Kate Cumming

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, her family emigrated to the United States when Cumming was young, and settled in Mobile, Alabama. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Cumming's mother and two sisters left for England, leaving Cumming behind with her father and brother. She was inspired to serve by Florence Nightingale as well as Reverend Benjamin M. Miller, who called women specifically to aid the Confederacy. == Civil War service ==

Cumming began her service at the Mississippi/Tennessee border at the Battle of Shiloh. "I could fill whole people with descriptions of the scenes I had," wrote Cumming of her battlefield experience. It is clear in her writings that Cumming knew nurses to be vital to the war effort. Cumming maintained a diary throughout her wartime experience, offering readers insight into life of a woman nurse in the war effort. Cumming's diary was published in 1866 under the title A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. == Post-war life ==

At the end of the war, Cumming returned home to Mobile. She published her wartime experiences in 1866, titled A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee from the Battle of Shiloh to the End of the War. In 1874, she moved to Birmingham, Alabama, with her father, where she worked with a teacher and was an active member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She died in Birmingham on June 5, 1909. She is buried in Georgia. == References ==