John Herbert Claiborne (March 16, 1828 – 1905) was a prominent

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

politician and a leading medical administrator commanding a series of hospitals serving wounded

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldiers during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Born in 1828 in

, Claiborne completed his medical studies in

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in 1851. That same year, he established a practice in Petersburg and served later as a House of Delegates representative and senator in the Virginia state government. In 1862, Claiborne was ordered to establish a

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

in Petersburg for treatment of wounded soldiers and was made

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

in charge in local Confederate forces. By the time of the

Siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...

, he was the executive officer in charge of all military hospitals in Petersburg. The system in the city included seven hospitals at first, but by the time of the siege, they were consolidated into two buildings on the western side of Petersburg to avoid the shelling from the east. Claiborne's first wife, Sara Joseph Alston, died shortly after the war. He remarried and raised another family with his second wife, Annie Leslie Watson. He continued to practice in Petersburg and died in 1905. He was the grandfather of Robert Claiborne and Clara Claiborne Park and the great-grandfather of Paul Park.

References

''This article was based on the

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article on John Claiborne
which, as a creation of a branch of the US Government, is presumed to be in the public domain.'' 1828 births 1905 deaths Confederate States Army surgeons Physicians from Virginia Politicians from Petersburg, Virginia Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia state senators 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American physicians {{AmericanCivilWar-bio-stub