I wrote the below post one year ago during a research trip to Washington D.C. and Richmond, VA studying Civil War medicine. This memory popped up today on my Facebook memories and I figured it was worth the share. I am so passionate about what I do. God has truly blessed me with the best opportunities, support system, mentors, and career path. I cant see myself being anywhere else, or doing anything else. History is my calling.
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•Day 4• This is why I do what I do. For days like today where all the hard work, frustration, long hours, and dirty, dusty hands, are 1000% worth it.
Today, we went to the site of Chimborazo General Hospital- a kind of medical oasis perched a top Richmond’s highest hill. None of the original 150 buildings stand but the importance of the site is not forgotten. What is now Chimborazo park was the site of a different kind of war involving different kinds of soldiers. Doctors battled epidemics like Typhoid Fever, Malaria, and camp illnesses like dysentery and diarrhea which killed more soldiers than musket and minne balls. They fought tirelessly to save the 75,000 patients who were treated here. Only 8,000 of them died according to park records.
After sifting through hundreds of these cases, specifically at Chimborazo, studying maps of the grounds and piecing together stories of some of the medical staff through letters and documents, being at the hospital site was something I’ll never forget. Chimborazo overlooked the James River, the railroad depot, a church built in 1794, and the numerous other general hospitals operated in Richmond. To stand on that hill and see the same railroad, the river, the church, and the town of Richmond below, was amazing.
I’m so blessed to be able to research these places and people and give them life again through research and analysis. ❤️
Webster's World 