Sickel General Hospital (Site)

Here follows an excerpt from the City of Alexandria website:

Sickel General Hospital, a large complex covering a city block, was built for the Second Division. Buildings are described and illustrated on the quartermaster map.

History of Sickel General Hospital
Block bounded by Pendleton, Oronoco, North Payne and North West Streets

The hospital was built for the Second Division. Text on the Quartermaster Map indicates that the hospital was built by Col. Sickel in 1863, and occupied by Surgeon T. Ruels Spenser in 1864.The hospital complex included approximately 24 wood frame structures, ward tents, surgeon’s headquarters, 13 wooden wards, sutler’s building, wash house, dead house, and two sinks (privies). After the War, some of the building materials were said to have been given to the Freedmen’s Bureau to build schools.

Location and the Site Today
The site is on the block bounded by Pendleton, Oronoco, North Payne and North West Streets. Townhouses from the mid-20th century are now on this site, near the Braddock Road Metro Station.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Alexandria Times newspaper:

A place for the wounded in Civil War Alexandria
"Out of the Attic" column
October 30, 2014

This week we conclude our series highlighting the images of Alexandria in the Civil War taken by the only official U.S. military photographer, Andrew J. Russell, whose charge was to produce a record of images of Union Army facilities and railroads in the region.

By the midpoint of the Civil War, the western reaches of early Alexandria’s street grid were still sparsely settled with large open lots awaiting urban expansion. The development of this area was restrained in the 19th century, first by a period of economic stagnation caused by Alexandria’s inclusion in the District of Columbia, and later by Union occupation of the city during the conflict. In addition to military camps, as the war progressed and the need for facilities to support soldiers’ physically, medically and psychologically increased, military authorizes seized on this area to support the Union cause.

From Wolfe to Pendleton streets and from West to Fayette streets, U.S. authorities constructed a number of large-scale facilities such as the Soldier’s Rest recuperative structure, the massive Government Bakery complex and the Sickel Branch Hospital, recorded in this photograph taken by Russell in the last year of the war.

The Sickel Branch Hospital was built in early 1863 and was a complex of one and two-story structures, built quickly in the then popular Carpenter Gothic style. It used board-and-batten wood siding often fabricated from the massive deforestation of Northern Virginia to improve view sheds and thwart Confederate attacks.

The complex was built by the Pennsylvania 33rd, 34th, 36th and 37th Reserves attached to the Second Brigade, 22nd Corp., and named for its commander, U.S. Gen. Horatio Gates Sickel. A native of Bucks County, Pa., Sickel was descended from a Dutch family that had emigrated with William Penn. Born in 1817, he volunteered for the army at the outset of the war and served with distinction in multiple battles, including Seven Days, Mechanicsville, Second Bull Run and Fredericksburg. He succeeded George G. Meade to command the Pennsylvania Reserves, with guard duty at Alexandria.

On January 5, 1865, Russell scrambled to the rooftop of a building adjacent to the Sickel Hospital buildings and recorded several images from behind the parapet. A light snowfall had dusted the site that morning, disturbed only by the passage of horse drawn ambulances passing on the unpaved roadways that wove through.

One such ambulance and a group of men, moving when the image was taken, can be seen just in front of the largest building to the left. The denuded landscape of what was then the eastern edge of Fairfax County is visible in the background.

Russell’s service in Alexandria would conclude later that year, and soon after he was commercially employed by the Union Pacific Railroad and would go on to take spectacular images of the American West. On May 10, 1869, he took the famous photograph of the first transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. Later that year, he returned to New York where he established his own photography design studio. He died at his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1902.

“Out of the Attic” is published each week in the Alexandria Times newspaper. The column began in September 2007 as “Marking Time” and explored Alexandria’s history through collection items, historical images and architectural representations. Within the first year, it evolved into “Out of the Attic” and featured historical photographs of Alexandria.

These articles appear with the permission of the Alexandria Times and were authored by Amy Bertsch, former Public Information Officer, and Lance Mallamo, Director, on behalf of the Office of Historic Alexandria.


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First Person Accounts
The occupation of Alexandria by Union troops forever changed the social, cultural and economic fabric of the old seaport town. For four years, Alexandria was an occupied city, enduring the longest military occupation by Union troops of any town during the conflict. We are fortunate to have a number of first-person accounts of this trying period of Alexandria’s history.

Joseph Richardson, Patient
Excerpt from a letter by Joseph Richardson, a patient at Sickel. Images of Alexandria, Arcadia Publishing, pg. 72. The original letter is in the collection of the Library of Congress.

It is useless for you to worry about me for I always do as well as and a great deal better than those in the same occupation. I always have friends wherever I go and can get along.

Robert Marshman, Patient
Excerpt from a letter by B.F. Sells, at Camp near Bealton Station, Virginia, December 25, 1863. He writes about a patient at Sickel. Hill, N.N., History of Coshocton County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, 1740-1881. Newark, Ohio, A.A. Graham & Co., 1881, pg. 375.

I have just received official information of the death of another member of my company, Private Robert Marshman died at Second Division Hospital, December 21, from a gunshot wound received at the Battle of Mine Run, the 27th of November, 1863. Private Marshman was a prompt and efficient soldier, always ready and willing for duty—he had no superior and few equals.

Joshua Ingalls, Soldier/Patient
Steve Dornbos' Civil War Ancestors. Oral History, hospital bed cards and research from the family of Joshua Ingalls, provided by great-great-grandson Stephen Dornbos (War stories told to my grandfather, Frank Edmond, who passed them down).

2 Jan 1839 - 28 Nov 1929. Description: 5'5", light hair, blue eyes, and light complexion. Occupation: Farmer. Company A, 149th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment “2nd Bucktails".

Enlisted as Private in Wellsboro, PA on 8 August 1862 at age 23. Mustered in at Harrisburg, PA on 21 August 1862. Was paid a $25 bounty upon mustering in. Absent sick in Windmill Point General Hospital in Windmill Point, VA in May-June 1863. Missed Battle of Gettysburg while absent sick.

Wounded (GSW through right chest; bullet entered about 2" above right nipple and exited at base of right shoulder blade) on 23 May 1864 at North Anna River, VA.

Recalled spending the night wounded on the battlefield. The next day, he was approached by a surgeon who decided to leave him there for dead due to the severity of his wound. Upon hearing this, Joshua said to the doctor, “I’ll outlive you, Old Man!” The surgeon relented, and Joshua did indeed outlive him.

Transferred from a Field Hospital to Finley General Hospital in Washington, DC on 29 May 1864. Admitted to Third Division General Hospital in Alexandria, VA on 20 July 1864. Treated with a simple water dressing while at Third Division General Hospital. Remembered pulling a large piece of his uniform out of his exit would while in the hospital. Furloughed from Third Division General Hospital 27 July to 27 August 1864. Charged $11.20 for transportation home and back during his furlough.

Admitted to Sickel General Hospital in Alexandria, VA on 2 May 1865. Discharged from Sickel General Hospital as Private on 5 June 1865.

His wound made farm labor difficult the rest of his life. Moved with family to Branch, Marion County, KS in 1873. Moved with family back to Covington, Tioga County, PA in 1880. Was a member of G.A.R. Post #48, Mansfield, PA. Died of septic infection at age 90. Buried in Prospect Cemetery, Mansfield, Tioga County, PA.


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Quartermaster Map
Quartermaster maps show elevations and plans of the hospital buildings, with a key (transcribed below)

Notes from the center of the plan:
The most of these buildings were erected in 1863 by Col. Sickel, the 8th Penn. Reserves, & occupied by Surgeon T. Rush Spencer, as Hospital, in 1864 who added thereto the Wash-house, Sanitary, general store and officers Mess Houses as also a dead house.
Note below the legend:
Blue lines government fences
All of these buildings are covered with Felt, except the Barracks, which is covered with Shingle, and all in a fair state of repair.
See Elevations, Sections &c. of these building on plans Nos. 1 & 2, Va.

Key identifying buildings on the Quartermaster plan:
A Surgeons Head Quarters 24’x92’, two stories. Siding vertical & battened, Ceilings & walls sheathed with dressed lumber.
a’s Ward Tents
B Mess House 20’4”x87’7”. Two stories high. Siding horizontal.
bbbb Plank Walks
C Kitchen 20’4”x77’, one story. Siding horizontal.
c’s Covered Walks 6’ wide.
D General Store House and fuel shed 20’4”x60’ two stories high with stairs outside. Siding vertical and battened.
d Veranda
E’s Thirteen Wards 20’x60’4”, one story. Siding horizontal.
e enclosed passage between Mess House & Kitchen 10’8”x 10’3’
F Dead House 16’5”x20’5”, Roof ventilated, Siding horizontal and lapped.
f (Apparently a veranda on G but not identified in the key)
G Sanitary building 20’5”x50’4”, and constructed in the usual manner.
ggggg Watch boxes 3’6”x3’6”
H Sutlers House 16’5”x20’5”, Roof ventilated, Siding horizontal and lapped.
hh Porches 5’2” x 8’6” for wash house (not marked on map)
I Wash House 32’x100’, two stories, clothes yard on roof
i Veranda for wash house (not marked on map)
J Barracks for two companies, 24’6”x128’, two stories.
K Sink 15’x25’
k Sink 8’ x 15’
I's Grass plots enclosed
m A portion of Ward
n Knapsack room – both 20’x60’4”
O Hydrant (between Mess House and Ward Tents)
P Porch and stairs to roof of wash house
q Flag staff (in front of Surgeon’s Headquarters)