Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Emilie Todd Helm

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Wife of Confederate General Benjamin Hardin Helm Half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, Emilie Todd Helm first came to the White House in December 1863, after the death of her thirty-two-year-old husband, Confederate General Benjamin Hardin Helm, in the Battle of Chickamauga. (Most of the children of their father’s second marriage sided with the Confederacy.) Emilie Todd was born November 11, 1836, daughter of Robert Smith Todd and Elizabeth Humpreys Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. She was born into a wealthy family with exceptional advantages in both education and culture, which was afforded to few ladies of her time. Emilie was 18 years younger than her half-sister Mary Todd Lincoln. Robert Todd was a prominent Lexington banker and patriarch of a growing…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Frances Seward

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Wife of Secretary of State William Seward Frances Adeline Miller was born in 1805, the daughter of Judge Elijah Miller and Hannah Foote Miller, and lived most of her life in Auburn, New York. Raised as a Quaker, her father taught her slavery was wrong. This belief became stronger as she grew up. Frances studied at the Troy Female Seminary, which was founded by Emma Willard in 1814 in Vermont in an attempt to further the education of women. She later relocated the school to Troy, New York. Prior to its founding women were generally excluded from attending college. William Henry Seward was born in Florida, New York, May 16, 1801. He was the son of Samuel Sweezy Seward and…

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Famous Spies, Women in the American Revolution

Lydia Darragh

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Heroine of the Battle of Whitemarsh Lydia Darragh was a Quaker woman who crossed enemy lines during the British occupation of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mission was to pass information to General George Washington and the Continental Army, warning them of an impending British attack. Lydia Barrington was born in 1729 in Dublin, Ireland. On November 2, 1753, she married the family tutor, William Darragh, the son of a clergyman. After a few years of marriage, they immigrated to the American colonies. Members of the Quaker faith, the couple settled in Philadelphia where there was a large Quaker community. William worked as a tutor, and Lydia was a midwife. She gave birth to and raised five children: Charles, Ann, John, William,…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Natalie Benjamin

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Wife of Confederate Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin Judah Benjamin took a job teaching English to Natalie St. Martin, daughter of a prominent Creole family, so that he could learn French from her. And a love affair developed between the two. They were married in 1833 and lived on a sugar plantation and an elegant townhouse on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Judah Philip Benjamin was born a British subject on St. Thomas, British West Indies, Aug. 11, 1811. His parents, Philip Benjamin and Rebecca de Mendes Benjamin, were Sephardic Jews who had immigrated to the West Indies from Spain. In 1813 in response to a letter written by Rebecca’s uncle, Jacob Levy, who lived there and spoke of…

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Famous Wives

Deborah Putnam

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General Israel Putnam Wife of Revolutionary War General Israel Putnam Israel Putnam was born on January 7, 1718 in Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, to Joseph Putnam and Elizabeth Porter Putnam. He was not interested in education but loved being physically active and adventurous, and had a reputation for courage and competitiveness as a young man. At age 20, Putnam married Hannah Pope, and shortly thereafter the couple moved to Connecticut, where he and his brother-in-law together bought 514 acres. Within two years he was able to buy out his partner and thus became sole owner in what was called the Putnam Farm, on the top of the high hill between the villages of Pomfret and Brooklyn. Although Massachusetts born, the…

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Civil War Women, Famous Wives

Mary Stanton

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Wife of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton Edwin McMasters Stanton was born December 19, 1814, in Steubenville, Ohio, the eldest of the four children of David and Lucy Norman Stanton. He had six brothers and sisters. Beginning in childhood, Edwin suffered from asthma throughout his life. His father was a Quaker physician, and after he died in 1827, Edwin worked in a book store for five years thereafter to help support his family. Image: Union Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton After leaving Kenyon College in 1833, Stanton studied law under a judge. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1835, but had to wait several months until his 21st birthday before he could begin to practice. He developed…

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Women in the American Revolution

Mary Byrd

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Loyalist Woman of Westover Plantation in Virginia Mary Willing Byrd Portrait John Wollaston, 1758 This portrait was painted in Philadelphia three years before she met and married the older William Byrd III (1728–1777). Mary Willing was born on September 10, 1740, the daughter of Charles and Anne (Shippen) Willing. Her father was the mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1748 to 1754, and her great-grandfather, Edward Shippen, was the second mayor of Philadelphia from 1701 to 1703. Benjamin Franklin was one of Mary’s godfathers, and when she was a child, he sent her books from Europe. William Byrd III was born September 6, 1729, the son of Colonel William Byrd II and his second wife, Maria Taylor. He was raised at…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Luisa Kilpatrick

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Wife of Union General Judson Kilpatrick Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso, a wealthy Chilean woman, met and married Kilpatrick while he was serving as U.S. Minister to Chile (1865-1870). The couple had two daughters, one of whom was the grandmother of artist and designer Gloria Vanderbilt. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was born January 14, 1836, on the family farm near Deckertown, New Jersey. He was the fourth child of Colonel Simon Kilpatrick and Julia Wickham. Like many rural children of the era, Kilpatrick quit school after the primary grades. Image: Judson and Luisa Kilpatrick It took him a while but Kilpatrick managed to gain admittance to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he dropped his first name. Graduating 17th…

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Famous Wives

Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

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Wife of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton Elizabeth Schuyler (Eliza Hamilton, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton) was born on August 9, 1757, in Albany, New York. She was the second daughter of Revoluntionary War General Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, one of the richest and most political families in the state of New York. Schooled at home, Elizabeth grew up mostly at her father’s grand new mansion in Albany and at their summer home at Old Saratoga. Alexander Hamilton was born a British subject on the island of Nevis, West Indies, on January 11, 1755. His mother, Rachel Fawcett Levine, was jailed in 1745 for “adultery and whoring with everyone.” Her husband’s divorce petition in 1759 declared she was the mother…

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Civil War Women, Generals Wives

Alice Kirk Grierson

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Wife of Union General Benjamin Grierson Alice Kirk Grierson left a remarkably frank correspondence describing the problems of raising a family in the frontier army. Her letters were published by Shirley Anne Leckie as The Colonel’s Lady on the Western Frontier: The Correspondence of Alice Kirk Grierson (1989). Alice Kirk, daughter of John and Susan (Bingham) Kirk, was born at Youngstown, Ohio, on May 3, 1828, the oldest of thirteen children. Alice’s father, a well-to-do merchant and real estate developer, was an abolitionist who participated in the Underground Railroad. Alice had the advantage of a good education at a female academy, and taught school in her hometown, as well as in Indiana and Illinois. Benjamin Henry Grierson was born on…

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