Our One Common Country (46 page)

18.
Seward as Cabinet member:
Id.,
pp. 50, 165–66; Welles Diary, e.g., vol. 2, pp. 58, 86, 91–93, 106–07, 120, 130–31, 160, 166, 171–73, 195, and 203; Stahr, pp. 366–67; Goodwin,
passim
.

18.
“man of no decorations”:
Charles A. Dana,
Lincoln and His Cabinet
(New York: Souvenir of the Thirteenth Annual Lincoln Dinner of the Republican Club of New York, 1899) (“Dana,
Lincoln and His Cabinet
”), pp. 18–19.

18.
Uncle Gideon:
e.g., David Dixon Porter,
Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1885) (“Porter,
Incidents”
), p. 15; Crook, William H., Margarita Spalding Gerry, ed.
Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook
(New York: Harper & Brothers, 1910) (“Crook,
Five Administrations”
)
p. 29; Brooks,
Lincoln Observed
, p. 48.

18.
“fortune-tellers are his delight”:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 126.

18.
“
a certain mysterious knowledge
”
:
Welles,
Lincoln and Seward
, pp. 49–50.

18.
“hypocrite”; “sneak”:
Van Deusen, pp. 336–37.

18.
“like a skein of thread”:
Keckley, pp. 130–31; Hendrick,
Lincoln's War Cabinet,
p. 187.

18.
Portuguese guide:
Van Deusen, p. 338.

18.
“limited to a couple of stories”:
Abraham Lincoln, Don E. and Virginia Fehrenbacher, eds.,
Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 125–26.

18.
sent him memos:
Van Deusen, p. 337.

19.
“Seward was the first man who recognized this”:
Hay,
At Lincoln's Side
, p. 129.

19.
committed to reconciliation:
e.g., Stahr, pp. 329, 383, and 446; Van Deusen, pp. 386–89.

19.
“that is all past and settled”:
Hendrick,
Lincoln's War Cabinet,
p. 371.

 

CHAPTER 4

20.
“the Old Gentleman”:
Hay Diary, p. 123.

20.
built a potent brand:
This chapter relies heavily on Elbert B. Smith,
Francis Preston Blair
(New York: Free Press/Macmillan, 1980) (“Smith,
Francis Preston Blair
”). Also helpful are William E. Parrish,
Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998); and William Ernst Smith,
The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics
, 2 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1933) (“Smith,
Blair Family
”). The Blair Family Papers are on microfilm in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. See also Keckley, p. 78, on Elizabeth Blair Lee.

21.
The teeth were not false but real:
Quoted in Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 229.

21.
awkward, homely, and repellent:
Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
pp. 48–49.

21.
a nascent form of baseball:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 313.

22.
“the spirit of clan”:
Hay Diary, p. 123.

22.
“servants”; put them on wages
:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 362.

22.
The Blairs' influence with Lincoln had slipped:
See Smith,
Blair Family,
vol. 2, p. 189.

22.
testing new ideas:
Ward Hill Lamon, D. L. Teillard, ed.,
Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847–1865
(Washington: The Editor, 1911), p. 205
.

23.
Canadian fishing trip:
Stahr, p. 167.

23.
Billy Bowlegs:
Hendrick,
Lincoln's War Cabinet
,
p. 203. More charitably, Nathaniel Hawthorne described Seward's “decided originality of gait . . . ,” Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed.,
Intimate Memories of Lincoln
(Elmira, NY: Primavera Press, Inc., 1945) (“Wilson”), p. 463.

23.
“contrive some apology for me”:
Smith,
Francis
Preston
Blair,
p. 275.

23.
Blair's rant “electrified”:
Welles Diary, vol. 1, pp. 13–14.

23.
“ye can't [fool] the old man”:
Hay Diary, pp. 238–39.

24.
Lincoln was under their thumbs:
Hendrick,
Lincoln's War Cabinet,
p. 387.

24.
“in the inner circle of public affairs”:
Greeley to Blair, December 15, 1864, Blair Family Papers, Library of Congress.

24.
Blair's visit to Greeley: Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 363; Blair to Lincoln, July 21, 1864, Lincoln papers, Library of Congress.

24.
Blair's talk with McClellan
:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 344.

24.
“the original gorilla”:
Stahr, p. 305.

25.
Seward's son and namesake:
Id.,
pp. 402–03.

25.
within sight of the capitol dome:
Foote, vol. 3, pp. 446–61; Randall and Current, pp. 198–202; Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
pp. 358–60.

25.
the president . . . Union parapet:
Wilson, pp. 527–29.

25.
.
The Davises at Montgomery's cottage: Strode, pp. 102–03, Crist, vol. 6, p. 242 n. 3.

25.
The women and Lizzie's son: Smith,
Francis Preston Blair
, p. 343.

25.
The looting of Silver Spring and
“a home to me”:
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
Virginia J. Lass, ed.,
Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991) (“
Elizabeth Blair Lee
”), pp. 413–14 and 414 n. 3 (The original letters are in the Blair and Lee family papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library); Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
pp. 343–44 and 358–60.

26.
dashing John Breckinridge:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
pp. 224, 228, and 263; Smith, Blair Family, vol. 2, pp. 272–74; Michael B. Ballard,
A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1986) (“Ballard”), p. 38.

26.
He took it now:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
p. 360;
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
pp. 404–05 and 412–13.

26.
A note had been left on the library mantel:
Smith,
Francis Preston Blair,
pp. 359–60;
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
p. 405.

27.
“made more fuss about things”:
Elizabeth Blair Lee,
p. 405.

27.
procession of blue-ribbon committees:
Carl Schurz,
Reminiscences of Carl Schurz,
3 vols. (New York: McClure Company, 1907–08), vol. 3, pp. 103–04 (“Schurz”); Randall and Current,
Lincoln
, pp. 210–16.

27.
“an old shoe”:
Welles Diary, vol. 2, p. 112.

27.
“been driven many times upon my knees”:
Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
p. 210.

 

CHAPTER 5

28.
“an impossibility”:
Randall and Current,
Lincoln
, p. 213; McPherson, p. 177.

28.
Lincoln thought Weed was right:
John G. Nicolay and John Hay,
Abraham Lincoln: A History,
10 vols. (New York: Century Company, 1917) (“Nicolay and Hay”), vol. 9, p. 251; Stahr, pp. 405–06.

28.
letter from a Wisconsin editor: CW,
vol. 7, pp. 499–501; McPherson, pp. 176–77.

28.
tide was setting against him; Lincoln would lose Illinois
:
Randall and Current,
Lincoln,
pp. 213–14; McPherson, pp. 177–78; Donald,
Lincoln,
pp. 523–30.

29.
Raymond and Lincoln's instructions:
CW,
vol. 7, p. 517; Nicolay and Hay, vol. 9, pp. 217–21.

29.
Lincoln steadied them:
John Nicolay and Michael Burlingame, ed.,
With Lincoln in the White House: Letters, Memoranda, and Other Writings of John G. Nicolay, 1860
–
1865
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), pp. 152–54; McPherson, pp. 177–78.

29.
“I will keep my faith”:
Carl Sandburg,
Abraham Lincoln,
6 vols., Sangamon Edition (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1941) (“Sandburg”), vol. 5, pp. 211–12.

29.
“All Yankeedoodledom”:
Quoted in Russell S. Bonds,
War like the Thunderbolt
(Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2009) (“Bonds”), p. 291.

29.
Johnston and Sherman: Grant, vol. 2, pp. 344–45; Michael Fellman,
Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman
(New York: Random House, 1995) (“Fellman”), p. 176.

29–30.
John Bell Hood:
Id.;
Foote, vol. 3, pp. 475–530; Bonds,
passim;
Pollard, p. 384; Chadwick, p. 230.

30.
Davis shrugged it off:
Id.,
pp. 384–87; Richardson, pp. 482–88.

30.
“No hope . . . no fear”:
Mary B. Chesnut,
A Diary from Dixie
(New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1905) (“Chesnut”), p. 326.

30.
“doubts as to its authenticity”: Philadelphia Inquirer,
October 10, 1864; Crist, vol. 11, p. 66 n. 24; Rable, pp. 274–75.

30.
“Spartan mothers of old”:
Crist, vol. 11, p. 61.

30.
Announcing Hood's plans in advance: Grant, vol. 2, pp. 347–48.

30.
“names of a quarter of a million deserters”:
Crist, vol. 11, p. 71.

30.
“Give us Johnston”:
Bonds, p. 330.

30.
Speech to the Alabama legislature: Rowland, vol. 6, pp. 345–47; Crist, vol. 11, pp. 74–75.

30.
Taylor's talk with Davis: Richard Taylor,
Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War
(New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1879), pp. 204–06.

31.
“a fixed, ineradicable distrust”:
Crist, vol. 11, p. 59.

31.
The “infernal Hydra”: OR,
ser. 4, vol. 3, pp. 707–10; Crist, vol. 11, p. 78.

31.
Speech in Columbus:
Id.,
p. 76.

31.
Speech in Augusta: McElroy, p. 423.

31.
Speech in Columbia: Crist, vol. 11, p. 85.

31.
“no reason to doubt”: OR,
ser. 4, vol. 3, pt. 1, p. 799.

32.
Shock waves:
e.g., Freehling, p. 194.

32.
coldest in recent memory:
Henry S. Foote,
War of the Rebellion
(New York: Harper & Bros., 1866) (“Foote,
War of the Rebellion
”), p. 375; Bill, p. 250.

32.
Richmond's condition: Warren Akin, Bell Irvin Wiley, ed.,
Letters of Warren Akin
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1959) (“Akin”), p. 105; Sallie A. Brock,
Richmond During the War
(New York: G. W. Carleton & Co., 1867) (“Brock”), pp. 315 and 341;
Wise,
pp. 392–95; Thomas Conolly and Nelson D. Lankford, ed., “The Diary of Thomas Conolly, M.P., Virginia, March–April 1865,
95
The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
(January 1987) (“Conolly”), pp. 75–112; Bill, pp. 244–45.

32.
Seward's letter to his wife: Frederick W. Seward,
Seward at Washington, as Senator and Secretary of State,
2 vols.
(New York: Derby and Miller, 1891) (“Seward,
Seward at Washington
”) vol. 2, p. 248.

CHAPTER 6

33.
Celebrations and parade:
The
Daily National Republican,
November 11, 1864; Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
p. 140.

33.
“the pet of the house”; a lovable boy:
William H. Crook, “Lincoln As I Knew Him,” 114
Harper's Magazine
(June 1907) (“Crook, ‘Lincoln As I Knew Him' ”), pp. 113–14; Keckley, p. 117; Stoddard, p. 187; Hay,
At Lincoln's Side,
pp. 109, 111–13, 135–36 (Tad “had a very bad opinion of books and no opinion of discipline,” and his father “idolized” him); Dana,
Lincoln and His Cabinet,
p. 42; Wilson, p. 400.

34.
few . . . would recognize him now:
Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
p. 211.

34.
worth the sting:
Noah Brooks, “Lincoln's Reelection,” 49
The Century Magazine
(April 1895), p. 866.

34.
“nothing touches the tired spot”:
Brooks,
Lincoln Observed,
pp. 43 and 213; Carpenter, p. 217.