Reaction to the Assassination of President Lincoln

Second Lieutenant Warren Goodale (1825-1897) of the 114th U.S. Colored Infantry describes in a letter to his family his reaction and feelings on learning of the death of Abraham Lincoln.

Monday afternoon [April 17, 1865] we were shocked and amazed at a rumor that spread thro’ the camp yesterday that our good President Secretary Seward and son had been assassinated at Washington. I never saw such feeling as was shown by our officers. All tried to believe it untrue and were disposed to treat it as a camp story. And still, all the afternoon & till late in the evening it was almost the only topic.

It aroused all the hate & passion the officers could hold & express. To think that such heads of the nation should be struck down thro’ the rebels, whom they of all others were treating with so much kindness, and were the first for forgiving. To show the feeling, one Colonel swore that if any of his men were ever after guilty of taking and bringing in a rebel prisoner he would shoot them both.

I believe all this kindness to the rebels to be a great mistake and wrong. I did not come away from you to fight the wicked men so gently. Why, as we marched thro’ Petersburg the other day, we saw a great many rebel officers, who have been taken prisoners, and paroled walking about with their side arms swords and pistols on, gentlemen of leisure, while we only a few miles from the city, have had an order today that we cannot get permission to visit it, must not enter any house here, without first telling our name rank & regiment, and the men cannot leave the camp. The next night after we passed thro’ Petersburg, a plot was found out to burn the Danville depot.

Toward night we heard that Genl Grant was missing!! If this be so, I would keep all his promises to Lee & his Officers, but would have the Govt follow Jeff Davis, Breckenridge, Trenholm & Benjamin, Johnson, Dick Taylor Maury and 20 others to the ends of the earth, bring them back and hang every one of them, and let them set on their gallows. All these besides the assassins. Such punishment may seem cruel but in the end it would be kindness for it would deter other bad cruel men from treason, rebellion, and murder.

This excerpt is part of a letter in the collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Goodale, of Marlboro, Massachusetts, served as a private in the Eleventh Independent Battery, Massachusetts Light Artillery, before joining the 114th in March 1865.

The Joy of Indexing

Writing the index is perhaps the single most thankless task involved in writing a book, but is all-important. A well-organized index is a helpful guide and handy reference to persons, places and things. A poorly-organized index, or no index at all (gasp!), has caused me on more than one occasion to groan audibly — unless Google Books has digitized it.

Having been exposed to countless indexes during the course of my research, I determined to arrange the index for Confederate Faces in a simple, direct manner. In short, it breaks down into five categories: Names of people, Geographic locations, military operations (skirmishes, raids, battles, and campaigns), military facilities (forts, prisons), and troops (by state).

I wrote the bulk of the index in one very long day. (Once I got into a rhythm, my impulse was to keep going with it.) This was Monday. Then, I spent about two hours yesterday tweaking the organization and double-checking my work, and dedicated a little time this morning to a final review.

The index is the last hands on writing I'll do for this book.

Worth the Wait

Back in 2002, I reluctantly cut 2nd Lt. James W. Converse Jr. of the Twenty-fourth and Forty-seventh Massachusetts Infantries from my manuscript for Union Faces because my research efforts turned up so little information about his life. Moreover, his military service record contained little information beyond his muster reports, and his pension file yielded few personal details.

A couple weeks ago, while sorting through my files, I came across Converse's folder and wondered if any new information might appear online. A search of Ancestry.com turned up several excellent references, the best of which is the Family Record of Deacons James W. Converse and Elisha S. Converse by William G. Hill (privately printed, 1887). This book includes a letter written by Converse's colonel, Lucius B. Marsh, who wrote, "Young Converse was, as his photograph shows, small in stature, but closely put together; a fearless eye and a calm, quiet, but determined countenance. He never indicated fear, but was always ready for dangerous work." The photograph that Marsh mentioned was not included in the book, but it may very well have been the image reproduced here.

Additional quotes from Marsh, and other details about Converse's life and military service, will appear in a future Faces of War column in the Civil War News.