After the war, Colonel Dowdell became the president of the East Alabama College, at Auburn, then a school under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. This school subsequently became the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, which it now is. In this new position, Colonel Dowdell served for a number of years with signal ability. While never a pastor, he was a preacher, and frequently served in the pulpit as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Distinguished in all things that he assumed, or in all positions to which he was called, Colonel Dowdell was most distinguished for his incorruptible character and piety of life. He died in 1871, died as he had lived—a man of piety, an ornament to public life, in private life a fearless citizen, an honor to his church, and one of the first citizens of the state.
LAFAYETTE GUILD
Of the medical profession of Alabama, the man who attained the greatest distinction during the Civil War, was Dr. LaFayette Guild, of Tuscaloosa. He was of a family distinguished in medicine, his father, Dr. James Guild, being one of the most skillful physicians in the country. His operations in surgery ranked with those of Dr. Valentine Mott, of New York.
Dr. LaFayette Guild graduated with the highest degree conferred by the University of Alabama, at the age of twenty. His mental, social and scholastic equipments were of the highest quality, for at that period, none were more highly favored than he. The advantages of a cultured Christian home, the station of which was in the best Southern society, and the stimulus of a literary center, were his, to all of which advantages were added his own energy, application, and diligence.
At the period of his graduation from the University of Alabama, the one great school of medicine was recognized to be the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia. After a three years’ course he was graduated from that famous institution. He was a great favorite at the medical college, admired as much for his culture and gentleness of disposition, as for the scholastic rank that he held. The tenderness of his sympathy was shown by the fact that the first time he witnessed the dissection of a human cadaver, he fainted, while another side of his character was shown, when at one time he saved the life of a fellow student by sucking the poison from an accidental wound inflicted while operating. These sufficiently reveal the type of the man that he was.
There was not wanting a strain of the chivalrous dash in Dr. Guild, who, while he loved his profession, was not content to follow the usual humdrum of the physician’s life, and consequently chose to adopt the military phase of the profession. He was accordingly appointed an assistant surgeon in the regular army at the age of twenty-four, and assigned to duty, in 1849, at Key West, Florida.
In this semi-tropical region, he was as enthusiastic in his scientific research as he had ever been. From Florida he was transferred to Governor’s Island, off Boston, where he was able to bring into requisition the results of his researches in Southern Florida. His valuable service was shown in the prevention of yellow fever from infected ships from the tropics. While stationed at Governor’s Island, Dr. Guild wrote a treatise on yellow fever, which was published by the government. He was the first to insist stoutly that yellow fever is infectious, though not contagious, a theory then new, but now accepted.
Nothing relative to the health of the army escaped his trained eye. About the time about which we are now writing, a meat biscuit which was issued to the army, became quite popular, but he condemned it as unhealthful, and was instrumental in inducing its discontinuance.