Hetty Cary

Who was Hetty Cary?

Hetty Carr Cary was the wife of CSA General John Pegram and, later, of pioneer physiologist H. Newell Martin. She is best remembered for making the first three battle flags of the Confederacy. Hetty was related to two of Virginia's most influential families, the Jeffersons and the Randolphs. She was also a lineal descendant of Pocahontas.

Henry Kyd Douglas, in I Rode With Stonewall, described Hetty as "the most beautiful woman of her day and generation" and "the handsomest woman in the Southland -- with her classic face, her pure complexion, her auburn hair. her perfect figure and her carriage, altogether the most beautiful woman I ever saw in any land."