Juliette learned from her travels

J. Mark Powell
jmp.press@gmail.com
Posted 2/20/19

You never know when a formative childhood experience can have a lasting legacy. Consider the impact of a toddler’s harrowing trip 150 years ago. That experience is still influencing young lives …

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Juliette learned from her travels

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You never know when a formative childhood experience can have a lasting legacy. Consider the impact of a toddler’s harrowing trip 150 years ago. That experience is still influencing young lives today. Here’s how it happened.
Abraham Lincoln famously said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The house collapsed in 1861, triggering the nation’s bloodiest war. And one family found itself uniquely caught up in it.
Willie and Nelly Gordon had a lot going for them that year. Think of them as stars in an 1861 episode of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” They were an attractive young couple. Theirs was a union of two important families. Willie’s people were wealthy and socially prominent in antebellum Savannah, Ga. Nelly’s relatives were pioneers who’d helped found Chicago and made good. They lived in a magnificent Savannah mansion and were starting their own family with little Eleanor and baby Juliette, just six-months old when the war broke out.
For the Gordons, it literally was brother against brother. Willie became a Confederate officer and was sent to Virginia. Nelly’s three brothers all wore blue. The young wife and mother loved them all, forcing her into an unbelievably delicate balancing act.
Being a Yankee in the deepest of the Deep South wasn’t easy. As both sides prepared for the conflict, one Savannah lady told Nelly, “I hope the first shot kills your brother.” Indeed, one brother was killed a short while later. The two others were captured and held in a POW camp.
All of which pushed Nelly’s anxiety over Willie’s safety to the breaking point. Regardless of her personal beliefs, the war came down to one thing and one thing only for her: “I want my husband to come home alive.” That was all that mattered. By the war’s midpoint she could stand it no longer.
Nelly gathered up both children (including two-year-old Juliette) and headed to the Old Dominion. Traveling with small children is never easy; traveling with them in wartime is especially difficult.
Arriving in the Confederate capital of Richmond, she couldn’t learn the whereabouts of her husband’s cavalry command. Nelly went straight to the top, writing to General Robert E. Lee himself. He quickly replied, but could only give her a general idea of where she might find him.
That was good enough for Nelly. She went to the country crossroads General Lee recommended and waited. It was very dangerous. Picture a beautiful young woman by herself with two small children. And a woman with a northern accent in the Confederacy, no less. The Gordons slept outdoors, alone and unprotected.
After two days of scanning the face of every man in a gray uniform as he marched by, Nelly eventually found Willie. They had an emotional reunion. But it didn’t last long. Willie worried she would be mistaken for a Union spy and immediately sent her back to Savannah.
It had been a hard trip. And little Juliette had been there every step of the way: the nights spent sleeping in the open, eating whatever food her mother could scrape up, the confusion of trying to make their way through isolated country roads without a map. Though she didn’t understand what was happening, it all had a lasting impact on the little girl.
Nelly and her daughters made it back to Savannah. Although he was later wounded outside Atlanta, Willie survived the war and made it home.
Juliette grew into a warm, caring young woman. For example, she and her cousins formed the Helpful Hands Club to sew clothing for immigrant children.
Later on, while living in England, she learned about a new group called the Girl Guides and fell in love with the organization. She returned to Savannah in 1912 and formed the first Girl Guide chapters in the U.S. In 1915, they adopted the name we know today: the Girl Scouts of America.
Willie and Nelly’s mansion is preserved as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. It’s visited by thousands of Girl Scouts and tourists yearly.
Juliette discovered at a remarkably early age that certain skills are required to overcome difficult circumstances. She put that discovery to good use and, thanks to the Girl Scouts, young girls are still learning those important skills in 2019.      
Have comments, questions or suggestions you’d like to share with Mark? Message him at jmp.press@gmail.com .

holy cow history, girl scouts, juliette gordon low

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