A Civil War Hospital Center

Lynchburg was known as "Tobacco Town" before the Civil War, with its 70 thriving tobacco businesses and numerous warehouses. It was also a railroad hub, the terminus of three railroads. Early in the Civil War, many of the warehouses were converted to hospitals and the railroad became the conduit for Confederate casualties pouring into the city. There a peak time after the Battle of the Wilderness (May 1864) when Lynchburg, with 6,000 inhabitants, was overwhelmed with over 10,000 wounded and diseased soldiers. During the four year Civil War, as the South's largest outpost hospital center, Lynchburg admitted in excess of 20,000 patients with nearly 3,000 deaths. Over 2,200 of those soldiers are buried in this Confederate Section of the Old City Cemetery.

To the left you'll find the location of the tobacco warehouses and Lynchburg's other buildings which were converted for hospital use. Additional private homes, used as temporary hospitals, brought the total number of hospitals to over thirty.

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Show me all markers in:  Lynchburg, VA  |  24504  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

The Confederate Section
Lynchburg's Confederate Surgeons
Lucy Mina Otey and the Ladie's Relief Hospital
Crippled Corps and VM.I. Cadets Form Inner Defenses in Old City Cemetery
Silas Green
Professor Frank Trigg
Court Street Baptist Church Tragedy
The Carl Porter Cato Rose Collection
Sinister Activities
Old City Cemetery

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