28 “He was dressed”: TR Sr., Russian journal, Aug. 24, 1851 (WSCC).
28 The gilt Russian and sledge on the square of malachite is one of the numerous original pieces to be seen in the restoration of the 20th Street house. Its value in the eyes of the children is described by TR in his Autobiography (page 8).
29 James Alfred’s marriage to an Emlen does the family fortune “no harm”: P. James Roosevelt to the author.
29 Chemical Bank meets obligations in gold: Cobb, 46. See also, History of the Chemical Bank, 111.
29 Broadway Improvement Association: Cobb, 46.
29 Weir Roosevelt responds to Gallaxy article: N.Y. Times, Apr. 25, 1868.
29 “where such a thing as sentiment”: TR Sr. to MBR, Aug. 18, 1853.
29 Bookkeepers views: TR Sr. to MBR, Aug. 2, 1853.
30 TR Sr. scales the Treasury Building: TR Sr. to MBR, Feb. 2, 1860.
30 “Whatever he had to do”: Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.). Memorial Meeting, 25.
30 “maniacal benevolence”: John Hay to TR Sr., Feb. 4, 1862 (WSCC).
30 “as much as I enjoy loafing”: TR Sr. to MBR, June 29, 1873.
30 Twenty thousand homeless children: Brace, 31.
30 Clean bed for five cents: Lynch, 269-70.
30 Brace sees society threatened: First Report of the Children’s Aid Society (1854), quoted in the N.Y. Times, Feb. 21, 1869.
31 Approach taken by the Children’s Aid Society: 16th Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society (1869), quoted in the N.Y. Times, Feb. 21, 1869.
31 “troublesome conscience”: Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.). Memorial Meeting, 26.
31 “He knew them by name”: ibid., 24.
31 Friends take out checkbooks: Riis, 447. One foresees saving a thousand dollars: Nation, Feb. 14, 1878.
31 TR Sr.’s feelings for New York: TR Sr. to MBR, Sept. 28, 1873.
32 Original charter for the American Museum of Natural History approved in 20th Street parlor: Bickmore, 12.
32 “Professor, New York wants a museum”: ibid., 17.
32 TR Sr.’s “rich power of enjoyment”: Brace, 325.
32 TR Sr. on horseback: Rev. Henry C. Potter, quoted in the N.Y. Tribune, Feb. 18, 1878.
32 “I amused myself”: quoted in Putnam, 41.
32 TR Sr.’s fondness for yellow roses: Robinson, 207.
32 “The city is deserted”: TR Sr. to MBR, July 10, 1873.
33 “just my ideal”: E to TR Sr., Mar. 6, 1875 (FDRL).
33 Morning prayers on the sofa: TR, Autobiography, 13-14.
33 Lessons on climbing trees: Robinson, 8.
33 Preachment on accepting the love of others: ibid., 88.
33 “I always believe in showing affection”: TR Sr. to B, July 31, 1868.
33 TR Sr. on unselfishness: Robinson, 88.
34 Hatred of idleness: TR, Autobiography, 11-12.
34 “never . . . become an oyster”: TR Sr. to Mrs. J. A. Roosevelt, Dec. 25, 1851 (WSCC).
34 “I think I did it”: quoted in Putnam, 31.
34 “singular compound”: Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.). Memorial Meeting, 47.
34 Fear of father: TR to Edward Sanford Martin, Nov. 26, 1900, Letters, II, 1443.
34 “Come now, and follow me”: Bunyan, 269.
34 “never was anyone so wonderful”: B reminiscences.
35 “uneasy about her back”: MSB to Susan West, Apr. 29,1858(?).
35 Care for Bamie: In a letter to Susan West dated Dec. 1858, Grandmamma Bulloch writes: “We get up and have breakfast. At ten, or half past ten, Dr. Davis comes to adjust the apparatus. Then stories must be told or stories read all of the time during the operation to keep her from crying. Under her arms, her back and chest are bathed first with water, and then alum and water to prevent chafing. Then the abscess has to be washed with castile soap and water and greased. . . . Then the Dr. puts on the apparatus again. She then has her lunch and is put to bed to take a little nap. Sometimes she sleeps, sometimes she does not. At one she is taken up and changed, takes her dinner at two, then goes out a little while if the weather is good. When she comes in again it requires constant effort to amuse her and keep her quiet. In the evening about half past seven she goes through the same process with the apparatus as in the morning except Thee fixes her instead of the Dr. Then she is put to bed and I rub her little legs until she goes to sleep.”
35 TR Sr. and Bamie: B reminiscences.
36 Charles Fayette Taylor and the “movement cure”: article in The Stethoscope (published by the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center), Dec. 1956; MSB to Susan West, Aug. 22, 1859. See also, DAB.
36 Ram’s wool for back: interview with W. Sheffield Cowles, Jr.
36 Bamie’s appearance: E. Roosevelt, This Is My Story, 57.
36 “Poor little thing”: TR Sr. to MBR, May 31 [n.d.].
36 Abraham Lincoln’s lap: interview with W. Sheffield Cowles, Jr.
36 TR Sr. and Bamie’s photograph: TR Sr. to B, Sept. 10, 1873.
37 “Try to cultivate”: TR Sr. to B, undated.
37 Teedie punished: TR, Autobiography, 10.
37 “When I put ’We 3’”: TR, Diaries of Boyhood, 11.
37 Ellie gives away his coat: E. Roosevelt, Hunting Big Game, IX.
37 “ardent” blue eyes: Parsons, 18.
37 “great little home-boy”: Robinson, 45.
37 “quiet patrician air”: MBR to Anna Gracie, June 14, 1869.
38 “My mouth opened wide”: TR to MBR, Apr. 28,1868, Letters, I, 3. This is the earliest known letter by TR.
38 TR’s natural history collection: TR, “Record of the Roosevelt Museum” (TRC).
38 TR Sr. walks the floor with TR: TR, Autobiography, 15; TR to Edward Sanford Martin, Nov. 26, 1900, Letters, II, 1443.
39 Influence of Hilborne West: Robinson, 54.
40 CVS goes to the kitchen: TR Sr. to MBR, Aug. 28, 1853.
40 “careful . . . in chance acquaintances”: TR Sr. to E, Jan. 6, 1877 (FDRL).
2. LADY FROM THE SOUTH
With few exceptions almost everything published about Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt has been superficial and misleading. It is mainly in her own unpublished correspondence—letters numbering in the many hundreds to her husband, children, and sister Anna—that she emerges as a person of vivid personality and great interest. Of her children’s published recollections the most sympathetic and admiring are those of Corinne in My Brother Theodore Roosevelt.
For background details on the Conscription Act and the entire substitute system during the Civil War, the author is indebted to the late Bruce Catton.
page
41 Roosevelts “cling to the fixed”: N.Y. World, Feb. 11, 1878.
41 CVS sees move uptown as final: ibid.
42 James Alfred’s fondness for waffles: reminiscences of his son Emlen, private collection of Mrs. Philip J. Roosevelt.
42 Claes Martenszen known as Shorty: Cobb, 9.
42 Rev. Archibald Stobo arrives at Charleston: Pringle, 8; also Wallace, 57.
43 “even a French strain of blood”: B reminiscences.
43 Mystery surrounding Archibald Bulloch’s grave: Harden, 55.
43 Bulloch family history can be found in The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia, XV, 1907; J. G. B. Bulloch, A History and Genealogy of the Families of Bulloch and Stobo and of Irvine of Cults; B reminiscences; and in the biographical notes provided by Robert Manson Myers in his monumental The Children of Pride.
44 “The relationships in Savannah”: Anna Gracie to MBR, Apr. 8, 1858.
44 Background on Roswell has been drawn from Leckie, Georgia; Martin, Roswell; and Temple, First Hundred Years.
45 “Exposure to cold and rain”: quoted in Temple, 109.
45 Barrington Hall: Like Bulloch Hall, indeed like most of the old Roswell mansions, Barrington Hall still stands, looks very much as it did in Mittie’s day.
46 Corinne Elliott Hutchison lost on the Pulaski: Myers, Children of Pride, 1559.
46 Story of Bear Bo
b: TR, Autobiography, 7.
46 “It was all so picturesque”: B reminiscences.
46 Bulloch slaves: Seventh Census of U.S., 1850, Georgia Slave Schedule.
47 Daddy Luke, Mom Charlotte, Toy, and Bess: B reminiscences.
47 Daniel Stuart Elliott kills his “little shadow”: ibid.
47 Battle between the slave and the cougar: TR, Hunting Trips, 22-23.
47 Duel with Tom Daniell: Gamble, 249-56.
48 Gilbert Moxley Sorrel “the best staff officer”: quoted in Myers, Children of Pride, 1682.
48 “In the roomy old home”: Robinson, 10.
48 “none . . . had any particular education”: B reminiscences.
49 “more moonlight-white”: Robinson, 18.
49 Friends’ descriptions of Mittie: condolence letters to B, Feb. 1884 (TRC).
49 Margaret Mitchell’s visit to Roswell: Atlanta Journal, June 10, 1923.
50 TR Sr.’s first visit to Roswell: B reminiscences.
50 “Does it not seem strange”: MBR to TR Sr., June 9, 1853.
51 “I have never interfered”: MSB to TR Sr., May 21, 1853.
51 “I promised to tell you”: MBR to TR Sr.; also quoted in Robinson, 13-14.
51 “promised to ride back with Henry Stiles”: MBR to TR Sr., July 27, 1853; also quoted in Robinson, 14.
52 Dancing past midnight, world “without kisses”: MBR to TR Sr., Sept. 22, 1853.
52 “it is a southern young lady”: quoted in Putnam, 16.
52 “Capricious”: MBR to TR Sr., Sept. 27, 1853.
52 “It may be a southern idea”: MBR to TR Sr., Oct. 12, 1853.
52 “how are you going to behave”: MBR to TR Sr., Nov. 13, 1853.
53 “how to do the thing”: MBR to TR Sr., Oct. 12, 1853.
53 Baker recollections: Mitchell interview, Atlanta Journal, June 10, 1923.
53 “much else . . . unfortunate”: B reminiscences.
54 “I do not think she will get strong”: MSB to TR Sr., 1855.
54 “Darling, it would be impossible”: MBR to TR Sr., May 1, 1855.
54 “You have proved that you love me”: MBR to TR Sr., May 2, 1855.
54 “dreariness reigning everywhere”: TR Sr. to MBR, May 1, 1855.
54 “bed does not offer”: TR Sr. to MBR, May 6, 1855.
55 Sister Anna laments separation: July 1, 1854; Sept. 1854.
56 Grandmamma’s account of TR’s birth: MSB to Susan West, Oct. 28, 1858; also partly quoted in Putnam, 22-23.
56 Baby doing splendidly: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 1 and Nov. 3, 1858.
57 “Are me a soldier laddie?”: Anna Gracie to MBR, Sept. 9, 1861.
57 Mittie hangs a Confederate flag: TR denied any truth to the story in a letter to Rev. J. L. Underwood. See Underwood, 216.
57 Grandmamma wishes to be buried in a common grave: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 16, 1861.
57 Mittie and Anna send packages: B reminiscences; also MSB to Susan West, Dec. 18, 1862.
58 Letter from Irvine: quoted, MSB to Susan West, Feb. 10, 1863.
58 Mittie breaks with traditional Saturday dinners: Dec. 15, 1861, she writes to TR Sr.: “I went down [to his fathers house] yesterday to dinner but, Thee, something occurred there which has made me determine not to dine there again . . . I felt my blood boil . . . I could not touch another mouthful. . . Thee, I wish I could see you tonight.”
58 “I should hate to have married into them”: Abbott, Letters of Archie Butt, 278-79.
58 “You know he does not feel as we do”: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 29, 1862.
59 TR Sr. helps with anti-war rally: Churchill, 126.
60 TR Sr. “felt that he had done a very wrong thing”: B reminiscences.
60 Corinne sees influence on TR: interview, W. Sheffield Cowles, Jr.
60 War game in Central Park: B reminiscences.
60 Prays for Almighty to “grind . . . troops to powder”: Robinson, 17.
60 “poor mechanics” oppose draft: MSB to Susan West, July 14, 1863.
60 “I would never have felt satisfied”: TR Sr. to MBR, Jan. 1, 1862.
60 “Teedie was afraid” of a bear: MBR to TR Sr., Nov. 13, 1861.
61 “You must not. . . get sick”: TR Sr. to MBR, Dec. 6, 1861.
61 Mittie has “hands full”: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 18, 1861.
61 Up “six or seven times”: MBR to TR Sr., Dec. 9, 1861.
61 “children deserted by their papa”: MBR to TR Sr., Nov. 13, 1861.
62 TR Sr. goes to the White House: TR Sr. to MBR, Nov. 7, 1861.
62 Mistaken for Lincoln at church: TR Sr. to MBR, Nov. 10, 1861.
62 Shops for Mrs. Lincoln’s hat: Robinson, 26.
62 TR Sr.’s account of the White House ball is contained in two letters to Mittie, Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, 1862.
63 Gaining political experience: TR Sr. to MBR, Dec. 6,1861.
63 “utter inability of congressmen”: Theodore Roosevelt (Sr.). Memorial Meeting, 19.
63 “The delays were so great”: TR Sr. to MBR, Jan. 1,1862; also quoted in Robinson, 22-23.
63 Forty-eight-hour adventure in Virginia: TR Sr. to MBR, Oct. 14, 1862; also quoted in Robinson, 30-31.
64 “hope you will take a good long nap”: TR Sr. to MBR, Dec. 19, 1861.
64 TR Sr. arranges for Grandmamma to get through the lines: TR Sr. to MBR, Feb. 14 and Mar. 1, 1862.
64 Wishes he had kept a diary: TR Sr. to MBR, Feb. 27, 1862.
65 “Tell Bamie”: TR Sr. to MBR, Nov. 10, 1861.
65 Death of Willie Lincoln: TR Sr. to MBR, Feb. 21, 1862.
65 “I wish we sympathized together”: TR Sr. to MBR, Mar. 2, 1862.
65 “Thee is a good young man”: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 15, 1862.
65 Mittie risking life or reason: MSB to Susan West, June 23, 1863.
66 Grandmamma on the Russian Ball: MSB to Susan West, Nov. 9, 1863.
66 “too much gaiety”; downstairs, carriages at the door: MSB to Susan West, Dec. 30, 1863.
67 Mrs. Burton Harrison’s views on Mittie: Harrison, 278-79.
68 Mittie’s exchange with Hay: B reminiscences.
68 “nothing more like a Roosevelt than a Roosevelt wife”: interview with Mrs. Philip J. Roosevelt.
68 “If she was only a Christian”: MSB to Susan West, Dec. 15, 1863.
69 TR Sr. preferred Mittie in white: letter dated Dec. 27, 1861.
69 Bursts of housekeeping: MSB to Susan West, Jan. 9, 1863.
69 Mittie more economical: TR Sr. to MBR, Jan. 23, 1862.
70 Thinks of her as “one of my little babies”: TR Sr. to MBR, June 16, 1873.
70 “loving tyrant”: MBR to Anna Gracie, Jan. 12, 1873.
70 “just received your letter”: TR to MBR, Apr. 28, 1868, Letters, I, 3.
70 Mittie amused by prayer: TR, Autobiography, 13.
70 Takes Bamie to theater: MSB to Susan West, Feb. 8, 1864.
70 “devotion wrapped us round”: Robinson, 18.
3. GRAND TOUR
Unless otherwise indicated this chapter has been drawn from TR’s boyhood diaries for the years 1869 and 1870, the originals of which are in the Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Background on James D. Bulloch and the building of the Alabama has come from Rush and Woods, Official Records; Kell, Recollections; Meriwether, Semmes; and from Bulloch’s own Secret Service.
page
71 Scotia fastest ship to Europe: N.Y. Times, July 25, 1866.
71 Fellow passengers: ibid., May 13, 1869.
71 Sillerton Jackson: Wharton, Age of Innocence, 10.
72 “I basked in the happiness”: Kaplan, 42.
72 “vulgar, vulgar, vulgar”: Edel, 304.
72 Rhyme by CVS: (TRB).
73 Mittie meets Mr. St. John: Robinson, 42.
73 “It was one wild scene of commotion”: MBR to Anna Gracie, May 1869.
74 “Strange child!”: ibid.
74 Irvine’s secret return: Robinson, 36-37.
74 “You have no idea of my enthusiasm”: MBR to Anna Gr
acie, undated.
75 Richard Henry Dana’s impression of James D. Bulloch: To Dana it seemed a great shame that men of the caliber of Captain Bulloch had to give up careers in the Navy in order to make a better living. “By night, I walk deck for a couple of hours with the young captain,” Dana wrote. “After due inquiries about his family in Georgia, and due remembrance of those of his mother’s line whom we loved, and the public honored... the fascinating topic of the navy, the frigates and the line-of-battle ships and little sloops, the storms, the wrecks, and the sea fights, fill up the time. He loves the navy still, and has left it with regret; but the navy does not love her sons as they love her. On the quarter-deck at fifteen, the first in rank of his year, favored by his commanders, with service in the best vessels, making the great fleet cruise under Morris, taking part in the actions of the Naval Brigade on shore in California, serving on the Coast Survey, a man of science as well as a sailor—yet what is there before him, or those like him, in our navy?” (To Cuba and Back, 13-14.)
75 Bulloch like Thackeray’s Colonel Newcome: TR, Autobiography, 14.
75 “When civilization . . . fighting a last battle”: Donald, 374.
75 Response in British press: London Times, May 25, June 11, 14, and 17, 1869.
76 “Father, did Texas . . . annex itself’: MBR to Anna Gracie, June 11, 1869.
76 Heroes in books and among southern kinsfolk: TR, Autobiography, 30.
76 Talks of Irvine in speech at Roswell: N.Y. Times, Oct. 21, 1905.
78 “as valiant... a soul as ever lived”: TR, Autobiography, 14-15.
78 TR’s influence on James D. Bulloch: TR to MBR, Sept. 14, 1881, Letters, I, 52. “I have persuaded him to publish a work which only he possesses the materials to write,” TR reported proudly to his mother.
78 Furness Abbey: background from Lefebure, English Lake District; details of the Roosevelt visit from MBR’s long letter to Anna Gracie dated June 3, 1869.
80 “on magic ground”: MBR to Anna Gracie, June 11, 1869.
80 TR Sr. reads from Lady of the Lake: ibid.
80 Excursion on Loch Lomond: ibid.
81 “I want to learn about things, too”: ibid.
81 Sights seen at the British Museum: MBR to Anna Gracie, July 15,1869.
82 “I wore my pale-green silk”: ibid.
83 Asthma in London: TR to Edith Carow, July 10,1869, private collection of Sarah Alden Gannett.
84 TR douses candle in tumbler: MBR to Anna Gracie, July 15, 1869.
David McCullough Library E-book Box Set Page 320