Book Review: Lady Rebels of Civil War Missouri

Lady Rebels of Civil War Missouri

By Larry Wood

History Press, 2022, $23.99 paperback

Reviewed by Meg Groeling

“Misadventures and ordeals,” is an accurate description of Larry Wood’s latest offering, Lady Rebels of Civil War Missouri. This book is a follow-up to Woods’ 2016 Bushwhacker Belles: The Sisters, Wives, and Girlfriends of the Missouri Guerillas. His experiences researching the Union military justice system in St. Louis introduced him to many more bushwhacking, rebellious women than could be included in the first book—hence Lady Rebels.

Former public school teacher Larry Wood has a trained eye for finding naughty or mean girls, especially those who supported the Southern Confederacy during the Civil War. War is often considered to be men’s business, but the fighting’s geographic circumstances lured women into the fray. This was particularly true in a state such as Missouri, which did not secede but was home to many who supported the Confederate cause. Fighting might occur in one’s backyard or involve neighbors and lifelong friends. The army—Union or Confederate—was never far away. It was considered a family necessity to feed and care for the Confederate irregulars hiding in the bush or living in the barn. Other women, usually older and more independent, served the South as spies, smugglers, and mail carriers. The act of carrying mail across state lines was especially egregious as the United States had banned such exchanges between Northerners and Southerners in August 1861. After that date, even possessing a note of greetings was a felony. Prisoner-of-war mail was only exchanged at designated points and under a flag of truce. If a southerner was caught with a letter, the carrier was arrested. At that point, gender was not an issue. If found guilty, the person might be required to sign an oath of allegiance to the Union, be imprisoned, or sometimes banished to another state or a state within the Confederacy. The women commented upon in Lady Rebels of Civil War Missouri were all arrested at some point by Union authorities in Missouri.

The array of women profiled by author Wood is astounding. They range from the mother of one of William Quantrill’s guerillas (Jane Haller) to teenagers as young as seventeen (Emily Weaver). They were widows, wives, sisters, and fiancées of Confederate soldiers. Some were exceedingly wealthy and well-born; others were dirt-poor; there were at least three teachers and a couple of professional musicians. Pauline White, a nineteen-year-old daughter of a doctor, was initially arrested for “hurrahing for the Confederacy.” When she did it again a year later, she, her three sisters, and her father were rearrested. Loyalty oaths were signed, but Miss White was arrested again, this time for carrying a letter (corresponding with the enemy). Her trial was held on June 28, 1864, and she was sentenced to “hard labor” at the Missouri State Penitentiary. Even after the war was over, Pauline remained active socially and politically.

One of the “lady schoolteachers” that seemed to plague the Union army was Mary Susan F. Cleveland. At least four teachers are given chapters in Wood’s book, with Miss Cleveland’s being the longest. She lived in Missouri with her family. Two of her brothers fought for the Confederacy, and one stayed home with her now-widowed mother. In early 1863 Miss Cleveland moved away from her family to take a teaching job in another county. She was in her thirties but had never been away from home before. She made friends and often wrote to her family, including her brothers in the Confederate army. However, when implicated in a plot to send letters to southern soldiers without the benefit of a flag-of-truce, she promptly denied that the letters confiscated were hers. She also denied authorship of several other letters found at her mother’s home. Her refusal to admit guilt caused her to be “banished” to the interior of the Confederacy. She finally returned to her home and continued to teach until 1898, when she died of cancer.

Larry Wood gives color and character to his chosen “lady rebels,” following their lives as far as possible. Readers learn the fates of many—returned home, married, left the South, went west, etc. Some of these ladies simply drop from the records. All are treated with the respect and dignity their heartfelt patriotism deserves, even if they were on the wrong side of the Civil War. The author makes it clear that many women supported immediate family, good friends, and love interests on a personal basis rather than a political one. Humanizing the Confederacy is more necessary than ever, and Lady Rebels of the Civil War is an excellent, well-written way to get to know a few southerners of the female persuasion.

Lady Rebels of Civil War Missouri

By Larry Wood

History Press, 2022, $23.99 paperback

Reviewed by Meg Groeling