The Evans family moved to Texas from Georgia in 1846. Her father opened a dry goods store in San Antonio near the Alamo. Because of the turmoil of the Mexican War they left Texas in 1849 and settled in Alabama, where Augusta began to write, partially to help the financial situation of her father, who had been forced into bankruptcy. In 1855, she published her first novel, Inez: A Tale of the Alamo, building on her knowledge of the events and the local colour. Her first real success came in 1859 with the publication of Beulah. During the Civil War, she established a hospital in Mobile, which Confederate soldiers nicknamed Camp Beulah. In 1864, she published Macaria a staunchly pro-Confederate work that was hugely popular in the South and which was banned in many Northern areas. In 1868, she married Colonel Lorenzo Madison Wilson, a plantation owner, and she moved to his estate, Ashland, which was next door to the Evans' home. On her husband's death in 1891, she moved to her brother's home in Mobile. Her other works include Saint Elmo (1866), Vashti (1869), Infelize (1875), At the Mercy of Tiberius (1887), A Speckled Bird (1902) and Devota (1907). |
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