Mourning Lincoln (48 page)

Read Mourning Lincoln Online

Authors: Martha Hodes

41
.
ceremonies:
“Fort Sumter: Restoration of the Stars and Stripes,”
New York Times
, Apr. 18, 1865; Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 16, 1865, BFP; Wilbert L. Jenkins,
Seizing the New Day: African Americans in Post–Civil War Charleston
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 38–39;
Garrison, Wilson, Thompson:
The Trip of the Steamer Oceanus to Fort Sumter and Charleston, S.C
. (Brooklyn, N.Y.: “The Union” Steam Printing Press, 1865), 96–114 (“regards,” 114);
elated:
William Lloyd Garrison Jr. to Martha Coffin Wright, Boston, Apr. 25, 1865, box 56, Garrison Family Papers, SSC;
cheered:
Laura Towne to unknown, Saint Helena Island, S.C., Apr. 23, 1865, in
Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862–1884
, ed. Rupert Sargent Holland (1912; reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 159;
gun salute:
John Wesley Marshall diary, Apr. 14, 1865, LC;
other celebrations:
Frank S. Mckey to Samuel W. Very, Boston, Apr. 18, 1865, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Princeton;
same flag:
Samuel Canby diary, Apr. 14, 1865, DHS;
traitors:
Daniel Franklin Child diary, Apr. 14, 1865, Child Papers, MHS.

42
.
suppose:
Emma F. LeConte diary, Apr. 13, 1865, reel 22, SHC-AWD-South.

43
.
letters:
Nathan Seymour to Thomas Day Seymour, Hudson, Ohio, Apr. 13, 1865,
Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling;
unparalleled:
Caroline Barrett White diary, Apr. 10, 1865, White Papers, AAS;
inscribed:
Amos A. Lawrence diary, Apr. 6, 9, 1865, MHS;
fast, written:
Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 16, 1865, BFP;
changes:
Emma F. LeConte diary, Apr. 13, 1865, reel 22, SHC-AWD-South;
brain:
Mary (Cabell) Early diary, Apr. 9, 1865, Early Family Papers, ser. D,
part 3
, reel 14, VHS-SWF;
never:
Margaret (Brown) Wight diary, Apr. 2, 1865, Wight Family Papers, ser. D,
part 1
, reel 21, VHS-SWF.

44
.
sundown:
Trip of the Steamer Oceanus
, 84;
above:
Sarah Browne diary, Apr. 14, 1865, BFP;
joy:
Amos A. Lawrence diary, Apr. 17, 1865, MHS.

Interlude: Rumors

1
.
grapevine:
Joel Calvin McDiarmid diary, Apr. 5, 1865, in
Voices from Company D: Diaries by the Greensboro Guards, Fifth Alabama Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia
, ed. G. Ward Hubbs (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003), 368;
latest, Madam:
Samuel Pickens diary, Apr. 16, 17, 30, 1865, in Hubbs,
Voices from Company D
, 372, 373;
Madam, grapevine:
Henry Clay Weaver to Cornelia S. Wiley, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 19, 28, 1865, Weaver Papers, LC;
Grant:
William Hamilton to mother, Nottaway Court House, Va., Apr. 25, 1865 (part of Apr. 24 letter), Hamilton Papers, LC;
Stanton:
William Williston Heartsill,
Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army
, ed. Bell Irvin Wiley (1876; reprint, Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercer, 1954), 242–43 (May 7, 1865, entry), ACWLD;
Sewards:
Numerous letters and diaries discuss the Seward deaths;
Tad:
Samuel Pickens diary, Apr. 16, 1865, in Hubbs,
Voices from Company D
, 372.

2
.
shot:
Henry Morrill to C. Henry Albers, Memphis, Tenn., Apr. 15, 1865, Morrill Papers, Western Americana, Yale-Beinecke;
traced:
Lyman P. Spencer diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Spencer Papers, LC;
hardly:
“Civil War Diary of James Wesley Riley: Who Served with the Union Army in the War Between the States, April 22, 1861–June 18, 1865,” ts. (C. W. Denslinger, 1960), 103 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry);
hope:
Allen H. Babcock diary, Apr. 16, 1865, Babcock Papers, NYSL;
swore:
Henry J. Peck to Mary Peck, Appomattox Court House, Va., Apr. 16, 1865, Peck Correspondence, NYSL;
Sheridan:
Samuel Comfort to George Comfort, Nottaway Station, Va., Apr. 16, 1865, Comfort Papers, Princeton;
noon:
Thomas Day Seymour to Nathan Seymour, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling;
camp story:
Warren Goodale to children, in and around Petersburg, Va., Apr. 15ff., 1865, Goodale Papers, MHS;
rumor makers:
Chauncey Welton to parents, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 19, 1865, Welton Papers, SHC;
rumor, dead, alive:
E. P. Failing diary, Apr. 17, 18, 1865, Failing-Knight Papers, MHS;
wires:
Mary Ann Anderson, ed.,
The Civil War Diary of Allen Morgan Geer: Twentieth Regiment, Illinois Volunteers
(Denver: R. C. Appleman, 1977), 215 (Apr. 17, 1865, entry).

3
.
lowered flag:
Creed Thomas Davis diary, Apr. 18, 1865, ser. A, reel 13, VHS-CMM;
slavery:
Norman D. Brown, ed.,
One of Cleburne’s Command: The Civil War Reminiscences and Diary of Capt. Samuel T. Foster, Granbury’s Texas Brigade, CSA
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980), 165–66 (Apr. 19, 1865, entry);
April Fools:
Eliza F. Andrews,
The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864–1865
(New York: D. Appleton, 1908), 172 (Apr.
21, 1865, entry), DocSouth, docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/andrews/menu.html;
Johnson:
Samuel A. Agnew diary, Apr. 21, 22, 23, 1865, SHC, available at
www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/a
/Agnew, Samuel_A.html#, and Heartsill,
Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days
, 242–43 (May 7, 1865, entry), ACWLD;
theatric:
John F. Marszalek, ed.,
The Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 1861–1866
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), 436 (Apr. 22, 1865, entry);
reports:
Kate Cumming,
Kate: The Journal of a Confederate Nurse
, ed. Richard Barksdale Harwell (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998), 275 (Apr. 22, 1865, entry), NAWLD.

4
.
float:
James William Latta diary, Apr. 25, 1865, Latta Papers, LC;
all kinds:
John Whitten diary, Apr. 26, 1865, LC;
unlikeliness:
“From the Regiments,” letter from “M.F.,” 11th U.S. Heavy Artillery, Fort Banks, La., Apr. 12 [sic], 1865,
New York Anglo-African
, published May 20, 1865;
Congress:
Eleanor H. Cohen diary, Apr. 30, 1865, in
Memoirs of American Jews, 1775–1865
, 3 vols., ed. Jacob Rader Marcus (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955), 3:366, NAWLD;
not prove:
John Johnston, “Personal Reminiscence of the Civil War, 1861–1865,” diary transcriptions, Apr. 28, 1865, Johnston Papers, SHC.

5
.
Grover’s:
James Tanner to Henry Walch, Washington, D.C., Apr. 17, 1865, in “Documents: The Assassination of President Lincoln, 1865,”
American Historical Review
29 (1924), 514;
awakened:
Annie G. Dudley Davis diary, Apr. 15, 1865, HL;
messenger:
Gideon Welles diary, Apr. 15, 1865, and “Copy. M. J. Welles. 14 April ‘65,” box 41, fol. marked “Welles, Mary Hale, correspondence,” Welles Papers, LC.

6
.
Stonehouse:
John B. Stonehouse to John B. Stonehouse Jr., Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, #00368, GLC-NYHS;
lamp:
photograph of Ford’s Theatre, 1865, #LCB8184-7765, LC.

Chapter 2. Shock

1
. Sarah Browne to Albert Browne, Salem, Mass., Apr. 20, 1865, both letters of this date, BFP.

2
. Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Hilton Head Island, S.C., Apr. 18, 1865, BFP.

orders:
W. A. Nichols, assistant adjutant general, in B. F. Morris,
Memorial Record of the Nation’s Tribute to Abraham Lincoln
(Washington, D.C.: W. H. and O. H. Morrison, 1865), 112.

3
. Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 21, 1865, BFP.

4
.
Harris and Rathbone:
Clara Harris to “Mary,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 25, 1865, NYHS. See also “Affidavit of Major Rathbone” and “Affidavit of Miss Harris,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 17, 1865, in Morris,
Memorial Record
, 42–44.

5
.
reserved:
R. B. Milliken to “Friend Byron,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, #54, Lincoln Room Miscellaneous Papers, HLH;
whim:
Charles A. Sanford to Edward Payson Goodrich, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, in “Two Letters on the Event of April 14, 1865,”
Bulletin of the William L. Clements Library of American History
47 (Feb. 12, 1946), facsimile, n.p.;
sleeping:
Julia Adelaide Shepard to father, near Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, in “Lincoln’s Assassination Told by an Eye-Witness,”
Century Magazine
77
(1909), 918;
cannot:
Frederick A. Sawyer, “Account of what I saw of the Death of Mr. Lincoln written April 15, 1865,” in “An Eyewitness Account of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination,” ed. Ronald D. Rietveld,
Civil War History
22 (1976), 62.

6
.
Meigs:
Minerva Rodgers to Robert Rodgers, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, Denison-Rodgers Family Papers, Mystic;
hospital:
[M. S. Tilton?] to Georgina Lowell, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, Francis Cabot Lowell Papers, MHS.

7
.
infantry and cavalry:
J. Thoman to “Henrietta,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, in Thomas F. Schwartz, “Grief, Souvenirs, and Enterprise Following Lincoln’s Assassination,”
Illinois Historical Journal
83 (1990), 260; [M. S. Tilton?] to Georgina Lowell, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, Francis Cabot Lowell Papers, MHS;
commotion:
Augustus Clark to S. M. Allen, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, accompanying scrap of bloodstained towel used for Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre, Special Collections, MHS;
cavalry, crowd:
Julia Adelaide Shepard to father, near Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, in “Lincoln’s Assassination,” 918;
crowd:
Charles F. Conant to “Hattie,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, ML; James S. Knox to father, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, ser. 3: General Correspondence, Abraham Lincoln Papers, LC, available at memory.loc. gov/ammem/alhtml/alser.html;
black residents:
Gideon Welles diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Welles Papers, LC; Charles A. Sanford to Edward Payson Goodrich, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, in “Two Letters,” n.p.

8
.
good president, finish war:
Jane Swisshelm to
St. Cloud Democrat
, Washington, D.C., Apr. 17, 1865 (published Apr. 27, 1865), in
Crusader and Feminist: Letters of Jane Grey Swisshelm, 1858–1865
, ed. Arthur J. Larsen (Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1934), 287.

9
.
dead, intense, painfully:
Gideon Welles diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Welles Papers, LC.

10
.
preparations, horror:
Benjamin Brown French to Frank O. French, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 24, 1865, French Papers, LC. See also Benjamin Brown French,
Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee’s Journal, 1828–1870
, ed. Donald B. Cole and John J. McDonough (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1989), 469–70 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry).

11
.
telegraph:
George B. Todd to Henry P. Todd, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, McClellan Lincoln Collection, Brown; Ellen Kean to Mary Kean, New York, Apr. 16, 1865, in
Death and Funeral of Abraham Lincoln … in Two Long Descriptive Letters from Mrs. Ellen Kean, the Actress, whilst Touring the United States in 1865
(London: Privately printed, 1921), 14; Caroline Dunstan diary, Apr. 15, 1865, NYPL;
terrible news:
Berkshire Courier
, Apr. 15, 1865.

12
.
ma’am:
Ellen Kean to “Miss Sherritt,” Baltimore, May 13ff., 1865, in
Death and Funeral of Abraham Lincoln
, 21;
Mr. Clapp:
William Warland Clapp diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Clapp Diaries and Correspondence, HLH;
Mrs. Dall:
Caroline Dall to “John,” Boston, Apr. 20, 1865, Dall Papers, SL, and Caroline Dall journal, Apr. 22, 1865, vol. J27, Dall Papers, MHS; for transmission by servants, see also Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MHS (a servant “said there were bad news afloat”); “Carrie” to sister, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, box 2, fol. 27, Richard John Levy and Sally Waldman Sweet Collection,
NYPL (“The news of the President’s Murder by J. Wilkes Booth was brought me by the Servants before daylight yesterday morning”); and Edward Everett Hale to Charles Hale, Boston, Apr. 15, 1865, box 6, Hale Papers, NYSL (“The news was brought into our house by the man who makes the fire”);
telegraphic column:
“Rebecca” to Jane Wigglesworth Grew, Boston, Apr. 16, 1865, Grew Correspondence, MHS;
bells:
Amos A. Lawrence diary, Apr. 14, 1865, MHS; Sarah Hale to children, Brookline, Mass., Apr. 18, 1865, box 10, Hale Family Papers, SSC; Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MHS.

13
.
neighbors:
Mrs. Bardwell diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Helen Temple Cooke Papers, SL; Emily Watkins to Abiathar Watkins, Jersey City, N.J., Apr. 16, 1865, Watkins Papers, NYPL;
window:
Martha Fisher Anderson diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MHS.

For a rare example of staying inside, see Mary Dreer diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Edwin Greble Papers, LC.

14
.
terrible:
Charles H. Mallory diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Mallory Family Collection, GWBW;
horrible:
Lucy McKim to Wendell Phillips Garrison, Philadelphia, Apr. 17, 1865, box 49, Garrison Family Papers, SSC.

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