Civil War Hospitals, Richmond, Va.

Howard’s Grove Hospital was one of hundreds of hospitals, homes, and building spaces established to care for wounded confederate soldiers during the Civil War.  After the War in 1868, Howard’s Grove was confiscated by the Union Army and converted from a general hospital to a psychiatric asylum for African American patients.

The state’s agreement to provide permanent services to the formerly enslaved was a non-negotiable condition for reentry into the Union. Although the Freedman’s Bureau sought to ensure that blacks obtained medical care throughout the South, Central was the only stand-alone asylum that the Bureau required be opened in the south.

 

Credit: Michael D. Gorman