Joseph Lovell - Life

Life

Joseph Lovell obtained his early education in the Boston schools, after which he entered Harvard College, where he graduated in 1807. He began the study of medicine with Dr. William Ingalls of Boston and graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1811, with the first class to receive the degree of M. D. With the practical certainty of a second war with Britain, Congress passed an act on January 11, 1812 (2 Stat. 671), increasing by thirteen regiments the military forces of the country, and providing a surgeon and two surgeon's mates for each regiment. On May 15, 1812, Lovell was appointed major and surgeon, 9th US Infantry Regiment. With an unusually thorough medical education, he early became an outstanding medical officer. When, late in 1812, the troops were moved to the Canadian border, general hospitals were established at Plattsburg, New York, and at Burlington, Vermont, Lovell was detached from his infantry regiment and placed in command of the Burlington Hospital. During this time, while the hospitals as a whole came under severe criticism the Burlington Hospital was held up as a model of what a hospital should be. Lovell attracted attention not only as a skilled practitioner but as an officer of marked executive ability. In recognition of his exceptional service he was selected for appointment to the grade of hospital surgeon on June 30, 1814. During the latter part of the war his longest service was in the hospital at Williamsville, New York, which received the casualties for the operations along the Niagara River.

In 1817, Lovell, then chief medical officer of the Northern Department, addressed to Major General Jacob Brown, the department commander, a letter dealing with the Sick Report of the Northern Division for the Year ending June 30, 1817, in which he discussed not only the cause of disease in the army, but also gave his views upon the duties of medical officers and their responsibility for the sickness occurring among the troops.