General Hospital #1 and Shockoe Cemetery
Nursing opportunities in Black and White as war progresses
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch June 9, 1862:
Wanted — Nurses.
–Wanted immediately, at the General Hospital, twenty men, white or black, to act as Nurses. I will give twenty dollars a month and provide their meals. Apply to me, at the Hospital, between 9 A. M. and 6 P. M., every day.
Charles Bell Gibson,
Surg. P. A. C. S.,
in charge Gen. Hospital.
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You can read a good biography of Dr Charles Bell Gibson at Find A Grave. Among the Union wounded Dr. Gibson treated after First Bull Run was Orlando B. Willcox, who praised the good doctor for his skill and caring: “his visits brot sunshine into the wards”. Dr. Gibson’s death in April 1865 eventually opened up a post-bellum opportunity for Stonewall’s Surgeon, Dr. Hunter McGuire, who in November 1865 took Gibson’s place as chair of surgery at Richmond’s Medical College of Virginia.
Civil War Richmond provides information about General Hospital #1 (including the above photo). There is a link to a Dispatch notice from June 1862 in which Dr. Gibson is advertising for washerwomen at $1 per day.
Orlando Willcox healed to fight another day
