Floride Elizabeth Lee

https://www.clemson.edu/about/history/calhoun-clemson/florideeliz.html

Floride Clemson Lee exhibited the strong will of her mother and grandmother. Historians know a great deal about her through her wartime diary, 1863-1866, published as “A Rebel Came Home.” Floride was a talented poet. Her verse included subjects that she saw as a child at her grandmother’s home such as “That ‘Blessed’ Sewing Machine” (now on view at Fort Hill). Her poetry was published as “The Verse of Floride Clemson.” Her poem “Strong-Minded Women,” penned two years before her marriage, sums up the role of a Southern female during the 19th century.

“The most perfect of women are those who with grace; And dignity too still keep in their place...Oh, hard-minded sisters, leave things as they are; Nor kick down the pedestal under our feet; Involving us all in your own just defeat” (January 1867).

On Aug. 1, 1869, Floride married Gideon Lee of New York. Her parents were unenthusiastic about her marriage to a man 18 years older and were saddened, too, that their daughter was moving to New York. Floride gave birth to one daughter, Floride Isabella, on May 15, 1870. Floride Clemson Lee died on July 23, 1871, in Carmel, N.Y., a year after the birth of her daughter.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floride_Clemson

Floride Elizabeth Clemson Lee (December 29, 1842 – July 23, 1871) is the daughter of Clemson University founder Thomas Green Clemson, and the granddaughter of former Vice President John C. Calhoun and his wife, Floride Calhoun. Clemson is most acknowledged for her diary that took place during and after the Civil War. Her diary states her journey to South Carolina by multiple forms of transportation in just a little under two weeks.

Diary

Her diary was published, as A Rebel Came Home, by Clemson University in 1961. It was edited by Charles M. McGee and Ernest M. Lander, Jr. In the book, it states that McGee spent two summers in the Clemson Archives, where he came across Floride's diary and became interested in it. Also he worked with Lander and had the convenience of the artist being close by which helped with the writing of the book. A Rebel Came Home was published by the University of South Carolina Press in Columbia, SC in 1961.

I sometimes think I am too happy, I have so much to be thankful for. I get plenty of rides on mule & horse back, & have so many kind friends.

—Floride Clemson, A Rebel Came Home