Atkinson, Archibald, Jr., M.D., Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, was born February 23, 1832, near Smithfield, on the James River, Isle of Wight County, Virginia. His father was an eminent lawyer, and represented the Second Congressional District of Virginia in the United States Congress from 1844 to 1848. Dr. Atkinson received his education at the University of Virginia, and graduated inmedicine at the University of Pennsylvania in the spring of 1854. After receiving his diploma he went abroad and enjoyed the advantages of the clinics of the most famous hospitals of Paris for eighteen months, and a six months' residence in the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital of Dublin, Ireland. Returning to America in 1856 he located in Baltimore, where he practiced his profession until the outbreak of the late civil war, when he returned to his native State and was appointed Assistant Surgeon in the Wise Legion in West Virginia, and assigned to the charge of the Lewisburg Hospital.
In 1862 Dr. Atkinson was selected as the Surgeon of the Tenth Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, belonging to General J.E.B. Stuart's command, and in autumn of 1863 was assigned to the Thirty-first Virginia Regiment of Infantry. Subsequently he was appointed Brigade-Surgeon in General John Pegram's Brigade, Early's Division, Second Army Corps, of the Army of Northern Virginia. At the termination of the war he established himself in the practice of his profession in his native town of Smithfield, Virginia, continuing there until the spring of 1873, when he removed to Baltimore and located on North Charles Street. In the fall of 1875 Dr. Atkinson was elected to the chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Baltimore, a position he has filled with rare ability and eminent success as an imparter of medical knowledge. His maternal ancestors were the Powells and Chiltons of Loudon County, Virginia, whose progenitors originally came from Scotland and Wales. His ancestors on the paternal side were English.
He has a brother, Dr. Robert Chilton Atkinson, who is practicing medicine at St. Louis, Missouri. On November 2, 1858, Dr. Atkinson married Mary Elizabeth Thomas, of Smithfield, Virginia, daughter of Samuel Thomas, whose wife was Frances Harrison Woodley, daughter of Major Woodley, of Smithfield. The issue of the marriage is two children, Mary Chilton and Louis Woodley Atkinson, both of whom are living.
In religion Dr. Atkinson is inclined to the tenets of the Presbyterian Church, and his political sentiments are of the Jeffersonian State rights Democratic stamp. As a citizen, scholar, physician, or preceptor, none stand higher than he in the community where he is so steadily and successfully practicing his profession.
P. 603-604 in The Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and District of Columbia. Baltimore: National Biographical Publishing Co., 1879.
"Atkinson, Archibald, assistant surgeon and surgeon, June 21, 1861, "Wise Legion," Va., 31st Virginia Infantry and 10th Virginia Cavalry; promoted to surgeon, September 26, 1862"--InBlanton, Wyndham B. Medicine in Virginia in the Nineteenth Century(Richmond: Garrett & Massie, 1933), p. 393.
Biographical information from the University of Pennsylvania Archive:
INFORMATION DESIRED
1. Name [...]
Archibald Atkinson, Jr.
a. If living, post-office address.
deceased.
b. Father's full name [...]
Archibald Atkinson
c. Mother's full maiden name.
Elisabeth Chilton.
2. a. Exact date and place of birth of graduate [...]
a. Smithfield, Isle of Wight Co., Va., Feb. 23, 1832.
b. Baltimore, Md., Oct. 29, 1903.
3. a. Date of entering the University of Pennsylvania [...] or c. of graduation.
a. Oct., 1852. Med. dept c. 1854.
5. If a student in any other college, when or how long.
Univ. of Va., 1851.
6. All degrees [...]
M.D., Univ. Penns., 1854.
7. Occupation since leaving the University [...]
Practising physn.
Prof. Mat. Med. & Therapeu., College of Physns. & Surgs., Balto.,;
Prof. Mat. Med. & Therapeu., Balto. Med. College.
8. Learned societies of which a member.
[Illegible]., Med. & Chi[???] Faculty of Md. Md. Acad. Sci.
9. List of publications [...]
pubd. numerous articles in Med. journals.
10. If ever engaged in military [...]
Surg., C.S.A., 1861-65.
11. If married, give (a) date of marriage [...]
Mary Elizabeth dau. Samuel Thomas, Isle of Wight Co., Va.
12. Full names of all children [...]
Two children- Mary Chilton & Lewis W. Atkinson
B. References to any printed biographical matter respecting the alumni
[...]
"Records of the Univy. of Va." -- Cordell's "Med. Annals
of Md."
[Printed clipping]
Archibald Atkinson, M.D. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1854,
afterward a student in Dublin and Paris for two years; brigade surgeon
in the Confederate service during the Civil War; professor of materia medica
and therapeutics in the College of Physicians and surgeons [sic], Baltimore,
and later in the Baltimore Medical College, died at his home in Baltimore,
October 29, from Bright's disease, aged 71.
"CASE. -- Private W.J. Hindles, Co. H. 6th North Carolina Regiment, aged 30 years, received a gunshot wound at Winchester, Virginia, September 19th, 1864, the ball entering at the left shoulder, near the spine, and emerging at the symphysis of the lower jaw. He was admitted on the same day to the depot field hospital. On October 1st. he had become anaemic from repeated haemorrhage. The entire neck in front was distended from the diffused clot. Surgeon A. Atkinson, U.S.V., performed tracheotomy on occurrence of asphyxia from pressure of clot on larynx while attempting its removal. He gradually sank from loss of blood and suffocation, impending from diffused clot pressing on trachea, and died on the same day from asphyxia and haemorrage. At the autopsy, a diffused clot was found throughout the front and side of the neck, pressing upon the trachea and following in the track of the wound. The traverse processesof the third and fourth cervical vertebrae were found fractured, and the vertebral artery severed." -- The Medical and Surgical History of the Civil War (Wilmington, N.C.: Broadfoot Pub. Co., 1991), v. 8, p. 417.>
Atkinson, Robert Chilton, born Smithfield, Va., October 3, 1841; died, St. Louis, Mo. December 31, 1917. Throughout the war Bob Atkinson served as a hospital steward. For more information, see Driver, Robert J., Jr.10th Virginia Cavalry(Lynchburg, Va.: H.E. Howard, 1992), p. 88.
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 171.)
Richard Brooke, 1817-1863; Robert Selden, 1819-1861; or Thomas Stuart, 1825-1863.
Greenbrier White Sulpher Springs is in White Sulpher Springs, Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Some of the extant buildings date from before the Civil War period.
"When Virginia seceded from the Union, leaders from the northwest section refused to accede. Through a series of conventions held in Wheeling, they set up the anti-slavery Restored Government of Virginia. They planned to establish a state called Kanawha in their territory, an area that did not include Greenbrier County, which had voted for secession. But later, the boundaries were extended for military reasons to include all counties west of the Allegheny Mountain crest -- thus bringing White Sulpher Springs four miles inside the area that became West Virginia in 1863."
"...A former Virginia governor, General Henry Wise, marched by on the James River and Kanawha Turnpike in his advance on Charleston. When he thought he was threatened by superior forces, he fell back to White Sulpher. Meanwhile, an independent army under another ex-Virginia-governor-turned-general, John Floyd, arrived at the spring. The conflicts of these old political enemies who met at White Sulpher became so serious that Robert E. Lee, now in command of the Confederate forces, was summoned to mediate." -- Olcott, William. The Greenbrier Heritage (West Virginia: s.n., 1967), p. 32-33.
"Major-general commanding Virginia State forces, --, 1861, and
charged with organization of State forces.
Brigadier-general, C.S.A., May 14, 1861.
General, C.S.A., June 14, 1861.
General-in-Chief, January 31, 1865.
Died at Lexington, Virginia, October 12, 1870.
COMMANDS
In command of operations in the Trans-Alleghany region of VIrginia, in
the autumn of 1861.
In the winter of 1861-2, in charge of the defenses on the coast of SOuth
Carolina and Georgia.
Commanding the Army of Northern Virginia, June ---, 1862.
In the spring of 1862, asigned to duty at Richmond, and charged with the
conduct of all military operations of the Confederate States Army, under
the direction of the President.
In command of the Army of Northern Virginia, from June 1, 1862, to the
surrender of his army at Appomattox Court-House, Virginia, to General U.S.
Grant, U.S. Army, on the 9th April, 1865"--From Official and illustrated
War Record... Carefully written and edited by Gen. Marcus J. Wright
[...], Col. Benjamin La Bree [...], James P. Boyd [...]. (Washington: Copyright
by Edward J. Stanley, 1898), p. 460.
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 427-428.)
In Blanton, Wyndham B.Medicine in Virginia in the Nineteenth Century(Richmond: Garrett & Massie, 1933), p. 412.
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 495-496.).
(see, Freeman, Douglas S.,Lee's Lieutenants and Wise, Jennings C.,The Long Arm of Lee)
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 553-555.)
(see, Bushong, Millard K.,Fightin' Tom Rosser, C.S.A.) (See, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 556.)
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 618.)
(see, Sifakis, Stewart,Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File Pub., 1988, p. 631-632.)
Wise Legion was part of the Army of Northern Virginia."After service at the head of the Wise Legion in the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia, he was transferred to eastern North Carolina because of difficulties with another commander in the region, John B. Floyd." (Sifakis, Stewart.Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts on File, 1988, p. 726). (See, Wise, Barton H.,The Life of Henry A. Wise of Virginia)