Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Bernard Fisher
Taken: September 20, 2009
Caption: General Hospital Number 1.
Additional Description: The General Hospital, City Home Hospital, Alms House Hospital. Built shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War by the City of Richmond as a poor house. Rented by the City Council to the Confederate authorities in June 1861 as a military hospital. Continued in use as such until December 1864 when it was reclaimed by the City for rental to the Virginia Military Institute as their temporary location. Suffered heavy exterior damage when the nearby powder magazine was exploded on evacuation night. Taken over by Federal authorities and again used by them as a poor house. Returned to the City in December 1865. It was used for many years as the City Alms House. Still in use and owned by the City of Richmond. Earliest use by the Confederacy was for wounded Union prisoners. Soon became the first of the large General Hospitals. Capacity about 500 patients. Dr. Charles Bell Gibson, surgeon-in-charge. [Confederate Military Hospitals in Richmond by Robert W. Wait, Jr., Official Publication #22 Richmond Civil War Centennial Committee, Richmond, Virginia 1964.]
Submitted: September 21, 2009, by Bernard Fisher of Richmond, Virginia.
Database Locator Identification Number: p78027
File Size: 1.017 Megabytes

To see the metadata that may be embedded in this photo, sign in and then return to this page.