Her Father's Son (1916)

Frances Fletcher is the daughter and only child of John Fletcher, the poor brother of wealthy William Fletcher. A quarrel has long separated the two brothers, but in his old age, rich Southern planter William writes to John, saying that he has heard of John's youngster and would like to adopt "him" as his own son to be co-heir with his only child, Betty, who is about the same age. Dying after being crushed by a tree, John Fletcher binds Frances with the promise to go to her uncle's masquerading as a boy, Francis. Accompanied by Mammy Chloe, "Francis" goes to her uncle's wonderful Southern home. Francis does not come up to her uncle's expectation of what a fire-eating Southern gentleman should be, but she does make a warm friend of Cousin Betty. The night of Betty's coming-out ball, Francis dresses up as a girl in the crinolines of the period and Lieut. Richard Harkness, a West Pointer, believing her "Betty's girl-cousin from St Louis," falls desperately in love with her. In the midst of the gaiety a courier brings the news of the Southern States seceding. It turns friend against friend. Her Southern sympathies get Francis into many difficulties for she masquerades as a spy and deceives her lover, Union officer Richard Harkness. But when everything seems wrong and Francis is challenged for "the satisfaction due a gentleman" by Harkness, on the field of honor appears Southern beauty Frances Fletcher, and learning all, Harkness wins the hand and heart of the South's fairest.