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Lincoln and Gen. George Pickett - Gene C - 11-13-2023 12:56 PM
I could use a little help.
I an reading a book from 1909 (Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls) that Abraham Lincoln had visited the home of General George Pickett on one of his visits to Virginia near the end of the war.
That sounded a little unusual, so I went to Google and found this article, but not
having a subscription to the NY Times, can anyone out there post a copy of the article reference from the 1927 New York Times, or the Illinois State Register
https://www.nytimes.com/1927/11/27/archives/lincolns-kindness-told-by-foes-widow-presidents-call-at-home-of-gen.html
I have only done a little follow up, but it seems that the story may have originated with Mrs. George Pickett, and she seems to have had a tendency to exaggerate some in her writing and lectures about Gen. Pickett after he died.
This is from her book "What Happened To Me" published in 1917, pages 167-171
" The day after the fire there was a rap at our door. The servants had all run away. The city was full of northern troops, and my en vironment had not taught me to love them. With my baby on my arm I answered the knock, opened the door and looked up at a tall, gaunt, sad-faced man in ill fitting clothes, who asked with the accent of the North: Is this George Pickett s place?
"This is General Pickett s home, sir,; I replied, but he is not here.
"I know that, ma am, I know where George Pickett is, he answered, but I just wanted to see the place. Down in old Quincy, Illinois, where I used to hear George Pickett whistle the songs of Virginia in his bird-like notes, I have heard him describe his home till in spirit I have been here many a time....
I have sat on that back porch and listened to the music as his sister Virginia, of whom he was so proud, sang in that glorious voice he told me about, and I have swung in this old swing here while the moon and I watched and waited for the old cat to die. So I wanted to see the place.
I, listening, wondered who he could be, till he finished and then he said:
I am Abraham Lincoln.
The President! I gasped.
No no, just Abraham Lincoln; George Pickett s old friend.
the story continues -
https://archive.org/details/whathappened00pickrich/page/n187/mode/2up?q=Lasalle+Corbell+Picket
Anyway, the book I am currently reading (and more on that book later) was
published in 1909 and Mrs Pickett's book was published in 1917. She is probably the source of the story, but it's bugging me (not that it matters) as to when the story was first published.
RE: Lincoln and Gen. George Pickett - RJNorton - 11-13-2023 02:42 PM
This doesn't answer your question, Gene, but please see my post here, and Rob's post which follows.
RE: Lincoln and Gen. George Pickett - Gene C - 11-13-2023 03:13 PM
Thanks Roger
(11-13-2023 12:56 PM)Gene C Wrote: Anyway, the book I am currently reading (and more on that book later) was
published in 1909 and Mrs Pickett's book was published in 1917. She is probably the source of the story, but it's bugging me (not that it matters) as to when the story was first published.
As a follow up, I did find this on Internet Archive, but it is lacking in much of the information that is in her book regarding President Lincoln's visit.
"The Heart of Lincoln by La Salle Corbell Pickett
from La Follette's Weekly Magazine, Feb. 13, 1909
https://archive.org/details/heartoflincoln00pick/mode/2up (on the second page)
"Richmond was full of northern soldiers, and their great leader stood at our door and asked if George Pickett was there. *‘I am Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “The President!” I exclaimed. Time can never efface from my memory the melody of his voice and the light in his eyes as he replied: “No; just Abraham Lincoln, George s old friend.” He went down the steps, leaving with me the inextinguishable radiance of one instant when I looked into the soul of Abraham Lincoln.
Many years later, in a northern town, I met a veteran who told me that he was a member of the President’s escort on that day. When the party reached the corner of Sixth and Lee streets, Lincoln stopped a moment and then turned toward the house on the corner. As he started toward the door some of the escort followed him, not knowing into what danger he might run in entering an unknown house in a hostile city. He waved the solders back and went on alone mounting the steps two at a time. When he returned the party went on and his followers never knew where their Chief had been nor what tender ties bound the northern President to the master of that southern home."
Also from this same article
"IN that olden time the Virginia lad, George Pickett, went to Quincy to study law with his uncle, who was then law partner of Abraham Lincoln. He soon made friends with the grave, gentle, pathetic, humorous, tender-hearted Illinois lawyer. The boy had a melodious voice and played accompaniments to his songs. Mr. Davis said that when he played and sang Lincoln would sit listening, his long legs wrapped around each other under his chair and the tears trickling down his face.
In after years, when the western lawyer guided his country through the most terrible crisis in her history and the flash of the Virginia boy’s sword led the soldiers of the Confederacy to the field of fire, the memories of those old days in Quincy filled the long distance between them with unfading flowers of affection.
Standing on the field of Gettysburg and looking at the deadly height where the final charge was made, Lincoln said to one of his generals:
“Who can tell for how much of that bloodshed I am responsible. I made George Pickett a soldier.”
LaSalle Corbell Pickett was a prolific author and lecturer, and the third wife of George E. Pickett, the Confederate general best known for his participation in the doomed frontal assault known as Pickett's Charge during the American Civil War (1861-1865). After her husband's death in 1875, she traveled the country to promote a highly romanticized version of his life and military career that was generally at odds with the historical record. -- from http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org
RE: Lincoln and Gen. George Pickett - RJNorton - 11-14-2023 01:35 PM
(11-13-2023 12:56 PM)Gene C Wrote: ... can anyone out there post a copy of the article reference from the 1927 New York Times, or the Illinois State Register
https://www.nytimes.com/1927/11/27/archives/lincolns-kindness-told-by-foes-widow-presidents-call-at-home-of-gen.html
Gene, thanks to Rob here's the article you requested:
http://rogerjnorton.com/96680948.pdf
RE: Lincoln and Gen. George Pickett - Gene C - 11-14-2023 02:44 PM
Thank you both.
If the NY Times printed it, we all know that it must be true.
