Item No. 6830098

A vignette CDV portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Bennett A. Clements, the U.S. Army surgeon best known for serving as medical director of the 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac. On the reverse is the imprint of New York photographer George G. Rockwood. Clements is identified in period ink at the base of the mount in the handwriting of fellow army surgeon Bernard J. D. Irwin, the noted recipient of the Medal of Honor (the two likely met while serving in New Mexico right before the Civil War). The carte measures about 2 1/2” x 4” and has slightly trimmed corners.

Clements was a career Army surgeon whose service spanned both the Civil War and the western frontier. Appointed assistant surgeon in 1856, he was actively engaged in the care of wounded during the early campaigns of the war. He soon rose to Medical Director of the 5th Corps, Army of the Potomac, and later to Assistant Medical Director during the Gettysburg Campaign. Clements later oversaw major military hospitals, including duty in New York City, through the close of the war.