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March 16, 1825 - In a beautiful estate in Virginia, Lucy Virginia Smith was born to Mease & Elizabeth French. She came from a prestigious line of ancestors known for their bravery in battle ("Fighting Tom Parker" of the American Revolutionary War) as well as a line of wealthy merchants. her father had served as various presidents of colleges and was a well known attorney. She was a graduate from Mrs. Hannah's School in Washington, Pennsylvania, an education that although her father was wealthy, she was forced to pay for herself {3}.
After her mother's death and her father's remarriage, she and her sister relocated to Memphis, where they both became tutors. It was here Lucy began to write and publish poetry to help pay for her schooling. It was also in Memphis in 1853 where she met her husband a wealthy man named John French. After their marriage the couple took up residence at "Forest Home," near McMinnville, Tennessee, the homestead of the French family. They were the parents of three children and Lucy continued to write her poetry and was making as much as $400.00-$500.00 annually.
During the war, her family home was located on land that saw action between both armies. As early as July 13, 1862 when Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest raided Murfreesboro, the town was faced with questions regarding war, patriotism and loyalty. As Lucy had spent some of her early years in Pennsylvania she was torn especially as she witnessed the over one thousand Union soldiers captured by Forest and marched in front of her home. The sight of the American flag as a "captured symbol" caused her to write:
"I shall never forget the scene which passed before us upon this evening. Did I ever think to see the old "stars & stripes," a captive banner & not weep over it? I felt badly to see it thus I confess—it was the old flag I had loved so long. But was I sorry to see the men who had treated us all so badly a few weeks before, brought up again as prisoners—no—you may be sure I didn't weep over that! Well here they were—and here were their conquerors!" {3}
She may have grieved over the stars and stripes but felt no sympathy for the soldiers that carried it. She was Southern born and Southern would remain. In August of 1865 she described her emotions:
"I have tried to do my duty—but those whom we know have been mean and inconsistent, nay even wrong, but have been successful in life and we have lost—lost until there is little left now to lose. I do feel discouraged—so weary—so worn out with hoping and working and all to no purpose. I have tried so hard, and still seemed to go back all the time that I now feel pleasantly ready to sit down by the wayside and never strike another lick.
Heaven help us all—why do we write thus? I am ready to exclaim with the Preacher "Vanity of vanities—all is vanity!" What a wretched, savage mood I am in today. It wears me so. I wish I had a live book to read to take me out of myself. I will try Shakespeare then for my amusement." {3}
Perhaps nothing expresses her thoughts more than when she penned the poem "Shermanized". It was read by Miss Lucy Powell Harris on May 1, 1866 during a concert at the Houston Female High School in Atlanta, Georgia.
"In this city of Atlanta, on a dire and dreadful day,
'Mid the raging of the conflict, 'mid the thunder of the fray -
In the blaze of burning roof-trees - under clouds of smoke and flame -
Sprang a new word into being, from a stern and dreaded name;
Gaunt, and grim, and like a specter, rose that word before the world,
from a land of bloom and beauty, into ruin rudely hurled -
From a people scourged by exile - from a city ostracized -
Pallis-like it sprang to being, and that word is - Shermanized!
And forevermore hereafter, where the fierce Destroyer reigns,
Where Destruction pours her lava over cultivated plains -
Where Want and Woe hold carnival - where bitter Blight and Blood,
Sweep over prosperous nations in a strong relentless flood;
Where the golden crown of Harvest trodden into ashes lies,
and Desolation stares abroad with famine-frenzied eyes -
Where the wrong with iron scepter crushes every Right we prized,
There shall people groan in anguish - 'God! the Right is Shermanized'!
Man may rule the raids of Ruin - lead the legions that despoil -
From the lips of honest Labor dash the guerdon of its toil -
'Sow with salt' the smiling valleys, and on every breezy height.
Kindle bale-fires of destruction, lurid in the solemn night;
He may sacrifice the aged, and exult when Woman stands,
'Mid the sunken sodden ashes of her home, with palsied hands,
Drooping over hungered children - man may thus immortalize,
His name with haggard infamy - his watchword - 'Shermanized"!
Nobler deeds are Woman's province - she must not destroy, but build,
She must bring the urns of Plenty with the wine of Pleasure filled,
She must be the 'sweet restorer' of this sunny Southern land;
Fill our schools, rebuild our churches, take the feeble by the hand,
Aid the Press, befriend the teacher, give to Want it's daily bread,
And never, never fail to weave above our 'noble dead',
The laurel garland due to deeds of valor's high emprise,
And won by men whom failure could not sink, or - Shermanize!
With her wakened love of labor, let her labor on in love,
Still, in softness and in stillness, as the starry circles move,
Bearing light and bringing gladness, from the leaden clouds unfurled,
As the soft rise of the sunlight bringers morning to the world;
Gradually urging on Endeavor, as the gates of Day unclose,
Till the 'solitary place again shall blossom as the rose,"
And Woman - the Re-builder - shall be freely eulogized,
By the triumph of her people, then no longer Shermanized.
God bless our noble Georgia! though her soil was over run,
And her lands in desolation laid, beneath an Autumn sun;
With the signal shout 'To action!' - like the boom of signal guns,
She has roused the iron mettle of her strong and stalwart sons.
May her daughters aid that effort to rebuild and to restore,
Working on for Southern freedom as they never worked before!
May Georgia as a laggard never once be stigmatized,
and her People, Press or Pulpit, never more be Shermanized! {1}
'Mid the raging of the conflict, 'mid the thunder of the fray -
In the blaze of burning roof-trees - under clouds of smoke and flame -
Sprang a new word into being, from a stern and dreaded name;
Gaunt, and grim, and like a specter, rose that word before the world,
from a land of bloom and beauty, into ruin rudely hurled -
From a people scourged by exile - from a city ostracized -
Pallis-like it sprang to being, and that word is - Shermanized!
And forevermore hereafter, where the fierce Destroyer reigns,
Where Destruction pours her lava over cultivated plains -
Where Want and Woe hold carnival - where bitter Blight and Blood,
Sweep over prosperous nations in a strong relentless flood;
Where the golden crown of Harvest trodden into ashes lies,
and Desolation stares abroad with famine-frenzied eyes -
Where the wrong with iron scepter crushes every Right we prized,
There shall people groan in anguish - 'God! the Right is Shermanized'!
Man may rule the raids of Ruin - lead the legions that despoil -
From the lips of honest Labor dash the guerdon of its toil -
'Sow with salt' the smiling valleys, and on every breezy height.
Kindle bale-fires of destruction, lurid in the solemn night;
He may sacrifice the aged, and exult when Woman stands,
'Mid the sunken sodden ashes of her home, with palsied hands,
Drooping over hungered children - man may thus immortalize,
His name with haggard infamy - his watchword - 'Shermanized"!
Nobler deeds are Woman's province - she must not destroy, but build,
She must bring the urns of Plenty with the wine of Pleasure filled,
She must be the 'sweet restorer' of this sunny Southern land;
Fill our schools, rebuild our churches, take the feeble by the hand,
Aid the Press, befriend the teacher, give to Want it's daily bread,
And never, never fail to weave above our 'noble dead',
The laurel garland due to deeds of valor's high emprise,
And won by men whom failure could not sink, or - Shermanize!
With her wakened love of labor, let her labor on in love,
Still, in softness and in stillness, as the starry circles move,
Bearing light and bringing gladness, from the leaden clouds unfurled,
As the soft rise of the sunlight bringers morning to the world;
Gradually urging on Endeavor, as the gates of Day unclose,
Till the 'solitary place again shall blossom as the rose,"
And Woman - the Re-builder - shall be freely eulogized,
By the triumph of her people, then no longer Shermanized.
God bless our noble Georgia! though her soil was over run,
And her lands in desolation laid, beneath an Autumn sun;
With the signal shout 'To action!' - like the boom of signal guns,
She has roused the iron mettle of her strong and stalwart sons.
May her daughters aid that effort to rebuild and to restore,
Working on for Southern freedom as they never worked before!
May Georgia as a laggard never once be stigmatized,
and her People, Press or Pulpit, never more be Shermanized! {1}
Sources
1. "The Southern Amaranth", 1869
2. https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/lucy-virginia-french/
3. https://www.tnvacation.com/civil-war/files/2/Lucy-Virginia-Frenchs-Civil-War-by-Connie-L-Lester.pdf
Photos (Public Domain)
..A great write-up.
Bringing the