John Frazier Head: A Life of Service in the U.S. Army (1821–1908)

John Frazier Head, United States Army officer and surgeon, was born to Boston lawyer and Massachusetts state representative George Edward Head and Hannah (Catlin) Head on January 9, 1821, in Boston, Massachusetts. School records show that he attended Chauncy Hall School in Boston in 1834. He earned a master of arts in 1840 from Yale University and then attended the Tremont Street Medical School in Boston from 1841 to 1842 and studied under Dr. Jacob Bigelow at Harvard University, where he earned another masters degree and his doctorate in medicine in 1843. John F. Head was employed at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1843 to 1844 before being appointed assistant surgeon, attached to U.S. Artillery, on August 6, 1846. He was officially accepted into the U. S. Army on August 13, 1846. Soon after he was commissioned, Head married Katherine Apthorp in August  1846 in New York City. They had a son.

Head was sent to South Texas in November 1846 to join the garrison at Fort Brown, where he served until January 1847. Head was attached to Gen. Winfield Scott’s army in the Mexican War. Following the war, Head was assigned to Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory, from November 15, 1848, through March 1849. Then he went to another Minnesota post—Fort Gaines—from April 1850 until August 22, 1853. While Head was stationed at Fort Gaines, the post was renamed after Brig. Gen. Eleazer Wheelock Ripley in December 1850. In August 1853 Assistant Surgeon Head was ordered to New York City and was soon assigned to Fort Independence, at Boston, Massachusetts, from October 1853 to December 1853.

In May 1854 Assistant Surgeon Head was transferred to the Department of Texas and assigned to Fort Ewell (in present-day La Salle County), where he replaced Dr. Edward W. Johns. Head served at Fort Ewell from May 1854 to September 18, 1854. Upon his arrival in early May 1854, he was put in temporary command of the post. Head was transferred to Fort Merrill, Texas (present-day Live Oak County) one month prior to the closing of Fort Ewell. He served at Fort Merrill from September 20, 1854, to December 1, 1855, when the post was abandoned. Head’s next duty station was Ringgold Barracks, Texas (present-day Starr County) where he served from December 12, 1855, to November 1856.

On December 13, 1856, Head reported to Fort Brooke, Florida, where he served until February 7, 1857, when he was transferred to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, on September 3, 1857. During his tenure at this post, Head served as medical director of the Department of Dacotach, which was headquartered at St. Paul. Upon leaving Minnesota, he was stationed at Fort Mackinac, Michigan, from June 1858 to October 4, 1859. At some point during the decade, Head was reported to have toured Europe, where he studied the hospital systems and techniques of the armies of that continent. Before reporting at Fort Hoskins, Oregon, Head was promoted to surgeon on September 6, 1860, and was ordered to Oregon by way of the Missouri and Columbia rivers. He arrived at Fort Hoskins on November 23, 1860, and continued to serve there until October 1861.

In January 1862 Surgeon Head was appointed chief medical officer at the United States Military Academy (USMA), located at West Point. His appointment was relatively short-lived as he left the post in July 1862. Head was then appointed medical director at Louisville, Kentucky, where he oversaw thirty hospitals during 1862 and 1863. Head served as a member of the medical board at Columbus, Ohio, where he served from 1863 through 1864. On October 18, 1864, Surgeon Head was reappointed to the position of chief medical officer, USMA, at West Point, where he served until August 1867.

On March 13, 1865, Surgeon John Frazier Head was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel and cited for faithful and meritorious service. Following the Civil War, he was made post surgeon at Fort Adams, Rhode Island, where he served from July 16, 1868, until July 1870. Surgeon Head was promoted to full lieutenant colonel on June 26, 1876. In 1878 he returned to his native Boston, where he served at Fort Independence from September 6, 1878, through August 1879. The 1880 census recorded Head and his family as residing in Boston, Massachusetts.

On June 30, 1882, he was promoted to colonel and retired at this rank on January 9, 1885. The 1900 census listed Head and his family in Washington, D. C. The retired surgeon had fragile health and often wintered in a milder climate. John Frazier Head died on February 5, 1908, in Nassau, Bahamas. He was buried at the Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut. While his rank upon leaving the military rested at colonel, Head’s obituary and headstone indicate him as brigadier general.