Benjamin Franklin Bache (February 7, 1801–November 1, 1881) was a surgeon in the United States Navy before and during the Civil War. He was a great-grandson of the Revolutionary War statesman and author, Benjamin Franklin.
Bache was born in Monticello, Virginia, graduating from Princeton University in 1819, and from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1823.
He entered the Navy as an assistant surgeon in 1824, and in 1828 was promoted to the rank of surgeon. From 1838 to 1841 he served as fleet surgeon of the Mediterranean Squadron. simultaneously serving as professor of natural science at Kenyon College, Ohio.
Bache was in charge of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum from 1845 to 1847. He then served as fleet surgeon of the Brazil Squadron from 1848 to 1860, and at the Naval Hospital in New York from 1850 to 1854, serving as director of the medical laboratory of the Brooklyn Navy Yard from 1855 to 1872. During the Civil War, the laboratory provided medical supplies to the Union army. Bache retired on February 1, 1868, and in 1871 was appointed medical director with rank of Commodore.
Commodore Bache died at his home on 283 Henry Street, New York, after a short illness on November 1, 1881.
Famous quotes containing the words benjamin franklin, benjamin and/or franklin:
“I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, make the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
“Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph.... Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“We are not certain, we are never certain. If we were we could reach some conclusions, and we could, at last, make others take us seriously.
In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)