This dissertation traces the development of the Union medical service during the Civil War, which established the framework for the modern United States Army Medical Department.

A leading Jeffersonian journalist, Benjamin Franklin Bache was the eldest son of Richard and Sarah (Franklin) Bache, and grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Educated in France and Switzerland, Bache returned to the United States with his grandfather in 1785 and by 1790, had established himself as editor of the Aurora, a newspaper that became one of the most important voices for radical Republicanism in early national Philadelphia. Bache died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1798. His son Franklin Bache became a noted physician and chemist, teaching at the Franklin Institute (1826-1832), the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science (1831-1841), and at Jefferson Medical College. The Castle-Bache Collection contains a diverse assemblage of both personal and professional correspondence relating to the grandson of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin Bache, with interesting material relating to Bache's son, Franklin, and later generations of the Bache family. The collection also includes genealogical materials on the Franklins, Baches, Markoes, and cognate families, as well as a selection of miscellaneous printed materials.

Ernst Krackowizer (1821-1875), father-in-law to the anthropologist Franz Boas (APS 1903), was an Austrian born surgeon who fled Vienna to New York following his involvement as captain of the Academic Legion during the Revolution of 1848. Krackowizer was an active member of New York medical community, helping to found the German Dispensary and Hospital, later renamed Lenox Hill Hospital. During the Civil War, Krackowizer assisted the Union Army as a volunteer surgeon and inspector of military hospitals. Krackowizer is claimed to have been the first on whom the anesthetic effects of chloroform were tested in Vienna and the first to use a laryngoscope in the United States. This collection is comprised of the personal papers of Ernst Krackowizer including diplomas, certificates, correspondence, diaries, and photographs, which document his life and medical career. Krackowizer's experience in the Revolution of 1848 and subsequent flight from Vienna trough Germany to the United States is well detailed in his correspondence to his fiancée and later wife, Emilie Forster, and in his diaries, which make up a significant portion of this collection. Krackowizer firsthand description of the early use of chloroform and the laryngoscope are included, as well as materials documenting his involvement as a volunteer surgeon and hospital inspector during the Civil War. Additionally, the Krackowizer Papers contain material written by others reference the life and work of Ernst Krackowizer.