John Gould Stephenson

John Gould Stephenson was an American medical doctor and soldier who served as Librarian of Congress from 1861 to 1864. Born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, in 1828, he received his M.D. in 1849 after attending Dartmouth Medical College and Castleton Medical College, then settled in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he took part in the temperance movement and the early Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln appointed him librarian, and he replaced most of the library staff and hired Ainsworth Rand Spofford. He also served with the Union Army, including at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, resigned in December 1864, and died in 1883.