THIS DAY IN VIRGINIA HISTORY
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August 05, 1903
A Confederate Veteran Was Sent to Eastern State Hospital
James C. Orange enlisted in the Confederate Army at Jamestown Island in 1861. He was discharged from duty in 1863 after receiving a head injury. Orange was admitted to the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldier's Home in Richmond in 1891 and was sent to the Eastern Lunatic Asylum of Virginia in Williamsburg, a psychiatric hospital, a year later. Correspondence filed with his application to the soldier's home reveals that he was transferred to the Western Lunatic Asylum in Staunton and released as "cured" in 1893. Orange was readmitted to the soldier's home, but once again sent to the psychiatric facility now called Eastern State Hospital ten years later. The soldier's home application states that "Insane persons and habitual drunkards will not be admitted under any circumstances."