Stout, Samuel Hollingsworth, 1822-1903

Samual Hollingsworth Stout (1822-1903), physician.

Born in Nashville on March 3, 1822, Samuel H. Stout began his medical career in Tennessee in 1848 having turned down a commission in the U.S. Navy. With the outbreak of the Civil War he served as a surgeon in the Provincial Army of Tennessee beginning in 1861, and soon took over management of the Gordon Hospital in Nashville. He moved to Chattanooga after the fall of Nashville, and by July 1862 his strong administrative and leadership skills earned him the position of Superintendent of Hospitals for the Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Briggs. Stout was a gifted administrator and streamlined his hospitals so that they were able to treat a massive number of sick and wounded. Moreover, he pioneered new designs for well-ventilated wards that could be easily serviced in the field. He was also instrumental in developing mobile hospital units that could move with the army, a system that would be used in all succeeding American conflicts. After the war Stout taught for a short time at the Atlanta Medical College before returning to private practice in Georgia and Texas. He died in Clarendon, Texas, in September 1903.

Samuel Hollingsworth Stout was born in Tennessee and served as the organizer and medical director of the Hospital Department of the Confederate Army in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. After the war, Stout worked as a physician in Georgia and Tennessee and, in the 1890s, as Texas Commissioner of Education.

Physician, Confederate Medical Director, Army and Dept. of Tennessee.

Physician.

Physician. He served as Medical Director of the General Hospitals of the Army and Dept. of Tennessee.

Samuel Hollingsworth Stout was born in Nashville, Tennessee on 3 March 1822 and died on 18 September 1903 at his home in Clarendon, Texas. After Stout received his M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1848, he set up practice in Nashville and Midbridge, Giles Co., Tennessee. During the Civil War, Stout served as Surgeon, 3rd Tennessee infantry, in the Confederate army, beginning in 1861. In 1862 he administered all the hospitals under Gen. Bragg. From 1863 to 1865 he was Medical Director of all the hospitals in the Confederate Army and the Dept. of Tennessee. After the war, Stout accepted an appointment as Professor of Surgical and Pathological Anatomy at the Atlanta Medical College (1865-1867). In 1882 Stout moved to Texas, setting up practice first in Cisco, Eastland Co., and then in Dallas (1893). In 1900, Stout helped found the University of Dallas Medical Department (later Baylor University College of Medicine (1902)) and became President of its Board of Trustees. Although he never taught a course there, Stout assumed the title of Emeritus Professor of Obstetrics in 1901. Stout's writings focussed on medical cases and the Confederate Army. Always active in professional societies, Stout was a founder and Secretary of the Tennessee State Medical Society (1840s), President of the Giles County (Tenn.) Medical Society, and Secretary of the Georgia Medical Association (1872-1873). He also was active in the Atlanta Academy of Medicine and the Dallas County Medical Society.

Born March 3, 1822, Stout was the physician named by General Braxton Bragg to be Medical Director of Hospitals of the Department and Army of Tennessee during the Civil War.

He died in Clarendon, Texas, in September 1903.

Samuel Hollingsworth Stout, the organizer and Medical Director of the Hospital Department of the Confederate Army in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1822, and died in Clarendon, Texas, in 1903.

He grew up and was educated in Nashville, graduating from the University of Nashville, and received his M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1848. He qualified for the U. S. Navy as a surgeon, but resigned without actually serving because the end of the Mexican War came before he went in. He was a scholar and a teacher as well as a physician, teaching for a while in Giles County, Tennessee, and practicing at one time in Nashville. He was married to Martha M. Abernathy of Giles County, and had two daughters and a son. After the Civil War Dr. Stout went back to Giles County, then taught at Atlanta Medical College 1866-67, and lived in Georgia and in Tennessee until 1882, when he moved to Cisco, Texas. In 1893 he moved to Dallas, where he was connected with the organization of the medical college (now Baylor), as well as engaging in medical practice. Both in Atlanta and Cisco, Dr. Stout helped organize the local public schools and was always interested in education.

Dr. Stout was the surgeon in charge of Gordon hospital at Nashville, Tennessee, October 1861. In the spring of 1862 he was made post surgeon at Chattanooga, in charge of all Confederate hospitals at that post. When Braxton Bragg took command of A. S. Johnston's Army of Tennessee, he made Stout superintendent of all the general hospitals of the Army and Dept. of Tennessee. In 1863, Stout was Medical Director, reporting directly to the Surgeon General in Richmond, and was superintending medically all the hospitals in the District of Tennessee including Chattanooga, Rome, Atlanta, and all intermediate points. Dr. Stout himself was at Chattanooga through most of 1862 and 1863, but appears to have had his headquarters at Marietta, Georgia, beginning about September 1863. Early in 1864, he was working from headquarters at Atlanta and continued there more or less until July when he moved to Macon. In October 1864 he moved on to Columbus, Georgia, and apparently stayed there through April 1865. During the entire period, however, he was on the move a good deal in connection with inspections of hospitals, and arranging and organizing at different points within his district.

Dr. Stout himself preserved these records of medical and hospital matters of the Army of Tennessee, and apparently had hoped to organize and publish some of the material during his lifetime. He published his correspondence with General Bragg and perhaps some other of his papers in the Southern Practitioner, Nashville. Some notes and explanations of the papers have been added, apparently by Dr. Stout's daughter Katherine.