Biography:

Nurse, teacher. Born–Edinburgh, Scotland, 1835. Parents– David and Jessie Cummings. Emigrated to Mobile with her family in the 1840’s. Went to Corinth, Mississippi, to help nurse Confederate soldiers after the Battle of Shiloh, and in August 1862 volunteered to work as a nurse with the Army of the Tennessee under its medical director Dr. Samuel Stout.  Appointed  a “matron” (hospital supervisor) in the Confederate Medical Department and served at Confederate hospitals for the duration of the war. Moved to Birmingham with her father in 1874;  gave music lessons and taught school there.  During her years as a nurse kept a diary which is a very important source for information on women and medical service in the Confederate Army.  Died June 5, 1909.

Source:

Notable American Women, Vol, 1; Biographical Dictionary of Southern Authors; and  Living Female Authors of the South.

Publication(s):

Gleanings from Southland. Birmingham, Ala.; Roberts & Son, 1895. (The same material has been printed under three different titles; A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee, The Journal of Kate Cumming, and Kate; the Journal of a Confederate Nurse.)