John M. Covert

Born in Florida, he moved with his family to Charleston, SC, where he was orphaned some years before college age. Shortly after earning his MD in 1855, he went to Portsmouth, VA to assist during a yellow fever epidemic. He remained in practice there until the War. He volunteered for duty 2 September 1861, and was ordered to report to General R.E. Lee (Richmond, VA). He was briefly assigned to the 44th Virginia Infantry, then, in February 1862, to a battalion of North Carolina Volunteers (in Richmond?). He was appointed Assistant Surgeon, First Louisiana Infantry on 28 April 1862, and promoted to Surgeon on 10 June 1862.

He was detailed to stay with wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 (19?) September 1862.

He was back with the Regiment by December 1862. He had served in "Rode's Division Hospital" and was at the Old Capitol Prison (possibly again detailed with the wounded), Washington, DC in July 1864. He as with the Regiment to at least 22 March 1865.

He returned to practice in Virginia. He went to Galveston, TX in 1867 to help with the Yellow Fever there. He moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1869 and established a "large and lucrative practice". He died before reaching 40 years of age.

Basic information from Booth1, with details from his Compiled Service Record at the National Archives. His education from a letter in Chaddock and Matalene's College of Charleston Voices: Campus and Community Through the Centuries (Charleston: The History Press, 2006) and an exhibit from the Waring Library, Medical University of South Carolina. Personal details from his obituary in the Brooklyn Daily Union of 19 February 1872. He married A. Lemar Pendleton in Portsmouth, VA in 1857.

07/25/1832; St. Augustine, FL

02/18/1872; Brooklyn, NY