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Mrs. Ella K. Newsom of Arkansas was described
as a “handsome, wealthy and accomplished young widow,” of a physician, who took
it upon herself to work in various hospitals in the South while providing
supplies with her own money. Mrs. Newsom
after apprenticing in Memphis City hospital she helped organize confederate
hospitals and supervised hospitals in various cities of the south including
Nashville’s Howard High School hospital, Chattanooga, Bowling Green,
Winchester, Tishomingo and Corinth House Hospital establishments, Atlanta and Marietta in the autumn of 1863. She also administered to the wounded in Corinth, Mississippi after the battle of
Shiloh. Mrs. Newsom became Chief Matron
of the Hospital Department of the Army of Tennessee. Her tireless efforts earn her the nickname
“The Florence Nightingale of the Confederate Army” and gained a
reputation for devotion to service second to no other hospital worker in the
Western Theatre. She was a major asset to the community during the Civil War and
there can be no question that she, with other women who braved the contemporary
taboo against feminine employment in the military hospitals, gave an important
impetus to the subsequent development of a trained nursing profession.
