Unsung Heroes of the Revolutionary War

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: 1776 American_Revolution

Unsung Heroes of the Revolutionary War

This strong lady, Elizabeth Duckett Casey, withstood more in her lifetime than most could live through. She is the widow of Br Gen Levi Garrett Casey, a patriot and soldier of the Revolution. She also is an unsung heroine of the Revolution. She aided the patriot cause during that time. We honor her memory.

---

Dr. Bodo Otto came from Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. He began his medical training at the age of thirteen, by being apprenticed to a master surgeon and member of the College of surgeons at Hildesheim in Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. He completed a comprehensive examination before the Board of Physicians of the Luneburg College of surgeons on 13 June 1736 and won an appointment as Chief surgeon to the Garrison, Invalids and Prisoners in the old Fortress of Kalberg.

He came to America in 1755, leaving Germany on 10 May 1755 aboard the ship, Neptune, arriving in Philadelphia on 17 October 1755. With him were his daughter, Maria Elizabeth ( from his first marriage to Anna Elizabeth SAUKE who died in 1738), his second wife, Catharina, and their three sons.

Dr. Otto supported the Revolution by helping to raise troops and collect money and supplies for the American cause. He also served by treating the war wounded in hospitals in Berks and Chester Counties. He was appointed “Senior Surgeon” during 1778-78 at the Valley Forge encampment and was senior surgeon at the Yellow Springs Hospital nearby from 1778-1782.

While Dr. Bodo Otto “never mastered the English languge’, he served his adopted nation well during its hour of crisis.

Pennsylvania historian, Morton L. Montgomery wrote the following tribute to Dr. Bodo Otto in his Berks County In the Revolution:

Next to Washington, Gates, Mifflin, Wayne, and the other leading generals, Doctor Bodo Otto of Reading, Pennsylvania, occupied a prominence and rendered useful service equal to any other man who was engaged in the great cause of the Revolution, not on the field of battle leading his fellow men to danger and death, but amongst the hospitals as a senior surgeon, caring for and administering to the sick, wounded and dying soldiers; and yet his name is not mentioned in history.