Washington Matthews
1843–1905 (age 62)
Military Officer
Biography
Washington Matthews, born in 1843, served as an Army surgeon in the West and combined his medical duties with a passion for ethnology, documenting Native American languages and customs while stationed at frontier posts where he tended to soldiers and Indigenous communities alike.
His writings earned respect from both scientists and soldiers, and when he passed in 1905 he was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.