John Allan Wyeth

John Allan Wyeth
The John Allan Wyeth statue at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama.
Born	May 26, 1845 Guntersville, Marshall County, Alabama, U.S.
Died	May 22, 1922(1922-05-22) (aged 76)
Cause of death	heart attack
Resting place	Green-Wood Cemetery
Alma mater	La Grange Military Academy University of Louisville School of Medicine
Spouse(s)	Florence Nightingale Sims Marguerite Chalifoux
Children	2 sons (Marion Sims Wyeth and John Allan Wyeth), 1 daughter
Parent(s)	Louis Wyeth Euphemia Allan
Relatives	J. Marion Sims (father-in-law)

John Allan Wyeth (May 26, 1845 – May 22, 1922) was an American Confederate veteran and surgeon. Born and raised on a Southern plantation in Alabama, he served in the Confederate States Army and completed his medical studies in New York City and Europe. He became a surgeon in New York City, where he founded the New York Polyclinic Graduate Medical School and Hospital, a medical school. He served as the president of the American Medical Association in 1902. He was the author of a biography of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was a proponent of the annexation of Mexico by the United States.

John Allan Wyeth was born on May 26, 1845 in Guntersville, Alabama. His father, Louis Wyeth, was a lawyer who founded the city of Guntersville in 1848 and later served in the Alabama state legislature. His mother, Euphemia Allan, was the daughter of John Allan, a Presbyterian minister who was opposed to slavery. On his paternal side, Wyeth was a descendant of George Wythe, a Virginia lawyer who was also opposed to slavery. He grew up on a Southern plantation.

Wyeth attended La Grange Military Academy, a defunct military academy in Colbert County, Alabama, from the age of 15 to 17. During the American Civil War of 1861-1865, he served in the Confederate States Army. He participated in Morgan's Raid under Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan, from 1862 to 1863. He joined the 4th Regiment Alabama Cavalry under General Joseph Wheeler, and served in the Battle of Chickamauga of 1863. He was captured by Union forces and jailed at the Camp Morton in Indianapolis, Indiana from October 1863 to February 1865.

After the war, Wyeth attended the University of Louisville School of Medicine, graduating in 1869. He also studied at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College from 1872 to 1873, when he received another medical degree. Shortly after, Wyeth joined the staff at the Bellevue Hospital. After reading French and German medical journals, he completed his medical studies by going to Europe, where he was trained as a surgeon by J. Marion Sims. He also met "leading physicians and surgeons in Paris, London, Berlin, and Vienna."