by Guy R. Hasegawa

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Photo Gallery

The Custom House, also known as the Treasury Building, in Richmond as it appeared shortly after the fire of April 1865. (Library of Congress, reprod. no. LC-DIG-ds-05474.)
The Custom House, now greatly expanded, survives as part of the US Court of Appeals. (Photo by author)
The Richmond Alms House was used during the Civil War as Alms House Hospital or General Hospital No. 1. (Library of Congress, reprod. no LC-DIG-cwpb-01245.)
The former Alms House is used today as an apartment building. (Photo by author)
Moore Hospital in Richmond, also known as General Hospital No. 24, admitted large numbers of North Carolina soldiers. (Library of Congress, reprod. no LC-DIG-ppmsca-33630)
Original nameplate of the Confederate States Medical and Surgical Journal, published in Richmond from January 1864 through February 1865. Starting in September 1864, the nameplate was altered to occupy much less space, probably to fit more text on the page.
Lists of surgeons and assistant surgeons evaluated by an army examining board convening at Charleston. Medical officers who received an unfavorable report from such a board and did not resign were dropped from the army rolls. In this case, letters informing men of their unsatisfactory report were sent by Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Chilton, Assistant Adjutant General. (File S194, roll 45, microfilm M474, National Archives)
Part of an advertisement appearing in the Southern Confederacy, an Atlanta newspaper, on March 11, 1863. The blockade-runner Havelock arrived at Charleston on February 24, 1863 (Wise, Lifeline of the Confederacy, 252). Potential buyers might have to travel long distances for a chance to buy newly arriving goods. (Author’s collection)
Physician and scientist Aaron Snowden Piggot, who was surgeon in charge of the medical laboratory at Lincolnton, NC. Among the most important products of the laboratory was sulfuric acid. (Papers of Aaron Snowden Piggot, MD, 1874–99, RG 109, National Archives)
Circular distributed on behalf of the Association of Army and Navy Surgeons. Responses to this set of questions, agreed upon at the organization’s first meeting (August 22, 1863), were discussed at the second meeting (September 5, 1863). (Freeman, Calendar of Confederate Papers. National Library of Medicine, http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101644977, accessed Feb. 25, 2021)
Although smallpox was widespread in Richmond, members of the Confederate Congress declined Surgeon General Moore’s offer to vaccinate them. Moore promised to use healthy vaccine matter, but the legislators may have feared adverse effects of the immunizations. (Entry UD 176A, RG 109, National Archives)