The Hospital and the City

Perspective Stereograph of New York City Hospital from the South Side, 1867

New York Hospital’s relationship to the city around it changed throughout its history, and that change is well reflected in Nye’s journeys around the city during his stay there.

When the New York Hospital opened in 1791, it was far outside (to the North) of the city, in the midst of farmland. The street it was on, Broadway, ended at the building, and there was a large stretch of cow pastures that separated the hospital from the rest of the city.

Over the next decades, the city grew northward, eventually enveloping the New York Hospital.

In almost every entry during Albert’s stay at the hospital, he writes about getting a pass and going out into the city, to explore as well as to find a way to get transportation to reunite with his regiment in Louisiana.



“I got a pass out of the Hospital + went to the Post Office and looked about the City a little did not see any thing worthy of note. Reported myself ready to go to my Reg”

The following interactive map gives you an idea of where he went in the city, as well as a little look into some New York City history.

From NH to NY City Hospital

After the 15th New Hampshire regiment mustered in at Concord N.H, they traveled by train down to New York City in order to get transportation to Louisiana. An account of the regiment by Charles McGregor captures the bittersweet feeling of this train journey:

“At all stops people thronged the train, and the boys, not to be outdone, cheered and shouted till they waked the echoes along the route. Many rode on the roofs of the cars, and some lost their caps in the breeze. Mothers wrung their hands, and wept at the parting and in the fearful foreboding of the dark future, and here strangers greet us everywhere with moistened eyes for tears were shed in rivers then as well as blood in those heroic days” (McGregor 143)

A similar scene of a goodbye to Civil War soldiers in Manassas, VA

One can easily imagine the mixture of trepidation and excitement Albert Nye might have been feeling at the sight of all this, especially with the knowledge of leaving a young son and wife at home.

In New York City, the regiment prepared to embark on the ship “James S Green”. But before they left, on December 2nd 1862, Albert was brought from the ship to New York Hospital on account of jaundice.

Jaundice literally means, “yellowing”, and appears as a yellowing of the eyes or skin, and can be caused by a number of different factors. In this case, it was likely due to an infection.

The New York Hospital was located outside of what was then the main city, on Broadway between the current Duane and Worth Streets.

The New York Hospital circa 1882, digitized by the New York Public Library

The hospital where we find Nye at the beginning of his diary is, to this day, the longest running institution of its kind. The New York Hospital, now the New York Presbyterian, was chartered in 1777 of King George III, and officially opened to the public in 1791.

This was radical at a time in which healthcare was primarily for the rich, not publically funded by the state, and often affiliated with churches and religious groups. Prior to 1850, it was the only general hospital in the city, the state, and the country.

It is here that we finally catch up with Nye in the diary, stuck in the hospital, an entire continent away from the rest of his regiment, waiting to be released and scouring the city for anyone who can help him get to New Orleans.

- Ella