Harvard Club of Washington, DC

Introducing Zabdiel Boylston Adams ex 1849, MD 1853, Surgeon & Soldier

This presentation by Jon Willen, MD, will discuss the many aspects of Dr. Adams' fascinating life and career. A full three-course buffet dinner with wine and beer will begin the program.

In the American Civil War,.Zabdiel  Boylston Adams served as both a surgeon in the 32nd Massachusetts and an infantry officer in the 56th Massachusetts. A Boston native, he was a descendent of both the Boylston and Adams families of Boston. After initially attending Harvard College, he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1849 and subsequently from Harvard Medical School in 1853.

After operating steadily for two days and three nights after the battle of Gettysburg, Dr. Adams became blind and was subsequently mustered out of the medical service, only to reenlist as an infantry officer after regaining his sight in 1864.He was wounded in the left leg at the battle of the Wilderness, and was taken prisoner by the Confederate Army. Refusing leg amputation, he successfully self-treated his wound. After being paroled from Libby prison in October 1864, he rejoined  his regiment and  was again wounded during the siege of Petersburg.

After the Civil War he practiced medicine in Framingham, Massachusetts. He died in 1902 after falling off the Metropolitan Waterworks dam in Southborough, Massachusetts.His great grandson Mitchell Adams is the former vice chair of the executive committee of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.

Read more about Dr. Adams in the Harvard Gazette.

Dr. Jon Willen -- Biography

Dr. Jon Willen s a retired infectious disease specialist currently residing in Washington, DC. He received his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and completed an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center.

He subsequently completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the UCLA Center  for the Health Sciences in Los Angeles, where he was engaged in the practice of infectious diseases for  37 years before retiring in 2014.

Dr. Willen is a reenactor, lecturer, and researcher in the field of Civil War Medicine. He is a speaker and docent for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine  in Frederick, Maryland, and the Clara Barton Office of Missing Soldiers in Washington, DC, and serves on the board of directors of the Society of Civil War Surgeons. Currently, he is researching a book on Dr. Charles Leale, the first physician to attend to President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre on the night of his assassination on April 14, 1865.