Bodo Otto (1711—1787) was a Senior Surgeon of theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolution.[1]
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Some of his medical training he received at theUniversity of Göttingen.[2] He resided in theElectorate of Hanover in what is nowGermany and emigrated in 1755.[1]
Otto was one of the early settlers ofPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania.[1]
Otto publicly opposed theStamp Act and also served on theBerks County Committee of Public Safety.[3]
During the Revolution theSecond Continental Congress appointed Otto to establish amilitary hospital inTrenton, New Jersey for the treatment ofsmallpox. He was present during theBattle of Long Island in 1776.[3] He was also assigned to the Continental hospital atValley Forge and located in theUwchlan Meetinghouse.[4] Later during the Revolution, Otto was put in charge of the hospitals inYellow Springs (in what is nowChester Springs, Pennsylvania), where he and one of his sons treated the ill soldiers from Valley Forge.[1] Otto and one of his sons crossed theDelaware River with General Washington and his army and surprisedHessian soldiers encamped at Trenton on the morning of 26 December 1776. He was widely respected for selflessly treating wounded and dying Hessians. There were only a smattering of casualties on the American side.
Bodo usedTrinity Lutheran Church inReading, Pennsylvania, as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers from theBattle of Brandywine.
Otto did not retire from his Army service until February 1782 at age 70.[1]
His three sons were also physicians for the Army, and they assisted him as Junior Surgeon and Surgeon Mates.[1]
Otto died in 1787 and was buried inReading, Pennsylvania, at the Trinity Lutheran Church (where he was a member) Cemetery.[5] Many of his surgical instruments as well as a portrait of him and his wife are in the collection of the Historical Society of Berks County in Reading.
A great-grandson, JudgeWilliam Tod Otto who moved from Philadelphia to settle inIndiana, served in US PresidentAbraham Lincoln's administration as Assistant Secretary of the Interior. According toThe New York Times, Judge Otto was one of twelve men permitted at Lincoln's bedside when he died.[6]
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