"Next to Scarlett, Cathleen had had more beaux than any other girl in the county."
Cathleen Hilton, née Calvert (1845) is a childhood friend of Scarlett O'Hara, who like her, experiences the Civil War.
Biography[]
Cathleen was born one of the three children of Hugh Calvert, growing up on the Pine Bloom plantation with her brothers Raiford and Cade. After her mother's death, her father married a "Yankee governess", which was quite the scandal.
As a child, she befriended Scarlett O'Hara. Though their friendship was rather superficial, it was unique in the sense that other than Cathleen, Scarlett distrusted and disliked other girls from the county, viewing them as competition.
In 1861, Cathleen attended a barbecue at Twelve Oaks thrown by John Wilkes. At the party, her friend Scarlett O'Hara asked her who the man at the bottom of the grand staircase was. Cathleen then explained to her that this was Rhett Butler, a scoundrel from Charleston. Cathleen didn't know at the time that seven years later, Rhett would become Scarlett's third husband. Around this time, she became engaged to Lafayette Munroe.
She then repeated a rumour to Scarlett: that Rhett had been in a carriage with a girl without a chaperone and then refused to marry her. Scarlett asked her if the girl was pregnant. "No," Cathleen replied, "But she was ruined just the same."
The girls lose touch after the war starts and Scarlett marries. The Pine Bloom plantation and the neighbouring Tara are amongst the few surviving plantations that the Yankees didn't burn. Two years after the start of the war, in 1863, Cathleen lost her older brother Lieutenant Raiford Calvert in the Battle of Gettysburg, just like Brent Tarleton and Stuart Tarleton.
Cade survives and the fate of Cathleen's father is unknown, though he is presumed dead. In 1865, Cathleen rides on horseback to Tara to tell Scarlett and Melanie Hamilton that she is marrying Mr Hilton, her plantation's former overseer. Scarlett is shocked that Cathleen would sink so low as to marry her own former overseer. It seems that she mainly did it because her brother Cade was very ill, and she didn't want him worrying about what would happen to her if he died. She and Mr Hilton appear together at the funeral of Gerald O'Hara, and run Pine Bloom together.
Characterisation[]
Cathleen is a minor character in the story, but she serves as an important foil to Scarlett (like most female characters, none more than Melanie). Her initial modesty and fear of scandal is in straight contrast with Scarlett, who is secretly intrigued by Rhett's unconventional and scandalous ways. It is possible her fear of scandal comes from the considerable controversy her father caused when he married a Yankee governess.
Her marriage to an overseer show how much the war has changed Atlanta's social class system. Her marrying Mr Hilton would have been unthinkable earlier.
Trivia[]
- Cathleen lost her fiancé at Gettysburg, as did Carreen O'Hara.