it's all in the curls

Last night I FINALLY finished reading a book I started about this time last year. It's non-fiction, meaning it's one of those I pick up occasionally and read a page or two before putting it back on my dresser.  Called Heroines of Dixie, it's actually a compilation of arranged diary entries (thanks to Katharine M. Jones who researched, read, verified, and compiled it into a large volume!) from women who lived in the South during the time of the Civil War. It's quite interesting when you jump from a flighty, romantic 16-year-old writer to a mother whose husband and son is off at war and she's wrestling with reality on the home front. Yes, perspective is everything.

But one of my favorite entries is from the famous (infamous?) female spies, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, who was 44 and the mother of 4 girls when the war started.  After the first battle, the Federal Secret Service placed her under surveillance, (she was a Maryland native but had many Washington connections) and so she resorted to using "messengers".  General Milledge R. Bonham, a Confederate picket, caught one of her messengers, Betty Duvall, and here's his description of the encounter:

..."From the longest, most beautiful roll of hair I had ever seen she took a small packet, not larger than a silver dollar, sewed up in silk."

I have always heard stories of soldiers cutting the hoops out of women's skirts because they would hide money, messages, and even live chickens there in hopes of salvaging or espionaging something.  Evidently it never crossed their mind to check hair.  But after looking at photos from that time period, you almost wonder why that wasn't one of the first places they looked.

Mrs. Lincoln

Gives new meaning to the biblical instructions of not focusing on adorning your hair with your braids and gold, doesn't it?