T2020.102.568

PATENT LAW

JAMES N. RAMSEY, ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW, OFFICES, 43 WIGGINS BLOCK

CINCINNATI, OHIO May 26, 1899

Dear Cousin Edith:

In my haste last evening, I overlooked the enclosed letter which I think should be sent to the surgeon general, that is substancially such a letter in your own hand writing. Perhaps they will do more for you, if you plead your own case than if it appears that you have an attorney.

Very sincerely,

James N Ramsey

LAW OFFICE OF

JAMES N. RAMSEY, ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT LAW 43 WIGGINS BLOCK

CINCINNATI, OHIO May 26, 1899

Miss Edith L. Hartzell Brownsville, Fayette Co. Pennsylvania.

Dear cousin:

Your letter of April 29th from Pittsburg and that of May 15th from Brownsville were duly received. I have given the subject of your claim against the government a great deal of consideration and have finally reached the conclusion that, perhaps, the best course to persue is for you to write a letter to the surgeon general, substantially, like the one enclosed herewith. I think, however, that it would be better for the letter to be in your own hand writing. I have conferred with a pension attorney, here, and with an ex-army officer and they approve of this plan as being the best. If I have made any mistakes as to facts etc., you should correct them. As I understand it, you desire to claim pay up to the time when you obtained transportation, is this correct? if not, you should modify that portion of the letter, accordingly.

I have made copies of all papers you have left with me, and I, therefore, enclose herewith all the original papers and suggest that, if thought best for me to give the matter further attention, all you will have to send me, is copies of such letters as may hereafter be written you. I hope, however, that they will grant you the pay without further controversy.

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I hope you will excuse me for my delay in writing you, but I have been busy taking testimony, most of the time since you were here, and have not had much chance to do anything else.

We are quite wel,l at present, and hope that you are able to say the same.

Sincerely yours, James N. Ramsey

Brownsville, Pa. May 26, 1899.

To the Surgeon General, U. S. Army Washington, D. C.

Sir:

I beg to acknowledge receipt of letter #45100-E of 10th inst. regarding my services and pay as Army Nurse, and, in reply, thereto I wish to make the following statement:

I signed my contract in Pittsburgh on September 19, 1898. I went on duty, September 23, 1898, at Jacksonville, Florida, Camp Cuba Libre, 2nd Division, Hospital, Ward 1, and had charge of this ward until they tore it down and took it with others to Savannah, Georgia. Then my patients and I were moved into Pavillion S and where I finished my duties in the 2nd Division Hospital on October 27, 1898. When I went off duty in the afternoon of that day very ill with Typhoid Fever and which developed several other complications and from which I have never fully recovered.

On January 6, 1899, the earliest date at which I was able to report, I went to Savannah and there, Major Clarke granted me a sick leave of thirty days. I continued too ill to return to my duties, and a few days before the expiration of my sick leave, finding that I was not going to be able to take up Army nursing for at least another month, and according to the directions in my sick leave paper, I wrote you and stated my case and included a doctor's certificate stating my condition and asking that my sick leave

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be extended another thirty days. Although, I wrote twice or three times to you, I heard nothing in reply until I wrote for transportation home in March. When I received a letter from your office dated March 25, 1899 stating that my contract was annulled December 31, 1898. This was a great surprise to me and the first intimation that any such action had been taken. My contract specifies that it "shall continue until determined by the Surgeon General or the Chief Surgeon of a Military Department or Army in the field". It does not appear that my contract has been annulled by such officer.

Your letter of March 25, 1899 says that my "contract annulled December 31" while Acting Chief Surgeon J. R. Kean says that a copy of my contract "was sent to the Surgeon General's Office on February 8th for annullment. There seems to be some confusion as to the facts.

I was under the doctor's care and unable for duty from October 27, 1898 to April 14, 1899, and furnished the Department with doctor's certificates of my condition, so that I feel that it would be doing a great injustice to me to hold that my contract was annulled before I was furnished transportation to my home in Pittsburgh.

I was not responsible for the duration of my illness and as it was contracted in the service of the government and I complied with the requirements in obtaining sick leave and in re