In September 1861, the Confederate Medical Department built a large general hospital at Mount Jackson because it was the western terminus of the Manassas Gap Railroad, which provided access to northern Virginia battlefields. Dr. Andrew Russell Meem, a Shenandoah County resident and graduate of Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania Medical College, served as surgeon-in-charge and lived at Harrison House, the home of local businessman Col. Levi Rinker, who owned the hospital site and a plot across the Valley Turnpike called Our Soldiers' Cemetery for those who died there. The hospital had three two-story buildings, each a hundred and fifty feet long, well ventilated, and warm, along with several small support structures. It could accommodate 500 sick and wounded Confederates at a time and remained in continuous service until the end of hostilities except for six months in 1862. Its staff included Meem, two assistant surgeons who were contract physicians, five stewards, ten nurses, eight cooks, and five laundresses. After the war, the buildings were dismantled for use by U.S. Army forces stationed at Rude's Hill during Reconstruction. In February 1865, after falling ill, Meem entered Harrisonburg General Hospital and died there at age 41. His wife, Ann Jordan Meem, assisted him at the hospital and in October 1861 organized the Ladies' Soldiers and Aid Organization to provide clothing, food, and supplies. The association held one of the earliest Confederate Memorial Day services at Our Soldiers' Cemetery on May 15, 1866.

Photo: Linda Walcroft

Photo: Linda Walcroft

Mount Jackson, Virginia · USA