Passionate About the Civil War

I have to credit Denise with this idea. I was casting about trying to decide what I wanted to blog about next when I learned to my surprise that my time travel romance, ERIN'S REBEL, had finished fourth in the Valley Forge Romance Writers' SHEILA contest. http://www.vfrw.com/contest.htm

I was surprised because after I entered this particular contest, I'd once again changed the opening of this novel. I've struggled with this--my first foray into the romance genre--since joining Romance Writers of America in 2002. I'd had my first novel, a young adult Civil War coming-of-age story, UNDER THE GUNS, published just before I'd joined the organization. But the path to publication of that book wasn't easy. Just before I'd received the acceptance letter, I'd been about to put that one back in the drawer.

Publishers don't seem to like books--at least in the romance and young adult variety--set during the Civil War. I've been told that they don't believe these books will sell. Well, I'm out to prove them wrong.

By entering as many contests as I could afford, I managed to gain a lot of expertise from judges--both published and unpublished--to guide my way as I wrote this new book. I also managed to come in third in a synopsis contest for ERIN'S REBEL, but after reading the judges comments, I decided the plot needed some changes. I've finished making those changes and also reworked the opening at least four times to find the ideal starting point. An opening has to be exciting enough to draw a reader--and editor--in, supplying just enough information so that the reader understands the situation without giving him or her a boring info dump.

It wasn't easy. Took a ton of rewriting--as well as reading quite a few writer's resource books as well as taking a slew of workshops in the craft of romance writing. But I think I've finally found my ideal opening. Now, I have to plant my butt in the chair and finish the book. But this contest win helps to affirm that there are readers who enjoy the Civil War period.

Hopefully, If I make this book the best it can be, a publisher will like it, too, and be willing to give it a chance.

Find more information on my work-in-progess, ERIN'S REBEL, at www.susanmacatee.com

Great Exhibit Appealed to Victorian Sentiments

During Queen Victoria’s reign, Albert undertook a phenomenal achievement. Although exhibitions highlighting industry and science and technology were already available to the public, nothing like the World Fair of 1851 had yet been undertaken.

Ambitious and regarded as suitable work for a monarch to expend great levels of energy developing, the World Fair showcased the famed Crystal Palace exhibition hall which was ostensibly inspired by a noble’s topiary garden. During January of 1851, cart-horses were utilized to raise trusses for the central aisle of the steel and glass “Crystal Hive.” The exhibit got underway.

A quick link for statistics on the Great Exhibit can be found at http://www.earthstation9.com/index.html?1851_lon.htm

Due to the fact that the Exhibit was closed on the Sabbath, Sunday, only the wealthy and privileged were able to attend. (Commoners who worked six days a week were seldom allowed days off, except for Sundays.) Millions of attendees traveled mostly by railway from theoretically every country, since every nation was allowed to showcase their arts and industry.

Many Victorian era journals recorded the thrilling moments of attending the Great Exhibit, experiencing the wonders of the future on display. Whether drawn by nouveaux artists’ sculptures, on the one hand as the nobiliary Rothschild’s recorded of their experiences, or by the new technology on display, attendees were not disappointed.

Kristin-Marie

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 2, Two Astor Women - "Lina" and Nancy

"Lina" and Nancy Astor were obviously different sorts of women - their personalities, appearances and lives were worlds apart. But, in three ways, they were alike - each was born in the Victorian era, each married an Astor, and each became more famous and influential than her husband.


"Lina" was the former Caroline Webster Schermerhorn (1830 - 1908). She was a member of New York's Dutch aristocracy, the descendants of the city's original settlers, and she married somewhat beneath herself when she became Mrs. William Backhouse Astor, Jr.

For the first few decades of her married life, Lina was typical of her class and time - she was preoccupied with raising her five children and running her household properly. In 1862, she and her husband built a fashionable brownstone mansion. It occupied the land where the Empire State building now stands, and was next door to her husband's older brother, John Jacob Astor III. The two families were next door neighbors for 28 years - but the brothers didn't get along.

After the Civil War, New York grew at an astronomical rate, and keeping the nouveau riche would-be socialites in their place became Lina's new cause. Her husband, a notorious womanizer, had little interest in Lina, their marriage, or the "social whirl," so Lina threw herself into her new mission. She took on the burden of being the unchallenged grande dame of New York's estalishment, and demanded that she be addressed as "The Mrs. Astor."

Working with her distant cousin, Ward McAllister, a so-called social arbiter, Lina came up with "The Four Hundred," the only people who counted, the only ones who belonged to New York's "Fashionable Society." Lina and Ward didn't arrive at the amount based on the size of Lina's rather small ballroom, but that's still accepted as the origin of the magical number.

In 1883, Lina's world began to crack around the edges. The barbarians (the Vanderbilts) were at the gates. For her housewarming party, Alva Vanderbilt planned a costume ball with "entertainments" given by young society figures. At the last minute she sent word that Lina's youngest daughter, Caroline, couldn't participate, because Mrs. Astor had never formally called on Mrs. Vanderbilt. Lina chose her daughter's feelings over her own social position and took her calling card to Alva Vanderbilt.

This was only the beginning of Lina's fall from power. In 1890, her brother-in-law, who had lived next door for so long, died. His son, William Waldorf Astor, inherited his father's holdings, and by all rights, should be considered the head of the Astor family. He wanted his aunt Lina to stop using the "title," The Mrs. Astor. Lina refused and the New York papers sensationalized the conflict.

After William Waldorf Astor was defeated in his bid for a seat in the United States Congress, he decided to leave New York and his disagreeable aunt behind and move to Great Britain. He later became a viscount, but he left a parting gift for Aunt Lina. He had his father's mansion torn down and replaced with the first Waldorf Hotel. Lina was devastated. She told people "There is a glorified tavern next door."

In retaliation, Lina and her son, John Jacob Astor IV, considered tearing down her mansion and replacing it with a livery stable. But the opulent new Waldorf Hotel revolutionized how New York socialized. Unwilling to live next door to New York's latest sensation, Lina and her son tore down her mansion and replaced it with another hotel, the Astor. The two hotels later merged and became the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

By the time she moved into her new house facing Central Park, at the corner of 65th Street, Lina's husband had died. She lived with her son and his family until her death at age 78.

Nancy Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, married the richest man in England and became the first female Member of Parliament

Down in Danville, Virgina, far from New York City, Nancy Witcher Langhorne was born in 1878. She was one of the five clever, beautiful and vivacious Langhorne sisters, Southern belles who became famous beauties. Lizzie, Phyllis, Nora, Irene and Nancy were the daughters of Chiswell Langhorne and his witty wife. A planter who had lost everything in the Civil War, "Chissie," made an even bigger fortune in railroads before Nancy was five, so the girls grew up with every advantage.

A big influence in Nancy's early life was Archdeacon Frederick Neve. Educated at Oxford, he came to Virginia to help poor whites in the interior mountains. Nancy worked with him as much as her father would allow and gained her first taste of a more charitable life.

The family also produced three sons, but they were eclipsed by their well-known sisters and little is known of them today. Early on, the lovely Irene was the sister in the limelight. She was the Gibson Girl who married Charles Dana Gibson. He was the famous illustrator and New York's most eligible bachelor until he met Irene, who was dubbed a Virginia society belle by Northerners.

Outspoken Nancy went to New York to finishing school as well, but she was labeled a "rustic fool" by New Yorkers. Irene tried to alleviate this by taking Nancy everywhere she went. Unfortunately, this led to Nancy's meeting and marrying Bob Shaw. Their marriage was a disaster. It lasted four years and produced one son, Robert Gould Shaw, III. The marriage ended after he agreed to the condition that his adultery would be stated as the cause of the divorce.

On a tour of England, Nancy fell in love with the place. She even met the Astor family but not her future husband. After her mother died, Nancy's father encouraged her to move there with her young son. He said it would be in keeping with her mother's wishes and also be good for her younger sister Phyllis.

Her move to England launched her reputation as an interesting and witty American. She was lively and saucy, yet religiously devout and prudish, This confused many Englishmen but pleased others. They liked the idea of an exciting American who at the same time mostly conformed to restraint and decency. She also began to show skills at winning over critics.

Waldorf Astor was born the same day Nancy was and his temperament complemented hers. He shared some of her moral attitudes, which she found comforting. They married and received a lavish country estate, Cliveden, as a wedding gift from the groom's father - he'd purchased it from the 1st Duke of Westminster.

There, the new Mrs. Astor began her life as a prominent hostess for the social elite.

Nancy was soon up to her neck in politics though and hosting political circles that bordered on fringe groups. She developed strong beliefs that would be considered politically incorrect today.

Somehow, she found time to have five more children.

She ran for Parliament because of her husband's situation. Waldorf Astor had a promising career in the House of Commons, but then he succeeded to his father's peerage as the 2nd Viscount Astor. This meant he became a member of the House of Lords and his seat in the House of Commons was automatically forfeited.

The new Viscountess Astor decided to contest her husband's vacant seat, and - amazingly - won.

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This brings us WAY past the age of Queen Victoria, so I'll stop here, and leave you with some of Nancy's witty remarks after she took her seat in Parliament.

*Lady Astor was giving a costume ball and Winston Churchill asked her what disguise she would recommend for him. She replied, "Why don't you come sober, Mr. Prime Minister?"

*Lady Astor told Churchill: "If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee."

Churchill replied: "Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it."

Quotes:
*I married beneath me. All women do.

*I refuse to admit that I am more than 52, even if that makes my sons illegitimate.

*My vigor, vitality and cheek repel me. I'm the kind of woman I would run from.

*The only thing I like about rich people is their money.

*The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you.

*One reason why I don't drink is because I wish to know when I'm having a good time.

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Sources:

WHEN THE ASTORS OWNED NEW YORK: Bluebloods and Grand Hotels in A Gilded Age. Justin Kapling. Viking 2006

THE ROBBER BARONS. Matthew Josephson. Harcourt Brace & Company 1934, 1995 Edition.

LIFE AT THE DAKOTA: New York's Most Unusual Address. Stephen Birmingham. Random House, 1979.

FIVE SISTERS: THE LANGHORNES OF VIRGINIA. James Fox. Simon & Schuster, 2001.

NANCY ASTOR: A Biography. Anthony Masters, McGraw Hill, 1981.

NANCY: The Life of Lady Astor. Christopher Sykes. Academy Chicago 1984.

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Mourning Rituals and Customs in the Victorian Era - Part II

A Lady’s Life in Mourning

Mourning dictated that ladies limit, if not eliminate, their social activities. Men and children were also limited to avoiding large social affairs or parties while in mourning, but women were set apart as the idealized example of grief in the family and community. Upon entering mourning, women were expected to cancel all social activities. Callers were received only on a limited basis and other family members were expected to field people paying their respects in the home.

A woman expected to see only her immediate family, closest friends and her minister during this time. (Servants, if she had them, were an exception as they were seen daily and the workings of the household needed to continue, but servants were also expected to enter into mourning with the family at the death of their employer and remain in mourning as long as the family did).

While in “deep” mourning a lady was expected to avoid all public meetings, shopping trips and forbidden to attend teas or parties. It was also bad luck for a lady in “widow’s weeds” to attend a wedding. If necessary, she was expected to set aside her “deep” mourning for the event or be in absentia.

For ladies who carried them, calling cards were available, as was stationery for correspondence. Both the cards and stationery were very plain, white with black borders. The wider the border, the deeper the writer was in her mourning period. Calling cards in pale grey and lavender were also available for those in “light” mourning that wished to make their condition known as well.

As a lady reached the end of her “deep” mourning period she could recognize the change by enlarging her wardrobe and gradually returning to social activities (receiving callers, attending church functions and visiting relatives). Trim and jewelry could be added to an all-black ensemble and the “weeping veil” could be set aside. Eventually, the introduction of deep violets and greys could be used sparingly in the wardrobe, as well as white trims. Over a period of months, lighter shades of grey and purple could be used. “Light” mourning could consist of lavender, grey, white, and bits of black. Finally, other colors could be worn and the mourning garb abandoned.

Upon leaving mourning as a widow, it was acceptable – and somewhat expected – to remarry. If the lady had children, it was also a necessity.

Material sources on Mourning in America:

The After Life – Karen Rae Mehaffey

Hair Jewelry, Locks of Love – Michael J. Bernstein

The Trap Rebaited: Mourning Dress 1860 – 1890” – Anne Buck

The Victorian Celebration of Death – James Steven Curl

A History of Mourning – Richard Davey

Antarctica

Check out these pictures of rare (and pretty) clouds over Antarctica.

‘Polar stratospheric clouds’ formed last week when temperatures dropped below 176 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Renae Baker, a meteorological officer with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology at Mawson, Antarctica and who took the pictures on July 25, 2006, “Delicate colours produced when the fading light at sunset passed through tiny water-ice crystals blown along on a strong jet of stratospheric air.”

These kinds of clouds only occur at high polar latitudes and in winter. A weather balloon put temperatures at -189 degrees that day. “Amazingly, the winds at this height were blowing at nearly 230 kilometers (143 miles) per hour,” Baker said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060801/ap_on_sc/antarctica_clouds_

http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=23042

It was during the Victorian Era, a time of great exploration and invention, that the first explorers traveled to Antarctica for whaling and seal-hunting, and accidentally mapped out the continent. I won’t go into the horrible environmental- and animal- loss that occurred during this time, just the basic facts.

• In 1820 Nathaniel Palmer’s ship Hero sailed from the South Shetland Islands to “to study some unusual sightings on the horizon.” They stayed there overnight and “A dense fog settled over the ship and in the morning they found themselves at rest between two ships of the Russian expedition led by Bellingshausen. The Russian charts named Palmer Land in his honor.” [see http://www.south-pole.com/p0000073.htm for more on Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshaisen]
• The official US Antarctic Expedition didn’t occur until the 1838 Wilkes voyage [see http://www.south-pole.com/p0000079.htm for more on Charles Wilkes]
• It wasn’t until the 1897-1899 expedition that the first known photographs were taken of the 7th continent. Most of the crew deserted, the ship was trapped in ice, officers died, and at least 2 survivors went mad. It took the remaining crew months to cut through the ice to reach open water, before finally, 13 months after arriving, they were free.

• Between 1901-1905 there were German, Swedish, British, Scottish, and French expeditions.
• It wasn’t until 1909 that the first settlement, commercial of course, popped up on Kerguelen Island.

http://www.polarphilatelists.org/aspp100.htm

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 2, John Jacob Astor I

America's Gilded Age began with the legendary John Jacob Astor. He is called "the first truly diversified capitalist in America" by Brian Trumbore, editor of Stocks and News.com.
Astor founded the dynasty that was America's richest family in the 19th century. The name Astor is still newsworthy. Recent headlines about the care of Brooke Astor, the 104 year old widow of John Jacob's great-great-great-grandson, William Vincent Astor (1891-1959), prove the Astors are still high profile.

Born in Waldorf, Germany, in 1763, the first American millionaire was given the name Johann Jakob Astor by his humble parents. He landed in this country with a small amount of money and seven flutes, which he promptly sold. While crossing the Atlantic he heard about the American fur trade. Astor went to work in his brother's New York butcher shop. He dreamed of supplying Europe's need for furs and bringing back the musical instruments so prized in America. In a few years, Astor went into fur trading beyond the western borders of the young nation. Within a year he was in London selling the furs he had purchased in America and buying trade goods to take back with him.

Back in America, he somehow found time to meet Sarah Todd. She came to buy furs from him and he was intrigued to learn she actually cut and sewed furs. They married and had three children, Magdalen Astor, 1788; John Jacob Astor II, 1791; and William Backhouse Astor, Sr., 1792.

In the 1790's Astor began investing in banks. By the age of 37, he was worth $250,000 - a fortune in 1800. He also owned a ship and imported wool and arms from Europe. In 1808, Astor founded the American Fur Company. One of his subsidiary companies established the trading post, Fort Astoria in 1811. It became Astoria, Washington. Astor succeeded largely through shrewd dealings with the Indian tribes and friendships with British officials who allowed him to branch out into the Northwest Territories.

By 1835, Astor retired from the fur trade to concentrate on New York real estate. A year later he opened the Astor House, a hotel on Broadway, adjacent to City Hall. It was called "astonishing" and a "marvel of the age." During its 80-year history, both Abraham Lincoln and the future King Edward VII were guests.

WHEN THE ASTORS OWNED NEW YORK, Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, is the title of Justin Kaplan's new book. The Pulitzer Prize winning author's title is no exaggeration, since John Jacob bought acres of Manhattan farmland back when New York covered only the lowest tip of the island. This land, a part of which lies beneath the Empire State Building, added a colossal fortune to his legendary millions.
Kaplan's book focuses on the family's mania for building luxury hotels. As the fashionable people moved steadily uptown in Manhattan, the Astors built more sumptuous hotels, such as the Waldorf-Astoria, and introduced Americans to indoor plumbling, central heating, gas lighting, incandescent lighting, telephones, elevators, and air conditioning - as well as silver chafing dishes and velvet ropes.

John Jacob Astor died in 1848 at the age of 84. He was the richest man in America.

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Brooke Astor is the author of three books:
PATCHWORK CHILD: Early Memories. Harper & Row, 1962.
FOOTPRINTS: An Autobiography. Doubleday, 1980.
THE LAST BLOSSOM ON THE PLUM TREE: A Period Piece. Random House, 1986.
Since the death of William Vincent Astor, Brooke Astor has given away 200 million dollars.

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Mourning in Victorian America

Every year Romance Writer's of America holds a national conference for its 9500 members. It includes workshops, agent/editor appointments, and an award ceremony. The Powers That Be change the location every year in an effort to accomodate those members who live in various sections of the country. This year, this past week actually, the conference was held in Atlanta Georgia. I managed to scrounge up the money to attend and gleefully stayed an extra couple of days to play--I mean research. One of the places I visited was Stately Oaks Plantation in Jonesboro.

http://www.georgianationalfair.com/RESULTS/WebDesignContestWinners/StatelyOaks/history.htm

Imagine my excitement when I found out I had come on the first day of a full month long display/tour of Victorian Mourning! My book Wicked Widow (shameless plug there!) is about a woman who breaks the rules and doesn't go into mourning when her first, and second, and third, husbands die, so this was right up my alley.

Anway, you'll see in the picture above that Stately Oaks is draped in black and has a wreathe on the door to tell the outside world that someone living in the house had died. In this particular case they were re-enacting the actual death of a child. Although they refused to allow me to take pictures inside the house--or a tape recorder--I did manage to jot down a few notes to share with others obsessed, or even mildly interested, in the Victorian period.

1.) The bottom floor (no one went upstairs so that didn't matter) was draped in black. This included musical instruments and mirrors.

2.) The casket was laid originally in the parlor. For a child's death a white rose (symbolizing innocence) was laid on top, with its stem broken, for the broken hearts of all those who'd lost someone so young.

3.) The parlor windows where the body was laid were draped in black.

4.) According to the tour guide, women went into mourning for 2 1/2 years. I have a book that contradicts that (Confidence Men and Painted Women by Karen Halttunen) with a 2 year period for widows. Regardless, during the first year a woman wore strictly black, from her shoes, to her hat, to her gloves and fan. After the first year she went into "second" or "lighter" mourning, gradually replacing various parts of her wardrobe with gray, violet or white.

Men wore black bands on their arms. That was all they were required to do.

5.) People brought food to the mourning family back then as they do today.

Those are the only notes I managed to jot down. The guide told me much, much more, but I couldn't remember it all, so I'll see what I can do later to write a little more about mourning rituals in Victorian America. Of course, much of this was already covered in Nicole's previous blog:

http://somethingvictorianblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/mourning-rituals-and-customs.html.

Spies Like Us

Espionage During the Civil War

In the 1860s during the war between the states just how many spies were traveling back and forth across the lines. And just how did they accomplish this?

In my time travel romance work-in-progress, my heroine travels back in time into her past life. It seems she was a spy for the Yankees, who posed as a laundress in a Confederate camp to obtain information.

According to The Everything Civil War Book by Donald Vaughan, "Both sides had more than their share of spies--many of whom became both famous and infamous--as well as unique espionage technology."

Female spies like Belle Boyd, who spied for the Confederacy, used their feminine wiles to obtain information for their side and sometimes fell in love with their informants. http://www.civilwarhome.com/belleboyd.htm

Rose O'Neal Greenhow was a member of Washington society. She sent coded messages to Confederate military leaders on Union plans that were transported by women on horseback. http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/greenhow/

A spy's job was to learn battle plans, number of forces, and other useful information. http://www.civilwarhome.com/espionage.htm

Spies disguised themselves as soldiers for the other side, clergymen, war correspondents and photographers. Men disguised themselves as women, women dressed up as men and both sexes blackened their faces to pose as freed slaves or contraband. Free Negroes also served as spies for the Federal government. Spies also posed as farmers, local civilians, refugees and camp followers. http://www.civilwarhome.com/spies.htm

In More Civil War Curiosities by Webb Garrison, there is an account of a Federal soldier who disguised . . . "himself as an organ grinder to go into Baltimore daily to gather information for Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler." Another Federal officer disguised himself as a Texas Ranger in order to pass through Confederate outposts.

If caught these spies faced lengthy sentences or execution. Belle Boyd was arrested six times. The first time she was placed in a Washington jail. After four weeks of incarceration she was released in a prisoner exchange only to be sent to prison the following year, this time for five months. http://www.civilwarhome.com/boydbio.htm

With such risks, why did they do it? Most were just loyal to their respective side's cause. But those living in enemy territory, if discovered, were thoroughly ostracized. In The Everything Civil War Book , Federal spy and Richmond citizen, Elizabeth Van Lew, who loathed slavery, was quoted as saying after the war ended, "No one will walk with us in the street. No one will go with us anywhere, and it grows worse and worse as the years roll on." http://www.civilwarhome.com/vanlewbio.htm http://www.civilwarhome.com/crazybet.htm http://www.nps.gov/malw/vanlew.htm

Sources: The Everything Civil War Book by Donald Vaughan, 2000, F & W Publications, Inc. ISBN 1-58062-366-2

More Civil War Curiosities by Webb Garrison, 1995, Rutledge Hill Press ISBN 1-55853-366-4

Additional Links: http://scard.buffnet.net/pages/spy/spy.html http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/spies.html