A. Y. P. Garnett

Alexander Yelverton Peyton Garnett (September 8, 1820 – July 11, 1888) was an American physician. He was President of the American Medical Association, and served Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. He was a graduate of the George Washington University Medical School. Early life Alexander Yelverton Peyron Garnett was born in essex country, September 19th, 1820. He was the son of Muscoe Garnett and Maria Battile, his wife. Among ancestry were many of the best known old families of Virginia. His childhood was spent at his home, and his education conducted under private tutors. Biography Garnett began studying medicine at the University of Pennsylvania at the age of nineteen, and graduated in 1842. After graduation, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Navy. His first cruise was to the Pacific, under Commodore Cornelius Stribling, on the American steamer USS Cyane. On a subsequent cruise to South America, he met his wife, Mary Wise, daughter of then United States Minister to the Court of Brazil, Henry A. Wise. After his marriage he was stationed temporarily at Washington, but later resigned his position in the Navy and began his career as a civilian physician. He was then elected to the chair of Theory and Practice of Medicine in the National Medical College of Columbian University. At the outbreak of the American Civil War his sympathies were with his native state of Virginia; he left Washington for Richmond, Virginia, where he remained until the close of the war. So many of his friends and former patients were in this city that he very soon found himself actively engaged in as large a practice as he had had in Washington. Dr. Garnett was appointed surgeon in the Confederate Army, and placed in charge of two hospitals. He was also a member of the Board of Medical Examiners to examine applicants for admission to the Medical Corps. These positions he continued to hold during the entire war. He was the physician of General Robert E. Lee and family, as well as to the families of Generals Joe Johnston, Wade Hampton, William Preston Johnston, John C. Breckinridge, and of many members of the Confederate Cabinet and Congress.