Michael J. McAfee

Emma Kline

After the fall of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, the victorious Union army assumed the difficult role of occupier to a city filled with pro-Confederate sympathizers. Over time, most of Vicksburg’s residents settled into an uneasy peace with the Federals, but some were more troublesome. Writing of this portion of the population, Vicksburg’s post commander, Major General James B. McPherson, complained that they “require watching, although seemingly disposed to remain quietly at home and pursue their peaceful avocations, they are hostile in spirit….”

“Hostile in spirit” was a good description for Emma Kline. The daughter of a local planter, Kline would be little remembered today if not for a photograph taken in 1864 showing her standing defiant between two guards from the 5th Iowa Infantry after her arrest for smuggling.

The man who arrested Kline, Captain Alonzo L. Brown of the 50th U.S. Colored Infantry, later described the incident. As Kline and a friend approached the captain’s post to leave the city, Brown “could hardly repress a smile” as he “noticed their distended skirts.” He “informed Miss Kline that he had received instructions not to allow her to go through the lines, but to send them back to the city under guard.”

Kline survived her imprisonment and the war. She died in 1878, shortly after the birth of her daughter and namesake, Emma Lane, and lies buried just south of Vicksburg, in Asbury Cemetery.