Hoff

all fronts, he stressed a positive love of truth,
saying that the rest would take care of itself.
He disapproved of the bitter journalism of the
day, and over against the citation-theology then
in vogue he placed his clear Gospel proofs. On
this basis, also, was his Doginatik written. As a
churchman he showed marked ability. Con-
fronted by the question of what affiliations his
synod should make, Hoenecke returned to the
study of the old dogmaticians and became con-
servative in his views. This influence was soon
felt at the seminary, and in protest against
unionism the Wisconsin Synod severed its con-
nections with the Berlin and Langenberg mis-
sion societies. Hoenecke ably disputed the "open
questions" of the Iowa Synod, though he sided
with Iowa in its dispute with the General Coun-
cil concerning the "four points" (chiliasm, mixed
communion, pulpit fellowship, and secret socie-
ties). With the Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and
Norwegian synods the Wisconsin Synod formed
the Synodical Conference in 1872. When the
Ohio Synod and the Norwegians withdrew in
1882, Wisconsin remained in the Conference,
largely through Hoenecke's noble devotion to
principle. In the internal affairs of his synod
he always took a lively interest, and his opinion
was sought on all important problems of the
church, though he kept himself modestly in the
background so that the proper officials could act
without restraint.

[J. Schaller, memoir in Hoenecke's Dogmatik, vol.
IV (1909); J. P. Koehler, obituary, Theologische
Quartdschrift, Jan. 1908; article in Ccncordia Cyc.
(1927); J. L. Neve, A Brief Hist, of the Lath. Ch. in
America (1916).] J.M.R.

HOFF, JOHN VAN RENSSELAER (Apr.
n, i848-Jan. 14, 1920), medical officer in the
United States Army, was born at Mount Morris,
N. Y., the son of Dr. Alexander Henry Hoff and
Ann Eliza, daughter of Gen. John Sanders Van
Rensselaer of New York. Alexander Henry
Hoff served in the volunteer army throughout
the Civil War, and at its close joined the medical
corps of the Regular Army. His son graduated
from Union College in 1871 and received the
M.D. degree from Columbia College in 1874.
The same year he was appointed an acting as-
sistant surgeon and served in the field against
the Sioux until he was commissioned assistant
surgeon in the Regular Army and sent to Omaha
Barracks. Several subsequent years of service
at various posts were notable for the uniformity
with which his work received commendation.
More interested in the military than in the medi-
cal aspect of his duties, he took a leave of absence
in 1886 and spent a year in studying the sanitary
organizations of various European armies. In

Hoff

1887 he organized the first detachment of hos-
pital corps and company bearers at Fort Reno
and drew up drill regulations. In 1889, at Fort
Riley, he recommended the organization of field
hospitals and later planned and organized the
first company of instruction of the hospital corps,
From November 1890 to January 1891 he was
on duty with the 7th Cavalry during the Sioux
campaign, and at the battle of Wounded Knee he
commanded the first detachment of the hospital
corps to undergo the trial of battle. He and his
detachment behaved with gallantry and received
high commendation, and in 1925 he was awarded
posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross.
Through years when army doctors were expect-
ed to have neither knowledge of nor interest in
military matters, he insisted on a recognition of
his own and his department's military status, de-
manding the military title, the salute, and pre-
cedence for himself and his corps on the basis of
military rank and usage. By so doing he brought
upon himself some ridicule, but his dignity, effi-
ciency, and high character enabled him to rise
above it, and he lived to see it die out and his
object attained. This achievement was one of
his great services.

The outbreak of the Spanish-American War
found the country unprepared. All war plans
had to be improvised and Hoff assisted in for-
mulating a field organization for the Medical
Department. In May 1898 he was appointed Sur-
geon of Camp George A. Thomas, at Chicka-
mauga Park. There he organized Sternberg
General Hospital to care for a part of the great
number of typhoid cases. In September 1898
he was sent to Porto Rico as chief surgeon,
where he inaugurated a campaign of vaccina-
tion, which virtually freed the island from small-
pox. From 1903 to 1905 he was surgeon at
Fort Leavenworth and taught "Care of Troops"
in the General Service and Staff College. In
1905 he was a military observer in the Russo-
Japanese War. From 1907 to 1912, when he
was retired because of age, he was in turn chief
surgeon of the Department of Luzon, of the
Philippines Division, of the Department of the
Lakes, and of the Department of the East In
1916 he was assigned to active duty in the sur-
geon general's office and accepted the editor-
ship of the Military Surgeon. In this periodical,
July 1918, he published an editorial criticizing
the General Staff for failure to utilize properly
the military experience of medical officers and
he was summarily relieved from active duty and
his editorship, by command of the Chief of Staff.
In December 1919, however, he was exonerated
of all wrong-doing, by a letter from the Secre-

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