Richmond, like
Washington and
Alexandria, became a collection of hospitals during the war. The accommodations of the
City Hospital were soon exceeded, and the
Chimborazo Hospital was one of those constructed to receive the overflow.
The buildings composing it were beautifully located on a commanding eminence in the lower part of the city.
The Confederate records of admissions to hospitals were destroyed in the burning of
Richmond.
Much of the nursing was done in private houses, and many of the soldiers wounded in the field were taken into adjoining houses, where they were concealed and guarded from capture.
The total will never be known of the cases cared for by the women of the
Confederacy, who fought for their side in combatting disease.
When they were not nursing, their needles were busy in the cause.
A soldier taken into a private house often went forth after his convalescence wearing a beautifully patched uniform and underwear made from the linen of the women, who sacrificed their own clothes and comfort for the benefit of the men at the front.
Fighting on his own ground was a stimulus to defend the devoted and self-sacrificing women of the
South.
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The Richmond city hospital |
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