Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Lucius M. Sargent, Surgeon and Medical Artist

From: collections.countway.harvard.edu


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.

Image 2: "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.”


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