Washington George Nugent

He first practiced medicine in Norristown, Montgomery County, PA and moved to Pittston, Luzerne County, PA in about 1855. In 1860 he was a 39 year old physician living in Pittston. By April 1861 he had joined the Doylestown Guards, a militia company (later part of the 25th Pennsylvania Infantry, a 3-month unit, Colonel Cake, commanding), as a Private. He left them shortly after they reached Camp Scott in Washington, DC to muster as the Assistant Surgeon of the 14th Pennsylvania Infantry for their 3 month term, on 30 April 1861. They mustered out on 7 August and he enrolled again and mustered at Pottsville as the original Assistant Surgeon of the 96th Pennsylvania Infantry on 23 September 1861.

He resigned his post with the 96th Infantry on 12 September 1862 to accept appointment as Surgeon of the 126th Pennsylvania Infantry, a new 9-month unit. He was probably with them when they arrived at the battlefield of Antietam on 18 September 1862. Colonel Cake of the 96th wrote after the battle of Antietam:

I regret being compelled to report that our surgeons invariably leave upon the bursting of the first shell near the regiment. This has always heretofore deprived us of their services on the field, though I believe it is custom to report for duty at the hospitals after engagements. This regiment would be quite as well off if its surgeons were left at hospitals, Dr. Nugent having been promoted to the One hundred and twenty-sixth.

He mustered out with the 126th Pennsylvania on 20 May 1863. He enrolled yet again, as Surgeon of the 20th Regiment, Emergency Militia of 1863 on 22 June and they mustered out on 10 August 1863. He then served as a contract surgeon and Acting Assistant Surgeon at the post and prison hospital at Fort Delaware from November 1863 to June 1865.

By 1870 he was again practicing medicine in Pittston.

His service basics from Bates,1 the Card File,2 and Capt. William W.H. Davis' History of the Doylestown Guards (1887). Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860 & 1870. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture is from a copy of a photograph [pdf] in the collection of the Fort Delaware Society Archives.

He married Sarah Davis Thomas (1825-1904) in April 1848 and they had 3 children; the first two died very young. He was physically separated from her by 1860 and in 1870 was living with a woman named Mary Nugent (c. 1833-) and his daughter Minnie (c. 1854-).

His great granddaughter Maria Randall Allen compiled and edited his wartime correspondence in My darling wife: The letters of Washington George Nugent, Surgeon, Army of the Potomac (1994).

12/20/1821; Philadelphia, PA

03/09/1877; Doylestown, PA; burial in West Pittston Cemetery, West Pittston, PA