JOSEPH K. BARNES, PHYSICIAN TO PRESIDENTS, WAS HERE

By Juan Montoya
It is a known fact that the majority of the future Civil War generals on either side cut their teeth with Zachary Taylor at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma.
Within the army that Taylor commanded were no less than 37 future generals who would participate on both sides in the in the Civil War, not to mention two future presidents, U.S. Grant and Taylor.
A third future president – Franklin Pierce – was an officer in the forces of Winfield Scott when he invaded Mexico through Veracruz, as was Robert E. Lee, an engineer and future military leader of the Confederate States of America.
And Joseph K. Barnes, who was with Taylor at Palo Alto, went on to became the Surgeon General of the United States and was present at the theater when President Abraham Lincoln was shot and assisted with his care.
Staff in the upper ranks of the U.S. Army was filled by oratorical veterans of 1812, some of them approaching senility. It had a good many brilliant officers who had been well trained at West Point and were now to serve an apprenticeship that would fit them for the more serious business that was to follow in the civil war.
To get an idea of the characters who fought together at Palo Alto – the first encounter between the Mexican army and Taylor’s troops – 23 future Union generals were, as were another 14 generals who would eventually join the Confederacy.
Also, during the siege of Ft. Brown, six future Union generals participated, and nine future CSA generals were also there.
Barnes not only attended to Lincoln after he was shot at Ford’s Theater as U.S. Surgeon General, but also was one of the eminent surgeons who, for days and nights, served with devoted duty in the sick chamber of the dying President James K. Garfield. after he was shot.
For days and nights, Barnes served with devoted duty in the sick chamber of the dying president. During these long protracted hours of anxiety and care his own health gave way, and from that moment to the time of his death he was an invalid.
Who was Joseph K. Barnes?
Barnes was born on July 21, 1817, in Philaelphia Pennsylvania to a federal judge. After his medical studies, he entered the service as assistant surgeon June 15, 1840.
In 1842, Barnes was assigned to Fort Jesup, Louisiana, where he remained until 1846, when with the beginning of the Mexican American War.
He joined the 2nd U.S. Dragoons en route to Corpus Christi to join the army being mobilized for the invasion of Mexico from the north. He served with the cavalry column of Major General Zachary Taylor's army during its advance to Monterrey.
Then, When President James Polk grew disillusioned with Taylor's slow [progress in the ninvasion of northern Mexico and the Mexican's intransigence with negotiating the sale of California, he was transferred to Lt. General Winfiled Scott's forces before the Mexicna port of Veracruz.
He served with Major General William Eorth's division during the siege and capture of that city. During the advance upon Mexico City, he was the chief surgeon of the cavalry brigade and participated in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco and Molino del Rey, in the storming of Chapultepec and the capture of the capital.
According to his biographers, during the thirteen years that intervened between this time and the Civil War, Barnes served in a succession of posts in widely separated parts of the country. He served at Fort Croghan and other posts in Texas, in the plains country at Fort Scott, Fort Leavenworth, and Camp Center (now Ft. Riley) on the Pacific coast at San Francisco, Fort Vancouver and the Cascades, while between times he saw tours of duty at Baltimore, Ft. McHenry,  Philadelphia, and West Point.
He was promoted surgeon, with rank of major, Aug. 29, 1856; medical inspector, with rank of lieuten ant colonel, Feb. 9, 1863; medical inspector gen eral, with the rank of colonel, Aug. 10, 1863; and surgeon general, with the rank of brigadier general, Aug. 22, 1864.
On April 14, 1865, at the time of the assassination of President Lincoln, and the the attempted assassination of Secretary of State Wiliam H. Seward, Barnes attended the death bed of Lincoln and ministered to the successful restoration of Seward.
The morning after Abraham Lincoln’s death, Barnes, oversaw his autopsy.
In  1881, during the long struggle of PresidentGarfield  to live after being shot, Barnes was one of the surgeons who for weeks served in the chamber of the dying president.
He died April 5, 1883 (aged 65) in Washington, D.C.