behind AotW

Assistant Surgeon Charles Carroll Gray was at First Bull Run in July 1861 and was left behind to care for the wounded. He was captured and held at various camps and prisons, finally at Salisbury, NC. He was still there on Independence Day 1862, which was “celebrated with music, reading of the Declaration of Independence, and sack and foot races in the afternoon, and also a base ball game.”

He was finally exchanged on 28 July 1862 at City Point, VA and returned to duty in August. He arrived at Sharpsburg, MD on 19 September 1862 and was directed to take charge of a hospital at Keedysville, MD treating the wounded of Antietam.

He served to the end of the War then continued in the Regular Army, being promoted to Major and Surgeon, USA in July 1866. He was in the West and his final assignment was as Post Surgeon at Fort Riley, KS in April 1877. He retired in January 1879.

The lithograph here is from the Library of Congress.