Coming from a prestigious Virginia family, she served as a nurse with the Confederate army during the American Civil War.

Emily Virginia Mason was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on 15 October 1815.

Emily Mason grew up in Kentucky, Michigan, and Virginia, and in her formative years was educated at the Emma Willard School in New York.

[2] By April 1865, Mason was working as a nurse and matron at Winder Hospital in Richmond, Virginia.

[5][6] These poems sold well, with Mason using the funding to support girl's education in the South.