James Langstaff Dunn

By September 1850, a recent medical school graduate, he had a practice in Conneautville/Spring Township, Crawford County, PA which he continued to the start of the war. In April 1861 he enlisted as a Private in Company D of the Erie Regiment for 3 months. He may afterward have had service in Company H of the 83rd Pennsylvania Infantry, though he's not found in official records with them. He enrolled and mustered as Surgeon of the 109th Pennsylvania Infantry on 6 March 1862.

He was Brigade Surgeon and served at a 12th Army Corps field hospital on the Joseph Poffenberger Farm at Sharpsburg during and after the battle on 17 September 1862. Clara Barton later wrote of meeting him there:

Arriving at a little wicker gate, I found the dooryard of a small house and myself face to face with one of the kindest and noblest surgeons I have ever met, Dr. Dunn of Pennsylvania.

He served through the war in medical posts with the 12th and 20th Army Corps and was on Sherman's "March to the Sea." He transferred to the 111th Pennsylvania Infantry as the 109th consolidated with them on 31 March 1865 and mustered out with them on 6 April 1865.

He returned to his medical practice in Conneautville, PA, then moved to Titusville, PA in 1869 and was a physician and surgeon there to at least 1906, then 80 years old. He died in 1908 after being injured in an elevator accident.

His service basics from Bates.1 Personal details from family genealogists, his obituary in the Meadville Evening Republican of 15 January 1908, a brief piece about him by Betsy Estilow (2016), and the US Census of 1850-1900. His gravesite is on Findagrave, source also of his picture, from a photograph contributed by Scott D Hann from his collection.

He married Temperance Osborne (1824-1908) in November 1849 and they had 4 children.

09/09/1825; Meadville, PA

01/14/1908; Titusville, PA; burial in Woodlawn Cemetery, Titusville, PA