Archive of 8 autograph letters exchanged with Dr. Benjamin Rohrer (1825-1875), surgeon with the 39th Pennsylvania Infantry. Various places, August 1, 1861 - May 3, 1863. 20 pages, 4to and smaller.

Benjamin Rohrer was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on June 18, 1825. He began studying medicine at age 17 under the tutelage of renowned surgeon Dr. Washington Lemuel Atlee (1808-1878) and then graduated from the Pennsylvania Medical College in 1846. By 1850, Rohrer had married Margaret Frey Bockius (1829-1888), and the couple had one daughter, Ida Lillian, born on August 5, 1853. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Rohrer was working in private practice and had also been appointed Notary Public to Columbia by Governor Andrew Gregg Curtin. He immediately resigned his position and received a commission as a surgeon on June 26, 1861 with the 39th Pennsylvania Infantry. Rohrer's service encompassed nearly every phase of the military medical system, from a regimental to surgeon to charge of a general hospital, treating wounded soldiers from Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and. Gettysburg. Later, he was transferred to Germantown, Pennsylvania to operate the local general hospital, and then I 1865, Rohrer was reassigned to Key West, Florida. By war's end, he was brevetted lieutenant colonel by President Andrew Johnson for his meritorious service at the battle of the Wilderness.

Early in the conflict, Rohrer writes to his wife on August 1, 1861 regarding her safety if she and their daughter Ida should choose to visit Rohrer in Washington: "We apprehend no danger whatever from an attack from the Rebels, they are not so foolish as to commit such a suicidal act. Washington is impregnable at this time with near one hundred thousand men in and around, at least we think so and sleep as sound in our tents as if we were in China."

Two letters written in later the war, from both a camp near Harrison's Landing and the Sharpsburg Battlefield, are less rosy. Though the fortified refuge of Harrison's Landing sheltered the Army of the Potomac during the Seven Days' Battle following the retreat from Richmond, some regiments left surgeons behind to tend to wounded men. This strategy, according to one of Rohrer's colleagues, proved futile, as there were "no instruments and very little medicine." Rohrer's regiment did not experience much loss in the battles, but the "sickly climate" of swampy Virginia proved more lethal, and the regiment lost seven men to disease in ten days. 

Around this time, Rohrer also received a letter from John S. McCalmont (1822-1906), a lawyer and former Pennsylvania House Speaker. During the War, McCalmont lead the 10th Pennsylvania Reserve Corps but resigned his command in May of 1862 due to poor health. He writes  after his resignation to Rohrer, who was seemingly involved in his medical care while in the service. McCalmont speculates on the likelihood of the Peninsular Campaign's success, writing: "It seems...the troops will be in for it all summer and fall without the prospect of release. Were Richmond take it would not be so hard for them [but] I suppose that event will not take place for a month or so...McClellan was not reinforced in time...it is evident that the public opinion is very uncertain."

Additional correspondence includes a letter to Rohrer from Surgeon General James King concerning the logistics of transferring Pennsylvania soldiers who were sick or wounded back to the state for care, and letter written by Rohrer's former mentor Washington Atlee to his son, Washington Atlee, Jr. (whose surname was recorded as "Atler" in archival wartime records), who served as a hospital steward in the 39th Pennsylvania under Rohrer.

Also with two letters received by Rohrer's daughter, ida, while her father was at war, including one from the wife of a soldier in the 39th Pennsylvania Infantry who likely received medial treatment from Rohrer. 

[Civil War, Union, Confederate]  [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]