Abram Van Wyck Budd was an "original and independent character," unorthodox in his approach to medicine, yet a gifted doctor. He served as an Assistant Surgeon to the 15th Louisiana Infantry at Gettysburg, and afterwards as a Surgeon, reportedly in the 33rd North Carolina. An extensive biography and photograph appears in Old Dominion Journal of Medicine and Surgery, vol. XI, December 1910, no. 6 (available online). An extract can also be found in A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography, 1610-1910, by Howard A. Kelly. Budd was born in Pemberton, New Jersey on 17 Oct. 1830 - his mother Sarah Van Wyck died at his birth. In 1847 he graduated from Mercersburg College in Pennsylvania (probably Marshall College, which in 1853 merged with Franklin College of Lancaster). In 1853 he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania's Medical School, and spent the next two years at the Blockley hospital in Philadelphia. In 1855 he was hired as a doctor by a coal company in Egypt (Cumnock), Chatham County, North Carolina, until war broke out, when he was made a surgeon in the Confederate army. Post-war he served many poor patients back in Chatham County. He married in 1875 and moved to Lockville in 1881. They had four children. Budd died on 26 June 1891. Just prior to his death he sought medical advice from colleagues in Philadelphia, where his family had owned valuable property, possibly along the Schuykill river. Told that he might have stayed in Philadelphia and become wealthy, he replied, "Why, I'd rather have fresh air, elbow room, and pure water than all your millions. I can't stand the Schuykill." Post-war he treated "hysterical" patients using unconventional means. He built a fire under one patient's bed; prepared to get into the bed of a woman who had been in it for two years, which caused her to take flight and led to her cure; another woman of nervous disposition he had tied to a cart and lashed the horse, which ran for at least a mile and supposedly relieved the woman of her psychosis. He also performed a successful appendectomy on a woman before that condition was understood by the medical profession.
John B. Linn, a disabled officer who visited Gettysburg just after the battle, mentions Budd: "Saturday, 11 July 1863. Oppressively hot. Train detained by troop trains, went up to see Dickinson College - met Theo. McFaddin of 28 Regt., Dr. Stephen Kieffer who told me H. V. Budd of class of 47 Mar. College was among the rebel surgeons at C [Carlisle]. He was on Gen. Johnson's staff. A Dr. Coleman from Richmond [Robert Thomas Coleman, Chief Surgeon of Ed Johnson's division] was with him, both bitter Secesh. They talked boastfully of taking Harrisburg and going from there to Philadelphia. On Monday [29 June] they changed their style and hurriedly left for Gettysburg."