Medical Histories of Union Generals

Jack D. Welsh

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781612774626
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

During the Civil War, the majority of the 583 Union generals studied here were afflicted by disease, injured by accidents, or suffered wounds. Following the war, they often suffered lingering diseases and the effects of unhealed wounds. Medical Histories of Union Generals includes a glossary of medical terms as well as a sequence of medical events during the Civil War listing wounds, accidents, and deaths. With his earlier book on Confederate generals, Dr. Welsh has produced a "must have" reference for medical and military historians.

A

JOHN JOSEPH ABERCROMBIE • Born March 4 (or 28), 1798, in Baltimore, Maryland. Graduated from the USMA in 1822. He served in the Florida and Mexican wars. During the Mexican War, he was wounded at the Battle of Monterey, September 21, 1846. He had duty on the frontier and was a colonel at the start of the Civil War.¹ Abercrombie was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in August 1861. At Fair Oaks Station, Virginia, on May 31, 1862, he was slightly wounded in the head. A ball had passed through his cap and scraped his scalp, frightening his horse so that it threw him to the ground. One of his aides lifted him upon his horse and led him out, without his hat and in a dazed condition. After having the injury dressed at a farmhouse, he returned to command. During the Peninsula campaign he served in garrison and administrative posts. He was brevetted a brigadier general in the Regular Army on March 13, 1865, and retired from active service on June 12. Abercrombie remained on court-martial duty until 1869. He died January 3, 1877, at his home in Roslyn, Long Island, and was initially buried in Jersey City, New Jersey. In 1887 his remains were removed and reburied in Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia.²

1.Record Group 94, Letters Received by the Commission Branch, Adjutant General’s Office, 1863–70, M1064, roll 239, A390, 1866, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter cited as LR, CB); Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 2:13.

2.LR, CB, roll 239, A390, 1866; RG 94, U.S. Army Generals’ Reports of Civil War Service, 1864–87, M1098, roll 2, vol. 3, report 2, pp. 85–93, NA (hereafter cited as U.S. Army, CWS); Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States 28:460 (hereafter cited as MOLLUS); letter from Assistant Superintendent, Woodlands Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pa., to author, July 25, 1994.

ROBERT ALLEN • Born March 15, 1811, in West Point, Ohio. Graduated from the USMA in 1836. Allen had routine garrison duties until the start of the Mexican War when he was transferred to the Quartermaster’s Department. During the Civil War he rose through the ranks and ended the war as a brevet major general and as chief quartermaster of the Department of Missouri. His health was poor in January 1875 and after a leave to Japan he returned in May in better health. In 1878 he retired from the army as assistant quartermaster general. He died August 5, 1886, in Geneva, Switzerland, and was buried there in the cemetery of Chene-Bugeries.¹

1.RG 94, Letters Received by the Appointment, Commission, and Personal Branch, Adjutant General’s Office, 1871–94, 278, 1875, fiche: 000078, NA (hereafter cited as LR, ACP).

BENJAMIN ALVORD • Born August 18, 1813, in Rutland, Vermont. Graduated from the USMA in 1833. While at West Point he was seen at the Cadet Hospital once for sore eyes and twice for a toothache. Served in Florida and Mexican wars. During the Mexican War he first began having trouble with diarrhea, a problem that continued throughout his life. When the Civil War started he was chief paymaster of the Department of Oregon. In April 1862 he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers and was placed in command of the District of Oregon. Following the Civil War, he remained in the army and served as chief paymaster at various locales. In 1876 he was made a brigadier general in the U.S. Army and retired at his own request in June 1880. The diarrhea that had been intermittent over the years became a more constant feature beginning in 1876. He required the daily use of remedies that, according to his attending physician, led to a feeble action of his heart, general debility and organic disease of his kidneys, and to his death. Another physician attributed his death to albuminuria.¹ He died October 16, 1884, in Washington, D.C., and was buried in Rutland.

1.RG 15, Records of the Veterans Administration, Pensions, Old War 29, 366, NA (hereafter cited as RVA); LR, ACP, 3879, 1876, fiche: 000079; RG 94, New York Hospital Registers, West Point Cadet Hospital Registers, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., entry 544, vol. 602 (hereafter cited as WPCHR).

ADELBERT AMES • Born October 31, 1835, in Rockland, Maine. Graduated from the USMA in 1861. While he was a cadet at West Point, he was treated twice each for contusio, odontalgia, and ophthalmia and once each for tonsillitis and an ingrown nail. In the battle of First Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Ames, a lieutenant of artillery, received a severe wound in the right thigh. He refused to leave the field and, unable to ride a horse, had to be helped on and off the caisson when its position was changed. Ames returned to Washington in an ammunition wagon with the defeated Federal Army. On the first of October he was able to ride a horse and returned to assume command. He was quite sick with diarrhea for a few days in April 1862 and took quinine daily. His appointment as colonel of the 20th Maine ranked from August 1862. In May 1863 he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers. By the end of the war he had risen to brevet major general of volunteers and brevet brigadier and major general, U.S. Army. He had served on the Peninsula and at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Fort Fisher. In 1868, Ames, a lieutenant colonel, was appointed provisional governor of Mississippi. He resigned from the army in 1870 to accept election to the U.S. Senate. During the summer of 1870 he was sick and was confined to his bed for a few days. On October 22, 1872, he was staying in a hotel that caught fire, and he had to tie sheets together to get down from the second floor. He injured his hand, which took a few weeks to heal. In 1874, he became governor of Mississippi but resigned the next year when threatened with impeachment. He had diarrhea for more than a week in November 1874 and a bilious attack the following August. During the war with Spain, he served as a brigadier general of volunteers from June 20, 1898, to January 3, 1899. Although most of the troops were afflicted with malaria, slow fever, and diarrhea, Ames’s health was quite good at the time. At Montauk Point, Long Island, after his return from Cuba in August 1898, he had a low fever that continued for a while and lost several pounds. A scar at the end of his right middle finger and on his right thigh were noted at the time of his pension examination in December 1915. Ames died April 13, 1933, at Ormond, Florida, the last remaining full-rank general officer on either side of the conflict. He was buried in the Hildreth Family Cemetery, Dracut, Massachusetts.¹

DEATH CERTIFICATE: Cause of death, septicemia following infection of foot; contributing cause, senile exhaustion.

1.WPCHR, vol. 609; RG 94, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, Compiled Service Record, NA (hereafter cited as CSR); U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, vol. 2:386, 394 (hereafter cited as OR. Unless otherwise indicated, all references are to series 1); RVA, Pension XC 2,657,412; Harry King Benson, “The Public Career of Adelbert Ames, 1861–1876” (diss.), 24; “Dear mother” from Adelbert, Aug. 28, 1898, Adelbert Ames Papers, Correspondence, U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pa. (hereafter cited as USAMHI); Blanche Butler Ames, comp., Chronicles from the Nineteenth Century: Family Letters of Blanche Butler and Adelbert Ames 1:10, 131–32, 176, 409; 2:55, 138–39; Phil Arnold, ed., “Grave Matters” 5, no. 2 (1995): 3.

JACOB AMMEN • Born January 7, 1806, in Botetourt County, Virginia. Graduated from the USMA in 1831. He resigned from the army in 1837 and taught at various colleges until 1861. Ammen reentered the U.S. Army as captain of a company of the 12th Ohio at the start of the war. On the advance from Shiloh, he was sick and absent from the brigade until May 28, 1862, when he joined his command a few miles from Corinth. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers in July. On the army’s return to Louisville in September 1862 he was confined to his room for more than two weeks because of illness. In October, as soon as he had partially recovered, he returned to duty. He was assigned to the command of the District of Middle Tennessee in December 1863.¹ Ammen resigned from the army in January 1865. Initially, he was a surveyor and civil engineer and then settled on a farm near Beltsville, Maryland, in 1872. He moved to Lockland, Ohio, in 1891 and died there on February 6, 1894. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati. Burial records: Cause of death, paralysis of heart.

1.CSR; OR, vol. 10, pt. 1:684; U.S. Army, CWS, roll 1, vol. 1, report 30, pp. 387–93; William B. Hazen, A Narrative of Military Service, 53.

ROBERT ANDERSON • Born June 14, 1805, near Louisville, Kentucky. Graduated from the USMA in 1825. He participated in the Black Hawk, Florida, and Mexican wars. He received a shoulder wound at Molino del Rey on September 8, 1847, and recovered in a Mexican general’s house. He was sent home in October, along with other sick or wounded officers. In November 1860 he was sent to Charleston Harbor to command the three United States forts there. Although there were reports that he was in poor health in February 1861, supposedly there was no foundation for such speculation. On April 13, 1861, he was forced to surrender Fort Sumter, South Carolina, to Confederate forces. He took command of the Department of the Cumberland on August 15, 1861, but by October had to be relieved so he could restore his health. In January 1863, Anderson wrote Gen. Lorenzo Thomas that he had been prevented from making a full official report on the final events at Fort Sumter on the strict advice of his physicians. Following a medical examination on September 21, 1863, he was judged to be physically incapacitated. The following month, Anderson was relieved of command and ordered to report to Gen. John A. Dix. At his own request, he was placed on the retired list in October 1863, but until 1870 he was retained on such duties as he could perform. On March 23, 1865, Edwin M. Stanton wanted Anderson to come to Washington, D.C., to discuss his raising the flag over Fort Sumter if his health permitted. Although sick, Anderson was able to help on April 14, 1865: He read the General Order of the War Department, gave a brief speech, and presented the original flag. Seamen attached it to the halyards; too feeble to raise the flag himself, Anderson held on to the rope while it was raised to the masthead. Exhausted and near collapse, he was carried to the waiting steamer. After being sick for some time, he had improved enough by July 1870 to go to Europe in an attempt to regain his health. He died in Nice, France, on October 27, 1871. His remains were returned to the United States and buried at West Point.¹

1.OR, vol. 1:186; vol. 4:254, 296–97; vol. 47, pt. 2:979; LR, CB, roll 1, 1863; LR, ACP, 5135, 1871, fiche: 000001; B. Huger to Wife, Sept. 18, 1847, and General Order no. 324, Headquarters of the Army of Mexico, Oct. 26, 1847, Benjamin Huger Papers, University of Virginia Library, Manuscript Division, Special Collections Department, Charlottesville, Va.; Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary 2:13; MOLLUS 5:529.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ANDREWS • Born October 27, 1829, at Hillsboro, New Hampshire. At age twelve he had the measles. Andrews was admitted to the Massachusetts bar when he was twenty-one years old and practiced in that state until 1854, when he moved to Kansas. In November, while on a trip back to Washington, D.C., he developed typhoid and had to have a nurse for sixteen days. Three years later he moved to Minnesota and was a state senator when he enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army in 1861. He was soon made a captain of the 3rd Minnesota. Captured near Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on July 13, 1862, he was held as a prisoner for three months. When he was released he ate raw ham and drank his first good coffee, then developed stomach trouble that continued for weeks. Andrews was afflicted with malaria in the winter of 1863–64 and performed his first duties as commander of the post at Little Rock while lying on his back. He rose through grades to be appointed brigadier general of volunteers in January 1864. On May 25, 1865, when the Marshall warehouse at Mobile, Alabama, blew up, Andrews was in a nearby office. He was showered with glass; because of the shock he staggered against the wall, apparently without serious injury. During the war he fell from his horse three times with no injury other than, as later claimed, the production of a hydrocele. He was brevetted major general of volunteers in March 1865. He had a fever throughout June. Mustered out the following January, he returned to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Andrews had a varied postwar career and was United States minister to Sweden and Norway, a newspaper editor, a writer, a warden, and forest commissioner of Minnesota. Because of la grippe, he was confined to his bed for a time in 1897 and unable to attend to his business. A physical examination and urinalysis on April 20, 1904, were not remarkable except for signs of old age, debility, and a right-sided hydrocele.¹ He died at St. Paul, Minnesota, on September 21, 1922, and was buried in that city in Oakland Cemetery.

DEATH CERTIFICATE: Mostly old age and also infection of right kidney.

1.OR, vol. 49, pt. 2:912–13; RVA, Pension XC 2,516,161; MOLLUS 26:364, 29:39; Christopher C. Andrews, Recollections of Christopher C. Andrews: 1829–1922, 29, 103–4, 173, 183, 202, 287.

GEORGE LEONARD ANDREWS • Born August 31, 1828, at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Graduated from the USMA in 1851. At West Point he was treated three times for cephalalgia and once each for catarrhus, colica, and vulnus punctum. He served in the Engineer Corps until 1855 when he resigned to become a civil engineer. Andrews returned to the army at the start of the Civil War and was made lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers. On December 1, 1861, his surgeon certified that Andrews had been sick with bilious remittent fever for the previous four weeks. He was given sick leave and went to Washington, D.C. He was listed as present on the muster rolls for January and February 1862. On September 28 he wrote his wife that he had been sick with a very painful colic but was improving. He served at Cedar Mountain and Antietam, and in November 1862 he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers. Andrews was at Port Hudson and Mobile. On April 17, 1864, he was unable to attend to business because of severe indisposition. From May 16 to June 23 he was treated for chronic gastralgia and was at his home on leave. Andrews was mustered out of volunteer service in August 1865 after being brevetted as major general. He remained in the army and taught at the United St...