Researcher Richard Swanson take a close look at Union surgeons from the Civil War

Union surgeons in camp Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Join researcher Richard Swanson on September 22 at 1:30 PM at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine as he takes a close look at Army and Naval Civil War surgeons from Michigan.

Mr. Swanson will present his extensive research on the University of Michigan Medical School graduates who volunteered for service. In 1861, there were a number of proprietary schools in existence but the University of Michigan was one of the few fully accredited schools outside of major eastern cities. Most of the graduates served in Michigan regiments but because this school attracted students from the east, they returned to their homes and served in local regiments.

Mr. Swanson will also discuss many of the west Michigan physicians, identifying their families, their training, and their lives after military service. Many of them returned to medical practice and others also became involved in civic and political matters. Even though the state of Michigan experienced no actual combat, the fervor to serve was quite high which resulted in higher averages of men serving than from most other states. As a consequence a large number of physicians served with the local regiments.

The presentation begins at 1:30 in the Delaplaine Randall Conference Room and is included with admission to the museum; The presentation is FREE for museum members.

Richard Swanson is a 1971 graduate of Creighton University School of Medicine, located in Omaha Nebraska with an internship at Highland General Alameda County Hospital in Oakland, California and an Internal Medicine Residency at the Naval Regional Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia. He subsequently practiced in Evansville Indiana and was on the faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine, leaving as a Full Clinical Professor of Medicine. After moving to Michigan, he was on the initial faculty of the new Homer Stryker Western Michigan School of Medicine. Now retired, he continues to visit and research Civil War battlefields.