Sally Louisa Tompkins

Sally Louisa Tompkins (November 9, 1833 – July 26, 1916) was a humanitarian, nurse, and philanthropist who privately sponsored a hospital to treat soldiers wounded in the American Civil War. She was the only woman officially commissioned as an officer in the Confederate States Army.

She was born to Christopher Tompkins and Maria (née Patterson) Tompkins, who raised a wealthy family in Poplar Grove in Mathews County in eastern Virginia region near the Chesapeake Bay.

Tompkins was living in Richmond, Virginia with her widowed mother and a sister when the war broke out. Using her own funds, she opened a hospital to care for Confederate wounded in the home of John Robertson, hence the name Robertson Hospital. Her success rate in saving the lives of patients brought her to the attention of the officials. Because a policy required military hospitals to be under military command, Tompkins was made an officer in the Confederate Army by President Jefferson Davis, the only woman so appointed. Her official status helped her obtain needed supplies. Tompkins' patients soon gave her the affectionate nickname "Captain Sally."

Her Robertson Hospital opened in July 1861 after the Battle of Manassas and closed in June 1865. In four years as chief, Tompkins had admitted 1,333 patients, losing just 73 of them. The final survival rate was a remarkable 94.5%. She had refused payment for her services and exhausted much of her personal fortune in maintaining the hospital. Later, she had to avail herself of the charity of society and entered the Confederate Home for Women in Richmond.

Captain Sally died in Richmond in 1916 and was buried with a full military funeral in the church yard near her old home in Mathews Co. A monument at her grave, with a short inscription telling of her work ends with these words:


 * I was hungered, and ye he gave me meat
 * I was thirsty and ye he gave me drink
 * I was sick and ye he visited me."
 * St. Matthew 25th Chap