author
Phoebe Yates Pember
1823–1913
Remembered for a vivid Civil War memoir, this Southern writer and hospital matron left one of the most memorable firsthand accounts of life inside wartime Richmond. Her work blends sharp observation, dark humor, and deep compassion for the wounded soldiers she cared for.
1 Audiobook
A Southern Woman's Story
by Phoebe Yates Pember
About the author
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1823, Phoebe Yates Levy Pember came from a prominent Jewish family and was later widowed early in adulthood. During the Civil War, she took on an unusual leadership role for a woman of her time as matron of a division at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, one of the Confederacy's largest military hospitals.
From late 1862 until the fall of Richmond in 1865, she supervised hospital work, managed supplies and diet kitchens, and cared for large numbers of sick and wounded soldiers. Accounts of her life emphasize her strong will, practical intelligence, and readiness to push back against bureaucracy when she thought patients needed better treatment.
She is best known today for A Southern Woman's Story, published in 1879, a memoir of her years at Chimborazo. The book remains valuable not only as a record of hospital life during the war, but also as a lively, personal narrative by a woman whose voice feels direct, witty, and unmistakably her own.