Francis L. Galt was born in Virginia and entered the United States Navy as an Assistant Surgeon in 1855. He served in the frigate Saint Lawrence, at the Norfolk Navy Yard and Naval Hospital and in the gunboat Pocahontas during the next five years. He resigned from the U.S. Navy in April 1861, after Virginia left the Union, and joined the Confederate States Navy in the rank of Surgeon.
Shortly thereafter, Surgeon Galt was assigned to CSS Sumter, commanded by Raphael Semmes, and took part in her 1861-62 cruise. In mid-1862, he helped Semmes put CSS Alabama into commission and stayed with her through her entire career as the Civil War's most successful commerce raider. In addition to performing his medical duties, Galt also acted as the ship's Paymaster. He was captured when Alabama was sunk in the 19 June 1864 engagement with USS Kearsarge, but was paroled the same day. Later in 1864, after returning to America, he served with the James River batteries and ironclad squadron, ending the war with the Confederate ground forces that surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia, in April 1865. Following the conflict, Galt took part in a Peruvian Government exploration of the headwaters of the Amazon River, then returned to Virginia, where he practiced medicine in Loudoun County.
This page features all our pictures of Surgeon Francis L. Galt, CSN.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the "Online Library's" digital images, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions." |
Page made 22 July 2000
Link added 11 February 2001