"Dr. James B. McCaw," from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 1954), pp. 190-200
Born on July 12, 1823, James B. McCaw came from a family of doctors and medical professionals. The McCaws were already a well-established and respected family in Richmond by the time of his birth; his grandfather was hailed as a hero when he helped rescue people during the infamous Richmond Theatre Fire in 1811. It is perhaps unsurprising that McCaw followed the family tradition into medicine, and ultimately became one of the best-known Confederate surgeons during the Civil War.As a young man, McCaw attended the Medical College of the University of New York. He graduated in 1844 and returned to Richmond, opening a medical practice in his hometown. He married soon after his return to Richmond—a marriage that resulted in nine children. Besides running his own practice, McCaw also helped to co-edit a medical journal throughout the 1850s. In 1858, McCaw became a professor of chemistry and pharmacy at the Medical College of Virginia, beating out applicants “of very high professional reputation,” according to the Richmond Enquirer.[1] McCaw’s “position at the college, as editor of medical journals, and as a leader in Richmond’s medical community made him aware of new medical treatments and innovative approaches to medicine,” historian Carol C. Green writes.[2]When war came in 1861, McCaw initially put his efforts into raising a company of cavalry, but it quickly became apparent his skills and medical knowledge would be needed elsewhere. Following the war’s first major battle at Manassas (otherwise known as Bull Run) McCaw was included on a committee of doctors sent from Richmond to assist the wounded.[3] Through his experience and medical knowledge, McCaw became an ideal candidate to oversee a new hospital created on the outskirts of Richmond. Named after an Ecuadorian mountain, Chimborazo became one of the most famous hospitals throughout the entire war, and in October 1861, Confederate Surgeon General Samuel Moore appointed McCaw to be its surgeon-in-charge. McCaw quickly set to the task of overseeing the hospital’s administrative creation.Over the course of the war, Chimborazo saw nearly 76,000 patients come to its wards. To care for them, McCaw oversaw a team of some 20-30 surgeons and almost 1,000 other workers including nurses, attendants, ambulance drivers, guards, and enslaved people. The entire hospital complex, including all the support structures such as kitchens and laundries, consisted of nearly 150 buildings. Without the enslaved labor to build all the structures and attend to day-to-day activities, McCaw admitted it would have been “utterly impossible to continue the Hospitals.”[4]McCaw carefully navigated the war’s challenges at the hospital. “Difficulties melted away beneath the warmth of his ready interest,” Phoebe Pember, a matron at the hospital, wrote. By the end of the war, only about 10% of the hospital’s patients had died, a testimony to McCaw’s hard work and medical expertise.[5] When elements of the United States Army entered Richmond on April 3, 1865, Chimborazo quickly fell into their hands. McCaw, paroled that same day, continued working at the hospital until the war’s closure. After serving for a time as a refugee housing and a school for the Freedmen’s Bureau, the hospital’s temporary structures were all torn down, leaving no physical trace of the facility by the 1880s. After the Civil War, McCaw became president and then dean of the Medical College of Virginia. Later in life, he served on the college’s Board of Directors. Retired in 1901, McCaw died on August 12, 1906 at the age of 83. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery.
[4] Richmond Times, August 2, 1896; “Chimborazo Employee Register,” Richmond National Battlefield Park Files; J.B. McCaw, May 17, 1862, “Letters Received and Sent, Chimborazo Hospital. 1861-1864,” National Archives and Records Administration.
[5] Phoebe Pember, A Southern Woman’s Story (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1879), 15; Green, 154.
