Robert Todd Lincoln --The vitals

[David Lockmiller]

(01-19-2018 01:00 PM)L Verge Wrote:  I first learned of Duff about forty years ago when I met Joan Chaconas, now a member of my staff but also an excellent Washington, D.C. historian.

When the Civil War came, Duff and his family headed south to a mansion that he had built in Vicksburg, Mississippi, for his bride. When Grant focused on Vicksburg and started the destructive siege, their mansion became a field hospital because Duff designated it as a hospital for both Union and Confederate troops. During that siege, Mrs. Green gave birth to their first child in a nearby cave where the family sought shelter.

Duff Green strongly supported the Confederacy and started three iron foundries and the Dalton Arms Company in order to supply the South with everything from nails to rifles and railroad tracks . . . . From sources that I read, Lincoln flat-out declared him a traitor. When Andrew Johnson became President, he granted Duff a pardon, but a $20,000 fine was part of the "deal."

The University of North Carolina has a collection of the Duff Green and Benjamin Green (his son) Papers in their Southern collection. The Vicksburg home, Duff Green Mansion, is where Jefferson Davis once danced.

Sorry for the history lesson.

I did not re-type part of the Duff Green story.

The following is from the New York Daily Tribune, Jan. 1885 newspaper story, simply because it is easier for me to access at this time. The story begins:

A man appeared at the landing dressed in gray homespun with a somewhat decayed appearance, and with a staff about six feet long in his hand. It was, in fact, nothing more than a stick taken from a woodpile. It was two and a half inches in diameter, and was not even smoothed at the knots. It was just such a weapon as a man would pick up to kill a mad dog with.

. . . The officer came down into the cabin and delivered the message [from Duff Green]. I [Admiral Porter] arose and said: "I will go up and send him away," but the President said: "Let him come on board. Duff is an old friend of mine, and I would like to talk to him."

I then went on deck to have a boat sent for him, and to see what kind of man this was who sent off such arrogant messages to the President of the United States. He stepped into the boat as if it belonged to him, instead of sitting down, he stood up, leaning on his long staff. When he came over the side, he stood on the deck defiantly, looked up at the flag, and scowled, and then, turning to me (whom he knew very well), he said: "I want to see Abraham Lincoln." He paid no courtesy to me or the quarterdeck.

It had been a very long time since he had shaved or cut his hair, and he might have come under the head of "unkempt and not canny."

"When you come," I said, "in a respectful manner, the President will see you, but throw away that cord of wood you have in your hand, before entering the President's presence."

"How long is it," said he, "since Abraham Lincoln took to aping royalty? Man dressed in brief authority cuts such fantastic capers before high heaven that it makes the angels weep. I can expect airs from a naval officer, but I don't expect to find them in a man with Abraham Lincoln's horse sense."

I thought the man crazy, and think so still. "I can't permit you to see the President," I said, "until I receive further instructions, but you can't see him at all until you throw that woodpile overboard."

He turned on his heel and tried to throw the stick on shore, but it fell short, and went floating down with the current.

"Ah!" he said, "has it come to that? Is he afraid of assassination? Tyrants generally get into that condition."

I went down and reported this queer customer to the President, and told him I thought the man crazy, but he said: "let him come down; he always was a little queer, I shan't mind him." Mr. Duff Green was shown into the cabin. The President got up from his chair to receive him, and approaching him, offered his hand.

[The rest of the story is in my original post.] I made this post because of the line: "It was just such a weapon as a man would pick up to kill a mad dog with."