Lucy Pickens

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Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens (June 11, 1832 – August 8, 1899) was a 19th century American socialite, known during and after her lifetime as the "Queen of the Confederacy". She was described as "beautiful, brilliant, and captivating" by her male contemporaries and this perception of her helped shape the stereotype of the "Southern belle".

She was born to Beverly LaFayette Holcombe and Eugenia Dorothea Hunt Holcombe at the family plantation near La Grange, Tennessee. She attended La Grange Female Academy before switching to a finishing school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with older sister Anna Eliza, from 1846–1848. In 1848, the Holcombes moved to Marshall, Texas and lived in the Capitol Hotel while waiting for the construction of their plantation Wyalucing.

In the summer of 1857, she met Colonel Francis Wilkinson Pickens of South Carolina, who proceeded to court her with little success. In January 1858, after his defeat for a Senate seat, he accepted an appointment as the U.S. ambassador to Russia. Suddenly she accepted his previous proposal and they were married at Wyalucing on April 26, 1858.

Lucy became a favorite at the Russian court of Alexander II. She and her husband were befriended by Alexander and his wife Maria Alexandrovna. Lucy gave birth to a daughter, Francis Eugenia Olga Neva, who was also known as Douschka Pickens in the Winter Palace. The tsar and tsaritsa became Godparents of the Pickens' daughter and the tsar gave her the nickname of Douschka, meaning Darling in Russian.

A longing for South Carolina and its increasing movement toward secession caused the Pickens family to return home in August 1860. Francis W. Pickens was elected governor by the General Assembly of South Carolina on December 17, only three days before the State seceded from the Union. Lucy was an advocate of the secession of the U.S. Southern states, and was the only woman to be depicted on the currency of the Confederate States of America (three issues of the $100 CSA bill and one issue of the $1 CSA bill, which were printed in Columbia, South Carolina). She was also featured on one issue of $1,000 CSA loan certificates. In April 1861, Lucy witnessed the shelling of Fort Sumter from a rooftop in Charleston, South Carolina. In November 1861, a unit of the Confederate Army was formed and called the Holcombe Legion in her honor and she designed and sewed its flag. It is claimed that she financed its equipment by the sale of some of the jewels given to her by the tsar.

from Wikipedia

Her life was full of romance. She met Mr. Pickens, the distinguished politician who later became "War Governor" of South Carolina, at Green Brier, White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. It was rumored at the time that Mr. Pickens had been offered the appointment as minister to England, and had refused to accept it. But he had in the meantime fallen deeply in love with the beautiful Lucy Holcombe, and he had made it known to her. She told him that if he had accepted the position as minister to England she would have married him. Thereupon he hurried to Washington to withdraw his refusal, but found that the place had been filled. But he was appointed minister to Russia, and in a few weeks Mr. Pickens had married the beautiful La Grange girl, and they were on their way to St. Petersburg.

This position Mr. Pickens filled with satisfaction and honor to his country, and at the same time the members of the Pickens family became the intimate friends of Alexander II and the Czarina; it was in their winter palace that the Pickens household was honored by the appearance of a daughter, their first born. At the baptism of the child the Czar and Czarina stood as godfather and godmother, and the Czar gave her the name of Olga Neva Francesca Eugenia Dorothea Pickens. The Czar also gave her the pet name of Douschka, which is the Russian term for 'my darling.'

After her return home in America, once every year the Czar wrote her a personal letter, and after he fell victim to a fatal explosion in the dining room of his winter palace, his son, who succeeded him to the throne, by the law of Russia also succeeded to the obligations of the godfather to Douschka. He kept up the letter writing until the death of the child. At the marriage of Miss Pickens to George Dugar, he sent her a beautiful set of diamonds.

On the return of Mr. and Mrs. Pickens to America, Mr. Pickens was elected Governor of South Carolina, and it was said at the time that his election was due largely to the superior political management of his wife. They afterward made their home at Edgewood, near Edgefield, South Carolina.

Lucy's likeness appeared on certain Confederate bills because C. G. Memminger was Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy and was a great admirer of the Pickens couple. It was his decision to use her picture copied from the likeness of a marble bust done of her in Rome, and now preserved at the University of South Carolina.

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Birth: Jun. 11, 1832

La Grange

Fayette County

Tennessee, USADeath: Aug. 8, 1899

Aiken

Aiken County

South Carolina, USA

Civil War Figure. The only woman pictured on Confederate States Currency, she was known as the “Queen of the Confederacy”. She was considered the beau ideal of the Southern Belle and some claim she was the model for Scarlet O'Hara. Her husband, Francis Pickens, became South Carolina's Governor shortly before the Civil War began. Lucy Pickens donated her jewelry and much effort in aiding the doomed Confederacy. In her honor one South Carolina unit named themselves the Holcombe Legion. After the War, her life saw much tragedy,; her husband died and in 1893 her beloved daughter Francis Eugenia Olga Neva Dugas "Douschka" died in her early 30s. She lingered on for a few more years in her Aiken home, Edgewood before passing on in 1899. She had many suitors in her youth, notable among them being William Crittenden, a West Pointer from Kentucky, and nephew of the United States Attorney General John J. Crittenden. William was executed in Cuba in 1851 as part of a failed Filibuster to "Free" Cuba from Spanish Rule. Lucy Holcombe Pickens went on at the age of 19 to write a novel that favored the cause of Cuban Liberation called “The Free Flag of Cuba”. (bio by: LeeWhite)

Burial:

Willow Brook Cemetery

Edgefield

Edgefield County

South Carolina, USA

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Lucy Holcombe Pickens was Queen of the Confederacy

By Tom Horton

Provided

First Lady of SC, Lucy Holcombe Pickens, was called “Queen of the Confederacy” because admirer Christopher Memminger put her likeness on the Confederate $100 bill.

Much has been made of the martial atmosphere of antebellum Charleston as she ushered in the Confederacy. Relatively little, however, has been said of the heightened mood of sensuality that transfused the Lowcountry on the eve of hostilities.

As it was in the age of chivalry when the pursuit of arms and armor was equaled only by the pursuit of that which was amorous, so was the giddiness of aristocratic Carolinians as war clouds loomed in 1861 over Fort Sumter.

Of all those who have left diaries, letters, and recollections, none reveal so much the sensuousness of the age as the revelations that come down to us from Mary Boykin Chesnut about the beautiful, tempestuous and flirtatious Lucy Holcombe Pickens, the first lady of South Carolina — the one many called “the queen of the Confederacy”:

“April 3. - Met the lovely Lucy Holcombe, now Mrs. Governor Pickens, last night at the Isaac Haynes’s. Old Pick [Governor Francis Pickens, husband to Lucy —who was less than half his age] has a better wig. [S]aw Miles begging in dumb show for three violets she had in her breastpin. She [Lucy Holcombe] is silly and affected, looking love into the eyes of the men at every glance. . . . And so we fool on into the black cloud ahead of us.”

Lovely Lucy Holcombe Pickens was the Confederacy’s “Helen of Troy,” the face that inspired battalions and bewitched brave men. Privileged by birth, fair of face and figure, coy by nature, and born to intrigue, fiery Lucy Holcombe arced across the Carolina sky like the Parrott shells lobbed into Charleston by Union batteries.

How did the aged, twice-widowed, dour Governor Francis Pickens of Toogoodoo in St. Paul’s Parish wind up with the Confederacy’s Belle of the Ball?

Woodstock plantation in La Grange, Tennessee, was the site of Lucy’s nativity, but her hard-gambling papa lost the deed by betting on a horse race in 1850. Lucy and her sister were away in boarding school when a letter came telling them that they were moving to Marshall, Texas.

Marshall, the up-and-coming cotton capital of the West, was a boom town for adventurers as well. Louis Wigfall, a former fiery congressman from Edgefield, had moved to Marshall after assisting Preston Brooks in caning nearly to death Massachusetts senator Charles Sumner in 1856.

It’s fair to say that aristocratic Carolinians such as Mary Boykin Chesnut viewed the Holcombes as nouveau riche and opportunist. However, the prevailing atmosphere in Charleston on the eve of war was decidedly frolicsome and full of intrigue.

A week prior to the firing upon Fort Sumter the air around Charleston was charged with electricity. Young gallants of both sexes made amorous connections that sparked.

The annual ball of the St. Cecilia was one of the social events that Mary Chesnut attended on April 4. She recorded in her diary: “What are your feelings to those of the poor old fellows leaning against the walls, watching their beautiful young wives waltzing as if they could never tire, in every man’s arms in the room. Watch their haggard, weary faces! The old husbands have not exactly a bed of roses; their wives twirling in the arms of young men, they hugging only the wall!”

That Sunday Chesnut attended St. Philip’s with her teenaged sons and this was her diary entry: “At church I had to move my pew. The lovely Laura was too much for my boys. They all made eyes at her, and nudged each other, and she gave them glance for glance. Wink, blink and snigger as they would, she liked it.”

The gaiety was intoxicating for our state’s first lady, Lucy Holcombe Pickens, as well.

In a city known for beauty Charleston men succumbed quickly to the charms of the alluring Lucy. Her auburn hair and soft blue eyes captivated every male to whom she awarded a glance. Women were less enthralled, and some openly gossiped about Lucy’s romantic past.

There was the story of her engagement to the dashing Colonel William Logan Crittendon of Kentucky - the boy rogue who was last, or “goat,” of his West Point Class of 1845 and hero of the Mexican War.

Lucy would have married Crittendon in a heartbeat except for the fact that he became one of General Narcisco Lopez’ filibusterers in an attempt to overthrow Spanish rule in Cuba. When Crittenden was captured and executed, Lucy, age 19, went into mourning at her father’s grand cotton plantation at Marshall, Texas. Lucy wrote a novel about Crittendon and his swashbuckling adventurers which she titled The Free Flag of Cuba (1855).

Another tongue wagged that Lucy’s father took his daughters every year to The Greenbrier at White Sulphur Springs and paraded them every evening in front of the eligible bachelors who frequented the resort.

It was even whispered further that twice widowed Francis Pickens of South Carolina was so smitten by pretty Lucy, who was younger than his own daughters, that he penned ridiculous puppy-love letters to her two and three times a week.

Lucy seldom responded to his advances until she learned that Pickens was to be made Minister to Russia by President Polk. When Pickens was about to depart for St. Petersburg, Russia, Lucy Holcombe accepted his proposal and hastily married her aged suitor.

While in Russia, Lucy became the darling of Czar Alexander II. He covered her in jewels and rich furs, and some at court spread the tale that the Czar was actually the father of Lucy’s only child, the lovely Francis Eugenia Olga Neva Pickens. The infant was forever called Douschka, or “little darling” in Russian. It was the Czar’s pet name for the child. John Edmunds, the biographer of Francis Pickens, does not believe that the Czar fathered the child. Douschka was a legendary beauty around Edgefield and was the “Queen of Hampton’s Red Shirts” in 1876.

The years in Russia nearly bankrupted Francis Pickens as his beautiful wife shopped in all the great fashion houses of Europe. Pickens’ return to SC and his run for governor was made when his personal fortune was collapsing.

Let it be said that Lucy Holcombe Pickens sold many of her Russian jewels to finance a regiment that bore the name Holcombe Legion in her honor. There was romantic fire mingling with patriotic passion in the early days of the Confederacy.

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant. You can visit his Web site at www.historyslostmoments.com).

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Known as the "Queen of the Confederacy," Lucy Holcombe Pickens was born in LaGrange in Fayette County, the daughter of Beverly Lafayette Holcombe and Eugenia Dorothea Hunt. At some time between 1848 and 1850, the family left their home, "Westover of Woodstock," and moved to Marshall, Texas.

At age thirteen Lucy and her sister were sent to a Quaker school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She became interested in Cuban affairs and at age seventeen published a book, The Free Flag of Cuba. After her fiancé was killed while fighting for the Cubans, she involved herself in social activities. A charming beauty, she captivated many admirers.

In 1856, while on an annual summer visit to White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, Lucy Holcombe met Colonel Francis Wilkinson Pickens, a lawyer and secessionist, twice widowed and twice her age. She reportedly promised to marry him if he would accept a diplomatic post and take her abroad. In 1858 he accepted an appointment as ambassador to Russia, and they were married at her home, "Wyelucing," in Texas.

With her knowledge of French and Russian and her elaborate wardrobe, Pickens was soon a court favorite in St. Petersburg. Czar Alexander II and Czarina Maria showered the couple with gifts. The Czarina moved Lucy Pickens into the imperial palace and called in the royal physicians for the birth of her daughter Eugenia Frances Dorothea in 1859. The royal couple became the baby's godparents, and the Czarina christened her with the additional names of Olga Neva and the term of endearment "Douschka" (Little Darling) by which she was always known.

As the South moved toward secession, Colonel Pickens decided to return home and lend his support to the Southern cause. Shortly after his return, he was elected governor of South Carolina. Lucy Pickens joined the Confederate effort, selling jewels given to her by the Russian royal family in order to outfit the "Lucy Holcombe Legion." She became known as "Lady Lucy," and her likeness appeared on three issues of Confederate currency--the one-dollar bills of 1862 and 1863 and the one-hundred-dollar bill of 1864--making her one of the few women whose likeness has appeared on a national currency, a tribute usually reserved for heads of state. That is one of the reasons she has been called the "uncrowned queen of the Confederacy."

Francis Pickens died in 1869 at his home, "Edgewood" in Edgefield, South Carolina. Lucy Pickens continued to live there, while managing three plantations with the help of her brother John, until her death in 1899.

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Lucy Holcombe Pickens was born on June 11, 1832 on the Holcombe cotton plantation named “Woodstock,” near LaGrange, Tennessee, not far from where the Battle of Shiloh would be fought 30 years later. She was the second of five children. Both of her parents were well-educated.

The Holcombes sent their two daughters, Anna and Lucy, to study at a Quaker school, Moravian Seminary for Women, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. But Lucy's father lost everything when he staked his farm and his money on a horse race. In 1850, the family moved to Marshall, Texas.

Lucy was an intelligent and ambitious young woman, but she didn’t challenge the rules of the patriarchal society in which she lived, and was totally devoted to her parents and siblings. She developed a love of writing and a desire to make a contribution to society, instilled in part by her mother.

Lucy thrived in the social world of the Southern belle. She was a notorious flirt and had many suitors. Her fiancé, Colonel William Crittenden, was executed in Cuba in 1851 in an attempt to free the island from Spanish control. In reaction to this loss, she wrote a novel, The Free Flag of Cuba or the Martyrdom of Lopez, which was published in 1855.

In 1856, while on a vacation to White Sulphur Springs in Virginia, Lucy met Francis Pickens, a member of the famous South Carolina political family. He was a lawyer and a secessionist, twice widowed and twice her age. He was older than her own parents and by all accounts a bit stuffy. He was also the owner of 500 slaves and plantations in Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

In 1858, Francis Pickens accepted an appointment by President James Buchanan as ambassador to Russia. He sent Lucy an ultimatum to the effect that if she did not marry him and come along, she wouldn’t hear from him again.

She had always wanted to marry someone who could take her abroad. Knowing this man might be her ticket to the social prominence she desired, Lucy accepted his proposal. The two were quickly married at Lucy’s home in Texas, against the strong objections of her family.

Spending Pickens’s money freely, Lucy dazzled the royals. With her knowledge of French and Russian and her elaborate wardrobe, she was soon a favorite of the court in St. Petersburg. Czar Alexander II and Czarina Maria showered the couple with gifts.

While in Russia, Lucy became pregnant with her only child. The Czarina moved Lucy into the imperial palace and called in the royal physicians for the birth of her daughter, Eugenia Frances, on March 14, 1859. The Czarina christened the baby “Douschka,” Russian for “little darling,” and she was always known by that name.

The Czar and Czarina served as godparents at her baptism and bestowed many gifts on her. The Czar wrote to Douschka every year until his death, and his son took over the duties until Douschka’s death.

In 1860, as South Carolina moved toward secession, Francis Pickens decided to return home. He arrived just in time to enter the race for governor. He was elected and assumed office on December 16, 1860. Four days later, the state convention voted to leave the Union.

Pickens ordered the Morris Island battery to fire on the USS Star of the West as the ship delivered supplies to Union forces at Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, the first military engagement of the Civil War.

Lucy became the center of attention in South Carolina, giving grand parties. In a show of patriotism to the Southern cause, she sold some of the jewelry she had received from the Russian royal family to buy uniforms for South Carolina soldiers.

Grateful for the gesture, the commander of the Citadel raised a force of infantry, artillery, and cavalry, and named it the “Holcombe Legion.” Its flag was a blue banner with the South Carolina white palmetto tree on it and a star of Texas, Lucy's home.

She became known as “Lady Lucy,” and her likeness appeared on Confederate currency —the $1 bills of 1862 and 1863 and the $100 bill of 1864. She was the only woman to appear on Confederate currency. Journalists called her the “Queen of the Confederacy.”

She is also credited with playing a role in the Confederate government as an advisor and confidante to her husband. Although the war wreaked havoc on the South and poverty abounded, Lucy managed to keep the Pickens’ home, “Edgewood,” at the center of social circles.

In January 1869, Francis Pickens died at Edgewood. Lucy continued to live there, and managed three plantations with the help of her brother John. Though only 36 when her husband died, Lucy never remarried.

She worked to have George Washington’s home declared a historical monument, serving as Vice-Regent for South Carolina in the Mount Vernon Ladies Association from 1876 until her death.

Lucy’s daughter Douschka died at the age of 35 in 1894, and Lucy died five years later on August 8, 1899 leaving her house to Douschka’s two daughters. She was buried next to her husband and daughter in the Edgefield cemetery.

A bust of Lucy Holcombe Pickens, created while she was in Russia, is on display at the South Carolinian Library at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

Copyright © 2007 Maggie MacLean

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Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens (June 11, 1832 – August 8, 1899) was a 19th century American socialite, known during and after her lifetime as the "Queen of the Confederacy". She was described as "beautiful, brilliant, and captivating" by her male contemporaries and this perception of her helped shape the stereotype of the "Southern belle".

Lucy Holcombe as a Southern Belle c.1856

She was born to Beverly LaFayette Holcombe and Eugenia Dorothea Hunt Holcombe at the family plantation near La Grange, Tennessee. She attended La Grange Female Academy before switching to a finishing school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with older sister Anna Eliza, from 1846–1848. In 1848, the Holcombes moved to Marshall, Texas and lived in the Capitol Hotel while waiting for the construction of their plantation Wyalucing.

In the summer of 1857, she met Colonel Francis Wilkinson Pickens of South Carolina, who proceeded to court her with little success. In January 1858, after his defeat for a Senate seat, he accepted an appointment as the U.S. ambassador to Russia. Suddenly she accepted his previous proposal and they were married at Wyalucing on April 26, 1858.

Lucy became a favorite at the Russian court of Alexander II. She and her husband were befriended by Alexander and his wife Maria Alexandrovna. Lucy gave birth to a daughter, Francis Eugenia Olga Neva, who was also known as Douschka Pickens in the Winter Palace. The tsar and tsaritsa became Godparents of the Pickens' daughter and the tsar gave her the nickname of Douschka, meaning Darling in Russian.

A longing for South Carolina and its increasing movement toward secession caused the Pickens family to return home in August 1860. Francis W. Pickens was elected governor by the General Assembly of South Carolina on December 17, only three days before the State seceded from the Union. Lucy was an advocate of the secession of the U.S. Southern states, and was the only woman to be depicted on the currency of the Confederate States of America (three issues of the $100 CSA bill and one issue of the $1 CSA bill, which were printed in Columbia, South Carolina). She was also featured on one issue of $1,000 CSA loan certificates. In April 1861, Lucy witnessed the shelling of Fort Sumter from a rooftop in Charleston, South Carolina. In November 1861, a unit of the Confederate Army was formed and called the Holcombe Legion in her honor and she designed and sewed its flag. It is claimed that she financed its equipment by the sale of some of the jewels given to her by the tsar.

[edit] References

   * Edmunds, John B., Jr., "Francis W. Pickens and the Politics of Destruction", U of North Carolina Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8078-1699-x

   * Lewis, Elizabeth W., "Queen of the Confederacy: The Innocent Deceits of Lucy Holcombe Pickens", U of North Texas Press, 2002. ISBN 1-57441-146-2

   * Stone, DeWitt B., Jr., "Wandering to Glory: Confederate Veterans Remember Evans' Brigade", U of South Carolina Press, 2002. ISBN 1-57003-433-8 

https://myrahmcilvain.com/tag/plantation/ "Texas Marriages, 1837-1973," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/V2M7-DK8 : 5 December 2014), Francis W. Pickens and Lucy P. Holcomb, 26 Apr 1858; citing , Harrison, Texas, , reference ; FHL microfilm 1,403,333.