Item No. 5370938

A signed vignette CDV view of James C. McKee, the U.S. Army surgeon who served in prewar New Mexico as well as on the medical staff of General John Pope and General George B. McClellan. McKee signed on the reverse, “truly & fraternally yours, J. C. McKee.” The photographer’s imprint is that of N. Brown & Son of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The image originates from an album assembled by Medal of Honor recipient and fellow surgeon Bernard J. D. Irwin, whose service in New Mexico overlapped with McKee’s.

James Cooper McKee (1830–1891) was appointed assistant surgeon in the United States Army in 1858 and was assigned to frontier duty in New Mexico. He served at Fort Union and Fort Fillmore and participated in campaigns against Native American tribes in New Mexico and Arizona prior to the Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, he was captured and paroled at Fort Fillmore in 1861 before returning to Union service. During the Civil War, McKee served with the Army of Virginia at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Following the Battle of Antietam, he served as assistant medical purveyor at Frederick, Maryland, and later held hospital assignments in Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Promoted to surgeon in 1863, he was placed in charge of Lincoln U.S. Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he remained through the end of the war.