The First Lady and the Rebel by Susan Higginbotham

Author:Susan Higginbotham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2019-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

15

Mary

August 1862 to January 1, 1863

“I’ve bad news, Mary,” the President said as he walked through the door of their cottage at the Soldiers’ Home one sweltering day in early August.

There was so much of that these days that Mary was ready to take this in stride. She looked up inquiringly as her husband continued. “I received news over the wires that your brother Alec was killed outside Baton Rouge. And Ben Hardin Helm was knocked off his horse and injured.” When Mary said nothing, he added, “I thought you’d want to know before the newspapers reported it.”

“I do. Thank you.”

“Molly, you needn’t put on a show for my sake. I know you’re grieved about Alec. He was a fine young man, as I recall. And I know you’re worried about Hardin, for your sister’s sake if nothing else.”

“They made their own fates. They must live—and die—by their decisions.”

The President looked at her dubiously. Then he went back to freeing the slaves, while Mary went to the privacy of her room to weep for poor Alec, whose shock of red hair had provided so much fodder for his teasing siblings over the years, and, yes, to worry about Hardin for his sake as well as Emily’s.

* * *

It was in July, while riding to the funeral of Secretary Stanton’s poor little baby, another casualty of the sheer unhealthiness of Washington, that Mr. Lincoln, sharing a carriage with Secretary Seward and the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, had broached the topic of emancipation—a peculiar time to broach anything, but that was Mr. Lincoln for you. A few days later, he read a draft to his Cabinet, at which time Secretary Seward had suggested that it would be best to announce the policy after a military victory. But the gods of war had not cooperated. Late July had brought another crushing defeat at Bull Run, and while the Battle of Baton Rouge had yielded a modest Union victory, despite being so disastrous for the Todds, the public was far more focused on the eastern front.

The President had not asked Mary what she thought of his plan to free the slaves. She had had too much sense to be offended; when a couple had been married as long as the Lincolns had, a wife just gave her opinion without waiting around like a schoolgirl to be asked for it. (Not that Mary had been shy about giving her opinion early in the marriage either.) In any case, she had told him that she thought it was an excellent idea. She had learned to do for herself and to put up with the vagaries of hired girls; the South could, too.

That is, unless General McClellan handed Jeff Davis the key to Washington. When General Lee defeated General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run at the end of August, General McClellan, sulking over the President’s appointment of General Henry W. Halleck as general-in-chief, all but chortled with satisfaction. Mary even heard

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.