1. Laura Ratcliffe was a Confederate States of America spy.
13 Facts About Laura Ratcliffe
1. 2.
Laura Ratcliffe warned him when Union troops came looking for him, saving his life.
3.
The album given to Laura Ratcliffe contains four poems, two that Stuart wrote, and two that he copied to ensure Laura Ratcliffe would gather information for him.
4.
Laura Ratcliffe gave Laura his watch chain with a gold dollar attached to it.
5.
Back in 1869, Laura Ratcliffe's mother sold her 133 acres she owned near Burke Lake, and on July 2,1869, she bought a house called Merrybrook.
6.
Laura Ratcliffe's mother left all of her properties to Laura Ratcliffe and Cora in her will on October 31,1873.
7.
In 1890, at age fifty-five, Laura Ratcliffe got married for the first time.
8.
Laura Ratcliffe married a man named Milton Hanna, a wealthy Union veteran, who coincidentally was her neighbor and friend.
9.
Laura Ratcliffe used her inheritance to help the poor and local churches.
10.
Carlin praised Laura Ratcliffe by saying that she gave the guerilla leader very valuable information regarding the actions of Union troops.
11.
At age seventy-eight, in 1914, Laura Ratcliffe went outside to feed her chickens and she slipped on a flat piece of stone.
12.
Laura Ratcliffe spent the next nine years of her life in bed and died at the age of eighty-seven on August 8,1923.
13.
Laura Ratcliffe was buried on her property in Herndon in a small family plot with her mother and husband.