Here is a review of _Lost Heroine of the Confederacy_, written by
S. Kittrell Rushing, and reprinted with his permission.
This and other documents of interest to Civil War historians will
soon be available in the H-CivWar computer archive. Details about the
archive are forthcoming -- meanwhile, anyone with documents for deposit
may contact me.
Robert Alan Harris
bb05196@bingvmb.bitnet
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Date: Mon, 20 Dec 93 09:13:25 EST
From: Kit Rushing <KRUSHING@UTCVM>
Subject: Belle Review
To: Robert Alan Harris <bb05196@bingvmb>
Lost Heroine of the Confederacy review - page 1
A Lost Heroine of the Confederacy: The Diaries and Letters of Belle Edmondson
William and Loretta Galbraith, editors
Center for the Study of Southern Culture series
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990 - 239 pp. w/illustrations,
map, and index. Hardback. $22.00
ISBN 0-87805-462-6
Sometimes in life our value is appreciated, and we can claim true,
affectionate friendsQmeet with lofty generous souls, whose very beings
thrill with instinctive love for the whole human race, but mostly we are
not understood until the flowers and shadowy, green grass bloom and fade
above us and we lie mute below. Such is my life, how long it must be, no
matter (111).
Belle Edmondson forecast her place in history with her Sunday, June 10,
1864, diary entry. Belle Edmondson would be only another name on a Memphis
Elmwood Cemetery gravestone had it not been for the discovery by William and
Loretta Galbraith of Belle's diary during their efforts to document the
history of Mississippi's Waverly plantation. What the Galbraiths discovered
was the poignant first-person account of one woman's sacrifice and dedication
to the Confederacy.
Edmondson escaped arrest by Union authorities for spying by fleeing to
Waverly Plantation. The diary she kept during her Waverly months was the key
which the Galbraiths used to unlock and recover a forgotten part of the story
of the war between the states. This story is personal and the diary reveals a
mid-nineteenth century world and culture that people of this last decade of
the twentieth century can only imagine.
Miss Edmondson lived on a farm then several miles outside the Memphis
city limits now the property of the Memphis International Airport. She was a
Confederate spy or, as spies were called then, "scout." She made frequent
trips from her farm into the city to acquire contraband she smuggled to her
farm. The farm, located between the Union and Confederate lines, was an ideal
transfer point for contraband. Belle made the most of it. With the inside of
her wide skirt loaded with sundries, uniform parts, and medical supplies, she
passed through the Union lines during the day. At night the contraband was
delivered to the rebels who came across from the Confederate lines.
Her words, her descriptions, her memories of a southern woman's world
during the war reveal what life was then and demonstrate how much we've
changed in the century and a quarter since Belle kept her diary.
I wish the editors had given more information about Bell's life after
the war. Early in the book the authors observe that Belle was unknown to
history at least partially because of the influence of Jefferson Davis. Davis
apparently believed strongly that nothing should be revealed of the spy-corps
or "scouts." He held to the view long after the war. Davis was especially of
the opinion, apparently, that the roles women played as scouts should remain
an untold story.
A caption on the Jefferson Davis photograph included in the book
indicates Davis gave his likeness to "Miss Belle" in May of 1870, two years
before her death. Few details were given about the friendship between Davis
and Edmondson. Frankly, I'd like to know more.
Perhaps, the editors believed this particular book should end with the
end of the diary and letters. The last entry is dated August 14, 1864. Belle
died eight years later. The authors share with us virtually nothing of those
eight years. That's a weakness. Certainly the weakness is not fatal. It's
strongly offset by the strength of the work's first person, genuinely personal
account of one young woman's heroic efforts to support the cause of the
Confederacy and to survive the social and cultural upheaval created by
revolution.
S. KITTRELL RUSHING
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga