Saturday, October 31, 2009

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.

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Monday, September 07, 2009

A Most Unusual Photo Album


First Lieutenant Theodore Francis Wright of Dorchester, Mass., was described as a student of a serious turn of mind and a dedicated diarist. In the spring of 1864 he wrote in his journal, "I have for some time been deliberating about leaving college to go to the war, and I have, at last, with the consent of my parents, determined to study for a commission in the colored troops."

Wright (pictured here, standing on the right, in his uniform) received a commission as first lieutenant. He explained his first assignment:
"My assignment to the 108th U. S. Colored Infantry organizing at Louisville, Kentucky, came June 14th, 1864, and I was ordered to report immediately. Attached to 'F' Company, Captain John H. Lee of New York, I spent one month at Louisville, the month of August at Maysville, Ky., aiding the enlistment of negroes; September at Muldraughs Hill, Ky., guarding from guerillas the Louisville and Nashville R. R., enjoying military life exceedingly. About October first the entire regiment, under command of Lieutenant Colonel John J. Bishop of Indiana, started for Rock Island Barracks, Illinois, where we spent the long and very severe winter, guarding rebel prisoners. The men improved scanty moments of leisure to learn to read and write, while I studied over my old classics."
In March 1865, 1st Lt. Wright and his company stepped into a Rock Island photographer's studio. Each man had their carte de visite portrait taken. Wright penned a brief note on the back of each image. On the reverse side of Kendrick Allen's carte, Wright wrote, "Now Serg't and an excellent one, and commands dedication." Allen made the army his career after the war as a Buffalo Soldier. Wright wrote honest appraisals of his men: On the back of the carte de visite of Pvt. Alfred Thompson is written "Second rate man."

Wright placed the entire collection of company cartes into a photograph album and presented it to his mother, Sarah Augusta (Hunt) Wright.

Wright (1845-1907) went on to study theology and earn two degrees from Harvard University. He is best remembered for his contributions as a pastor and author. Yet the photograph album he presented to his mother, filled with brief, honest remembrances of a company of African Americans who fought for freedom, is among the most unique of all Civil War photograph collections. The album is part of the Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection, James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Frederick Douglass' Photograph Album

Today I had the opportunity to see Frederick Douglass' personal photograph album, part of the collection of Howard University's prints and photographs holdings at the Moorland Spingarn Research Center. The album holds four images per page (front and back) and contains a number of cartes de visite, including a portrait of Douglass' son Sgt. Maj. Lewis H. Douglass, who served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. His image and story will be included in my book. The album binding is loose, and a number of pages are empty. Nevertheless, it belonged to Frederick Douglass, and I felt privileged to see it up close, thanks to Joellen El Bashir, Curator of Manuscripts. She was extremely helpful and made my visit a success.

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