Item No. 2485280

A signed vignette CDV portrait of F. Noel Burke, a Union Army surgeon who commanded the Jefferson and Gayoso hospitals at Memphis, Tennessee. On the reverse is the imprint of Huntsville, Alabama, photographers Robinson & Murphy. The imprint is dated 1869. The reverse is boldly signed by Burke: “F. Noel Burke / late Surg. U.S.V., / “Army of the West, Army of [trimmed].” The photograph was part of a family album assembled by Bernard John Dowling Irwin, the noted army surgeon, naturalist, and Medal of Honor recipient. The image was trimmed down to about 2 1/4” x 3 1/2”, which has affected some of the handwriting on the reverse.

Burke was placed in charge of the Jefferson Hospital in Memphis, a major general hospital with approximately 500 beds, and later oversaw the even larger Gayoso Hospital, which expanded to some 800 beds. These facilities were among the principal centers for the treatment of Union wounded in the region, and it is certainly here where he and Irwin crossed paths, as Irwin commanded all federal hospitals at Memphis for much of the latter half of the war.