Civil war confederate surgeon William R. Robinson received his undergraduate education at the West Point Military Academy from 1845-1849 and medical education at the Medical Department of the Univerity of New York from 1853-1857. Dr. Robinson would have been exposed to the use of the stethoscope for auscultation during his clinical courses at Bellevue Hospital under the tutelage of renown professors such as Valentine Mott, the "father" of American surgery, and John Metcalfe, who taught the course on "Physical Diagnosis and Diseases of the Chest." After graduaton, Dr. Robinson was appointed Assistant Physician at the Seamen's Retreat Hospital on Staten Island, NY based on a letter of recommendation from his teacher Valentine Mott. In 1860, he moved to Galveston, Texas where he was again recommended as a superb physician by Dr. Mott. At the start of the civil war, he joined the Texas Rangers and was appointed an Assiatant Surgeon of the Texas Volunteer Forces, Provincial Army on Decemeber 10, 1861. He served in the 3rd Regimen of the Arizona Brigade in northern Texas and as Director of the confederate general hospital in Columbus, Texas. Towards the end of the war, he was an Acting (contract) Assistant Surgeon for the union army prison on Ship's Island, Mississippi. Dr. Robinson eventually returned to Newark, New Jersey where he practiced until his death in 1889. Dr. Robinson's journey is just one example of a West Point cadet serving in the confederate army during the civil war that divided family and friends into north and south camps.
Excerpt from Dr. Robinson's letter on April 28, 1861 to his father from Port Sullivan, Texas. Dr. Robinson states "War has commenced! Abe Lincoln has thrown the first stone! The South will fight to the last - The result will be a long and bloody war."
Excerpt of letter on 17 Nov 1862 addressed to "Doctor Robinson Principal Director Hospital Columbus, Texas" and signed "Henry L. Webb Inspector Genl. Dept. of Texas." In this letter Henry Webb tells Dr. Robinson that "W.E.B. Howe of Col. Elmore's regiment is ordered to Columbus hospital. He is dying to go home to Hemstead to his family. If possible I wish you would gratify him and let him report to you at the end of such time as you think he will be able for duty. Mr. Howe had 3 brothers killed in the first battle of Manassas and two in this last fight, much is due to his family."