Richard Henry Greene

During the American Civil War, he received an MD from Dartmouth and served as an acting assistant surgeon in the United States Navy.

He entered Yale in 1853 and he commuted from his home in a Black neighborhood, which caused him to be marked late for its 6 a.m. mandatory prayer service, or for class, for which he was apparently excused.

[1][3] In letters to his fiancee, Greene wrote, "I am studying all my strength will allow -- from morning until late at night for I feel a great lack of acquirement.

"[1] Two years into the American Civil War, in November 1863, Greene entered the U.S. Navy as an acting assistant surgeon.

According to an 1877 letter from his father to the Yale secretary, Greene "was sent to the U.S. Steamer State of Georgia blockading off N. Carolina under Admiral Porter.

During that time he was married to Miss Charlotte Caldwell of Bennington, VT. Then he was ordered to the Steamer Seneca and was at the taking of Fort Fisher, & the other fortifications in the Cape Fear river.

Greene wrote to his wife Lottie about seeing Norfolk, Virginia and he attested to local views of the Union occupation:All the young men have gone out of the place with the Confederates and a kind of gloom hangs over the city.

[1] Branch, a Yale journalist, speculates that Greene experienced John Henryism, that is, health deterioration while coping with social discrimination, such as racism.

[3] Yet it was not until 2014 that more information about Greene was published, following the discovery of some of his letters, and other documents, by Rick Stattler, an American history expert at Swann Galleries.

[2] Documents pertaining to Greene are archived by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, including letters, financial records, memorabilia, and papers of his wife, daughter, and a brother-in-law.