College of Physicians & Surgeons
Civil War Veterans List
This list contains records for 408 alumni of the
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons who served in the American
Civil War from 1861-1865. Information was gathered from the Alumni Directories of
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of 1866, 1880, and 1891; War Records of Graduates and Students Who
Served in the Army and Navy During the Rebellion, a list of Civil War
veterans from all of the schools at Columbia compiled by the University in 1898;
the alumni section of the Columbia University General Catalog of 1906; Trustee and faculty minutes from the
College of Physicians and Surgeons from 1861-1865; and information submitted by descendents of individual alumni.
The Alumni directories and catalogs relied on data supplied
by the alumni themselves as well as information released by the War Department
and individual branches of the military. The authors of those works noted at
the time of publication that they "might not yet be complete," and, while every
effort has been made to ensure accuracy, that is still true today.
The list contains information about alumni from the
Class of 1821 through the Class of 1870. Each record includes the name, date of
graduation, branch of the military/unit, years of service and notes regarding
manner of death for alumni who died or are thought to have died in service. There is no death information for alumni
who did not die in service. If the alumnus served in the US Navy and the
name of his ship(s) could be found, that information is also included.
In addition, there is no
academic or biographical information in the Civil War Veterans list.
Please contact the Archives & Special Collections for further information
about individual alumni.
Note: 19th century student records are generally very sparse, and unfortunately the records
for individuals who graduated between 1858 and 1872 have been lost.
ORGANIZATION
The list is currently available in an Excel spreadsheet. To facilitate research, there are four tabs within the spreadsheet, and the list is organized differently on each tab. The tabs are as follows:
Alphabetical: The alumni are listed alphabetically by last name.
Grad Year: The alumni are listed in order of their graduation year.
By Unit: The alumni are listed by order of their unit.
Notes Alphabetized: The "notes" section of the list has been alphabetized, which brings all of the entries with additional information to the top of the page.
STATISTICS
As of December 2008, Archives & Special Collections
staff has compiled the following statistics:
Total number of
alumni veterans: 408 (Union: 399, Confederate:
9)
Total number of
alumni who died in service: 19, all
Union
Branches of services
represented: Army, Navy (including the Mississippi Squadron) and the
Marines. Some alumni served in more than one branch, most often the Army and
the Navy.
Oldest alumni: Robert C. Wood, 1821, career naval surgeon
Youngest alumni: Henry Thompson Peirce, 1870, medical cadet before entering P&S
Alumni serving with
African-American troops among the Union forces: 8
OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS:
National Park Service Database of Soldiers and Black Sailors
National Archives
Civil War Archive - Regimental histories (Union and Confederate)
ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS CIVIL WAR LIST:
This project was initiated as a corollary to the Columbia
University War Memorial,
and was completed by archivist Jennifer McGillan in Dec. 2008. In the course of
her research for the War Memorial project, McGillan discovered that, unlike the
Spanish American War, WW I and WW II, there was no plaque or formal list created
by the College to memorialize the alumni who had perished in the Civil War. While
searching for the relevant names, she found numerous interesting stories
scattered through the records.
In consequence, McGillan decided to expand the scope of her
search and create a separate list of all P&S Civil War veterans. The Civil War Veterans list was also created in anticipation
of the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War in 2011.
Some of the commonly used abbreviations in the list can be
found below:
AA Surgeon = Acting Assistant Surgeon
Col.
= Colonel or Colored
CSA = Confederate States Army
NYSM =
New
York
State
Militia
USA
=
United States
Army
USN = United States
Navy
USV = United States Volunteers
A formal database to house the information is expected to be
developed in the future. Currently the data is available as an Excel
spreadsheet; to download it, click here.
Updated: 11/4/2009.
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