotion to the object may promise. But should the Navy department not be invested with power of protecting this project I would gladly appropriate for its execution, as part, the full amount of two unsettled claims against the department—the justice of which I believe to have in my power of substantiating more fully in person, than could conveniently be done by correspondence.
The Honorable Mr. J. S. Johnston27 of
He died on April 26, 1865, in the eightieth year of his age.
As we have seen, Dr. Heermann named his eldest son, Valentine Mott, in honor of his distinguished friend.
27 Josiah Stoddard Johnston was born in Salisbury, Conn., November 25, 1784; died May 19, 1833, by a steamboat explosion on the Red River. At the age of six he removed with his father, Dr. John Johnston, to the neighborhood of Maysville, Ky. On his graduation from the old Transylvania University, in 1805, he established himself in practice at Alexandria, in the Red River County, and was in a very short period advanced to the bench. He was in 1812 a leading member of the House of Assembly in the new state of Louisiana, and commanded a regiment raised for the defense of New Orleans. Resuming his judgeship, he became a member of Congress in 1821, and in 1824 a senator to which office he was twice reelected. As chairman of the committee on Commerce, he made a very able report on the British colonial trade question, which he also supported in a speech. He published a very able pamphlet on the effect of the repeal of the duty on sugar. Louisiana to whom I have explained the opposing motives, as well as the arguments in favor of the claims, has promised me the favor of his mediation; and will communicate more fully with the Department on the subject.
Lewis Heermann. The Secretary of the Navy.
The nature of these claims is set forth in a long letter to the secretary, March 27, 1828, in which Heermann seeks to justify the demands he has hitherto made for reimbursement of expenses (house rent, extra pay as “purveyor,” etc.) incurred while on duty at New Orleans. Apparently he has overrun his authority somewhat and an endorsement of the secretary denies his appeal and states that he “does not perceive that it can be allowed without a violation of the rules applied to them, and the necessity of opening a variety of claims heretofore rejected.”
The letter reveals the fact that Heermann assumed responsibility for the purchase of medical supplies required on the New Orleans station and for ships serving in the immediate vicinity.
Being unsuccessful in effecting the settlement of his claims or securing an assignment to active duty, Dr. Heermann left Washington and after a short visit in Philadelphia and in New York, where he renewed his acquaintanceship with Dr. Valentine Mott (Dr. Heermann writes of him as being professor of surgery, Rutgers Medical College), he went to New Haven, Conn.
The following extract of a letter, written at New Haven, to the secretary of the Navy, under the date of May 17, 1828, recalls certain long forgotten honors tendered the officers who served in the war with Tripoli under Commodore Preble:
A severe ophthalmia having prevented my earlier acknowledgment of the Department’s communication of the 14th ultimate regarding the sword voted to each of the officers who distinguished themselves in the war with Tripoli under Commodore Preble, I now render my sincere thanks for the flattering intention of the Department as applicable to myself, regret
ting at the same time that the demise of Commodore Preble, the difficulty experienced bv Mr. Jefferson in the designation of officers where almost “all were found deserving’’ should operate as a perpetual bar to the fulfillment of the Act of Congress, March 3, 1805.28
Having learned from his friend, Honorable Josiah S. Johnston, a representative from Louisiana in Congress, that his claims for house rent and purveyor services while on duty at New Orleans had not been allowed by the Department, Dr. Heermann “relinquished the hope of a professional tour of Europe,” and established a residence for a time in New Haven where his children were at school. The contemplated new naval hospitals were then much talked of in naval medical circles. Dr. Heermann having made a special study of hospitals as they existed in his day and of hospital management was extremely desirous of securing command of one of these institutions. One of the letters written from New Haven closes with this phrase “again tendering my services in active employment, I wish, under the new arrangement, when it shall obtain, in regard to Hospitals, to offer myself as a candidate.”
A few days after writing this letter he heard of the death of Surgeon Samuel R. Marshall “at the New York Station” and wrote requesting to be assigned to the vacancy. He was not successful in securing this detail to duty, and in the summer of
28 Allen. Our Navy and the Barbary Corsairs. March 3, 1805, Congress voted the Commodore a gold medal, swords to the officers who distinguished themselves, and a month’s extra pay to all petty officers, seamen and marines. The medal was presented to Preble in May, 1806, and the men received their extra pay, but the President, embarrassed at being called upon to decide as to which officers had distinguished themselves, deferred action on the matter of the swords. In 1812, the subject was brought up in Congress by Josiah Quincy. He was made chairman of the committee to which it was referred and had some correspondence with the secretary of the Navy. The committee reported in favor of giving swords to all officers. Being in the midst of war with England, however, more important business prevented further consideration. 1828 we find him departing on a “mineralogical excursion with the vicinity of Quebec for its utmost limits ... in company with Mr. Shepherd29 (connected with Professor Benjamin Silliman30 of Yale College).”
August and September were spent at Saratoga Springs and upon his return to New Haven in October, Dr. Heermann rejoiced to receive instructions from the Department “to preside at the Board of Surgeons in Philadelphia in November next.”
The “Board of Surgeons” mentioned in Dr. Heermann’s orders, was the Board of Medical Examiners established in Philadelphia about this time in connection with which Surgeon W. P. C. Barton sought for and obtained substantial improvements in the methods of securing properly equipped medical officers for the naval service and instituted the requirement of certain professional qualifications for promotion, as, in Heermann’s correspondence, the receipt of lists of candidates for promotion and of applicants for appointment is mentioned.
The fact that Dr. Heermann was “measurably opposed to the method of examination ... as the least exceptional to arrive at a precise judgment of the profes-
29 Charles Upham Shepard, a mineralogist of note, was born at Little Compton, R. I., June 29, 1804, and died at Charleston, S. C., May 1, 1886. After graduation from Amherst he made a special study of botany and mineralogy, and lectured on Natural Flistory at Yale from 1830 to 1847. He occupied the chair of chemistry in the medical college of South Carolina from 1854 to i860. He discovered several new minerals and an important deposit of phosphate of lime near Charleston which proved of great value in the manufacture of fertilizer, and as a consequence, in the development of agriculture.
30 Benj. Silliman, American scientist, was born at Stratford (near Trumbull, Conn.) August 8, 1779, died New Haven, November 24, 1864; graduated from Yale, 1796, studied law and was admitted to the bar, but accepted the chair of chemistry and natural history at Yale in 1802. He went abroad in 1801 for study and while in Edinburgh became interested in geology. On his return he made a geological survey of Connecticut, the first ol the kind made in the United States, and in 1807 published an account of the famous Weston meteorite
sional ability of the candidates and their relative merits” may have been instrumental in his detachment from this duty. It is evident that he did not remain long in Philadelphia as we find him, January 29, 1829, in New Haven on “waiting orders” and again soliciting duty at the naval hospital in New York.
Learning that Commodore Patterson, with whom he had long been associated in New Orleans, was ill in that city, Dr. Heermann, in June, 1829, went to New Orleans to attend him and when the Commodore had recovered from his illness, Heermann accompanied him to Pensacola.
In September of that year we learn of his again accompanying Professor Shepard on another mineralogical excursion,31 this time to New Hampshire and Maine.
After remaining more or less inactive for about four years, Dr. Heermann appears to have visited Washington, where he received the following order:
Navy Department, June 11, 1830.
Sir:
I am directed by the President of the United States hereby to appoint you fleet surgeon of December 14, 1807. Founded the American
Journal of Sciences and Arts in 1818, and acted as editor until 1838. Opened the Lowell Institute in Boston with a series of lectures on geology in 1838. One of the original members of National Academy of Sciences.
31 In the issue of the American Journal of Sciences and Arts for January, 1830, is a paper on a “Mineralogical Journey in the northern parts of New England,” by Charles Upham Shepard, assistant to the professor of chemistry and mineralogy, and lecturer on botany in Yale College. It contains the following allusion to Dr. Heermann. “ In the months of September and October last, Dr. Heermann of New Orleans, and myself, made an excursion into Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, in company with Prof. Hitchcock of Amherst College, and Mr'. Edward Emerson of Boston; the two latter gentlemen were with us only as far North as Acworth, N. H. At the request of Prof. H. and Dr. Heermann, I shall give in the succeeding pages some account of those minerals which gave us particular interest upon the route.” of the squadron in the Mediterranean Sea. You will proceed to Norfolk and report to Commodore Barron for a passage in the U. S. sloop of war, Concord.
Should you think proper to visit Europe for the purpose of inspecting its military hospitals and of acquiring other professional information, you are at liberty to leave the Concord at any port you may prefer; and after having accomplished the object in view, you will avail yourself of the first favorable opportunity of joining the flag ship of the squadron, and reporting to Commodore James Biddle.
I am, Sir, etc.,
Jn. Branch.
Dr. Lewis Heermann, Fleet Surgeon, etc., Washington.
P.S. The department has no objection to your adopting the distinctive badge described in your letter of this date during the period of your service as fleet surgeon.
Jn. B.................
The “distinctive badge’’ referred to in the postscript of the preceding letter relates to the “aiglet” mentioned in the following:
Washington, D. C., June 11, 1830. Sir:
Having learned that surgeons of fleets are no longer distinguished from naval surgeons in “uniforms projected of late,” and submitted to the honorable secretary of the Navy for approval, I respectfully beg leave to suggest the adoption of an “aiglet” or shoulder knot with cords, to be worn on the right side, that badge not being assigned to any other class of officers in either the Army or Navy; and admitting of being laid aside with the termination of the office.
In illustration I have enclosed a rude and rather disproportionate sketch for inspection, and should be gratified in obtaining the consent of the department to give it a trial.
I have the honor to be with greatest respect, Sir,
Lewis Heermann.
Honble John Branch, Secretary of the Navy, Pres1.
(Secretary’s endorsement). The commissioners are of opinion that the grade of an officer ought
to be distinguished by some appropriate mark, perhaps that suggested by Dr. Heermann might answer as well as any other until some one more suitable perhaps might be substituted by the general consent of the surgeons of the Navy.
Dr. He ermann appears to have been the first American naval officer to wear the aiguillette which is now worn by all officers serving upon a flag officer’s staff.
As we see by the following letter, Dr. Heermann lost no time in reporting on board the Concord.
Norfolk, Va., June 19, 1830. Sir:
In grateful acknowledgment of the appointment conferred on me by His Excellency, the President of the United States [Andrew Jack- son, whose acquaintance he had made in New Orleans] as fleet surgeon and in respectful compliance with your order of the 1 ith instant to repair to this place and report to Commodore Barron for a passage in the sloop of war, Concord, etc., I arrived here this day; and having reported accordingly, shall proceed in her to fulfill to the best of my abilities the ulterior objects of my destination.
I have, etc.
Lewis Heermann.
The Honble
John Branch,
Secretary United State Navy, Washington.
Upon the arrival of the Concord in European waters Dr. Heermann left that vessel, and from a letter written in London, under date of September 1, 1830, we learn that he had made an inspection of the hospitals in London and of Haslar (Naval) Hospital, and that it was his intention to cross the English Channel to France, visit Paris, journey to Italy and there join Commodore Biddle’s squadron.
From the accompanying illustration of a bill for expenses and mileage submitted by Dr. Heermann on his return to the United States, we gather that his “professional tour of Europe” was fairly complete, as he evidently visited hospitals at many of the places mentioned. On January 23, 1831, Dr. Heermann joined the U. S. S. Brandywine, then flagship of Commodore Biddle’s squadron. In February of that year, from Port Mahon he wrote to the secretary of the Navy reporting his progress through Europe and stating that he would submit his observations at a later date. Ill health prevented him from completing the report of his observations and it appears that he was admitted to a hospital in Gibraltar, soon after joining the Brandywine. H is illness was sufficiently grave to warrant his return home. Upon a certificate of disability signed by Dr. Frederick Dix, surgeon of H.B. M.’s 94th Regiment of Infantry in charge of the C ivil Hospital at Gibraltar, Commodore James Biddle,
United States Navy, authorized him “when sufficiently recovered to proceed to the United States.” Dr. Heermann arrived at New York on the bark Grecian on September 29, 1831 and went at once to New Haven.
As will be seen shortly he had completed his last tour of active duty in the Navy. In a letter of October 26, 1831, enclosing several claims growing out of his late illness in which he solicits “approval for final
adjustment,” he states “from the still tardy progress in recovering strength and an apprehension of my ability to resist the approaching cold season in the Atlantic States, I propose with the consent of the honorable secretary to pass the ensuing winter in Louisiana.”
His journey south was interrupted in Philadelphia by an attack of rheumatic fever. He reached Cincinnati in January, 1832, where he was delayed by ice in the river and bad weather. February of 1832 found him once more in New Orleans, where he remained until the weather became uncomfortably warm. On April 1, 1832, he left New Orleans on the “New York packet boat” arriving at New York one month later.
Going to New
Haven he wrote one of his long letters to the secretary of the Navy in an attempt to have set aside the decision of the auditor of the Navy department who had disallowed his claim for the expenses of his inspection trip through Europe.
In a letter of November 6, 1832, Dr. Heermann announces his intention of spending the winter in New Orleans or Cuba, if necessary,’for his health. His last letter to the secretary of the Navy, written when he was a very sick man at New Orleans, under the date of January 2, 1833, reports his arrival and concludes with the words: “ I beg leave respectfully to notify the Department that in case of emergency I cannot allow myself to shrink from any required duty.”
The following extracts from Dr. Heermann’s will and inventory of property are of interest and indicate that he died between the 21st and 25th of May, 1833.
On the 21st day of May in the year 1833, William Christy, a notary public of New Orleans, proceeded to the dwelling of Dr. Lewis Heermann situated at the corner of Camp and Julia Streets, Faubourg St. Mary, where he found Dr. Heermann in his bedroom, sick. The Doctor informed Mr. Christy that he had sent for him for the purpose of making his last will and testament and would dictate the will to him. Mr. Christy wrote down the last will of the Doctor in the presence of witnesses.
The total value of the property bequeathed under the will was $203,647.06.
The court of probate by an order dated the 25th day of May directed an inventory of the property so it would appear that the Doctor must have died prior to that.
When the administrators preceded to the dwelling of Dr. Heermann for the purpose of taking an inventory, Mrs. Heermann declared that the Doctor had broken up housekeeping in the city several years ago and sold all his slaves and household furniture and had lately been a resident at New Haven, Conn., for the purpose of educating his children and from the time he had left New Orleans, neither he nor his family had resumed housekeeping, but had occupied furnished apartments in public hotels; that they had occupied a rented house in the city for the last six months and resided there for the purpose of attending to the situation and improvement of the real estate owned by the deceased; that he had some weeks previous to his death sold at private sale all their moveable effects with the exception of the articles of silverware hereinafter described; and she moreover informed them that the deceased having in his last will bequeathed his medical library to the medical college at New Haven,
his miscellaneous library was of inconsiderable value and was then at New Haven, as was also his uniforms and the chief part of his wearing apparel.
Referring to Dr. Heermann’s bequest of his medical books to Yale Medical College, Professor Benjamin Silliman in his account of the medical school in Kingsley’s “Yale College” says: “Some notice might be taken here of the medical library, largely increased by the liberality of Dr. L. Heermann, formerly of New Orleans, who gave to the medical institution his entire and valuable library.” There is no record of the individual books presented. The volumes belonging to the medical school were transferred to the University Library about 1886 and as Dr. Heermann had no bookplate his books cannot now be identified.
In “A Lecture, Introductory to the Course of Lectures in the Medical Institution of Yale College” delivered September 29, 1853 by Jonathan Knight, m.d., Professor of Surgery, the following reference to the subject of our sketch occurs:
A valuable portion of the library, about two hundred and fifty volumes, was the bequest of Dr. Lewis Heermann. Dr. Heermann was a German by birth, studied medicine in his native country; came to this country in the early part of his life, entered the Navy as a surgeon about the year 1800, and continued in the service of the country until his death. He was a gentleman of an acute and vigorous mind, well versed in his profession, especially in military surgery, and abounding in kind and generous feelings. During the winter following the death of Dr. Smith [1829] when there was a deficiency of instruction on surgery, he favored the class then in attendance with a few lectures on military surgery which were of great practical value.
Dr. Heermann was entombed in the old Protestant cemetery in Girod Street, New Orleans, where his vault may still be seen bearing a plate on which is engraved his name and the date of death, which, strange to say, is given as August 21, 1833, whereas the official records show that he died on a date between May 21 st and May 25th of that year.