Henry O. Marcy, surgeon and gynecologist, was born in Otis, Mass, son of a schoolteacher and a veteran of the War of 1812. He attended Wilbraham Academy and Amherst College and received the MD degree from Harvard Medical School in 1864.1 Before, as well as after, graduation he served with the Union Army in the Civil War. In the spring of 1863 Marcy was appointed assistant surgeon of the 43rd Massachusetts Volunteers and, in the fall, surgeon of the first regiment of Negro troops recruited in North Carolina. This assignment was notable in that he established classes for the Negroes and did double duty as officer and pedagogue. The following year he was made medical director of Florida, served on Sherman's staff in the Carolina campaign, and supervised the sanitary renovation of Charleston, SC.
At the close of the war, Marcy returned to the Boston area and practiced in Cambridge,