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

CHAPTER THREE “If she wears blue stockings she contrives to let her petticoats hide them.” Lucy Petway Holcombe (1846–1849)

18 If she wears blue stockings E arly on a February morning in 1846, Lucy and Anna started their journey to the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.1 Shivering from cold and excitement , they’d be urged to hurry, as their father waited with the carriage . Off to the side, Mr. S. H. Mathews, entrusted as guardian to the Holcombe sisters on this voyage east, watched as the girls said their good-byes. A dry goods merchant in La Grange, Mathews traveled at least twice a year to Philadelphia for supplies including bolts of material and pattern pieces for the ladies. The fusty, aging bachelor would see that his “dear girls” received his undivided attention, particularly Miss Anna. Hours later the travelers arrived at Memphis and boarded a paddle wheel steamboat, a relatively safe transport except for danger from exploding boilers. The novelty of the large, ornately decorated, threeCHAPTER THREE 1846–1849 “If she wears blue stockings she contrives to let her petticoats hide them.” Lucy Petway Holcombe 19 1846–1849 decked boat would occupy the girls’ attention as well as the ever-changing river scenery. They steamed up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the port at Wheeling in western Virginia and continued their journey by train and stage across the lush farmlands of Pennsylvania. Mr. Mathews told them of the sights they’d see in the big cities of the East and Lucy finally stopped her pouting and sniveling.2 Three weeks after leaving La Grange, Tennessee, the tired travelers arrived in Philadelphia . The Holcombes had relatives in this city, in particular, Cousin Willie, a medical student at Philadelphia’s Homeopathic Hospital. The hospital building was tucked among brick houses faced by cobblestone streets. Not far away stood Independence Hall and the newly built Carpenter’s Hall. These sights and the numerous tall churches with needle-sharp spires would be new to the girls. Lucy, with her fondness for fashion, probably noticed the elegantly dressed women swishing by in bell-shaped skirts stiffened with layers of crinoline and hoops, and the top-hatted gentlemen in embroidered waistcoats and tight doeskin trousers. The following Tuesday they boarded the Mail Stage for the fiftymile ride to Bethlehem. The twelve-passenger stagecoach left promptly at 4:00 A.M. from Mr. George Yohe’s Hotel, at the sign of General Washington, No. 6 North 4th Street.3 The four-horse team raced across the countryside past snow-covered haystacks and columns of frozen corn stalks resembling scarecrows in the dimming light. At every ten to twenty mile way station, passengers eased their cold, cramped bodies , while a fresh team pawed the frozen ground, anxious to be off. As shades of night fell, the thrilling notes of the post horn announced their arrival at the Sun Hotel in Bethlehem.4 Sleepy, bewildered and already homesick, Lucy and Anna must have wept with gratitude when Mrs. Brock, the wife of the German innkeeper, gathered them in a motherly embrace.5 Round, rosycheeked Mrs. Brock, speaking in the unfamiliar sing-song German accent, fussed like a mother hen over the little Southerners. A fire crackled in the hearth of the best chamber with its high, poster bed covered in quilts of red and green patterns. From the small, thirdstory windows, the girls could see the sleepy town dominated by the 20 If she wears blue stockings stone church, the Bell House and a cluster of large, four-story stone and brick buildings, the houses of the Sisters and the Brethren. These, Mrs. Brock informed them, were also used as classrooms and dormitories for the Seminary. Reverend Henry Shultz presided as principal of the Seminary in 1846. Herr Shultz and his good wife were responsible for the education of the female boarders and their emotional, moral, and religious well being. As surrogate parents, they counseled the students and administered discipline when necessary. Forewarned of Lucy’s tendency to homesickness, Herr Shultz assigned her a room with her sister in the older girls’ dormitory.6 Here, in the red brick building formerly used as the Brethren’s House, they shared sleeping accommodations with twenty-two girls ranging in age from sixteen to eighteen . The 1846 roster listed 100 students, some of whom came from England, the West Indies, South America, and Canada, with the remainder from twenty-four of the United States.7 The required tuition for the Bethlehem Seminary in...