Confederate States of America. Medical Records.

Confederate Medical Practice

On the night of April 2, 1865, Confederate Surgeon-General Samuel P. Moore's office was burned during the Federal occupation of Richmond, VA. As a result, information relating to the Confederate Medical Department is rare. In general, the organization of the Confederate Medical Department was similar to that of the Federal forces. There were three grades of rank for medical officers: one surgeon general the equivalent of a brigadier-general, one thousand surgeons with the rank of major, two thousand assistant surgeons with the rank of captain, and a number of acting assistant surgeons with the rank of second lieutenant.

The medical needs of the Confederate States Navy were partially met by an act of organization (March 16, 1861) which provided for the appointment of five surgeons and five assistant surgeons; such personnel would become officers in the naval program. Within a year of this act, President Davis was forced by pressing needs for more navy medical personnel, to appoint thirty additional temporary assistant surgeons. In April 1862, the permanent naval staff was expanded by twenty-two surgeons, fifteen passed-assistant surgeons, and thirty assistant surgeons. Finally, on May 1, 1863, legislation was enacted which empowered the President to appoint additional naval personnel as needed.

Duties of the assistant surgeon included relieving or assisting the surgeon in treating the sick or wounded. The hospital steward, a non-commissioned position with the rank of sergeant, was to have charge of the medical and surgical supplies; he was responsible for dispensing supplies and carrying out the treatment ordered by the surgeons.

C.S. Steamer General Polk

This vessel was a blockade runner which was burned by her crew June 27, 1862, in order to avoid capture by the Federal fleet on the Mississippi River.

C.S. Ram Atlanta

C.S. Steamer Atlanta was formerly the English blockade-running steamer Fengal. In September of 1862, she was converted into an ironclad gunboat and ram at Savannah, GA. She was equipped with two 6.4" rifle broadsides and two 7" rifle pivots. She was thought by the Federals to be the most formidable of existing Confederate vessels. In the process of breaking a blockade between Savannah and Charleston, she encountered the Federal vessels Weehawken and Nahant. At 5:30 a.m., on June 17, 1863, after a fifteen-minute battle, the Atlanta was surrendered; Commander Webb and his crew were taken prisoner. At the time of capture the Atlanta had a compliment of twenty-one officers and 124 men, including marines. Sixteen men suffered wounds and one man died of his wounds.

The capture of the Atlanta was significant in several respects. The United States Government was now satisfied that it could intimidate European governments into not interfering in domestic concerns of the United States. Furthermore, now that the federal ships had achieved success, the speedy suppression of the rebellion came into closer view.

Confederate Hospitals

On September 27, 1862, the "Act to better provide for the sick and wounded of the Army in Hospitals" was passed by the Confederate Congress. It provided for hospitals to "be known and numbered as hospitals of a particular state," thus allowing soldiers from a certain state to be put in the hospital representing their state to keep the units together. This act did not eliminate the "General" Hospitals which accepted soldiers from all units.

The most famous Confederate hospital was Chimborazo in Richmond, Virginia, overlooking the James River on the Chimborazo Heights. It had a capacity of over 8,000 patients and was the largest military hospital in the continent's history. Chimborazo consisted of five separate hospitals, a total of 150 buildings holding 40 to 60 patients each. Convalescents were housed in tents. On the grounds were "five soup houses, five ice houses, Russian bath houses, a bakery capable of making ten thousand loaves of bread daily, and a brewery in which four hundred kegs of beer were brewed at a time." The hospital used the large farm "Tree Hill" to pasture two hundred cows and three to five hundred goats. Chimborazo was designated an independent army post; this independent structure was common in all large hospitals in the Department of Virginia.

Winder Hospital in Richmond was another large facility. It covered 125 acres, had a capacity of almost 5,000 patients, and consisted of six divisions. Its facilities included "the most approved Russian, steam, plunge, and shower baths," water closets, a bakery, an ice house, a sixteen-acre hospital garden worked by convalescents, and sixty-nine cows.

The Medical College of Virginia was the only medical school in the Confederacy that did not close during the war. Its facilities included a hospital, and it also sent its interns to other local hospitals.

Libby Prison Hospital, also in the Richmond area, was reported to be "admirable arranged" and "clean and neat to the last degree."

Confederate hospital personnel named in this manuscript include Francis W. Hancock, surgeon in charge of Jackson Hospital in Richmond; William A. Carrington, the Confederate States Medical Director and Inspector of Hospitals; Edwin S. Guillard, Medical Inspector; and James Mercer Green, the medical officer in charge of the hospitals in Macon, Georgia.