Lafayette Guild

LaFayette Guild (November 25, 1825 – July 4, 1870) was a surgeon in the antebellum United States Army, a noted pioneer in the study of yellow fever, and then a leading medical administrator in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He served directly under General Robert E. Lee as the medical director for the Army of Northern Virginia for all its major campaigns, including the Gettysburg Campaign and the Overland Campaign. Biography Early life and career LaFayette Guild was the third of eight children and second of four sons of Mary Elizabeth Williams (1802–1885) and Dr James L Guild (1799–1884). His mother was a daughter of Agnes Payne (1775–1850) and Judge Marmaduke Williams (1772–1850). His grandmother Agnes was a first cousin of Dolley Madison. Judge Williams was an early settler of Alabama and was the losing candidate in the first Alabama gubernatorial race in 1819; he was also a longtime trustee of the University of Alabama. LaFayette's father was the brother of Judge Josephus Conn Guild (1802–1883) of Tennessee. (See Rose Mont.) A native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Guild briefly moved to Texas but returned to Alabama for college. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1845 and then from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1848. He was appointed as assistant surgeon in the U.S. Army on March 2, 1849. He served in various assignments, then became the medical director of the army post on Governor's Island in New York Harbor.