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Headley, and the picture of Sarah
12-04-2013, 07:28 PM
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Headley, and the picture of Sarah
Rest easy folks, I am not about to start a new "War". I believe that the picture is Sarah. However, by this date, I have more information to work with, so I have come to believe that the picture came from a different time and under different circumstances, that that described by Headley.
When Sarah worked with the Saint Albans Raiders, roughly Dec. 1864 to Feb. 1865, all pictures were taken by Professional Photographers. The product of their work was usually a large rectangular print, that had a stiff pose, caused by the use of head clamps to hold the head from moving and was generally time consuming to the subject, or it was a rural scene, with a corpse or two for interest.
In about 1888, George Eastman invented the first "Kodak" camera. The camera was intended for the use by the general public. It had a shutter and a roll of film, that had to be returned to the factory for processing and it took ROUND PICTURES (Like the picture that appears in Headley.) I have a gut feeling that Sarah sat for that picture, long after 1865, and provided it to Headley. In 1865, Sarah was barely 22, the woman in the Picture is older than that.
The Picture that Headley used, does not look like an 1865 era picture, but does resemble the 1890's, and later, products
In the past (2010), we might have assumed that Sarah was deceased by the time Headley published his book in 1905, and was not involved in the book. We just didn't know. Now we know that Sarah lived until 1920. If any of the Raiders had contact with Sarah, after 1865, she was still "Sarah Slater", but by 1898 she disappeared from her usual haunts and had moved to Poughkeepsie to live with her sister. Sarah's whereabouts were further concealed by an error in the City Directory. She is shown as the widow of "J. E. Slater". "J. E. Slater" is her sister - Josephine Elizabeth Loftin. Then by 1905 she had married Mr . Long. So, the Raiders didn't know where she lived or what her name was. I have never doubted that they remembered her appearance and what she did for them, but they didn't know the new residence of the new husband.
I think that my new search to find any contact between Sarah and the Raiders, after the War, will take as long to do, as it took me to find Sarah, in the first place. 30 years. I better get busy.

PS. Does anyone know if there is s collection of Headley's "Papers" available anywhere? How about Gus Howell? or James Fowell? John Surratt never said much about Sarah in his repots or speeches. We do know that he took her to Richmond and they remained together until E. G. Lee sent her packing, about May 1865. This date matches up with the reports that she was back with her husband Rowan in June 1865
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Headley, and the picture of Sarah - SSlater - 12-04-2013 07:28 PM

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