Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph

Dr. Wilson C. N. Randolph, ca. 1906

Dr. Wilson C. N. Randolph (October 25, 1834 – April 23, 1907), also know as W. C. N. Randolph, was a leading physician in the community, rector of the University of Virginia for eight years and was a member of the Charlottesville council, representing the First Ward.

On October 25, 1834, Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph was born at “Edgehill’’ to Thomas Jefferson Randolph (grandson of Thomas Jefferson) and Jane Nicholas.

SKETCHES OF THE DEAD (1920)

DR. WILSON CARY NICHOLAS RANDOLPH, BY THOS. J. RANDOLPH

Descended, as the subject of this sketch was, from the old Virginia family of Randolph, Tuckahoe branch, and of President Thomas Jefferson, of Albemarle County, it is not surprising that Dr. Wilson C. N. Randolph should have thrown in his lot with the Confederate States when the Old Dominion at last became a member of that independent aggregation of sovereign States in 1861. His father was Thomas Jefferson Randolph, of Edgehill, Albemarle County, who contributed all his sons and practically all his available fortune, that free and independent government might live in America as handed down by the fathers, among whom were reckoned his own forbears from the beginning of the Commonwealth.

Dr. Randolph was an honor-graduate in medicine of the University of Virginia, and had just entered upon the successful practice of his profession in his native section when the call to arms in defense of the Mother State enlisted the services of all her sons of military age.

He enlisted for this service on May 8th, 1861, only a few weeks after the Ordinance of Secession had been adopted by the Virginia Convention at Richmond, and was commissioned as a surgeon in the Army of Virginia (later to become the Army of Northern Virginia) under the skillful Joseph E. Johnston and the matchless Robert E. Lee. He was assigned for duty with the Richmond Howitzer Battalion of Artillery. With this glorious aggregation he saw one year's service in the field, and afterwards was stationed at Lynchburg as Surgeon in charge of General Hospital No. 2.

Dr. Randolph's achievements in this difficult but necessary role of army service were notable, distinguished, and in keeping with his great talents in medicine and surgery, and the efficiency natural in a graduate of the great school which he was proud to call his Alma Mater. Despite the handicaps which were inevitable from the unprepared condition of the Confederacy, and the many obstructions placed around the civilized care of the sick and wounded by the unexpected and questionable severity of the enemy as to blockade and deprivation of medical supplies, he made an enviable and distinguished record for the efficiency and care which he exercised over the helpless wounded entrusted to his treatment.

Paroled on May 8th, 1865, after four successive years of unremitting service, Dr. Randolph returned to his native county, and spent the remainder of his long life in practising among his own people, with whom his name became a household word.

He was born in the year 1834 in the county of Albemarle, and departed this life on April 23rd, 1907, in his seventy-fourth year, beloved by all and honored as few men have been in his day and time for his sterling qualities of head and heart, and devotion to his native land and the heroic people who sprung from it.

Personal life and death

Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph died on April 23, 1907 and is buried in Maplewood Cemetery