People

Laura Lee

Winchester Resident

1823 – June 25, 1902

Laura Lee was the daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (nee Nicholson) Lee.  Being a spinster after her parents died, she lived with her sister-in-law, Mary Greenhow Lee. Laura Lee was one of the “Devil Diarists of Winchester.” Her diary, along with that of Mary Greenhow Lee, reveals “important clues into Southern white women’s identities, values, and attitudes” during the Civil War.[i]

With glee Laura smuggled letters and Union goods to Confederate soldiers:

“But it is great pleasure to circumvent the Yankees, besides the comfort of supplying our men with things they so much need. Another large sum of money came to us today from Balt. for the very purpose."[ii]

She displayed insolent behavior toward Union officers. Her behavior provoked Union General Phil Sheridan to convey her from Winchester through the lines to Newtown (present day Stephens City.) From there she traveled by stages to Staunton all the while continuing entries in her diary. After the war, she resettled in Baltimore, Maryland where she ran a boarding house with her sister-in-law until she died in 1902. She is buried in the Mount Hebron Cemetery. Her original diary, “A History of Our Captivity,” can be seen at the Manuscript Division, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

[i] Laura Jean Odendahl, “Political Reconstruction of the Southern Lady: A Case Study 1856-1907, Thesis, The College of William and Mary, 2002, p. 19, Political Reconstruction of the Southern Lady: A Case Study, 1856-1907 (wm.edu) 

[ii] Michael G. Mahon, Winchester Divided: The Civil War Diaries of Julia Chase and Laura Lee. Mechanicsburg, PA, 2002, 81, Laura Lee, February 20, 1863.