Authors: Martha Hodes
2
. Dorman diary, May 4, 1865.
3
. Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 31 [sic], 1865 (part of Apr. 24 letter), BFP.
4
. Sarah Browne diary, Apr. 17, 21, 22, 1864; Nellie Browne to Albert Browne Jr., Beaufort, S.C., May 14, 1864; Albert Browne Jr. to Nellie Browne, Boston, May 26, 1864; and see correspondence between Nellie Browne and Lewis Weld, May 1864, all BFP.
5
. Sarah Browne diary, May 26, 27, 1865; Alice Browne to Lewis Weld, Salem, Mass., June 27, 1864; Albert Browne to Lewis Weld, Beaufort, S.C., June 1, 1865; Lewis Weld to Nellie Browne, Jacksonville, Fla., June 3, 1864, one of two letters of this date; and see “In
Memoriam: Miss Nellie Browne. Beaufort, S.C., June 2, 1864,” clipping from the
Free South
, Beaufort, S.C., July 2, 1864 (giving her age as twenty-three), all BFP.
6
. Albert Browne Jr. to Lewis Weld, Salem, Mass., June 12, 1864 (God); Sarah Browne diary, June 6, 26, Aug. 28, 1864; Alice Browne to Lewis Weld, Salem, Mass., June 27, 1864, all BFP; and see “Walking with God,” in
The Life and Works of William Cowper
, vol. 8, ed. T. S. Grimshawe (London: Saunders and Otley, 1835), 97. Albert Browne to Lewis Weld, Salem, Mass., June 21, 1864 (thunder bolt); Albert Browne to Lewis Weld, Salem, Mass., June 30, 1864 (blessed), both BFP. Albert Browne to “Rev. Wilson,” Beaufort, S.C., Dec. 6, 1864, Browne Family Additional Papers, SL.
7
. Sarah Browne diary, Apr. 6, May 2, 30, 1865; Sarah Browne to Albert Browne, Salem, Mass., May 31, 1865; Sarah Browne to Albert Browne, Salem, Mass., May 14, 1865; and see Nellie Browne to Albert Browne Jr., Beaufort, S.C., May 14, 1865, all BFP.
8
. Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., June 1, 1865, one of two letters of this date, BFP.
9
.
fondly, blood:
Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address,” Mar. 4, 1865,
CWL
, 8:333;
ultimate:
Drew Gilpin Faust,
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008), 156.
10
.
hardest:
Albert Browne Jr. to Lewis Weld, Boston, June 28, 1864, BFP;
apaling:
Gayle Thornbrough and Paula Corpuz, eds.,
The Diary of Calvin Fletcher
, vol. 9 (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1983), 68 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry);
horrid, distress:
Edward Lear diary, Apr. 26, May 4, 1865, HLH;
should:
George W. Van Horne to John Bigelow, Marseille, France, May 9, 1865, John Bigelow Papers, NYPL.
11
.
rather:
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;
never:
Laudie Henderson to “Luth,” James River, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Duke.
For other comparisons see P. B. S. Nichuston [?] to George Whipple, Roanoke Island, N.C., Apr. 22, 1865, #100001, reel 169, AMA (father and mother), and Mary Ingham Emerson diary, May 28, 1865, Emerson Family Papers, NYPL (father). For a rare expression of Lincoln’s death as worse than a private loss, see Harriett Canfield to Malcolm Canfield, Sunderland, Vt., Apr. 16, 1865, Canfield Papers, NYSL (“This great national calamity overpowers private grief”).
12
.
take:
Wallace Shelton,
Discourse upon the Death of Abraham Lincoln … Delivered in Zion Baptist Church, Cincinnati, Wednesday, April 19, 1865
(Newport, Ky.: W. S. Baily, 1865), 4;
Alfred:
Emilie Davis diary, Dec. 20–23, 1865, HSP and davisdiaries.villanova.edu.
13
.
highest:
Chester dispatch, Richmond, Va., Apr. 10, 1865, in
Thomas Morris Chester: Black Civil War Correspondent—His Dispatches from the Virginia Front
, ed. R. J. M. Blackett (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 303.
14
.
assassinated, five, man, another:
Henry B. James diary, Apr. 15, 20, May 9, 13, 1865, James Papers, MHS;
funerals:
H. H. B. Chambers diary, Apr. 28, 1865, and F. C. Chambers diary, Apr. 23, 1865, Chambers Family Diaries, Princeton;
perfectly:
Walt Whitman to
“Mrs. Irwin,” Washington, D.C., May 1, 1865, available at
whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/med.00310.html
.
Ronald C. White Jr. writes that ministers declared Lincoln “the Civil War’s final casualty”; see
A. Lincoln: A Biography
(New York: Random House, 2009), 675.
15
.
whipped, warmest:
John Payne to W. W. Thomas, near Mobile, Ala., May 26, 1865, and John Payne to uncle, Alexandria, La., July 11, 1865, Payne Papers, Civil War Miscellaneous Letters and Papers, Schomburg; on Payne and his friend Mathias Hutchison of the 32nd Iowa, see Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database, nps.gov/civilwar/soldiers-and-sailors-database.htm;
one, left:
Henry J. Peck to Mary Peck, Richmond, Va., May 23, 1865, and Mary Peck to Henry J. Peck, Jonesville, N.Y., May 26, 1865, Peck Correspondence, NYSL;
strike:
Abial H. Edwards to Anna L. Conant, Darlington, S.C., Sept. 15, 1865, in
“Dear Friend Anna”: The Civil War Letters of a Common Soldier from Maine
, ed. Beverly Hayes Kallgren and James L. Crouthamel (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1992), 137;
bodies, bones:
Heber Painter to Rebecca Frick, Richmond, Va., Apr. 16, 1865, #02016.082, GLC-NYHS; William C. McLean diary, May 15,1865, ts., McLean Family Papers, NYSL; William H. Gilbert diary, May 1–5, 1865, Gilbert-Cheever Family Papers, Yale-Sterling; Rufus Mead Jr. diary, May 15, 1865, Mead Papers, LC;
world:
James Thomas Ward diary, May 1, 1865, Ward Papers, LC.
16
.
sad:
Edward J. Bartlett to Martha Bartlett, South Side Railroad, Va., Apr. 16, 1865, Bartlett Letters, MHS;
many:
D. M. Corthell to William P. Corthell, Savannah, Ga., May 8, 1865, box 1, Civil War Collection, AAS.
17
. “Break It Gently” and “Let Me Kiss Him”: Irwin Silber, comp. and ed.,
Songs of the Civil War
(New York: Bonanza, 1960), 116, 117.
18
.
brother:
Rose Pickard to Alonzo Pickard, Stockton, N.Y., May [n.d.], 1865, and Rose Pickard to Byron Flagg, Alexandria, Va., Apr. 17, 1865 (part of Apr. 14 letter), Pickard Papers, LC.
19
.
deep:
Mary Mellish to George H. Mellish, Woodstock, Vt., Apr. 16, 1865, Mellish Papers, HL;
never:
Elizabeth Blair Lee to Samuel Phillips Lee, Washington, D.C., Apr. 20, 1865, in
Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee
, ed. Virginia Jean Laas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 498;
a live:
Wesley Shaw to parents, Burkeville, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Shaw Letters, NYSL;
you are:
Emily Watkins to Abiathar Watkins, Jersey City, N.J., Apr. 16, 1865, Watkins Papers, NYPL.
20
.
vacancies:
Edward W. Benham to Jennie Benham, Washington, D.C., May 28, 1865, ts., Benham Papers, Duke;
bringing:
William Benjamin Gould diary, May 24, 1865, MHS;
brother:
J. and J. H. John to Bela T. St. John. Genesee, Ill., Mar. 5, Apr. 9, 24, June 5, 1865.
21
.
April 15 deaths:
Amos A. Lawrence diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MHS;
Hale:
Edward Everett Hale diary, Apr. 16, 19, 22, 1865, box 54, Hale Papers, NYSL;
depressed:
William Gray Brooks diary, Apr. 22, 1865, Brooks Papers, MHS. For another related suicide, see E. Gould to John Mead Gould, Portland, Me., Apr. 17, 1865, Gould Papers, Duke.
22
.
Mifflin:
Ruth Anne Hillborn journal, Apr. 22, 1865, Hillborn Papers, FHL;
Otis:
Jennie M. Smith to Mercy Schenck, Syracuse, N.Y., May 7, 1865, Schenck Family Papers, NYSL.
23
.
applicable:
Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 23, 1865, MHS;
vividly:
William Gray Brooks diary, Apr. 29, 1865, Brooks Papers, MHS;
doubly:
Sarah Gould to Charles A. Gould, Lexington, Mass., Apr. 18, 1865, Gould Papers, Duke;
sacrifice:
Ruth Anne Hill-born journal, Apr. 19, 1865, Hillborn Papers, FHL.
24
.
two years:
Laura Rhoades Lamson diary, Apr. 15, 1865, ts., Lamson Papers, SL;
very sad:
Sarah Lydia Gilpin diary, Apr. 19, 20, 24, 1865, #06846.05, GLC-NYHS.
25
.
other:
Sarah Hale to children, Brookline, Mass., Apr. 18, 1865, box 10, Hale Family Papers, SSC;
Neafies:
Anne Neafie to Alfred Neafie, Ellenville, N.Y., Apr. 26, 28, May 1 (part of Apr. 28 letter), 18, 1865, and Alfred Neafie to Anne Neafie, Savannah, Ga., May 5, 13, 1865, Neafie Papers, NYSL.
26
.
husband:
Louisa Walter Bishop Hughes diary, Jan. 15, Apr. 10, 16, 1865, ts., Hughes Papers, SL;
heavy, hope:
Mary Russell to Eunice Stone, Claremont, N.H., Apr. 16, 1865, Margaret Russell to Eunice Stone, Claremont, N.H., Apr. 19, 1865, Lois Wright Richardson Davis Papers, Duke; on this family, see Martha Hodes,
The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2006).
27
.
overwhelming:
Robert E. Lee, “General Order No. 9,” Appomattox, Va., Apr. 10, 1865 (farewell address to the Army of Northern Virginia), Lee Letters and Documents, Museum of the Confederacy, Richmond, Va., available at
moc.org/lee-jackson/lee-letters-and-documents-1865-15
;
so many:
C. Vann Woodward, ed.,
Mary Chesnut’s Civil War
(1981; reprint, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 796 (Apr. 23, 1865, entry);
best:
John Q. Anderson, ed.,
Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861–1868
(1955; reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995), 340 (May 15, 1865, entry).
28
.
depth:
William Gordon plantation journal, May 1, 1865, Gordon Family Papers, ser. E,
part 1
, reel 35, UVA-RSP;
sit:
Nimrod Porter diary, Apr. 29, 1865, Porter Papers, SHC.
29
.
bitterer:
Martha E. Foster Crawford diary, June 17, 1865, ser. H,
part 2
, reel 21, Duke-SWF;
feel:
Cornelia Spencer journal, May 4, 1865, Spencer Papers, ser. A,
part 7
, reel 16, SHC-SWF;
hardships:
Henry Robinson Berkeley diary, June 24, 1865, Berkeley Papers, ser. A, reel 2, VHS-CMM.
30
.
language:
Samuel Thomas McCullough to brother, Johnson’s Island, Ohio, Apr. 24, 1865, Hotchkiss-McCullough Manuscripts, LC.
31
.
avenged:
E. A. Aglionby to cousin, London, May 13, 1865, Frances Walker Yates Aglionby Papers, ser. H,
part 3
, reel 1, Duke-SWF; and see
Encyclopedia Virginia
, s.v. “John Y. Beall,”
EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Beall_John_Y_1835-1865
;
agony:
Elizabeth (Alsop) Wynne diary, Apr. 22, 1865, Wynne Family Papers, ser. D,
part 3
, reel 52, VHS-SWF;
unreturning:
Henry Robinson Berkeley diary, June 24, 1865, Berkeley Papers, ser. A, reel 2, VHS-CMM;
prisoner:
Creed Thomas Davis diary, May 4, 7, 1865, ser. A, reel 13, VHS-CMM;
could not:
[L. C. Gilmore?] to Susan (Dabney) Taylor, “Ingleside,” July 6, 1865, Saunders Family Papers, ser. D,
part 3
, reel 42, VHS-SWF;
drink:
Cloe (Whittle) Greene diary, Apr. 11, 1865, reel 4, WM-AWD-South.
1
.
Poor Mrs. Lincoln:
John Downing Jr. to “My Dear Friend,” [no place], Apr. 26, 1865, in Timothy S. Good,
We Saw Lincoln Shot: One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1995), 68; Helen A. Du Barry to mother, Washington, D.C., Apr. 25, 1865, in “Eyewitness Account of Lincoln’s Assassination,”
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society
39 (1946), 370; Sarah Hale to children, Brookline, Mass., Apr. 18, 1865, box 10, Hale Family Papers, SSC; Samuel Phillips Lee to Elizabeth Blair Lee, Cairo, Ill., Apr. 25, 1865, Blair and Lee Family Papers, Princeton; Susannah A. Milner-Gibson to Jane Poultney Bigelow, Folkestone, England, Apr. 28, 1865, Bigelow Family Papers, NYPL; Maria Lydig Daly,
Diary of a Union Lady, 1861–1865
, ed. Harold Earl Hammond (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1962), 357 (Apr. 25, 1865, entry), xli (Uncle Ape).
2
.
how sad:
Mary Elizabeth Moore to James Otis Moore, Saco, Me., Apr. 16, 1865, Moore Papers, Duke;
Mr. Welles:
Gideon Welles diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Welles Papers, LC;
Tad:
Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 20, 1865, MHS;
tears:
Caroline Barrett White diary, May 4, 1865, White Papers, AAS.
3
.
depth:
Elizabeth Gaskell to Charles Eliot Norton, London, Apr. 28, 1865, in
Letters of Mrs. Gaskell and Charles Eliot Norton, 1855–1865
, ed. Jane Whitehill (London: Oxford University Press, 1932), 123;
sat:
Nellie S. DeLamater to “My Dear Friend,” Schenectady, N.Y., Apr. 24, 1865, box 2, fol. 27, Richard John Levy and Sally Waldman Sweet Collection, NYPL.
4
.
agonizing:
Mrs. Bardwell diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Helen Temple Cooke Papers, SL;
funeral:
Martha Fisher Anderson diary, Apr. 21, 1865, MHS;
train:
William Gray Brooks diary, Apr. 29, 1865, Brooks Papers, MHS;
pistol:
Edgar Welles to George Harrington, Washington, D.C., Apr. [20?], 1865, Harrington Papers, HL;
colored:
“Mansion for Mrs. Lincoln,”
San Francisco Elevator
, Apr. 21, 1865, #4809, BAP.