Alfred Lewis Castleman was a Civil War surgeon born in Shelbyville, Kentucky and received his medical education in Louisville.

Medical Career

In 1835 he moved to Milwaukee, and in 1836 to Delafield. He represented Waukesha County in the state constitutional convention of 1847-1848, and shortly thereafter resumed his medical practice in Milwaukee.

He was president of the state medical association in 1850, 1851, and 1855. Castleman was a regent of the University of Wisconsin from 1855 until 1861 and was listed briefly as professor of medicine, but the projected medical department failed when funds did not materialize.

Civil War

In 1861 he was commissioned surgeon of the 5th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served with this regiment in the army of the Potomac until resigning in December, 1862. He subsequently served as medical inspector of army camps and hospitals with the army of the Cumberland, returning to Milwaukee shortly after the Battle of Chickamauga in 1864. During his service with the 5th Wisconsin, Castleman kept a diary which was published as The Army of the Potomac, behind the Scenes in 1863. The book severely criticized General G. B. McClellan and other officers, as well as the medical practices of the Union army. After the war, Castleman lived in Wisconsin until the 1870's when he moved to Oakland, California. 

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]