361 “the most terrible newspaper extras”: Varina Howell Davis to John J. Craven, June 1, 1865, in ibid., 756.
362 “He will surely visit upon such sin”: Varina Howell Davis to Francis Preston Blair, June 6, 1865, quoted in Ishbel Ross, First Lady of the South: The Life of Mrs. Jefferson Davis (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 261.
362 “the rebels take care of their own widows”: David W. Miller, Second Only to Grant: Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs (Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Books, 2000), 264.
363 releasing her mail to “newsmongers”: Varina Howell Davis to William H. Seward, July 10, 1865, quoted in Ross, First Lady of the South, 264.
363 “I may bear all the insults, and agonies”: Varina Howell Davis to Armistead Burt, October 20, 1865, in ibid., 273–74.
363 “tawny,” according to a hostile Richmond editor: Joan E. Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy: Varina Davis’s Civil War (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006), 112.
363 “free, brown, & 64”: Ibid., 269.
364 “coarse Western woman”: Ibid., 113.
364 “all which might be offensive to anyone”: Varina Howell Davis to Davis, October 23, 1865, in Strode, ed., Private Letters, 191–93.
364 “probably meet wounding repulse”: Davis to Varina Howell Davis, March 22, 1866, in ibid., 242.
365 “keep me from my dying husband”: Ross, First Lady of the South, 279.
365 “highly cultivated mind and admirable power of conversation”: “Montreal Correspondent,” Toronto Globe, in Cleveland Daily Leader, May 5, 1866, http://www.newspapers.com.
366 “She made no stoppage on the way”: Charleston Daily News, May 8, 1866, http://www.newspapers.com.
366 “many distinguished personages”: New York Tribune, May 28, 1866, in Ross, First Lady of the South, 281.
367 “my first and last experience as a supplicant”: Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the Confederate States of America: A Memoir by His Wife (1890; reprinted, Baltimore: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1990), 768–69.
367 “a man whose code of morals I could not understand”: Ibid., 770–71.
367 “I congratulate you upon it”: Minna Blair to Varina Howell Davis, September 9, 1866, quoted in Ross, First Lady of the South, 289.
369 Lee’s take of the booty from confiscated ships: Dudley Taylor Cornish and Virginia Jeans Laas, Lincoln’s Lee: The Life of Samuel Phillips Lee, United States Navy 1812–1897 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986), 123.
369 “bury this feud before you bury your parents”: Francis Preston Blair to Montgomery Blair, May 26, 1866, in Elbert B. Smith, Francis Preston Blair (New York: Free Press, 1980), 408.
369 “Mrs. Lee could remain”: Ibid., 408.
370 “her benevolent and diligent labors”: Penny Colman, Breaking the Chains: The Crusade of Dorothea Lynde Dix (Lincoln, NE: ASJA Press, 1992, 2007), e-book, loc. 1427.
371 “at least fifty years in advance”: Mary Elizabeth Massey, Women in the Civil War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 339.
371 “only hold our tongues and pray”: Elizabeth Blair Lee to Francis Preston Blair, September 12, 1866, Papers of Elizabeth Blair Lee; 1818–1906; Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
372 “he is endeavoring to ignore all the good”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Charles Sumner, April 2, 1866, quoted in Jennifer L. Bach, “Acts of Remembrance: Mary Todd Lincoln and Her Husband’s Memory,” Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association 25, no. 2 (Summer 2004), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0025.204?view=text;rgn=main#top.
374 “secure the re-election of her husband”: Dr. John B. Ellis, The Sights and Secrets of the National Capital (Chicago: Jones, Junkin, 1869), 184–86.
374 “calls the blush to any true, loyal heart”: Bach, “Acts of Remembrance.”
375 “I am passing through a very painful ordeal”: This is both cited in Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (New York: G. W. Carleton, 1868), 129–30, and the newspaper articles cited below.
375 “a round of newspaper abuse”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Elizabeth Keckley, October 9, 1867, in Keckley, Behind the Scenes, 147.
376 “so loaded with shawls, laces, furs, diamonds, rings & etc”: “Mrs. Lincoln’s Wardrobe for Sale,” Hillsdale Standard (Hillsdale, Mich.), October 15, 1867, from the New York World, October 3, 1867, http://www.newspapers.com.
376 “If I had committed murder in every city”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Elizabeth Keckley, quoted in Keckley, Behind the Scenes, October 9, 1867, 148.
376–77 “she accepted costly presents from corrupt contractors”: Nashville Union and American, October 9, 1867, http://www.newspapers.com.
377 “Mrs. Lincoln’s peculiar wardrobe”: Brooklyn Eagle, October 12, 1867, http://www.newspapers.com.
377 “I am feeling so friendless in the world”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Elizabeth Keckley, October 13, 1867, quoted in Keckley, Behind the Scenes, 149.
378 “its peace and happiness destroyed”: Jennifer Fleischner, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave (New York: Random House, 2007), 316–17.
378 “a genius for making women look pretty”: Ibid., 236.
378 “we were going to be happy young people”: Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1904), 42.
379 “It takes so little to make a woman happy!”: Ibid., 109.
379 “Nothing is ridiculous that helps anxious women”: Ibid., 133.
379 “blood would not be shed”: Ibid., 142.
379 “the wounded men within their doors”: Ibid., 171.
380 “no stores laid up for such an emergency”: Ibid., 184.
380 “did not create a ripple of excitement”: Ibid., 228.
380 “reprinted by a Charleston firm on the best paper”: Ibid., 226.
380–81 “A sort of court is still kept up here”: Ibid., 235.
381 “Doesn’t it all seem so long ago”: Ibid., 228.
381 “if we can win a battle or two”: Ibid., 239.
381 “the coil was tightening around us”: Ibid., 250.
381 “the sick, the wounded, or the women and children”: Ibid., 279.
382 “Somebody, somewhere, is mightily to blame for all this business”: Ibid., 293–94.
382 “dressed alike in gowns of tulle”: Ibid., 312.
382 “These were my materials”: Ibid., 313.
383 “a dainty vine of forget-me-knots on bodice and sleeves”: Ibid., 316.
383 “one of the nicest ladies I ever saw”: John C. Waugh, Surviving the Confederacy: Rebellion, Ruin, and Recovery: Roger and Sara Pryor During the Civil War (New York: Harcourt, 2002), 260.
383 “ ‘I am too busy keeping the wolf from my door”: Pryor, Reminiscences, 330–31.
384 “Beg his release from Mr. Lincoln”: Ibid., 328.
384 “she has left the city with her family”: Ibid., 342.
384 “the firing had all ceased”: Ibid., 350.
384 “no hope now of our ultimate success”: Ibid., 356–57.
384 “the entourage of a lady is taken from me”: Ibid., 376.
385 “rations designated for the poor of the city”: Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), June 3, 1865, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1865-06-03/ed-1/seq-1/.
385 “no better means of settling a family quarrel”: Pryor, Reminiscences, 410.
386 “dissatisfaction resulting from your administration”: Clopton, Belle of the Fifties, 366.
386 “inquire into the official conduct of Andrew Johnson”: “Impeachment Efforts Against President Andrew Johnson,” History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, accessed February 7, 2015, http://history.house.gov/Historical
-Highlights/1851-1900/Impeachment-efforts-against-President-Andrew-Johnson/.
386 “ ‘we intend to have it & pretty quickly too’ ”: Elizabeth Blair Lee to Samuel Phillips Lee, January 14, 1867, Papers of Elizabeth Blair Lee; 1818–1906; Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
387 “private hates or gusts of caprice”: Salmon P. Chase to Nettie, October 18, 1866, in “Spur Up Your Pegasus”: Family Letters of Salmon, Kate and Nettie Chase, 1844–1873, ed. James P. McClure, Peg A. Lamphier, and Erika M. Kreger (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2009), 329.
387 “she is very bitter on this point”: Elizabeth Blair Lee to Samuel Phillips Lee, January 9, 1867, Papers of Elizabeth Blair Lee; 1818–1906; Blair and Lee Family Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
388 “to save the Constitution”: John Oller, American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague, Civil War “Belle of the North” and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal (Boston: Da Capo Press, 2014), e-book, locs. 2216–28.
388 “that is the queen of fashion”: April 14, 1868, in Emily Edson Briggs, The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent (New York: Neale, 1906), 49–51.
389 “the wretched hut, the sick, and the afflicted”: April 23, 1868, in ibid., 70.
389 “no room for dispute as to who is ‘First Lady’ ”: “Who Is the First American Lady—Curious Gossip from Washington,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 21, 1868, from the Pittsburg Gazette, http:// www.newspapers.com.
389–90 “no insinuation, no charge against them”: Mary Clemmer Ames, Ten Years in Washington: Life and Scenes in the National Capital, as a Woman Sees Them (1874; reprint, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Library, Michigan Historical Reprint Series, 2005), 252.
390 “give us our poverty and our peace again”: Ellis, Sights and Secrets, 427.
390 “she lives happily with her husband”: “From Washington,” Montana Post, May 16, 1868, http://www.newspapers.com.
391 “My own judgment & feeling favors acquittal”: Salmon P. Chase to Kate Chase Sprague, May 10, 1868, in McClure, Lamphier, and Kreger, eds., Family Letters, 367.
391 “it was a dangerous precedent”: Julia Dent Grant, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses Grant), ed. John Y. Simon (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975), 170.
391 “ ‘I suppose if I am nominated, I will be elected’ ”: Ibid., 171.
392 “Affectionately & ambitiously for Country”: Kate Chase Sprague to Salmon P. Chase, July 7, 1868, in McClure, Lamphier, and Kreger, eds., Family Letters, 372.
392 “notoriously managed the political affairs of her father”: “Democratic National Convention, second day,” Semi-Weekly (Milwaukee, Wis.), June 11, 1868, http://www.newspapers.com.
393 “Does Mrs. Sprague know?”: Oller, American Queen, loc. 2375.
393 “burst into tears”: Hawaiian Gazette (Honolulu, Hawaii), September 2, 1868, http://www.newspapers.com.
393 “the first inaugural address of my husband”: Grant, Personal Memoirs, 172.
EPILOGUE
Unless otherwise noted, all quotations in this epilogue come from newspapers found on http://www.newspapers.com.
398 “played Mrs. Partington for United Charities”: Diary of Virginia Clopton-Clay, January 1903, C. C. Clay Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
407 “to put the sea between you & your work”: Louisa Rodgers Meigs to Montgomery C. Meigs, March 3, 1867, Meigs Family Papers, Library of Congress.
409 “for we all were Americans”: Sara A. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War (London: Macmillan, 1905), 417.
410 “with the Monument as its symbol”: Frederick L. Harvey, History of the Washington National Monument and of the Washington National Monument Society (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1903), kindle ebook reprint, loc. 1173).
About the Author
Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and NPR. She has won countless awards, and in 2008 was named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters; Founding Mothers; Ladies of Liberty; and, with her husband, journalist Steven V. Roberts, From This Day Forward and Our Haggadah. She lives just outside of Washington, D.C.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Also by Cokie Roberts
Our Haggadah (with Steven V. Roberts)
Ladies of Liberty
Founding Mothers
From This Day Forward (with Steven V. Roberts)
We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters
For Children
Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies (illustrated by Diane Goode)
Illustration Credits
Illustration Credits in Order of Appearance
Introduction: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-07302].
Chapter One: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, NY.
Chapter Two: Granger, NYC—All rights reserved; Granger, NYC—All rights reserved.
Chapter Three: Picture History; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution / Art Resource, NY.
Chapter Four: Granger, NYC—All rights reserved; Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC_USZ62_108564].
Chapter Five: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC_USZ62_108564]; Courtesy of Blair House, The President’s Guest House, U.S. Department of State.
Chapter Six: Picture History; © Medford Historical Society Collection/CORBIS
Chapter Seven: © CORBIS; Granger, NYC—All rights reserved.
Chapter Eight: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-DIG-ppmsca-19221]; Apic / Hulton Archive / Getty Images.
Chapter Nine: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC_USZC4_7988]; strph480020010, William Emerson Strong Photograph Album, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
Epilogue: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, [LC_DIG_cwpbh_03248].
Credits
Author photograph © Randi Sager, American Broadcasting Companies Inc.
Top panel illustration courtesy of the Library of Congress
Bottom panel illustration © Todd Healy at CapitolArtifacts.com
Cover design by Milan Bozic
Copyright
CAPITAL DAMES. Copyright © 2015 by Cokie Roberts. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Cokie.
Capital dames: the Civil War and the women of Washington, 1848–1868 / Cokie Roberts.—First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-06-200276-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-06-200277-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-06-219928-7 (ebook) 1. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Women. 2. Washington (D.C.)—History—Civil War, 1861–1865. 3. United States—History—Civil War, 1861–1865—Biography. 4. Women—Washington (D.C.)—Biography. 5. Politicians’ spouses—Washington (D.C.)—Biography. 6. Women—Political activity—United States—History—19th century. 7. United States—History—1815–1861—Biography. 8. Reconstructi
on (U.S. history, 1865–1877)—Biography. 9. Women—United States—History—19th century.
I. Title. II. Title: Civil War and the women of Washington, 1848–1868.
E628.R629 2015
793.7082—dc23 2015001049
EPub Edition APRIL 2015 ISBN 9780062199287
15 16 17 18 19 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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