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Six Months in Central America: The Journal of Confederate General Pierce M.B. Young, United States Minister Plenipotentiary to Guatemala and Honduras in 1895

Alvis E. Dunnadunn1@unca.edu

Alvis Dunn is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of North Carolina Asheville. He has recently published chapters in Distilling the Influence of Alcohol: Aguardiente in Guatemalan History, edited by David Carey and La Epoca Colonial en Guatemala: Estudios de Historia Social y Cultural edited by Stephen Webre and Robinson Herrera. He is currently researching the stories of U.S. Citizens in Guatemala during the decade of the 1890s.

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Born in 1836 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Pierce Manning Butler’s family moved to

the Appalachian foothills of North Georgia when he was three years old. The boy and the nearby

town of Cartersville grew and flourished together. His father, Robert, was the local medical

doctor and a cotton planter. Young’s upbringing in the antebellum South was typical for a boy

from a landed, slave-owning family. The Youngs were an integral part of Etowah Valley upper-

class society. At thirteen, Pierce left home to attend the Georgia Military Institute in nearby

Marietta. Deciding that the army would be his career path, in 1857, he entered the United States

Military Academy. When Georgia joined the Confederacy in 1861, Young quit West Point and

enlisted in the state militia. He was very close to graduation and the decision was not made

lightly. Soon after he gained a commission as Second Lieutenant in the Confederate Army. Over

the course of the war he sought, and was rewarded by, rapid promotion. By the conclusion of the

conflict he had earned the rank of Major General, making him the youngest to rise to that

position on either side during that war.

Pierce Manning Butler Young lived a remarkably traveled life. Military school had taken

him away from home as a teen and his service in the Confederate Army during the Civil War had

led him from one field of battle to the next. Subsequently, business and four terms in the U.S.

House of Representatives gave him cause to visit northeastern cities and resorts, and in 1878 he

spent several months in Europe as a United States commissioner to the Paris World’s Fair.

Predictably, as a member of the traditional southern elite, both before and after the war he was a

staunch Democrat and thus, his political affiliation was the basis for Young’s diplomatic

employment overseas. The former congressman managed to take good advantage of the split

administrations of Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897), through postings as Consul to the

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Russian city of St. Petersburg during the first term and as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister

Plenipotentiary to Guatemala and Honduras during the second.

The Central America posting was Young’s last. He served in Guatemala and Honduras

from June, 1893 until his death while visiting New York City in July of 1896. A copy of

Young’s journal that chronicles ten months during 1895 has survived. Of that period Young was

in Guatemala from January 1, until May 30, when he departed Guatemala for the United States.

Reading this journal, his regular and perfunctory prose and the reliability of his entries bear

witness that this must have been a familiar practice, a habit even. Young kept this journal

primarily to remember daily happenings rather than to record his deepest thoughts. From time to

time he broke with that rule and provided a snippet of more intimate commentary.

It is to this chronicle that we turn to understand the transnational life of a Confederate

General in Guatemala, a recording of a life at once lived both “mundanely” and “meaningfully”1

(Finkel qtd. in Moran, 154). The book itself was smallish and lined, with no dated pages. Laid

open the size was about 6 inches by 6 inches.2 Young chose to enter two or three entries per

page, beginning each with the date and his location, followed by three to five revelations. Dining

companions, diplomatic meetings, and his evening entertainments were noted. Sometimes there

was a tidbit of Guatemalan news or a complaint about a servant. Invariably there was mention of

his health. This was HIS record and his own experiences were the undeniable focus.

The journal’s opening entry was, appropriately, January 1, 1895 and Young closed out

the small book with an account of his doings on October 6 of that same year--a ten-month and

five-day run. Over the course of that 278 days Young spent 151 in Guatemala and 127 in transit

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to, or inside of, the United States. This sort of overseas/at home ratio was typical of his entire

tenure as Minister Plenipotentiary to Guatemala and Honduras. Concerns about his Cartersville,

Georgia home place, Walnut Grove, and his sister and brother-in-law’s success in managing it

were always on his mind. His health was also a constant concern. Gout plagued him and his legs

troubled him constantly. Breathing could also be difficult. Remedies, both at home and in

Central America were a perpetual quest. Hot springs and patent medicines were all featured in

the daily entries and were often clearly part of the motivation for his travels.

Young was in Central America during interesting times. In Guatemala specifically, the

final decades of the nineteenth century were ones of great extremes politically and economically.

Indeed, the entire -- roughly -- last quarter of the nineteenth century was a period of intense

rearrangements of the social, political, and economic order. Still, because of elite attention to

classical and neo-classical art and architecture, obsession with foreign culture, and several years

of solid profits on the international coffee market, this period has been dubbed by some,

ironically, as Guatemala’s Belle Epoque. Between 1871 and 1885 a Reformist Revolution led by

the Liberal Positivist General Justo Rufino Barrios ushered in often iron-fisted change.

Technologies that compacted time and space: the telegraph, improved ocean transport, and the

railroad, all brought the country into the global market and facilitated the growth of an export

economy centered on coffee (See McCreery). In 1885, Rufino Barrios died on the battlefield

fighting to unite the nations of Central America under his rule. An interim government continued

with his policies and an election in 1892 brought his nephew, General José María Reina Barrios

to the presidency. Reina Barrios had commanded troops alongside his uncle, had studied military

science abroad, and had served in diplomatic capacities in both the United States and Europe for

the Guatemalan government.

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Reina Barrios’ intention was to improve upon the liberal positivist policies of his uncle.

Unfortunately, that also meant that during his administration coffee profits and government

resources were turned toward a number of extravagant public works projects, culminating in the

disastrous attempt to stage a World’s Fair, the Exposición Centroamericana  in 1897. This

international exhibition happened in the shadow of Guatemala’s tumbling fortunes set off by

Brazil’s entrance into the international coffee market in 1896.  Still, those early years of

prosperity and the global footprint left by coffee had drawn the attention of intrepid and

ambitious foreigners.

Pierce M.B. Young was a good choice for minister to Guatemala and Honduras. Indeed,

an argument can be made that an elite southerner with military experience and administrative

credentials was the perfect appointee to liaison with the government of General Reina Barrios.

Young brought to the table a stern but gallant bearing and a record of ‘on-the-field’ bravery. He

was also well-versed in the intricacies of high-society and the role of honor and duty. He

understood government both domestically from his years in the U.S. Congress, and

diplomatically from his service in France and Russia. By all accounts Young was also

charismatic and outgoing…not the type of person to shrink from public speaking or attendance to

the duties required of a representative of the state on foreign soil. He had some difficulty living

abroad in Russia but that was weather, specifically winter, related. In contrast, presumably his

Georgia upbringing made him a perfect match for the semi-tropical climes of Central America.

Commentary on General Young in newspapers of the second half of the nineteenth

century evokes the archetype of the bodacious, honor-bound, swashbuckling, ever brave and

proper, southern general. Young’s mid-twentieth century biographer, Lynwood M. Holland,

likened the general to the English “kingmaker,” Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick, (See

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Hicks) who was “more often a supporter of leaders than a leader; [a man that] assumed

leadership himself only when it appeared necessary and unavoidable” (Holland 239). That

biography, Pierce M.B. Young: The Warwick of the South is a celebratory tale of Young as a

gentleman and battle hero who struggled to navigate the business environment and politics of the

post-Civil War period. Other depictions of Young tend to conflate archetype and stereotype. The

prolific nineteenth-century southern author and Confederate veteran, T.C. De Leon, admitted that

when creating characters for his novel, Creole and Puritan, a love story between a southern

gentleman and a northern lady, that “Young largely furnished the best traits in the Southern twin

of its heroes” (De Leon).

The Guatemala that an older and more worldly Pierce Manning Butler Young was

assigned to in 1893 was full of optimism. President José María Reina Barrios was youthful,

energetic, and his wife Algeria Benton Barrios was stunningly beautiful and New Orleans, a

union that created a liaison of sorts with the United States. Coffee profits made flush the

treasury, a transcontinental railroad was in the works, and a steady flow of foreign entrepreneurs

were making their way to the country. Young spoke no Spanish but President Reina Barrios

spoke English and the two spent a good amount of time together. First Lady Algeria was also

glad for Young’s company. During the five months of the 1895 journal that Young spent in

Guatemala he recorded nine meetings with the presidential couple, six with the president, and six

more with the First Lady. Young’s meetings with Madam Benton Barrios resulted in some of his

most intriguing, albeit cryptic, entries in his journal.

The minister enjoyed privileged pleasures and pastimes in Guatemala and on January 27

Young wrote, “I called on President and Madam and went with her to Bull Fight.” Two weeks

later Young traveled to Escuintla by train to enjoy the hot springs. This seasonal winter

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pilgrimage was a custom of Guatemalan elites dating back at least to the 1840s (Woodward, 155-

156). The new railroad to the Pacific made this type of journey far, far more easily negotiated

than ever before. According to Young the trip was made in but four and a half hours. Young was

part of the presidential couple’s circle and mentioned them often in journal entries about

attending the opera, concerts, theater, or bull fights. He joined them either as a couple or

separately. On March 13, while enjoying the opera, the First Lady confided in Young and he

wrote, “Madam President told me about Martha.” The following evening, he accompanied her

again, “I went to opera and talked to Madam Presidenta about Martha Behagel.”3 Again on April

6 Young met with the First Lady after she sent for him. Later he wrote, “She told me her story.”

On the tenth and again on the seventeenth the two attended the evening music in the park. On the

seventeenth Young wrote that the First Lady was “very frivolous and sad.”

In the years to follow it would become public knowledge that President Reina Barrios

carried on romantic affairs and these entries from Young almost certainly were related to the

First Lady’s suspicions. Over the coming years, as the Guatemalan economy and the government

of Reina Barrios began to deteriorate so too would the President and First Lady’s marriage. By

1897, the couple were living separately and their marriage had become part of a rather public

national scandal. Indeed, when Reina Barrios was assassinated in 1898 he had just left a meeting

with his mistress. Clearly even though the marriage was in trouble by 1896, Young was

managing to maintain healthy diplomatic as well as personal connections with both.

On April 21 and 22 Young called on the president and the First Lady and on April 24 the

couple attended a reception at the minister’s home. That final meeting at Young’s home at Calle

Manchen #8 was a celebration. Young remarked in his journal on the day before that he had

spent many hours preparing his home. In the aftermath, he noted that “about 80 people came.”

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Young recorded that the president and wife attended along with two cabinet ministers. Young

hosted this large gathering at his home to observe Confederate Memorial Day. This must have

been a soiree to remember as Young was commenting three days later that he was still cleaning

up.

Young wove no narratives in this journal but rather provided puzzle pieces for pulling

together the larger picture. During the January 1 to May 28 period in which he was in Guatemala

and journaling, his life and his work were eventful. Combining newspaper accounts and

diplomatic correspondence with the journal details creates a good portrait of the duties and life of

a foreign minister. This combination also gives us glimpses into how, quite specifically, this

southern, plantation-owning, politician, businessman, and Confederate general, dealt with those

daily challenges. The United States was awakening to the possibilities of expansion, resource

acquisition, and investment in Central America during Young’s tenure as minister. Newspapers

in the U.S. in the late nineteenth-century offered surprisingly broad coverage of the region. U.S.

citizens, or at least editors in stateside periodicals, were extremely interested in what was going

on “down there.” Specific to Young’s case and Guatemala, newspapers like The San Francisco

Call, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Inter Ocean (Chicago), The New York Times, The New

York Herald, and The Atlanta Constitution, printed multiple stories daily about Latin America.

Staunch competition among several news services at the time resulted in these stories or versions

of them being marketed to smaller venue newspapers across the nation (Silberstein-Loeb).

Frankly, far more news about Latin America reached big city and small-town America in the late

nineteenth century than today.

Soon after Young began his journal on January 1, 1895 rumors of war between Mexico

and Guatemala headlined front pages in the United States. By January 8 Young noted “All

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excited about Mexico.” In the U.S. The San Francisco Morning Call proclaimed on January 25,

“War Likely to be Declared Today.” On February 13 Young noted in the journal that there were

war rumors in Guatemala. He met with the president the following day and on February 15,

Young wrote, “I cabled to Department that there is no preparation for war in Guatemala.” At that

time Young was also busy with The Argall Case, an internationally reported incident involving

U.S. citizens and the Guatemalan police that had been dragging on since August of 1894.

Initially, three U.S. citizens in the employ of a Belgian painter had been arrested and beaten by

Guatemalan police. The Belgian had sent them to a parcel of land that he owned with orders to

dismantle and remove a shed. The police were alerted and arriving, set upon the three. W.H.

Argall, the foreman, was beaten with a whip while the two other men, African Americans,

Robert Pardee and Henry Thomas, were manhandled as well. All three were imprisoned. Young

worked on this case diligently and succeeded in winning damages for all three; One thousand

dollars for Argall and one hundred each for Pardee and Thomas. The great disparity in payment

for damages most certainly reflects racial prejudices in the settlement though it is also clear that

Argall was more severely beaten than were Pardee and Thomas. In a communication with the

Department of State, Young provided a harsh evaluation of the actions of the Guatemalan

government in the matter. In his judgement, the path to the settlement was “characteristic of the

policy of evasion, denial, and prevarication used by this government when answering demands

for injuries to citizens of the United States” (Young to Gresham, Feb. 21, 1895).

Through the first six weeks of Young’s journaling in 1895, he made notations four times

of visits with the president, three more times when he met with both Reina Barrios and the First

Lady, and of a single occasion when he accompanied Mrs. Reina Barrios to the Bull Fight. He

also attended two ‘balls’, one in Escuintla where he also visited the Hot Baths, and two concerts.

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All this was set against a backdrop in which his health was a constant concern. Gout had settled

into his right leg and caused him a great deal of discomfort. On fourteen days from January 1

through February 23 he noted that he was “not well” or “sick.”

In early March a U.S. citizen, Dr. R.N. Cross was arrested by Guatemalan soldiers as he

sketched the Castillo de San José, a picturesque colonial-era fortress overlooking the city

(Young to Gresham, March 4, 1895). He was accused of being a Mexican spy and locked away.

Young recounted to the Department of State the narrative of the matter in good detail. Dr. Cross

also added a timeline of events to the correspondence. Cross, from California, had been in

Guatemala for three or four months according to Young and was there “for his health.” A

military officer observed Cross sketching and arrested him, marched him the length of one of the

capital city’s main arteries and placed him in a lock up. Cross managed to send a note to Young,

who took immediate action by calling on the Minster of War, Prospero Morales. Morales took

the matter to Reina Barrios but was turned away because the president was ill. Cross thus spent

the night in a cold jail cell. He reported that he was given no meal and in the morning, he

suffered a coughing fit to the point of spitting up blood. Young managed to secure his release by

the afternoon. Cross had spent approximately 24 hours behind bars (Young to Gresham and

“State of Facts,” March 18, 1895).

This story made the newspapers in the United States (“Dr. R.N. Cross”). According to

that account, Cross was not immediately permitted to send for the minister but once he managed

to contact him, Young put in the work needed to secure his release. On this matter Young wrote

in his diplomatic correspondence that he felt that the Guatemalan government, “did not show the

proper respect for the word of the Minister of the United States” (“State of the Facts” March 18,

1895). Although resolved rather quickly, upon Cross’ return to the United States he gave several

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interviews which were reprinted around the country. In the most complete printing of an

interview with Dr. Cross he added an observation on the general state of relations between the

two nations and Young’s performance.

Before leaving Guatemala…I filed a claim for damages with the United States Minister, who forwarded the document to Washington. As nothing has ever been done by our country to protect the interests of American citizens in foreign lands, it is not likely that the policy will be changed in this instance. There are many just claims against Guatemala which should be attended to yet nothing has been done except to demand an explanation. General Young is a good and able man and would accomplish much if his hands were not tied. He cannot afford to make himself ridiculous by attempting more than he can get backing for from his government (“What a Sketch Did”).

Of course, this case came on the heels of the ongoing publication of details of the Argall Case,

itself still unresolved as Estadounidenses read about the Cross arrest and detention. The

General’s journal reveals some backstory on the Cross case. He noted on Monday, March 3 that

the doctor had been arrested and that both he and the president were ill. Young also called on the

First Lady that evening. The following day he wrote that after speaking with Minister of War

Morales, “I got Cross released.”

In late March, another case came to Young’s attention, one swiftly and decisively

resolved. On Saturday, March 30 Mrs. Vail of the United States called on Young. Concern for

her child brought her to the minister. Her daughter, Alice, 20 years old, had become involved

with a “French Israelite” peddler, José Jacobo Zavnic. The young man had asked Mrs. Vail, a

widower, for her daughter’s hand in marriage. Mrs. Vail had given her consent but had become

fearful that “he meant to wed falsely to her.” Mrs. Vail asked that Young protect her daughter.

He told Vail to return on Monday. In the meantime, Young sent his secretary to speak with the

Chargé D'affaires of France, W. de Franwestal, to inquire about Zavnic. Franwestal knew

nothing of the man. Over the weekend Young made more inquiries and was told that Zavnic was

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known to have been living with a woman. Early Monday morning the minister went to Vail’s

home to advise her to break the engagement. Mrs. Vail informed Young that it was too late, that

Zavnic was now living with her daughter, he had given her a ring, and had performed some sort

of ceremony that he said was according to Jewish religion, and that they were now man and wife.

He promised to have a civil ceremony carried out soon. Mrs. Vail was worried because Zavnic

was set to travel to Escuintla and she feared that he would not return.

Young turned to Zavnic, questioning him; “Do you love this woman?” “Did you promise

to marry her?” “Do you wish to marry her?” Zavnic responded yes to each query. Young then

told the young man, “You have been living with this girl for a week in violation of the law and

you must marry her at noon today at the American Legation. She is forever ruined unless you do.

It is my duty to protect her. You have practiced fraud upon her, now you must right the wrong

you have done this innocent girl.” Young then sent for the American preacher, the Presbyterian

Reverend Edward Haymaker, ordered Vice Consul Pringle to prepare the necessary papers, and

returned to his office.

Zavnic did not appear at noon and Young heard from Mrs. Vail that her daughter had

received a note from the groom that he did not intend to marry that day. Young sent Pringle to

take a sworn statement from Vail and mother while he proceeded to the president’s home where

he explained the situation. Reina Barrios sent the Chief of Police with Young to find, and take

into custody, Zavnic. Once the young man was located Young explained his point more clearly,

“I do not mean to force you to marry, but I will say to you that I would not put in prison the

groom of my young countrywoman here, but I will promise you faithfully that I will take you

before the court, and I hope to have you in the penitentiary for this fraud that you have

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committed. You marry or not marry just as you please.” Reverend Haymaker performed the

ceremony. Young wrote to Secretary of State Gresham that,

This appeared to me to be the only course for me to purpose to save the reputation of an innocent girl who had been made a victim by this designing person. I know if he left her without a recorded ceremony that she was ruined forever. The president was kind and prompt, when I had stated to him the facts, in placing in his hands the matter of saving the reputation of this American woman, for which I have expressed to him my grateful thanks (Young to Gresham, April 4, 1895).

With his quick and decisive action in the Vail case Young demonstrated a marked enthusiasm for

the gallant maneuver and the accord with which such an action found with his friend, President

Reina Barrios. Here Young had perhaps stepped outside of his duties as United States Minister in

using his influence with the president and his cabinet to resolve this matter. He had, on the other

hand, come to the rescue of two countrywomen in distress, as would a southern gentleman

steeped in a culture of honor.

Later that month on April 24 Young held his grand celebration of Confederate Memorial

Day but only after spending much of early April quite sick. That was also the month in which the

First Lady evidently unburdened herself with the story of “Martha.” Young remarked positively

on April 12 about the Good Friday Processions and despite the illness during that month he

managed keep up appearances by attending the opera six times, evening music on five occasions,

the bull fight twice, a Sunday evening fiesta, and of course, stage his own party with over 80 in

attendance. He also spent two days at the port of San José and three days in Escuintla, journeys

made much easier by the efficient operation of the Pacific Railway. During these days on the

Pacific Coast Young basked in the heat and the geothermal springs there.

On late January Young had telegraphed Washington requesting a leave-of-absence to

return to the United States. At that time, he noted that he was not well and that the nations of the

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region were all at peace with one another. The Department of State responded, granting sixty

days leave plus transit time but also requested that he “not leave now unless health absolutely

requires it.” Young acquiesced with the simple reply, “Will not leave now.” As his health

worsened in the weeks after the Confederate Memorial Day celebration Young began to ponder a

voyage home. Early in May Young took the train to San José. Once there he boarded a

steamship, the SS San Blas, and sailed north up the coast to the Guatemalan port of Champerico.

He spent 48 hours at sea and on Tuesday, May 7 he took the train inland to Retalhuleu. Once

there he commented, “At hotel in Retalhuleu – very warm – but better.” He attended to business

there, meeting with the consul, Mr. Souza. The following day he boarded the steamship, Sydney,

and returned to San José. The next morning, he journeyed to Guatemala City by train where he

noted that it had begun raining. He had spent a full week in the warm climes of the Pacific coast

and during that time he had made no mention of feeling badly. He had slept well and felt better.

Almost immediately after his return to Guatemala City Young’s illness returned and he

complained that he could not sleep and that breathing was difficult. On Saturday morning, May

18, Young was visited by Dr. J.H. Arton, a Scotsman considered one of the best physicians in the

country. Arton gave Young a deadly diagnosis. He had gouty heart and his time was short.

Young had been aware that the pain and swelling that he suffered in his right leg was caused by

gout but the news that it had moved into his heart meant that his days were numbered. Gout was

the disease of the well-to-do and that Young was a casualty is no surprise (Porter and Rousseau).

In recent years, he had spent a great deal of time and effort seeking remedies. His repeated trips

to the Pacific Coast of Guatemala were to partake of hot springs and the warmer climate there. In

the United States, he had often frequented mineral bath resorts. Upon receipt of Dr. Arton’s

information Young began immediately to prepare for a return to the United States.

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Young’s journal reveals that he settled some matters before his departure. On

Wednesday, May 24 he turned to the final resolution of the Argall Case. He wrote in his journal,

“Got money for Argall, Pardee, and Thomas.” On that same day, he mentioned that he sold gold

and collected the sum of $440. He also attended a “Grand Ball” and dined with the First Lady.

Young also called on the Presidential couple the next day, taking his Vice Consul, Pringle along.

On Sunday, May 27 he made his official farewell to President Reina Barrios. The next day he

made the following entry:

Left house at 7:50 a.m. Rosenthal in carriage with me. Many people at station But not Spanish nor German ministers – Rosenthal & Rhyder went down to Port with me – Breakfast with them. Went on board of the “Colon” at 4 o’clock – Grisham dead.

Young sailed north from San José on May 30 and went ashore in San Francisco, CA on

June 13. He went immediately to the Palace Hotel and remained in San Francisco until June 22.

His transcontinental journey by train brought him to Washington D.C. at mid-day on June 27. He

checked into the Shoreham Hotel and went immediately to the State Department.

Young spent the next three months traveling throughout the eastern United States,

visiting with his friends and family in Georgia but also passing time in Washington D.C. and

New York City. Included in his time in the North was a week spent on the beach and dining and

dancing at the Portsmouth, Rhode Island resort of Narragansett Pier. His journal during those

months maps a whirlwind of travel, dinners, breakfasts, entertainment, parties, and some work.

After another cross-country train journey that began on September 11 in New York City, Young

departed San Francisco on September 18 and arrived at No. 8 Calle Manchen in Guatemala on

October 5. Seven months later, in May of 1896, he again returned to the United States. That was

his final voyage. After another cross-country train trip, Young entered himself into Presbyterian

Hospital in New York City on June 22 and died on July 6, 1896. His gouty heart had failed him.

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Pierce M.B. Young was four months shy of 60 years of age when he passed. There is

little argument that he had packed his 59 years full of adventure, travel, business, and pleasure.

He was a minor federal bureaucrat but a major networker. He cut a dashing and, at times,

influential figure. He was tireless whether in pursuit of the performance of the duties of his post

as Minister Plenipotentiary to Guatemala and Honduras, an evening of theatrical entertainment,

or simply in search of the company of friends. He was a man of the times and held the standard

prejudices and faults. While he leapt to the service of a movement defending slavery, an action

bound to destroy his nation, he later worked hard in service of that same country. Indeed, service

seems to have been a prime motivating factor in his life though compensation for his efforts also

loomed increasingly important as he struggled to keep the family plantation intact and operating

in the harsh business environment of the Reconstruction South. He was professional in all his

dealings and eschewed racial pejoratives in both his official reports and his journaling. Perhaps

as an astute judge of people he was driven ultimately by survival instincts, either subsuming his

sentiments or working to transform them into a nationally and internationally acceptable

configuration.

His biographer Lynwood Holland called him “The Warwick of the South” but that title

hardly fits. The Earl of Warwick was a kingmaker. Pierce Manning Butler Young made no kings

and was only politically significant regionally. His comrades in arms had called him the “Murat

of the Confederate Army,” however, and with his flashy, brave, and charismatic ways Pierce

M.B. Young was far more deserving of that sobriquet. More so, Young was a man who straddled

the divide between an old world, mainly a memory, and the fleet, transnational one in which he

worked and played. He brought from that distant southern past a strong sense of duty and

decorum which fit well with the world of diplomacy into which he was placed in the 1890s.

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Where his penchant for embracing the new and different sprang from is a mystery. Young

adapted well to Central America. In a United States grappling with race, regionalism, and its

international identity, Young simultaneously stood for a dark past of white supremacy,

patriarchy, and isolation and the brighter possibility of a growing global presence. On a personal

level, he was an old soldier, a rough man with genteel ways, who in the Guatemala of General

José María Reina Barrios parlayed those qualities into ones the likes of which spelled modest

diplomatic success and a good and interesting life well-lived.

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1 Irving Finkel, BBC Radio 4, “The Man Who Saves Life Stories,” June 8, 2012, quoted in Joe Moran, “Private Lives, Public Histories: The Diary in Twentieth-Century Britain,” The Journal of British Studies 54 (January 2014), p. 154. Accessed May 30, 2017, Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.wncln.wncln.org/stable/24701728.

2 Journal photocopy at the Etowah County Historical Society archives in Cartersville, GA.

3 By 1897 Algeria Benton Barrios and President Reina Barrios were estranged. Whether this was an indication that the First Lady suspected the president of having an affair is hard to say. Martha Behagel was an acquaintance of Benton Barrios and was listed as a traveling companion in an 1894 San Francisco Call article: “In Wifely Pride,” 02 August, 1894. Accessed April 12, 2017. https://www.newspapers.com/image/92963412/?terms=%22martha%2Bbebagel.

Works Cited

De Leon, T.C. “Gallant Pierce Young. He was the Idol of Men and Popular with Women.” The Laurens Advertiser (SC) 21 July, 1896. 1. Web. https://www.newspapers.com/image/63531622/.

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Moran, Joe. “Private Lives, Public Histories: The Diary in Twentieth-Century Britain.” The Journal of British Studies 54 (January 2014), p. 154. Accessed May 30, 2017, Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.wncln.wncln.org/stable/24701728 .

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Woodward, Ralph Lee. Rafael Carrera and the Emergence of the Republic of Guatemala, 1821—1871. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1993.