Good Bye Old House

[L Verge]

Thank you, Paige. Let me tell you that I was very excited when, in my 20s, I first read in print both Smoot and Atzerodt reporting about a man named Huntt in T.B. being ready to supply horses in the kidnap plot. Great grandpappy was the only man named Huntt living in T.B. in 1865!

My grandmother always claimed that the Huntt family supported Lincoln. They weren't living in Prince George's County at that time (were actually married near election time in November of 1860), but we know that only one man in the entire county supported Mr. Lincoln. By the 1864 election, Mr. Lincoln garnered a few more votes - some coming from Union soldiers who were allowed to vote there even if not citizens of the county or state.

At one point, I was so eager to prove that the Huntts were Confederate that Mike Kauffman assured me that they probably were - up until the war's end. Then they had to continue living and earning a living ten miles outside the U.S. capital city; therefore, it was better to claim sympathies for Uncle Abe. And, I mean no disrespect in saying that.

It is a little frustrating however, because I have packed away letters that Mr. Huntt wrote to his new bride during the winter of secession in which he declares his undying love for her -- unless he finds out she's a secessionist. I have come to satisfy myself with the thought that the Huntt family was likely pro-Union, but anti-abolition (like 90%) of our area.