From the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance, 10/24/1901, p. 2, c. 6

(Communicated.)
CAPTAIN SALLY TOMPKINS.
Mr. P. V. D. Conway Writes of Her Good Work for the Confederates.

Fredericksburg, Va., Oct. 22, 1901

TO THE FREE LANCE:

In today’s issue you have an extract from the Washington Post headed: “A Woman Lieutenant,” in which Mrs. Louise A. Adams, of New Orleans, is spoken of as having been commissioned by the Confederate Government. All honor to Mrs. Adams, but surely she is not named as being the only woman who was commissioned by the Confederate authorities during the war. So good a Confederate soldier as your Mr. Bradley cannot have forgotten Captain Sally Tompkins and her splendid work for the soldiers. Soon after the war began she opened up a private hospital and expended all the means she had in its maintenance, then she announced that she would have to close the place up as she had no money to run it. Some of the citizens of Richmond, seeing what a good work was being done, and what a loss this would be to the Confederacy, went to the War Department and asked that supplies be furnished Miss Tompkins. The department very properly said that this could not be done, but that Miss Tompkins could be commissioned as captain and put in charge of a hospital, and the commission was issued.

“Captain Sally,” who is my personal good friend, and has been for years, is now living in Norfolk, Va., but spends her summers with friends at Port Royal. I regret to hear that her health is poor, but, whatever comes to her, I am sure she will meet it with the same brave spirit and true grit that characterized her during the trying times of the war.

Yours, etc.
P. V. D. CONWAY.

• Prev
• Next