Kate Cumming, Confederate Nurse

Kate Cumming was a remarkable woman. Born in Edinburgh, England, in 1835, her family first made their move to Montreal Canada. They would move next to Mobile, Alabama, where Kate,as young woman, quickly adopted to the Southern way of life. It has been written that Cumming was intelligent and courageous in all she did. Kate did not support secession, but, when the South was invaded, she was quick to criticize the actions of Union President Abraham Lincoln. She became a strong supporter of the Confederate cause and looked down at those Southerners who were less patriotic. She believed that every able bodied man and woman should do whatever they could for the South.

In 1862, Kate Cumming helped wounded soldiers at the Battle of Shiloh and in that summer helped in such places as Corinth and Chattanooga. She enlisted in the Confederate armies medical department as a hospitals Matron. Kate was strong in her opinion and an outgoing woman. Her assertedness would help her work with Dr. S.H. Staub, who believed in the use of woman in hospitals. Kate was known for running very efficient and clean hospital wards and in seeing to every need of the patients and keeping a adequate kitchen.

After the War between the States, in 1866, Kate Cumming published in Mobile, Alabama the "Journal of Hospital Life in the Southern Wartime Hospitals." She also believed that Southern women should take an active part in helping disabled ex-Confederate soldiers.

Kate Cumming never married but she got involved with her friends of such Southern organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy and United Confederate Veterans.