Edward Hall Barton was born in Baltimore, Maryland 12 Dec 1794 to Seth and Sarah Emerson (Maxwell) Barton. He was baptized in Baltimore on 24 Feb 1795 (erroneously given as his birthdate on the grave marker). While he was still a child in 1799 his family moved to Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Virginia. He commenced his studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania though he did not graduate. He received his M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1817 afterwards doing further study at the University of Havana in Cuba. In 1820 he moved to St. Francisville, Louisiana. He developed an interest in Yellow Fever and public health and became an early and visionary champion for reform in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana. He was appointed the third Dean of what is now Tulane Medical School. During the Mexican American War he served as a Surgeon in the 3rd Dragoons, Cavalry, Twigg's Division and managed the military hospital at Vera Cruz. In this capacity he became the first physician to administer ether anesthesia on the field of battle. Upon returning to New Orleans he became chairman of the New Orleans Sanitary Commission and edited the seminal "Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853." The reforms he recommended were not well received by the city fathers and Barton, who had made more enemies than friends in New Orleans by 1859 - moved to his wife's hometown - Columbia, South Carolina where he died, probably of a myocardial infarction, only a few months later.
Edward Hall Barton was born in Baltimore, Maryland 12 Dec 1794 to Seth and Sarah Emerson (Maxwell) Barton. He was baptized in Baltimore on 24 Feb 1795 (erroneously given as his birthdate on the grave marker). While he was still a child in 1799 his family moved to Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, Virginia. He commenced his studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania though he did not graduate. He received his M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1817 afterwards doing further study at the University of Havana in Cuba. In 1820 he moved to St. Francisville, Louisiana. He developed an interest in Yellow Fever and public health and became an early and visionary champion for reform in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana. He was appointed the third Dean of what is now Tulane Medical School. During the Mexican American War he served as a Surgeon in the 3rd Dragoons, Cavalry, Twigg's Division and managed the military hospital at Vera Cruz. In this capacity he became the first physician to administer ether anesthesia on the field of battle. Upon returning to New Orleans he became chairman of the New Orleans Sanitary Commission and edited the seminal "Report of the Sanitary Commission of New Orleans on the Epidemic Yellow Fever of 1853." The reforms he recommended were not well received by the city fathers and Barton, who had made more enemies than friends in New Orleans by 1859 - moved to his wife's hometown - Columbia, South Carolina where he died, probably of a myocardial infarction, only a few months later.
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