President Abraham Lincoln Appoints a Surgeon Who Became a Senior-Ranking Medical Officer during the Civil War

The Brigade Surgeon rose to become Medical Director of the Military District of Ohio, overseeing hospitals and caring for the wounded of campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee.

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The highest ranking medical official whose appointment we have ever carried

When the Civil War broke out, Dr. John T. Carpenter rushed to the colors. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned him as an officer and surgeon on April 21, 1861, and he served as Senior Surgeon of the 34th Pennsylvania Reserves. Carpenter...

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President Abraham Lincoln Appoints a Surgeon Who Became a Senior-Ranking Medical Officer during the Civil War

The Brigade Surgeon rose to become Medical Director of the Military District of Ohio, overseeing hospitals and caring for the wounded of campaigns in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The highest ranking medical official whose appointment we have ever carried

When the Civil War broke out, Dr. John T. Carpenter rushed to the colors. Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin commissioned him as an officer and surgeon on April 21, 1861, and he served as Senior Surgeon of the 34th Pennsylvania Reserves. Carpenter was then examined by the United States Army Medical Board at Washington, and promoted to Brigade Surgeon, U. S. Vols., by commission from President Lincoln. That commission was dated March 11, 1862, but was effective retroactively to September 4, 1861.

Carpenter had a talent for organizing hospitals, selecting staff, and supervising patient care. He established the general hospitals for the sick and wounded of Gen. Rosecrans's army, and took charge of them in November 1861. In April 1862 Gen. Fremont named him Medical Purveyor of the Mountain Department, of which Department he was appointed Medical Director on May 10. He next became Medical Inspector of Hospitals in Cincinnati, Ohio, and soon after was appointed Medical Director of hospitals in the Cincinnati vicinity. The Surgeon-General of the U.S. Army placed him as President of the Army Medical Board of Cincinnati, for examination of candidates for Assistant-Surgeons of Volunteers. Gen. Burnside appointed Dr. Carpenter Assistant Medical Director of the Department of Ohio, and in October 1863 Carpenter became Medical Director of the District of Ohio, a very senior post that answered only to the Surgeon General. Carpenter’s district soon was merged into the Department of the Mississippi, thus coming under the leadership of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

The Department of the Ohio played a key role in the Civil War, as did the city of Cincinnati within it. It was a major source of supplies and troops for the Union Army, but as importantly, was charged with directing the army's offensives into Kentucky and Tennessee. And with battles being fought, there was great need for hospital care as close to the battlefields as possible. This led to the opening of a number of military hospitals, as well as conversion of established facilities to take care of the wounded. It was Dr. Carpenter’s task to manage those hospitals. After the war he was President of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania.

Document signed as President, with engravings of an eagle, flags, accoutrements of war, and a white seal, March 11, 1862, being the very document in which President Lincoln appointed Carpenter a Brigade Surgeon. The document has some foxing.

This document is a real rarity, as we have never carried, and in fact don’t ever recall seeing reach the market, a Lincoln appointment of a physician who rose to become such a high ranking medical officer during the Civil War.
 

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