New Bern Academy: From school to hospital

              In 1861, Confederate authorities converted the New Bern Academy from
a school to a hospital. The U.S. Army commandeered the structure to care
for the wounded almost immediately after defeating Confederate forces
in the Battle of New Bern on March 14, 1862. Casualties were first moved
here from temporary quarters on March 19. Ten days later, a newspaper
reported that “the General Hospital at Academy Green is full of severely
wounded men, and those who have undergone amputation. Two houses
opposite [across the street] are filled with wounded rebel prisoners under
charge of their own surgeons.” Academy Green Hospital also treated
victims of spinal men-ingitis,
smallpox, and
yellow fever. It served
as a general hospital
in conjunction with
the Masonic Lodge
and other nearby
structures. By the end
of the war, the build-ings
constituted a
part of New Bern’s
larger Foster General
Hospital.
NEW BERN ACADEMY
★ ★ ★
From School to Hospital
Academy Green Hospital looking northwest, ca. 1862. – Courtesy UNC North Carolina Collection
New Bern Academy was the first school established by law in North Carolina (1766). Fire destroyed the
original building in 1795, and this Federal-style structure was erected by 1810. At first, the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel subsidized the teachers, who had to be Anglican Church members. Before it
became a graded public school, the Academy adhered to the Lancasterian system developed by an English-man,
Joseph Lancaster. Students were grouped by level of achievement rather than by age, and a pupil
who had been promoted to a higher level led each class. The Academy’s role as a school ended in 1972.
Academy Green Hospital looking northeast, ca. 1862.
– Courtesy UNC North Carolina Collection