Lucy Pickens

Stiles/Akin

Sergeant Major
Joined
Apr 1, 2016
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
From.Eb Joseph Daniels
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The Liberating patriots, God bless and prosper them, pursue with earnest determination the high aim of their holy mission; the suffering Island Queen is bound by the dark unholy bands of despotism, submissive to the tyrant's will, but there is a link of blood which holds her to every American heart. Had our sympathies never before glowed in pity for her wrongs, they would not spring up and cluster with sad vengeance around the land deluged with the blood of our kindred and countrymen. Her mournful wailing touches a chord in our hearts which has never before vibrated, for the blackness of her gloom has cast its shadows around the hearth-stones of America."

On this day in 1832 Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens, the “Queen of the Confederacy,” was born at Woodstock, the Holcombe family plantation near LaGrange, Tennessee.

Lucy’s father, Beverly LaFayette Holcombe, was a self-made and enterprising farmer with great ambition. Lucy’s mother, Eugenia Dorothea Hunt, came from ministerial Quaker stock and valued education and hard work, just like her husband. The parents insisted that all of their children learn the value of labor and learning early on, and all five of their children, including their two daughters, enjoyed the benefit of tutors and schooling early on.

Lucy attended the LaGrange Female Academy when she turned twelve but transferred to the Quaker Moravian Seminary for Women with her sister from 1846 to 1848. She was extremely popular with her peers, who admired her natural beauty and charm, and with her teachers, who remarked upon her decorum and sharp wit. She did very well in her studies and was especially adept at literature and languages.

Beverly Holcombe, however, was running into trouble back in Tennessee. Mounting horse racing debts and a series of riskier and riskier business deals had liquidated most of his capital and in 1848 he was forced to sell Woodstock and the accompanying planation and relocate his family west, to Marshall, Texas, to start anew.

Lucy proved as charming to Gulf society as she had to Deep South society. In Marshall she organized a literary society for ladies and hosted regular parties at her families new plantation, Wyalucing. Lucy also travelled extensively throughout the South, escorted by John Holcombe, her favorite brother.

A chaperone proved essential as Lucy had developed a reputation as a notorious flirt very early in life. Beaux constantly swarmed around her and the rumor had it that three duels had been fought over her by the time she was eighteen.

In 1850 Lucy and her parents believed that they had found a suitable match in the form of the young Army officer Colonel William Crittenden. A veteran of the Mexican American War, Colonel Crittenden had been unable to parlay his wartime exploits into a successful post-war career. Hoping to earn the fame and fortune necessary to support a family, Crittenden got involved in a plot to free Cuba from Spanish control. The revolution failed, however, and in 1851 Crittenden was executed for inciting insurrection.

Lucy was grief-stricken over the affair, but she channeled her despair into a creative endeavor. Over the next several years in her quiet hours she began writing a novel about the fictionalized exploits of the Cuban revolutionaries, which she titled The Free Flag of Cuba or the Martyrdom of Lopez. It was published in 1855 under a pseudonym.

During a trip to White Sulphur Springs in Virginia in the summer of 1856 Lucy was introduced to Francis Pickens, the scion of a puissant South Carolina political dynasty. Twice widowed and over twice her age, Pickens was almost immediately smitten with the vivacious and charming twenty-four year old, who seemed to be the belle of the ball wherever she went.

On the surface, Pickens seemed to be an ideal match. He owned over 500 slaves and had plantations in South Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. He came from a good family and had enjoyed a successful career as a lawyer before embarking upon a somewhat less successful career as a politician.

There was also much be to be said against Pickens, however. His personal wealth notwithstanding, it was not clear that the man himself had any immediate prospects. He was a fiery and ardent secessionist, raised in the school of Calhoun, and his radical politics stood as a potential detriment in the chaotic years before the War Between the States. Pickens was also very dour and rather stuffy, and Mrs. Holcombe, in particular, worried that her daughter could not be happy as his wife.

Lucy therefore rejected Pickens’ proposal, stating that she was not ready to be married at that time. She continued to socialize and was courted by several other beaux, but Pickens was persistent and was a regular visitor at Wyalucing.

In 1858 Pickens ran to represent South Carolina in the federal Senate. After being narrowly defeated, he decided to pursue a different tack in politics and sought a president appointment from James Buchannan, a personal friend. Buchannan offered Pickens the post of ambassador to Imperial Russia, which Pickens accepted.

Pickens also took one more trip out to Wyalucing. He told Lucy and her parents about his recent appointment and that he believed this was, finally, the chance he’d been waiting for to advance in politics. He made it clear that if Lucy did not accept his proposal now, he would not return.

Lucy’s parents were reticent, seeing in Pickens the desperation of an aging man who had missed his chance. Lucy, however, already twenty six years old, perhaps saw something in Pickens at that moment. She reversed course and against the objections of her parents agreed to marry Pickens; the two were wed at Wyalucing in a private ceremony.

Russia proved just as susceptible to Lucy’s charms as the South had been. With her extensive knowledge of French literature, language, and fashion, Lucy became a fixture at the St. Petersburg court. A quick study, she was speaking fluent Russian before even her husband. With the young ladies and officers of the court she could be light and charming while with the clergy and older aristocrats she was modest and dutiful. Although a Baptist herself, Lucy was very interested in the Orthodox religion and adopted the tradition of travelling with an icon of the Virgin Mary and Christ.

Lucy was a particular favorite of Tsar Aleksandr II and Tsarina Maria. The Tsarina, a Hessian noblewoman by birth, felt a special affinity for Lucy, whom she considered a kindred spirit as both were far from their homelands. Lucy was afforded the honor of helping to design and make dresses for the Tsarina, and it was said that St. Petersburg had never appeared more fashionable.

In the spring of 1859 Lucy was preparing to have her child, and the Tsarina opened a suite in the Winter Palace for her use. The imperial doctors oversaw the delivery and on March 14th Lucy gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Francis Eugenia Olga Neva Pickens. The Tsar and Tsarina agreed to be godparents to the child, and they applied to her the nickname “Douschka,” or “Little Darling.” She kept the nickname all her life, and every year for the rest of her life she received a letter from her godfather, Tsar Aleksandr.

By this time, the political situation in South Carolina had reached its apex and in August of 1860 Pickens quit his post as ambassador and returned to the States. His fiery views had finally found greater popular support and he was sworn in as governor just four days prior to South Carolina’s secession from the Union.

Lucy quickly adapted to her new role as First Lady of the first state to secede. From the Pickens’ home of Edgewood Lucy assumed the role of ideal Southern belle. She observed the shelling of Fort Sumter and wrote a dispatch which was reprinted in newspapers across the South. She organized charitable balls and events to raise money for the Confederate cause. The famous bazaar dance scene in Gone with the Wind, in which beaux must pay money for the first dance with their ladies, was based upon a similar dance organized by Lucy.

After Lucy sold off nearly all of her jewels, including several gifts from the Tsar and Tsarina, to purchase uniforms for Confederate troops, the Holcombe Legion was raised in her honor. The unit elected for its flag a blue field with a white palmetto, with a single white star in the sky to represent Lucy’s home in Texas.

Her natural status as a Southern belle and her devotion to the Confederate cause, as well as the impassioned and dedicated work of her husband, quickly earned Lucy the title of “Queen of the Confederacy.” In this role Lucy had displaced Varina Davis, wife of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Varina, who had a reputation for being overly opinionated and unpleasant, was not popular among the Confederate social elite. The demure and charming Lucy was therefore widely considered the “real” “First Lady of the Confederacy.”

To honor her in this position, Lucy was the only historical woman to be given a place on Confederate currency, appearing on the $100 bill alongside George W. Randolph.

As the war dragged on Lucy remained a symbol of hope and purity for the Confederate people, standing steadfast in the face of the blockade and shelling of Charleston. She opened up Edgewood as a field hospital and personally nursed countless wounded soldiers. When the Confederacy surrendered, Lucy set to work organizing a campaign to help South Carolinians learn the fates of their soldier kin.

During Reconstruction Pickens bowed out of politics and focused on running his plantations. Lucy, meanwhile, devoted herself to charitable and honorific endeavors to aid Confederate veterans. In 1869 Pickens died, broken by the failure of the cause of secession. Lucy invited her brother John to help manage the family plantations and although she as only in her mid-thirties and still eligible Lucy never remarried.

In addition to her work for Confederate veterans, Lucy also spearheaded the effort to have George Washington's home declared a historical monument. She served as Vice-Regent for South Carolina in the Mount Vernon Ladies Association from 1876 until her death.

In 1894 Lucy’s daughter “Douschka” died, leaving behind two young daughters whom Lucy helped to raise. Lucy herself died five years later at her home in Edgewood.

Image: Lucy with her daughter in St. Petersburg
 
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