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History of Chimborazo hospital, C. S. A. From the News leader, January 7, 1909.
(Abstract from address of
Dr. J. R. Gildersleeve, president of the Association of
Medical Officers of the Army and Navy of the
Confederacy, at
Nashville, Tenn., June 14, 1904.)
This is another very interesting paper in the series on local history which we have been publishing.
It is furnished the
School Bulletin for the teachers and children of
Richmond and the public generally through the courtesy of the history committee of the
Richmond Education Association.—Ed.
I have selected as the subject of this paper, the most noted and largest military hospital in the annals of history, either ancient or modern, ‘Chimborazo Hospital,’ at
Richmond, Va., 1862 to 1865, and in connection therewith, the commandant and medical director,
Surgeon James B. McCaw, and his staff.
East of the city of
Richmond, whilom capital of the
Confederate States, and separated from the city proper by the historic
Bloody Run Creek, is an elevated plateau of nearly forty acres, commanding from its height a grand view.
On the south, the river, spanned by many bridges, ships in harbor,
Chesterfield and the town of
Manchester; on the east, a long stretch of country, cultivated fields, forests, hills and dales, and the tawny
James on its tortuous seaward way; and on the west, the city of
Richmond, its churches and spires, the
capitol, public buildings, dwellings, and manufactories, the whirling, seething, rushing falls of the river, and beautiful
Hollywood, ‘the city of our dead.’
On this high and picturesque point, so well adapted to hospital purposes, in the year 1862, when the
Federal troops moved in force on
Bull Run, and the real campaign began,
General Joseph E. Johnston reported that nine thousand men would
