U.S. Examining Surgeons

Arthur A. Eddy, M. D., Surgeon at Coal Creek, Colorado, was born on Isle La Mott, Grand Isle County, Vermont. When a small boy he removed to Iowa. He studied medicine in the Chicago Medical College, from where he graduated with the degree of M. D. He practiced at Cresco, Iowa, for some time and was county physician and examining surgeon for the government. In 1883 he accepted an offer from the old Colorado Coal and Iron Company to act as its physician and surgeon at Coal Creek. At the same time he was appointed local surgeon for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Both of these positions Dr. Eddy held without interruption for nineteen years.

Photo of Dr. Eddy c. 1902

Hundreds of thousands of disabled Union veterans sought financial assistance by applying to the Bureau of Pensions, a federal agency founded in 1832 but rapidly expanded after the Civil War. It eventually became a bureaucratic giant that managed the largest single item in the federal budget. The Bureau assessed disability claims and paid out benefits. In 1930, it was merged into the Veterans Administration.

The first step in obtaining a disability pension was to get an examination from a physician. Medical examinations helped to determine how much money a disabled veteran would receive. The Pension Act of 1862 allotted $8 per month for an enlisted man who was deemed totally disabled. Officers received more. Over the years, benefits increased, and by 1907, old age itself was considered a disability, and all Union veterans became eligible for pensions.

Examining Surgeon's Certificate for civil war veteran Charles Quail documenting a disability due to "disease of mitral valves of heart." Examining Surgeon Dr. Wilson noted in his description that "he claimed to be troubled with asthma. There is moist rales heard over both lungs....and murmurs." [Note: Patients complaining about asthma are often noted to have bilateral lung rales and heart murmurs signifying that they are suffering form heart failure rather than pulmonary asthma.]

In the late nineteenth century, Civil War pensions and their costs became a major political issue dividing Republicans and Democrats. As pensions used larger and larger portions of the federal budget, resentments against such generosity sometimes turned to animosity against the veterans themselves. Opposition was popular with Democrats, who largely represented Southerners.

Others avoided directly criticizing the veteran, but rather the “pension sharks” who took advantage of veterans who needed agents and lawyers to make their way through an increasingly bureaucratic world. Such opposition led American leaders to enact very different laws after the First World War. Policymakers during that war stressed vocational rehabilitation and employment instead of cash payments.