Home of Lucy Holcombe Pickens

Pickens became the only woman on Confederate paper, and the household behind that fame ran on enslaved labor. She and her husband took two enslaved servants, Lucinda and Tom, to the Russian court, where Lucinda helped raise their daughter and was taught to read and write English. The 1860 census counted 276 enslaved people held by Francis Pickens. Lucy appeared on four Confederate banknote issues and sewed the flag of the Holcombe Legion, named for her. After emancipation Tom went north, while Lucinda stayed with the family.

What the plaque says

Home of Lucy Holcombe Pickens The "Queen of the Confederacy" was born here January 11, 1832. In 1858 she married Francis Pickens, United States Ambassador to Russia and later Governor of South Carolina. During the Civil War, Lucy was the only woman honored by having her portrait used on Confederate money. Union Army officers were quartered here during occupation from 1862 - 1865.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rust College — 22 mi
  The first historically Black college founded in Mississippi, started in 1866 in a Holly Springs church by a formerly enslaved minister and a white Methodist clergyman.
• Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum — 22 mi
  The house in Holly Springs where Ida B. Wells was born into slavery in 1862, now a museum of African American history, art and culture.

More markers nearby

• Grierson's Raid — steps away
• Tent City — 13 mi
• Willie Mitchell — 15 mi
• Benton County Courthouse — 15 mi