Cumming, Kate (c. 1828–1909)

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Cumming, Kate (c. 1828–1909)

Scottish-American hospital administrator and diarist. Born c. 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland; died June 5, 1909, in Rosedale, Alabama; dau. of David and Jessie Cumming.

When young, immigrated to US with family; nursed wounded in northern Mississippi and Chattanooga, TN, during Civil War; enlisted as matron in Confederate medical department (1862); served in hospitals in Georgia from 1863 until end of war; best known for her diary, which was originally published as Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee (1866).