FRANCIS SORREL, M. D.
Francis Sorrel, M. D., distinguished in the Confederate
States Army for services rendered in the
medical department, was born in Savannah, Georgia,
in 1827. He was educated in Princeton, New Jersey,
graduating in 1846. He then spent two years at the
University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in
medicine in 1848. He then entered the United States
Army as an assistant surgeon, serving until 1856,
when he resigned his commission with the rank of
captain. After traveling in Europe a year, he went
to California where he rapidly attained prominence
and in 1860 was elected to the California Legislature.
In the following year, he returned to the East to offer
his services to the Confederacy. He was promptly
commissioned as surgeon in the regular army, and
assigned to special duty of great importance which
was due largely to his experience and unusual ability,
with headquarters at Richmond, Virginia, where he
was charged with the erection and management of
the general hospital system of the army, and where
he remained until the evacuation of the Confederate
Capital.
In March, 1865, he married the widow of Dr. L.
Rives, who was a daughter of General Edward Watts
of Roanoke County, and since the Civil War period,
until recently, has led the life of a simple retired
country gentleman on his splendid farm, "The Barrens,"
a few miles to the northwest of Roanoke.
Dr. Sorrel is of the type of Southern gentlemen which
is rapidly passing away. He has at all times manifested
a keen interest in the development and growth
of Roanoke and has been identified with a number of
enterprises in a financial way. Recently he has made
his home in Roanoke, but much of his time is spent
in visiting points of interest in various sections of the
country.
