‘The Lost Cause, or the Belle from Hell’ (Belle’s letters to her mother)

September 10th, 1863

Let me give you my true reasons for leaving Georgia, for quitting the Confederacy, and for, yes, rejecting the South to embrace the West.

They are as follows;
Firstly, I do not have enough maids.
Secondly, the climate here is hateful- fetid, fly-blown, insufferable.
Thirdly, we are going to lose the war. I don’t care what Father or Colonel Boykin says.
Fourthly, and I have never spoken this before, doing so only now under the tyranny of your cruel misapprehensions, the very idea of a women’s militia is ridiculous. It defies everything our young men are fighting to protect, and mocks them with our girlish mimicry. Yes, I will do anything to defend the glorious South, but no, I will not march back and forth with that beastly rifle one day longer. You know how much I love guns, and bright knives, but that rifle oil has quite ruined my dress.

written by Julyan Davis

Oil on canvas
Image size: 20 x 16 inches
Framed size: 22 x 18 inches