Information Sheet

 

 

R         Bell, John B., 1827-1896.

119                  Record book, 1860-1875.

                                    One volume, photocopies.

 

 

 

This is a record book kept by John B. Bell, a physician at Potosi in Washington County, Mis­souri.  Bell was a medical examiner of Enrolled Missouri Militia and U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War, and of pension applicants after the war.  The entries include the results of exami­na­tions and descriptions of disabilities.  The pension examinations are indexed.

 

John B. Bell was born on 1 December 1827 in Salisbury, Maryland.  He moved to his grand­fa­ther’s farm in Bellevue Township, Washington County, Missouri, in 1838.  He moved to Potosi in 1844, and as a store clerk there for five years before moving to St. Louis to study medi­cine.  He attended classes at Washington University, graduating in 1853.  Bell served in the medical de­part­ment of the Union army during the Civil War, as medical examiner of recruits of the En­rolled Mis­souri Militia, 1862-1865.  After the war he served as a government pension ex­am­iner for over twenty years, inspecting hundreds of veterans who claimed compensation for dis­abilities suffered while in government service.  Bell died in Potosi in 1896.

 

There are a few entries at the beginning of Bell’s ledger which pertain to his practice before the war.  However, most of the volume is filled with records of the examinations he per­formed for the government during and after the war.  The militia laws provided for medical exemptions from service upon certification by an examining physician, and each recruit re­ported for a medi­cal in­spection.  Bell’s ledger contains the results of his examinations, with brief notes on any ex­emptions allowed.  Among others, Bell inspected the 32nd Regiment of Enrolled Missouri Mili­tia, raised in Hannibal, Missouri, and a group of African-American recruits for an unspecified regi­ment.

 

The pension records, which are indexed, contain more biographical data than do those of the militia examinations.  Each entry includes the name of the claimant, the regiment in which he served, the nature and date of the disability, and Bell’s recommendations to the pension office.  Although most of the claimants were veterans of Missouri volunteer units, Bell also examined ap­plicants who had moved to Missouri after service in regiments from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

 

 

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