page_title: William Thompson Lusk
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: William Thompson Lusk / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: William Thompson Lusk (1838-1897), during his days in the United States Volunteers during the American Civil War.
context_page_description: William Thompson Lusk was an American obstetrician and a soldier who rose to the rank of Assistant Adjutant-General in the United States Volunteers during the first three years of the American Civil War. After he retired from the Union Army, he finished his medical education and became a professor as well as a president of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. He received much recognition and fame for his 1882 book, The Science and Art of Midwifery, which quickly became a widely referenced text.
context_section_description: When the American Civil War broke out, he joined the Second New York Volunteers regiment. He moved through the ranks from Private to Assistant Adjutant General by 1863. Unusually for his time, Lusk did not practice the usual custom of vilifying of the Southern soldiers; his letters actually indicate that he respected the Southerners and spoke of "Yankee hordes" invading the Southerners' "splendid plantations". He was promoted to Captain on February 24, 1862 (retroactive to January 19, 1862), and resigned from the United States Volunteers on February 28, 1863, with the intention of going back to New York to take command of a regiment. He was instead appointed Assistant Adjutant-General (with a rank of Captain) and assigned to the staff of Daniel Tyler on June 26, 1863, but resigned just two months later on September 17, 1863, after his troops were sent to Delaware and marked as inactive.
  Lusk took part in engagements at Blackburn's Ford, First Bull Run, Port Royal, James Island, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and many other minor battles. He was also a staff officer of Isaac I. Stevens until Stevens' death, and he commanded two companies during the Draft Riots of 1863.
caption: Captain William Thompson Lusk, Assistant Adjutant-General of the United States Volunteers
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