CWRTDC'S PREVIOUS MEETING
About the Topic:
Dr. George Loring Porter was a young Civil War combat surgeon when he was transferred to the Washington Arsenal in 1864. In 1865 he was assigned the duty to secretly bury John Wilkes Booth on the Arsenal grounds. Soon after the Arsenal was reconverted to a Federal penitentiary to imprison the Lincoln Conspirators, Dr. Porter was assigned as the Surgeon in Charge overseeing their confinement and care during the Lincoln assassination trial. After the hanging of four of the conspirators he was one of the doctors who pronounced them dead. He was then assigned to escort Dr. Mudd and other conspirators to imprisonment in the Dry Tortugas.
In 1867, Surgeon Porter was assigned to frontier duty at Camp Cook, Montana and traveled through hostile territory, often alone on horseback, on the old Lewis and Clark Trail. Upon returning to civilian life, the doctor practiced medicine and surgery in Bridgeport, Connecticut for the next 51 years in a memorable career. He lived a long and remarkable life as a doctor, soldier, explorer, scientist and surgeon. His story is worth remembering.
About the Speaker:
Carolyn Ivanoff is a retired high school administrator and educator. She writes and speaks frequently on American history at local, state, and national venues. In 2003, Ms. Ivanoff was named Civil War Trust's (now the American Battlefield Trust) Teacher of the Year. In 2010, 2011 and 2013, her education programs received Awards of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations. In 2016, Ms. Ivanoff was honored by the Connecticut Council of Social Studies with the Bruce Fraser Friend of the Social Studies Award.
In 2018-19, she served as project coordinator for the 17th Connecticut Flagpole preservation and rededication project on Barlow’s Knoll at Gettysburg National Military Park. This project was honored with a 2019 Award of Merit from the Connecticut League of History Organizations for preservation. Her book, We Fought at Gettysburg, scheduled for publication in 2022, features first-hand accounts by the survivors of the 17th Connecticut Infantry and their experiences on the greatest battlefield of the American Civil War.
