Person:Lucy Holcombe (1)

http://www.vision.net.au/~pwood/Sept99.htm

Lucy Petway Holcombe.

The 3rd. wife of South Carolina’s governor, Francis Wilkinson Pickens, and the only woman shown on C. S. A. currency (aside from the mythological types). Gov. Francis Pickens, who had descended from a long line of influential pioneers and had been a U.S. Congressman from 1834 - 1843, was appointed Minister to Russia from 1858 -60 just after his marriage to Lucy Petway Holcombe. Lucy was apparently born in Texas after her mother, Beverly Lafayette Holcombe, had emigrated from Virginia. Lucy was very influential in Picken’s acceptance of the two year St. Petersburg mission, and she had the honour of meeting and entertaining the Czar during that time. On Pickens’ return to the U.S. he foresaw the coming crisis and resigned from his U.S. post and was nominated for the position of Governor of South Carolina by a group of conservative secessionists.

Pickens was elected and, as Governor, he was responsible for demanding the surrender of Fort Sumter from Major Robert Anderson of the Union Army - a demand which was refused - and this action lead to the shots that were fired at 4.30 a.m. on April 12th. 1861 that started the War between the States. Mrs. Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens designed, made and presented a battle flag to South Carolina’s Holcombe’s Legion - which was originally intended as a South Carolina home guard unit - and which had been named in her honour by her husband. At the start of hostilities Holcombe’s Legion was expanded to have 5 Cavalry companies and 10 Infantry companies and most of these companies saw action. The Legion fought in 16 of the most violent major battles of the war as it tried to ‘hold the line’ and it had a total of only 175 men left when it surrendered, with General Robert E. Lee, at Appomatox Courthouse, on April 9th. 1865.

Francis Pickens died on January 25th. 1869 and is buried at Edgefield Cemetery in South Carolina.

Whilst Mrs. Pickens became the ‘socialite toast of the Southern ladies’ during the early days of the Confederacy, and it is recorded that she did have a child, little information is readily available, at this time, of her fate after the war.

Mrs. Lucy Holcombe Pickens featured on C.S.A. $1.00 notes in 1862 on two emissions, and also on $100.00 notes in 1862, 1863 and 1864 with George Wythe Randolph.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Lucy Pickens.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Lucy Pickens, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.