Evans, Amos A., 1785-1848

Surgeon.

Amos Alexander Evans (1785-1848), United States naval surgeon during the War of 1812, was born in Elkton, Maryland, to Mary Alexander and John Evans, owner of a foundry that supplied copper to the early American navy. Amos studied medicine under Dr. George Mitchell of Elkton, and attended lectures by Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia. He was appointed a surgeon's mate in the navy in September 1808, and his first assignment was at the New Orleans Marine Hospital. He was promoted to surgeon on April 10, 1810 and from 1812 to 1813, served on the U.S. Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), where he witnessed the defeat of the British ship La Guerrière (August 19, 1812). He was next stationed at the Charlestown, Massachusetts, navy yards, and received a medical degree from Harvard College while on shore duty, in 1814. Commodore Bainbridge appointed Evans as the first Surgeon of the Fleet in 1815, and assigned Evans to the U.S. Independence for its voyage to the Mediterranean during the Second Barbary War. Evans set up a private practice in Maryland in 1817 and resigned from the navy in 1824.

Evans married Mary Oliver (1795-1881) in 1816; they had three children, a daughter, Mary, and two sons: Alexander (1818-1888) a lawyer who served in the US House of Representatives from 1847 to 1853; and Andrew Wallace, a West Point graduate who served in the Union Army and achieved the rank of general. Amos A. Evans died at Elkton, Maryland, on January 15, 1848.