Floride Elizabeth Clemson Lee (December 29, 1842 – July 23, 1871) was an American diarist and poet, known for her writings during and after the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

Early life

Clemson was born on December 29, 1842, at Fort Hill in South Carolina. She was the daughter of

Thomas Green Clemson Thomas Green Clemson (July 1, 1807April 6, 1888) was an American politician and statesman, serving as Chargés d'Affaires to Belgium, and United States Superintendent of Agriculture. He served in the Confederate Army and founded Clemson Univers ...

(founder of

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

) and

Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson (February 13, 1817 September 22, 1875) was the daughter of John C. Calhoun and Floride Calhoun (née Colhoun), and the wife of Thomas Green Clemson, the founder of Clemson University. Early life Calhoun was born ...

, and the granddaughter of

John C. Calhoun John Caldwell Calhoun (; March 18, 1782March 31, 1850) was an American statesman and political theorist who served as the seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Born in South Carolina, he adamantly defended American s ...

(former vice president of the U.S.) and

Floride Calhoun Floride Bonneau Calhoun (née Colhoun; February 15, 1792 – July 25, 1866) was the wife of U.S. politician John C. Calhoun. She was known for her leading role in the Petticoat affair, which occurred during her husband's service as vic ...

. One of her closest friends was

Harriet Lane Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (May 9, 1830 – July 3, 1903) acted as first lady of the United States during the administration of her uncle, lifelong bachelor president James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861. She has been described as the first o ...

, niece of

James Buchanan James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the United States Secretary of State, secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvan ...

. In 1852, the Clemson family settled near

Bladensburg, Maryland Bladensburg is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 9,657 at the 2020 census. Areas in Bladensburg are located within ZIP code 20710. Bladensburg is from Washington, D.C. History Originally called Garr ...

. Clemson had only two years of formal education.

Writing

Clemson's father and brother supported the Confederacy when the American Civil War began in 1861, but she lived in Maryland, a Union state, with her mother. She began keeping a diary on January 1, 1863. She and her mother traveled from Maryland to South Carolina during the war, in December 1864. Mary D. Robertson wrote in ''The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society'' that "Floride Clemson's diary affords an interesting glimpse into the life of a young woman caught up in the disruptions, dislocations, and deprivations of the Civil War and its aftermath. The diary's real value however, lies in the intimate and candid view it provides of the Clemson/Calhoun families." After the war, she published a volume of poems under a pseudonym, "C. de Flori" (an anagram of "Floride C."), titled ''Poet Skies and Other Experiments in Versification'' (1868).

Personal life and legacy

Clemson married Gideon Lee III (1824–1894), son of New York mayor

Gideon Lee Gideon Lee II (April 27, 1778August 21, 1841) was an American politician who was the 60th Mayor of New York City from 1833 to 1834, and United States Representative from New York for one term from 1835 to 1837. Early life Lee was born in Amherst ...

. They had one daughter, Floride Isabella Lee, known as Isabella. Isabella Lee was involved in a Supreme Court case in 1890, over the ownership of the Calhoun property in Fort Hill. Floride Clemson Lee died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at their home Leeside in Carmel, New York, on July 23, 1871, at the age of 29. In the 1960s, her Civil War era writings were recognized as valuable, and two volumes of her work were published by the

University of South Carolina Press The University of South Carolina Press is an Academic publishing, academic publisher associated with the University of South Carolina. It was founded in 1944. According to Casey Clabough, the quality of its list of authors and book design became s ...

. Her diary and letters were published again in a revised edition in 1989.

Selected works

* In 1961, ''A Rebel Came Home: The Diary and Letters of Floride Clemson, 1863-1866'' was published by the University of South Carolina Press. The book was edited by Charles M. McGee and Ernest M. Lander Jr. A revised edition of the book was published in 1989 with supplemental material and an updated introduction. * In 1965, ''The Verse of Floride Clemson'' was published by the University of South Carolina Press, edited by Harriet R. Holman.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemson, Floride 1842 births 1871 deaths 19th-century American diarists 19th-century American women writers American women diarists American women non-fiction writers American women poets Calhoun family Poets from South Carolina 19th-century American poets 19th-century pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers Poets from Maryland