Charles Stuart Tripler | |
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Brig. Gen. Tripler
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Birth name | Charles Stuart Tripler |
Born |
New York City, New York, USA |
January 19, 1806
Died | October 20, 1866 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
(aged 60)
Place of burial | Elmwood Cemetery |
Allegiance | United States of America |
Service/branch | United States Army |
Years of service | 1830–1866 |
Rank |
Brevet Brigadier General Brigadier General (posthumously) |
Unit | Army Medical Department |
Commands held |
Chief Surgeon, Department of the Lakes Medical Director, Army of the Potomac Medical Director, Twiggs' Division |
Battles/wars |
Second Seminole War
Mexican–American War
Charles Stuart Tripler (January 19, 1806 – Oct. 20, 1866) was a United States Army Brigadier General and surgeon. On March 8, 1867, he was promoted to Brigadier General by President Andrew Johnson and the date of rank was backdated to March 13, 1865. The Tripler Army Medical Center in O'ahu, Hawaii is named in his honor.
Tripler studied under an apothecary, Dr. Stephen Brown, in his early years before attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons. After graduating in 1827, he served as a resident at Bellevue Hospital before deciding to go to West Point as assistant to post surgeon Walter V, Wheaton. There he was allowed to take classes in mathematics and languages and was commissioned as an army assistant surgeon in 1830.
Tripler was regularly transferred over the whole country before he served in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War. During the Mexico City Campaign he was assigned as Medical Director of General David E. Twiggs regular division and was afterwards ordered to organize and command the army's general hospital in the city. After the war he continued his service in New York, Michigan, Kentucky and California. In 1852 Tripler was part of an expedition tasked with traveling down the east coast from New York to Panama where they would march across the country to the west coast and sail back. During the march through Panama, the unit's soldiers began to have an outbreak of cholera, malaria, diarrhoea, and dysentery which enlightened Tripler to the inadequate medical procedures in place by the Army. After the eruption of the Civil War Tripler was ordered to Washington, and on August 12, 1861, he was appointed Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac. Participating in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 he was, under pressure from the United States Sanitary Commission, replaced by Jonathan Letterman. He was allowed to choose his next appointment, and accordingly became Chief Surgeon of the Department of the Lakes. Tripler stayed on this position during the war, and was appointed Brevet Brigadier General on March 13, 1865. Diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the glands of the neck in early 1866 he died on October 20, 1866.