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Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials. Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Existence and Location of Copies
A transcription of the text is available online. The transcription preserves the page and line breaks as they appear in the original. Links throughout the transcript point to additional information on relevent people and places.
This collection has been digitized and is available online.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder],
Archibald Atkinson
, Jr., Memoir, Ms1994-022, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
Source of Acquisition
The Archibald Atkinson
, Jr., Memoir was purchased by Special Collections and University Archives in 1993.
Processing Information
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Archibald Atkinson , Jr., Memoir commenced and was completed in 1994.
Biographical Note
Archibald Atkinson
, Jr. (1832-1903) served as a doctor in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He was a surgeon for the 10th
Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, followed by appointments with the 31st Regiment, Virginia Infantry, and the Second Army Corps,
Army of Nothern Virginia. His father Archibald
Atkinson
(1792-1872) was a lawyer and politician, representing Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843-1849.
Additional biographical information is available on the archived version of the Special Collections and University Archives website.
The following is from The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia , pgs. 603-604. Baltimore: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1879.
" Atkinson
, Archibald, Jr., M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore,
was born February 23, 1832, near Smithfield, on the James River, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. His father was an eminent
lawyer, and represented the Second Congressional District of Virginia in the United States Congress from 1844 to 1848. Dr.
Atkinson
received his education at the University of Virginia, and graduated inmedicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the spring
of 1854. After receiving his diploma he went abroad and enjoyed the advantages of the clinics of the most famous hospitals
of Paris for eighteen months, and a six months' residence in the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital of Dublin, Ireland. Returning to
America in 1856 he located in Baltimore, where he practiced his profession until the outbreak of the late [American] civil
war, when he returned to his native State and was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Wise Legion [of the Confederacy] in West
Virginia, and assigned to the charge of the Lewisburg Hospital.
"In 1862 Dr. Atkinson
was selected as the Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, belonging to General J.E.B. Stuart's command, and in
autumn of 1863 was assigned to the Thirty-first Virginia Regiment of Infantry. Subsequently he was appointed Brigade-Surgeon
in General John Pegram's Brigade, Early's Division, Second Army Corps, of the Army of Northern Virginia. At the termination
of the war he established himself in the practice of his profession in his native town of Smithfield, Virginia, continuing
there until the spring of 1873, when he removed to Baltimore and located on North Charles Street. In the fall of 1875 Dr.
Atkinson
was elected to the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, a position
he has filled with rare ability and eminent success as an imparter of medical knowledge.
"His maternal ancestors were the Powells and Chiltons of Loudon County, Virginia, whose progenitors originally came from Scotland
and Wales. His ancestors on the paternal side were English.He has a brother, Dr. Robert Chilton Atkinson
, who is practicing medicine at St. Louis, Missouri. On November 2, 1858, Dr.
Atkinson
married Mary Elizabeth Thomas, of Smithfield, Virginia, daughter of Samuel Thomas, whose wife was Frances Harrison Woodley,
daughter of Major Woodley, of Smithfield. The issue of the marriage is two children, Mary Chilton and Louis Woodley
Atkinson
, both of whom are living.
"In religion Dr. Atkinson
is inclined to the tenets of the Presbyterian Church, and his political sentiments are of the Jeffersonian State rights Democratic
stamp. As a citizen, scholar, physician, or preceptor, none stand higher than he in the community where he is so steadily
and successfully practicing his profession."
Sources:
Crofts, Daniel W., and Dictionary of Virginia Biography . "Archibald Atkinson
(1792–1872). " (Dec. 22, 2021). In Encyclopedia Virginia . https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/
atkinson
-archibald-1792-1872/ , accessed June 24, 2022.
"Dr Archibald Atkinson
Jr." entry, Findagrave.com, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/18637290/archibald-
atkinson
, accessed June 24, 2022.
"Atikinson, Archibald, Jr." In The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia , pgs. 603-604. Baltimore: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1879. A digitized version is available online from the Internet Archive, and a copy is available from VT University Libaries via the online library catalog .
Scope and Content
Written sometime around 1900, the memoirs recount the military career of Archibald Atkinson
, Jr., as a doctor in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving as a surgeon for the 10th Regiment, Virginia
Cavalry, followed by appointments with the 31st Regiment, Virginia Infantry, and the Second Army Corps, Army of Nothern Virginia.
The memoir was writen in a commercially prepared notebook (printed, lined paper) on a total of 58 pages. The memoir seems to begin in the middle of the text; there is no introductory material or conclusion. There may well have been another notebook with the first part of the narrative; if so, there is no indication anywhere on the notebook preserved at Virginia Tech of its existence.
A transcription of the text is available online. The transcription preserves the page and line breaks as they appear in the original. Links throughout the transcript point to additional information on relevent people and places.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged by material type.
Related Material
See also the 31st Regiment, Virginia Infantry, Company Roll, Ms2010-055, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va. Finding aid available online.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
- Civil War
- Folk, historical, and patent medicine
- Medicine
- Medicine, Military -- History
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Diaries
Rights Statement for Archival Description
The guide to the Archibald Atkinson
, Jr., Memoir by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).