Eliza Hall "Hallie" Nutt Parsley (August 13, 1842 – June 11, 1920) was an American civic leader and educator. She worked as a school teacher after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

and established her own school for children in

Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...

in 1894. A war widow, she was active in glorifying the

Confederacy Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between ...

through her role as a member of the Ladies' Memorial Association, raising money to build Confederate monuments in North Carolina. Parsley became a prominent figure within the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

, establishing the Cape Fear Chapter in 1894 and the North Carolina Division in 1897. She served as president of the North Carolina Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy for two years, travelling across North Carolina to recruit new members and promote the

pseudohistorical Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohi ...

narrative of the

Lost Cause of the Confederacy The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an History of the United States, American pseudohistorical historical negationist, negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil Wa ...

. Under her leadership, in 1898, the Cape Fear chapter established the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science.

Early life and family

Parsley was born Eliza Hall Nutt in

on August 13, 1842, to Henry Nutt and Louise Frink Nutt. She was educated at St. Mary's School in Raleigh. She married Captain William Murdock Parsley, an officer in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

, on September 2, 1862. They had two daughters, Amanda and Janie. Parsley was Episcopalian. She is the grandaunt of the Episcopalian bishop Henry N. Parsley Jr.

Civil War

During the

, her husband was wounded three times and sent home to recover. He was later promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, but was killed shortly after near Richmond, just a few days before the

surrender at Appomattox The Battle of Appomattox Court House, fought in Appomattox County, Virginia, on the morning of April 9, 1865, was one of the last battles of the American Civil War (1861–1865). It was the final engagement of Confederate General in Chief, Rober ...

. Parsley and her daughters took refuge at Sleepy Hollow in Bladen County and at Floral College in Robeson County. While the war was ongoing, she nursed wounded Confederate soldiers.

Life after the war

Parsley and her daughters returned to Wilmington, where she took up work as a schoolteacher, opening her own school for children in 1894. She dressed in black

mourning dress Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...

, a black bonnet and long crepe veil, and wore her hair parted down the middle and combed back for the remainder of her life, which was typical of many Confederate widows. As a war widow, she became active in multiple organizations upholding the

. She volunteered with the Confederate Memorial Association and decorated the graves of seven hundred Confederate soldiers in Wilmington. While working with the memorial association, she and other members learned about the

, which had been established in other southern states but not North Carolina. She was appointed as the chairwoman of a committee tasked with inquiring about the purpose of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and received information, a charter, and authority to establish units in North Carolina from the original chapter in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...

. Her inquiry was answered by

Anna Davenport Raines Anna Mitchell Davenport Raines (April 8, 1853 – January 21, 1915) was an American philanthropist and founding Vice President of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She later served as the organization's Honorary President General and as th ...

, the vice president of the national organization, who encouraged Parsley to apply for a charter with the authority to form individual chapters. The charter was granted and organized with over fifty members. Parsley and her chapter when then informed that only lineal descendants of Confederate veterans were eligible, which excluded wives, sisters, and mothers of veterans from joining the organization. Parsley took this matter in writing before the National Convention on March 30, 1894, in Nashville, addressing her concerns to Raines and the organization's president,

Caroline Meriwether Goodlett Caroline Douglas Meriwether Goodlett (November 3, 1833 – October 16, 1914) was an American philanthropist and the founding president of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Early life and family Goodlett was born on November 3, 1833 to ...

, and was successful in having the clause on eligibility amended.https://upf.com/Mkt/DixiesDaughters_FREE1.pdf In December 1894, Parsley organized the Cape Fear Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy with twenty-four women applicants, calling their first meeting on December 27. On April 28, 1897, she formed the United Daughters of the Confederacy's North Carolina Division, serving as the division's president for two years. Their first state convention was held in Wilmington on October 3, 1897, with representatives from six chapters in attendance. In her role as president, she advised women who wanted to establish new chapters and travelled around North Carolina promoting the Lost Cause narrative. Under her leadership, the Cape Fear chapter established the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science in March 1898. A supporter of the dramatic arts, Parsley also arranged and organized productions of amateur plays, pageants, and musicals in Wilmington in the 1890s. She died on June 11, 1920, and is buried at Oakdale Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsley, Eliza Hall Nutt 1842 births 1920 deaths American Civil War nurses American headmistresses Burials at Oakdale Cemetery Episcopalians from North Carolina Female wartime nurses Founders of schools in the United States Members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy

Eliza ELIZA is an early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by Joseph Weizenbaum. Created to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between humans and machines ...

People from Wilmington, North Carolina Schoolteachers from North Carolina St. Mary's School (North Carolina) alumni Women in the American Civil War