Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 36.djvu/102

 From the News Leader, January 7, 1909. HISTORY OF CHIMBORAZO HOSPITAL, C. S. A. (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