by Martha Hodes
37. saviour: John C. Brock, “Death of the President,” Christian Recorder, May 6, 1865; result: Schwartz, Woman Doctor’s Civil War, 139 (May 2, 1865, entry); masters, government, slaves: T. Edwin Ruggles to Charles P. Ware, Saint Helena Island, S.C., May 6, 1865, Charles Pickard Ware Collection, Howard; slaves: Alonzo A. Carr to brother and sister, Beaufort, S.C., Apr. 21, 1865, Cynthia Anthonsen Foster Papers, SL.
38. we felt: Ruth [no last name], “Chicago Correspondence,” Chicago, May 3, 1865, Christian Recorder, published May 20, 1865; stricken: “From Our Indiana Corresponding Editor,” New Albany, Ind., Apr. 17, 1865, Christian Recorder, published Apr. 29, 1865; visions: George Comfort to Samuel Comfort, Morrisville, Pa., Apr. 16, 1865, Comfort Papers, Princeton; groping: Anna M. Ferris diary, Apr. 16, 1865, Ferris Family Papers, FHL; evil: Freeman Bradford to Charles Harris, Auburn, Me., Apr. 15, 1865, Emerson Family Papers, Yale-Beinecke.
39. froze: Sarah Browne to Albert Browne, Salem, Mass., Apr. 20, 1865, both letters of this date, BFP.
Interlude: Men Weeping
1. overcome: Garland H. White, “Letter from Richmond,” City Point, Va., Apr. 12, 1865, Christian Recorder, published Apr. 22, 1865.
2. in spite, sobbing: Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, eds., The Diary of George Templeton Strong: The Civil War, 1860–1865 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 586 (Apr. 16, 1865, entry); scarcely: Julia Anna Hartness Lay diary, Apr. 15, 1865, NYPL; in camp: A.B., “Camp William Penn,” Chelton Hill, Pa., Apr. 21, 1865, Christian Recorder, published Apr. 28, 1865; grasped: Ruth Anne Hillborn journal, Apr. 15, 1865, Hillborn Papers, FHL; wiping: Mary Elizabeth Moore to James Otis Moore, Saco, Me., Apr. 15, 1865, Moore Papers, Duke; violent: “Meetings of Americans in Foreign Countries,” in B. F. Morris, Memorial Record of the Nation’s Tribute to Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: W. H. and O. H. Morrison, 1865), 260.
3. not ashamed: Lydia Stark to Franklin W. Fuller, Baldwinsville, N.Y., Apr. 23, 1865, #03523.42.56, GLC-NYHS; clerks: Emily Watkins to Abiathar Watkins, Jersey City, N.J., Apr. 16, 1865, Watkins Papers, NYPL; unusual: “Rev. Mr. Allison,” in In Memoriam; Abraham Lincoln Assassinated at Washington, April 14, 1865, Being a Brief Account of the Proceedings … at Buffalo, N.Y. (Buffalo, N.Y.: Matthews and Warren, 1865), 36; cursed: 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; no shame: 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.; impossible: unknown writer, Apr. 15, 1865, #193, Thomas B. Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, LC; never wept: [illegible] to mother, “Potomac River,” Apr. 23, 1865, ts., Nathaniel H. Harris Papers, SHC.
4. child: Ruth Anne Hillborn journal, Apr. 15, 1865, Hillborn Papers, FHL; like children: Henry Hitchcock to Mary Hitchcock, “Chesapeake Bay,” Apr. 22, 1865, Hitchcock Papers, LC; strong: 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), 917–18; fountain: Anson G. Henry to wife, Washington, D.C., Apr. 19, 1865, ts., box 4, fol. 8, Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Chicago.
Chapter 3. Glee
1. Dorman diary, Apr. 23, 1865. New York Herald, Apr. 15, 1865. This edition has been widely reproduced in an altered form; the original bears no portrait of Lincoln on the front page.
merry: Justus M. Silliman to brother, Jacksonville, Fla., Apr. 24, 1865, in A New Canaan Private in the Civil War: Letters of Justus M. Silliman, 17th Connecticut Volunteers, ed. Edward Marcus (New Canaan, Conn.: New Canaan Historical Society, 1984), 100.
2. Dorman diary, Apr. 25, 1865.
3. Dorman diary, May 6 (habeas corpus, brains), 26 (hanging), 30 (treason), 23 (deserved), 1865.
4. Dorman diary, Apr. 25 (rags, sycophantic), May 26 (fool or insane), 1865; mourners: W. B. Johnson, “From the Third U.S.C. Troops,” Jacksonville, Fla., Apr. 29, 1865, Christian Recorder, published May 20, 1865.
5. all over: Oscar Brown Ireland to father, near Berryville, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Ireland Papers, Duke.
6. hardly: “The Assassination of President Lincoln,” Columbia (S.C.) Phoenix, Apr. 22, 1865; poor country: William Newton Mercer diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Mercer Papers, ser. B, part 4, reel 10, LSU-RSPE; William J. Minor plantation diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Minor Family Papers, ser. B, part 3, reel 4, LSU-RSPE.
7. anarchy: Francis L’Engle to Edward M. L’Engle, [place illegible], Apr. 29, 1865, L’Engle Papers, SHC.
8. heard: John Taylor Wood diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Wood Papers, SHC; bitter, rumors, confirmed: Henry A. Chambers diary, Apr. 9, 10, 18, 19, 1865, Chambers Papers, SHC; unfortunately: Leonie de Varenne to Mary Susan Ker, New Orleans, Apr. 15, 1865, Ker Papers, ser. A, part 1, reel 2, SHC-SWF; planting: Nimrod Porter diary, Apr. 17, 1865, Porter Papers, SHC; troubles: Louisa G. Mason diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MDHS; of course: Emmy Wellford to “Phil,” Richmond, Va., Apr. 20, 1865, John Rutherfoord Papers, ser. H, part 3, reel 42, Duke-SWF.
9. long: James Robert McMichael diary, Apr. 20, 1865, ts., SHC; hiatus: Mary Jeffreys Bethell diary, May 2, 1865, ts., ser. J, part 13, reel 12, SHC-RSP; deplorable: Mrs. J. I. White to “Irene,” “Cottage Chamber,” [Va.], May 13, 1865, Ada P. Bankhead Collection, ser. G, part 2, reel 1, UVA-SWF.
10. Seward, facts: William Owner diary, Apr. 7, 15, 1865, LC; fear: Marmaduke Shannon to Emma M. Crutcher, Vicksburg, Miss., Apr. 18, 1865 (part of Apr. 14 letter), Crutcher-Shannon Family Papers, ser. F, reel 30, UTA-SWF; buffoon: Lucy Muse (Walton) Fletcher diary, Apr. 22, 1865, Fletcher Papers, Duke; baboon, foul: C. Vann Woodward, ed., Mary Chesnut’s Civil War (1981; reprint, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 360, 791, 795 (June 4, 1862, Apr. 22, 23, 1865, entries); principle: Francis A. Boyle Books, Apr. 16, 1865, SHC.
11. horrible: Margaret (Brown) Wight diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Wight Family Papers, ser. D, part 1, reel 21, VHS-SWF; liberal: William H. Bagley to Adelaide Worth, Hertford, N.C., Apr. 28, 1865, Jonathan Worth Papers, ser. A, part 8, reel 7, SHC-SWF; mercy: Hannah Ford Turner to William Mason Turner, Philadelphia, Apr. 26, 1865, William Mason Turner Papers, Brown; politically: David Schenck diary, [June, 1865], SHC, available at www2.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/s/Schenck,David.html#d2e89; know: James Helme Rickard to sister, [near Richmond, Va.], May 11, 1865, Rickard Civil War Letters, AAS; hope: Thomas Day Seymour to Nathan Seymour, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling; lost: Elizabeth Blair Lee to Samuel Phillips Lee, Washington, D.C., Apr. 15, 1865, in Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee, ed. Virginia Jean Laas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991), 495.
12. uneasy: Samuel Pickens diary, Apr. 16, 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), 372; guests: Mahala (Eggleston) Roach diary, Apr. 18, 1865, ser. D, part 4, reel 10, VHS-SWF; uneasy: Bessie B. Caine to unknown, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 18, 1865 (part of Apr. 16 letter), John Lancaster Bailey Papers, ser. A, part 8, reel 9, SHC-SWF; mingle: Chauncey Welton to parents, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 19, 1865, Welton Papers, SHC; quiet: Manley Ebenezer Rice to Elizabeth Day Rice, Fort Gaines, Ala., Apr. 30, 1865, Rice Papers, HL; secretly: Samuel Miller Quincy [no salutation], New Orleans, Apr. 19, 1865, Quincy, Wendell, Holmes, Upham Family Papers, MHS.
13. native: Gerald Schwartz, ed., A Woman Doctor’s Civil War: Esther Hill Hawks’ Diary (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1984), 134 (Apr. 19, 1865, entry); sharp: Thomas Day Seymour to Nathan Seymour, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling; looking: Alfred Neafie to Anne Neafie, Savannah, Ga., Apr. 19, 1865, Neafie Papers, NYSL; mighty: William C. McLean to sister, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 23, 1865, ts., McLean Family Papers, NYSL.
14. smitten: “The Great Calamity,” Apr. 16, 1865, Sacramento Daily Union, published May 17, 1865, in
Lincoln Observed: Civil War Dispatches of Noah Brooks, ed. Michael Burlingame (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), 192; draped: Helen A. Du Barry to mother, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, in “Eyewitness Account of Lincoln’s Assassination,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 39 (1946), 368; fling: Charles A. Sanford to Edward Payson Goodrich, Washington, D.C., Apr. 18, 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.; gunboat: Manley Ebenezer Rice to Elizabeth Day Rice, Fort Gaines, Ala., Apr. 30, 1865, Rice Papers, HL; scantiest: John Glenn diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Glenn Papers, MDHS; thankful: Charles East, ed., Sarah Morgan: The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 608 (Apr. 22, 1865, entry). See also “Carrie” to sister, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, box 2, fol. 27, Richard John Levy and Sally Waldman Sweet Collection, NYPL (“Old secessionists cryed, and with all Washington and Georgetown draped their houses”); Alma Baker to George Whipple, Carondelet, Mo., Apr. 17, 1865, #73762, reel 114, AMA (“The Rebs are the first to hang out mourning”).
15. strongest: Harriet Williams to Lewis J. Williams, Medical Hall, Md., May 9, 1865, Archer-Mitchell-Stump-Williams Family Papers, MDHS; bitter: “Henry” to family, Montgomery, Ala., May 1, 1865, in “Death of a President,” Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 3 (1945), 303; officers: Thomas Day Seymour to Nathan Seymour, Richmond, Va., Apr. 23, 1865, Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling; truthful: “From Committee of Richmond Blacks,” Richmond, Va., June 10, 1865, PAJ, 8:211; feigned: Chester dispatch, Richmond, Va., Apr. 24, 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), 321.
For a white skeptic, see Samuel A. Harrison journal, Apr. 16, 23, 1865, MDHS. It is not always possible to tell sincerity from self-protection, as when a minister wrote in his North Carolina diary, “Every good and sensible man depracates the murder” (Robert W. Chaffin journal, Apr. 24, 1865, Washington Sandford Chaffin Papers, Duke).
16. pity: William Calder diary, Apr. 24, 1865, Calder Family Papers, SHC; best: E. R. Harmanson to “Prince,” Red River, La., Apr. 23, 1865, Albert A. Batchelor Papers, ser. B, part 5, reel 1, LSU-RSPE; passeth: William H. Ellis diary, Apr. 17, 1865, Ellis Papers, ser. B, reel 5, LSU-CMM; killing: Gideon Lincecum to William P. “Sioux” Doran, Long Point, Tex., Apr. 27, 1865, in Gideon Lincecum’s Sword: Civil War Letters from the Texas Home Front, ed. Jerry Bryan Lincecum et al. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2001), 325–26; deserved, entertaining: William Kauffman Scarborough, ed., The Diary of Edmund Ruffin: A Dream Shattered, June, 1863–June, 1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 855, 865 (Apr. 18, 25, 1865, entries).
17. sick, hurrah: Emma F. LeConte diary, Apr. 20 and “Friday” [Apr. 21], 1865, reel 22, SHC-AWD-South.
18. glad: Cloe (Whittle) Greene diary, Apr. 15, 1865, reel 4, WM-AWD-South; royal: Clara Dargan MacLean diary, Apr. 20, 1865, MacLean Papers, Duke; electrified: Sarah Lois Wadley diary, Apr. 26, 1865, Wadley Papers, ser. A, part 3, reel 6, SHC-SWF; glory: [Helen Ellis?] to John Benjamin Long, Rusk, Tex., Apr. 26, 1865, Long Papers, ser. C, part 1, reel 21, UTA-CMM; cheering: “Journal Letter Kept by Miss Charlotte St. J. Ravenel of Pooshee Plantation for Miss Meta Heyward,” in Two Diaries from Middle St. John’s, Berkeley, South Carolina, February–May 1865 (Pinopolis, S.C.: Saint John’s Hunting Club, 1921), 45 (Apr. 21, 1865, entry).
19. felt: Amanda (Edmonds) Chappelear diary, Apr. 21, 1865, Chappelear Papers, ser. D, part 3, reel 9, VHS-SWF; brave, rejoice: John Q. Anderson, ed., Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861–1868 (1955; reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995), 333, 341 (Apr. 28, May 15, 1865, entries).
20. laughed: 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; surrounded: Harriet E. Gaylord to George Whipple, Natchez, Miss., May 1, 1865, #71762, reel 111, AMA; loose: C. P. Day to George Whipple, Hampton, Va., Apr. 29, 1865, #H1-7037, reel 209, AMA; wrath: W. L. Coan to M. E. Strieby, Richmond, Va., Apr. 30, 1865, #H1-7050, reel 210, AMA.
21. since: W. D. Harris to George Whipple, Portsmouth, Va., May 1, 1865, #H1-7062, reel 210, AMA; citizens: Thomas Day Seymour to Nathan Seymour, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, Seymour Family Papers, Yale-Sterling; taunting: H. B. Greely to George Whipple, Saint Augustine, Fla., Apr. 29, 1865 (misdated 1864), #18655, reel 28, AMA; Old Lincoln: Thomas Outten, file MM2544, RG153-NARA; Shields: Testimony of Susan Jones, in Patrick Shields, file OO934, RG153-NARA.
22. expressions: Edwin J. Moore to M. E. Strieby, Key West, Fla., May 3, 1865, #18656, reel 28, AMA; celebrate: Dorman diary, Apr. 25, 1865; fearing: John Peter Nelson to George W. Colles, New Orleans, Apr. 20, 1865, Colles Family Papers, NYPL; strutting: Chester dispatch, Petersburg, Va., Apr. 19, 1865, in Blackett, Thomas Morris Chester, 312–13; father: Maria Martin, file OO1235, RG153-NARA; partying: Thomas Francis Johnson diary, Apr. 25, 1865, Johnson Family Papers, MDHS; women: Burnham Wardwell to Benjamin F. Butler, Richmond, Va., Apr. 19, 1865, in Private and Official Correspondence of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, during the Period of the Civil War, 5 vols. (Springfield, Mass.: Plimpton Press, 1917), 598, ACWLD.
23. woe: Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 21, 1865, BFP; bully: Charles D. Spurlin, ed., The Civil War Diary of Charles A. Leuschner (Austin, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1992), 52 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry); goddamned: A. J. Hamilton, A Fort Delaware Journal: The Diary of a Yankee Private, ed. W. Emerson Wilson (Wilmington: Fort Delaware Society, 1981), 78–79 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry; the writer referred to the victim as a Copperhead, though he was likely a Confederate); Bishop Crumrine to Boyd Crumrine, Fort Delaware, Del., May 1, 1865, in “Notes and Documents: Corporal Crumrine Goes to War,” ed. Walter S. Sanderlin, Topic 2 (1961), 64; Fort Jefferson: Peter Kitts to “Mrs. Case,” Fort Jefferson, Fla., Apr. 25, 1865, Samuel F. Case Papers, Duke; Claudius Rider diary, Apr. 22, 1865, NYHS; Henry B. Whitney diary, Apr. 22, 1865, Duke.
24. laughing: Mary Jane Cook Chadick diary, Apr. 16, 1865, ts., ser. H, part 2, reel 1, Duke-SWF; brickbats: Mary H. and Dallas M. Lancaster, eds., The Civil War Diary of Anne S. Frobel (McLean, Va.: EPM, 1992), 218 (Apr. 28, 1865, entry); fate: Alma Baker to George Whipple, Carondelet, Mo., Apr. 17, 1865, #73762, reel 114, AMA; expressing: George W. Squier to Ellen Squier, Chattanooga, Tenn., Apr. 25, 1865 (part of Apr. 15 letter), in This Wilderness of War: The Civil War Letters of George W. Squier, Hoosier Volunteer, ed. Julie A. Doyle et al. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1998), 107; not worth: Charles H. Cooley diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Duke; glorious: James L. Hart, file OO1235, RG153-NARA; glad: C. Orrez, file OO934, RG153-NARA; God: Testimony of Charlotte Johnson via Nancy Diges, in case of Maria Edwards, Robert Harden, and Fanny Cook, #15674, Apr. 22, 1865, Union Provost Marshals’ File of Papers Relating to Two or More Civilians, M416, roll 56, RG109-NARA; harassed, assaulted: cases of Patrick Shields, file OO934, and Thomas Outten, file MM2544, RG153-NARA; more: Gertrude Allen to parents, Charleston, S.C., Apr. 20, 1865 (part of Apr. 18 letter), “Northern Visions of Race, Region and Reform,” AAS, faculty.assumption.edu/aas/Manuscripts/allen4-65.html, online exhibition, 2014.
25. no reason: Emma F. LeConte diary, “Friday” [Apr. 21], 1865, reel 22, SHC-AWD-South; raise: Caroline S. Jones to Mary Jones, Augusta, Ga., Apr. 30, 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), 1268; glorious: Woodward, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 805 (May 7, 1865, entry).
26. good: Joe H. Lyman to John Inglis, East Randolph, N.Y., Apr. 19, 1865, Inglis Papers, NYSL; houses, quit: Franklin Augustus Buck to Mary Sewall Bradley, Weaverville, Calif., Apr. 27, 1865, Buck Papers, HL; strong: Mattie Smith diary, Apr. 16, 1865, CHM; even: Mary Elizabeth Moore to James Otis Moore, Saco, Me., Apr. 16, 1865, Moore Papers, Duke; draped: sister to
Samuel Comfort, Morrisville, Pa., Apr. 24, 1865, Comfort Papers, Princeton; plenty: Caroline Dunstan diary, Apr. 17, 1865, NYPL; secretly: Jesse Mullery to Walt Whitman, [no place], May 3, 1865, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, NYPL, available at whitmanarchive.org/biography/correspondence/cw/tei/nyp.00178.html.
27. dinner: Joanita Kant, ed., Maggie: The Civil War Diary of Margaret Wylie Mellette (Watertown, S.Dak.: Mellette Memorial Association, 1983), 19 (Apr. 15, 1865, entry); expected: Eugene Marshall diary, Apr. 20, 1865, Marshall Papers, Duke; laughing, glad: Mrs. Samuel Batchelder to Mary (Batchelder) James, Cambridge, Mass., Apr. 17, 1865, James Family Papers, SL; Celtic: Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas, ed., The Diary of George Templeton Strong: The Civil War, 1860–1865 (New York: Macmillan, 1952), 586 (Apr. 16, 1865, entry).
28. thousands: Richard McDermott, file MM2870, RG153-NARA; doffed: Elijah Chapman, file MM1936, RG153-NARA; Negro: Henry Peters, file OO719, RG153-NARA; next: James Simmons, #4050, vol. 141, M273, roll 150, RG125-NARA; white men: Max Puhan, file OO1277, RG153-NARA; goddamn: John W. Nash, file MM2531, RG153-NARA; come up: Patrick O’Donnell, file OO1191, RG153-NARA; friend: L. C. Chambers to George Whipple, Saint Catharine’s, Canada, May 1, 1865, #F1-724, reel 225, AMA.
29. bloodthirsty: Francis Brooks journal, Apr. 18, 1865, MHS; ready: Mary Butler Reeves to Caroline Butler Laing, Germantown, Pa., Apr. 16, 1865, Butler-Laing Family Papers, NYHS; dangling: Edwin Greble Sr. to Susan Greble, Baltimore, Apr. 16, 1865, Greble Papers, LC; killed: Caroline Dall journal, Apr. 22, 1865, vol. J27, Dall Papers, MHS; indignant: Elon N. Lee to family, Chicago, Apr. 19, 1865, ts., Lee and Bastin Papers, Chicago; dirty: John Worthington to Mary Worthington, Cooperstown, N.Y., Apr. 15, 1865, Autograph File, HLH; knock: “Em” to Lewis J. Nettleton, part of Henry Cornwall to Lewis J. Nettleton, Milford, Conn., Apr. 16, 1865, Nettleton-Baldwin Family Papers, Duke.