Sanborn, Eben Kimball
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MILITARY SERVICE Age: 36, credited to Rutland, VT Unit(s): 1st VT INF, 31st MA INF Service: comn SURG, 1st VT INF, 4/26/61 (4/26/61), m/o 8/15/61; comn SURG, 31st MA INF, 2/20/62, d/dis 4/3/62, Ship Island, MS (typhoid fever) See Legend for expansion of abbreviations VITALSBirth: 01/24/1828, New Chester, NH Death: 04/03/1862 Burial: Lowell Cemetery, Lowell, MA Marker/Plot: Lot 728 Washington Avenue Gravestone researcher/photographer: Heidi McColgan Findagrave Memorial #: 0 (There may be a Findagrave Memorial, but we have not recorded it) MORE INFORMATION Alias?: None noted Pension?: Yes, widow Harriet W. A., 2/11/1869 Portrait?: Unknown College?: Not Found Veterans Home?: Not Found (If there are state digraphs above, this soldier spent some time in a state or national soldiers' home in that state after the war) Remarks: None DESCENDANTS (Are you a descendant, but not listed? Register today) |
BURIAL: Copyright notice   Lowell Cemetery, Lowell, MA Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may be buried there. |
Eben K. Sanborn
EBEN K. SANBORN, M. D.
Dr. E. K. Sanborn was born in New Chester, N. H., January 24, 1828. His father, who was also a physician, died when he was thirteen years old. Having chosen the profession of medicine, he pursued his studies under the direction of his uncle, Dr. Gilman Kimball of this city. Dr. Sanborn early in his career gave evidence of a high degree of professional attainments and soon reached an enviable position among the younger members of the profession.
In 1853, at the age of twenty-six, he filled the chair as lecturer on pathological anatomy in the medical college in Vermont. The following winter he went abroad, and spent several months attending the clinics in the hospitals of England and Germany.
After returning to this country he was appointed a teacher of anatomy at the Berkshire Medical Institution. For some time he also filled the chair of surgery in the same school.
After the breaking up of the school in Vermont with which he was first connected, he received an appointment in the .medical institution located at Castleton, Vt., at the same time establishing himself in practice at Rutland.
Dr. Sanborn is said to have possessed rare acquirements as a teacher, and had he remained in that capacity, he would doubtless have attained to a high position among the medical instructors in this country. He early in his practice commenced to use his pen in recording his observation of cases, methods of treatment, and such other information as he thought would be useful to him in later years. His communications to medical journals, although few in number, showed original thought and study, and covered a wide range of subjects, especially in his special department of anatomy and surgery.
The following are some of the subjects of the papers which he prepared, and which may be of interest to the profession: "Fractures of the Patella, treated by Adhesive Straps"; "Ligamentous Union of the Radius and Ulna, treated by Drilling and Wiring, after Failure by other Means"; "Ununited Fracture of the Humerus cured by the same method"; "ANew Method of Treating large Erectile Tumors, with a Review of the Pathology of the Disease and the Different Modes of Treatment." This last is said to have been a most exhaustive treatment on that subject, showing not only remarkable success in a given case, but furnishing also suggestions of general application to this particular class of disease.
Upon the breaking out of the rebellion he was one of the first to offer his services in behalf of his country. In April, 1861, he was commissioned as surgeon to the First Volunteer Regiment of Vermont. He was first stationed at Fortress Monroe, and soon after he was ordered to Newport News as post surgeon, where he established, though on a small scale, the first hospital erected during the war.
It was while at Fortress Monroe that his real worth and efficient service were recognized by Gen. B. F. Butr ler, who solicited his future service as surgeon of theThirty-first Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. This proposition was accepted, and with a commission from Gov. Andrew, he joined his regiment on board the illfated steamship "Mississippi," whose record of disasters and perils is well known by every student of history.
But his brilliant career was destined to be short, for as soon as he reached Ship Island "he had become sadly prostrated, both in mind and body, by the unremitted fatigues and anxiety of the voyage, so that in less than two weeks from the day of disembarking he sank away without showing any evidence of actual disease, apparently from mere physical exhaustion." His death occurred April 3, 1862, at the age of thirty-five. His remains were taken to Lowell for burial.
Upon the occasion of his death Gen. Butler remarked: "The service lost a good officer, the profession an able member, and the country a patriot and good citizen."