Surgeon Octavius Augustus White, CSA/MD

Dr. Ocatvius A. White a famous yellow fever expert, died yesterday at his home 1.011 Madison Avenue, in the seventy-eight year of his age. Liver and Kidney trouble was the cause of his death. While a surgeon in the Confederate Army Dr. White was sent into Union lines at Goldsborough, N. C. to treat Northern soldiers afflicted with yellow fever, and in the Confederate prison at Florence, S. C. he won the love of many Union men by his kindness during a similar pestilence. He was born in Charleston, S. C. on February 8, 1826. He was graduated by the College of Charleston in 1846, and by the South Carolina Medical College two years later. He began and continued his practice with success until the opening of the civil war, when he received the commission of surgeon in the Confederate Army., At the close of the war he moved to New York, where he lived until his death. Dr. White first introduced the practice of superficial incisions within the osuteri for the relief of stebotic dysmenorrhea. He made several important medical inventions. He never believed in doctors writing long books on medical science. He held that discoveries were being made with such rapidity that by the time a book was finished principles and opinions expressed in the first part of the volume would be out of date. He was a strong believer in the good of periodical literature on medical subjects, and he put his beliefs into practice. He was a member of the New York Academy of Medicine and of many other medical societies. He was a Master Mason. He was twice married, first to Claudia R. Bellinger of Charleston, S.C. in 1849 and the second time to Elizabeth Winthrop Chanler of New York in 1855. He leaves three children. They are Dr. John Blake White, Mrs. Ledyard Stevens, and Mrs. Berkeley Mostyn of this city. Dr. White Was a contemporary and associate of J. Marions Sims and T. G. Thomas both famous physicians. White was the son of John Blake White and Anna Rachel O'Driscoll, both of Charleston, S.C.

White, Octavius A. BATTLE UNIT NAME: 3rd Battalion, South Carolina Light Artillery (Palmetto Battalion) SIDE: Confederacy COMPANY: F&S SOLDIER'S RANK IN: Surgeon SOLDIER'S RANK OUT: ALTERNATE NAME: O.A./White FILM NUMBER: M381 ROLL 34 PLAQUE NUMBER: NOTES: none