Danville - More to the War Than Just the Last Seat of the CSA

Danville was certainly more to the Civil War than just being the last seat of government for the Confederate States of America.  Danville provided soldiers:  The 18th Virginia Regiment, Cabell Guards of the 38th Virginia Regiment, the Danville Virginia Artillery Company, and the Fifth Virginia Cavalry.  The Fifth Virginia alone took part in nearly 175 skirmishes, engagements, battles, etc. during the Civil War.  The Danville Artillery Company was attached to the Department of North Western Virginia, then to the Army of the Northwest, to the Army of the Valley, and finally to the Army of Northern Virginia.  The 18th Virginia Regiment, made up of everyday people:  clerks, merchants, students, engineers, dentists, tobacconists, etc., served in Manassas, northern Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and in far eastern Virginia.  (That's a lot a' walkin'!!)

One of those soldiers, Harry Wooding, of the 18th Virginia Regiment and later of the 5th Virginia Cavalry, was mayor of Danville after the war from 1892-1938.  That's 46 YEARS!  He is the longest serving mayor in American history!  My momma was 18 years old when he retired from office!  (Read the "Generations" post.)

Danville made sure her boys were well equipped.

Danville's stay-behind residents themselves prepared to give their all for the Confederacy.  By the Spring of 1862, the "Post of Danville" would begin growing into manufacturing ordinance, setting up hospitals, and establishing a prisoner of war camp.  Toward the end, Danville would become the only dependable source of supplies to Richmond and Lee's army.  Frustrated, Lee would say, "...I have been up to see the Congress (of the CSA) and they don't seem able to do anything except eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.  I told them the condition we are in... but I can't get them to do anything... When this war began I was opposed to it, and I told these people that unless every man should do his whole duty, they would repent of it... and now...they will repent."  But Lee knew he could depend on Danville to the very end!

Danville did it's best to provide hospital care for up to 5,000 soldiers.  "Yankee" prisoners didn't come to Danville until November 1863 because the hospitals here were already too crowded with Confederate wounded.  The standard medical "tools of the trade" were present:  Bullet probe, bullet extractor, scalpel set, metacarpal saw, small bone saw, fleams (tools used for bloodletting)...

The hospitals were first set up in tobacco factories and then moved to what had been a hotel that was located closer to the Richmond and Danville Railroad depot.  A third hospital had to be established when the Yankee prisoners came because smallpox apparently came with them, and within a month Danville had a full-blown epidemic on their hands.  Of the 1,323 Union soldiers buried in the Danville National Cemetery, a whole bunch of them died of smallpox because of the lack of medical knowledge regarding smallpox treatment.

I think you can correctly say that Danville and it's area residents saw the worst that the Civil War had to offer... and gave it their best.