So, it seems that I have hit upon a point of interest-- at least for myself. I have been a student of history since high school, a student of women's history since college. Having a women's history focus, I have not so much focused on wars. Men's history is all about war--who did what in which war to make themselves a hero and gain respect of the nation....yadda, yadda....blah blah. Wars are about killing and generally about which guy's (or nation's) ego is bigger than some other guy's ego. Not what I choose to study. Yet, I fully believe our history will teach us how to be great in the future and how to avoid going down the same wrong paths as our ancestors. The funny thing is that as I follow these wars, especially as I follow the women who seemingly were caught in the crossfire and had to make the most of their situation, I am finding awesome stories of resilience, ingenuity, and greatness. The stories of the women in the civil war are somehow rising to the top of my list. I find them inspiring. I hope you do too. It makes me wonder what future stories we will hear about the women who serve in the military now... But, for today, more about Sally Tompkins aka "Captain Sally": Born in "PoplarGrove,"Mathews City., Va., 9 Nov. 1833, after her husband's death, Sally's mother moved the family to Richmond, where Sally lived at the outbreak of civil war. When the government asked the public to help care for the wounded of F irst Bull Run, Sally responded by opening a private hospital in a house donated for that purpose by judge John Robertson. Robertson Hospital, subsidized by Tompkins' substantial inheritance, treated 1,333 Confederate soldiers from its opening until the last patients were discharged 13 June 1865. Because the hospital returned more of its patients to the ranks than any other medical-care facility, officers tried to place their most seriously wounded men in Tompkins' care. She used her high rate of success to convince President Jefferson Davis to allow her hospital to stay open even as his orders shut down other private hospitals in the city. To circumvent the regulation calling for all hospitals to be run by military personnel, on 9 Sept. 1861 Davis appointed Tompkins captain of cavalry, unassigned, making her the only woman to hold a commission in the Confederate States Army. Her military rank allowed her to draw government rations and a salary to help defray some of her operating costs. Only 73 deaths were recorded at Robertson Hospital during its 45-month existence. Tompkins remained a beloved celebrity in postwar Richmond, active in the Episcopal church and a popular guest at veterans' reunions and Daughters of the Confederacy meetings. The war, her continued charity work, and her generous hospitality to veterans eventually exhausted her fortune. In 1905 "Captain Sally" moved into the Confederate Women's Home in Richmond as a lifetime guest, dying there 26 July 1916, in her 83d year. An honorary member of the R. E. Lee Camp of the Confederate Veterans, she was honored with a full military funeral. 4 chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy are named in Tompkins' honor. *somewhere it is noted that her attention to cleanliness and sanitation were the secrets to her success. It is possible that her standards were somewhere paid attention to by later doctors who adopted similar standards of cleanliness.
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Mary Smith (née Kelsey) Peake(1823-February 22, 1862), an American teacher and humanitarian, is best known for having taught children of former slaves under the Emancipation Oak tree in 1861, the first educational effort from which grew Hampton University. Mary Smith Peake was a free citizen of the Commonwealth of Virginia. She was born Mary Smith Kelsey in Norfolk, Virginia. Her father was an Englishman and her mother was a free black woman. When Mary was six, her mother sent her to Alexandria (then part of the District of Columbia) for the purpose of attending school. She remained there in school for about ten years, until a law of the United States Congress was enacted to the effect that the law of Virginia in relation to free mixed people should prevail in the District of Columbia. (This was several years before Alexandria was retroceded to Virginia in 1846). The new law closed all schools for mulattos in that city, as in Virginia (and other Southern states), after the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831, and prior to Reconstruction after the Civil War, it was unlawful to educate non-whites. Thus, Mary was compelled to leave the school as she was from Virginia. When sixteen years old, having finished her education, she returned to her mother, at Norfolk, where Mary secretly taught slaves for years. She founded an organization called the Daughters of Zion. The focus of this organization was to give assistance to the poor and the sick. She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Norfolk. She supported herself by making clothes and teaching. In 1851, she married Thomas Peake, a free Black. They had a daughter named Hattie whom they called "Daisy". During the American Civil War (1861-1865), nearby Fort Monroe remained in Union hands, and became a place of refuge for escaped slaves seeking asylum, who were commonly referred to as "contraband", a legal status which prevented them from being returned to Confederate owners. They built the Grand Contraband Camp near but outside the protection of Fort Monroe. Mrs. Peake was asked to help teach, and began doing so on September 17, 1861 under the famous tree, which was located several miles outside of the protective safety of Fort Monroe in Phoebus, a small town in Elizabeth City County. Soon, sponsored by the American Missionary Association, she was teaching in the Brown Cottage, the seed from which Hampton Institute (and later Hampton University) would grow. Mary Peake's school included more than fifty children during the day and twenty adults at night. She became seriously ill but would not rest. On Washington's birthday in 1862 she died of tuberculosis. In 1863, the Virginia Peninsula community gathered under this tree to hear the first Southern reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In modern times, the historic Emancipation Oak (at least 140 years old now) is located on the campus of Hampton University in what is now the City of Hampton, Virginia. It is designated one of the 10 Great Trees of the World by the National Geographic Society and is a National Historic Landmark. The Mary Peake Center of Hampton Public Schools is named in her honor. According to its website, it is a "center for gifted children dedicated to providing a comprehensive set of experiences for those children who by nature of their complex processing abilities, require a fully differentiated educational environment." Mary Peake Boulevard in Hampton was also named in her honor. A book about her, Mary S. Peake, the Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe was written shortly after her death by Reverend Lewis C. Lockwood. |
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