Culpeper hospital.
Editors Dispatch:--Since much has been said and written about the management and managers of the hospital at Culpeper Court-House, Va, we, through a sense of justice due the Surgeon in charge of said hospital and his subordinates, have concluded to give you, for the benefit of those having friends and relations there, as graphic and as correct a statement of unpublished facts as we can. It has been our fortune to have as good opportunity of knowing of its management as any who have hitherto visited it. While some, through your columns, have reported favorably of its managers, others have been pleased to report most unfavorably. We know not what their motives may have been, but to us such misrepresentations have the appearance of an under ground and a malicious work. But, let that be as it may, the sin must fall upon their own heads; and the chief of that hospital will stand a living monument against all such fabrications.The hospital buildings are eight in number, six of which are two hundred feet long, weatherboard and celled; each having in its centre a chimney with two large fire-places, and each end supplied with a large stove. The two other buildings are one hundred and fifty feet long and equally as comfortably warmed. All are sufficiently ventilated from the top by means of well-constructed ventilators. These are each capacity to comfortably bed from 60 to 75 men, and the former six one hundred each, making an aggregate of 750 to 800 men nearly and comfortably bedded.
The strictest imaginable attention is paid to cleanliness, both in and outside of the hospital. Every necessary means have been provided to keep the ground and wards clean and placed under the control of a general steward, Mr. Taylor, who is untiring in his efforts to make himself equal to the duties that devolve upon him.
The hospital is laid off in divisions first and second; and each division subdivided into wards. A surgeon is assigned to each division and an assistant to each ward. And to each ward, a ward master, nurse, and three or four servants.
So the First Division has been assigned to Surgeon Charles Kemper, of Woodville, Rappahannock county, Virginia. As a surgeon and physician he is of the first class, and for his untiring and unceasing efforts in giving aid and comfort to the sick and wounded, he has merited an undying name. He asks no higher honor than to comfort and apply a balm to a sick or wounded soldier. As a man, he is one of the most unpretending, unobtrusive, and unflinching gentlemen in our midst — kind, feeling, and attentive, with an ear ever open to hear the wants of the afflicted, and a hand ever outstretched to give. His assistants are attentive and prompt in performing the duties their position requires, each having his apportioned work. They are temperate, kind, and feeling, and at all times ready and willing to administer to the wants and necessities of the sick. In fact, he has an able and efficient corps of assistants.
To the second division is assigned a Surgeon from Wheeling, whose name is Houston. The corps of assistants belonging to the second division are equally as efficient, kind, feeling, temperate, and as much suited to the position they hold as those of the first division. One of them has had the experience of hospital practice in New York. He is a man of fine medical attainments, and just the man for the second division.
The sick are well fed! They not only have such "diet" as is allowed or provided for them, by the Confederate authorities, in the military and medical regulations, but many of the delicacies the county and town of Culpeper can furnish; and at no distant period, from the fund which is rapidly increasing, the sick and convalescent can be supplied with such diet as the Surgeons may require, and in such quantities as will serve the whole. Ten or twelve ladies are continually engaged in waiting upon the very sick, and preparing jellies, broths, soups, teas, and many other little articles of diet suited to the different stages of diseases.
Surgeon D. S. Green has charge of the whole. He is a native of Culpeper county, and as near as we can judge is from 55 to 60 years old. In early life he received the appointment of Surgeon in the old Federal Navy, but when it become necessary for the South to dissolve her connection with the North, he too disclaimed loyalty to the hellish oligarchy, and came to the defence of his mother land. But when it was known he had resigned his position in the Federal Navy, he was at once commissioned Surgeon in the Confederate States Navy, and ordered to take charge of the Culpeper hospital. A better and more judicious selection could not have been made. As Surgeon and Physician, he is of the first order. As a man, he is a perfect gentleman. All know him but to respect and admire him. He, in managing the hospital, has systematized the whole, so that now all seems to work harmoniously together; and to the advantage of not only those concerned in its government, but to all who feel interested, directly or indirectly, in the comfort of the sick, as well as to those for whose comfort and aid it was established.
Those having friends and relations in the Culpeper Hospital, we think should console themselves with the knowledge that in surgeon Green their children, brothers, fathers, and friends, have a friend, protector, and Surgeon. He is ever ready and willing to contribute to the necessities of the sick or wounded — kind, feeling, and exceedingly attentive; and at no time does he fail to give friends and relations any information they may ask, either by letter or otherwise, concerning the sick in his charge.
Messrs. Editors, it may appear that, from the earnest manner in which I write, that we are partial to the Culpeper Hospital and managers. We are not; but wish to see facts go abroad instead of false impressions.
Madison, Nov. 21, 1861.Crigsersville.
