Sally Louisa Tompkins (November 9, 1833 – July 25, 1916) was a Confederate nurse and the first woman to have been formally inducted into an army in American history.

[1] She is best remembered for privately sponsoring a hospital in Richmond, Virginia to treat soldiers wounded in the American Civil War.

[2] Sally Tompkins was born on November 9, 1833, at Poplar Grove in the Tidewater Region of Virginia's Middle Peninsula.

Colonel Tompkins eventually became a very wealthy merchant, doing business in Mathews County, Norfolk, and Richmond, Virginia.

Tompkins was devastated when three of her sisters (Martha, Harriet, and Elizabeth) died only a few weeks apart due to a local epidemic in 1842.

Despite the word of victory, the Confederate capital city was ill-prepared for the hundreds of wounded soldiers who subsequently poured in, many arriving via the Virginia Central Railroad.

The shock brought the reality of the horrors of warfare directly home, as officials and citizens scrambled to take care of the overflow of injured and sick patients.

[7] Judge Robertson had taken his family to the countryside for safety and left his home to Sally to use as a hospital for as long as she needed.

Richmond depended on imports for trade and when the blockade tightened along the coast, the city faced riots in the streets.

Since Tompkins and a number of the other women had remained constant at the hospital through the war, they ultimately won the love and respect of their patients.

[15] Upon her death in 1916, Sally Tompkins was buried with full military honors at Christ Church in Mathews County.

She joins the ranks of women like Clara Barton who responded to the urgent needs which were presented during the Civil War, especially after the Battle of First Bull Run when the realities of warfare became stark in both the Union and Confederate capital cities.

Her proven lower mortality rates as a result are exceptionally notable among her many legacies to the United States and medical providers everywhere, practices still in widespread use.

One of which was a stained glass memorial window in the St. James Episcopal Church depicting Captain Sally overseen by an angel.

Three chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy are named after Tompkins, who was elected Honorary President of the Virginia Division in 1905.

Following an article in the local newspaper in July 1999, a small group of "daughters" met and resolved to bring a chapter back to Mathews.

Since Sally's name was misspelled in the 1908 charter the group decided to petition as a new chapter with a new number, which became effective on August 22, 2000.