Irwin, Bernard John Dowling

Arrives at Fort Buchanan in 1857. Performed first recorded surgery in Arizona (see Brown collections, 10:235). Army doctor (not contract surgeon). Rank: Brigadier General per PCMS 50th Anniversary program.
PCMS Centennial Program. 10-9-2004.
Nash, Steve. “Medical Progress in Arizona…”
See History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673]: vol. 10, page 235 "Irvin" instead of "Irwin".
Quebbeman, Frances E. Medicine in territorial Arizona. Phoenix : Arizona Historical Foundation, 1966, page 350.

For accounts of Irwin’s September, 1858 shoulder joint amputation of Silas St. John see Irwin, B J D. Article. III.--Amputation at the Shoulder-Joint. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, volume 38, October 1859, pages 350-353 and Farish, Thomas Edwin. History of Arizona, Filmer Bros. Electrotype Co., 1918, volume 2, pages 1-25.

J Am Med Assoc, Dec 1884; III: 700: Official List of Changes in the Stations and Duties of Officers Serving in the Medical Department, United States Army, from December 6, 1884, to December 12, 1884. Irwin, B. J. D., Major and Surgeon, granted one month's leave of absence. (S. O. 112, Dept. Arizona, Nov. 28, 1884.)
J Am Med Assoc, Oct 1885; V: 476: Official List of Changes in the Stations and Duties of Officers Serving in the Medical Department, U. S. Army, from October 10, 1885, to October 16, 1885. Lieut.-Col. B. J. D. Irwin, Asst. Medical Purveyor, ordered from Dept. Ariz. to New York City, for temporary duty in charge of medical purveying depot at that place, relieving Captain Henry Johnson, medical storekeeper. (S. O. 233, A. G. O., Oct. 10, 1885.)
J Am Med Assoc, Dec 1917; LXIX: 2136: Brig.-Gen. Bernard John Dowling Irwin, M. C, U. S. Army (retired) ; one of the most distinguished representatives of the Medical Department of the Army ; aged 87 ; died at his country home, at Coburg, Ont., December 15. General Irwin was born in Ireland in 1830. He began the study of medicine in the Castleton (Vt.) Medical College in 1850, and later entered the New York Medical College from which he was graduated in 1852. After service as acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, for several months, he entered the Army as assistant surgeon, with the rank of lieutenant, and advanced through grades to Colonel and Assistant Surgeon-General, Aug. 28, 1890; was retired by operation of law, June 28, 1894, on attaining the age of 64, and was advanced to Brigadier-General (retired) by the act of April 23, 1904. His service in the Army included numerous expeditions against the Indians, and he was awarded the Medal of Honor by Congress for "distinguished gallantry in action, Feb. 13-14, 1861." He was made medical directory of the Army of Kentucky in 1862, and was captured in the battle of Richmond, Ky. After the close of the Civil War he served as surgeon at a number of posts, chiefly in the West, and was attending surgeon, headquarters, Military Division of the Missouri, Chicago, from 1880 to 1882. He was in charge of the Army medical purveying depots in New York City and San Francisco until his promotion to colonel in 1890. General Irwin devised the first field tent hospital for treatment of the wounded on the battlefield, at the time of the battle of Shiloh ; its value was immediately recognized and it was promptly introduced into the military service, as the type of the most modern field hospital, and has since been adopted by the armies of all civilized nations.