Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Gordonsville Receiving Hospital Prescription Book, Accession 6802, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This volume was an anonymous gift to the Library on June 2, 1962.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This bound volume, "General Prescription Book No. 2" for the Gordonsville Receiving Hospital , May, 1864 to March, 1865, contains a register of Confederate soldiers as patients. Their daily dosages of medicines, treatment, and diet are described; entries begin on page 25 and continue through page 348.

The Gordonsville Hospital in Orange County, Virginia , was established in March, 1862, under the direction of Assistant Surgeon B. M. Lebby . The facility had a capacity of 125 beds and treated approximately 15,000 to 24,000 patients between June, 1863 and May, 1864. At least twenty-eight surgeons were employed there during its lifetime. Lebby's immediate superior was Dr. Thomas Henry Williams , medical director and inspector of Confederate hospitals at Charlottesville , Danville , Gordonsville , Lynchburg , and Staunton .

Menus listed in the volume consisted of chicken, roast beef, milk and milk punch, boiled eggs, eggnog, custards and rice pudding. Applications of plaster, poultices, calomel, astringents, peanut oil, and bicarbonate of soda were assigned. Whiskey toddies and fizzes, ale, tea, and brandy were also administered to the patients.

Four assistant surgeons are mentioned throughout the volume as either officers of the day or as having responsibility for specific wards: James W. Davis , Henry Marriott , Andreas F. Schulze , and T. J. Wilson . Most of their patients were members of Virginia , Louisiana , North Carolina , and Georgia regiments. There are fewer entries for soldiers from Alabama , Maryland , Mississippi , South Carolina , and Texas , as well as for provost guards, hospital attendants, and conscripts from Camp Lee ( Richmond ?) and elsewhere.

Captured Union soldiers are also listed on the hospital's rolls. For example, Francis Hoggan , Company H, Fifth United States Cavalry , was treated for an illness which required the shaving and application of ice to his head. He died at 3:00 p. m. on March 18, 1865.

Further information on the hospital may be found in Wyndham B. Blanton's Medicine In Virginia In The Nineteenth Century , and William H. B. Thomas's Gordonsville, Virginia: Historic Crossroads Town . These studies are available at Alderman Library.

Gordonsville Hospital Patients' Regiments

Alabama -- 3rd Alabama Infantry ; 5th Alabama Infantry ; 6th Alabama Infantry ; 12th Alabama Infantry ; 54th Alabama Infantry ; 61st Alabama Infantry .

Georgia -- Cobb's Legion ; Phillips' Legion ; 2nd Georgia Infantry ; 3rd Georgia Infantry ; 4th Georgia Infantry ; 5th Georgia Infantry ; 8th Georgia Infantry ; 9th Georgia Infantry ; 12th Georgia Infantry ; 13th Georgia Infantry ; 15th Georgia Infantry ; 16th Georgia Infantry ; 17th Georgia Infantry ; 18th Georgia Infantry ; 21st Georgia Infantry ; 26th Georgia Infantry ; 29th Georgia Infantry ; 38th Georgia Infantry ; 49th Georgia Infantry ; 50th Georgia Infantry ; 51st Georgia Infantry ; 53rd Georgia Infantry ; 61st Georgia Infantry ; 7th Georgia Cavalry .

Louisiana -- 2nd Louisiana Infantry ; 5th Louisiana Infantry ; 6th Louisiana Infantry ; 8th Louisiana Infantry ; 9th Louisiana Infantry ; 10th Louisiana Infantry ; 1st Louisiana Cavalry ; 3rd Louisiana Cavalry ; 15th Louisiana Cavalry .

Maryland -- 1st Maryland Cavalry ; 2nd Maryland Cavalry .

Mississippi -- 15th Mississippi Infantry ; 17th Mississippi Infantry ; 21st Mississippi Infantry .

North Carolina -- 1st North Carolina Infantry ; 2nd North Carolina Infantry ; 6th North Carolina Infantry ; 7th North Carolina Infantry ; 12th North Carolina Infantry ; 14th North Carolina Infantry ; 15th North Carolina Infantry ; 18th North Carolina Infantry ; 20th North Carolina Infantry ; 21st North Carolina Infantry ; 23rd North Carolina Infantry ; 24th North Carolina Infantry ; 26th North Carolina Infantry ; 27th North Carolina Infantry ; 30th North Carolina Infantry ; 38th North Carolina Infantry ; 43rd North Carolina Infantry ; 45th North Carolina Infantry ; 48th North Carolina Infantry ; 53rd North Carolina Infantry ; 54th North Carolina Infantry ; 57th North Carolina Infantry ; Brooks' Battery (Artillery).

South Carolina -- 1st South Carolina Infantry ; 2nd South Carolina Infantry ; 8th South Carolina Infantry ; 15th South Carolina Infantry ; 20th South Carolina Infantry ; Hart's Battery (Artillery).

Texas -- 4th Texas Infantry ; 5th Texas Infantry .

Virginia -- 2nd Virginia Battalion (reserves); 4th Virginia Infantry ; 9th Virginia Infantry ; 13th Virginia Infantry ; 22nd Virginia Infantry ; 23rd Virginia Infantry ; 25th Virginia Infantry ; 26th Virginia Infantry ; 30th Virginia Infantry ; 32nd Virginia Infantry ; 33rd Virginia Infantry ; 36th Virginia Infantry ; 37th Virginia Infantry ; 39th Virginia Infantry ; 45th Virginia Infantry ; 48th Virginia Infantry ; 52nd Virginia Infantry ; 55th Virginia Infantry ; 58th Virginia Infantry ; 59th Virginia Infantry ; 60th Virginia Infantry ; 61st Virginia Infantry ; 67th Virginia Infantry ; 2nd Virginia Cavalry ; 3rd Virginia Cavalry ; 15th Virginia Cavalry ; 18th Virginia Cavalry ; 19th Virginia Cavalry ; 20th Virginia Cavalry ; 22nd Virginia Cavalry ; 23rd Virginia Cavalry ; 26th Virginia Cavalry ; 27th Virginia Cavalry ; 37th Virginia Cavalry .

Miscellaneous Confederate Units -- Patterson's Battery ; Darnell's Battery ; Carter's Battery ; White's Battalion of Cavalry .

Union regiments -- 37th Massachusetts Infantry ; 9th New York Cavalry ; 44th New York Cavalry ; 9th Pennsylvania Infantry ; 44th Pennsylvania Infantry ; 49th Pennsylvania Infantry ; 5th United States Cavalry .