Charles Carroll Gray

From New York, he passed an Army Board in May 1861 and was commissioned Assistant Surgeon, USA on the 28th. He was assigned to the 2nd United States Cavalry (renamed 5th Cavalry in August 1861) and was in action at First Bull Run on 21 July 1861. He set up a field hospital nearby at Sudley Church and was left behind to care for the wounded as the Federal Army retreated back to Washington. He was captured and held at Libby Prison, Richmond, VA, Castle Pinckney, Charleston, SC and in prison camps at Columbia, SC and Salisbury, NC. He was at Salisbury 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 exchanged on 28 July 1862 at City Point, VA, and returned to duty, probably in August 1862.

He arrived at Sharpsburg on 19 September 1862 and was directed to take charge of a hospital at Keedysville, MD. He was chiefly concerned with medical supplies and food for the wounded, and performed only two operations, personally.

He continued in Army medical service to the end of the War. He was honored by brevets on 13 March 1865 to Captain, Major, and Lieutenant Colonel for his War service.

He was promoted to Major and Surgeon, USA on 28 July 1866. He served in the West and his final assignment was as Post Surgeon at Fort Riley, KS in April 1877. He retired from the Army on 10 January 1879.

Basic service from Heitman.1 Bull Run and prison details and the quote above from his own wartime diaries, online from Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina. Personal details from his death notice in Gaillard's Medical Journal (1884) and Geneva Medical College in the Alumni Record and General Catalogue of Syracuse University (1899). His gravesite is on Findagrave. His photograph from the National Library of Medicine, Images from the History of Medicine collection.2

03/29/1838; Chester, NY

11/22/1884; Geneva, NY; burial in Greenmount Cemetery, Burlington, VT