Southern Woman's Story by Phoebe Yates Pember

Operating in this atmosphere of misery and despair, Phoebe Yates Pember dedicated herself to doing everything possible to relieve the suffering of the soldiers, administering medication, assisting surgeons in operations (frequently without anesthetic), patching wounds and caring for patients. Primitive facilities, unsanitary conditions, and undeveloped scientific knowledge of medical treatments added to the tragedy and pathos. The pain, suffering and death at Chimborazo from battlefield casualties was greatly compounded by severe shortages of personnel, medicine, food, and equipment. A total of 76,000 patients had been treated at Chiborazo by the end of the Civil War. Only one surgeon was assigned to each division. Each ward was a separate one story building thirty feet wide and one hundred feet long housing approximately forty to sixty patients. A sprawling institution located on the western boundary of Richmond, Chimborazo began receiving patients in 1862 and was eventually expanded to 150 wards. The Chimborazo Hospital was reputed to be the largest military hospital in the world at that time. Phoebe reported for duty in December 1862. Randolph, wife of the Confederate Secretary of War. Moving form South Carolina to the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia, Phoebe received an offer to serve as matron of the Chimborazo Military Hospital from Mrs. Immediately after the outbreak of the Civil War, Phoebe's husband, Thomas Pember, died of tuberculosis.

Born on August 18, 1823, Phoebe Yates Levy grew up as the fourth of six daughters of a prosperous and cultured Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina.

Southern Woman's Story by Phoebe Yates Pember