Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1913-01-09
Capt. Sally Tompkins.

In the home for Confederate women IN
Richmond, Capt Sally Tompkins ispeace-
fully spending the last years Of her long
life. A few blocks away. at the corner
OF Main and Third streets, stone tablet
set into the wall commemorates the work
that she did half-century ago. lr the
Confederate Museum a faded scrap OF
paper bearing her commission as captain
in the Confederate Army, signed by
President Davis himself, shows that hers
is no courtesy title.
Miss Tompkins was born on tide
water plantation in Virginia. Her father
died several years before the war. and
the women of the family moved up to
Richmond, taking with them their retinue
of servants. For while the young wo-
man busted herself with church work and
nursing the sick. Then came the war.
The terrible days OF fighting round
Ri chmond in 1862 showed that the city
could not adequately care for the thous-
ands OF wounded men streaming in from
the battle-fields. The city was already
choked with refugees from the outlying
country. The army hospitals were crowd
ed to the doors. There seemed no end
10 the Struggling ambulance trains. 1t
was Miss Tompkins who saw most clear
ly the need OF private hospitals. She got
a house and went to work. The house
belonged TO Judge Robertson OF the Su-
preme Court Of Virginia, who placed it at
her disposal for as long as she might
need il. Using her well-trained servants
as attendants, Miss Tompkins opened the
Robertson Hospital, and from then until
the end of the war devoted herself, her
time and her private fortune to its main
| tenance.
Miss Sally, as the soldiers called her,
was beloved figure in the quiet wards.
She was something OF a martinez, TO be
sure, and every man in her care went
back 10 the front as soon as he was atle
10 go. But her patients worshiped her.
Other private hospitals started. and
many did good service, but after while
abuses crept in. Patients were some
times overcharged, sometimes neglected.
Finally General Lee ordered that every
hospital not under the command OF a
commissioned officer should be closed.
The first Miss Sally knew OF this order
was when the ambulances drew up be-
fore her door TO remove her patients.
She met the crisis with characteristic de-
cision. Leaving orders that not a man
should be moved until she returned, she
hurried across the city and laid her case
before the President.
Mr.. Davis shook his head. OF course
he knew what good work she had been
doing, and he would like TO help her, but
there was the order.
"Why not commission me 2" asked
Miss Sally.
That certainly was one way out, and
she got her commission Immediately
When the new captain returned {, The
hospital, she found the work OF removing
the wounded already begun. She show
ed her commission, the men were carried
back into the house and the ambulances
drove away.
Accompanying the commission was
salary. That was godsend, Tor hei
funds were low and the appetites OF the
convalescents voracious. Every penny
OF the new income went toward feedine
the inmates OF Robertson Hospital. which
remained open until the end Of the war
Captain Sally, c. S. A., is an old lady
now-old and frail, with soft white hair
and quiet eyes gazing TRANQUILITY back into
the past. Friends and relatives are abou
her, caring for her as she once cared foI
so many who were friendless and alone
There is hardly another woman in the
South to-day more widely known OF
more warmly loved.
|