03/31/2026
On this day in 1863, Confederate nurse Kate Cu***ng wrote to her family about the death of one of her patients, revealing the bonds nurses formed with soldiers in the hospitals: "James Scott, the young man of whom I spoke some time ago, has just breathed his last. After lying on his back four months, he was able to walk about; he was then taken with pneumonia; recovered from that; was taken with diphtheria; from that he also recovered; and died from the effects of erysipelas. Poor child! what a happy release from woe and suffering! His young life had been one of sorrow, but he trusted in Him who trod this vale of tears before him...."
For more, see Comming's memoir: Cu***ng, Kate. Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse. Edited by Richard Barksdale Harwell, Louisiana State University Press, 1998, p. 180.
(Photo: Courtesy of National Library of Medicine)
