Kate Cumming, A Report on "Kate", the Journal of a Confederate Nurse

Kate Cumming:  Confederate Nurse 

(A report by Dana Casey Jones to the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 2/14/2019)

The War of Northern Aggression was responsible for the birth of the nursing profession in America.  Before those dark days, nursing of the ill was done mostly at home and by wives, sisters, or daughters.  Attendants of physicians were usually males, as it was frowned upon for women of gentility to participate in such duties as it would expose them to unfamiliar men.  But, with the onset of the War, and the mass casualties that needed care, women began to play important roles on both sides of the conflict.  Without a doubt there is a lot more information to be found about the women who served in the Union army, but numbers are published that reflect there were between 2,000 to 5,000 on each side.  Union hospital documents show there was 21,000 women on the official hospital payroll of the Federals.  The numbers are vastly different for the Confederates simply because so many official documents were destroyed during the Union invasion.  Those numbers also do not reflect the many female volunteers that came forth to sacrifice their time and resources to minister health to the sick and wounded.

Official nursing status was granted by Congress in 1862.  Records show that a matron nurse might be paid $12.00 a month whereas the lesser paid attendants may only make $6.00 a month and served as laundresses and cooks.  And oftentimes, this money was used to buy food and materials for the sick and dying patients that the nurses cared for.  One account of a CSA surgeon told that his entire paycheck was spent tending to his patients as the Confederates were so desperate for supplies.

Towards the beginning of the war, more men than women were still in the roles of nursing.  As the war raged on, officials realized that most of the able-bodied men were needed to man the trenches.   And, the wounded in the hospitals, actually responded better to women who nursed them.  That is probably due to the homesickness felt by the weary soldiers who were accustomed to being cared for by their mothers and their wives.  This paved the way for the popularity of women nursing after the war.  80 years later, the first nursing schools in America were opened and patterned after England’s, Florence Nightingale’s philosophical thinking.  All the students were women and most all were white. 

When I looked up the top ten known nurses from the War Between the States, listed were 2 Confederates and 8 Union, one of those being black.  That is why my focus tonight is on the journal writings of Kate Cumming, a Confederate nurse who resided in Mobile.  She truly deserves the spot light for one of the greatest nurses in history.  I was visiting the Montgomery Archives book store one day and came across this book.  As a nurse it caught my attention and I purchased it. As I began to read it, I was soon captivated, and I quickly read the entire book.  Reasons why:

Very detailed and accurate historical accounts of the war times

Lists names of soldiers, and their units and gives details about where they are located

Tells of places that I am familiar with like Montgomery, Mobile, Selma, Opelika, etc.

Written from a Christian perspective of a fine Southern lady of Scottish origin

Very personal and scholarly writing

Gives personal accounts behind the lines of a raging war

Provides details of early medical practices and the conditions of the soldiers, surgeons, and citizens.

This book is edited by Richard Harwell Barksdale and published by the LSU press originally in 1959 with the 8^th printing in 2012.  Kate published her journal in 1866 while all the details were fresh on her mind; which gives the work a note of accuracy.  Barksdale speaks highly of Kate:

“Kate Cumming was a lady.  Hardships and menial work, the disapproval of friends and family were her lot as a matron in the Confederate hospitals.  But work, nor strain, nor the consciousness of disapproval could divert her from the life she conceived as her duty (reminds me of General Lee).  As much as any soldier, she contributed to the cause of the Confederacy. In risking the disdain of those who needed to prove themselves ladies by refraining from hard or unpleasant tasks she proved herself the finest kind of lady”.