Army surgeon, ethnographer, and writer William Henry Corbusier (1844-1930) witnessed the transformation of the United States from young republic to world power. In Soldier, Surgeon, Scholar, the retired army officer and surgeon recounts his experiences, which include a New York City childhood, adolescence in gold-rush California, and army life from the wilds of Arizona to the jungles of the occupied Philippines.

In 1864, Corbusier joined the Union army as a contract surgeon, serving in the cavalry brigade under General Benjamin Grierson. His memoir covers seventeen military...