John Ely (surgeon)
John Ely (September 24, 1737 – October 3, 1800) was a Connecticut surgeon and Colonel in the American Revolution. Early life Born in Lyme, Connecticut, John Ely became a physician and surgeon with a reputation that reached far beyond the Saybrook He specialized in the treatment of smallpox. He bought Duck Island off the Saybrook shore (now a major Egret rookery) and then built a hospital for his smallpox patients. When this disease broke out in the Army of General George Washington in July 1776, Dr. Ely was sent for and did much to arrest the plague. Revolutionary War Colonel Ely is remembered as a soldier of the American Revolution and as a patriot who gave not only his skill as physician and military commander to the cause, but his fortune and his health. He was a Captain of the Sixth Connecticut from May 1 to December 18, 1775; Colonel of a Connecticut militia regiment in 1777; he was taken prisoner in the Long Island Expedition of December 10, 1777; and exchanged on December 5, 1780. In 1775 John Ely purchased Duck Island from John Williams. He obtained permission to operate a hospital was granted annually by the selectmen of