Baltimore's Civil War Secret: The Identity of 'The Baltimore Lady'

Aug. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- For years publisher Emily Hill, the ancestral niece of the Baltimore native son, Cyprian T. (C.T.) Jenkins has sought the identity of the mysterious lady whose heroic deed saved the life of one of Baltimore’s more prominent families during the Civil War.  The first published mention of ‘the Baltimore lady’ and her kindness towards the Confederate appears in Mrs. Michael Jenkins’ published history of the Baltimore family.  Mrs. Jenkins writes that after being captured by Union troops the summer of 1861 for blockade running, her nephew, Colonel C.T. Jenkins, stood before a military commission at Fort Lafayette.  Mrs. Jenkins writes in ‘The Jenkins Family of Maryland’ (1897) that Colonel Jenkins’ life was saved ‘by the actions of a Baltimore lady, married to a Union officer”.  The nineteenth-century family historian died without revealing the identity of ‘The Baltimore lady’.  

Emily Hill, who published ‘The Jenkins of Baltimore’ has taken up the task of finding out the identify of Colonel Jenkins’ benefactor.  Visit http://www.amazon.com/The-Jenkins-of-Baltimore-ebook/dp/B... for details.

A photograph of the ‘Baltimore lady, married to a Union officer’ is featured in a Civil War album which belonged to the Confederate hero has been passed on to the independent publisher.  The identity of the lady, pictured with her Union officer husband, is not revealed in the album’s listings.  

“Jenkins, the son of Belvedere District residents William V. Jenkins and Anne Marie Wells, struck out from Baltimore in the 1830s and made quite a name for himself,” Emily Hill explains. “Many of his writings and historical notes are held in the Library of Congress,” she adds.

The heirloom is a thirty-six plate leather bound photograph album, dated 1864.  Colonel Jenkins was captured on 01 June 1863 for blockade running in Florida waters.  After being saved by the testimony of the ‘Baltimore lady’ Jenkins spent his incarceration at Fort Warren, Boston.  He maintained the album while in prison and sent it on to his daughter in 1864.  The historic photograph album was left to Ms. Hill by her great aunt, a Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, who retired to Florida in the 1960’s.

Ms. Hill spent fifteen years researching the familial connections between the novels protagonist, C.T. Jenkins, and other Baltimore family members including that of James Ryder Randall, author of Maryland’s state song, “Maryland, My Maryland” .  Randall visited the Colonel at his Florida home in 1859.   This visit between the Confederate hero and Randall is mentioned in the poet’s Baltimore Sun published autobiography.  

‘The Jenkins of Baltimore’ explores the daunting struggles and tangled manipulations that catapulted the communities of Bay Port and Brooksville, Florida into the middle of the Union’s Gulf Coast campaign.  “As the drum beat for war builds in the foreground of the novel, the personal story of main character C.T. Jenkins plays out as a man seeking redemption for youthful misjudgments that affected his Baltimore family.  The novel details Jenkins’ relationship with his Florida neighbors and exposes the behind-the-scene story of his marriage into the Colburn family of Vermont,” explained the author in a recent interview.

Colonel Jenkins’ remains lie in the Lake Lindsay Cemetery, outside Brooksville, Florida, next to those of Lucy Davey Colburn, his long-time friend and mother-in-law.  Mrs. Colburn was the mother of Union Army AAG, Albert V. Colburn.    Colburn is buried, with honors, at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Fair Haven, Vermont.

'The Jenkins of Baltimore' is available on Amazon.com.   Visit http://www.amazon.com/The-Jenkins-of-Baltimore-ebook/dp/B... details.

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A.V. Harrison Publishing features ground-breaking topics from emerging authors. Its books are distributed by Ingram, available on Amazon.com and B&N Nook. Owner, Emily Hill, invites submissions and can be contacted at info@avharrison-publishing.com.