Civil War and Decline
On May 6, 1862, Union troops captured the asylum, which in the same month was struck by the death of Superintendent Galt. In the following decades, the increasingly crowded hospital saw a regression in methodology as science was increasingly viewed as an ineffective means of dealing with mental illness. During this era of custodial care, the goal became not to cure patients, but to provide a comfortable environment for them, separate from society. On June 7, 1885, the original 1773 hospital burned to the ground due to a fire that had started in the building’s newly-added electrical wiring, an unfortunate consequence of the great expansion of facilities at this time.
Read more about this topic: Eastern State Hospital (Virginia)
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, civil, war and/or decline:
“During the Civil War the area became a refuge for service- dodging Texans, and gangs of bushwhackers, as they were called, hid in its fastnesses. Conscript details of the Confederate Army hunted the fugitives and occasional skirmishes resulted.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
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“All war represents a failure of diplomacy.”
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“I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)