SUMNER ARCHIBALD CUNNINGHAM, editor and publisher of the Confederate Veteran at Nashville, is a lifelong resident of Tennessee, served the state in the great Civil war, and has spent many years in the quiet pursuits of business and as an editor.
Of Scotch-Irish descent, a son of John Washington Campbell and Mary A. (Buchanan) CUNNINGHAM, he was born in Bedford county, this state, on July 21, 1843. He received a fair literary education in the schools before the war, and was about eighteen years of age when the conflict between the states began. As a soldier of the South he served with distinction in the Forty-first Tennessee Infantry, beginning as a private and being promoted to sergeant and then sergeant-major. After the war for a number of years he was engaged in merchandising.
In 1893 Mr. Cunningham founded the Confederate Veteran, a monthly journal devoted to the interests of the old soldiers of the South, and publishing well edited articles of historical and current news. During the twenty years of his proprietorship and editorial management he has made this journal a welcome visitor to thousands of households whose memories and associations cherish the old South of war-time. Through this medium also much practical benefit has been done for the Confederate veterans, and its files contain much valuable history that cannot be found elsewhere.
Mr. Cunningham is a member of the Hermitage Club of Nashville, and is one of the active workers in the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was married in 1866 to Miss Laura N. DAVIS, who is now deceased.
Source: Hale, Will T, and Dixon L. Merritt. A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Company, 1913. Volume 4, pg. 863.
