Sue Mundy

Sue Mundy was a fictional guerrilla character created by George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal, who opposed the heavy-handed military rule of General Stephen G. Burbridge in Kentucky during the American Civil War*

History
Union Major General Stephen G. Burbridge was given command over the Commonwealth of Kentucky in June 1864, after the state's Unionist population had suffered numerous guerrilla raids and murders. He declared martial law.

Prentice created the "Sue Mundy" persona to portray Burbridge as an incompetent commander, unable to protect Kentucky citizens. There were, in fact, guerrilla groups operated in Kentucky late in 1864 and in 1865 (as there were in neighboring Tennessee). Most were actually bandits, preying on those persons of either loyalty without discrimination. Some claimed to be part of "Sue Mundy's gang" because of the popular image and instant notoriety. Prentice published articles about the terrorism in the Louisville Journal, under the activities of Sue Mundy, to emphasize what he saw as the incompetence of Burbridge.

In the first editorial Prentice wrote about the character, he spelled her name 'Munday', but in every other editorial he spelled the name 'Mundy'. He portrayed her as a guerrilla. The 20-year-old guerrilla Marcellus Jerome Clarke wore his hair long and had smooth-faced features. Some thought or alleged that he was Sue Mundy. Caught by Federal soldiers in Meade County on March 12, 1865, he was tried in Louisville and hanged a few days later. All along, Prentice vehemently denied that Clarke was Mundy.

By some accounts, including his own, Henry C. Magruder, another guerrilla soldier riding with Clarke, was the original Sue Mundy. In his Three Years in the Saddle: The Life and Confession of Henry Magruder: The Original Sue Munday, The Scourge of Kentucky, when the guerrillas were finally arrested, Clarke was executed by hanging soon after capture in March 1865. Magruder, having been shot in the lungs, was allowed to recover his health, in jail, before he was hanged.