The Biographical Dictionary of America/Abbott, Robert Osborne

ABBOTT, Robert Osborne, surgeon, was born in Pittsburgh, Pa., March 17, 1824. He entered the United States army as assistant surgeon, and was stationed in California, Texas, and Florida until the civil war. He was then assigned as chief assistant to the medical purveyor of the city of New York. The next year he acted as medical director of the Fifth army corps. After the second battle of Bull Run he was given charge of the hospitals and hospital transports in Washington and vicinity. The tremendous strain of having 40,000 sick men in his care undermined his health, and he resigned. He died in Brooklyn, N.Y., June 16, 1867.