Holmes, Sarah (Katherine) Stone

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HOLMES, Sarah (Katherine) Stone

Born 8 January 1841, Hinds County, Mississippi; died 28 December 1908, Tallulah, Louisiana

Wrote under: Kate Stone

Daughter of William and Amanda Ragan Stone; married Henry B. Holmes, 1869

Sarah Stone Holmes was the oldest daughter of seven children. Her father died in 1855, leaving his widow with substantial debts. On her own, her mother bought a new plantation, Brokenburn, in Madison County, Louisiana, engaged slaves, and produced enough cotton to settle the debts. In 1869 Holmes married the "Lt. Holmes" of her journal. They settled in Tallulah, Louisiana, where Sarah became a leader in social and civic affairs.

Holmes began her journal in May 1861. It was published in 1955 as Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861-1868, edited by John Q. Anderson. She was a rabid secessionist and confidently predicted an early Southern victory. Like most people living in the Gulf and Trans-Mississippi states, the Stones did not immediately feel the horrors of war. Life for Holmes and her family continued as it had before secession; parties, household duties, and church were their usual activities. The Stones' complacency, however, was shattered in 1862 when Holmes' two younger brothers joined the Confederate army. Both were dead within the year. In addition, the Union army began its first assault on the Mississippi River; the campaign failed, but the following year brought its return and new problems. Yankee raiders roamed throughout northern Louisiana, stealing horses and food and threatening to burn plantations. In March 1863, the Stones left Brokenburn for Texas.

Holmes' diary provides a vivid account of the refugee experience. Literally pursued by Union soldiers, Holmes and her family crossed the bayous by boat at night and then drove overland to safety. The journey in a rickety wagon, under blazing heat, was unpleasant, and was made more so by the hostility of the Texans and their refusal to shelter the refugees. Once settled in a rented house in Tyler, the Stones found goods scarce and prices high. Though refugees in general were resented, Holmes did make friends with local girls and was courted by the men. The family remained in Texas until the end of the war, returning to Louisiana in November 1865. Brokenburn, however, had been partially destroyed by war and floods.

"How I wish I could write well so that this old life could live in the imagination of my children, but I never had the gift of expression with my pen," Holmes wrote in her 1900 retrospective to the journal. Her modesty is charming, but certainly unwarranted. While Holmes' writing was unsophisticated, it was literate and striking. Her descriptive passages are so vivid that the reader feels the water through which the Stones had to wade in their escape from Louisiana and the heat of the Texas sun at midday. Interspersed with the narrative are flashes of humor and Holmes' wry observations of her somewhat eccentric neighbors and friends.

Brokenburn is one of the finest published Confederate diaries. Holmes herself was a charming and perceptive narrator, able to convey without false pride or sentiment the trials and accomplishments of her family. Unlike many Civil War diaries and memoirs, Brokenburn is unself-conscious in its depiction of Southern life. Holmes made no attempt to glamorize herself or her surroundings for posterity. Rather, we see life in the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy as it was: somewhat raw and unfinished and lacking the polish of the older Eastern states. For its charm and realism, Holmes' diary deserves a place in the libraries of historians and literary scholars alike.