North Carolina’s Hospitals in Charleston

   Samuel Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector General of the Confederate armies, issued General Order No. 95 on November 25, 1862. The twelve-point order dealt with the administration of Confederate hospitals, items such as the hospital fund, the requisition of clothes for the wounded, the duties of matrons, etc. Point number 10 specified that “Hospitals will be known and numbered as hospitals of a particular State. The sick and wounded, when not injurious to themselves or greatly inconvenient to the service, will be sent to the hospitals representing their respective States, and to private or State hospitals representing the same.”[1]

   It is not clear to what extent this order was adopted. In Richmond, the Confederate city with the best book on Confederate hospitals, there were several state hospitals. Many of these had more than one name or were later absorbed into the Confederate hospital system. These include the Mississippi Hospital (General Hospital #2); Second Georgia (General Hospital #14); First Georgia (General Hospital #16); Fourth Georgia (General Hospital #17); Third Georgia (General Hospital #19); First Alabama (General Hospital #20); North Carolina Hospital (General Hospital #24); Texas Hospital (General Hospital #25); Louisiana Hospital; South Carolina Hospital. There were at least 140 hospitals in Richmond.[2]

   Charleston, South Carolina, also became a hospital center for the Confederacy, with at least twenty-five hospitals. The war-time history of Charleston is well known. Many consider the bombardment of Fort Sumter to be the beginning of the war. The battle of Secessionville was fought in June 1862. Naval bombardments of the city and surrounding fortifications began in 1863, and the first and second battles of Fort Wagner were waged in 1863 as well.  There were numerous regiments that were assigned to duty in Charleston over the course of the war. The majority of soldiers who were there were, of course, from South Carolina, but there were troops from Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina there as well. 

White House, Charleston, SC

   North Carolina regiments assigned to the defenses of Charleston include the 8^th North Carolina, 31^st North Carolina, 51^st North Carolina, and 61^st North Carolina. Those four North Carolina regiments, part of the brigade commanded by Thomas L. Clingman, were assigned to the defenses of Charleston in February 1863 and remained in the city through the end of the year. The 8^th and 31^st participated in the battle at Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863. The 1^st North Carolina Hospital in Charleston was established in August 1863 on one of the city wharves, but it was forced to relocate when the bombardment commenced. The new location was a “fine dwelling” at the intersection of Mary and American Streets. A chimney fire destroyed this building in January 1864.[3] It is unclear if during one of their moves if the hospital was redesignated the 2^nd North Carolina Hospital. The 3^rd North Carolina hospital was established at the White home on Charlotte Street. It was a large brick home that served as Daniel Sickle’s headquarters after the war.[4] Artilleryman Daniel E.H. Smith was taken to the hospital on Charlotte Street at one point during the war. “I was carried to the very top of the house and put to bed in an attic room. The Matron, or head nurse, was Mrs. Lining, a lady of good birth, who was very kind to me.” Smith mentions that a Dr. Meminger was in charge of the hospital.[5] It is not clear who Doctor Meminger was. 

The Charleston Daily Courier August 10, 1863. 

   More information about these North Carolina hospitals in Charleston is sparse. The Charleston Daily Courier advertised on August 5, 1864, that two good cooks were wanted at the “North Carolina General Hospital on East-Bay Street and Fraser’s Wharf.” The Soldier’s Relief Association of Charleston donated fifty shirts, fifty pairs of drawers, twenty-four fans, linen, and arrowroot, along with fifteen chickens, one bag of meal, three dozen eggs, potatoes and tea in August.[6] T. Player Edwards, hospital steward, acknowledged the receipt of cash from churches in Wilmington and the Ladies’ Aid Society in Asheville, along with items like potatoes, eggs, blackberry and catsup, shirts, drawers, socks, and six bottles of Calisaya bitters from individuals.[7] W. H. McDowell, assistant superintendent of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, informed the people of Wilmington that the railroad would transport food and other provisions to the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston for free.[8]

   Finding a list of those treated at the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston is difficult. It appears that most of the records were lost. One newspaper informs us that there were eight South Carolina soldiers at the hospital in September 1863, while there were several North Carolina soldiers at the Citadel Square Hospital.[9] C. F. Townsend, Co. E, 51^st North Carolina Troops, was sent to the North Carolina Hospital after being struck by a shell at Sullivan’s Island.[10]

   The Rev. E. T. Winkler, the Senior Chaplain of Hospitals in Charleston, wrote to the Biblical Recorder in late September, telling the editor that the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston was “thronged with the sick and wounded from” North Carolina and asked for fifty copies of the Biblical Record for the convalescing soldiers. Winkler wrote of one patient from North Carolina whom he considered one “of the bravest men whom I have ever met. . . who told me with his dying breath, ‘Tell my wife that when I fell in the field, I fell in the arms of Jesus.’”[11]

   In November there was an advertisement for two white male nurses, “recommended for sobriety and honesty” to work at the hospital. Not only was it a paid position, but rations were also furnished.[12]

   While Clingman’s brigade of North Carolina Troops was transferred in late 1863, the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston remained open. In June 1864, an article mentioned the new location and that surgeon J. G. Thomas was in charge.[13] This is undoubtedly Dr. James G. Thomas. A native of Kentucky. Thomas served in several hospitals in Oxford and Jackson, Mississippi, then as surgeon of the 39^th Alabama Infantry before being assigned to Charleston. While in Charleston, he not only worked at the North Carolina Hospital, but also in the South Carolina and Georgia hospitals as well. Doctor Thomas was reassigned to Macon, Georgia, in June 1864. Thomas’s listing as surgeon seems to be the last time the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston is mentioned. Just when the hospital closed is unknown.

   It is possible that more information about the hospital might be difficult to obtain. Rebecca Calcutt tells us that many of the military records from Charleston were moved to Columbia towar the end of the war for safe keeping, and then lost in the fire in February 1865.[14] While there is a history of Clingman’s brigade, there are no histories of the 8^th, 31^st, 51^st, of 61^st North Carolina regiments. Maybe by looking into these regiments and others in the greater Charleston area, we can learn more about the North Carolina Hospital.

 

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[1] Official Records, Series 4, Vol. 2, 199-200.

[2] Calcutt, Richmond’s Wartime Hospitals.

[3] The Charleston Mercury January 5, 1864.

[4] Calcutt, South Carolina’s Confederate Hospitals, 24, 27.

[5] Smith, A Charlestonian’s Recollections, 91.

[6] The Charleston Daily Courier August 2, 1864.

[7] The Charleston Mercury August 15, 1863.

[8] The Daily Journal August 19, 1863.

[9] The Charleston Daily Courier September 8, 1863.

[10] The Greenville Enterprise September 10, 1863.

[11] The Biblical Recorder October 7, 1863.

[12] The Charleston Mercury November 27, 1863.

[13] The Charleston Mercury June 7, 1864.

[14] Calcutt, South Carolina’s Confederate Hospitals, 1.

Confederates beyond the War - Governors

One of those questions floating around my mind on Sunday as I drove to Raleigh was how many governors in North Carolina had Confederate service behind them: several, it turns out. An even greater question is how the military experience of these men influenced their lives and hence the direction of the state. We'll save that one for another post.

Brogden

William W. Holden (1865) was appointed military governor at war's end by US President Andrew Johnson. He was a newspaper editor and had no military experience.

Jonathan Worth (1865-1868) was elected in late 1865. He was a strong Unionist and never really supported the war. Worth was appointed state treasurer by the General Assembly in 1862, and he held the post until elected governor.

William W. Holden (168-1871) was elected to serve a regular term, but was impeached in 1871.

Tod Robinson Caldwell (1871-1874) took over after the impeachment of Holden. The new state constitution of 1868 provided for a lieutenant governor, and Caldwell was the first to hold the position. Like Worth, Holden was a Unionist, but had served as a solicitor of Rutherford County during the war years.  

Curtis Hooks Brogden (1874-1877) was state comptroller during the war years. He was a Democrat at the start of the War and supported Vance for governor, but like Holden and Worth, moved toward the Republican party once the war ended. Brogden was Caldwell's lieutenant governor, and took over the governorship when Caldwell died in office.

Jarvis

Zebulon Baird Vance (1877-1879) was the first Confederate military officer to hold the position of governor after the War ended. Vance had served as a company officer in the 14th North Carolina State Troops, and as colonel of the 26th North Carolina Troops, before being elected governor in 1862. He was reelected in 1864, but arrested in May 1865, and unable to hold political office for a number of years after the end of the war. His third term as governor only lasted a couple of years, he was sent to the United States senate in 1877.

Thomas Jordan Jarvis (1879-1885) was originally a private in Company L, 17th North Carolina Troops, joining on May 4, 1861. Two weeks later, he was appointed a lieutenant in the 8th North Carolina State Troops and transferred. Jarvis was captured when Roanoke Island fell on February 8, 1862, but was back with the army by November 1862. In April 1863, he was promoted to captain of Company B. He was wounded in the right shoulder at Drewry's Bluff in ay 1864, and reported absent wounded the rest of the war.

Scales

Alfred Moore Scales (1885-1889) was elected captain of what became Company H, 13th North Carolina Troops on April 30, 1861. In October, he was elected colonel of the same, replacing William Dorsey Pender, who was appointed colonel of the 6th North Carolina State Troops. Scales was wounded in the right thigh at Chancellorsville, and then promoted to brigadier general on June 13, 1863.  Scales was again wounded at Gettysburg, then fought through the Overland Campaign, but appears to have been sick the last months of the war.

Daniel Gould Fowle (1889-1891) was appointed lieutenant colonel of the 31st North Carolina Troops on September 19, 1861. He was also captured when Roanoke Island fell in early 1862. Fowle was defeated for reelection when his regiment was reorganized in September 1862. Fowle served in the General Assembly, then as adjutant general, then was back in the General Assembly after a disagreement with Vance. He also died in office while serving as governor.

Thomas Michael Holt (1891-1893), lieutenant governor, filled the unexpired term of Fowle. Holt does not appear  to have served during the war. Instead, he stayed and managed part of his family's textile interests, namely the Granite Mill on the Haw River.

Elias Carr (1893-1897), as the story goes, was a private in Company G, 3rd North Carolina Cavalry, serving from September 1861 through June 1862. He was then called back to North Carolina to manage his very large farm. It appears that Carr later served as a sergeant in Company K, 67th North Carolina Troops, and possibly as a private in Company A, 8th Battalion North Carolina Partisan Rangers.

Daniel Lindsay Russell (1897-1901) was appointed a 1st lieutenant in the "Lamb Artillery" on May 5, 1862. The battery was also known as Company G, 2nd North Carolina Artillery. He was promoted Captain in January 1863, but was court martialed for assaulting another officer. He was later restored to his command, but resigned in February 1865. He was also a Republican.

Russell was the last Confederate veteran to serve as governor of North Carolina.

I have the honor to tender…

Once a man joined the army, he had little opportunity to get out. If he was an enlisted man, he could be discharged for some medical ailment, or possibly because he was too young or too old. And of course, death would get a man out of the army.

Officers were given a choice. They were allowed to resign their commissions. (We could have a whole discussion about the origins of commissions, and how in other armies commissions could be purchased and sold, but we will leave that for another time.)

An officer wanting out of his commission had to simply write a letter. William Y. Farthing, captain of Co. E, 37th NCT, wrote on November 12, 1862: “In 1861 I brought into service my Co. and enlisted it for twelve months. Last April I re-enlisted ‘for the war’ and induced most of my company to follow me. I am fifty years old and have two sons; one of my sons is now a member of my Co. and the other is about to enter the army being subject to the Conscription law. I own no slaves, therefore my wife and daughter are left without any male assistance on the plantation.” Farthing’s letter then went up the chain of command – his colonel, William Barber, approved it; Brig. Gen. James H. Lane approved; A. P. Hill approved it; Stonewall Jackson approved it; and, finally, the adjutant general’s office approved it. Farthing had his answer on November 28: his resignation had been accepted and he was free from his responsibilities in the army. We don’t know if Farthing ever learned that news or not. He died that same day in a hospital in Winchester of “pleuritis.”

Officers submitted letters of resignation for every conceivable reason. The most obvious was due to wounds. Lt. Samuel J. Helper , Co. B, 14th NCT, was wounded in the left arm during the battle of Sharpsburg (September 17, 1862). He submitted his resignation on May 15, 1863, citing his wound as the reason, and his resignation was accepted on June 1. Lt. William W. Hall of Thomas’s Legion resigned on July 25, 1863, due to an attack of typhoid fever. The same reason, “a severe case of typhoid fever,” was the cause of the resignation of Lt. Col. James M. Lowry of the 29th NCT. Lt. George W. Thompson of Company A, 31st NCT, submitted his resignation on March 28, 1863, citing “chronic rheumatism of the feet & ankles” as his reason. Lt. Col. John C. Keener of the 58th NCT submitted his resignation on June 16, 1863, stating that was “near fifty years of age… [and] now consider it my duty to retire from the [service] for the purpose of going home to attend to the wants &c., of my family.” Keener’s case was helped by his commanding officer, Col. John B. Palmer, who wrote that Keener “is not competent to perform the duties of the office he holds…” Keener’s resignation was accepted on or about that same date.

Not all resignations were accepted. Probably the most famous would be when on August 8, 1863, Robert E. Lee, following the battle of Gettysburg, offered to resign. Of course, Davis refused. Other resignations were also refused. Lt. Col. Samuel Silver, 58th NCT, tendered his resignation on March 16, 1865, stating that he did not feel qualified to perform his duties as commanding officer of the 58th North Carolina Troops, and was concerned about his family back in Mitchell County. Silver’s resignation was originally rejected. Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart writes that “The first reason assigned should have been [tested] by the Examining Board. The second is no reason. “ Stewart is saying that when Silver went before the examining board, they found him competent for the position assigned to him by his promotion, and his reason of incompetency will not stand. Stewart’s second remark needs no explanation. (Gen. Johnston also disapproved the resignation.)

So why was Keener’s accepted and Silver’s (initially) not? Possibly the point of the war (1863 vs. 1865). Age was probably the defining point. Keener was 50, Silver just 32. Had Silver’s resignation been accepted sooner, he would have been liable for service under the conscription law, and would have been put back in service. The same was true of William Blalock of the 26th NCT. He was given a medical discharge, but once the local enrolling officer saw that he was well, he attempted to get him back in service. Another case would be that of Lt. John Tipton of Co. G, 58th NCT. He submitted his resignation on March 26, 1862, considering himself to be “wholly incompetent for the duties and responsibilities of the office through a want of education.” His resignation was accepted on May 15, 1863, and he later served as a private in this same company.

These are just a few examples – there are hundreds from North Carolina alone.

A look around the old North State

I’ve not had much time to look at the news lately – so, I did this morning. Here is what I found:

Rob Neufeld writes an interesting article about a member of the 60th North Carolina Troops in the Asheville Citizen. Check it out here.

There is a living history at the Bennett Place this weekend – more information can be found here.

Interesting article on Maj. Charles M. Stedman in the Politico a couple of weeks ago. Check it out here.

On Ancestorymagazine.com there is an article on Pvt. Durham H. Smith (31st NCT). Check it out here.