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THURSDAY December 4, 2003 - Subscribe - Contact Us Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels November 17, 2003 Food & History by Jeff Cheek The angel of Chimborazo For a three-year period during our Civil War, Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Va., was the largest military hospital in the world. 77,800 patients passed through the facility; 16,000 of whom did not survive. Chimborazo got its name because the terrain matched that of the Chimborazo District in Ecuador, about 100 miles south of Quito. Thanks to a hard working, meticulous Jewish widow, we have a well documented picture of medical services available for Confederate wounded. 168 volumes of patients records and 1,500 pages of her personal notes are now part of our National Archives. Two decades after Appomattox, she also published her memoirs "A Southern Woman's Story." Her name was Phoebe Yates Pember and her early life gave no hint of the burden she would someday carry. Her father was a wealthy merchant in Charleston, S.C. She married Thomas Pember and moved to Savannah, Georgia. Her husband died of tuberculosis shortly after the war began. Phoebe made her way to Richmond and offered her services to the Confederate government. Confederate authorities were suspicious. Why would a wealthy widow want to work in a dismal military hospital ? Her answer: She was a loyal Confederate and she had had some medical training. On Dec. 1, 1862 she was appointed Head Matron of the sprawling medical center. Surgeons soon reported that there had been "a remarkable change in the atmosphere" at Chimborazo. She found three good springs on the property, giving the hospital an abundant supply of water. She sent the male nurses back to their units and hired female nurses. The hospital was scrubbed and the "Chimborazo odor" Richmond had complained about was eliminated. The business knowledge she had learned from her husband and father was put to good use. Franklin Stearns loaned his farm to the hospital. Two hundred cows now provided milk and butter. A canal boat made regular runs into the countryside, trading hospital-made shoes for fresh eggs, vegetables and fruit. The Confederate government allowed her 35 cents per day for each patient. Her shrewd fiscal management produced a $316,712 surplus by l863. As the war turned against the Confederacy, support declined while the number of wounded grew. To feed her patients, the goats on Tree Hill Farm were slaughtered. The other animals followed. When General Lee evacuated Richmond on 2 April l865, she was reduced to feeding rats to her patients. She remained at her post, becoming the last Confederate official in Richmond. Hearing Confederate soldiers blowing up ammunition dumps, she observed: "Our Confederacy is gone with a crash." She also pitied Confederate citizens who were now destitute. "People with boxes of Confederate money who were wealthy the previous day looked in vain for wherewithal to buy a loaf of bread," she wrote. Her recipe for Baked Rat illustrates her administrative ability and the desperate conditions at her hospital. Baked Rat The rat must be skinned, cleaned, his head cut off and the body laid upon a square board, the legs stretched to their fullest extent and secured with small tacks. Then baste with bacon fat and roast before an open fire quickly like a canvas-back duck. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Road Cams