Born on May 7, 1818, on a plantation in Jefferson County, Virginia, Juliet Opie was educated privately. In 1837 she married A. G. Gordon, a navy lieutenant who died in 1849; in 1854 she married Arthur F. Hopkins, a justice of the Alabama supreme court. She lived thereafter in Mobile, Alabama. At the outbreak of the Civil War she volunteered her services to the state and was sent to Richmond, Virginia, where she superintended the Alabama section of the Chimborazo Hospital. In November 1861 the Alabama legislature appointed Judge Hopkins state hospital agent, apparently with the understanding from the beginning that he was to have the title while Juliet Hopkins had the actual job. Certainly it was she who proved a resourceful and effective administrator in overseeing the establishment, staffing, supply, and management of base and field hospitals. The high quality of medical care and the superior conditions in hospitals under her direction became widely known throughout the Confederacy and won public praise from such as General Joseph E. Johnston. She several times went into the field to help with the wounded and at Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), May 31, 1862, was herself wounded and left with a permanent limp.
When the state hospitals were merged into the Confederate Medical Department in 1863, hopkins╒ work was largely ended. Among the honors tendered Hopkins╒ was the use of her likeness on the Alabama 25-cent and 50-dollar bills. After the war she moved to New York City; she died while visiting Washington, D.C., on March 9, 1890, and was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.
