The Biographical Dictionary of America/Woodward, Joseph Janvier

WOODWARD, Joseph Janvier, Jr., surgeon, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 30, 1833; son of Joseph Janvier and Elizabeth Graham (Cox) Woodward; grandson of William Wallis and Susana (Janvier) Woodward, and of Justice and Betsey (Paschall) Cox; and a descendant of Col. Moses Woodward, of Portsmouth, N.H., who served in the Revolutionary war and in the war of 1812 and whose ancestor, Nathaniel Woodward, came from England to Massachusetts in 1630, settling on land granted him by the crown, near Roxbury, Mass., also descendant of the French Janviers; of Peter Cock (spelled later Cox), who landed on the Delaware, from Sweden with Governor Printz:, in 1642, and of the English Quaker Thomas Paschall, who followed William Penn to America, in 1802, holding letters patent from the British crown. Joseph J. Woodward was graduated from Philadelphia Central High school, A.B., 1850, A.M., 1855, studied medicine with Prof. George B. Wood, and was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., 1853. He began practice in his native city, formed a class for instruction in the use of the microscope and in pathological anatomy, subsequently becoming demonstrator in operative surgery, clinical surgical assistant and head of the surgical clinic of the University of Pennsylvania. He was married, Sept. 17, 1858, to Evelina Physic, daughter of Edward and Mary Emmons, of Port Deposit, Md., who died June 30, 1866. His second wife, to whom he was married Feb. 10, 1870, and who died March 30, 1895, was Blanche Wendell, daughter of Cornelius and Mary (Hinkley) Wendell, of Washington, D.C. When the civil war broke out he tendered his services to the U.S. government, was commissioned Aug. 5, 1861, and served as assistant surgeon, 2d artillery, Army of the Potomac; as chief medical officer of the 5th division, department of Northeast Virginia, and also of Kearny's division, Army of the Potomac. He was assigned to duty in the surgeon-general's office, Washington, D.C., May 19, 1862, and thenceforth was engaged in organizing hospitals, in building up and conducting the Army Medical Museum, of which he was appointed curator, and in writing the Medical History of the War of the Rebellion. After the war he was brevetted captain, major and lieutenant-colonel for "faithful and meritorious services;" was promoted, July 28, 1866, to the rank of captain and assistant surgeon, and to that of major and surgeon, June 26, 1876. He was president of the Army Medical association, of the American Medical association, and of the American Philosophical society: was elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (1873), and also to membership in numerous other scientific organizations. He was a skilful practitioner and a most accurate diagnostician. He was a voluminous writer on medicine and the collateral sciences, and his contributions were welcomed by every medical and scientific periodical. He is perhaps best known by his Outlines of the Chief Camp Diseases of the U.S. Armies (1863), his work on Typho-Malarial Fever, and his Medical History of the War of the Rebellion (2 vols., 1870-79), pronounced "the most colossal professional work ever published in the United States." On July 2, 1881, Dr. Woodward was detailed by the surgeon-general, at the request of the secretary of war, as one of the staff surgeons to attend President Garfield, after the latter's assassination. The labors, anxiety and long, close confinement connected with his conduct of the case proved a tremendous strain on his health, already impaired by overwork, and hastened his death. Accurate notes of the Garfield case had been kept by him in view of publication, but he never prepared them for press. He frequently declined urgent invitations from medical colleges to accept chairs and devote himself to teaching. His sister. Aubertine Woodward Moore (q.v.), became an author and musician of note. Dr. Woodward died near Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 17, 1884.