Levi Lewis Dorr

Levi Lewis Dorr (April 1840 – September 10, 1934) was an American Civil War veteran and physician. He served at the Battle of Antietam, and as a physician was one of the original faculty of Cooper Medical College, the predecessor to Stanford University School of Medicine.

Early life and Civil War

Levi Lewis Dorr was born in Brockton, Massachusetts (known at the time as North Bridgewater) in 1840 to Rufus and Eliza (née Perkins) Dorr as the 4th of their nine children. He and the family lived in Duxbury, MA for the majority of his childhood. As a teen he worked for his father who was a blacksmith. He appeared on the crew list as a cabin boy for the Bark Wyman in 1959 bound for Brazil. The ship departed from the port of Salem on February 16 and returned June 2, 1859, making two stops in the states of Pará and Maranhão of Brazil. The exact mission of this trip is unknown.

By 1861, Dorr was working in Massachusetts as a clerk when the Civil War broke out. He quickly enlisted as a private in the 13th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, Company B. During his period of service he most notably fought in the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. He was severely wounded in the leg which forced him to leave from active combat. He later wrote he was glad to have fought in the battle, despite the injury, due to its significance in the war, writing the battle was “probably next to Gettysburg in its immediate importance.”

After the injury, he was moved to the Invalid Corps and was sent to the Douglas Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., to serve as a nurse. It was here that he first gained experience in the medical field. He began taking classes at Georgetown University in 1864, apparently introduced to this opportunity by the Hospital Steward George Hanawalt who was enrolled there. Dorr was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on March 28, 1864. In the interim, Dorr held the position of coroner for the City and County of San Francisco from December 3, 1877, until at least mid-1880. In 1882, the Medical Department was transformed into a new institution, the Cooper Medical College; Dr. Dorr was appointed to its original faculty on November 2, 1882, as Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics.