Mourning Lincoln (58 page)

9
.
gardens:
Abbie Clarke Stimson diary, Apr. 14, 1865, ser. C,
part 2
, reel 16, RIHS-NWF; Patty Bartlett Sessions diary, Apr. 17, 1865, ts., reel 15, Utah-AWD-West;
socks:
Mary Dreer diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Edwin Greble Papers, LC;
ironing:
Mrs. Bardwell diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Helen Temple Cooke Papers, SL;
walls:
Ann Buckingham diary, Apr. 22, 1865, box 7, vol. 15, Shaker Collection, NYSL;
dyeing:
Omelia Bouton diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Bouton Family Diaries, NYSL;
chimneys, poultices:
Elizabeth Rogers Mason Cabot diary, Apr. 20, May 4, 1865, MHS;
curtains:
Sarah Lydia Gilpin diary, Apr. 29, 1865, #06846.05, GLC-NYHS;
injuries:
Lydia Lyman Paine diary, Apr. 27, 1865, Robert Treat Paine Papers II, MHS;
ploughing:
F. C. Chambers diary, Apr. 20, 1865, Chambers Family Diaries, Princeton.

10
.
fainted:
Mary Elizabeth Moore to James Otis Moore, Saco, Me., Apr. 15, 1865, Moore Papers, Duke;
feel like, sew:
Margaret B. Howell diary, Apr. 17, 18, 1865, HSP;
cleaning:
Caroline Dall journal, Apr. 22, 1865, vol. J27, Dall Papers, MHS;
busy:
Caroline Barrett White diary, Apr. 20, 1865, White Papers, AAS;
dare not:
Harriett Canfield to Malcolm Canfield, Sunderland, Vt., Apr. 16, 1865, NYSL;
gave out:
James C. Mohr and Richard E. Winslow, eds.,
The Cormany Diaries: A Northern Family in the Civil War
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), 543, 545 (Apr. 15, 21, 1865, entries).

11
.
planted, funeral:
Ebenezer Paul diary, Apr. 14, 19, 1865, vol. 2, Henry F. Howe Collection II, MHS.

12
.
shipbuilder:
James A. Latham journal, Apr. 14, 19, passim, 1865, Latham Papers, GWBW;
lawyer:
Porter and Warren to George Frisbie Hoar, Boston, Apr. 18, 1865, Hoar Papers, MHS;
writer:
Bayard Taylor to George Palmer Putnam, Kennett Square, Pa., Apr. 28, 1865, HM14640, HL;
presume:
L. S. Currier to H. C. Rowley, Cincinnati, Apr. 15, 1865, Currier and Co. Papers, AAS;
how much:
Edward Everett Hale to Charles Hale, Boston, May 2, 1865, box 6, Hale Papers, NYSL.

13
.
died:
William H. Lightner diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MDHS;
rations:
George H. Butler diary, Apr. 17, 18, 19, 1865, #00794, GLC-NYHS;
lame:
Henry O. Perry diary, Apr. 17, 1865, NYHS;
hospital:
Henry B. James diary, Apr. 15, 1865, James Papers, MHS.

14
.
news, Lisbon, politics:
William Benjamin Gould diary, May 6, 7, June 14, 16, 1865, MHS.

15
.
Susie:
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), 259.

16
.
undershirts:
Alfred Neafie to Anne Neafie, Savannah, Ga., Apr. 19, 1865, Neafie Papers, NYSL;
sugar:
La Motte K. Devendorf to Jerusha Devendorf, Morehead City, N.C., Apr. 23, 1865, Devendorf Family Papers, NYSL;
boots:
Jacob Henry Enders to parents and sister, Summit Point, Va., Apr. 20, 1865, ts., Enders Papers, NYSL;
farm:
Horace O. Gilmore to Lucy Gilmore, Petersburg, Va., Apr. [15], 1865, Gilmore Papers, NYSL;
arm:
E. P. Grover to Josiah Wood, Washington, D.C., May 12, 1865, Wood Papers, Duke;
overcoat:
Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to parents, City Point, Va., Apr. 20, 1865, ts., Erving-King
Papers, NYHS;
snake:
James McHue to family, Pleasant Valley, Md., Apr. 17, 1865, McHue Letters, NYSL.

17
.
relate:
D. H. Jacques,
How to Write: A Pocket Manual of Composition and Letter-Writing
(New York: Fowler and Wells, 1857), 65;
too deep:
“Rebecca” to Jane Wigglesworth Grew, Boston, May 14, 1865, Grew Correspondence, MHS;
minutiae:
Martha Coffin Wright to Ellen W. Garrison, Auburn, N.Y., Apr. 19, 1865, box 261, Garrison Family Papers, SSC.

18
.
nervous, finished:
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), 369, 370.

19
.
heart:
Charles Nye to mother, Worcester, Mass., Apr. 18, 1865, Nye Family Papers, Duke;
refuses:
“Eliz.” to “Geo.,” Cambridge, Mass., Apr. 16, 1865, Wigglesworth Family Papers, MHS;
mania:
Martha Thomas, “Synopsis of Record,” case #3245, entry 66, July 16, 1872, box 11, stack area 12W2A, RG418, Records of Saint Elizabeths Hospital, NARA (I thank Ashley Bowen-Murphy, Brown University, for transcribing and sharing this document);
poor, troubled:
Emily Watkins to Abiathar Watkins, Jersey City, N.J., Apr. 16, May 11, 1865, Watkins Papers, NYPL.

20
.
black line:
“Carrie” to sister, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, box 2, fol. 27, Richard John Levy and Sally Waldman Sweet Collection, NYPL;
cease:
“Rebecca” to Jane Wigglesworth Grew, Boston, Apr. 18, 1865 (part of Apr. 16 letter), Grew Correspondence, MHS;
written:
Helen M. Blake to Mary Ingham Emerson, Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 1865, Emerson Family Papers, NYPL.

21
.
prevented, hardly:
Sarah Hale to Charles Hale, Brookline, Mass., Apr. 28, June 9, 1865, box 11, Hale Family Papers, SSC.

22
.
Ellie, last week:
William Lloyd Garrison Jr. diary, Apr. 15, 16, 1865, box 34, and William Lloyd Garrison Jr. to Martha Coffin Wright, Roxbury, Mass., Apr. 16, 1865, box 56, Garrison Family Papers, SSC.

23
.
wrong:
Harriett Canfield to Malcolm Canfield Sunderland, Vt., Apr. 16, 1865, Canfield Papers, NYSL;
trifling:
Caroline Butler Laing to Mary Butler Reeves, Brooklyn, N.Y., Apr. 21, 1865, Butler-Laing Family Papers, NYHS;
sacrilege:
James Garfield to Lucretia Garfield, New York, Apr. 17, 1865, in
Crete and James: Personal Letters of Lucretia and James Garfield
, ed. John Shaw (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994), 218.

24
.
very sad:
Emilie Davis diary, Apr. 15, 1865, and see Apr. 17–19, 24–26, 1865, HSP and davisdiaries.villanova.edu.

25
.
whist:
Annie P. Chadwick diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Chadwick Family Papers, NYSL;
croquet, jackstraws:
William Lloyd Garrison Jr. diary, Apr. 24, May 3, 1865, box 34, Garrison Family Papers, SSC;
shopping:
F. C. Chambers diary, May 1865, Chambers Family Diaries, Princeton;
dances, balls:
Martha Fisher Anderson diary, Apr. 22, 1865, MHS; Margaret B. Howell diary, Apr. 26, 1865, HSP;
circus:
Charles Edward French diary, Apr. 25, 1865, French Diaries and Papers, MHS;
solemn, billiards:
Mary S. Elliot diary, Apr. 19, 20, 21, 1865, Robinson-Elliot Papers, DHS;
evil:
James Thomas Ward diary, Apr. 14, 21, 1865, Ward Papers, LC;
resist:
Ellis Hughes diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Hughes-Gray Family
Papers, Duke;
grief:
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), 17.

26
.
weeping, funniest:
Lizzie Niles diary, Apr. 16, 17, 1865, NYSL;
talk, dream:
Joanita Kant, ed.,
Maggie: The Civil War Diary of Margaret Wylie Mellette
(Watertown, S.Dak.: Mellette Memorial Association, 1983), 20, 22 (Apr. 16, 19, 1865, entries);
delightful:
Henry Wirt Shriver diary, Apr. 16, 1865, Shriver Family Papers, MDHS;
how sad:
Maria H. Thomas diary, May 28, 1865, NYSL.

27
.
flirtation:
Edgar Dinsmore to Carrie Drayton, Saint Andrews Parish, S.C., May 29, 1865, Dinsmore Papers, Duke.

28
.
fair:
William L. Mead to Louisa White, Charleston, S.C., Apr. 19, 1865, ts., George Cornwell Correspondence, MDHS;
summers:
Nelson Palmer to Mercy Schenck, [no place], Apr. 23, 1865, Schenck Family Papers, NYSL;
Miss Montgomery:
Henry Adams to “Caro amico mio” [Charles Milnes Gaskell], Rome and Florence, May 10, 1865 (part of Apr. 23 letter), in
The Letters of Henry Adams
, ed. J. C. Levenson et al. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982), 493.

29
.
shut:
“Frank” to Henry C. Morgan, Tiffin, Ohio, Apr. 19, 1865, Morgan-Parry Family Papers, BHS.

30
.
midst:
Nathan Appleton Jr. to Harriet Appleton, Nottoway Court House, Va., Apr. 25, 1865, Appleton Family Papers, MHS;
much:
Henry Adams to “Caro amico mio” [Charles Milnes Gaskell], Rome and Florence, May 10, 1865 (part of Apr. 23 letter), in Levenson et al.,
Letters of Henry Adams
, 493.

31
.
infinite:
Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” in
Sequel to Drum-Taps
(Washington, D.C., 1865–66), 8, available at
whitmanarchive.org/published/other/DrumTapsSequel.html
.

32
.
blues:
John Johnston, “Personal Reminiscence of the Civil War, 1861–1865,” diary transcriptions, May 17, 1865, Johnston Papers, SHC.

33
.
produce:
E. R. Harmanson to “Prince,” Red River, La., Apr. 23, 1865, Albert A. Batchelor Papers, ser. B,
part 5
, reel 1, LSU-RSPE;
delightful:
Daniel E. Sutherland, ed.,
A Very Violent Rebel: The Civil War Diary of Ellen Renshaw House
(Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1996), 165 (May 25, 1865, entry);
engaged:
niece to aunt, Charlottesville, Va., June 14, 1865 (part of May 15 letter), Minor-Wilson Family Papers, ser. G,
part 2
, reel 33, UVA-SWF;
distraction, heart:
Elizabeth (Alsop) Wynne diary, May 29, June 14, 26, 1865, Wynne Family Papers, ser. D,
part 3
, reel 52, VHS-SWF.

34
.
mourning, property, free, restless:
Nancy McDougall Robinson diary, undated late May entry [“Friday”?], May 29, June 7, July 1, 1865, Robinson Collection, ser. N, reel 17, MDAH-RSP;
dark:
Eva B. Jones to Mary Jones, Augusta, Ga., June 13, 1865, in
The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War
, ed. Robert Manson Myers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 1273–74.

35
.
life, chair:
Cornelia Spencer journal, May 7, June 8, 1865, Spencer Papers, ser. A,
part 7
, reel 16, SHC-SWF;
rooms:
“Frank” to Henry C. Morgan, Tiffin, Ohio, Apr. 19, 1865, Morgan-Parry Family Papers, BHS.

36
.
heaven:
Elizabeth (Alsop) Wynne diary, Apr. 22, 1865 (see also July 12, 1865), Wynne Family Papers, ser. D,
part 3
, reel 52, VHS-SWF;
drive:
Creed Thomas Davis diary, May 5, 1865, ser. A, reel 13, VHS-CMM;
suicide:
William Kauffman Scarborough, ed.,
The Diary of Edmund Ruffin: A Dream Shattered, June, 1863–June, 1865
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 884, 892, 873, 935, 946 (May 9, 16, 1, June 16–18, 1865, entries).

1
.
Uncle Sam:
Edward Williams Morley to Sardis Morley, Fortress Monroe, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Morley Papers, LC;
ceasing:
Mary S. Pond to George Whipple, Portsmouth, Va., May 13 1865, #H1-7147, reel 210, AMA;
tearful, weight:
H. C. Percy to George Whipple, Norfolk, Va., May 7, 1865, #H1-7112-16, reel 210, AMA;
dead:
Lizzie [no last name], “Letter from Morristown, Ohio,”
Christian Recorder
, May 27, 1865.

2
.
ball:
Edward Sanford Martin diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Throop and Martin Family Papers, Princeton;
books, houses:
Grenville H. Norcross diary, Apr. 15, 1865, AAS.

3
.
try:
Harriett Canfield to Malcolm Canfield, Sunderland, Vt., Apr. 16, 1865, Canfield Papers, NYSL;
good:
“Rebecca” to Jane Wigglesworth Grew, Boston, May 24, 1865, Grew Correspondence, MHS;
ain’t, dead:
Frances Owens diary, May 2, 1865, ts., CHM.

Johnson:
Hope R. Daggett to George Whipple, Norfolk, Va., Apr. [n.d.], 1865, #H1-7058, reel 210, AMA;
catch:
“Maggie!”: Maggie Lindsley’s Journal, Nashville, Tennessee, 1864, Washington, D.C. 1865
(Southbury, Conn.: Muriel Davies Mackenzie, 1977), 86 (Apr. 23, 1865, entry).

4
.
dismal:
Carrie Hunter to Kate Hunter, Newport, R.I., Apr. 15, 1865, Hunter Family Papers, ser. B,
part 2
, reel 36, NHS-NWF;
weeping, flirtation:
Georgiana Gordon King diary, Apr. 15, 17, 1865, King Family Papers, ser. B,
part 2
, reel 40, NHS-NWF.

5
.
sit:
Emma F. LeConte diary, May 17, 1865, reel 22, SHC-AWD-South.

1
. Dorman diary, May 2, 1865. Drew Gilpin Faust writes, “Confederate men died at a rate three times that of their Yankee counterparts; one in five white southern men of military age did not survive the Civil War”; see “Death and Dying,” available at
nps.gov/history/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/death.html
.