Queen of the Confederacy: The Innocent Deceits of Lucy Holcombe Pickens

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Marriage Mart of the South (1857)

62 The Marriage Mart of the South T he mountains of western Virginia provided a welcome summer retreat for residents of the fever-infested lowlands and coastal regions of the Southern States. Resort hotels and cottages were clustered in valleys ringed by numerous mountains and mineral springs. The grandest of these hotels, White Sulphur Springs, known as “The White,” ruled over lush green lawns against a backdrop of mountains criss-crossed by trails for riding and hiking. Romance flourished in this setting and The White enjoyed a reputation far and wide as the Marriage Mart of the South.1 Families made yearly pilgrimages to the springs in search of social distraction and health and, more importantly to some, to launch their daughters into society at one of the coveted balls in The White’s ballroom with its magnificent chandeliers. Many arrived in elegant carriages trailed by wagons loaded with servants and trunks of finery. Some took up residence in the cottages surrounding the main buildCHAPTER EIGHT 1857 The Marriage Mart of the South 63 1857 ing on streets with names of Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Georgia. Upon arrival of the Holcombe entourage in 1857, a tired Eugenia, distracted by the “oompah” of the German band’s afternoon lawn concert, found that all the rooms in the main building were occupied and all cottages taken. The manager accommodated them at the comfortable but less elegant Sweet Springs Hotel seventeen miles farther east, with the understanding that they would return to The White for the ball. Eugenia’s disappointment may have been alleviated when she read the next day’s notice in the 15 August 1857 Charleston Courier, “The sweet poetess, Miss Lucy Holcombe of Texas,—better known in the literary world by the Nom-de-plume of ‘H. M. Hardimann’—has arrived .” The reporter mentioned that Lucy was too much admired as a woman to be spoken of merely as a writer and added, “Her clear blue eyes, from which she looks out with such a calm inquiry, are by no means to be imposed upon; they detect at once the true meaning of the scene before her.”2 Once settled into the Sweet Springs Hotel, it was customary for guests to sit on the long gallery sipping lemonade and cooling themselves with palm fans. Acquaintances from earlier visits waved. Men, young and old, dressed in doeskin trousers, with white shirts billowing from embroidered vests, doffed their hats and stopped to pay their respects. Younger girls, new to the scene, watched with envy and practiced indifference. Etiquette would demand that pretty Anna Eliza, a married lady unaccompanied by her husband, be relegated to the ranks of the chaperones. This would define her role at the balls as one who could only take part as an observer from the sidelines. In the hotel room, Lucinda, the Holcombes servant, unpacked Lucy’s extensive wardrobe for husband-catching.3 She warmed the flat-irons, hung the filmy fichus and lace berthas, thin substitutes for modesty, and bent the skirt hoops into shape. The ten yards of embroidered silk and brocade fashioned into Lucy’s ball gown had to be smoothed and fussed over until each fold and loop hung correctly. The early training of a slave as a personal maid sometimes made for a 64 The Marriage Mart of the South bond of closeness to her mistress. Lucinda’s feelings are not known but it is quite possible that she held a certain pride for this mistress who was dependent on her services. The slow descent of the sun behind the mountains bathed the trees and grassy lawn in a golden glow. Young couples returned from walks and games of croquet to dress for dinner and for the dance that would follow. Most of the young ladies chose gowns of pink or blue for their entrance to the celebrated ballroom. But Lucy, as an older debutante of twenty-five, would not care to look or act the ingenue . With a high sense of drama, she glided across the ball room floor dressed in a golden-bronze gown that matched the color of her hair. Her entrance had its desired impact as noted by Lucy’s friend, Sallie Simkin who recounted Lucy’s meeting and courtship at the Springs. “Francis Wilkinson Pickens watched with speechless admiration as this vision in gold floated toward him, and the twice-widowed congressman from South Carolina...