Join us in welcoming Dr. Stephen A. Goldman, M.D., as he presents Fit for Duty: The Union Veteran Reserve Corps in the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Described by the Indiana Adjutant General “as unusual a fighting force as the United States ever armed and equipped for action,” the dreadfully-named, preposterously uniformed Invalid Corps come into existence in April 1863, and within a year became the Veteran Reserve Corps (VRC). Despite general derision from able-bodied field unit comrades, the VRC provided valuable garrison, guard, and other types of off-line duty, and enabled many thousands of the Union’s finest battle-hardened soldiers to continue serving their country during the Civil War, and after.
Dr. Stephen A. Goldman will discuss the VRC’s formation, organization, responsibilities, and under-recognized contribution to the successful July 1864 defense of Washington. He will then explain how VRC soldiers played a major role in one of Reconstruction’s most vital organizations, the Freedmen’s Bureau.
Stephen A. Goldman, the only physician to serve on the Abraham Lincoln Institute Board of Directors, received his B.A. from the Honors Tutorial College at Ohio University (Outstanding Graduate in Psychology), and his M.D. and its Alex Rosen Award for Excellence in Medicine and the Humanities from the New York University School of Medicine.
Having trained as a general adult psychiatrist at US Department of Veterans Affairs and other university-affiliated hospitals, he was a fellow/assistant attending in consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY). Dr. Goldman then served as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Medicine, and Director of the Division of C-L Psychiatry, at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Upon completing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration/Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) Staff Fellowship in Clinical Pharmacology and Regulatory Drug Evaluation Sciences, he became Medical Director of MedWatch, the FDA’s medical product safety program. After federal service, Dr. Goldman has provided risk assessment, auditing, training, and other drug, biologic, and medical device safety assistance to industry and public organizations as an international consultant.
A Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Life Fellow of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, and Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Goldman was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at USUHS for decades. Having treated and worked with those who’ve been under fire, he has studied the Civil War, Reconstruction, race, and the multi-faceted impact of combat on American veterans since Fort Sumter was fired upon.
His unique expertise is exemplified in the groundbreaking One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Lost Cause, which examines Northern soldiers’ and sailors’ unprecedented political activism, and powerful warrior identity.