Mourning Lincoln

by Martha Hodes

  14. traitors: T. M. D. Ward, “Our California Letter,” San Francisco, Apr. 21, 1865, Christian Recorder, published May 2o, 1865; mercy: Edward Williams Morley to Sardis Morley, Fortress Monroe, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Edward Williams Morley Papers, LC.

  15. feeling: Lucy Pierce Hedge to Charlotte Hedge, Brookline, Mass., Apr. 25, 1865, Poor Family Papers, SL; merit: Augustus W. Weeks to George Whipple, Fortress Monroe, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, #H1-7010, reel 209, AMA; dam: Alvin Palmer to uncle and aunt, Orfordville, N.H., May 7, 1865, Palmer Family Papers, Duke.

  16. great: Dorman diary, Apr. 23, 1865; gleeful: see, e.g., E. R. Harmanson to “Prince,” Red River, La., Apr. 23, 1865, Albert A. Batchelor Papers, ser. B, part 5, reel 1, LSU-RSPE; [Helen Ellis?] to John Benjamin Long, Rusk, Tex., Apr. 26, 1865, Long Papers, ser. C, part 1, reel 21, UTA-CMM; Amanda (Edmonds) Chappelear diary, Apr. 21, 1865, Chappelear Papers, ser. D, part 3, reel 9, VHS-SWF; John Q. Anderson, ed., Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone, 1861–1868 (1955; reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1995), 333 (Apr. 28, 1865, entry); Sarah Lois Wadley diary, Apr. 26, 1865, Wadley Papers, ser. A, part 3, reel 6, SHC-SWF; crazy: Eliza F. Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864–1865 (New York: D. Appleton, 1908), 216 (May 5, 1865, entry), DocSouth, docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/andrews/menu.html; private: John Peter Nelson to George W. Colles, New Orleans, Apr. 20, 1865, Colles Family Papers, NYPL; lunatic: Lucy Muse (Walton) Fletcher diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Fletcher Papers, Duke; tyrannicidal: Francis R. Rives to unknown, New York, Apr. 15, 1865, William Cabell Rives Papers, LC; fanatics: 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; desperadoes: François Joinville to Gustavus V. Fox, “Orleans house,” Apr. 28, 1865, Gustavus-Fox Papers, NYHS.

  17. do not: Cloe (Whittle) Greene diary, Apr. 16, 1865, reel 4, WM-AWD-South; northern: Caroline Dunstan diary, Apr. 15, 1865, NYPL; curse: Francis G. Barnes to Frances M. Barnes, Tombigbee River, Ala., Apr. 25, 1865, ts., p. 358, Barnes Letters, NYSL; traitors: anonymous Union soldier to parents, Burkeville, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, #08618, GLC-NYHS; rants: John B. Burrud to Ocena Burrud, Washington, D.C., Apr. 25–27, 28, May 5, 1865, and Charlestown, Va., Apr. 19, 1865, Burrud Papers, HL; drunken: unknown writer, Apr. 15, 1865, #193, Thomas B. Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, LC.

  18. vile, wretch: editorials, San Francisco Elevator, Apr. 21, 1865, #4827, #4811, BAP; scoundrel: David F. Cushman to Caroline D. Cushman, Martinsburg, Va., Apr. 15, 1865, #250, octavo vol. 1, Civil War Collection, AAS; fiend: Helen Lansing Grinnell diary, Apr. 15, 1865, NYPL; R. B. Milliken to “Friend Byron,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, #54, Lincoln Room Miscellaneous Papers, HLH; dog: John Worthington to Mary Worthington, Cooperstown, N.Y., Apr. 15, 1865, Autograph File, HLH; demon: Edgar B. Jones to Theresa H. Perkins, City Point, Va., Apr. 22, 1865, Montgomery Family Papers, LC; gift: Gareth Wilkinson to “Mr. Linton,” London, Apr. 27, 1865, #07749.02, GLC-NYHS; blood: James Otis Moore to Mary Elizabeth Moore, Washington, D.C., Apr. 20, 1865, Moore Papers, Duke; Mary Butler Reeves to Caroline Butler Laing, Germantown, Pa., Apr. 16, 1865, Butler-Laing Family Papers, NYHS; tortured: Clara Allen to Walter Allen, Worcester, Mass., Apr. 16, 1865, Weston-Allen Papers, SSC; lamppost, cut: R. B. Milliken to “Friend Byron,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, #54, Lincoln Room Miscellaneous Papers, HLH; flog: Asa Fitch diary, Apr. 28, 1865, Fitch Papers, Yale-Sterling; shoot: C. B. Pyne to unknown, Diamond Creek, Va., May 12, 1865, #07206, GLC-NYHS; burn: J. N. Smith to brother, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, box 2, Miscellaneous Documents Relating to Abraham Lincoln, HLH; resuscitate: John W. Haley, The Rebel Yell and the Yankee Hurrah: The Civil War Journal of a Maine Volunteer, ed. Ruth L. Silliker (Camden, Me.: Down East Books, 1985), 268 (Apr. 16, 1865, entry); Cincinnati: L. S. Currier to H. C. Rowley, Cincinnati, Apr. 15, 1865, Currier and Co. Papers, AAS.

  19. wanted: broadside, “$100,000 reward! The murderer of our late beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, is still at large,” 1865, Rare Book and Special Collections, LC, available at loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g05341; noose: John Swift to sister, White River, Ark., Apr. 21, 1865, in “Letters from a Sailor on a Tinclad,” ed. Lester L. Swift, Civil War History 7 (1961), 62; till: Charles J. Harris to parents, [Georgetown?], S.C., [late Apr.], 1865, Harris Letters, Duke; fry: Haley, Rebel Yell, 268 (Apr. 16, 1865, entry); tear: John Worthington to Mary Worthington, Cooperstown, N.Y., Apr. 15, 1865, Autograph File, HLH; on the travel accounts, see Elliott J. Gorn, “‘Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch’: The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry,” American Historical Review 90 (1985), 18–43.

  20. another: Chester dispatch, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 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), 311; spurred: Samuel A. Harrison journal, Apr. 18, 23, 1865, MDHS; villain: Emilie Davis diary, “Miscellaneous” pages at back, dated Apr. 14, 1865, HSP and davisdiaries.villanova.edu; rebels: Sarah G. Putnam diary, Apr. 27, 1865, MHS.

  21. devilish: Francis Lieber to Henry W. Halleck, New York, Apr. 16, 1865, box 28, Lieber Papers, HL; thug: Ellis Hughes diary, Apr. 25, 1865, Hughes-Gray Family Papers, Duke; whole: J. and J. H. St. John to Bela T. St. John, Genesee, Ill., Apr. 24, 1865, St. John Papers, LC; because: “General Hancock’s Appeal to the Colored People,” Washington, D.C., Apr. 24, 1865, in B. F. Morris, Memorial Record of the Nation’s Tribute to Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: W. H. and O. H. Morrison, 1865), 117.

  22. Africa: George H. Mellish to parents, Danville, Va., May 2, 1865, Mellish Papers, HL; shoot: John L. Smith to Hannah Smith, near Washington, D.C., July 2, 1865, Smith Papers, HSP; martyrs: Frederick A. Sawyer, “Account of what I saw of the Death of Mr. Lincoln written April 15, 1865,” in “An Eyewitness Account of Abraham Lincoln’s Assassination,” ed. Ronald D. Rietveld, Civil War History 22 (1976), 67; slavery: Francis Lieber to Henry W. Halleck, New York, Apr. 15, 1865, box 28, Lieber Papers, HL; sacrificed: Susan E. Parsons Brown Forbes diary, Apr. 15, 1865, AAS; agent: Charles H. Mallory diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Mallory Family Collection, GWBW; hate: Anna M. Ferris diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Ferris Family Papers, FHL; fruit: Charles Francis Adams diary, Apr. 26, 1865, Adams Family Papers, MHS.

  23. slavery: Joseph A. Prime, “Sermon Preached in the Liberty Street Presbyterian Church (Colored),” in A Tribute of Respect by the Citizens of Troy to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln (Troy, N.Y.: Young and Benson, 1865), 155; agent: “Fragment of commentary on Lincoln’s death,” John Morgan Walden Papers, Chicago; expiate: Philip Alexander Bell et al., [no title], San Francisco Elevator, Apr. 21, 1865, #4828, BAP; localized, offence: Abraham Lincoln, “Second Inaugural Address,” Mar. 4, 1865, CWL, 8:332, 333.

  24. fruit: Geo. Booth and Chas. Cuthbert, “Proceedings of the Colored Citizens of Sacramento, San Francisco Elevator, Apr. 28, 1865, #4992, BAP; outcrop: “Assassination of President Lincoln,” New Orleans Black Republican, Apr. 22, 1865, #5841, BAP; one word: Edward Morris to “My Dear Friend,” Philadelphia, Apr. 20, 1865, Incoming Correspondence, box I: A179, reel 97, American Colonization Society Papers, LC; deepley: A. H. Barnes to Lewis Tappan, Sakets Harbor, N.Y., Apr. 17, 1865, #88580, reel 136, AMA; slayer: John Glenn diary, Apr. 29, 1865, Glenn Papers, MDHS.

  25. foe: Horace Greeley to [E. C. Doughty?], New York, Apr. 21, 1865, #18, Lincoln Room Miscellaneous Papers, HLH; depravity: George White diary, Apr. 16, 1865, vol. 32, Special Collections, HLS; Joseph Warren Keifer to Eliza Keifer, Burkeville, Va., Apr. 15, 1865, Keifer Papers, LC; perverted: Francis Lieber to Henry W. Halleck, New York, Apr. 22, 1865, box 28, Lieber Papers, HL; another, appalling: Pennsylvania and Ohio tributes, in Morris, Memorial Record, 132, 134; pistol, embodied: Proceedings of the Union League of Philadelphia Regarding the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln (Philadelphia: Ashmead, 1865), 11, 12.

  26. loyalty: L
yman Trumbull, “Furnished by Mr. Lincoln & copied into my remarks to be made at the celebration at Springfield, Ill. Nov. 20, 1860,” in “A Lincoln Correspondence,” ed. William H. Lambert, Century Magazine 77 (1909), 625–26.

  27. crew: Elbert Johnson diary (labeled “E. M. Johnson’s Reminiscences of the War”), Apr. 15, 1865, Johnson Papers, NYSL; some: William H. Brown to George W. Brown, Philadelphia, Apr. 15, 1865, Brown Letters, Brown.

  28. slaveholders: Alonso H. Quint, “Southern Chivalry, and What the Nation Ought to Do With It,” Apr. 16, 1865, in Quint, Three Sermons Preached in the North Congregational Church, New Bedford, Mass., Fast Day, April 13, and Sunday, April 16, 1865 (New Bedford, Mass.: Mercury, 1865), 31–45; level: Georgia Treadway to Newton Perkins, New Haven, Conn., Apr. 16, 1865, Montgomery Family Papers, LC; connection: “What Has Jefferson Davis Done?” New York Anglo-African, May 27, 1865.

  29. dont see: Henry Robinson Berkeley diary, Apr. 15, 1865, Berkeley Papers, ser. A, reel 2, VHS-CMM; spirit: William Kauffman Scarborough, ed., The Diary of Edmund Ruffin: A Dream Shattered, June, 1863–June, 1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 859 (Apr. 21, 1865, entry); villainous: Eliza F. Andrews, The War-Time Journal of a Georgia Girl, 1864–1865 (New York: D. Appleton, 1908), 238 (May 10, 1865, entry), DocSouth, docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/andrews/menu.html.

  30. leading: “Rebecca” to Jane Wigglesworth Grew, Boston, Apr. 18, 1865 (part of Apr. 16 letter), Grew Correspondence, MHS; secession: William Gray Brooks diary, Apr. 16, 1865, Brooks Papers, MHS; upper: Francis Cabot Lowell to brother, Boston, Apr. 17, 1865, Francis Cabot Lowell Papers, MHS; hot-headed: Hatsell P. Lyons to “Mary,” Kinston, N.C., May 15, 1865, Lyons Papers, GWBW; leaders: W.H.C., “Our California Letter,” San Francisco, Apr. 21, 1865, Christian Recorder, published May 20, 1865; John Brown: Mary Mellish to George H. Mellish, Woodstock, Vt., Apr. 19, 1865, Mellish Papers, HL; list: George White diary, Apr. 17, 18, 1865, HLS; pity: Quint, “Southern Chivalry,” 41; she devils: Hallock Armstrong to Mary Armstrong, near Petersburg, Va., Apr. 19, 1865, in Letters from a Pennsylvania Chaplain at the Siege of Petersburg: 1865 (N.p.: Privately published, 1961), 31, ACWLD; worse: Edgar B. Jones to Theresa H. Perkins, City Point, Va., Apr. 22, 1865, Montgomery Family Papers, LC.

  31. masses: see, e.g., Charles W. Morrell to brother, Richmond, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, ts., Morrell Letters, LC; common: Henry Ward Beecher, Oration at the Raising of “The Old Flag” at Sumter; and Sermon on the Death of Abraham Lincoln (Manchester: Alexander Ireland, 1865), 24.

  32. people: Henry S. Thacher diary, Apr. 6, 1865, Thacher Family Papers, MHS; aristocracy: Hallock Armstrong to Mary Armstrong, near Petersburg, Va., Apr. 8, 1865, in Letters from a Pennsylvania Chaplain, 21, ACWLD; think: Edward W. Benham to Jennie Benham, near Falling Creek, Va., May 8, 1865, ts., Benham Papers, Duke; miserably: William H. Ellis diary, Apr. 14, 1865, Ellis Papers, ser. B, reel 5, LSU-CMM; not because: Robert H. Williams to Ellen Williams, City Point, Va., Apr. 5, 1865, Goff-Williams Papers, HL; starving: John H. Francis to William E. Conrow, “Camp 7th N.Y. Indpt. Battery,” Apr. 10, 1865 (in folder of James E. McBeth Letters), Francis Letters, NYHS.

  33. ignorantly: Quint, “Southern Chivalry,” 42; masses: “Funeral Oration by Bishop Simpson,” in B. F. Morris, Memorial Record, 236; unwilling: Henry Hitchcock to Mary Hitchcock, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 25, 1865, Hitchcock Papers, LC; inflaming: Samuel A. Harrison journal, Apr. 16, 1865, MDHS.

  34. guilty: Alfred Neafie to Anne Neafie, Savannah, Ga., Apr. 20, 1865, Neafie Papers, NYSL; always: Alonzo Pickard to Byron Flagg, Alexandria, Va., Apr. 17, 1865, part of Rose Pickard to Byron Flagg, Apr. 14, 1865, Pickard Papers, LC.

  35. friends, foes: Frederick Douglass, “Our Martyred President: An Address Delivered in Rochester, New York, on 15 April 1865,” FDP, ser. 1, 4:78–79; poor: “Emancipation of the White Man,” New York Anglo-African, July 23, 1865; class: “The Blacks and the Ballot,” Christian Recorder, May 27, 1865.

  36. poor: Hallock Armstrong to Mary Armstrong, near Petersburg, Va., Apr. 10, 8, 1865, in Letters from a Pennsylvania Chaplain, 25, 22, ACWLD; instruct: Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 18, 1865, MHS; trash: John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Question of ToDay,” Liberator, May 26, 1865.

  37. feeling: Anna M. Ferris diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Ferris Family Papers, FHL; judge: William L. Mead to Louisa White, Charleston, S.C., Apr. 19, May 4, 1865, ts., George Cornwell Correspondence, MDHS; God: James Thomas Ward diary, Apr. 28, 1865, Ward Papers, LC; vengeance: Caroline Butler Laing to Mary Butler Reeves, Brooklyn, N.Y., Apr. 21, 1865, Butler-Laing Family Papers, NYHS.

  38. malice, bind: Lincoln, “Second Inaugural,” Mar. 4, 1865, CWL, 8:333; even: Jacob Thomas, “Sermon Preached in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,” in Tribute of Respect, 46; Christian: J. G. Holland, The Nation Weeping for Its Dead: Observances at Springfield, Massachusetts, on President Lincoln’s Funeral Day (Springfield, Mass.: Samuel Bowles, 1865), 28–29.

  39. do all, all knew, blood: Lincoln, “Second Inaugural,” Mar. 4, 1865, CWL, 8:332–33.

  40. sublimely: Anna Cabot Lowell diary, Apr. 23, 1865, MHS; remember: Ruth [no last name], “Chicago Correspondence,” Chicago, May 3, 1865, Christian Recorder, published May 20, 1865.

  Interlude: Best Friend

  1. best friend: Otis Norcross diary, Apr. 15, 1865, MHS; murdered: “Our Domestic Correspondence,” letter from H. O. Waggner, Chicago, Apr. 16, 1865, New York Anglo-African, published Apr. 29, 1865; editors: “Our National Sacrifice,” Christian Recorder, Apr. 22, 1865; editorial, San Francisco Elevator, Apr. 21, 1865, #4811, BAP; ministers: Edwin Greble Sr. to Susan Greble, Richmond, Va., Apr. 18, 1865, Greble Papers, LC; cabinet: John P. Usher to wife, Washington, D.C., Apr. 16, 1865, ts., Usher letter, LC; generals: Carl Schurz to wife, Raleigh, N.C., Apr. 18, 1865, in Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, 6 vols., ed. Frederic Bancroft (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913), 1:253; officers: Francis G. Barnes to Frances M. Barnes, Tombigbee River, Ala., Apr. 25, 1865, ts., p. 359, Barnes Letters, NYSL; soldiers: Franklin Boyts to Hiram Boyts, Washington, D.C., Apr. 17, 1865, in Boyts diary, HSP; women: Caroline Butler Laing to Mary Butler Reeves, Brooklyn, N.Y., Apr. 21, 1865, Butler-Laing Family Papers, NYHS; dastardly: Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Charleston, S.C., Apr. 21, 1865, BFP.

  2. greatest: Dorman diary, Apr. 26, 1865; lost: Samuel Miller Quincy [no salutation], New Orleans, Apr. 19, 1865, Quincy, Wendell, Holmes, Upham Family Papers, MHS; warm: Hannah Ford Turner to William Mason Turner, Philadelphia, Apr. 20, 1865, Turner Papers, Brown; horrible: Kate Johnson to William Fell Johnson II, Rockland Estate, Md., Apr. 21, 1865, box 47, Johnson Family Papers, MDHS.

  3. ever: Laura Towne to unknown, Saint Helena Island, S.C., Apr. 29, 1865, in Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, 1862–1884, ed. Rupert Sargent Holland (1912; reprint, New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), 162; earthly: L. R. Hyslop to George Whipple, Norfolk, Va., Apr. 28, 1865, #H1-7034, reel 209, AMA; emancipator: Field Cook, “Meeting in Richmond, Va.,” Christian Recorder, Apr. 29, 1865; brothers: “Meeting in Richmond,” New York Anglo-African, May 6, 1865; greatest: “Assassination of President Lincoln,” New Orleans Black Republican, Apr. 22, 1865, #5841, BAP.

  Chapter 6. Funeral

  1. Dorman diary, May 2, 1865.

  2. Dorman diary, May 14 (start, dastardly), 2 (law), 1865.

  3. Sarah Browne diary, Apr. 19, 1865, BFP.

  4. Sarah Browne diary, Apr. 17 (Albert Jr., embalmed), 19, 20, 24, May 5 (ceremonies, funeral), 11 (Lincolns), Apr. 25 (astonishing), 1865; Albert Browne to “Dear Ones,” Georgetown, S.C., Apr. 25, 1865, both BFP.

  5. For arguments about the funeral and funeral train unifying Americans, see Gary Laderman, The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes toward Death, 1799–1883 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), 157–63, and Barry Schwartz, “Mourning and the Making of a Sacred Symbol: Durkheim and the Lincoln Assassination,” Social Forces 70 (1991), 343–64.

  6. lining up: David Ho
mer Bates diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Bates Papers, LC; most: Helen Varnum Hill McCalla diary, Apr. 18, 1865, LC; Fourteenth Annual Report of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society (Rochester, N.Y., 1865), 7; surface: unknown writer, Apr. 20, 1865, #193, Thomas B. Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, LC; fabric: “Bills for President Lincoln’s Funeral,” in Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1941), 422.

  7. quiet: James G. Randall, ed., The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, 2 vols. (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1933), 2:20, 22 (Apr. 17, 1865, entry; see also Apr. 15); perfectly: Benjamin Brown French, Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee’s Journal, 1828–1870, ed. Donald B. Cole and John J. McDonough (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1989), 471 (Apr. 17, 1865, entry).

  8. last: Ellis Hughes diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Hughes-Gray Family Papers, Duke; rush, guards: 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.; jammed: Rose Pickard to Angeline Flagg, Alexandria, Va., Apr. 24, 1865, Pickard Papers, LC; wait: Helen Varnum Hill McCalla diary, Apr. 18, 1865, LC; turned away: James Thomas Ward diary, Apr. 18, 1865, Ward Papers, LC.

  9. saddest: Anson G. Henry to wife, Washington, D.C., Apr. 19, 1865, ts., box 4, fol. 8, Lincoln Miscellaneous Manuscripts, Chicago.

  10. sermon: Phineas D. Gurley, “Funeral Address,” in B. F. Morris, Memorial Record of the Nation’s Tribute to Abraham Lincoln (Washington, D.C.: W. H. and O. H. Morrison, 1865), 85–91; men weeping: James Thomas Ward diary, Apr. 19, 1865, Ward Papers, LC.