Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Virginia Medical Dept., Surgeon General's records, 1861-1863. Accession 38901, State Records Collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

No acquisition information available.

Biographical/Historical Information

An ordinance to provide for the organization of Staff Departments for the Military Forces of the State was passed by the Virginia Convention on April 21, 1861 and amended and re-enacted on April 24, 1861. This ordinance organized the adjutant general's department, quartermaster's department, subsistence department, medical department, pay department, and engineer corps. The medical department was to consist of a surgeon general with the rank of colonel, ten surgeons of the rank of major, and ten assistant surgeons of the rank of captain. Governor Letcher and the Advisory Council, with the recommendation of General Robert E. Lee, appointed Charles Bell Gibson as Surgeon General. On April 30, 1861, Gibson submitted a report to the Advisory Council approving a suggestion by Peyton Johnson, a druggist in Richmond, to procure a supply of medicines and surgical instruments from Europe. On May 1, 1861, Gibson sent an estimate to the Advisory Council amounting to $33,525.20 for medicines and surgical instruments.

Scope and Content Information

Contains requisitions, bills, a report, and receipts of the Surgeon General, Dr. Charles Bell Gibson, of the Medical Dept. of Virginia between 1861 and 1863. There are mostly requisitions and bills for medicine, hospital stores, etc., submitted to the Surgeon General by various surgeons of the Volunteer Forces throughout Virginia. These requisitions were approved by the Surgeon General's Office and signed by L.S. Joynes, assistant surgeon. Each requisition has an attached bill that is numbered and provides an itemized list of expenditures. The majority of medical supplies were purchased from Purcell, Ladd. & Co., druggists in Richmond.