Kate Cumming: Confederate Nurse
(A report by Dana Casey Jones to the Prattville Dragoons SCV Camp 1524 2/14/2019)
April 1862--
“The men are lying all over the house, on their blankets,
just as they were brought from the battle field. They are in the hall, on the gallery, and
crowded into very small rooms. The foul
air from this mass of human beings at first made me giddy and sick, but I soon
got over it. WE have to walk, and when
we give the men anything kneel, in blood and water; but think nothing of it at
all. There was much suffering among the
patients last night; one old man groaned all the time. He was about sixty years of age, and had lost
a leg.”
“this morning….a man (from the 21st AL Regiment)
asked me if I had anything to eat, which I could give to some men at the depot
awaiting transportation on the cars. He
said that they had eaten nothing for some days.
Some of the ladies assisting me, we took them hot coffee, bread, and
meat.”
“I was shocked at what the men have told me about some dead
Federals that they saw on the battle field.
They say that on the bands of their hats was written, Hell or Corinth;
meaning that they were determined to reach one of the places. Heaven help the poor wretches who could
degrade themselves thus. I cannot but
pity them and pray that God will turn the hearts of their living comrades. Can such a people expect to prosper? Are they really made enough to think that
they can conquer us—a people who shudder at such blasphemy; who, as a nation,
have put our trust in the God of battles, and whose sense of the magnanimous
would make us scorn to use such language??”
“The amputating table for this ward is at the end of the
hall, near the landing of the stairs…today, just as they had got through with
Mr. Fuquet, I was compelled to pass the place and the sight I there beheld made
me shudder and sick at heart. A stream
of blood ran from the table into a tub in which was the arm. It had been taken off at the socket, and the
hand, which but a short time before, grasped a musket and battled for the
right, was hanging over the edge of the tub, a lifeless thing…there is no end
to these horrors.”
She spoke of an Englishmen soldier she cared for: “He expressed his opinion that the Southern
people were not united. I remarked that
if he would go through the state of MS alone, he would change his mind, as I
believe that if the men did not fight, the women would. But, there will be no need for the latter, as
the men will not fail their duty.” Kate
also said later that, “a man did not deserve the name of man, if he did not
fight for his country; nor a woman, the name of woman, if she did not do all in
her power to aid the men.”
1864—She was caring
for a young soldier from the 29th AL who owned a booklet that he
“prized like gold”. It was written by
DR. Quintard, Chaplain of the 1st Tenn. Regiment. The work was titled “Balm for the Weary and
the Wounded”. Kate said she had received
a package of these booklets the first week of June, 1864. On June 18, she wrote in her journal with
much sadness about the death of General Polk, who was killed on the 14th. It is interesting to know the fate of the
other booklets which were found in Polk’s breast pocket, blood stained from his
mortal wound. In his left pocket was his
book of Common Prayer and in his right were 4 copies of Quintard’s book. They were inscribed: one to himself, and the other three to
Generals, Johnston, Hardee, and Hood. I
do not know if these books ever reached the intended recipients. I wanted to share a small piece of General
Polk’s burial sermon:
General Leonidas Polk’s burial sermon by Bishop of
Mississippi, Rev. Stephen Elliott
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, AUGUSTA, GA.,
ON JUNE 29, 1864:
“And now, ye
Christians of the North, and especially ye priests and bishops of the Church
who have lent yourselves to the fanning of the fury of this unjust and cruel
war, do I this day, in the presence of the body of this my murdered brother,
summon you to meet us at the judgment-seat of Christ--that awful bar where your
brute force shall avail you nothing; where the multitudes whom you have
followed to do evil shall not shield you from an angry God; where the vain
excuses with which you have varnished your sin shall be scattered before the
bright beams of eternal truth and righteousness. I summon you to that bar in
the name of that sacred liberty which you have trampled under foot; in the name
of the glorious constitution which you have destroyed; in the name of our holy
religion which you have profaned; in the name of the temples of God which you
have desecrated; in the name of a thousand martyred saints whose blood you have
wantonly spilled; in the name of our Christian women whom you have violated; in
the name of our slaves whom you have seduced and then consigned to misery; and
there I leave justice and vengeance to God. The blood of your brethren crieth
unto God from the earth, and it will not cry in vain. It has entered into the
ears of the Lord God of Sabbath, and will be returned upon you in blood a
thousand-fold. May God have mercy upon you in that day of solemn justice and
fearful retribution!”
In 1865:
Our gallant soldiers suffer--
“The weather is intensely cold, and our men must be
suffering very much, for they are only half clad and half shod. I often wonder how the enemy dare to taunt us
about our rags and poverty. Are they
really so blind to true principle as not to know that men who fight as ours do,
and as they are kept, must have something high and holy to enable them to do
it? There is more glory in their rags
than all the glitter and gilt lace that the Federals have in their possession.”
Montgomery and Selma as the war near ended--
“I believe there was little or no fighting at the capture of
Montgomery; so, it did not suffer like Selma, which I am told is in ruins. The
Presbyterian clergyman of that place was killed in the trenches, and many other
citizens. Mr. Ticknor, the Episcopal clergyman, was wounded, and a friend told
me that, after the place had been surrendered, the enemy went to Mr. Ticknor’s
house and demanded some valuables that Mrs. T. had laid away and whipped her
till she was compelled to give them up. They did the same to many other ladies.
The same friend told me that she saw the blood running in streams through the
streets of Selma, from hundreds of slaughtered cattle. The enemy killed those
they did not need, so we would have none to use for farming purposes.”
Concerning blacks--
“The negroes are free: and the poor creatures are acting
like children out on a frolic. The main portion of the women do little else
than walk the streets, dressed in all kinds of gaudy attire. All are doing
their own work, as a negro cannot be hired at any price. But they have behaved
much better than we had any right to expect, as they have been put up to all
kinds of mischief by the enemy. Many of them seem to despise the Federals, and
it is not much wonder, as they treat them so badly.”
Federals are hated by a desolate and torn people--
“the ladies are true to their dead. The color of blue is
wholly ignored. I heard one little girl crying bitterly because her mother was
going to put a blue ribbon on her hat. She said the Yankees might take her for
one of them.”
Davis is her hero even unto the end--
“Sunday, May 14. (1865)—President Davis has been captured,
and I am glad of it, as he can clear his fair fame from the aspersion cast upon
it….I have been told that, on hearing of the reward offered, and the accusation
against him, he did not try to get away. The patriot is now a prisoner, for
devotion to freedom and his country’s good. He has the consolation of religion
to support him, and also the consciousness of having done his duty to his
country.”
Life after war--
After the war ended, she went back to Mobile and then later
moved to Birmingham where she taught school and wrote more essays. She became active in the United Daughters of
the Confederacy.
Another important writing from Kate--
Gleanings from
Southland; sketches of life and manners of the people of the South before,
during and after the war of secession, with extracts from the author's journal
and epitome of the new South- printed in Birmingham in 1895
Southern patriot, dear Kate Cumming is buried in Magnolia
Cemetery in Mobile, AL Square 19-Lot 153
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