“Front View of the Hospital”
“The National Home for Disabled American Soldiers was created by Act of Congress approved March 3, 1865. The original designation was ‘The National Asylum’; but the word ‘Home’ was substituted for ‘Asylum’ by the Act of January 23, 1873 [page 17]”
“The organic law of the National Home specified that volunteer soldiers and sailors of the Army and Navy, disabled while in line of duty, should be eligible for membership, and that the officers of the Home should be chosen from among the volunteer officers of the Union forces in the War of the Rebellion [page 19]”
“One of the largest buildings on the grounds of the Home is the hospital, which is in charge of the surgeon-in-chief, with a corps of assistant surgeons [page 102]
See Optic Views and Impressions of the National Soldiers’ Home, South Branch NHDVS, Near Hampton, Virginia As Seen and Described by One of Its Members by Edward L. Cobb (1910) for a complete history of the Home. You might be especially interested in “Chapter XXIII: The Hospital.”
On November 10, 2019, I added this text:
“The Southern Branch (now the Hampton VA Medical Center), located in Hampton, Virginia, opened in 1870 as the fourth branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The site of the Southern Branch is enhanced by Hampton Roads Bay, Jones Creek, and St. Johns Creek, the natural features that surround it. The Board of Managers established a branch in the South for two reasons: to provide a branch close to home for the U.S. Colored Troops and to add a branch in a temperate climate for all veterans. The Southern Branch may be the first Federal facility specifically planned and established as an integrated facility. Very few African American veterans took advantage of the facility; however, the Southern Branch became very popular among many other veterans.”
[Emphasis is mine — Leslie]
See “National Park Service — Southern Branch: Hampton, Virginia” for the complete article.
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 