Oriana Russell Moon was the second child in the family of seven children born to Anna Maria Barclay (1809-1870) and Edward Harris Moon (1805-1853).  Oriana, often called 'Orie' by her friends and family, was born in 1834 and lived with her family at Viewmont, a 1500-acre estate on Scottsville Road.  Edward Moon was a wealthy merchant with business interests in Scottsville and Memphis, and a store at Carters' Bridge.  His wife, Anna, was equally wealthy and had inherited Viewmont with all of its slaves and furniture from her stepfather, John Harris.

Dr. Orie practiced medicine during her stay in the Holy Land; William Luther Andrews claimed that his mother told her children many stories about ministering to the Bedouins.  Outside the walls of the Holy City, Orie was known as "El Hakim" (The Doctor).  Due to scarcity of water and poor hygiene, the Bedouins frequently became victims of ophthalmia, a disease that lead to much childhood blindness.  Orie began a campaign of gentle persuasion to encourage the children to wash their faces.  Whenever Orie went through the David Gate of Jerusalem and approached the Bedouin tents, the cry went out ahead of her, "Run, wash your faces - El Hakim is coming!"  According to Orie's stories to her children, the improved sanitation she implemented helped bring relief to Bedouin children suffering from this eye disease

Then the Civil War broke out in 1861, and Virginia seceded from the Union.  Like the majority of Albemarle families, the Moons of Viewmont dedicated all of their resources to the Confederacy.  Slaves and whites of the household spun, wove, and knit uniforms for the rebel soldiers.  Food supplies and rifles were contributed to the cause.  Orie Moon volunteered her medical services to the Confederacy in several letters written to General John H. Cocke between April and July 1861.  Following is Orie's letter to General Cocke dated 19 July 1861:

Viewmont
July 19, 1861

My most respected Friend,

Owing, I suppose, to our regular postal arrangements, your kind communication of Tuesday has just been received.I have not as yet entered into service; neither shall I, without consulting you, if you will allow me that high privilege!  I have been willing and even anxious to be engaged in ministering to the wants of the sick, but after you so kindly proposed to take the matter in hand, I thought it would be better to wait and learn the result; and in the meantime assiduously to review my medical studies, hoping thereby to be better qualified for a medical attendant. I have received my pages from some of the ladies of Charlottesville, to the effect that they had held a meeting to ascertain how many would be willing to nurse the sick, and "certainly counted on getting me; and that I must not leave the county."  But I have not as yet been addressed by the committee, and do not feel myself bound to them. If it will not be too great an imposition on your time and generosity, I would prefer to have you make any arrangements for me you may see proper. If the ladies of Richmond address me on the subject, I will enclose their communications to you.  Enclosed I send you some suggestions, which strike me as being good.  It embodies exactly any idea, and I intended to propose such a plan, if I had not been anticipated. I would prefer to be in a Surgical Hospital where I would assist in the operations. Please say to the authorities, that I will give the services of myself and servant gratuitously, if they are willing to incur our expenses for dwelling and board.  I will go anywhere or do anything they may see fit to assign me, if it is to follow the army and seek the wounded on the field of battle.

Yours with the highest regard
And Christian esteem

Orie R. Moon

In July 1861, Dr. Orie Moon, her mother, and brother hitched up the family carriage and drove to Charlottesville ten miles away.  Their journey was made to convert the family's ready cash and other marketable assets into currency or bonds for the Confederacy.  Excited citizens gathered on every Charlottesville street corner as Orie and her mother entered the Charlottesville Bank.  While Mrs. Moon discussed her financial situation with the bank president, Orie pondered the "Call to Arms" prominently displayed on the bank's walls.  The notice stressed the urgent need of physicians, surgeons, and nurses for the Confederate Army.  Dr. Orie turned to the bank president and asked, "Where shall I go to offer my services as a physician?"  He directed her to a nearby building.

It appears from available records that Dr. Orie Moon began about that time to affect a temporary appointment as a surgeon with the University of Virginia until General Cocke could secure a permanent position for her in a Confederate surgical hospital.  On 22 July, one day after the Battle of Bull Run, Orie received word to report to the Charlottesville General Hospital which included buildings converted for that purpose at the University of Virginia.  Soon the hospital overflowed with wounded from Bull Run and spilled over to private homes nearby.  In what appears to be a special arrangement with the University of Virginia, Dr. Orie was assigned a ward in this hospital as detailed in a letter written to General Cocke on 27 July 1861 by her sister, Lottie Moon:

Viewmont
July 27, 1861

Gen. John H. Cocke

Dear Sir,

My sister, having entered into a temporary engagement with the medical faculty at the University, has had a ward assigned her and is now there in the discharge of her duties.  The urgent demand for the services of all who had the will and the nerve to witness and relieve the suffering, rendered it impossible for her to remain idle.  Yet I am confident from having so often heard her express the desire that she earnestly wishes to be nearer the scene of action and that she will shrink from neither difficulty nor danger in the discharge of duty.  If any arrangement could be made to that effect, I am sure that she would be much gratified.  The arrangement she has entered into with the surgeons at the University is only temporary, as she had determined to make no permanent engagement until she had heard further from you. I regret extremely that I can find no copy of the letters you wished.  After looking over her writing desk, I have reluctantly concluded that she has either taken them with her, or destroyed them.  My mother will send a messenger to town with you letter, and I presume you will receive an answer in a few days.

Very respectfully,
Lottie Moon

As wounded from both armies poured into the Charlottesville General Hospital after the First Manassas confrontation, a letter appeared in the Richmond Daily Dispatch on August 1, 1861, describing the situation at that hospital and Dr. Moon's role there:  "The state of the hospital is most satisfactory.  The few cases of death are extremely cheering.  But one of the wounded has so far died; he was a Yankee and fearfully injured.  The largest number of wounded belong probably to the 4th Alabama Regiment, and there are also several young men of the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, from Savannah, and half dozen students from the University of Oxford, Mississippi, here.  By far the large majority of sick are down with the measles and will easily recover.  Among the more seriously wounded are also two Yankee captains from a New York Regiment."

"Thanks to the energy and zeal displayed on all sides, order begins to reign and system to prevail amid the immense number.  More physicians have arrived from other towns; among them Dr. Alexander Rives, late house-surgeon of Bellevue Hospital, New York; Dr. Moon, a young lady of the neighborhood, to whose skillful and experienced hands the care of a ward has been entrusted.  Other states, also are coming to the relief of their sons.  South Carolina ever ahead in all noble enterprises, has already taken measure to provide houses, provisions and nurses for her wounded or sick soldiers, and we doubt not that her example will soon be followed by others.  It is Virginia, however, who of course ought mainly to see to it that this truly grand institution should be kept up in a manner worthy of her name and of the noble men who are now tended by her sons and her daughters.  The benevolence of a single locality ought not to be overtaxed; the care of wounded soldiers ought not be left to private charity.  Nor should their religious interests be overlooked, and the appointment of a Chaplain would be a wise measure on the part of the Government, and be a great boon to more than a thousand men, led by sickness and death to think seriously of their soul's welfare."

Doctors, however, who worked beside Dr. Orie in the Charlottesville General Hospital grew to respect her medical skills and dedication.  In a 1913 letter written by Dr. Peter Winston, who ran a ward next to Dr. Orie, he described her as a young woman who did 'efficient service at the bedsides and in the surgical wards."  The scenes of suffering in the University hallways were terrific, but Dr. Orie stopped from her patients' care only long enough to get a few hours of rest a day

In the early morning of December 24, 1883, Dr. Oriana Moon Andrews died of pneumonia, and, at her request, she was buried on December 26th in the Scottsville Presbyterian Cemetery (now Scottsville Cemetery).  This exceptional woman, who held a medical diploma from an accredited college of medicine and traveled abroad to the Holy Land, and Egypt, was laid to her final rest having positively affected and been cherished by many people during her brief life on this earth.  Oriana Moon Andrews was truly a woman ahead of her time!