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Military Images, Jul/Aug 1999 by Beck, Michael, Valentine, Scott, Lyon, Robert, Fitzpatrick, Michael, Et al

On the rainy night of May 8, 1865, Blewitt and several companions were away from the hospital. Whether or not they were on official business is not known. Finding the carriage seat wet as they prepared to return to the barracks, Blewitt turned the seat cushion over in order to have the dry side to sit on, and in doing so hc punctured the palm of his right hand on a rusty nail. Early the next morning, a surgeon was summoned to Blewitt's room. There he found the steward suffering convulsions, signaling the onset of an acute tetanus infection. The surgeon was unable to do anything to save his patient. Twelve hours into the attack, Blewitt's jaws were set, rigidly locked. He continued having frequent convulsions, gaining in severity, until he died just under thirty hours after the attack began. Blewitt had avoided the grim reaper during four years of war, only to have his fate catch up with him during the first days of peace. -- Chris Jordan

Carte de visite by H.C. Phillips & Bro., Philadelphia. Blewitt is pictured in his VRC uniform. Note veteran stripes on sleeves and the script "MS" on his cap, reflecting his position as a hospital steward in the Medical Service.

William D. Lee, M.D. Contract Surgeon

William Lee, M.D. entered the Federal records in October 1863, when he was hired as a contract surgeon (a rank also called "acting assistant surgeon") at Camp Douglas, Illinois, providing care for the Confederate prisoners there. The following month, this Memphis-born physician took the Oath of Allegiance, and described how he and his family had been driven from his native Tennessee, because of his activities with the Union League.

A few months later, the city police in Chicago arrested a William R. Messick and found in his pockets many letters from John B. Messick (William's brother and a prisoner at Camp Douglas), a receipt that John had received $20 from Dr. Lee, and the carte-de-visite shown here. On the reverse is printed "D. F. Brandon, Photographer, Camp Douglas, Ill." Above that, in Lee's own hand, is: "Dr. W. D. Lee, M.D., Camp Douglas, Dec. 22'd, 1863." Lee's only defense was that he had known the Messicks before the war, through church, and was only trying to be helpful.

Lee was convicted of smuggling a total of $35 into the prison (enough to bribe a guard) and with smuggling letters out, also a serious offense. Hc was sentenced to two years of prison.

Incarcerated at Fort Delaware, Lee impressed Brigadier General Albin F. Schoepf, the prison's commander, and the post surgeon, Dr. C. E. Goddard. Schoepf wrote that Lee was a wellbehaved prisoner and provided valuable health services to the Confederate officer prisoners. The effects of prison life and the deaths of his two children wore Lee down, and Schoepf recommended early release; Surgeon Goddard reported Lee to bc a "competent and useful doctor." In September of 1864, Lee was released and quickly applied for another Army post; his request was rejected on grounds of his previous conviction. Again, Schoepf intervened, sending a letter to the Surgeon General on Lee's behalf. By early 1865, Lee had another Army contract, this time signed in New Orleans. For the next eighteen months he worked at Baton Rouge, doing sick call and visiting the "cholera tents."