Confederados #1:Rolling Stone for Martha & Isham Harris
by Denniele Bohannon
First block in our 2026 pieced BOM series here.
Check this CivilWarQuilts blog on the
second Wednesday of each month throughout the year.
Martha Mariah Travis Harris (1822-1897)
Isham Green Harris 1818-1897
Union parade in the capitol Nashville, March, 1862
As Union troops took over the state Union Military Governor Andrew Johnson actually ruled while Harris moved the Secessionist government to Memphis.
William Gannaway Brownlow (1805-1877)
"Parson" Brownlow
At war's end in 1865 Unionist William G. Brownlow was elected governor. Among his acts: Forbidding the wearing of Confederate uniforms, declaring martial law in counties where African-Americans were in danger and issuing a reward of $5,000 for Harris's capture on charges of treason and theft.
Rolling Stone by Jeanne Arnieri
Wary of Governor Brownlow's threat Harris decided to leave the U.S. Like many other Confederates he headed south. Accompanied by two of his newly freed slaves, one named Ran, he rode through Texas and the Mexican state of Coahuila to Mexico's capitol and then east to the colony of Carlota in the state of Veracruz.
Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Mexico (1832-1867)
with Princess Charlotte of Belgium
Mexico at the time was in the throes of its own civil war. A national uprising of Liberals headed by Benito Juarez began in 1858. While the United States was distracted by its own Civil War, France's Napoleon III invaded Mexico and sent the Hapsburgian Archduke Maximilian of Austria to rule as Emperor in 1863.
President Benito Juarez (1806-1872) was Mexico's President
From 1857 to 1872 despite the French invasion.
France attacked Mexico taking over cities Puebla, Tampico and Mexico City. The puppet Emperor and Empress of Mexico arrived in Vera Cruz in May, 1864. The following year defeated Confederates seeing a new romantic cause in Mexico's imperial war named a colony of exiled secessionists for the Emperor's wife.
Carlota, the Confederate colony, was
established south of Cordoba.
Martha Harris and, we presume, some of her younger boys joined Isham there.
Todd Wahlstom in The Southern Exodus to Mexico characterizes
Carlota as the "focal point of Southern immigration."
With no respect for the Mexicans from the refugees----
What could go wrong?
Harris's opinions of his refugee neighbors was no higher than his opinion of the Mexicans.
"Mere adventurers, totally unfitted for the duties of the life that lay before us here..."
The Harrises sailed for England in 1867. A summary below
in a favorable 1898 obituary in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
1867 ad in the Memphis paper
Memphis Commercial Appeal
January, 1897
Their end-of-the-century home in Paris, Tennessee
Over the year we will look at other Confederado families who settled in Carlota, some on haciendas confiscated first by the Juaristas, then by the Imperialists and then by the original landowners after the short-term colonists left.
The Block
Vintage Rolling Stone block, about 1910
Before the Wedding Ring with curves that is our standard this version of a
Wedding Ring was quite popular in the early 20th century.
The pattern as "Rolling Stone" can symbolize the restlessness of the people profiled here.
Finally remembered to add the pattern!
Links:
The introduction to Confederados:
Our Facebook page to show your blocks & ask questions:
ConfederadosQuilt
No need to join; it's a public group
Buy a PDF for all the pattern sheets here in my Etsy shop: $12.
David Pottinger found this one from the Indiana Amish
Fabrics: Denniele is using blues from various William Morris reproduction lines and a bit of red.
Jeannie is using subdued red, white and blue prints.
Further Reading:
Todd W. Wahlstrom, The Southern Exodus to Mexico: Migration across the Borderlands after the American Civil War. University of Nebraska Press