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practitioner, became KSM Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine. He would contribute
greatly during the Civil War by leading the United States Sanitary Commission in Kentucky
and would later join the U o fL faculty. Several initial KSM faculty came from Transylvania
University School of Medicine, which was then suffering falling enrollment and income. In
1856, Tobias G. Richardson, MD, former U of L Anatomy Demonstrator, became KSM Chair
of Principles and Practice of Surgery (Fig. 8). Richardson would have a distinguished career at
KSM, write a respected textbook, become an AMA President, and continue academic service
at Tulane University.
Emergence of Future Leaders: James Morrison
Bodine and David W. Yandell
Fig. 8 Tobias G. Richardson, M.D., Louisville
surgeon, anatomist, and AMA President.
Fig. 9 James Morrison Bodine, M.D., respected
anatomist and acclaimed UofL Dean.
In the years between Appomattox and the century’s end, two U of L educators would emerge
as powerful medical leaders locally and nationally. James Morrison Bodine, MD, and David
W. Yandell, MD, first appeared on the Louisville scene in the late antebellum period. Bodine
took a preceptorship with Henry Bullitt, MD, and graduated from the Kentucky School of
Medicine in 1854. He served briefly as Demonstrator of Anatomy at his alma mater, where
his exceptional teaching skills became apparent. After the war, Bodine would transition to
U of L, become its longest-serving Dean, and lead in developing national medical education
standards (Fig. 9). David Yandell graduated from U of L in 1846, took two years of postgraduate studies in Europe, and returned to develop a thriving Louisville medical-surgical
practice. He served as a preceptor and Saturday Anatomy Demonstrator at U of L, where his
father taught. However, his greatest contribution to antebellum Louisville medicine was to
establish a precedent-setting dispensary (precursor of outpatient clinics), for indigent care
and student teaching on 4th, near Chestnut. Subsequently, his Confederate sympathies would
call him away and interrupt his service to Louisville, but his return would launch one of the
great medical careers of the late 19th century (Fig. 10).
U of L Burns
Symbolic of both the coming national conflagration and the devastation it caused U of L, the
9th and Chestnut building burned to the ground in 1856. Only some books from the library
were saved, when students threw them from windows of the burning building onto an adjacent
cow pasture. The building was replaced by an improved structure on the same site (Fig. 11),
although its characteristic feature, the towering spire, was forever gone.
The Civil War’s Gathering Storm
Fig. 10 David W. Yandell, M.D., U of L surgeon,
19th century medical leader, and AMA President.
As U of L approached its quarter-century mark, the Nation’s fragile balance between northern
and southern states over slavery progressively disintegrated. The westward migration that
fueled Louisville’s rise populated the Mississippi Valley, creating new states and new votes
in Congress. Despite Henry Clay’s carefully fashioned compromises, the uneasy balance in
Congress eroded. Regional passions flared, and the Nation careened toward Civil War. An
ominous sense that everything would be forever changed crept over the Nation and over
Louisville’s vibrant medical landscape. Amidst rumbles of gathering war clouds, one could
almost hear the haunting voice of Jenny Lind from Louisville’s past again singing “The Last
Rose of Summer.” Louisville’s bright antebellum “summer” was ending, and war’s dark chill
would soon wither UofL. LM
Note: Dr. Tobin is a professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Department
of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He practices with UofL