Image: Dr Samuel E Lewis - former surgeon Confederate States Army - 1904

Description: Half-length portrait of Samuel E. Lewis, M.D., in 1904. Dr. Lewis was an Assistant Surgeon with the Army of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. After the war, he resumed his medical practice in Washington, D.C., in the United States. He was elected Commander of Charles Broadway Rouss Camp No. 1191 of the United Confederate Veterans (UCV), a veterans organization for those who fought for the Confederacy. Lewis inventoried all Confederate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in early fall 1898 as part of Camp 1191's historic documentation efforts. He discovered 136 identifiable Confederate graves at Arlington, far more than the six or seven cemetery officials had assumed there were. In early 1899, his group discovered another 189 graves in the Soldiers' Home National Cemetery in the District of Columbia. On June 5, 1899, Lewis and other Confederate veterans sent a petition to President William McKinley asking that the Confederate dead at Arlington be disinterred and reburied in a "Confederate section". Congress agreed, and on June 6, 1900, McKinley signed legislation establishing a "Confederate Section" at Arlington National Cemetery.
Title: Dr Samuel E Lewis - former surgeon Confederate States Army - 1904
Credit: http://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/luna/servlet/view/search?q=B017527
Author: History of Medicine Division, U.S. National Library of Medicine. photographer unknown.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No