Free Online Presentations

  • Date: Sunday, February 26, 2023
  • Time: 3:00 pm
  • Where: Zoom, pre-registration required (see below)

“A Splendid Specimen of Physical Manhood”: The Post-War Journey of a United States Colored Infantry Soldier

Presented by Dr. Robert Hicks

Prestley Dawson enlisted in the 43rd Regiment, United States Colored Infantry (USCI) in 1864 and trained at Camp William Penn. He participated in fighting at the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, and completed service in Brownsville, Texas. He was lamed from falling breastworks in the Petersburg trenches and contracted malaria while in service. After the war he settled in Maryland and raised a family as a farmer but endured lifelong health problems because of his war experiences. Many studies have examined the general experiences of USCI regiments, but a deeper story emerges when we examine the individual lives of African American veterans. Dawson’s story illustrates how wartime wounds and diseases shaped his post-war life, one example of how veterans defined themselves because of how wounds, disease, and healing altered their bodies.

About the Presenter

Senior Consulting Scholar and William Maul Measey Chair for the History of Medicine of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. For over a decade he served as director of the Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library. He has worked with museum-based education and exhibits for over three decades.
His most recent book, Civil War Medicine: A Surgeon’s Experience, appeared in 2019 by Indiana University Press. This lecture is based on a book in progress, Wounded for Life: Seven Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Readings from Straight to the Point

Dr. Gail A. Dawson, Associate Professor of Management and Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee, commenting and reading poems from her book Straight to the Point relating to her heritage as great granddaughter of Prestley Dorsey/Dawson.

Registration

To reserve a virtual seat for this event send an email to pt@usct.org. You will be sent a link with a password giving you access to the presentation.
We look forward to having you join us.

This program is funded in part by the Jenkinstown Lyceum.


Citizens for the Restoration of Historical La Mott, 1618 Willow Avenue, La Mott, PA 19027
Visit www.usct.org to learn more about Camp William Penn and to search USCT listings.