One of the surprise discoveries of my listing my Civil War ancestors was that I have a Brigade Surgeon as a relative. Dr. Frank Gibson Porter was my 2xg-uncle, behind my Dad's mother. His history is rich and will require future fleshing out, but for now let us hear his Civil War record.
From Reavis, L. U. (1881). Saint Louis, the future great city of the world: And its impending triumph. St. Louis: G.A. Pierrot. --
Early in 1861, he joined the Union army as Brigade Surgeon. He remained in the army until the last days of 1865. He was with Generals Totten, Schofield, Herron, Fisk and Grant. He participated in thirteen hard-fought battles; quite a number of minor engagements; was "bushwhacked" three times, and captured once. At the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, single-handed and alone, he turned back two six-gun batteries that were in full retreat, and thus saved the day for the Union. One of his most noted transactions during the war, was the planning and constructing of the most extensive field hospital of the Rebellion, at Hamburg, Tennessee, after the battle of Pittsburg Landing. Harper's Weekly reproduced it, and the New York Herald and Tribune noticed it in the highest terms of praise. The farthest east he was during the war, was Fort Donelson, Tennessee; south, New Orleans; west, Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, and north, Fort Laramie.
In the summer of 1865 he was ordered to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, as his headquarters, where he remained until the last days of the same year, when he was mustered out of the service, carrying with him a commission from the Governor of Missouri, and three from the President of the United States : the first, that of Assistant Surgeon ; the second, that of full Surgeon, and the third, that of Lieutenant-Colonel by brevet.
During the war, for a period of nine months he had charge of the United States Marine Hospital in St. Louis, and aside from this he always held the position of Medical Director while in the army, his appointment being that of General Staff Surgeon, United States Volunteers. Upon his leaving the service he returned to St. Louis, and resumed his profession.
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin W. Walker
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