Lincoln’s Loyal Lady

About the Book

Lincoln’s Loyal Lady: Anna Ella Carroll, a Brief The story of Abraham Lincoln’s female “kitchen cabinet” member―a formidable, trailblazing woman―is a tale some don’t want to be told. Anna Ella Carroll broke all the rules for a woman of the Civil War era. A politician, pamphleteer, adviser to President Lincoln, and military secret agent, Carroll operated in the highest political and government circles for more than a quarter of a century. Washington, DC, the White House, May 12, 1862 “I will tell you what Mr. Lincoln said of you last night. Miss Anna Ella Carroll is the head of the Carroll race, and when the history of this war is written, she will stand a good bit taller than ever old Charles [Carroll] did.” —Rep. William Mitchell (R-Ind.), 13 May 1862 The Hon. Benjamin F. Wade, former chairman, Committee on the Conduct of the War, May 10, 1876, House Misc. Doc. 58, May 18, 1878, p. 24: “In the very last interview with Mr. Stanton, just before his death, he referred to your [Carroll’s] services . . . in the strongest terms he could express, and . . . stated that if his life should be spared, he would discharge the great duty of seeing your services to the country properly recognized and rewarded. Your claim is righteous and just, if ever there was one and, for the honor of my country, I trust and hope that you will be suitably rewarded, and so declared before the world.” —Lucinda B. Chandler, “Anna Ella Carroll: The Great Unrecognized Military Genius of the War of Rebellion,” Godey’s Magazine, 1896 “Can we afford to leave in the archive of our history only this record of ‘ineffable’ meanness and ingratitude?” “Kay Larson’s insightful account of the contributions made to our nation by Anna Ella Carroll redresses a major inequity in the historiography of nineteenth-century America.” —Col. James S. Wheeler, professor of history retired, US Military Academy, West Point, New York

About the Author

In Civil War author C. Kay Larson´s new work of fiction, South Under a Prairie Sky: The Journal of Nell Churchill, U.S. Army Nurse & Scout, our teenaged heroine grows up in Monmouth, Illinois in the antebellum era. Nell begins her journal entries in 1856, as unrest breaks out in Kansas over the slavery issue. Her relatives flee the state and take refuge at the Churchill farm home, finally settling in Monmouth.

In real life, Nell Churchill was Larson’s great-great grandmother’s niece who was born in nearby Biggsville, ca. 1896. In this work she is moved back in time to the Civil War era and transformed into a composite fictional character. Monmouth was taken as Nell’s hometown as Larson’s aunt’s family, the Winebrights, resided there until the 1990s. George A. Winebright enlisted in the 83rd Illinois Infantry Regiment as a young German immigrant.

As an independent scholar and a Civil War buff since childhood, for the last twenty years, Larson has been researching and writing on women’s military history. Her previous publications have included articles on the women Civil War soldiers and Great Necessities: The Life, Times, and Writings of Anna Ella Carroll, 1815-1894, on Lincoln’s political/legal advisor. Her Civil War website is titled: “Springing to the Call: A Documenatary View of Women in the American Civil War.” The idea for Nell’s journal resulted from the posting of the website. Larson realized that if she made a composite character of the women described, she would have a very good storyline for a fictional work.

After graduating from high school, Nell attends Knox College in Galesburg, one of the first open to women. She becomes involved in the political questions of the day and follows the 1858 senate and the 1860 presidential campaigns in which Abraham Lincoln is a candidate. Her family also aids in the running of underground railroad stations for fugitive slaves. Family tradition has it that the Winebright farm was part of the network of stations in the area. Nell’s brother and cousins attend Monmouth College. Uncle Sylvester Churchill is the town doctor. He is taken after Larson’s ancestor who was a doctor in nearby Kirkwood in the 1870s.

Shortly after the Civil War breaks out in 1861, Nell’s brother and cousin enlist, as later do their brothers-in-law. Nell and Sylvester join medical teams in Tennessee after the battle of Shiloh. She becomes the protege of the legendary Sanitary Commission agent, Mary "Mother" Bickerdyke of Galesburg, Illinois, who is presented as herself in the book. In the fall of 1862, Nell is enrolled as an army scout by Gen. William S. Rosecrans, commander, Army of the Cumberland. She completes two important undercover missions into Confederate lines. Nell also finds romance, falling in love with a dashing Swedish-American cavalry officer from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Although a fictional account, virtually every incident in the book is fact-based. Featured town, county, college, and political events have been taken from private papers, local documents, histories, and newspapers. Nurse memoirs were culled for facts and poignant stories. Scout accounts are largely based on the exploits of Pauline Cushman, U.S. scout for the Army of the Cumberland, and Pinkerton Detective Hattie Lawton, as well as accounts of female scouts noted in the official war records. Larson affords a wide view of the Midwest, also incorporating scenes from her home state of Wisconsin, as well as Chicago and St. Louis. All sources are referenced in the Underbook that adds facts and commentary. The facts of the military deaths of two Larson relatives, David Salter and John Shook, are featured in the work. Wyatt Earp and John Wayne’s ancestors, all of whom lived in Monmouth, add color.

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SOUTH UNDER A PRAIRIE SKY

South Under a Prairie Sky is a captivating blend o