Educated at Tulane University (B.A. 1956; Ph.D. 1971) and Johns Hopkins (M.A. 1957), Albert E. Cowdrey was a historian for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and, for many years, the U.S. Army Center of Military History. As Chief of the U.S. Army's Special History Branch in Washington, DC, he wrote extensively about the medical branches of the Army.