17 Facts About Lafayette Guild

LaFayette Guild was a surgeon in the antebellum United States Army, a noted pioneer in the study of yellow fever, and then a leading medical administrator in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

LaFayette Guild was the third of eight children and second of four sons of Mary Elizabeth Williams and Dr James L Guild.

Lafayette Guild's mother was a daughter of Agnes Payne and Judge Marmaduke Williams.

Lafayette Guild's grandmother Agnes was a first cousin of Dolley Madison.

Lafayette Guild graduated from the University of Alabama in 1845 and then from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1848.

Lafayette Guild was appointed as assistant surgeon in the US Army on March 2,1849.

Lafayette Guild served in various assignments, then became the medical director of the army post on Governor's Island in New York Harbor.

Lafayette Guild studied the impact of the quarantine station, and found that isolating ill soldiers and United States Navy sailors did not prevent the spread of certain diseases such as yellow fever.

Lafayette Guild's observations were used to combat and limit an outbreak of yellow fever in 1856.

In July 1861, still with the rank of assistant surgeon, Lafayette Guild was dismissed from the Federal army after refusing to take the oath of allegiance.

Lafayette Guild subsequently traveled to the South and accepted a surgeon's commission in the Confederate forces in Richmond, Virginia.

Lafayette Guild became chief surgeon and medical director of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862 after Robert E Lee replaced Gen.

Lafayette Guild remained in that role until the army's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

Lafayette Guild was often frustrated by the inability of the Confederate government to maintain a consistent source of medical supplies to the army in the field.

Lafayette Guild served for much of the war as Lee's personal physician and medical consultant, and from the Siege of Petersburg until the end of the war, he was often accompanied by his wife Martha Aylette Fitts "Pattie" Lafayette Guild, who moved to Virginia to be near her husband.

Lafayette Guild published many of his observations, which formed the basis for future research in combating the deadly disease.

Lafayette Guild died in San Francisco, California, and was interred in Evergreen Cemetery in his native Tuscaloosa, Alabama.