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"Kate the Journal of a Confederate Nurse





Kate Cumming was born in Scotland in 1836 and moved to Mobile, Alabama, with her family by way of Canada while she was very young. She and her family were active in St. John's Episcopal Church in Mobile and she was an active Christian lady all her life. In the spring of 1862, at age 26, she volunteered for nursing service to help the southern cause and relieve what suffering she could. She did this over the objections of her family and at a time when many male doctors would not allow women in the hospitals. She was sympathetic, self-sacrificing, duty bound, determined and tough with strong convictions.

Kate's service began at Corinth, Mississippi, where wounded and dying soldiers from the recent Battle of Shiloh were cared for. Later she was transferred to near Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she assisted in caring for those men who suffered from wounds at Chickamauga and subsequent battles. Kate's hospital service then supported the Confederate Army of Tennessee through the Georgia campaign at several Georgia locations until April 1865, at the end of the war.

After her return to Mobile, she published a day to day journal of her war time activities called, "A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee", Kate's published writings also include "Gleanings from Southland", "The Bostonians", "The Rose of Elgin", "Isabella" and other essays.

Miss Cumming later moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where she taught for some years. Kate Cumming died on June 5, 1909.

Recommended reading "Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse". by Kate Cumming edited by Richard Barksdale Harwell, Lousiana State University Press.

I want to thank Arthur E. Green for writing this piece on Miss Kate Cumming.



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