Chimborazo Hospital was a Civil War-era facility built in Richmond, Virginia to service the medical needs of the Confederate Army. It functioned between 1862 and 1865 in what is now Chimborazo Park, treating over 76,000 injured Confederate soldiers. During its existence, the hospital admitted nearly 78,000 patients and between 6,500 and 8,000 of these patients died. This mortality rate of between 8.3 and 10.3 percent is among the lowest such rates of period military hospitals.
US National Park Service model of the Chimborazo Hospital grounds during the Civil War
Misses Cooke's school for freedmen, former Chimborazo Hospital
Richmond in the American Civil War
Richmond, Virginia, served as the capital of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War from May 8, 1861, hitherto the capital had been Montgomery, Alabama. Notwithstanding its political status, it was a vital source of weapons and supplies for the war effort, as well as the terminus of five railroads, and as such would have been defended by the Confederate States Army at all costs.
View of Richmond above the Canal Basin, after the Evacuation Fire of 1865
Lithograph depicting the Evacuation Fire (Currier & Ives, 1865)
Virginia State Capitol, used as the Confederate Capitol. To the left is the Customs House, used by the Confederate Department of the Treasury and the offices of the President and Vice President.
Libby Prison in 1865, viewed from Dock Street
