A female perspective to the American Civil War. Kate Cumming, a remarkable woman, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1835, her family moved to Montreal, Canada.   They later moved to Mobile, Alabama, where Kate as young woman, quickly adapted to the Southern way of life.   It has been written that Kate Cumming was intelligent and courageous in all she did.   Kate did not support secession but when the South was invaded, she was quick to criticize the actions of Union President Abraham Lincoln.

A strong supporter of the Confederate cause she looked down at those Southerners who were less patriotic.   She believed that every able-bodied man and woman should do whatever he or she could for the South.

In 1862 Kate Cumming helped wounded soldiers at the Battle of Shiloh and in that summer helped in such places as Corinth and Chattanooga. Enlisting in the Confederate army’s medical department as hospital Matron.

Kate was strong in her opinion and an outgoing woman. Her assertiveness helped in her work with Dr. S.H. Staub who believed in the use of women in hospitals. This was some time before the Crimean War where Florence Nightingale set new standards for women in army hospitals. 

Kate was known for running a very efficient and clean hospital ward, seeing to every need of the patients and keeping an adequate kitchen.

After the War Between the States in 1866 Kate Cumming published in Mobile the "Journal of Hospital Life in Southern Wartime Hospitals." She also believed that Southern women should take an active part in helping disabled ex-Confederate soldiers.

Kate Cumming never married but became involved with her friends in Southern organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy and United Confederate Veterans.