Dr. Ira Russell (1815-1888) was a Union Army surgeon stationed in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in late 1862 and early 1863. A New Hampshire native, Russell received his education at Dartmouth and the University of New York, graduating with an M.D. from the latter, in 1844. Also in that year he married Rowena Greenwood, and the couple afterwards made their home in Winchendon and Natick, Massachusetts. They had at least three children prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, Fred, Jennie, and Erwin. In 1861, Russell was commissioned surgeon of the Eleventh Massachusetts Volunteers but was eventually assigned duty west of the Mississippi, first at St. Louis, and later, in December, 1862, at Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he assumed the directorship of the hospitals of Army of the Frontier. Russell may have viewed his war service as medical study rather than a military duty. He took his two sons, Fred and Erwin, along with him to Fayetteville. Fred Russell served as a clerk for his father. Fred and Erwin may have been with their father serving medical apprenticeships at this time as well. After the war, Russell returned to Massachusetts and civilian practice. He published several medical papers in the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion and other medical journals in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
From the description of Ira Russell letters : correspondence and report, 1862-1863. (University of Arkansas - Fayetteville). WorldCat record id: 35283466
