The Dead and the Wounded
Photograph of Alfred Richardson Glover, circa 1863.
From the collections of the Boston Medical Library.
Alfred Glover was killed in battle, June 14, 1863 at Port Hudson, Louisiana. Glover’s body was brought back to Massachusetts and buried in Forest Hills Cemetery.
Photograph of Mary Louisa Bodge Glover, circa 1864.
From the collections of the Boston Medical Library.
Mary Louisa Bodge Glover, died on September 10, 1864, of phthisis, though according to Henry A. Willis, historian of the 53rd Regiment, she “it is said, died of grief.”
Letter from Alfred Glover to John Rogers, 30 March 1863.
From the collections of the Boston Medical Library.
Some weeks after the news of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and shortly before his death in battle, Alfred R. Glover wrote this letter to a friend, describing his experiences as a soldier and views on the war. The sword mentioned is probably the one visible in his photograph above.
Traveling homeopathic pharmaceutical kit.
From the collections of the Boston Medical Library.
Pocket pharmaceutical kit belonging to Alfred Richardson Glover of West Roxbury, 1st Lieutenant, Company C, of the 53rd Massachusetts Volunteers during the Civil War. Inscription inside reads: "This medicine case is one of the articles which belonged to the late 1st Lieut. Alfred R. Glover, who was killed in battle, June 14th, 1863, at Port Hudson, La., and was afterward returned to his home."
Photograph of Lucius M. Sargent (1826-1864), circa 1864.
From the collections of the Boston Medical Library.
Lucius M. Sargent, an 1857 graduate of Harvard Medical School, was an accomplished draughtsman and was appointed the first artist of the Massachusetts General Hospital. At the beginning of the war, he became a surgeon with the 2nd Massachusetts Volunteers, then joined the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry in October, 1861, where he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
"Camp near Falmouth, Va"
by Lucius M. Sargent
From the Library of Harvard Medical School.
This drawing, from 1863, is part of a letter to Sargent’s young son, George; he wrote, “I shall try and get leave to come home one of these days. I hope you will be glad to see me when I come. If you are not glad, I shall be very sorry, I can tell you. I have not got anything to love here. All that I’ve got to love in this world is in Jamaica Plains.”
"It's too late, Dr., ye are"
by Lucius M. Sargent
From the Library of Harvard Medical School.
This obstetrical scene is dated November 30, 1864. Dr. S. W. Abbott, a former surgeon with the 1st Massachusetts Cavalry, stated in 1893 that Sargent drew this “while in camp in front of Petersburg …. Nine days afterward he was killed by a Confederate shell while in command of his regiment in an action near Bellfield, Va.”