Queen of the Confederacy

"Submissiveness is not my role, but certain platitudes on certain occasions are among the innocent deceits of the sex." So spoke Lucy Petaway Holcombe Pickens (1832-1899). As you can see, she is the subject of a book by Elizabeth Wittenmyer Lewis titled Queen of the Confederacy (Denton, Tex.: University of North Texas Press, 2002).

I haven't seen the book, but the subject sounds interesting. She married Francis Wilkinson Pickens before the Civil War and accompanied him to the court of Tsar Alexander II, where he served as ambassador. Mary Chesnut described her as "young, lovely, clever -- and old Pick's third wife." Her husband was a Unionist who was South Carolina's secessionist governor. Go figure. The Holcombe Legion was named for her, and she was the only woman to appear on Confederate currency.