Richard Sherwood Satterlee

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Richard Sherwood Satterlee (December 6, 1798 – November 10, 1880) was a U.S. Army medical officer. Born in Fairfield, New York, his father, Major William Satterlee, fought in the American Revolutionary War. He earned his medical license in 1818 and began practicing in Seneca County, New York, before moving to Detroit in 1822, where he married Mary Hunt.

Satterlee joined the Army in February 1822 as an assistant surgeon. He served at Fort Niagara, Fort Howard, Fort Mackinac, and Fort Winnebago, where he took part in the Black Hawk War. After a second tour at Fort Howard, he helped campaigns against the Seminoles in Florida and received an official commendation from his commander, the future president Zachary Taylor.

He later served at Fort Adams in Rhode Island and fought in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott, taking part in the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. After returning to Fort Adams in 1848, he survived the sinking of the steamboat San Francisco in 1853, which carried an artillery regiment to the West Coast.

During the Civil War, Satterlee headed the Union Army Medical Purveyor’s Office in New York City, overseeing medical supplies and introducing the Satterlee bone saw with a pistol grip for amputations, a tool that stayed in use. He was brevetted a brigadier general and was a candidate to lead the Medical Corps after Clement Finley, but the position went to William Hammond. Satterlee retired from the Army in 1869 and died in New York City in 1880.