Sally Tompkins & Phoebe Yates: Stories of Confederate & Jewish women - 1st Woman military Officer in American history

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Sharing brief stories of the ignored and forgotten on this International Women’s Week:

Sally Louisa Tompkins (1833-1916) became the first woman military Officer in American history when she was commissioned as a Captain in the Confederate Army in 1961 (over 70 years before the US Army). She is best remembered for the hospital she opened and ran throughout the entire war and is honored for having the lowest mortality rate of any hospital during the War Between the State’s (Civil War) with a 94.5% success rate. She requested not to receive any pay from the Confederate government, insisting on using her personal fortune. Born in Matthew County, Virginia, Captain Sally was buried with full military honors at her childhood church cemetery.

Phoebe Yates Pember was a Jewish southerner who escaped the ravages of war in Georgia to serve as a leader of Chimborazo, a Confederate hospital in Richmond Virginia that was reportedly the largest military hospital in the world in the 1860s. Pember served as Chief Matron of one of the facility’s divisions which was unusual during a time when virtually all nursing was done by men. She remained at the hospital until the south’s surrender and wrote a memoir which would later be published in book form as “A Southern Woman’s Story: Life in Confederate Richmond.”

Note: Phoebe is one of over a dozen US Postal stamps featuring Confederate supporters. Phoebe’s sister, Eugenia Levy, was twice imprisoned for her support of the Confederate cause. Judah P Benjamin was both the first unapologetic Jewish US Senator and first Jew to hold a Cabinet position in America as the Confederate Secretary of War. He was eventually replaced by Thomas Jefferson’s Grandson.

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ADDITIONAL READING:

Sally Louisa Tompkins:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Louisa_Tompkins
https://www.historynet.com/hidden-heroes-captain-sally.htm


Sally Tompkins book: Biography of America’s First Female Army Officer:
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Sally-Biography-Tompkins-Americas/dp/1483493598/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sally+tompkins&qid=1615246482&sr=8-1
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/first-female-army-officer/


Phoebe Pember:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoebe_Pember

Phoebe Pember book:
https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Womans-Story-Phoebe-Pember-ebook/dp/B01M9BKUH3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=phoebe+pember&qid=1615248088&sr=8-1


Jewish Confederates:
https://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Confederates-NS-Robert-Rosen/dp/1570033633/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=jewish+confederates&qid=1615251354&s=books&sr=1-1

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- Lincoln: “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.”
- Lincoln: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery. I believe I have no lawful right to do so and I have no inclination to do so."
- Jefferson Davis: “We are fighting for Independence, we are not fighting for slavery. It never was an essential element.”


Location: Richmond, VA, USA

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