Septima Maria Levy Collis was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1842. Although a Southern sympathizer, she married a Union army officer, Charles H. T. Collis prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Collis accompanied her husband to battlefields throughout the war. She wrote A Woman's War Record, 1861-1865 (The Knickerbocker Press 1889), a memoir of her experiences at the front lines, and her social life away from camp. Included in her book is an account of her meeting with Abraham Lincoln.

Following the war, while travelling with her husband, General Collis, she penned a travel narrative, A Woman's Trip to Alaska: Being an Account of A Voyage Through the Inland Seas of the Sitkan Archipelago in 1890 (Cassell Publishing Company, 1890).

BOOKS:

A Woman's War Record, 1861-1865 (The Knickerbocker Press 1889; DoDo Press re-release 2009) $14.19 978-1409985976
A Woman's Trip to Alaska: Being an Account of A Voyage Through the Inland Seas of the Sitkan Archipelago in 1890 (New York: Cassell Publishing Company, 1890; Kessinger Publishing 2007; DoDo Press 2009) $43.84 978-0548190296

[BCBW 2014] "Early B.C." "Women" "1850-1900" "Transient"