Earlier this year, I was able to find Confederate service records for my 3rd-great grandfather, David Franklin Averett (1837-1927) —
see my blog post from 26 May 2014 — and his brother, Alvis E. Averett (1846-1894) —
see my blog post from 1 June 2014 — on the paid web site
fold3.com. Those records,
as discussed on the Civil War Richmond web site and elsewhere, were the result of
“...clerks in the War Department ... detailed to methodically plow through hospital registries and other records, indexing each name on slips of paper. These slips were then placed in folders, and are now referred to as "compiled military service records" (or CMSRs). These will tell you most everything you want to know regarding that soldiers' service, including where he enlisted, which hospital he was placed in, etc, etc.”
As I showed in the linked blog posts above, hospital records for Alvis Averett were included in his service record. He was apparently hospitalized in Richmond in July and August 1864, likely due to illness, and again in October 1864 due to wounds suffered in action in the vicinity of Darbytown, Virginia (which is now a part of the greater Richmond metropolitan area). But there are no such hospital records for David Averett, only a single reference to his being hospitalized at “General Hospital” due to wounds suffered on 6 May 1864 at the Battle of the Wilderness. (
See records from Volume 108 below for the single reference to Alvis Averett that I was able to find in the archival records described in this particular blog post.)
I wanted to find these records, in spite of the fact that,
as explained on The Siege of Petersburg Online web site:
“Many Confederate records from 1864 were lost during Lee’s retreat from Richmond and Petersburg. As a result, many useful primary sources from the Confederate side are simply never going to be available.”
I am not clear whether the writer was referring only to military unit records during the retreat of the Confederate Army of whether he or she was referring to Confederate government records being lost during the evacuation of Richmond immediately following that retreat. Either way, I took to heart the advice given on the Civil War Richmond web site that:
“… any research into a patient's or prisoner's stay in Richmond should begin (and will sometimes end) with that soldiers individual service records, which can be had from the National Archives. This will tell you which hospital or prison the soldier was in, and will give you dates of stay and disease, if applicable. The service records themselves are not generally historical documents - they are of the War Department's' creation (who had possession of military records until the creation of the National Archives during the Great Depression).”
Since I live in the area, I resolved to do just that: to check records held in the National Archives. Their web site includes
a page on planning a research visit and they recommend contacting them by mail or telephone in advance of the visit. So I wrote an email via the “
Contact Us” page on their web site.
YOU ASKED A QUESTION:
QUESTION TOPIC: Monday, 6/16/2014 at 4:27 pm EST
QUESTION TEXT: I am looking for hospitalization records for my Confederate soldier ancestor. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864 and was hospitalized Richmond, Virginia, likely first at the Wayside and Receiving Hospital (General Hospital No. 9) and then at Howard's Grove Hospital. Based on information found on the "Civil War Richmond" web site, I believe this information is found in Record Group 109, "Chapter 6" (not sure what "Chapter 6" means), in various volumes … I have never tried to use the National Archives before and would like information about where and how to proceed. Thanks!
The reply arrived a few days later:
Dear Mr. Luke,
This is in reply to your inquiry of June 16, 2014, to the National Archives, seeking hospital records for your Confederate ancestor. You are welcome to visit the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and view the extant hospital records in Record Group 109, War Department Collection of Confederate Records, but be advised that such research is unnecessary if your ancestor has a military service record.
When Confederate military service records were created at the turn of the last century by the U.S. War Department, all extant medical information -- as well as other information, such as enlistment and discharge -- was transcribed verbatim from the original hospital records. The hospital records do not include any additional information.
Confederate military service records are available on microfilm at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. They are also available in full at Fold3.com.
So that was discouraging: all hospital records for the person of interest are listed in his military service records. And if the service records do not include such information, it likely no longer exists. But besides being skeptical that all records extracted from hospital records would have been assiduously coupled by disinterested clerks, decades after the war, I also wanted to see what the records themselves actually looked like. So during my next vacation from work, I took the subway to the National Archives anyway, just to see what I could find.
The results of my visit pretty much confirmed what I had been told about the existence of such records. I found no hospitalization records associated with David Averett, just as their absence from his service records should have told me. But I did get to see the records and found that there are two kinds of records. The first were tabular summaries written by hand of the hospital records, which should be a reliable source of information about what went on at those hospitals. The second were notebooks that appear to have been kept by individual doctors or administrators or nurses; it seem possible that they might not be the source of information now found in databases. So if I wanted to go through, say, furlough hearing records, I might be able to find something related to David Averett and/or his brother. But the records covered thousands upon thousands of wounded men going through those hospitals and I believed at the time that it would be impractical to start that process then. Perhaps some day I will do so. As far as I know at this time, transcriptions of those furlough hearings, for example, have not been transcribed, except possibly only in the individual Confederate soldier service records.
Now, which records available at the National Archives are to be searched first? As for Alvis Averett, I already knew (described in a previous blog post) that he had been at
General Hospital No. 9 (also called “The Receiving and Wayside Hospital”, “Seabrook’s Hospital”, “Receiving and Way Hospital”, and the “Receiving and Distributing Hospital”, sometimes abbreviated here and elsewhere as “GH#9") and at
Howard’s Grove Hospital. Through a survey of dates and locations (that I still need to write up in a future blog post), I decided that, in spite of the network of hospitals that were operating at different times and in different locations during the course of the war, if David Averett had been taken to Richmond after being wounded in battle, it was likely that he also would have been initially admitted to General Hospital No. 9 and then to Howard’s Grove Hospital. There were hospitals in Virginia located elsewhere, besides Richmond, but I have been told and am fairly sure (subject to further research, of course), that that is where he would have been. It appears likely that while, during the first years of the war, there was a very large network of fairly small hospitals in the city of Richmond, as time went on, those hospitals were closed and operations were consolidated at a small number of large hospitals, such as Howard’s Grove Hospital and
Chimborazo Hospital. Wounded soldiers were apparently seen first at the Receiving and Wayside Hospital due to its proximity to a railroad and, by 1864, were then distributed to the other, large, hospitals according to their State. So while wounded Alabamians were taken to four different “Alabama Hospitals” in the city earlier in the war, by 1864, Alabamian enlisted men (at least) were taken exclusively to Howard’s Grove Hospital. The Civil War Richmond web site indicates that Alabama soldiers were admitted to the “First Division” of Howard’s Grove Hospital and Mississippi soldiers were admitted to the “Second Division” of that same hospital.
The appearances of both the tabular records and the personal notebooks are now described.
The results of the work described in this blog post are:
- Several “near-misses”, including Volumes 107 and 111, in finding records for David Averett (wounded 6 May 1864) in the Richmond wartime hospital network; and
- A “hit” in finding records for his brother, Alvis Averett, wounded 7 October 1864, in Volume 108.
This was a one-day trip to the National Archives and, by Volume 106, fatigue was becoming a factor. I describe below what I found in that volume but it would be worthwhile to pull it and those following to see if I have missed anything. In addition, organization in these records appeared to me to be breaking down substantially over what is seen during the winter, spring, and summer of 1864. Records seem (to me) to become more disorganized and messy later in the year, and even more so in 1865. So in Volumes 106-109, 111-112, 116, 128, 131, and 335, it might be worthwhile to pore over the lists of names in a future visit to the Archives to definitely rule out the presence of any “Averett” surnames in them.
 |
| (Click images to enlarge.) It's my blog so I'm allowed to include selfies taken outside the National Archives. |
When I arrived at the National Archives, I went through the procedures required to obtain a researcher card. This took about an hour, most of which was spent viewing PowerPoint slides on instructions and restrictions for handling materials held at the National Archives.
It turns out that all Confederate records at the National Archives are kept in what is called “
Record Group 109”, to include the hospital records that were of interest to me. According to the National Archives web page, the Confederate Medical Records are kept in part “109.8”, with hospital records in part “109.8.4”
For reasons that I do not yet understand, when I arrived at the National Archives, the reference source for Record Group 109 shown to me by the staff organized things somewhat differently. That reference was:
Preliminary Inventory of the War Department Collection of Confederate Records (Record Group 109), Originally Compiled by Elizabeth Bethel, Additions and Indexing by Craig R. Scott, 1994. Retypset and reprinted with Index 1994 by Iberian Publishing Company, 548 Cedar Creek Drive, Athens, GA 30605-3408.
In this reference, which is unfortunately not available on the Internet, as far as I know, I found records pertaining to General Hospital No. 9 in 1864 on pp. 49-51:
- Record Book, General Hospital No. 9, 1862-64 (Vol. 81)
- Register of Patients, General Hospital No. 9, 1863-65 (Vols. 106-109)
- Record Book, General Hospital No. 9, 1863-65 (Vol. 110)
- List of Patients for Examining Board, General Hospital No. 9, 1864. (Vol. 111)
- Register of Patients, General Hospital No. 9, 1864 (Vol.112)
- Report of Transfers and Admittances, General Hospital No. 9, 1864-65 (Vol. 116)
- Register of Patients, General Hospital No. 9, 1864 (Vol.128)
- Register of Patients, General Hospital No. 9, 1864-65 (Vol.131)
- Record Book Relating to Furloughs, Transfers, and Discharges, General Hospital No. 9, 1864-675 [sic?] (Vol. 335)
- Reports on Surgical Cases, General Hospital No. 9, 1863-1864 (Vol. 466)
- Requisitions and Property Accounts, General Hospital No. 9, 1863-65 (Vol. 489)
In other words, in spite of what was displayed on the National Archives web site, which referred to parts “109.8” and “109.8.4” containing the desired records, the not-widely-published Preliminary Inventory indicated that the records were indeed in "Chapter VI". On the day I was there, I did not stop to question why this was the case and what were in Chapters I through V and in Chapters VII and later. Perhaps the “109.8” and “109.8.4” were due to the result of using HTML tags for ordered lists and the numbers themselves do not refer to any other (physical) arrangement?
In any event, I knew by that point that I needed to have the following volumes pulled: 81, 106-109, 111-112, 116, 128, 131, 335, 466, 489. The number of volumes that I could have pulled at any one time were limited by what the wheeled cart could carry, with each volume flat on a shelf on that cart. So I wasn’t able to see Volumes 466 and 489 that day.
It turned out that several of these volumes were for dates that were outside my intervals of interest, viz., around 6 May 1864 (David Averett wounded), 24 August 1864 (Alvis Averett sick), and 10 October 1864 (Alvis Averett wounded). Unfortunately there was not enough information in the RG 109 Preliminary Inventory to know that until the volumes were pulled and the precise dates were thereby ascertained.
Volume 81: Record Book, General Hospital No. 9, 1862-64.
The first volume:
This is what the inside cover looked like.
The inside covers of all of the volumes were similar to this. The individual labels for this volume as as follows. First, the contents of the bound volume are summarized in a form pasted onto the inside front cover.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 81 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 170
PAGE.: 3 to 5, 42 to 97, 233, 244, 254, & 259.
FROM— various dates in ’62 & ‘63
TO— various dates in ’62 & ‘63
CONTENTS.: Transfers to Private Houses or Quarters.
No. Names.: 1122
PAGE.: 6 to 46
FROM— various dates in ’62.
TO— various dates in ’62.
CONTENTS.: List of Soldiers (arranged by States.)
No. Names.: 14
PAGE.: 61
FROM— various dates in ‘62
TO— various dates in ‘62
CONTENTS.: Number of Asst. Surgeons.
No. Names.: 38
PAGE.: 63 & 64
FROM— various dates in ’62.
TO— various dates in ’62.
CONTENTS.: Number of White Employees
No. Names.: 33
PAGE.: 108 to 110.
FROM— various in 1862.
TO— various in 1862.
CONTENTS.: Patients Remaining in Hosp.
No. Names.: 454
PAGE.: 139 to 141, 166, 167, 176 to 178, 191 to 193, 202, 203, 212, 213, 222 to 224, 232 to 234, 242 to 244, 249, 254, 259, 265-271, 277, 255, & 291.
FROM— Oct. ~ 62
TO— Jan. ~ 64.
CONTENTS.: Furloughs and Casualties. (Deaths, Discharges, & Desertions.)
No. Names.: 1
PAGE.: 410
FROM— [left blank]
TO— [left blank]
CONTENTS.: [left blank]
Notes. For above mentioned patients, Names, Ages, and generally diag. [diagnoses?] are shown. Some pages are missing. Others not blank are filled with [Nurml.?] Reports, or records of no material value for carding.
“A.G.O.” in the first line likely stands for “Adjutant General’s Office”. According to the “
War Department Collection of Confederate Records (Record Group 109)" page at the National Archives web site:
"On July 21, 1865, the Secretary of War established a unit in the Adjutant General's Office for the collection, safekeeping, and publication of the "Rebel Archives." The records were used in protecting the U.S. Government against claims arising from the war, in establishing pension claims, and for historical purposes."
In other words, the records in this volume cover various spans of time from October 1862 to January 1864. This volume does not have any information about David Averett — wounded on 6 May 1864 — or Alvis Averett, wounded later that year.
"All the information pertaining to Federal prisoners of war in this book, has been copied on the records of this Division on P. of W.R. [prisoner of war records?] Also Mar. 21/74 [21 March 1874].
Jas. Loan
Clerk"
Similar notes were found pasted on the inside front cover of all of the bound volumes I saw. Some said that information about Union prisoners of war held by the Confederacy was extracted and some said that no such information was found in the volume.
The abbreviation “Dir. P. of W.R. AGO” likely denotes “Director of Prisoners of War Records, Adjutant General’s Office”. Similar images in the other bound volumes appeared to show “Div. P. of W.R AGO” or “Div. P. of W. R.A.G.O” instead. The handwriting is ambiguous in all volumes investigated so far, so the word intended may have been “Division” instead of “Director”. (The handwriting is ambiguous to vary degrees in all volumes investigated so far.)
Write nothing above this line.
Copyist should receive Special Instructions in carding this Register.
F.V.V.
W.F.L.
Each volume had instructions for indexing and compiling the information, presumably from those who first bound the materials into volumes and/or those who summarized the contents of the volume in anticipation of such indexing and compilation.
CHAPTER VI, VOLUME 81
MEDICAL DEPARTMENT
RECORD BOOK, GENERAL HOSPITAL NO 9
RICHMOND, VA., 1862-1864.
Each volume also had printed, in what looks to me like a modern typeface on the first page following the inside cover, information that closely replicated that which was embossed on the exterior of each volume. In this volume, I took a photo of the first few pages in the bound volume.
[handwriting in black]
Louisiana 22 [unreadable] John
Mississippi 26
Lankin[?] Johana
[handwriting in blue]
G.H. No 9
Richmond
Va
Reg [unreadable] 4[?]
[handwriting in pencil]
State, Deaths and Discharges
and Transfers
1862-1863
4 Transferred [to?] Private Houses
[
1st name only transcribed, several more left untranscribed here]
Name — Ellis, W.H.
Rank — P [Private, probably]
Regiment — 3 Al [3rd Alabama]
Company — K
Attending Physician — “”
House — [left blank]
Returned — 30 [return to General Hospital No. 9 in 30 days?]
Note. From investigation made by the Index Section, it was ascertained from the Muster Rolls found on file, that these patients were in Hosp. at Richmond in the latter part of 1862, and some were discharged in 1862 as stated in this Register (pages 3 to 5)
442
3-19-14 [19 March 1914?]
C.E.M.
Indexer
Volume 106: Register of Patients, 1863-64.
The inside front cover looked like this:
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 106 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or General Hospital No. 9,
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 18,206
PAGE.: 1 to 451 (breaks)
FROM, TO— May 6 to Sept. 28 ~ 63, and June 2 to 15 ~ 64.
CONTENTS.: “Register of Gen. Hosp. No. 9”. Shows Date of Disposition, Name, Orgn. [organization], Disposition and Date of Admission. No Diagnosis [sic: diagnoses] shown. Alphabetical arrangement from Page 1 to 340.
The specified dates excluded any information about David Averett — wounded on 6 May 1864 — or Alvis Averett, sick, then recovered, and then wounded later that year.
Instructions to Copyist.
The last column in this book should appear first on the card. The first column should appear last on the card.
F.V.V.
W.F.L.
This is a commonly-seen set of instructions to archive workers.
Volume 107: Register of Patients, 1863-64.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 107 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or General. Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 14,700
PAGE.: 1 to 383 (breaks)
FROM— Sept. 18 ~ 63
TO— May 6 ~ 64
CONTENTS.: Alphabetical Register of Patients. Shows date of disposition, Name, Orgn, Disposition, and date of admission. No Diag.
The first surname beginning with the letter “A” was admitted on 17 September 1863. (I care about David Averett and Alvis Averett.) The last recorded surname beginning with that letter was admitted on 4 May 1864, two days before David Averett was wounded.
So I just missed seeing David Averett’s records: he was wounded on 6 May 1864 and probably did not arrive at the hospital until at least the next day. At the time I had hopes that I would find the records for 5 May and afterward but that did not turn out to be the case. As far as I can tell at this time, those records were lost as discussed in the initial paragraphs of this blog post.
Again, I took photos of the first few pages of the bound volume.
General Hospital # General Hospital No. 9
Richmond Virginia General Hospital No. 9
Richmond Virginia
General Hospital
No. 9 No. 9
Wm. B. Quesenberry [William B. Quesenberry was a surgeon in Richmond, according to records posted in the Civil War Richmond web site.]
General Hospital No 9
Receiving & Wayside
John J. Gravatt Surgeon [John James Gravatt was the surgeon-in-charge at GH#9, according to records posted in the Civil War Richmond web site.]
Wm. B. Quesenberry
Registering Clerk
Opened Sept. 18th 1863
I have transcribed the first couple of names in the register.
1 [Page 1]
A
Date — [obscured: September] 18
Name — Angel, F.M.
Rank — Pr [Private]
Company — D
Regiment — 43 [43rd Regiment]
State — NC [North Carolina]
Disposition — Winder No. 4 [4th Division, Winder Hospital]
Admitted — Sept 17 [17 Sept 1863]
Date — [obscured: September] “ [18 September]
Name — Angel, C.W.
Rank — " [Private]
Company — “ [Company D]
Regiment — “ [43rd Regiment]
State — “ [North Carolina]
Disposition — Winder No. 4
Admitted — Sept 17
Volume 108: Register of Patients, 1865-1865.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 108 Confederate Archives.
Receiving & Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 21,857
PAGE.: 1 to 777 (breaks)
FROM— June 18 ~ 64
TO— Feb. 4 ~ 65
CONTENTS.: Alphabetical Register of Patients. Shows date of disposition, Name, Orgn., Disposition, and Date of Admission. ~ No Diag.
David Averett (wounded on 6 May 1864) is not likely to be found in these records. Note the dates skipped between Volume 107 (18 Sept 1863 — 6 May 1864) and Volume 108 (18 June 1864 — 4 February 1865): We are missing General Hospital No. 9 admission and disposition records for 7 May 1864 — 17 June 1864. If David Averett was brought here after being wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864, sixty or seventy miles away from Richmond, he would likely not have arrived until at least a few days after his wounding.
Alvis Averett was absent sick from his unit on 24 August 1864 and he was subsequently wounded on 7 October 1864, so I may find his name here.
Again, I have photographed the first few pages of the bound volume, however.
Gen. Hospital No. 9
Richmond Va June 18th 1864
Jno. J. Gravatt
Surgeon in Charge
Register
VOL 108
This image shows starting page numbers for surnames beginning with each of the letters of the alphabet. This is also a commonly-found feature of the (admittedly few) volumes that I handled that day.
This volume did contain information of interest to me and the following is a summary of my notes. Several instances of the “Averett” surname were found, although likely unrelated to my ancestry. Based on what I know now about my genealogy, there is a small chance the soldier W.L. Averett from the 1st Georgia Regiment was related and, sometime in the future, I may return to his name. Note also the variations in spelling — Averett and Avrett — these are all spelling I have found for names of people that I know to be related to David and Alvis Averett. Other common variations include “Avrit”, “Avritt”. Another researcher with whom I have had correspondence indicates that variations on the name “Everett” are also valid, especially during his tracing of the line into South Carolina in the early days of the United States and before. I did not check for this name on this particular trip to the National Archives, but it would not hurt to comb through service records for that name on fold3.com, prior to a return to the National Archives.
- Page 1: The first soldier having surname beginning with the letter “A” was admitted to GH#9 on 17 June 1864 and his date of disposition was 18 June 1864.
- Page 3: W.L. Averett from Company C of the 1st Georgia Regiment, admitted 14 July 1864. Disposition: “Batt. Chim”. This means, I think, that he was transferred to Chimborazo Hospital. Note sure what “batt” means — 1st Georgia Battery, maybe?
- Page 8: I.W. Avrett, Private, Company G, 14th Virginia, disposition: Chimo [Chimborazo?], date of disposition: 23 September 1864, date of admission to GH #9: 22 September 1864
- Page 9: W.I. Averett, Private, Company E, 14th Virginia, disposition: Chim [Chimborazo?], date of disposition: October 2, 1864, date of admission: October 3, 1864. This must be a switch of dates: probably should be admitted to GH#9 on 2 October 1864 and date of disposition (sent to Chimborazo Hospital) on 3 October.
- Page 9: J.E. Avrett, Private, Company F, 5th Florida, disposition: HG [Howard’s Grove Hospital?], date of admission to HG#9: 2 October 1864, date of disposition: 3 October 1864. These dates were apparently erroneously reversed the same way they were for W.I. Averett from Virginia just a few lines above on the same page 9.
- Page 10: A.E. Avrett, Private, Company A, 15th Alabama, disposition: HG [Howard’s Grove Hospital, I think], date of admission to GH#9: 9 October 1864, date of disposition: 10 October 1864.
A zoomed-in view of the same page...
Admission date: 10 October [1864; this was three days after he was wounded on 7 October at the Battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads (near Richmond in Henrico County).]
Name — Avrett, A.E.
Rank — Pr. [Private]
Company — A
Regiment — 15th Alabama
Disposition — HG [probably means: sent to Howard’s Grove Hospital]
- Page 14: Last soldier with surname beginning with the letter “A” was admitted to GH#9 on 3 February 1865 and his date of disposition was 4 February 1865.
There are about fifty names on each page, and there are somewhat fewer than 777 pages filled in this File No. 8. If there are five hundred filled pages, the names in this document number 50 x 500 = 2500 casualties that were processed by GH#9 during the time period of 17 June 1864 to 3 February 1865. In comparison, the contents of the volume pasted on the inside cover, shown above, indicates that 21,857 names are listed in this single volume. In fact, I have
highlighted the number of names shown on the inside front cover of all the volumes. The number of casualties incurred on both sides during the War Between the States is almost too great for true comprehension.
Volume 109: Register of Patients, 1865.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 109 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or General Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names — 1
PAGE — “a”
CONTENTS — Designation of Hosp in 1865 and Surg in charge
No. Names — -
PAGE — “b”
CONTENTS — Page Index to Alphabetical Lists
No. Names.: 9873
PAGE.: 1 to 797 (breaks)
FROM— Feb 5 ~ 65
TO— Apr. 2 ~ 65
CONTENTS.: Alphabetical List of Patients (A to Z). Shows Date of Dispn [Disposition], Orgn., Dispn., and Date of Admission. No Diag. In some cases men are reported as “S” [sick?] or “W” [wounded?]
The dates of 5 February 1865 to 2 April 1865 covered by this volume of records exclude the data inside from being of any utility to me at this time, unfortunately.
The instructions to copyist and the note about information having to do with Union prisoners of war held by the Confederates at this location are the same as above and are therefore not displayed again.
There is a fourth pasted note, however, that was not seen in the previous volumes described above.
It is entitled “Alphabetical List” and shows “Pages 1, 21 to 29, 61 to 64, 101 to 104, 125, 145, 177, 178, 207 to 209, 257, 285, 305, 333 to 335, 383, 395, 407, 408, 439, 443, 444, 470 to 481."
The front page shows: “Receiving and Wayside Hospital, Richmond, Va, 1865. Jno. J. Gravatt, Surgeon in charge.” It appears that the penciled labels “Page a” and “VOL109” were added later by archival staff.
“Page b” provides starting page numbers for each of the initial letters of sick and wounded surnames, as indicated above in the pasted Form 492 image above.
Volume 111: List of Patients for Examining Board, 1864.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 111 Confederate Archives.
Receiving & Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospl. No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 210
PAGE.: 92 to 93 & 96 to 98 (Some pages torn out and others blank)
FROM— Apr 16 ~ 64*
TO— June 28 ~ 64
CONTENTS.: List of Patients form Capt. Coke, Enrolling Officer Richmond, Va., for Examining Board. Shows Orgn. & Dispn. No. Diag. Some men reported as wounded.
*As ascertained from Col. [collected?] Muster Rolls.
These dates bracket the time during which David Averett would have come through the hospital. Unfortunately the volume is nearly empty, with hundreds of unused pages. The first page that isn’t blank is page 92, and it looks like this:
I searched each of the written pages and did not find anything associated with “Averett”.
Volume 112: List of Patients, 1864.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 112 Confederate Archives.
Receiving & Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospl. No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 1,790
PAGE.: 1 to 635 (breaks)
FROM— Mar. 29 ~ 64
TO— May 10 ~ 64
CONTENTS.: Alphabetical List of Patients, Shows Dispn. and Date of, Orgn, and Date of Admis. [admission] No Diag. Page index to Alphabetical List.
No. Names.: —
PAGE.: 640
FROM— [left blank]
TO— [left blank]
CONTENTS.: Page index to Alphabetical List.
No. Names.: 9,914
PAGE.: 2 to 483 (breaks)
FROM— May 11 ~ 64
TO— June 11 ~ 64
CONTENTS.: List of Patients arranged by States. Page Index on outside cover of Book. Shows data same as Alphabetical List.
No. Names.: 201
PAGE.: 593 to 597
FROM— on
TO— June 17 ~ 64
CONTENTS.: “List of Names” of Patients. Shows Orgn. & Dispn. No Diag.
This index is also pasted on the inside front cover. As usual, it shows the starting pages on which soldiers treated at the hospital, sorted by Confederate states, are listed. It is signed by Wm. B. Quesenberry, the Registering Clerk for GH#9, as discussed above. This page was likely written during the war and pasted to the inside front cover of the bound volume by (U.S.) archival staff afterward.
The “Instructions to Copyists” and the Union Prisoner of War information are similar to what is displayed above.
My notes indicate that I did not find any records associated with either of the Averett brothers, although the time bracketing David Averett’s wounding, treatment and convalescence (March through June 1864) is valid. But fatigue was beginning to become a factor at this point in my visit to the National Archives and I should probably revisit this bound volume in the future.
Volume 116: Report of Transfers and Admittances, 1864-65.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 116 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or General Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: —
PAGE.: —
FROM— May 26/64
TO— Apl. 3/65 [3 April 1865]
CONTENTS.: Reports of men admitted and transferred. shows organ. Material information found in Registers of this Hospital.
I have photographed the first few pages of the bound volume.
Were the names in this volume were ever systematically catalogued? This appears to be someone’s personal notebook, arranged by days. The first entry is for 26 May 1864 and the last is for 6 April 1865. It does not appear to be a catalog compiled by secretaries or doctor’s assistants. It appears to be an administrator’s personal log, or possible a supervising doctor’s personal log.
I don’t know why only a few names are listed as having been admitted and transferred — when at the same time, there are numbers in the hundreds listed by “transfer” and “admissions” for each day.
Example: June 4th 1864 shows 200 transfers and 235 admissions. But there are 17 names listed as having been transferred and none for admissions. Why only some names?
Volume 128: Register of Patients, 1864-65.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 128 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospl. No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 13
PAGE.: 2
FROM— Aug. 4 ~ 64
TO— Feb. 21 ~ 65
CONTENTS.: List of Patients. Shows Orgn, Hospital, Disease or Injury, and Remarks. Note. Same or similar names are found on File No. 108, but without diag. and other data shown in this Book.
The volume consisted almost entirely of blank pages, except for page 2 and the facing page 3. None of the names were “Averett”.
Volume 131: Register of Patients, 1864-65.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 131 Confederate Archives.
Receiving & Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospital No. 9.
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 626
PAGE.: 1 to 20
FROM— July 31~64
TO— Apr 2~65
CONTENTS.: Some pages missing in first part of book. Register of Patients Remaining in Sick Ward. Shows Name, organ, & Disposition. No Diag. ~ Under the head of “Disease”, patients are generally reported as “S” or “W”. [“Sick" or “Wounded”?] Note. Most of the names in this Book entered up to Feb. 4/65 [4 February 1865] are found in Chap. VI, File No. 108, which does not show Diag. Some pages missing in first part, and a list of sick negroes is shown in last part, not to be carded.
The first few pages are shown as follows.
The first page is apparently missing, based on the presence only of the facing second page, which contains additional data for each of the names that probably appeared on the first page. Turning the leaf over to see page 3 and facing page 4 shows what I expected to see for pages 1 and 2.
The column headers include: Date, Name, Rank, Company, Regiment, State, Disease, Duty, Dead, Dis [discharged?], [unreadable], Furloughed When, Furlough Duration, and Transferred. I found no instances of “Averett” or its variations on or about the dates of interest to me. This is another volume that should probably be revisited.
Volume 335: Record Book Relating to Furloughs, Transfer, and Discharges, 1864-65.
Form No. 492, A.G.O.
Ed., Dec.18-13—1,000.
Chapter VI File No. 335 Confederate Archives.
Receiving and Wayside Hospital,
or Gen. Hospl. No. 9,
Richmond, Va.
No. Names.: 260
PAGE.: 1 to 51 [pencil] 80 LOT | 59 260 | 201 — G.O. No 25, a & J.G.O.
FROM— ~ 64 (various dates)
TO— ~ 65 (various dates)
CONTENTS.: Furloughs*, Transfers, and discharges. In most cases, disability and other addl [additional] information shown, not found on other records on file. Indexed in back of book to page 38.
No. Names.: 1570
PAGE.: 86 to 127.
FROM— ~ 64
TO— ~ 65
CONTENTS.: Appear to be Med. Exam Board cases from Nov. 64 to Apr. 1|65. Some show disability and Diag. Orgn. not shown on pages 86 & 87 but shown on other records.
* [Red handwriting:] Furloughs granted under G.O. [General Order?] 25A & J.G.O. of 1864 required S.C. of Dis. for Field service.
[Red stamp:] Returned to Files
CARDED
Oct. 27, 1917
Instruction to copyist.
Names to go on card showing G.O. No. 25, A & I. [?] G.O. appear on pages 15 to 11[?], 32, 36, 37 and 38 to 44. A few of above go on another form.
W.F.L.
The instructions to copyists differed in this volume, compared to those that I inspected before it. The first few pages are shown below.
Medical Director’s Office
Richmond June 11th/64
Capt. L.T. Cliavis[?] Company “G” 9th Va. Regt is transferred from Receiving Hospital at Richmond to General Hospital at Raleigh. W.C. [?] and will without delay, report in person to the Surgeon in Charge, or be considered as a deserter. The Quartermaster will furnish transportation.
Wm. A. Carrington
Med. Director
According to the
Civil War Richmond web site, "Carrington was the chief inspector of the Richmond area hospitals for a period in the middle of the war.” The second entry is transcribed as follows.
(Soldier’s furlough)
General Hospital No. 9
Richmond June 11th/64
Pr. [Private] G.W. Johnston Co. “D” 1st Va. Regt Rimper’s Brigade is furloughed for thirty days to go to Richmond Va.
O.A. Crenshaw
Sen’r [Senior?] Surgeon of the Board of Ex [Examiners?]
And the third entry is transcribed as follows.
(Soldier’s Furlough)
Genl Hospital No. 9
Richmond June 11th/64
Pr H.B. Grubbs Carter’s Battery is furloughed for Sixty days to go to Richmond Va.
Permanently disabled.
O.A. Crenshaw
Sen’r Surg. of the Board of Ex.
Subsequent pages in the bound volume are similar. I did not have time or energy (that day) to carefully read each record. If these pages have not been catalogued somewhere, that could be a serious omission and I will need to revisit this volume, in particular, in the future.
