Robert Maitland O'Reilly
Encyclopedia
Robert Maitland O'Reilly (January 14, 1845–November 3, 1912) was the 20th Surgeon General of the United States Army, serving from September 7, 1902 to January 14, 1909.
O'Reilly was born in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
to John and Ellen (Maitland) O'Reilly. He was a descendant of General Alexander O'Reilly
who was a captain general of Cuba
and one of the Spanish governors of Louisiana
. The American branch settled in Pennsylvania before the American Revolution
. O'Reilly was educated in the Public Schools of his native city.
when the Civil War
broke out. In August 1862, he was appointed an acting medical cadet and was assigned for duty in Cuyler General Hospital in Philadelphia. Later he served as a medical cadet in a hospital at Chattanooga
, Tennessee
, and in the office of the medical director of the Army of the Cumberland
.
, Connecticut
. Shortly thereafter he was sent out to California
by way of Nicaragua
with a shipment of recruits. While en route with recruits from San Francisco
to Whipple Barracks
, Arizona
, he was wounded by the accidental discharge of a revolver at Camp Mud Springs, California, and was under treatment for some time at Drum Barracks
after which he proceeded to his original assignment in Arizona. He served at Camp Date Creek, Fort McDowell
, Camp Renon, Fort Whipple, Camp Halleck, and Fort Union, all in the extreme southwest, until June 1870, during which time he saw considerable field service against Native Americans
. Mid-1870 was spent in the field in Colorado
with the 8th Cavalry, after which he was assigned for station at Fort Laramie, Wyoming
, where he served from May 1871 to July 1874. He participated in the campaign of 1874 against the Sioux
and at the conclusion of that campaign he took station at Fort D. A. Russell
at Cheyenne
, Wyoming
. In June 1875 he was ordered east, and given short tours of duty at Fort McHenry
, Maryland
, and at Fort Hamilton
, New York
. In November 1875 he was sent to Fort Ontario
, New York, which was his station until May 1878. While at this station he was detailed, in 1877, to duty incident to labor disturbances in Pennsylvania, and sustained an injury which incapacitated him to a remarkable extent for two years.
Short terms of duty at Charleston
, South Carolina
, and Fort McPherson
, Georgia
, interspersed with sick leaves brought him to the summer of 1882, when in June he was ordered to duty with the attending surgeon in Washington, D. C. In November 1884 he himself became the attending surgeon, which post he held until November 1889. In this capacity his attractive personality and his professional skill made him a prominent figure in the capital. He was made the attending physician to the White House
by President Grover Cleveland
, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship and who brought him back to Washington during his second term in the presidency. From June to September 1888 he attended General Philip Sheridan
during his last illness at Nonquitt, Massachusetts
. From Washington he was ordered to Fort Logan, Colorado, where he served from May 1890 to February 1893 when he was again detailed as attending surgeon at the capital.
, Michigan
, and from this post he accompanied the troops into the field at the onset of the Spanish-American War
. Arriving at Mobile
, Alabama
, he was assigned as chief surgeon of the First Independent Division commanded by Major General
John J. Coppinger. He was later chief surgeon of the 4th Army Corps and still later chief surgeon on the staff of Major General James F. Wade
in Havana
. The medical department ship Bay State was placed at his disposal and he was sent to Jamaica
for the purpose of acquiring information relative to the experience of the British Army
in tropical hygiene. He made a study of the housing, food, clothing, and care of troops and submitted a report with recommendations on these subjects which were of material value.
Returning from Cuba in November 1899 he commanded Josiah Simpson Hospital at Fortress Monroe
, Virginia
, and later was transferred to the headquarters of the Department of California
at San Francisco as chief surgeon.
In the passing years he had been rising in the military scale. Promoted to captain on May 14, 1870, to major
on November 1, 1886, and to lieutenant colonel
on February 21, 1900, he reached the grade of colonel
on February 14, 1902.
's retirement in September 1902 there was a regulation in effect that the appointment to Surgeon General should be for a period of four years, and a ruling that the appointee must have four years to serve before his compulsory retirement for age. There was a small group of brilliant officers on the list ahead of Colonel O'Reilly, notably Colonels Smart, Lippincott, and DeWitt, but all were barred from the coveted place by lack of the necessary four years to serve. Colonel O'Reilly, the senior officer able to meet the requirements, was appointed Surgeon General with the grade of brigadier general
on September 7, 1902.
Up to this time it had been the almost invariable custom that the office assistants of the Surgeon General should be selected from among the senior officers of the corps. General O'Reilly departed from the long-time custom by surrounding himself with a group of young, alert, active men, a group that went far toward directing the fortunes of the corps for the next two decades. To this group belonged Jefferson R. Kean, Walter D. McCaw, Charles F. Mason, and James D. Glennan, all junior majors, and Merritte Webber Ireland, Francis T. Winter, Charles Lynch, and Carl R. Darnall who had still to gain that grade when O'Reilly's term began. Kean was made executive officer and the others assigned to the charge of divisions into which the office was organized. Unsatisfactory conditions in the army disclosed by the Spanish-American War caused the appointment by President William McKinley
of the Dodge Commission. The findings of this commission relating to the medical department took the form of a number of recommendations which it devolved upon O'Reilly to carry out.
These recommendations were briefly as follows: (1) a larger force of commissioned medical officers, (2) authority to establish in time of peace a proper volunteer hospital corps, (3) a nurse corps of selected trained women nurses ready to serve whenever necessity should arise, (4) a year's supply, for an army of at least four times the normal strength, of all medicines, hospital furniture, and stores as are not materially damaged by keeping, to be held constantly on hand in the medical supply depots, (5) charge of transportation to such in extent as will secure prompt shipment and ready delivery of all medical supplies, (6) simplification of administrative paper work, (7) provision for purchase by subsistence funds of articles of special diets for the sick.
In his last annual report, that of 1908, O'Reilly was able to say that all of these objectives had been realized or were in good prospect of realization. O'Reilly and his staff achieved a relation with the army, with Congress, with the medical profession, and with the public never visualized by any previous administration. During his term every medical department activity was studied, overhauled, and improved. Toward the latter part of his term an appropriation was obtained from Congress for the purchase of the site and for the beginning of construction of a general hospital in Washington—Walter Reed General Hospital—a project under advisement since the days of General Hammond
.
. O'Reilly was president of the board which recommended the adoption of typhoid prophylaxis for the army. In 1906 he reconstituted the Board for the Study of Tropical Diseases in Manila and set for it certain objectives. In that same year he represented the United States at the international conference at Geneva
, Switzerland
, for the revision of the Geneva Convention. At the expiration of his first term of appointment in 1906 he was reappointed and served until the time for his compulsory retirement for age on January 14, 1909. Never of strong constitution and the subject of much ill health during his army career, his remaining three years were spent quietly in a state of semi-invalidism in Washington, where he died of uremic poisoning, on November 3, 1912.
O'Reilly's only notable written contribution was the monograph on military surgery which appeared in the fourth edition of W. W. Keen's American Textbook of Surgery (1903), in which he collaborated with Major William C. Borden.
O'Reilly was a man of fine mind and of high culture. He had great personal attraction, winning the affection and loyalty of all with whom he came into intimate contact. Though of a sensitive and retiring disposition he had an unfailing fund of courtesy and good nature. He was a devotee of chamber music and an accomplished performer on the violin. Many of his deepest friendships were with those to whom he was bound by the ties of music. Physically a small man, he carried himself with a good military bearing.
, New York
, who, with one daughter, survived him. His only son predeceased him.
O'Reilly was born in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to John and Ellen (Maitland) O'Reilly. He was a descendant of General Alexander O'Reilly
Alejandro O'Reilly
Alejandro O'Reilly , was a military reformer and Inspector-General of Infantry for the Spanish Empire in the second half of the 18th century...
who was a captain general of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and one of the Spanish governors of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. The American branch settled in Pennsylvania before the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. O'Reilly was educated in the Public Schools of his native city.
Civil War
O'Reilly had commenced the study of medicine at the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
when the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
broke out. In August 1862, he was appointed an acting medical cadet and was assigned for duty in Cuyler General Hospital in Philadelphia. Later he served as a medical cadet in a hospital at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, and in the office of the medical director of the Army of the Cumberland
Army of the Cumberland
The Army of the Cumberland was one of the principal Union armies in the Western Theater during the American Civil War. It was originally known as the Army of the Ohio.-History:...
.
After the Civil War
With the close of the Civil War, he resumed his medical studies at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated 1866. On May 14, 1867, O'Reilly was appointed assistant surgeon in the army and sent to Fort TrumbullFort Trumbull
Fort Trumbull refers to a fort in New London, Connecticut and to a nearby neighborhood.-Neighborhood:The neighborhood of Fort Trumbull was demolished as part of plan for the economic development of New London. The plan was appealed in a case that reached the US Supreme Court, Kelo v...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. Shortly thereafter he was sent out to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
by way of Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
with a shipment of recruits. While en route with recruits from San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to Whipple Barracks
Fort Whipple, Arizona
Fort Whipple was a U.S. Army post which served as Arizona Territory's capital prior to the founding of Prescott, Arizona. The post was founded by Edward Banker Willis in January 1864 in Chino Valley, Arizona, but was moved in May 1864 to Granite Creek near the present day location of Prescott. ...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, he was wounded by the accidental discharge of a revolver at Camp Mud Springs, California, and was under treatment for some time at Drum Barracks
Drum Barracks
The Drum Barracks, also known as Camp Drum and the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum, is the last remaining original American Civil War era military facility in the Los Angeles area...
after which he proceeded to his original assignment in Arizona. He served at Camp Date Creek, Fort McDowell
Fort McDowell, Arizona
Fort McDowell is an unincorporated community in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. Fort McDowell is 23 miles northeast of Phoenix, Arizona...
, Camp Renon, Fort Whipple, Camp Halleck, and Fort Union, all in the extreme southwest, until June 1870, during which time he saw considerable field service against Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. Mid-1870 was spent in the field in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
with the 8th Cavalry, after which he was assigned for station at Fort Laramie, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, where he served from May 1871 to July 1874. He participated in the campaign of 1874 against the Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
and at the conclusion of that campaign he took station at Fort D. A. Russell
Fort D.A. Russell (Wyoming)
Fort D. A. Russell, also known as Fort Francis E. Warren, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base and Fort David A. Russell, was a post and base of operations for the United States Army, and later the Air Force, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The fort had been established in 1867 to protect workers for the...
at Cheyenne
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
, Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. In June 1875 he was ordered east, and given short tours of duty at Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry
Fort McHenry, in Baltimore, Maryland, is a star-shaped fort best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from an attack by the British navy in Chesapeake Bay...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, and at Fort Hamilton
Fort Hamilton
Historic Fort Hamilton is located in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, and Bensonhurst, and is one of several posts that are part of the region which is headquartered by the Military District of Washington...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In November 1875 he was sent to Fort Ontario
Fort Ontario
Fort Ontario is a historic fort situated by the City of Oswego, in Oswego County, New York in the United States of America. It is owned by the state of New York and operated as a museum known as Fort Ontario State Historic Site....
, New York, which was his station until May 1878. While at this station he was detailed, in 1877, to duty incident to labor disturbances in Pennsylvania, and sustained an injury which incapacitated him to a remarkable extent for two years.
Short terms of duty at Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, and Fort McPherson
Fort McPherson
Fort McPherson was a U.S. Army military base located in East Point, Georgia, on the southwest edge of the City of Atlanta, Ga. It was the headquarters for the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, Southeast Region; the U.S. Army Forces Command; the U.S. Army Reserve Command; the U.S...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, interspersed with sick leaves brought him to the summer of 1882, when in June he was ordered to duty with the attending surgeon in Washington, D. C. In November 1884 he himself became the attending surgeon, which post he held until November 1889. In this capacity his attractive personality and his professional skill made him a prominent figure in the capital. He was made the attending physician to the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
by President Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
, with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship and who brought him back to Washington during his second term in the presidency. From June to September 1888 he attended General Philip Sheridan
Philip Sheridan
Philip Henry Sheridan was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close association with Lt. Gen. Ulysses S...
during his last illness at Nonquitt, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. From Washington he was ordered to Fort Logan, Colorado, where he served from May 1890 to February 1893 when he was again detailed as attending surgeon at the capital.
Spanish-American War
In April 1897 he was assigned to duty at Fort WayneFort Wayne (Detroit)
Fort Wayne is located in the city of Detroit, Michigan, at the foot of Livernois Avenue in the Delray neighborhood. The fort is situated on the Detroit River at a point where it is about a mile to the Canadian shore. The original 1848 limestone barracks still stands, as does the 1845 star...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and from this post he accompanied the troops into the field at the onset of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. Arriving at Mobile
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, he was assigned as chief surgeon of the First Independent Division commanded by Major General
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
John J. Coppinger. He was later chief surgeon of the 4th Army Corps and still later chief surgeon on the staff of Major General James F. Wade
James F. Wade
James Franklin Wade served as a Major General of Volunteers in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War....
in Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
. The medical department ship Bay State was placed at his disposal and he was sent to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
for the purpose of acquiring information relative to the experience of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
in tropical hygiene. He made a study of the housing, food, clothing, and care of troops and submitted a report with recommendations on these subjects which were of material value.
Returning from Cuba in November 1899 he commanded Josiah Simpson Hospital at Fortress Monroe
Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe was a military installation in Hampton, Virginia—at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and later was transferred to the headquarters of the Department of California
Department of California
The Department of California was one of two Army Departments created September 13, 1858, replacing the original Department of the Pacific and was composed of the territory of the United States lying west of the Rocky Mountains and south of Oregon and Washington territories, except the Rogue River...
at San Francisco as chief surgeon.
In the passing years he had been rising in the military scale. Promoted to captain on May 14, 1870, to major
Major (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, major is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel...
on November 1, 1886, and to lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a field grade military officer rank just above the rank of major and just below the rank of colonel. It is equivalent to the naval rank of commander in the other uniformed services.The pay...
on February 21, 1900, he reached the grade of colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
on February 14, 1902.
Surgeon General of the Army
At the time of Surgeon General William H. ForwoodWilliam H. Forwood
William Henry Forwood was a surgeon from Brandywine Hundred, Delaware, who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and eventually as Surgeon General of the United States Army from June 8, 1902 until September 7, 1902.-During the war:Forwood attended Crozier Academy in Chester,...
's retirement in September 1902 there was a regulation in effect that the appointment to Surgeon General should be for a period of four years, and a ruling that the appointee must have four years to serve before his compulsory retirement for age. There was a small group of brilliant officers on the list ahead of Colonel O'Reilly, notably Colonels Smart, Lippincott, and DeWitt, but all were barred from the coveted place by lack of the necessary four years to serve. Colonel O'Reilly, the senior officer able to meet the requirements, was appointed Surgeon General with the grade of brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
on September 7, 1902.
Up to this time it had been the almost invariable custom that the office assistants of the Surgeon General should be selected from among the senior officers of the corps. General O'Reilly departed from the long-time custom by surrounding himself with a group of young, alert, active men, a group that went far toward directing the fortunes of the corps for the next two decades. To this group belonged Jefferson R. Kean, Walter D. McCaw, Charles F. Mason, and James D. Glennan, all junior majors, and Merritte Webber Ireland, Francis T. Winter, Charles Lynch, and Carl R. Darnall who had still to gain that grade when O'Reilly's term began. Kean was made executive officer and the others assigned to the charge of divisions into which the office was organized. Unsatisfactory conditions in the army disclosed by the Spanish-American War caused the appointment by President William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
of the Dodge Commission. The findings of this commission relating to the medical department took the form of a number of recommendations which it devolved upon O'Reilly to carry out.
These recommendations were briefly as follows: (1) a larger force of commissioned medical officers, (2) authority to establish in time of peace a proper volunteer hospital corps, (3) a nurse corps of selected trained women nurses ready to serve whenever necessity should arise, (4) a year's supply, for an army of at least four times the normal strength, of all medicines, hospital furniture, and stores as are not materially damaged by keeping, to be held constantly on hand in the medical supply depots, (5) charge of transportation to such in extent as will secure prompt shipment and ready delivery of all medical supplies, (6) simplification of administrative paper work, (7) provision for purchase by subsistence funds of articles of special diets for the sick.
In his last annual report, that of 1908, O'Reilly was able to say that all of these objectives had been realized or were in good prospect of realization. O'Reilly and his staff achieved a relation with the army, with Congress, with the medical profession, and with the public never visualized by any previous administration. During his term every medical department activity was studied, overhauled, and improved. Toward the latter part of his term an appropriation was obtained from Congress for the purchase of the site and for the beginning of construction of a general hospital in Washington—Walter Reed General Hospital—a project under advisement since the days of General Hammond
William Alexander Hammond
William Alexander Hammond, M.D. was an American neurologist and the 11th Surgeon General of the U.S. Army...
.
Accomplishments
Perhaps the outstanding accomplishment of this regime was the increase and reorganization of the Medical Corps and the Hospital Corps, with the elimination of the meaningless titles carried by medical officers and the substitution of the titles sergeant and corporal for the obsolete titles of noncommissioned officers. This reorganization act of April 23, 1908 (35 Stat. 66), also created the Medical Reserve CorpsMedical Reserve Corps
The Medical Reserve Corps is a network in the U.S. of community-based units initiated and established by local organizations to meet the public health needs of their communities. It is sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General of the United States...
. O'Reilly was president of the board which recommended the adoption of typhoid prophylaxis for the army. In 1906 he reconstituted the Board for the Study of Tropical Diseases in Manila and set for it certain objectives. In that same year he represented the United States at the international conference at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, for the revision of the Geneva Convention. At the expiration of his first term of appointment in 1906 he was reappointed and served until the time for his compulsory retirement for age on January 14, 1909. Never of strong constitution and the subject of much ill health during his army career, his remaining three years were spent quietly in a state of semi-invalidism in Washington, where he died of uremic poisoning, on November 3, 1912.
O'Reilly's only notable written contribution was the monograph on military surgery which appeared in the fourth edition of W. W. Keen's American Textbook of Surgery (1903), in which he collaborated with Major William C. Borden.
O'Reilly was a man of fine mind and of high culture. He had great personal attraction, winning the affection and loyalty of all with whom he came into intimate contact. Though of a sensitive and retiring disposition he had an unfailing fund of courtesy and good nature. He was a devotee of chamber music and an accomplished performer on the violin. Many of his deepest friendships were with those to whom he was bound by the ties of music. Physically a small man, he carried himself with a good military bearing.
Personal life
He was married on August 6, 1877, to Frances L. Pardee of OswegoOswego, New York
Oswego is a city in Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 18,142 at the 2010 census. Oswego is located on Lake Ontario in north-central New York and promotes itself as "The Port City of Central New York"...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, who, with one daughter, survived him. His only son predeceased him.