By the spring of 1865 the Army of Northern Virginia's defensive line was stretched to its limits. On April 1 the southern portion of the Petersburg line under the command of Gen. Pickett was broken during the Battle of Five Forks. This breach precipitated Lee's retreat from Richmond. Dr. Carrington's ship, the fleet flagship, Virginia II, was scuttled 4/3/1865 in order to prevent its capture. According to the account written by his daughter Mrs. Maria Weems the doctor then marched with the sailors towards Appomattox; but a day before Lee's surrender, the doctor was sent by Gen. Lee with an order to Gen. Joe Johnson in N.C. He got only as far as Halifax County when word reached him of the surrender at Appomattox; and according to his daughter Maria's account, the doctor surrendered to Gen. Sherman.
As the end of the Confederacy terminated his military medical career, he gathered up his family from Longwood and took them to Mildendo where he worked to scrape out a living as a farmer and country doctor. By 1880 Mildendo was heavily in debt, his beloved first wife dead, and his children were seeking new lives in the West. With renewed hope he remarried on 2/25/1880 in Middleburg, Loudoun County, VA and in 1882 left VA with his wife for Hot Springs, AK. Despite the supposed medicinal properties of the nearby hot springs, this move proved shortlived. Just hours prior to his death he was discovered by his son Allen in a state of delirium. He passed away from pneumonia. His young wife, Georgianna B. Adams, 27 years his junior, and five month old daughter, Anne Fontaine, were visiting relatives in VA and arrived in AK two days after his death. (bio by Jim Hutcheson)
By the spring of 1865 the Army of Northern Virginia's defensive line was stretched to its limits. On April 1 the southern portion of the Petersburg line under the command of Gen. Pickett was broken during the Battle of Five Forks. This breach precipitated Lee's retreat from Richmond. Dr. Carrington's ship, the fleet flagship, Virginia II, was scuttled 4/3/1865 in order to prevent its capture. According to the account written by his daughter Mrs. Maria Weems the doctor then marched with the sailors towards Appomattox; but a day before Lee's surrender, the doctor was sent by Gen. Lee with an order to Gen. Joe Johnson in N.C. He got only as far as Halifax County when word reached him of the surrender at Appomattox; and according to his daughter Maria's account, the doctor surrendered to Gen. Sherman.
As the end of the Confederacy terminated his military medical career, he gathered up his family from Longwood and took them to Mildendo where he worked to scrape out a living as a farmer and country doctor. By 1880 Mildendo was heavily in debt, his beloved first wife dead, and his children were seeking new lives in the West. With renewed hope he remarried on 2/25/1880 in Middleburg, Loudoun County, VA and in 1882 left VA with his wife for Hot Springs, AK. Despite the supposed medicinal properties of the nearby hot springs, this move proved shortlived. Just hours prior to his death he was discovered by his son Allen in a state of delirium. He passed away from pneumonia. His young wife, Georgianna B. Adams, 27 years his junior, and five month old daughter, Anne Fontaine, were visiting relatives in VA and arrived in AK two days after his death. (bio by Jim Hutcheson)
Gravesite Details
Body reinterred to Hollywood in 1886