his 1852 novel The Sword and the Distaff--republished in a slightly revised edition in 1854 under the title Woodcraft--is an example of Anti-Tom literature; these scholars often rely on the readings of Joseph V. Ridgely. Other scholars see Ridgely's reading as faulty, citing an excessive reliance placed on an offhand remark Simms makes in a letter from 1852 and problems with the chronology of Simms's composition of Woodcraft alongside the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Simms was part of a "sacred circle" of southern intellectuals including Edmund Ruffin, James Henry Hammond, Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, and George Frederick Holmes. Together they published numerous articles calling for moral reform of the South, including a stewardship role of masters in relation to slavery. American Civil War and final years During the American Civil War, Simms espoused the side of the Secessionists in a weekly newspaper. Only his eldest son, who shared his name, was old enough to serve in the Confederate army, and because of the common name, his identification as a volunteer or conscript private is unclear. Stragglers from Sherman's army burnt and destroyed Simms' plantation home Woodlands near the South Carolina border, along with 10,000 books and Revolutionary era manuscripts. Other than for the backwoods novel Paddy McGann (1863), Simms published little after the Civil War began. He advised several southern politicians and made elaborate proposals for Confederate military defenses. During the war, he wrote little of literary importance. His family impoverished by the war, Simms took on many writing and editing chores which ruined his health. He compiled an anthology of Southern war poems in 1866. Death and legacy Simms died of cancer at his eldest daughter's home at 13 Society Street in Charleston on June 11, 1870. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery. A large bronze bust of Simms is centrally located in Charleston's Battery Park. The bust was sculpted by John Quincy Adams Ward with a granite base designed by Edward Brickell White. The monument was dedicated in 1879. In 2016, the family had a ceremony honoring him in Hanahan, South Carolina. Posthumous reputation Scholars at DocSouth note Simms's volume of work describes the historic and cultural diversity of the South, from the class hierarchy, sectional self-consciousness and agrarian economy of the Low Country; to both the violence and civilization of the Gulf South (which had both plantations and frontier); and the pioneering of the Appalachian Mountains. David